Free Dark Spies by Matthew Dunn

serious messing with the law. That’s why he’d appointed her as lead agent of the team that was trying to locate Cobalt. He’d reckoned she was getting close to the terrorist financier when Haupman had received the call from his boss and was told that the president himself wanted the mission to immediately abort.
    “You’ve alerted our European-based Bureau stations?”
    Marsha sighed with impatience. “Of course.”
    “Your husband and kids going to be okay while you’re on this assignment?”
    She turned to face the director and gave him a withering look. “One of the upsides of Paul being made redundant is that he’s got plenty of time on his hands to look after Kimberly and Jack. You don’t need to worry about my private life.”
    “Fair point.”
    “All I need from you are resources when they’re required, and to be left alone to do my job.”
    “Don’t worry, I’ve spread the word that you answer to me and me alone, and that no one in the Bureau is to interfere with or obstruct your assignment.”
    Marsha raised an eyebrow. “Answer to you?”
    Haupman was momentarily unsettled. “I mean . . . well, that you technically answer to me.”
    “ Technically is a good word.” Marsha’s expression softened. “You need to go up two sizes on your shirt collar. You look like you’re being strangled.”
    The observation made Haupman’s good humor return. “Yeah, I know. Just can’t build up the courage to tell Mrs. Haupman that she’s deluding herself that I’m still the shape of her high school prom date.”
    Marsha smiled. It had always touched her that Bo had been devoted to Lizzy Haupman all of his adult life. Her expression changed. “Whether we capture or kill Cochrane, I’ll be in Europe when it happens.”
    “Damn right. Just make sure you do it without that bastard Sheridan being around.”
    “Yes, no Sheridan . . .” Marsha’s voice trailed as her mind raced. She stepped right up to the map and placed a finger on Norway. “South or east. There’s where Sheridan assumes Cochrane will go.”
    “Correct.”
    “I like facts, love possibilities, but hate assumptions.”
    “I know.”
    Her finger moved west away from Norway, over Iceland, before stopping on Greenland. “Maybe Cochrane is attempting something that Sheridan hasn’t anticipated.” Marsha nodded as her heart raced fast. “Thanks for the coffee. But with all due respect, boss, I need you to get out of my office. I’ve got some fresh calls to make.”

 
    TEN
    W ill Cochrane was standing on the deck of the trawler. In the distance he could see the snow-covered, mountainous coastline of Greenland. The boat wasn’t drawing nearer to land; instead it was sailing parallel to the coast as it headed south toward the tiny port of Tasiilaq. Though the sky was now clear and had stopped yielding snow at least thirty minutes ago, large flakes were all around him, held in the air by sudden gusts of wind that were preventing them from reaching the sea.
    Will gulped down tea that was stewed, nothing like the loose-leaf Assam blend that he liked to delicately prepare with no milk or other accompaniments. But out here it tasted as good as anything else he’d drunk, and in any case he knew the captain’s wife would give him a stern telling off if he didn’t drink and eat everything she prepared for him. The hardy crew consumed anything they could to survive out here; it was as simple as that. Will was not permitted to be an exception.
    The three adult sons were also on deck, preparing the vessel as it neared port. Though a few years older than them, Will blended in with their appearance—warm clothes and boots, and faces that were covered with a few days’ growth of beard. They ignored him, as no doubt the captain had told them to do, and got on with their chores of lashing ropes, removing seaweed from nets, hosing and scrubbing the deck, and squaring away anything that wasn’t tied down.
    The boat changed direction. Will