A worthy adversary? Easy does it, Lizzie, she cautioned herself. Just remember, it's you versus him. You play to win, remember that. This isn't the time to let emotions come into play. Besides, every woman in the world knows the man hasn't been born you could trust. Just another man smitten with her? At that precise instant, she couldn't decide, so she smiled, and the room suddenly became lighter.

Ted kept hitting his keys, really pounding on them when he heard a strange noise that sounded like it was coming out the tank's ears. He recognized the sound because he'd uttered it too many times not to remember. A groan of pure pleasure. He relaxed as he continued to relay the real-time action to Maggie. Lizzie had it in the bag. Beauty and the beast. Like he had one iota of doubt which of the two was going to be the underdog. Not Lizzie. No way, no how. The guy was toast.

Finally, finally, the tank decided to speak—to the relief of everyone in the room. "I know what you mean, I had lunch with those same leaders yesterday. You just can't rush them when they're sharing their secrets. Cosmo Cricket. My friends and colleagues call me Kick." He held out his hand.

Lizzie laughed, the musical sound bouncing off the walls. It was the evil laugh Ted recognized and feared. Shit! Shit! Shit! He kept punching the keys as fast as he could. Another point for Lizzie. The eight-hundred-pound gorilla was never going to know what hit him when the canoes gave out under him and he was flat on his ass.

"Elizabeth Fox," Lizzie said, a smile in her voice.

Whoa. Whoa. Elizabeth? Maggie was going to salivate over that one.

Lizzie knew the pile of granite in front of her was going to give her a bone-crushing handshake. She braced herself and gave it back to him until his eyes narrowed, and he nodded to show she'd one-upped him. Cricket wanted to suck on his closed fist to make the hurt go away.

The devastating eyelashes fluttered. "And you're here. . .because?"

The canoes moved backward a step, then another. He felt dizzy from the scent of the woman's perfume. He'd never had trouble with his vocabulary before. Ordinarily words just flew from his lips. Important words. Profound words. Right now he felt like he was in the third grade and unprepared for the make-or-break year-end test. Lizzie's feathery lashes continued to go up and down like window shades. Her lip gloss shimmered as her tongue flicked out, then went back in. She looked amused.

"To make sure Miss Barnes's release goes off on schedule and to apologize for any and all inconveniences suffered by your client. My colleague here, Alvin Lansing, is chief counsel for the Babylon. He's prepared to drop all the charges against your client. I'm here to write up a summary for the NGC. End of story."