She was in the airport, or at least she had been when his flight out of Dallas had deplaned, watching for him and watching for those who watched him and watching for those who watched for whoever else might be watching for him. He’d detoured for the flight board and then for coffee, giving her time, and she’d leapfrogged to where he had a line of sight, communicated what she’d observed, and slipped away.

She’d had one job, just one simple job.

All she’d needed to do after was lay low and board this flight.

That she was missing now said either she’d been grabbed or this was her deliberately taunting him. The first worried him a whole lot less than the second.

God help any team that tried to grab her.

God help him if they hadn’t.

She was the most capable person he knew, at the top of the game when the game was in play—so long as the game was in play—but lulls and in-between silences led to situations like this, and she’d had five hours.

He glanced at the time.

Two minutes past scheduled departure and the doors were still open.

Flight attendants at the front turned plastic smiles toward the Jet bridge.

A young couple boarded, and after them a woman, followed by an older gentleman, and then she materialized in boyfriend jeans and jacket, wearing sunglasses atop short-cropped hair and looking nothing like the middle-aged matron who’d been waiting for his Dallas flight, and he knew just what she’d done.

Her lanky body entered the space between the first-class seats.

He watched her make that long walk, as if watching a reflection in the mirror.

He knew her voice, her gait, her mannerisms, knew her many iterations and could imitate them at will. He was taller by two inches, and her features were softer by millimeters, but they were closer to true doppelgängers than fraternal twins had any right to be, similarities and nodal points so evenly matched that, with a few subtle tweaks, even facial recognition often pegged them for the same person.

She caught his eye and winked, teasing and testing his temperament.

He stared through her as though he hadn’t seen it happen.

The captain’s voice came over the intercom.

Flight attendants moved through the cabin in preparation for departure.