Stafford walked around the room, looking at the big smear from a dozen angles. Finally, he turned out the lights and used his cell to shine a bright blue-white beam at the swirls from several different angles.

And that’s when he saw them.

Two words were smashed together, written in a fit of rage, the letters colliding, violating one another, bursting through each other.

Umbra.

Tenebris.

Two Latin words.

Each casting a different meaning but inextricably linked. Bound together by the intended meaning here.

He spoke the translated word aloud.

“Darkness.”

It made him shiver.

It made him smile.

CHAPTER 60

PHOENIX HOUSE

OMFORI ISLAND, GREECE

Church tapped on the open door of Bug’s office.

“Word is that you have something for me,” he said.

“Maybe I do.”

Church closed the door, and Bug activated the lockout system.

“Still no actual sightings of Joe,” said Bug, “but what I’m calling discovery via circumstantial evidence.”

Church sat. Bug opened a drawer and removed a package of vanilla wafers and handed it to him. Church smiled and opened it, selected one, and bit off a piece. He brushed crumbs from his tie.

“Enlighten me,” he said.

“Last night someone broke into a sport boat rental company in Singita Miracle Beach in Malta and stole something called a gommoni.”

Church nodded. “That’s a commercial version of the RHIB.” The rigid-hull inflatable boats were used by both military and private sportsmen because they were fast, light, and extremely durable. “And you think this was our missing friend?”

“Yup. All their security cameras seemed to malfunction at the same time.”

“Funny how that keeps happening.” Church took another bite, chewed, then asked, “Where is Mrs. Gondek?”

Peggy Ann Gondek was a semiretired field agent who had worked with Church and Aunt Sallie in the days before the DMS. She was part of a network of associates whom Church trusted and occasionally employed.

“Her flight touched down in Rome three hours ago. I’ve sent her the relevant information. She said she’ll try to work up a list of possible targets. Her horseback guess is that Joe got a lead on some black market stuff right there in Rome and may have swiped the boat to go out to someone’s yacht, or maybe a freighter taking whatever Kuga’s selling. Second guess would be one of the biotech labs in either Rome or Naples. There are five on our watch list. And then there’s the bioweapons broker in Sardinia, but his place is a fortress, so Joe might leave that to us or the Crociati. It would take a small army for that gig.”

The Crociati—Crusaders—were an Italian rapid response team modeled after the UK’s Barrier and Church’s former group, the DMS.

“So, my money’s on one of the targets right there in Rome.”

“One more thing,” said Church. “Have you made any progress on whatever Kuga might be planning in America?”