The door was ajar and the elaborate security system was flashing green to indicate that it had been disarmed. Before stepping inside, Smith glanced back at the man who’d brought him there. “Hey, I forgot to say congratulations.”

“Thanks.”

He put his duffel on the kitchen counter and went to the refrigerator for a beer. Getting one off the bottom shelf required a difficult knee bend, but it was worth it. Snake River Lager tasted just as good as he remembered.

The house had been unoccupied for a while and he wiped away some dust before putting his beer down on the granite counter. It had originally been a pretty rustic place belonging to Randi’s college roommate. After it got burned down with the help of an Afghan assassin, Klein had made the mistake of giving Randi a blank check for its reconstruction.

Then came the attack by a special ops team and the maddeningly difficult-to-eradicate smell of knockout gas. Apparently that was the last straw for the former roommate, and Randi had bought the house through a maze of offshore corporations. While it still wasn’t impossible for a motivated party with substantial resources to track the place down, it would be difficult enough that he felt safe there. At least safer than he would have at his own house.

“Jon!” Karen Ivers called as she appeared in the hallway. “How are you doing?”

“I’ve seen better days. But you look great. Domestic bliss must agree with you.”

She and Eric had gotten married a month before. He knew it drove Klein nuts that two of his operatives had walked down the aisle, but even the old man wasn’t willing to stand in the way of true love.

“And you look…not dead.”

He laughed painfully and took another swig of his beer. “Hey, the smell of gas is gone.”

“New carpet, new paint, refinished woodwork, and we’ve had the windows open for a month. Seems to have worked. Look, I’ve checked the place out and everything’s fine. The cell tower is still unreliable for some reason, but Randi’s put in a satellite link. We’ve upgraded your phone so it will automatically connect. Just dial normally. The fridge is stocked with beer, as I see you’ve noticed, and the meds you asked for are in the bathroom. Is there anything else Eric and I can do for you?”

He shook his head. “Nah. Why don’t you guys get out of here. I’m good.”

“You’re sure?”

In truth, he wasn’t. He should have stayed in Korea a few more days, but this job needed to get done and Randi wasn’t going to be able to handle it on her own.

“Absolutely. I feel better than I look. Really.”

“Okay. You know that this place is pretty far off the radar but not a hundred percent, right?”