“Yes, Kiril. It’s time.”

Middleton turned toward the sound of the voice. Pulling himself through the doorway was Chernayev.

As soon as the Scorpion was seated, the helicopter took off. It left as it had arrived, flying low away from the firefight.

Once he felt reasonably sure they weren’t going to get shot down, Middleton looked over at Chernayev. “What was that?”

“My apologies,” Chernayev said. “Seems we didn’t get all of them the other day.”

“The Group?”

Chernayev shrugged. “Of course.”

Middleton sat silently for several moments. “So where we going?” “Same destination I told you about. India. The only difference is that I’ve decided to come with you.”

The doctor had asked no questions. He was used to the kind of patients that appeared at his back door with any number of injuries from broken ribs to third-degree burns to knife wounds. So when Tesla showed up with a gunshot wound to one shoulder and Charley Middleton propping her up by the other, he had not even flinched. He had merely quoted a price, then did what he could to repair the damage.

Afterward, the two women took a room in a small hotel near the Latin Quarter where they hid out, venturing into the streets only when it was necessary. Most trips were for food, but once they had appropriated a laptop. The owner, probably a student, had left it unattended in a café near the Sorbonne while he went to the toilet. Charley only agreed to help if Tesla promised they would later find the student and return it when they were done. She then kept watch while Tesla slipped it into an oversized bag and casually walked out to the street.

Back at the hotel, they reestablished contact with Wiki Chang.

“Any word?” she asked.

“Nothing. The boss’s phones are both out of commission.”

Tesla sighed. The two of them then worked to come up with a plan to track down the person who had sent the text to Jana’s phone wanting to know what had happened with Charley.

Tesla had a pretty good idea of who it might be. Ian Barrett-Bone had said that Sikari was killed by his son and that Jana was in on it. Tesla guessed the person was either the son or someone working for him.

The sender wanted to know when Jana would arrive. Where, he didn’t say. But Tesla gathered from the tone of the messages that there was more than a business relationship between Jana and the sender. This made her guess that it had to be the son. And if it was, it was even more important that they get a fix on his location.

“Hey, this isn’t exactly easy,” Chang said. He had been at it for several hours.

His image was in a box that filled the upper right corner of the laptop.

“You say that every time, then you figure it out,” Tesla said.