She’d been wearing an ill-fitting corset in the dungeon. She’d changed somewhere along the way and now looked extremely young and somewhat fragile in jeans and a T-shirt covered by a cardie. Her eyes were wide with terror. He had to figure out who she was really working for.

“My name is Damon Knight. I’m with SIS. Can you nod if you know what that is?”

She nodded. She was a reporter. She should understand how her country’s intelligence worked, but he was often surprised at some people’s stupidity.

“If my colleague removes his hand, will you scream?”

Her head shook. Either she was an excellent actress or she was scared. Either way, he thought there was a chance she would keep her head about her.

“If you do scream, he’s going to tie you up and keep you that way until we sort this out. Simon, let her go.” There was no reason to be uncivilized if he didn’t have to.

Her hands were shaking as Simon took a step back. “You’re MI6? Really? You’re a real bloody double 0?”

“Yes, though I’m afraid you’ll have to take my word on it since we don’t carry badges.”

“We don’t need no stinking badges,” Taggart said with a smile.

“How do I know if I should talk to you then?” She might have gone to a posh university, but her accent gave her away. She’d been raised in the country.

And she was cautious. He couldn’t blame her. “Because I’ll very likely torture you if you don’t.” He could be uncivilized when it was called for.

Tears started rolling down her cheeks. Penelope sighed and stood up. “Come here. He’s not going to torture you. He just likes to have everyone afraid of him. Come sit down and we can get this sorted out. It’s obvious you’re not in league with terrorists.”

“It’s not obvious to me.” Did Penelope think she would wear a sign?

Candice Jones practically tackled Penelope in her haste to get away from him. He was just charming all the ladies this evening. He had to admit, conducting an interview in his leathers was a new experience.

“Is he really with the government?” Candice turned to Penelope as though she’d figured out she was the only person in the room who hadn’t recently killed someone.

“Yes. I am as well. Can you tell me how you know Walter Bennett?”

Candice’s jaw practically locked.

Penelope reached out and picked up the shot of Bennett. “Your boyfriend is carrying around a picture of him. We’ve got the thumb drive as well. We’ll know everything very soon. How about I tell you what I know?”

“That isn’t necessary,” Damon explained.

Penelope sighed. “Damon, something’s obviously wrong. If she’s trying to blow up the London underground, I would be very surprised.”

Candice’s eyes went round. “What are you talking about? I’m a reporter. I don’t want to blow up anything except a story. Walter wouldn’t do that. He’s not like that. At least he doesn’t seem to be the type.”

Clever girl. What might have taken him an hour to pry out of her, Penelope had gotten her to give up inside a minute. “According to what we know, Walter Bennett works for a pharmaceutical company.”

“I’m not going to get a big story out of this, am I?” Candice asked, frowning.

“No, you’re very likely going to spend some time in prison if you don’t start talking,” Damon explained.

She sniffled and clasped her hands together on her lap. “About a year ago, I did an exposé on a group called Nature’s Core. I became friendly with a couple of them. Two weeks ago, the leader of the Core called me. He said he had a massive story for me, but he wouldn’t tell me what it was about.”

“Not even a hint?”

She bit her bottom lip, sighing. “No. He just said that I had to help him smuggle a man into England and that it would be dangerous. People would try to kill him.”

“That man was Walter Bennett?” He settled in across from her, fairly certain she wasn’t going to break out any martial arts moves on anyone.

“Yes. I’ve talked to him over the computer a couple of times. He seems harmless enough. He says he’s got something really important, but he won’t tell me what it is until we meet. I was supposed to find a way to meet with Walter and to get him on this boat without having to use his passport. He’s paranoid. He thinks someone from his old company is trying to kill him.”

Yes, Baz would very likely kill the bloke. “What company did he work for?”

He already knew the answer to that, but he wanted to see what Candice knew or if she would lie.

“Agro Pharma is what I was told. I looked him up, of course. I didn’t just believe him. I did my research. He’s a virologist who’s been working in DNA coding on some of the nastiest strains in the world. He worked at CDC in Atlanta for a couple of years after he graduated from Johns Hopkins.”

“But then the lure of big money was too much, huh?” Taggart asked.

Candice nodded. “That’s how it seemed to me. He’s been working in their Geneva campus for the last two years. It’s one of the only private BSL-4 labs in Europe. Nature’s Core has been watching Agro. According to my source, they think Agro is working on some nasty bioweapons.”

He looked over at Taggart, who nodded. It was something of the same story they were getting from their handlers and nothing that went against what Baz said.

“Why you?” He had an inkling, but he wanted her thoughts.

Her shoulders moved up and down. “I guess I was the only reporter they trust.”

Penelope leaned forward. “If he has pure intentions, why wouldn’t he go to the government?”

She pushed a hand through her hair as she spoke. “I don’t know. I just wanted a big story, all right? My career hasn’t exactly been smashing. My editor wants to move me to the society pages. He thinks I’m not smart enough to work anything but debutante parties. He thought my piece on Nature’s Core was a fluff piece, but I’m going to show him. It was my idea to use the boat. I’ve gone on a couple of cruises and the security isn’t the best.”

“And if you’re being used by a terrorist to get into England?” Damon was well aware he wasn’t using his charming voice. “How is that going to affect your career? When you abet a terrorist, I think you might get relegated to something less pleasant than society weddings.”

“He’s not a terrorist,” she shot back.

“How do you know that?”

She pointed to the picture. “Look at him. He’s a geek. Geeks aren’t terrorists.”

“You’ve obviously never met my sister-in-law,” Taggart said.

His wife sent Tag a nasty look, but it was so much more than Penelope sent his way.

There was a knock and Simon let Chelsea in. She moved past him, obviously trying not to touch the big guy. “It’s all porn and pictures of naked chicks.”

Candice gasped. “Hey, that’s mine. You’re not supposed to look at that.”

Chelsea tossed it to Damon. “This is not the droid we were looking for, boss. I’m going back to bed before the spa staff gets in. They smell better than the maids, but god they love to talk in like fifteen different languages. This assignment sucks.”

Jesse grinned her way. “Hey, I saw one of the head waiters hitting on you. Nice.”

Simon frowned. “Staff isn’t supposed to mingle in that fashion.”

Chelsea gave him back a nasty look. “Oh, we’re only supposed to sleep with guests, huh?”

She turned and stormed out.

Damon was getting sick of the soap opera, but Tag just grinned as though the world was his entertainment.

“Sorry.” Jesse held his hands up. “I was just teasing her. It wasn’t like she took him up on it. She doesn’t look at anyone except Simon, and even then it’s only when she thinks he’s not looking.”

“Could we deal with the problem at hand?” Simon asked. “If she doesn’t know anything, then we need Walter Bennett and we need him damn soon.”

“Look, I’m obviously in over my head. This was a stupid plan. I should have known it was too good to be true.” Candice wiped away tears.

The last thing he needed was another crying female. “When are you meeting with Bennett?”

She sniffled a little. “Tomorrow. I’m meeting him at someplace called the Rock Church. It’s in Helsinki. I’m supposed to be there at three. It gives us just enough time to get Walter on the boat. He looks a bit like Rob. Rob is going to spend a couple of days with some mates from university and then fly back in time to pick us up from Dover.”

Bennett bore a nominal resemblance to Tilman. They were roughly the same height, same coloring. If Bennett took off his glasses, he would likely be able to use the card the cruise company had assigned to Tilman. He wouldn’t need a passport if he didn’t go into the ports that required them and he wouldn’t need to show one to get back into England. He would be flying utterly under the radar.

“I’m going to need you to make that meeting. I’ll let you talk to my boss tonight so you feel more comfortable with me, but I need you to cooperate until I can take Bennett into custody and figure this mess out. Is that understood?”

She nodded, tears still in her eyes.

“Penelope? Would you take her to our cabin and use the sat phone to contact Nigel? He’s going to want to talk to her.” He could give Penelope something to do, take her mind off whatever was bothering her, make her feel like one of the team.

She stood up and gave Candice a smile. “Yes, I can certainly do that. And while we’re at it, I’ll order us some tea. Charlotte, should we leave the men to their plotting?”

So she saw right through his plans. He found it rather frustrating. “Someone needs to talk to Nigel.”

“Of course.” She walked by him, clutching her keycard. Candice and Charlotte followed.