Quinton Mann is CIA through and through. Mark Vincent is WBIS for life. There is no way they could end up as anything other than adversaries -- and yet, Quinn takes Mark out to dinner on his birthday -- the one no one is supposed to know about -- and gives him one hell of a present in the restaurant's restroom. Mark, not to be outdone, has decided to escalate this game, because it has to be a game, right? There's no way it can be anything else.<br><br>But as the game continues, as Quinn shows up to a WBIS funeral, as a friend of Mark’s penetrates the CIA computer network to get information on Quinn, as Mark breaks into Quinn's house and gives Quinn a very interesting encounter, both Quinn and Mark realize that this is becoming the most real thing in their lives.<br><br>Can they find a way to do their jobs and keep this surprising, intriguing connection?

Houseboat on the Nile

I slid a small device onto the receiver and punched in a series of numbers. The phone was answered on the first ring. “Mr. Vincent.” Mr. Wallace’s distinctive voice came back over the line.


I didn’t bother asking if there was a problem. The fact that my call had bypassed his gorgon of a secretary told me there was one.


“A situation has arisen in Huntingdon’s Boston office.” He proceeded to outline the problem in a flat tone.


Apparently a computer geek had uploaded some new software for the entire accounting department in the Boston office. It was supposed to contain a simple debugging program, but instead of running a scan and making any corrections automatically, it was exponentially increasing the errors, thereby increasing the problem to the point the entire office was at a standstill.


“I’ll catch the first shuttle up to Logan and deal with it,” I told him when he had finished.


Chapter 124