She was momentarily speechless. A rare occurrence. “Are you serious?”
“I never joke about large pachyderms.”
Her excitement turned to confusion, forcing her mother to come to the rescue. “He’s one hundred percent serious, sweetie. In fact, you get your very own. It’s a baby one.”
That prompted a flood of questions, from its name to how old it was to whether she could keep it. Rapp went to retrieve the ball while Claudia tried to provide satisfactory responses. He hoped the young girl’s excitement would hold up. In truth, it was going to be a tough trip. Unavoidable if they wanted to be certain they weren’t tracked, but hard. The first three miles were straight down the side of the mountain on foot. Nothing but slick roots, mud, and humidity. Then there would be another four miles on flat terrain before they got to camp.
The elephants would be their main mode of transportation the next day but, in his experience, the fantasy was better than the reality. While it beat walking, they weren’t creatures that gave a lot of thought to what branches, trees, and rock outcroppings their passengers collided with. Then one more night outside, one more day on foot, and finally the Land Cruiser Claudia had waiting for them.
It’d be fine, he told himself. Anna would rise to the occasion because she was tough and there was no other choice. It wasn’t like the journey would have been a hardship for a local girl her age. It was never too soon to learn that either life kicked the shit out of you, or you kicked the shit out of it. Particularly when you were unlucky enough to be a member of this family.
As he was dribbling the ball back toward the pool, Irene Kennedy appeared from the trees. Claudia immediately turned her attention to Anna. “Do you want to go for a swim? Why don’t you go back to the bungalow and grab our suits. Then we can talk more about the elephants.”
“But—”
“Now, Anna.”
Recognizing her mother’s tone, she ran off, exchanging a short greeting with Kennedy as they passed.
“I thought I heard the chopper.”
She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a white blouse, more tanned than Rapp had ever seen her, but not exactly relaxed. And he was about to make that worse. Much worse.
“We’re taking off tomorrow. I was coming by to see you but I needed to break the news to Anna first.”
“I see,” she said, pointing to Nicholas Ward’s terrace. He and Claudia followed her onto it and she used a remote to open the louvered walls. At the same time, a large panel rose and created an open doorway shaded by a lattice. She went inside, crossing to the kitchen and opening the refrigerator. “Drink?”
“I’d take a beer,” Rapp said.
Claudia just shook her head.
Kennedy pulled out a bottle for him and poured herself a glass of white wine.
“You seem comfortable here,” he observed, dropping onto a stool in front of the kitchen island.
“Do I?”
“I take it you’ve decided to get in bed with Nick?”
She smiled. “Intentional?”
“I was being clever.”
“It’s complicated. Do I want to have a professional relationship with Nick or a personal one? I don’t think both is workable.”
“Are you sure?” Claudia said. “It can be, you know. There’s such a thing as too much caution where relationships are concerned.”
“You’re probably right but I’ve lived my life by the philosophy that there’s no such thing as too much caution.”
“I’m with Claudia,” Rapp said. “You’re retired now. What better time to close your eyes and leap?”
“Old habits die hard,” Kennedy said, taking a sip from her glass. “For instance, being able to overlook the fact that you’re both avoiding the subject of Legion.”
He picked up the beer but didn’t drink. “They’re taken care of and Bebe and Sadie are fine.”
Kennedy sat, keeping the island between them. Her unwavering gaze suggested that she expected a more detailed explanation. Claudia was the first to fold under its intensity.
“Legion is made up of three women trained by the Iranians to infiltrate Israel. The program got canceled when the new government came in and they escaped.”
“Mitch, you said they were taken care of, but you didn’t say they were dead. Could you clarify?”
“I caught the woman who handles the operations end, but there was no way to use her to find her people. She didn’t know where they were.”