Reaching up, she ran her fingers through her hair. It looked so real. Not just the wig but the entire disguise.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE WOMAN OPENED her eyes to a dark room. Although she couldn’t feel any bumps, the soft hum indicated the train was moving. The L1 was a modern marvel. She guessed they were traveling at well over fifty miles per hour, and yet it felt as though they were floating down the tracks.
What time is it? She pulled out her phone and looked at the screen—4:57. She’d slept an hour longer than planned, but that wasn’t a bad thing. She was going to be up for most of the night, so every little bit of rest would help.
She rubbed her face vigorously then placed her feet on the floor. She felt around until her fingers closed on the handle of her luggage. She stood and carried it across the room and placed it on the dresser. After opening it, she depressed a small decorative button on the outside of the case, which popped open the lid of a hidden compartment. Inside was a small leather pouch that contained several items: six hundred euros in assorted denominations, two credit cards, a US passport, and an NSA work identification card in the name of Victoria Anne Lind.
Delphi operative Carmen Petrosino pulled out the fake ID card and stared at the picture. She really did bear a striking resemblance to Victoria Lind. She was going to meet with several men the next day, and there was little chance they would realize they were talking to an imposter.
The events leading up to the meeting had begun several weeks before, when the real Victoria Lind had received a cryptic email from an unknown sender. The most mysterious thing about the message was that it had been sent to her personal email address, which was known only to several of Lind’s closest friends. The sender said he represented an unnamed organization that sought information Lind possessed. He assured her that the information he sought wouldn’t put her country’s national security in danger. But they were going to make a substantial deposit into her checking account.
A model employee and a patriot, Lind passed the communications along to her supervisor. At first, the NSA’s internal investigative unit believed the correspondence was a hoax, but just to be safe, they brought in the Central Intelligence Agency. CIA analyst Todd McCloud was assigned to the case. He began by attempting to trace the sender’s IP address, which was hidden behind multiple layers of firewalls. McCloud was unsuccessful in locating the sender’s address, which revealed this wasn’t some innocent prank. Whoever was behind the communication was part of a sophisticated and dangerous organization.
Anxious to learn more, McCloud communicated with the group by posing as Lind. He had expected they would limit communication to email, but instead they requested a face-to-face meeting. Fearing the group might attempt to kidnap Lind, McCloud quickly ruled out sending her to the meeting. Lind worked behind a desk and had no experience in the field. Instead, the CIA decided to send someone posing as Lind. That meant finding someone who looked like her. Even though Lind had no social media accounts because of her work with the NSA, there was still a chance the group knew what she looked like. If they could find her personal email address, they probably could find images of her as well.
Around the same time, McCloud attended a strategy meeting with the Delphi Group, a private organization that worked closely with the CIA and other intelligence agencies. The meeting had nothing to do with Victoria Lind, but during the meeting, McCloud met and talked to Delphi employee Carmen Petrosino. To his surprise, the raven-haired beauty bore a striking resemblance to Lind.
Having found someone perfect for the role, McCloud began selling his idea to Dr. Alexander Ross, the founder and CEO of Delphi. After a series of meetings, the two decided that Carmen Petrosino would pose as Victoria Lind and meet with the group. And because of an overload of CIA case work in the Middle East, it was agreed that the entire operation would be transferred to Delphi.
Over the next several days, the meeting’s details were hashed out. For reasons unknown to Ross, the group insisted that it take place on a specific luxury train in Europe — the L1. Although the request was strange, Delphi accepted the offer. Once the deal was confirmed, the other details were ironed out over a long weekend. Carmen Petrosino, posing as Victoria Lind, would board the train in Bern, Switzerland. She would meet with representatives of the group while they were en route to Bellinzona.
But as Delphi performed their due diligence, they noticed something interesting: there wasn’t a group of men scheduled to board in Bern. There was, however, a group of men boarding in Paris, and it soon became apparent these were the same men Carmen would meet with. In a countermove meant to enable early surveillance, it was decided that Carmen would board in Paris as well. She didn’t want to be recognized as Lind yet, so she donned a blond wig and put on heavy makeup. Her goal was to learn as much about the men as she could prior to the rendezvous. They wouldn’t expect her to be on the train until the day of the meeting, which meant it might be easier to observe them if they didn’t think they were being watched.
A man spoke in the hallway, pulling Carmen out of her thoughts. It was time to get moving. She removed euros from the pouch then returned it to the hidden compartment. Before closing the luggage, she opened a toiletries kit and took out the final item she would need that night: a small compact mirror.
After checking her disguise one more time, Carmen exited the room and made her way to the bar. She was housed in one of the less-expensive rooms, which meant she was about as far away from the common areas as possible. She didn’t mind. The walk gave her time to examine the layout of the train to see if it matched the diagrams she’d been studying for the last twenty-four hours.
Five minutes later, Carmen entered the L1’s upscale restaurant, Chez Pierre. By her count, three couples were eating. It was only 5:20, which was early for fine dining. In another hour, the restaurant would start to fill up. After passing through Chez Pierre, Carmen entered the bar. Unlike the restaurant, the train’s official watering hole was buzzing with activity. In addition to tables and booths, a circular bar was situated at the other end of the room, and a two-person jazz band was set up in a corner.
Most of the tables were full, so Carmen walked to the bar and slid into an empty seat on the far end. Like any good operative working undercover, she always chose the seat that gave her the best view of the space.
A young male bartender with a pale complexion slid a napkin in front of her. “Can I get you something to drink, madame?”
“Bourbon and ginger ale on the rocks.”
“Do you have a preference for your whiskey?”
She told him to surprise her.
“And your room number, please?”
“I’m paying cash.” Carmen thought it best not to announce her room number in public.
“Bien sur.” He nodded.
As the bartender stepped away, she removed a tube of honey-flavored balm and applied it to her lower lip.
“Your first time?” a male voice asked.
Turning to her left, Carmen saw a dark-haired man checking her out. He was young, perhaps late twenties or early thirties. He wore a gray turtleneck and black pants, and his fingers were twisted around the stem of a wineglass. His accent sounded Spanish or Portuguese, and he was sitting next to a man who looked like he could be the speaker’s twin brother.
“Yes,” was her one-word answer.
He lifted the glass and took a sip of wine before trying again. “So where are you from?”