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“I love Paris,” mused Leo, gazing out the window of the taxi at an enormous cathedral. “It’s so beautiful.”

Beside him in the backseat, Jay hunched down, craning his neck to get a look. “That’s a pretty sweet tower,” he said, admiring what he could see of the intricate, Gothic architecture. “As far as world cities go, though, I’d rather be in London, myself. Most of the times I’ve been there have been for missions; I never get to just go out and explore like this…”

“This was a good idea,” Leo agreed. “It’s fun to just act like a tourist for once.”

The two men had left Opal back at the hotel to work on the clue they’d found the day before in peace and quiet – her idea, not theirs. “Go sightseeing or something,” she’d urged them. “Styx gave me a lead on how to decode this thing; I just need the time to do it, and I think better in silence. I’ll call you when I’ve got it figured out.”

Leo had been hesitant, thinking he might be able to help with the translation, but Jay, who knew nothing of what Opal and Vitruvian had been doing this whole mission, had been more than happy to take a break from it. “C’mon, dude,” he’d coaxed Leo. “Let’s go out. It’ll be good to clear our heads.”

They were on their way to the famous Louvre Museum, after discovering they shared an appreciation for art and history. Jay wore his shades and fedora; Leo held a worn leather portfolio of some sort in his lap. He seemed like a pretty cool guy, though of course Jay would have preferred the company of a woman. Wish u were here, he texted Emerald. A few minutes later, he got her reply.

Me too. I hate it when you’re gone.

Jay smiled at that, absently humming a tune to her words. They would make a great song.

“What are you singing?” asked Leo.

Crap, thought Jay, Carter’s rubbing off on me. “Nothin’. Just something Em said.”

“Emerald Ecstasy, eh?” Leo smiled appreciatively. “You’re a lucky man, Jay. You’re constantly surrounded by beautiful woman… Do you love any of them?”

Jay smirked. “Quite frequently, actually. You?”

Leo seemed to consider the question. “I haven’t met a woman with a heart like my own… until recently,” he added, waggling his eyebrows.

“Would that be Diamond?”

Leo smirked. “It’s good that you watch me, Jay, but I fear that you watch me too closely.”

In that instant, Jay could understand why Nick loathed Leo. Something about that smirk bothered him, too. “Did you sabotage the mission so that you could catch the crook instead of Nick?” he asked abruptly.

Vitruvian’s smirk twisted into a frown, his eyebrows furrowing together. He leaned back and folded his arms, glaring at Jay. “Do you question my honor?”

“No, I don’t question your honor. What does that even mean?” snorted Jay. “It’s the mission I care about. I know Nick’s got some jealousy issues, but he’s one of our best agents. If he’s got a bad feeling about you, I want to make sure it’s not justified.”

“I didn’t sabotage the mission,” said Leo stiffly, his voice deathly calm. “I really thought the plane ticket to Germany was a red herring, a lure meant to throw us off her trail. I would never do anything to hurt HimTak, just to benefit myself. You have my word.”

Jay nodded. He had no choice but to take the other agent’s word for it, for now. “Thank you, Vitruvian.”

They rode on in awkward silence. After a few minutes, Leo said, “Jay?” Jay looked over. Leo’s face was serious. “I am a young Double-0,” he said firmly, “but I am a Double-0.”

So was Drums, thought Jay, and that didn’t stop him from trying to bring us down. To Leo, all he said was, “Then be a good Double-0, Vitruvian.”


± ± ±


A short while later, they were standing in line outside the colossal, glass pyramid in the center of the Louvre’s main courtyard. Leo tucked his leather portfolio underneath one arm and raised his hand to his forehead to shield his eyes from the bright, morning sun, as he stared up at the pyramid.

“What is this stupid thing you’re carrying around?” Jay asked suddenly, snatching the portfolio out from under Leo’s arm. He’d been curious about it since he’d noticed Leo with it in the taxi and wondered why he was bringing it with him into the museum. He opened it up to see a pencil sketch of a pair of hands. It was just a black and white drawing, but the detail and shadowing were impeccable. Behind it was another drawing, this one of a woman breastfeeding her infant. “So what are you, an artist or something?”

When Leo didn’t reply, Jay continued to flip through the sketches. “Dang, these are pretty good. They’re, uh… they’re very good, actually. Dude, this is fuckin’ exquisite,” he said, stopping on a drawing of a mother’s hands caressing her baby’s chest. He turned to the next one and raised his eyebrows. “Well, well, well,” he snickered, grinning down at a nude young woman sprawled out on her side, smoking a cigarette. “And these were drawn from life?”

Leo grinned. “Well, that’s one of the good things about Paris. Lots of girls willing to take their clothes off.”

Jay smirked, imagining what Nick would say if he knew his rival liked drawing pictures of naked chicks. “Nice, dude,” he said, passing the portfolio back to Leo.

As they waited in the long line that snaked into the museum’s entrance, Leo turned to a blank page in the back of his sketchpad and began to duplicate the criss-crossing lines of the glass pyramid. He was easily as talented as Nick and more sophisticated, too; Jay had only seen Nick draw comic-style superheroes and funny cartoon doodles. Still, the two were so similar, it was no wonder they couldn’t stand each other.

“Do you like the pyramid?” asked a voice behind them.

Both Jay and Leo turned to find a young woman with long, wavy, blonde hair, parted in the center, studying Leo’s sketch over his shoulder through a pair of oversized, red sunglasses that hid most of her face.

“Yes, the pyramid is magnificent,” answered Leo, enunciating his words in response to the woman’s thick accent.

She smirked. “The French say it is a scar on the face of Paris. But I think it is beautiful. The late French president, Mitterrand, had it commissioned. They say he had a ‘Pharaoh complex,’ but really, he was just interested in ancient Egyptian culture.”

“Who isn’t?” said Jay, thinking of sphinxes and mummies.

“I am.” The woman smiled dreamily. “I plan to travel to Egypt sometime soon. I would love to hold in my hands a piece of Egyptian history.”

“You must be quite the world traveler,” said Leo, raising his brows.

“Yes, I do get around,” the woman replied with an innocent smile, and Jay stifled a snicker at the connotation.

“Where are you from?”

“Denmark,” she said, “and you?”

“We’re from the United States.”

“Ahh, Americans. We have borrowed so much from you – from your culture, I mean. Here in Europe, we love all things American. Your Hollywood movies, your television shows, your music and books. I love your books most of all.”

“Yeah?” Leo smiled down at her. “What’s your favorite book?”

“My favorite book? It is… secret.”

“Secret?” asked Jay, thinking that was a strange answer. “You won’t tell us your favorite book?”

The blonde laughed lightly. “No, no, I said it wrong. I mean to say, it is a secret even from me – I do not know! So many books… how can I choose a favorite? I love all books. I have quite a collection.”

“You do seem well-read,” said Leo, still smiling at her. Jay watched him flirt with her in amusement; the guy seemed to have a thing for blondes. Yet another similarity to 00Carter.

Finally, the line started to move, and once inside the museum, Jay and Leo headed in one direction, the blonde woman in another. But they ran into her again in the Denon Wing, where the paintings of the Renaissance were displayed. “I love Da Vinci’s work,” she breathed, creeping up behind them again, as they stood gazing at the Mona Lisa.

Jay jumped, startled, but Leo turned smoothly. “I was named after him,” he told her. “Leonardo – that’s my first name. The first time my mother felt me kick while she was pregnant with me was when she was standing in front of a Da Vinci painting at a museum in Venice. She took it as a sign.”

“Really?” She had put her red sunglasses up on top of her head now, so they could see her smile spread slowly across her face, brightening her blue eyes. “That is a touching story. And Venice – what a beautiful city.”

Leo nodded. “I love Italy.”

“I do, too. In fact, I am traveling there next, once I leave France.”

“Yeah? Lucky you.”

“Lucky me,” repeated the blonde, her smile turning more seductive.

Leo seemed to be eating it up. “Business or pleasure?” he asked, just as flirtatiously.

“Oh, a little of both…”

Jay was starting to get sick of the silky way they were talking to each other, so he wandered ahead to the next painting, the Danish woman’s voice fading into the background. Wondering how Opal was doing back at the hotel, he pulled out his phone and called the room.

The phone rang and rang, but finally, Opal answered with a hesitant, “Hello?”

“It’s Jay,” he said quickly. “Just checkin’ in. Any progress with the clue?”

“Getting there. The code was easy to crack this time – the idea Styx gave me was right; it was Dancing Men, a substitution cipher from an old Sherlock Holmes story, ‘The Adventure of the Dancing Men.’ Another book reference – big surprise. Unfortunately, the translation will be a lot harder.”

“What language this time?” Jay wondered.

“My best guess is Mandinka – it’s an African language, spoken mainly in The Gambia.”

“African? We’re headed to Africa next?” asked Jay, picturing himself running around a dry savanna that looked like something out of The Lion King, with prides of hungry lions hunting zebra and gazelle, and half-naked tribal men chasing the lions with spears.

“It looks that way. But until I’m able to translate the text to know where in Africa, we aren’t going anywhere. It’s not going to be easy; it’s an obscure language, and I don’t have any background knowledge in it.”

“Maybe ol’ Vitruvian can help, world language expert that he is,” Jay said, somewhat sarcastically, glancing over his shoulder at Leo, who was laughing along with the Danish woman.

Opal sighed. “I hope so. It seems like we’re falling farther and farther behind in tracking these clues. I hope the other team’s having better luck in Germany.”

“Me too,” said Jay, wishing he’d listened to Nick instead of Leo and let his team go there in the first place. They might have been able to head the thief off, if not for the detour to Paris. “Otherwise, Carter’s never gonna let this go.”


± ± ±


Nick paced his hotel room, still fighting the rage that filled him. He had ranted during the entire flight to Germany. He knew Diamond and Styx were both a bit beyond sick of hearing it. But still. If everyone had just listened to him, they would have captured this thief by now, and Opal would be free to go home, and Brian would be out of trouble. He flopped down on his bed. The day’s investigations had come to no avail. No clear shots of the crook in question, no prints, nothing to help them on their mission.

Nick sighed. Why had Jay trusted the new 009 over him? Why did everyone fall for the act Lame-onardo Di-Crapio put on for all of them? He felt like he was the only one who could see him for what he was: a wannabe 00Carter, trying to wreck the mission so that he would catch the villain instead of Nick. And so far, it seemed to be working. He felt a bit hurt, to be honest. Nick had thought he’d proven himself enough times for his instincts to be trusted at this point, and now he could see that wasn’t the case.

He grabbed Opal’s phone, scrolling through the numbers. A small grin appeared. Perhaps calling the FBI would be a good pick-me-up. He called the number, leaning back, snickering in anticipation.

“A-”

“TOMMY BOY!” Nick yelled, cutting him off immediately.

“It’s Carter! Trace the call!” someone could be heard yelling in the background.

“Hey, have you watched that movie, Agent Tom? I love that movie. Tommy Boy. That’s your new nickname!”

“You made a big mistake contacting me this time, Carter.”

Nick laughed, getting comfortable against the fluffy pillows. If nothing else, Lancy was really good about booking ritzy hotel rooms. A lot of the times, the accommodations on missions were better than the dorms in HimTak’s headquarters. “Why? I want you to find me. That’s why Opal and I decided to use her phone again. Hers is traceable.”

“Oh yeah? And why do you want me to find you?”

“I already told you, gumshoe, I gotta lead you to the real enemy. ‘Cause you don’t know your enemy…” He paused, grinning. “You want me to sing for you again? Hey, did the trace go through yet?”

“We got him! They’re in Munich!”

“Hank! Shut it!” Agent Tom barked, causing Nick to laugh even more.

“Okay, now you know where I am. So, catch me if you can!”


± ± ±