Chain Reaction. Don Pendleton

were you all? Lise demanded, her voice taking on a hard tone.

      “Karpov’s people came in from the garden, taking us by surprise,” Melchior said. “They had us under their guns before we could react. No excuses, Julius, they caught us off guard. Two of our people are dead. They shot them in front of us.”

      Lise glanced at Hegre. He had a pale sheen on his face.

      “My fault,” he said. “I should have read the signs earlier. Karpov has been threatening to move on us for months. I didn’t believe he would do it in such a crude way.”

      “They shouldn’t have been able to get so close,” Lise snapped. “Things have become slack around here. Everyone has become complacent and let security slide. That won’t happen again.”

      “I have to admit she is right, Julius,” Melchior said.

      Dominic Melchior had been with Hegre from day one. He was, apart from being the organization’s lawyer, Hegre’s consigliere, and the man who often acted as Hegre’s conscience. Slim, gray-haired and always dressed impeccably, Melchior offered counsel to his friend, uttered the words that could calm Hegre and make him see the right path to choose. He had an uncanny insight into what went on in the minds of others. Hegre had an unshakable trust in Melchior’s words of wisdom.

      “Where are Karpov’s men now?” Lise asked.

      “Our backup team caught their man watching the approach to the estate,” Melchior said. “They caught him, and he admitted our people were being held in the garage. They got the drop on Karpov’s men. We dealt with them and headed back to the house. We heard the shots as we came inside.”

      “How many Karpov men are there?” Lise asked.

      “Four,” Melchior said.

      Watching Lise, he saw the cold gleam in her eyes. Her expression was without a trace of emotion. She reached for the Desert Eagle and picked it up. She stared at Hegre for a time, then turned to where the bodyguard stood.

      “All four of them,” she said. “I want them buried with Karpov. See to it our people are taken care of properly.”

      The bodyguard glanced at Hegre.

      “Do what she says,” Hegre said. “Make it quick. Have the place cleaned up and get everything back to normal. Tell everyone from now on Miss Delaware speaks for me.”

      From that day on Lise Delaware became Hegre’s near-constant companion. She proved more adept at the task than anyone previously. She took control of Hegre’s security and within three months he had promoted her to his second in command.

      At first there was resentment from within the ranks, but Lise commanded respect by proving that she was far better than any of them. In time she was accepted by them and Hegre himself, though he would never admit it openly. She was physically challenged by a member of the group who viewed her as merely a favored upstart. When he disrespected her in a room full of people, Lise put him down with two moves. The moaning guy was dragged away by two of Lise’s personal team. He was never seen again.

      The incident confirmed Lise’s skill at her job. She was given more responsibility with the group, Hegre trusting her with more and more important tasks. He kept the fact to himself, never voicing that he felt safer than he had for some time. He had become aware of her true dedication, coupled with a natural affinity with the needs of the group. There was, as well, a standoffish trait to her character that suited her position in life, a detachment he put down to her early life with an uncaring father and a depressive mother. Lise had learned at an early age not to put much trust in others. She had developed a hardness to protect herself from the harshness of life. Not to become too dependent on those around her. It gave her an aura of aloofness that only Julius Hegre himself could penetrate. No matter what happened around her, Lise held Hegre in the highest regard.

      Her true worth was demonstrated when she picked up on his unease over a deal being brokered through the Sicilian Union Corse. Hegre had expanded from the U.S.A. over a number of years, making deals in Europe and Asia where they offered assistance to other criminal groups, to the mutual benefit of all concerned. As always, the acquisition of additional wealth was one of the prime motivators in any business deal. The Sicilian criminal institution had entered into a deal with Hegre that involved money laundering on a large scale.

      When the deal was almost complete Hegre’s accountants had discovered that the local Union Corse group had been skimming money from the operation. When Hegre had asked for an accounting, the local head man had simply turned aside the challenge, accusing Hegre of being little more than foreign crooks trying to fleece the honorable Sicilian clan. It was an insult to Julius Hegre. In all his dealings, criminal though they may have been, he had never treated a business partner badly, had never cheated on a deal. Hegre felt strongly about his reputation, and the Union Corse insult hurt him.

      Without any outward show of concern over the matter, Lise had begged off her responsibilities for a few days, and because of her tireless efforts over the past few years Hegre had granted her request. Lise had made sure a team of her best security people were assigned to stay at Hegre’s side. Lise had used her authority to commandeer one of the group’s aircraft and take a flight to France. Once there she had used her Hegre influence to recruit help and had traveled to Marseilles where the Union Corse chapter was based.

      Two days after her arrival in the French city the two top Union Corse men were killed. Each man died from a shot to the head from a high-powered rifle: one on the street, the second while he stood at the window of his office overlooking the Marseilles waterfront.

      The shooter was never identified, the weapon never found. The assassinations were put down to intergang rivalry. The French police ran an investigation that petered out quickly. The killing of local criminals was not an entirely original occurrence, and if the truth was known, the deaths were not going to cause many cops any loss of sleep.

      The intergang scenario was true to a point, though it was in fact less rivalry and more a matter of honor.

      Lise Delaware left France as quietly as she had arrived. On the flight back to the U.S. she slept comfortably, emerging from the plane refreshed and in no way affected by what she had done.

      The killing of two Sicilian gangsters in France was not big news in the States. It received some reporting in newspapers but not enough to garner much reaction.

      Except from Julius Hegre.

      He read of the incidents and quickly associated the location of the killings and the Union Corse with his own fallout with the crime association. That and Lise Delaware going AWOL for a few days made him come to a conclusion.