Spy Girl (Spy Girl #1)

“Morning,” he says. “I was just coming to get you.” He leads me to the garage and then down the secret elevator so we can talk privately. I look around at the space. I must have been too overwhelmed my first time here to notice everything. It’s literally like a secret lair. It makes me feel like a real spy, and I can see that Ari has been spending some free time down here, based on a large whiteboard covered with notes in a scratchy print.

“Okay, so let’s walk through this. We know the threat: Kill the Prince. We know why: Control the Strait. We know how: Storming the castle. Attempted poisoning. Attempted shooting. What we don’t know is who is behind the attempts or what they will try next.”

“Okay.”

“So the who. Obvious answers are who is next in line. Ophelia. Then Clarice. I think it’s safe to add Viktor to the list based on the fact that he and Ophelia were together and the fact that they started dating days before her father was killed. Then we have the random factor, some sort of terror group. What do you think of my assumptions so far?”

“If you consider the Queen’s Ball is where all the royals on the succession list will be gathered, then I think you have to consider a bombing plot, where they would just blow up the place. If you consider the castle breech a warm-up, then I’d be concerned about them sending in a small, highly-trained Special Forces team to take them out. Think about it. You will even have the heads of the military at the Queen’s Ball.”

“I wonder if any of the heirs aren’t planning on being there.”

“We should try to find out, although if it was my plot, I’d say I was coming and take ill the night of.”

“Meaning whoever doesn’t show up, could be behind the plot.”

“I suppose, but I feel like that’s widening the net too much. We need to focus on our top suspects.”

“Agreed,” Ari says. “So, I’d say we have our top scenarios. I should also add that I spent the night at the cousins’ mansion.”

“Did you and Clarice get freaky?”

“No. I pretended to be drunk, so they put me to bed. Once everyone went to sleep, I had a look around.”

“Did you find anything?”

“There was something interesting that I didn’t find.”

“What didn’t you find?” I ask.

“Not one single photo of their father in the entire place.”

“Because it’s too painful?”

“I think they didn’t really like him much. And based off a snide comment Ophelia made regarding Prince Lorenzo, I’m thinking they don’t like him either.”

“Because they didn’t get to grow up like he did? Do they resent him?”

“It sounds like it. I also found this.” Ari connects his phone to a cable and a photo shoots onto the screen.

“What’s that? It looks like someone built a modern city on top of one of those alien crop circles.”

“This was in Clarice’s study and is a plan for the Terra Project.”

“She couldn’t have come up with that herself. Did she?”

“No, it’s the work of an American scientist.” He flashes another picture. A map of Montrovia with the crop circles drawn over the top of the casino.

“I don’t see any of the pretty yachts,” I mention.

“Yeah, me either.”

“But the castle is unaffected.”

“Strange, isn’t it? Does Miss Save The World want to move into it? Control her country?”

“Her little project with everyone working for the greater good sounds a lot like socialism,” I admit. “Could she have twisted her hate for her father into a hate for the whole country?”

“That’s what I’m wondering. Last night, she spent a lot of time speaking to the Saudi Prince.”

“Lorenzo met with him twice. He’s supposedly concerned for their oil shipments. Why would she be telling him about the project?”

“Maybe if she succeeds, she will need help overthrowing the military,” he suggests.

“But then they would be in control, not her.”

“What if she sold the rights to the Strait of Montrovia, but was allowed to keep her country in exchange for military protection?”

“Holy shit, Ari.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“So you think she had someone kill her father and make it look like a suicide, now she’s trying to get rid of Lorenzo, and then she’ll have her own sister killed?”

“I suspect so. What do you think?”

“Do we have any further information on the men who committed the first two assassination attempts?”

He shuffles through a pile of papers. “Yes. The dots have been connected. All three belong to a radical environmental group participating in eco-terrorism. They use violence in an attempt to protect the environment. It’s odd, though. Although, they use violence to disrupt corporations whose environmental policies they disagree with, they rarely kill.”

“So, did she hire them or is this bigger than her? Could she just be a pawn in this game?”

“I’m not sure.” He pulls up the Terra Project’s website. I watch words flash across the screen.