Chapter 2: Prologue, Part 2

Jed personally thought it was a stroke of luck Bernardo had a good solution for them, but he wasn't sure if everyone else would think so. Max Ferren, Bernardo's brother, was his partner in the company and knew exactly what was going on. Was he as plugged in to the operation as Bernardo was? The man had assured him that was the case.

What about his wife, though? Did she have the same skills as her sister-in-law? He wished he'd been able to meet them when he was there, but they were just at that moment returning from a trip out of state. Fuck it all to hell, anyway. This group had planned so carefully and worked so hard to kick off their plan with a bangliterally choosing the target date for maximum impact. They could not afford a screwup now.

He cleared his throat.

"Bernardo has an answer to the problem," Jed told them. "I wanted to double check everything before I brought it to you, but this is as perfect as it can get. Bernardo's brother, Max, will take his place. Max is Bernardo's partner in Ferren Arms Manufacturing and has been involved in a number of activities they've 'sponsored.' You know the two men are very close ideologically and share many of the same contacts, or Bernardo would never have been able to commit to this plan. To be a part of it. He promises we can trust his brother as we do him, and I believe him."

"Bring a stranger in?" Kurt snapped. "I don't care who he is. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable with that."

"Well, we can't leave those seats vacant," Jed snapped. "Max is hardly a stranger, and we need the weapons. Did you want to buy them on the open market?"

There was a long moment of silence.

"I've met Max and I trust him," Jed added in a slow voice. "He and Bernardo are tight as brothers as well as partners. He wouldn't recommend the man, brother or not, unless he was confident he could step right in. We knew from the beginning that Bernardo shared everything with him. A damn good thing, too, since he's now fully briefed and ready to assume a seat at the table. The last thing Bernardo would do, especially at this point, is send in someone who could fuck everything up and put us all at great risk." He paused. "Including himself, I might add. Anyway, I met Max a couple of times over the years, and I can assure you he's got his shit together every bit as much as Bernardo does."

"I guess we'll just have to take your word for it, Jed." Lorena glared at him through the hologram. "Besides, we're past the stopping point, and we need the Ferren supplies. We'll just have to put Max Ferrenand his wife, don't forgetunder a magnifying glass. Do we have pictures of them?"

Jed nodded. "I'll be sending them along as soon as I hang up. I'll also forward every bit of information on them. I started a search just before this phone call."

"And Bernardo? How does he feel about being left out of the action?" Gavin Emery glared at the other images.

"He's upset, naturally. He's funded revolutions in other countries for financial gain, and he badly wanted an active part in this one." Jed sighed. "Truthfully, however, I think having to deal with all this may have been one cause of the heart attack. His health hasn't been all that good. I think he's been hanging on until everything was in place and we could assume control. Of everything."

"How well protected is he in the hospital?" Lorena asked. "No media or anyone can get to him?"

Jed nodded. "He's hired top-level security. No one will get through those men."

Everyone was silent for a long moment.

Finally Gavin cleared his throat. "I'm not happy with this, but we don't have a choice. We're too far into this to call it off now. And we all agreed July 4th was ideal for this, symbolic as it is."

Everyone nodded their agreement.

"When do we meet this perfect substitute?" Lorena asked, a nasty edge to her voice.

"He and his wife will be here next week. They'll be staying at my hotel in town for a couple of days so I can meet with them and vet them, just to be sure. They shouldn't be anywhere near the lodge until I'm satisfied he's not a plant."

"A plant?" Lorena's words had a sharp edge. "Who would plant someone in our group? How would they even find out about us? We've gone overboard with the secrecy on this." She paused. "Right? Everyone agree to that?"

Each of them murmured their agreement.

"So how do we think something like that can happen? If anyone in this group has been flapping their lips, I will shoot you myself."

"Lorena, no one's been talking out of school," Jed soothed. "We all have too much at stake to do that.

"What about Max Ferren's wife?" Gavin asked. "Has she been read in? And what does she bring to the table?"

Jed nodded. "She's been included since the beginning, just like Max." He smiled. "And she brings skills to those her sister-in-law has. As I said earlier, she knows how to hack into secure systems and analyze data."

"So she'd be able to let us know if any word of our plan leaked out?" Gavin's smile was more vicious than friendly. "Good."

"I'm meeting them at the hotel next Tuesday. That will give me two days to turn him upside down before we all arrive at the lodge."

"And that's exactly what you'll be doing," Gavin stated. "We're too close to our goal for anything to go wrong."

"I'll keep you all in the loop."

"Be sure you do that," Kurt growled.

Jed shut down the video conference and sat back in his chair. Bernardo was his oldest friend. He trusted him completely. He just wished he didn't have this little feeling of unease running through him. He hated last-minute change. It always screwed something up. If it happened here, it could blow up in their faces.

Literally.