Page 73 of Shadow of Death
Mickey shrugged. “Let’s see on that. But—”
“Hey, some people were cops before they came to FDLE. Some went to college in business, and some in criminology. I happened to have been a fine arts major before turning to criminology. I was a great Cyrano de Bergerac, did my own nose. And I am damned good with costuming and makeup if I do say so myself.”
“A little ego,” Sean said lightly, “but he’s telling the truth.”
“Let’s see what you can do. But I want every agent out there on high alert—in or out of costume. These murders are...heinous to the nth degree,” Mickey said. “No one is unarmed but be careful lest being armed means someone using your own weapon against you. None of you is a fool, so I’m just talking to make it all fresh in your minds. Let’s get on this. Ryan, let’s see what you can do. I’ll have someone here get Special Agent Gleason’s left hand up to the lab in Orlando. I’ll see to it that FDLE, local police, and feds are aware of everything we believe might be going on. We’ve had an APB out on Hayden Harper—I’ll add a warning to it.”
“And on Don Blake. Hayden Harper was the one who suggested to Carey Allen she take Don Blake with her on one of her adventures—as in she steered them to the caves where Carey went into the muck and Don mysteriously disappeared,” Hunter said. He leaned forward. “I don’t think we should put Amy and me together as tourists on a boat—being apart, we might pull something off. Together, I think we might be spotted—or if we were able to encounter someone, they could be watching.”
“I get what you’re saying,” Aidan told him. “I’ll pair up with Amy.”
Mickey frowned. “Aidan, you’re not a trained agent—”
“Mickey, please, you have the power to maneuver whatever paperwork is needed to allow me to do this. Please. They’re turning my ancestral lands into a nightmare alley. I’m begging you. I can pull this off. Oh, yes, I’ve completed all the firearms training necessarily. I can hit a crocodile straight in the eye—not that I would, endangered species as they are—but I could.”
He was half smiling and half deadly serious. Mickey looked at him a long while before nodding at long last.
“I want to see what Ryan comes up with for Amy. Then we’ll make the final plan.”
Mickey left the room. Amy found that Hunter, Ryan, and Sean were all looking at her.
“You sureyouwant to do this?” Ryan asked her.
She turned to Aidan. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
He shrugged and smiled at her. “I don’t think even Ryan with all of his magical prowess can make me look like a white man—”
“Hey, man, you’ve got green eyes!” Ryan said. “There was a white man in there somewhere.”
Aidan laughed softly. “Yeah, I like to think I’m the best of what America can be—a cool mix of many things. But let’s face it—”
“It’s not going to matter what you look like. They don’t know you,” Ryan reminded him. “Amy is the one we need to change up.”
“True,” Hunter murmured, studying Amy.
She was surprised he’d opted out of being with her, though his reasoning was sound. Apart, they might pull off being average tourists, bird-watchers, hikers, or nature lovers. She knew she feared for him as he feared for her—the main reason teams weren’t usually composed of those who were couples.
He smiled at her suddenly, knowing exactly what she was thinking.
“Oh, don’t kid yourself,” he told her. “I’ll be around. I’ll be close.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “So... I’m assuming we begin this in the morning. Ryan, I’ll get some hair dye. Blond or brunette?”
“Dark, really dark!” Ryan said. “And you don’t need to get anything. I keep a good stash of stuff to change with, though I usually just opt for a different style of clothing or cap. Can you wear contacts? Have you ever worn them before?”
“I can wear contacts,” Amy assured him.
“How’s your Spanish?” he asked her.
“Not bad—or too bad, anyway,” Amy told him. “Hey, this is Florida! Half my friends are Hispanic or half-Hispanic—Patrick Garcia, José McKinnon. Of course, I have an American accent, but a lot of my friends have Hispanic parents but were born in the States themselves and have American accents when they speak Spanish, too.” She leaned back, grinning. “This might be fun.”
Hunter groaned.
“You won’t need to head out to pick anything up, either,” Ryan said. “I have everything we’re going to need in my two-by-two office!”
Ryan wasn’t lying. He had black hair dye, and she applied it in the bathroom. Hunter winced when he saw her, and winced again when Ryan gave her a short swing bob cut. He had “costume” contacts in many colors and she opted for an amber color.
Aidan had left them to contact friends and family members and secure airboats, while also making sure he warned them all as well. Mickey would contact the council, but Aidan would make sure the threat was known to be extremely serious.
