Prologue

Steamy tendrils snaked up from the teacup placed in the woman’s perfectly manicured hands. Her lips were pursed in a condescendingly amused expression as the man in front of her pontificated to her about her own job. It was almost a relief when her intercom buzzed loudly, stopping his long-winded rambling in its tracks. However, she maintained the facade of the perfect hostess and apologized before answering the request.

“Yes, Dr. O’Neal?”

“I’m sorry to interrupt ma’am, but I think we may have found her.” The redhead’s emerald eyes shifted to the intercom, finishing her sip of her tea before setting down the dainty porcelain cup with a soft sigh. Her gaze settled back to her guest, flashing him a charming smile.

“I’m terribly sorry to cut our meeting short, but we have been following a rather...special case for quite some time which needs my immediate attention. My assistant will be pleased to reschedule for a time later in the week.” She rose from her seat with a graceful fluidity, smoothing down her pencil skirt before offering the man her hand. He graciously accepted with a flustered smile. Another dazzling grin was sent his way before she escorted him out of her office and to the elevator.

It wasn’t until the metal doors slid to a close that she allowed the act to drop, her ruby lips forming their usual authoritarian frown as she spun on her heel and moved down the hall. O’Neal was waiting by the door for her as she walked into the monitoring room.

“Director, we’ve uploaded the footage to the computer on your right.” The man pushed the rims of his glasses back up onto his nose.

“Thank you, doctor.” She gave a slight nod to the man before taking her seat in front of the monitor and clicking play. Bright green eyes took in the scene, no longer than forty seconds. The sides of her mouth pulled up into a smirk by the time the clip cut out, her head turning to look to O’Neal.

“Well done. Please go get Ms. DeLange for me.” She waited until the door clicked shut behind him before playing the clip again, leaning in to observe.

The girl looked as helpless and scared as the shop clerk as the man in front of the counter pulled the gun. He started shouting something frantically and the clerk tried his fastest to hand over the money in the register. The girl’s eyes narrowed, focused clearly on the robber. The initial shock faded and the redhead recognized the new expression. Calculating. Those dark eyes were noticing just how impatient the robber was getting with the slow clerk, she knew just as well as the Director that the longer the clerk took, the more likely that gun was going to go off. Just as fast at the man’s finger pulled the trigger the girl’s hand twitched, causing the bullet to jam in the chamber. He dropped it with a loud shout before running out of the store. The clerk started yelling after him, but the Director’s gaze stayed on the girl. The dark eyes only momentarily traveled up to the camera before her head turned away and her hand pulled her hood over her head and ducked out of the shop. The question in the girl’s expression was evident, one the Director couldn’t help but answering softly.

“Yes, Ms. Sato, we did see that.”