Angel and the Assassin 3: Sins of the Father

faces, they thought he was joking. Leaving it at that, Kael walked toward
    Number 10 while they followed.
    The prime minister met Kael in the front hall of the three-hundred-year-old house.
    There were one hundred rooms, and he intended to look in every one of them before
    Romodanovsky arrived in forty minutes.
    “Saunders?” The PM offered his hand.
    Kael shook it. “Prime Minister.”
    “I asked for you in particular.”
    “Yes, Stephen Conran told me.” Kael smiled very slightly. “I assume I have
    unlimited access to the house.”
    The PM nodded. “I’ll get someone to show you around.”
    “There’s no need. I know exactly where everything is, but I still need to do a
    walkabout before the man arrives. I’ll start in the basement.” Kael walked away with
    Thornton on his heels.
    “Bloody hell, sir. That was the prime minister,” she said excitedly. “Should you
    really just walk away like that what you’re done, like he’s the lackey or something?”
    “He’s just a man, Thornton, a man like any other.”
    “I still wish I could tell everyone I know where I’ve been and who I’ve met.”
    “The urge will pass,” Kael said. “If it doesn’t, you won’t last long in this job.”
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    But he had no worries about Thornton. She tailed him through the White Drawing
    Room, the Terracotta Room, the State and Private Dining Rooms. Everywhere they
    walked, Kael memorized the doorways and windows until he had a three-dimensional
    map in his head. Even while visualizing, he talked, continually telling Mattie what he
    expected, where she would stand, which gestures meant what. They ended the tour at
    the third-floor apartment where the prime minister and his family lived.
    Romodanovsky would be staying in a corner bedroom with a study and bathroom
    attached.
    “He’ll be here in eight minutes if he’s on time,” Kael said, checking his watch.
    Swiftly he strode back through the house, Mattie running to keep up with his long
    stride. When they reached the entrance hall, Kael pointed at the door leading down to
    the basement kitchen. “Go down again and tell the cooks that the Romodanovsky
    special security detail will expect to be fed. I only said what I did to frighten the men.”
    “Oh thank God,” Mattie said, hurrying off.
    With a smile, Kael watched her go and then stood unobtrusively beside the guard
    chair where he could watch the front door. The prime minister and a number of people
    Kael recognized as cabinet ministers were gathering to welcome the Russian. Several
    minutes later, the front door opened and the PM stepped outside for the photo op.
    When Arkadiy Romodanovsky walked in, Kael stared at the man, forgetting for a
    split second why he was there. The Russian minister stood well over six feet tall with a
    typically Russian face that looked as if it had been carved from rock of the Caucasus
    Mountains. His gray hair was cut into a military-style crew cut. He was thin, with a
    strong, rangy build. For a man of sixty-two, he looked incredibly physically powerful.
    Before Angel, Kael would have fucked a man like him with pleasure.
    From his brief, Kael knew exactly what Romodanovsky looked like. Pictures of
    him were fairly rare, unlike most politicians, whose images could easily be found
    online. A picture may paint a thousand words, but there was nothing like the presence
    of a person to convey their biography. This man had a magnetic and commanding
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    charisma radiating from him. With a practiced smile, he spoke in perfect English to the
    prime minister.
    The moment Romodanovsky came abreast of him, Kael fell into step with him,
    though removed several paces by the PM, who walked beside the Russian.
    When Mattie appeared, Kael nodded discreetly at the man’s opposite side, and
    Mattie too fell into step with him. Conran had warned him that he would not be
    allowed to enter the cabinet room when talks were in progress, and Kael, again with
    nothing more than a nod and a slight movement of his eyes, sent Mattie to guard the
    door at the far end of the room while Kael remained at the grand double doors where
    the politicians entered.
    Through the official lunch in the Small Dining Room and the official dinner that
    evening in the State Dining Room, Kael followed Romodanovsky’s every move. Always
    unobtrusive, occasionally sending Mattie off to reconnoiter the house and make contact
    with the rest of