1
“You’re going to want to keep an open mind,” Ted Whitling said.
Alice Kern walked beside him across a bright stretch of asphalt toward a pair of airplane hangars in the near distance. Behind her was the jet that had landed only minutes before, carrying Alice, Ted, and Alice’s new bodyguard, a tall quiet agent named Santos.
Santos must have felt she was safe here, Alice thought, because he had immediately left her, walked off in another direction toward the main building that seemed to hold the main activity.
Alice glanced at the man striding beside her. Medium height, compact and solid, mid-thirties, she guessed, maybe ten years older than she was. He wore khaki trousers, brown suede loafers, and a short-sleeved dark blue button-down shirt. No jacket, no tie.
She was dressed even mo
