"And revenge," Lyons added. "This will be a chance..."

"Yeah," Gadgets agreed. "Pay-back on the psycho killers. He'll be hep to that."

"Agency cooperation," Blancanales added. "That will be the central point. Coral will go along. He doesn't have a choice. But the Agency will need persuasion."

Lyons shook his head. "I don't want them to know anything about what we're doing."

Blancanales sighed. "Lyons, he's their prisoner. If we want him to escort us on a reconnaissance mission south, we'll need their agreement."

"Once we get there, we're on our own," Lyons stressed. "Free agents."

"Standard operating procedure," Gadgets agreed. "We need no shadows."

Lyons gave Blancanales the nod. "Go to it, Mr. Politician. Promise them anything. But get us what we want."

"Might take a few days." Blancanales glanced at his watch. "It's after midnight in Washington. Might have to talk about it all day tomorrow."

"And maybe we'll have to get an Act of Congress," Lyons added. "Just get it."

With a quick salute, Blancanales left the office.

His partners heard him speak with agents in the corridor. Then they heard Blancanales enter another office. Gadgets turned to Lyons.

"Just a look-see? Easy to say, but if we go, I'm taking everything I got and two or three nukes, too."

Lyons nodded. "Standard operating procedure. Places we go, we always seem..."

"To kill people," Gadgets finished.

"It's kill or be killed. We've got enemies out there, Wiz."

Gadgets smiled nervously. "We've got enemies out there we've never even met. Hell, we've got enemies out there we don't even know about yet."