The Housewife Assassin's Relationship Survival Guide by Josie Brown Page B

say firmly. 
    The elevator rings its arrival. Saved by the bell. He pushes the button for the ninth floor, where his blind date awaits him. 
    When Sugar CEO Number 5 arrives, I’ll send him to the eighth floor. The man who arrives after him will go to the seventh floor, and so on. By the eighth man, we’ll be down to the second floor. 
    “Did you place him?” Arnie hears my question through my audio bug earring.
    “Yeah, and I’m transmitting the intel to his FBI interrogator right now. He’s a Swiss banker. Name is Dominic Gerstner.”
    I pray all the men aren’t as creepy as this guy, but something tells me that I’ll be in for a lot of this sort of King of the World attitude all evening.
    I guess it comes with the territory. 
     

    We’ve now identified all Quorum members. 
    CEO Number 5, Guillermo Montezuma, one of Chavez’s top toadies, was recently passed over as the next dictator of Venezuela. Montezuma’s revenge is complete when he annihilates his political enemies, then turns Venezuela into an enemy with real teeth to its nemesis to the north: the United States.
    Sugar CEO Number 6 is a Gunter Teichmüller, a German scientist renowned in the field of cyber warfare. Until now, we never knew his toys weren’t just the domain of his government, but instead sold to the highest bidder.
    Sugar CEO Number 7 is Konstantin Sherkov, a Russian venture capitalist whose wealth and power has the Kremlin worried. My guess is that his plan was to extend this pleasure trip into something permanent. If he plays ball, the DOJ can make that a reality.
    The last Sugar CEO, Number 8, is Huang Zitong. He is a  shàngjiàng , one of the highest ranking generals in China’s People’s Liberation Army. The scuttlebutt is that his ego-fueled bombast constantly puts him in hot water with his government’s Paramount Leader. Apparently he sees the writing on the wall. Are China’s bomb codes his chits in the Quorum’s winner-take-all game?
    “Hey, now that the last CEO just went up, why haven’t we heard a peep from any of the FBI boys?” Jack murmurs in my earpiece. “At the very least, the top floor agent should have wrestled a confession by now.”
    To tell the truth, it seems weird to me, too. “Nope, strangely not a word from anyone. Should I go up and take a look around?”
    “Yes, good idea. Now that Abu is back to stay, he can play doorman, so no one will be able to walk in by happenstance. I’ll come inside to cover the lobby for you.”
    When he gets inside, I give him a kiss, then hit the elevator button for the ninth floor.
    The elevator doors open with a whisper. I walk down the hall to the third room on the left, Sugar CEO 4’s designated den of desire. The door is wide open.
    Not good.
    Neither is the fact that the FBI agent’s throat is slit, and that he’s bled out.
    But where is Sugar CEO Number 4, Dominic Gerstner…?
    Oh, shit! He’s the assassin.
    “Jack! Abu! Do you see what I’m seeing?” I shout.
    “Donna? Donna, please repeat! You’re breaking up!” Jack’s voice sounds a million miles away. “And we’ve lost your video feed, too!...Hello, Donna?...Arnie, we need tech support here! Ryan, Donna’s gone dark! We need reinforcements, now, on all the hotel exits! Abu, cover the front, in case the killer goes out that way, to make a break for it—” 
    In other words, I’m in this alone.
    I don’t wait for the elevator. Instead I take the fire exit. I’m seven steps to the floor below when, a moment later, Jack says, “Donna, the elevator isn’t responding! We’re going to try the stairwell.”
    The carnage on the eighth floor is in two places. Guillermo Montezuma bled out in front of the elevator. In the third room on the left, an FBI agent stares up at me with dead eyes.
    I fly down the stairs to the next floor. Sugar CEO Number 6, Gunter Teichmüller, is laying in a puddle of his own blood. The agent in the room down the hall is gurgling his last breaths. I try to staunch