Run Girl: Ingrid Skyberg FBI Thrillers Prequel Novella Read Online Free PDF

unprofessional at worst. She considered wading in and breaking it up, like some teaching assistant in a kindergarten playground. Instead she decided to remind them she was still in the room. “When exactly did all this happen?”
    Angelis managed to tear his gaze away from Sol Franklin and finally turned to her. “She gave her incompetent minder the slip shortly before ten p.m. last night.”
    “How?”
    “The bodyguard hasn’t been that forthcoming with the details so far,” Franklin said. The Regional Security Officer at the embassy in Paris has been questioning her himself. She’s injured—slipped off a roof while she was giving chase.”
    “You’re telling me Rachel Whitticker escaped across Parisian rooftops?” Ingrid pictured the architecture of the Paris skyline she remembered from films and postcards.
    “It seems the young lady is athletic as well as smart,” Franklin said.
    “To be fair, it was just the one roof and a series of fire escapes,” Angelis added. “But nevertheless, it does seem young Rachel is really quite resourceful.”
    “I still don’t understand what my role is in all this,” Ingrid said. “You want me to go France to help the police track her down? Is that even a job for the FBI?”
    “It’s a little complicated,” Sol Franklin said.
    “Doesn’t the Legal Attaché program have a Bureau agent in the embassy in Paris who can deal with it?”
    Sol Franklin held up his hands. “I haven’t told you the whole story.”
    Ingrid uncrossed her legs and leaned forward in her seat, willing him to do just that.
    “We’re pretty sure she’s left France. We believe she’s here in the UK.”
    “She is?”
    “It seems she took a Eurostar train out of Paris Gare Du Nord. She arrived at St Pancras International just after eight a.m. this morning.”
    “If she lost her bodyguard at ten p.m. last night, what has she been doing for the last ten hours?”
    “Covering her tracks. We now have CCTV footage confirming her presence at a number of suburban train stations just outside Paris. She left Paris initially on a train headed for Boulogne. Got off first stop she could, then criss-crossed her way back again. Meanwhile, everyone’s expecting her to arrive at the Channel to catch a ferry.”
    “So surely UK Border Control were alerted last night.” Ingrid stared at Sol Franklin. He avoided eye contact by looking down at the file in front of him. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t they just pick her up as soon as her passport was checked this morning?”
    “They weren’t alerted last night. The French security company thought they could contain the situation. They didn’t admit that they’d lost the girl until this morning. After Rachel Whitticker’s arrival here.”
    “That’s just crazy. Surely as soon as the Secretary of State was informed of the situation her security detail would have taken over—close relative or not.” Ingrid glanced at Angelis. He just stared back at her and said nothing. She got the distinct impression there was a vital fact they weren’t sharing with her.
    “I need to explain how you can help us in all this.” Franklin said.
    “Diplomatic Security should be taking control of the situation. I don’t even understand why the Bureau has gotten involved.”
    He grimaced. “The Diplomatic Security Service really have no role to play. Trust me on that.”
    “Then why not let the UK cops handle it?”
    “We’d actually really like to keep the whole situation contained as much as possible. If this thing leaked out to the press… well you can forget about brokering a peace deal in central Africa. All hell would break loose.”
    “OK… then use whichever agents you have assigned to dealing with this kind of thing, here in London.”
    Sol Franklin pulled a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and started to push it around his desk like a child playing with a toy car. “As I said before… it’s complicated.”
    “The Bureau agents here are