The roar of the jet engines and the pull of the gravitational force upon takeoff gripped Adrian's body and emotions with a tension that made him feel as if he was about to break, both physically and mentally. He didn't dare take anything to calm his nerves or make him sleep because knowing how he interacted with medication, he might break character, start speaking in his normal voice and blow his cover.

The Alliance had sent an Italian-American agent, Luca Rossi, to be his 'assistant' on the trip and they had concocted a story that gave Nico the same OCD characteristics that Adrian had, so that when his OCD inevitably kicked in there would be no questions. Luca was to go with him everywhere and would serve as a bodyguard as well. It was made very clear to Campen that wherever Nico went, Luca went. No exceptions.

As a backup, they also equipped Adrian with the special discrete listening device that he could switch on and page Ambrose with. This device would get him in touch with Adrian immediately. The device was two way, so Ambrose would be able to listen in on the conversation and communicate with Adrian in a way that others would not hear.

Once they had reached cruising altitude, Adrian told Luca to get his cellphone and Bluetooth headset out of his briefcase. With Natalie's gift in hand, Adrian plugged in the headset and began to soak in the sound of Natalie's voice as she read to him some of the short stories from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a book that Jack Monk read to Adrian and Ambrose when they were growing up. She had been right. The sound of her voice was an elixir better than any tranquilizer or anti-anxiety medication that Dr. Bell could have prescribed. He listened to her the entire 15 hours of the flight, opting to put off sleep until he reached the hotel, which was late evening in Beirut.

The Alliance had gone all-out in sustaining Adrian's cover and put him and Luca up at Beirut's Lancaster Eden Bay in the two bedroom Diplomatic suite. Campen stayed in the same hotel, but in one of their regular rooms.

When the group arrived, the Lebanese people could not have been more friendly. From the limo driver to the bellhop who delivered their luggage to their suite, they made Adrian and Luca feel as if they were kings. Although there were scars on many of the buildings from the conflict of years past, Beirut was nothing like the stereotype that the typical Westerner would imagine. In terms of cities, they felt just about as safe on its streets as they would in any other foreign land.

The moment Adrian arrived in his room, he sent a short text to Natalie. She had been waiting to hear from him and was beginning to get a little nervous, so the short text did much to calm her nerves. "Arrived safely. Holmes is a genius. Room is spectacular. Going to get some zzzzs and will talk more when I get up. Love you, Nico."

"I could get used to this." Said Luca as they entered their opulent suite complete with a living room, kitchenette, two bedrooms, a jacuzzi, and a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean. Adrian was just happy that it was pristine clean and that it was not on the very top floor. As he and Luca went their separate ways, he pulled out his brown pajamas from his suitcase and walked into the shiny marble bathroom. The bathroom was complete with a luxurious Turkish cotton bathrobe and lush thick towels which were embossed with the Lancaster logo, a stylized version of the red rose of the House of Lancaster from Medieval England. The shower had a square rainfall showerhead, and the entire room gave the look and feel of a spa.

After Adrian used the shower to remove the travel grime from himself, he got dressed for bed, brushed his teeth, walked out into the bedroom, carefully removed and folded the bedding and replaced it with his own freshly wrapped new bedding from back home. Even in a five-star hotel, he couldn't get passed the idea of sleeping in a hotel bed where other's had been, so it was one characteristic of his OCD that he would never relinquish. At long last, he settled into bed and set the alarm so that he would be sure to be up by 6:00 AM, Beirut time.

It had been three days since Josie had been stunned by meeting her father for the first time. They hadn't talked since he revealed the startling news and she had sent him away, needing time to process what had happened. Finally, she had composed herself enough that she got up the courage to call him on his home phone in Mesa Verde. He answered right away.

"Hello." He said.

"Joey. It's me. Josie." she said with a trembling voice.

"Josie! I'm…I'm so glad you called." He said.

"Yeah. Well, I was wondering. Would you come back over here and talk to me some more? You had questions to ask me. I have a whole lot to ask you." She responded.

"I'm sure you do." He said. "I have some business to attend to later today, but I can drive on over there after that and maybe see you in the morning."

"Okay." She said. "I have one question now. You said that you had a little boy. That would have been my little brother. Do I have any more siblings?" she asked.

"No. He was my only child…aside from you. Josie, I have a lot to tell you. I have a feeling, knowing your mother…and I'm sorry if being that blunt offends you, but that was just my experience with her…you're probably believing some things that weren't true. I'm glad, if nothing else, that we can clear the air here." Joey said.

Josie was quiet for a second. "I would like that. And you don't offend me regarding Mom. I know who she was. I always wanted mom's love and never got it. That's one thing that I want to make sure that Seri never lacks."

"Alright then, I will call the facility and let them know when I get there. You take care." He said.

"Alright. You too." She said, hanging up the phone and turning to the guard who walked her back to her room.

Once in his room, Doug Campen changed out of his traveling clothes and turned on the television set. In the glare of the screen, he picked up his cell phone and called back to the states.

"Campen here." He said when the person answered.

"You have arrived in one piece?" asked Campen's partner on the other end of the line.

"Yeah. We've checked into the hotel. Gentili brought an assistant. Some guy named Luca Rossi. Gentili's wife couldn't make it."

"What do we know about Rossi?" the partner asked.

"Next to nothing. Nico said he won't travel anywhere without him. I think he is his bodyguard or something. Seemed professional enough." Campen said.

"I don't care about his professionalism. I don't like having new players entered into this deal. It's bad enough that you volunteered to take Gentili to our source. Now, we have some man that neither of us know joining along." The partner responded.

"Hey, I get it. But would you rather me blow a few million dollars because we don't have a full ancestral trace on some guy our customer wants to bring along? I'm a businessman." Doug responded.

"Don't get terse with me Dougie. If it werent' for me, you'd be a businessman in jail. Don't forget that. And if you get any sort of weird vibe, don't hesitate to cut it all off. You know what to do. Gentili may be a billionaire, but a few million dollars isn't worth blowing a multi-hundreds of million dollars enterprise. I don't care how he wants to decorate his house." The partner answered.

"Got it. Well, I'm about to hit the hay. We should meet up with Jaheem tomorrow. I'll let you know how things go." Doug said.

"Fine. Good luck, and make the sale - and don't get caught." said the partner on the other line as they hung up.