Title: The 355

By: greygoose70

Chapter 6

Suite 614, The Pelham Hotel, Chelsea London

The next morning while lying in the luxurious bed in their suite at the Pelham Hotel, Kate's head on Rick's chest she whispered, "you lied."

"About what," he replied suspiciously.

"Ilsa, she is more than cute she is gorgeous. Did you sleep with her?"

Rick let a soft chuckle before answering. "I don't think so she was only sixteen at the time."

"Oh," Kate said lifting her head to look him in the eyes, see if he was telling the truth…he was. "I'm sorry I wasn't…"

"It's okay Kate, I can see where you'd think that given her looks but last night was the first time I'd seen her since 2004 when she graduated from Columbia. She flew back to London the very next day; I heard she applied for a position with MI-6 and got accepted."

"What was the mission she helped you with," Kate enquired placing her head back on his chest.

"She supplied the intel I needed for a rescue mission, even helped with the distraction that pulled the guards away from their post. That's why it didn't surprise me when she told me she was going to apply with the SIS."

"Well I'm going to take a shower," she commented crawling from the bed; "you coming?"

"Oooh, shower sex," he replied scrambling out to follow never taking his stare from her naked backside.

After a raucous round of shower sex and a healthy breakfast of waffles, eggs benedict with bacon the dynamic duo hailed a cab to Interpol headquarters. Once there they made their way to Emily's office finding her engrossed in a phone conversation. They waited till she completed the call before going to greet her with their usual welcoming hugs.

"Looks like we're adding another member to our group," Emily announced.

"Who might that be," Kate requested.

"Jordan Shaw," Emily acknowledged. "Seems she has some interesting information about this Culper Ring. She'll fill everyone in when she arrives later this evening."

"Excellent!" Rick clamoured. That makes it official I'm naming this group 'The three fifty-five'."

"Seriously," Kate smirked giving him an eye roll.

"Makes perfect sense. If we can infiltrate this ring with an agent using the moniker three fifty-five then just maybe we can establish what they're up to."

"And just who is this agent you plan on sending in," Kate suspiciously asked giving Rick an all to knowing sneer.

"It will need to be someone they don't know, someone who has worked undercover before, knows the ropes, someone like you, Kate, though we may need to alter your appearance some."

"No, no, no Rick; I remember the last time you dyed my hair. I ended up looking like Britney Spears!"

"When was this!" Emily spouted louder than she probably intended too.

"The first time we went undercover together," Kate retorted.

"I need to hear about this," Emily said grabbing Kate by the arm leading her over to the couch.

As Kate began regaling Emily of her and Ricks first adventure in spydom Rick started searching the web for more information on antimatter. However everything he found was written by scientists' who spoke a language known only to other scientist. He was saved from this dilemma when the lovely Dr. Sanchez entered. "Welcome doc. Glad you're here, you can help me decipher all this scientific mumbo-jumbo."

"What mumbo-jumbo would that be Agent Rodgers."

"Please call me Rick," he said in response to being called agent.

"Then it's Vittoria, Rick."

"Good. First question: from what I've been able to ascertain this antimatter particle needs to be confined in a magnetic field. How did our thief maintain this magnetic field so he could transport the antimatter?"

"He melted off the insulation to the power supplying wires, attach a heavy duty battery then snipped the wires. Next question?"

"How big was this cannister and wouldn't any jiggling motion disturb the field."

"Not if it was a true Penning Trap," Vittoria answered, "which in our case it was."

"A Penning Trap?" Rick queried. Vittoria went on to explain the design and workings of a Penning Trap to Rick as plainly as she could and that as long as the trap maintained its two energy fields (electric and magnetic) the antimatter would remain stable.

"So that this potential bomb could be put anywhere."

"Yes," Vittoria answered regretfully.

"Emily," Rick said interrupting her and Kates conversation. "Does your conference room have a large screen monitor?"

"Yes, down the hall second door on the left," she replied.

Rick grabbed his laptop and left the room. "What's he up to," Emily asked shifting her gaze to Kate.

"Probably setting up a murder board. It helps us in solving cases lays all the information we have in front of us."

"Let's go see," Emily stated rising from the sofa followed by Kate who motioned for Vittoria to come along as well.

It took the four of them a good forty-five minutes to input everything they knew. "Okay, let's take this from the beginning," Rick advised. "The theft of the antimatter and the killing of Vittoria's father."

"That would have been done by Kerchenko," Kate inputted. "Correct," Rick said in agreement.

"He then passed the device to Thompson who was able to get it off the CERN campus," Emily added. "A logical assumption and probably correct also," Rick agreed. "Now the killings," he continued.

"Kerchenko killed Thompson," Kate said. "We know this because…"

"The bullets from the Barrington Art Gallery, a theft we have connected Kerchenko to and taken from Thompson were fired from the same weapon," Emily added carrying on Kates thought process.

"Kerchenko was shot with a thirty-eight which means…" Rich began.

"A third shooter," Kate responded.

"I believe a little speculation is going to be necessary now," Rick spoke to the three women. "What can we assume?"

"We can assume because of what we learned from Volkov that this Culper Ring is somehow involved," Kate stated.

"And since the ring is composed of women our third shooter is a woman," Vittoria suddenly declared.

'Very good Vittoria, that's a logical assumption," Rick responded giving her a smile. "But why would the ring need or want such a device. A device that has the potential to cause such mass destruction."

"Rick, remember what Volkov told us; the ring would hold a private auction and sell their stolen item to the highest bidder," Kate stated.

"That would mean either Russia or China," Rick commented. "Or maybe Iran," Emily added.

"What if the ring wanted it for their own use," Vittoria asked.

"Then that would bring in a whole new set of questions…" Rick began.

"Like when, where and why," Kate immediately injected interrupting him.

TBC