By 6:52 am, the Big Blue was gloriously ensconced in the valet parking garage of the Lafayette Yard Marriot and I was raiding the complimentary breakfast buffet in the lobby. Tank, Lester and Cal entered together, Lester noticing me first and tapping Tank on the shoulder, pointing me out. As the trio of testosterone marched in my direction, I shoved the tail end of a coconut donut into my mouth and wrapped up two croissants into a napkin, shoving them and an apple into my purse. Hey, it might be hours before I get to eat again, better to be prepared. Burg survivalist training had kicked in.

"Good Morning!" I chirped. What the hell. Since I felt like a Skipper doll being outflanked by a platoon of G.I. Joes, I might as well sound like one.

They stood silently in front of me for a moment. Okay, since we're going for the stoic effect here, I folded my arms in front of me and stared back. I can play this game.

Not. Patience is not one of my life skills.

"So. What's the assignment? Are we going to stand here all day and guard the buffet table? Fine by me. I'll cover the end with the pastries."

Ha! I caught a smirk on Tank's face! Yes! Does he think he can play stoic with a Burg Babe? I think not! Foolish man!

He jerked his head to indicate the front doors. "Hal's waiting out with the cars."

Oh jeez. Not Hal. I hadn't seen Hal since I left him in a pile on the floor of the RangeMan Building garage after I had stunned him with his own stun gun. I just hoped he didn't hold a grudge.

Outside, Hal was leaning against the hood of black stretch limo. Two black Lexus SUVs flanked it, front and rear. I caught his eye and gave him a cheerful yet apologetic little wave with a sort of cute (I hope) smile that said 'Golly, gee, sorry about that!' I was rewarded with a small reluctant smirk. Good. With any luck I can make it through the day without any retaliation from Hal.

Cal got in the first SUV and Lester jumped in the one in the rear. Hal got behind the wheel of the stretch and Tank moved to get in the back seat of the stretch. I looked around, puzzled, waiting for some direction as to which vehicle I was to get into.

With a nod of his head, Tank indicated that I was to get into the stretch with him.

"Sweet!" I cried. "I haven't been in a stretch since Debbie Margolski's bachelorette party!" I climbed into the back seat. "I hope this isn't the same car. JoJo Wakowski barfed all over the upholstery on the one that we had."

I heard Cal's snort in the front seat. Good. If I was to be the entertainment line item on the RangeMan fiscal report, they might as well get their money's worth.

Tank handed me a file folder and as I opened it up and began to leaf through it, Tank briefed me.

"We're heading up to Teterboro Airport." I knew Teterboro. It was a small private airport about twenty miles or so outside of New York City. "We'll be picking up the Princess Jee-Hanna, the heir apparent to the throne of the country of Gudang, a small and politically volatile country in Malaysia. She'll be accompanied by her chaperon. We will be escorting her into the city for a day of shopping in Manhattan, then back to the Layfayette Yard for the night. You're off duty at 7pm tonight when Ranger will head up the night shift. You're back on tomorrow at 7am, and we'll drive her down to DC where she'll meet with the Vice President. Then she's scheduled to speak to a senate subcommittee about foreign aid to her country. Tomorrow night she'll fly back to Gudang out of Reagan International and we'll be driving back up to Trenton."

The pictures in the file showed my a really pretty Polynesian-looking face with large somber eyes. "She looks kind of young,"

"She's fourteen."

"What? Fourteen years old and she's meeting the Vice President and speaking to the US Senate?"

"Don't let her age throw you off. This brat is a god-awful terror. Her embassy refused Secret Service protection because last time she was in town, she reduced eight grown agents to tears, snuck away from them at two in the morning to go to a night club and nearly got herself killed."

Heh, heh, heh. My kind of kid.

"How did she nearly get herself killed?"

"If you're not real up on world events, there's a quick synopsis of the current political situation in Gudang on the back pages. In a nutshell, Jee-Hanna's grandfather is the current ruler of Gudang. In the past two years, twenty three members of the royal family have been assassinated, including Jee-Hanna's parents, three brothers and one sister. Her grandfather is pretty senile and the management of the country has fallen to Jee-Hanna and a handful of close advisors. The people of Gudang are fairly loyal to the royal family, but if Jee-Hanna is killed, chances are there won't be much of a resistance to a coup. Last time she was in New York, she was kidnapped and almost murdered by insurgent terrorists."

My breath was catching in my chest and my eyes started to fill up, I thought about this poor little kid, her family murdered and how frightened she must be pursued by the killers. Kind of put my own Slayers incident thing in perspective. At least no one had tried to hurt my family.

"Oh, the poor thing." I muttered.

Tank rolled his eyes. "Don't think 'poor thing' with this one. Trust me, she'll chew you up and spit you out if you don't keep your guard up."

I don't know. As I looked at the picture I could feel Stephanie Plum, mother hen to the free world, starting to rear her head.