Melanie swore softly. Across the room, Ned looked up from the stack of paperwork he had been directly looking through and directed his attention to her. "What's wrong?"

The red head, rapidly approaching her fortieth birthday looked up at Ned as if she had forgotten he was there. "It's just that some of those people who don't understand us discovered Pacific Shipping."

Ned froze. "What? No way. What do you mean, they discovered it?"

"I know what you mean," Melanie said. "Steve wasn't careful enough when he left Somalia and the Network was able to trace it."

"Steve?" Ned was really shocked. The man who had come in on the Lady of Shadows with him had proved to be an invaluable agent and was one of the best in the field.

The woman shook her head. "It just goes to show that anyone can mess up. It's not a fatal wound or anything; we'll just have to cover our tracks even more carefully than ever. I already have men trying to turn Pacific Shipping into more than a legitimate front. I just hope that the Network agent the send won't be too persistent. I really hate taking action against them. They are decent men and women, all, but they just don't understand."

Ned nodded. Although he personally refused to deal death out to anyone except those he deemed evil and then only in extreme measures, he knew that sometimes Melanie was forced to take out innocents that were about to discover their doings. Such had been the case with himself such a long time ago and the resulting death of Iola... Not that Melanie actually knew he once was Joe Hardy.

It had taken them days to straighten it out and explain everything to his satisfaction. His pain and anger had been much too real and Melanie actually had the gull to take him off his job in Sudan and put him on a ship for three months until he accepted everything.

"Ned!" The blond came back to himself and again focused on what Melanie was saying.

"Anyway," she said, "I was asking if you would like to oversee this yourself. You need to get out of the paperwork and overseeing and get out there. No, you won't have to do any killing of any Network agents. If it comes to that, I'll take over. I just thought you'd like to be down covering it all up."

Ned smiled mischievously. "You're not just trying to get rid of me are you?" he said slyly, moving over to her and draping an arm around her shoulders.

"Of course I am," Melanie replied smoothly, leaning back and staring him in the eye. "Is it working?"

Ned bent down and kissed her. "I suppose it is." He kissed her again. "I'm off in an hour." And then the chair Melanie was sitting in flipped over and lay unattended on the floor.

"This is our main plant, where we do all coordination and figure out where we need to send each ship, what supplies we need, where we receive our orders, all the manage meant deals. We do have other plants stationed all over the world, but this is the main one."

Frank and Dave were being given a tour of Pacific Shipping, their new company. Frank had applied for a scheduling job, and Dave, oddly enough, as a secretary. Both had been hired and now were beginning their first day.

"I am the manager of this plant. I run everything and to all effects, I am your boss," Mr. Jeff Simmions was dragging on in his speech as they arrived at Dave's office. "The actual owner, Mr. Brenden also owns several other companies and is here only part of the time. I do expect him next week at which time he will probably meet you. He's strange like that; he likes to know everybody that works for him, from myself down the most recent crew on a minor ship. Anyway, Mr. Sanders-"

"Dave," interjected the now secretary.

"-Dave, this is your office. Rachel will show you want to do in even greater detail. Mr. Hanes, if you will follow me..."

Frank threw Dave a half smile in parting and followed the elderly manger down to a small office where he explained just exactly how dull this job was going to be. After about twenty minutes, Mr. Simmions finally left, leaving Frank with some little bookkeeping job. He finished it quickly at leaned back to do some serious thinking. So far, this seemed a pretty legit business and he could hardly imagine Mr. Simmions being a hard core Assassin. Then again, he had had some surprises in his day.

Ned Brenden flew into the headquarters of Pacific Shipping looking nothing like the Ned Brenden that had kissed Melanie back in her office on the island. He had grown a short mustache, died his hair a light brown and wore the elegant clothing of a businessman on the rise.

Jeff, the man in charge of making Pacific Shipping a legitimate business that still passed most of its profits on to the island's funds, met him at the hanger. "I think the Network has shown its nose in this one Mr. Brenden. We've had four new employees since the discovery and one of them is bound to be a spy. I've kept them a close watch and practically shut down everything that points any figures towards our true intent, but..."

"Thanks, Jeff. You could probably run this yourself you know, as you've been doing for years, but you know how it goes. I'll weed out the spy and we'll be by next week."

The older man smiled a bit and their conversation turned to happier tidings as they drove back to Pacific Shipping.