A familiar look of amusement flashed across Agent 11’s face. “Are you old enough to know what that is?”
Sam kicked him under the table—he was eighteen, not a child!—and was about to say something scathing when a thought stopped him. “Wait. You want me to be the sugar baby? Brylsko’s sugar baby?” He tried not to show how uneasy the prospect made him.
“Nothing quite so drastic,” Amanda said. “You will be one of the ‘pets’ put on an auction. The likelihood of Brylsko taking notice of you and wanting you for himself is quite small. You will be bought by our agent.”
“Bought?” Sam repeated.
Mason sighed. “Yes. The cruise organizers hold a private auction for rich passengers who would like to purchase a so-called slave. The slaves aren’t actually slaves. It’s just a sick fantasy for rich and perverted. We have checked—the slaves enter the arrangement willingly and all the money from their sale goes to their bank accounts. They’re literally just young women and men looking for a rich sugar daddy and wanting to play the fantasy of being owned.” Mason gave Agent 11 a pointed look. “I want to make it clear that the auction isn’t our target. Leave it alone, A11. It’s shady, but it’s not of concern to MI6. Don’t play the hero.”
Agent 11 nodded. “I’ll try to restrain myself.”
Sam wished he looked as cool as Agent 11 when he was being sarcastic.
Amanda gave the agent a sharp look. “Please do.”
Agent 11 held her gaze unflinchingly. “If you have a problem with the way I conduct missions, it’s not too late to choose another agent, ma’am. You know this mission might blow my long-term cover.”
Amanda pursed her lips. “We’ve already been over this, A11. Your other cover will not be compromised.”
Agent 11’s jaw clenched. He said nothing.
Sam looked between them curiously. He contemplated asking what this was about, but then something else occurred to him. He looked at Agent 11. “You’ll be pretending to be my sugar daddy?”
“Yes, he will,” Amanda said, her voice like steel, her eyes boring into the agent. “As William said, Brylsko is extremely paranoid. I have no doubt that he’ll run background checks on all passengers. We don’t know how thorough they will be. If your cover fails, your other cover will likely be the one Brylsko will discover, which will keep you safe. He’ll just think that you’re too ashamed of your perverted fantasies to book the cruise under your real name.”
Agent 11 gave a clipped nod.
Mason shot the agent a somewhat worried look before turning to Sam and giving him a manila folder. “Study this. You’re Samuel “Sammy” Whitmarsh, an orphan with little means to support yourself but with a taste for expensive things. You like older men, especially if they can give you the lifestyle you want. Since you were sixteen, you’ve been on several online dating services, catering to sugar daddies and sugar babies. You’ve learned about the cruise online, through a friend of a friend—the cruise has something of a reputation in certain circles, so it’s plausible.”
Sam took the manila folder and looked at it anxiously, his mind going a hundred miles an hour.
In the meantime, Mason handed Agent 11 a similar folder.
“If either of you have any questions, come to me,” Mason said. “You have six days to get Sam ready. We’ll have a final briefing before Sam flies out to Turkey. You will leave a week later.”
Agent 11 nodded and headed out of the room. Sam hurried after him.
“I have a question,” he said once they were in the hall.
The agent glanced at him and kept on walking. “You heard Mason. If you have any questions, go to him.”
“Aren’t you straight? Are you sure you can convincingly play a gay sugar daddy?”
Agent 11 actually laughed.
Sam glowered and folded his arms over his chest. “I don’t like when people laugh at my expense.”
“Sam,” the agent said mildly. “Trust me, this will not be the strangest or the most difficult cover I’ve ever had. Far from it.” He looked at Sam, frowning. “You still don’t seem to get it. It doesn’t matter what our personal preferences are. It’s our job.” He glanced at the manila folder in Sam’s hand. “Study your cover. Try to understand what motivates Sammy. Your cover must be flawless. If it isn’t, we’re both screwed.” Agent 11 glanced around, his eyes sharp, before leaning in and saying quietly, “What Amanda and Will didn’t say was that there won’t be an extraction team if we fuck it up. We’ll be on our own.”
Sam’s mouth fell open. “What? Why?”
“Because we have already attempted to apprehend Brylsko before. Our agent got discovered. But instead of just killing him, Brylsko put up a lot of fuss about the British Secret Intelligence Service ‘unlawfully spying’ on an ‘honest businessman.’” Agent 11’s lips twisted. “Brylsko has a lot of connections in the Polish government and EU, and technically, there’s no conclusive proof that he’s something other than a businessman. He’s very good at covering his tracks, the slippery type that always has a contingency plan for everything. So the UK was put in a very sticky position. Officially, this mission isn’t sanctioned. We need proof of his actions, but we can’t afford to get caught again. Brylsko and the Polish government have too much political leverage as it is thanks to that fiasco.”