I arrived at the rendezvous point  under the scorching hot sun. My footsteps echoed against the pavement as I walked, but the place was empty. I had expected some of my girls to be there, waiting with the information I had asked them to collect.

But no one was there.

“Where are they?” I muttered under my breath. “I thought we agreed to meet here. Are they really messing with me right now?”

Then a shadowy figure arrived from the darker. My hand instinctively went to the ...