nice! The bomb is a great touch.
I think it’s time we spent some time with Rafferty, though I like this series and Ava.

That was the first thing I thought of when she retrieved the “smuggled” package. I thought it would fit the story arc nicely for Ava to frame Rafferty and force him on the lam. It works even better since he was fired. :-)

Sly mistress that she is! ha, unfortunately I didn’t get what was going on until I read the comments looks abashedly at keyboard

I’m not sure what to tell you except maybe read more carefully? I don’t how it could be made any clearer. Suggestions are welcome.

This moves the plot in a really interesting direction – I was hoping someone would put Rafferty in an ‘on-his-own’ situation, and you’ve done that better than any way I had ideas for…!

My only real concern is with Rafferty’s dialogue – “You can bet your ass…” in particular grated a bit for me – not exactly the language of the distinguished gentleman of razor-sharp mind, even if he is a bit irate…

Still, plot-wise this is excellent, and I did enjoy it – MH :)

I actually debated with myself over that line, but any substitution I came up with didn’t get across how pissed off he actually is. This guy, a star agent, is being thrown to the wolves after ten years of service. I don’t care how sophisticated you are, you’re going to swear.

A little sketchy there at the end, but I got what you meant. The package to Baby Bear was a bomb, snuck into his belongings, which he left without, thus avoiding the assassination attempt and tipping him off. Something about that second-to-last paragraph just wound up hard to follow.

It wasn’t placed in his belongings, it was hidden behind the filing cabinet. The intent was never to kill Rafferty, only to set him up.

“They’re letting you go.” Probably the most horrible euphamism in the world! Apart from “passing on!”

Nice part, good continuation!
Abby x