"This better be good," Andris Tenderhook said, entering the conference room, "my brother and I don't like being interrupted when we are tracking targets."

"I understand," the man sitting at the round table nodded, "this could not wait. We have been friends for many years with many common interests."

"Wonderful. What has this to do with my brother being interrupted?"

"Ares, it was not an interruption," the man stood displaying a well-fitting suit on a tall frame, "merely an invitation to learn more to obtain your goals."

Ares narrowed his gaze on the man, "If you didn't deliver your cousin all those years ago. Helping to destroy your Aunt and Uncle in the process and debilitating the entire family, I would gut you right now."

"I know," the man said, smiling coldly, "my pleasure in ridding myself of the encumbrance of my goody-two-shoe part of the family. That action has been my heartbeat these many years."

"This is very heartwarming, Goliath," Andris said, "but we know that your parents disowned you after you destroyed that part of the family. What do you want?"

"I know who is moving your imposter," he said, "the person is a woman, a formidable woman, but she has a flaw I'm sure you'd like to use against her."

"Speak," Ares said, "I will learn of this person and her flaw."

"She is the daughter of the two agents you murdered all those years ago," Goliath murmured, "the agents who got so close to ending you both you shook like babies on a cold night."

Andris growled at those words, "We left an assassin to murder the daughter and end the bloodline."

"Ah, I have just found a buried file on the matter. There were three bodies found," Goliath said, leaning on the edge of the table and pressing his fingertips together. "The third body wasn't the daughter … it was your assassin."

"What?" Ares said, "I told you we should have done the job ourselves."

"Yes, well, we had somewhere to be in a short time frame," Andris said, "where did the girl go to?"

"She disappeared," Goliath sighed, "no one knew where she went. Then, about six years ago, rumours of an agent better than her parents started circulating."

"I was able to find footage of a rare moment where her image is captured," Goliath said, picking up a remote and pressing a button.

A TV monitor flickered to life on the other side of the room. The Tenderhook brothers turned to watch. A woman entered the screen for a moment, ploughing through the fighting groups. Ares spluttered, pointing silently at the screen, but Andris frowned.

"Take it back and freeze it when she spins toward the camera," he said, watching Goliath. Waiting for the frozen shot before moving toward the monitor staring fixedly at the face, "I would not have believed it. She looks like her Sandy ... her mother."

"Reports say she is better than both of her parents," Goliath said, "Samantha Headrows is alive, and she has you Bassett duplicate. She is also dangerous in another way."

"How?" Ares asked, turning to Goliath and watching the man ease away from the table. He pushed his hands into his pockets and slowly ambled toward them.

"She grew up with Cherry Bassett and knows the real family," Goliath said, smirking, "intimately."

"How intimately?" Andris asked.

"She is on first-name terms with both parents," Goliath said, snickering, "looks like you two have more than one problem to solve."

"What kind of training has she had?" Ares asked, "with whom and where can we get details about her fighting patterns."

"There is no information regarding her patterns," Goliath said, "she is given an objective, and she attends to it. That is just how it is."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Training?" Andris asked, "with whom has she trained?"

"Everyone," Goliath said, "and some places I didn't know existed."

"That isn't possible," Ares muttered, "we have people everywhere."

"You may, but whoever she works for now holds all that information, and not even that's general knowledge," Goliath said ." Happy I … interrupted … your search now?"

"This is a problem," Andris shook his head, "we have lost the tracking device of our duplicate, and this is the woman who got in and extracted the couple."

"We have people tracking her at the moment," Ares said, "they will find her.

"Perhaps to a certain point, but the area they have moved into has had much rain," Goliath said. "Meaning any possibility of tracking them has decreased ... substantially."

Ares swore as he strode around the room, muttering to himself. Goliath watched him dispassionately. Usually the calmer of the two, this news had him edgy and distracted. What was he thinking?

"We have to do something," Andris muttered, "what kind of damage can be done if this … woman succeeds in getting to wherever she is going?"

"Irreparable," Goliath said, "she could destroy years of preparation and planning. But where that is concerning, you have more of an issue with her childhood friend, Cherry Bassett."

"Why?" Ares asked, striding toward the two men.

"Look at what has happened," Goliath said, "she went missing, and hours later, her apartment self-destructs, drawing the kind of attention you didn't want. Days later, your cousins, who are supposed to be looking into the land and the cabin and finding the Bassett family treasure disappear and their bunker is shut down."

"We know this," Andris said, "what don't we know?"

"The cabin is under repair," Goliath said, "reports of a monstrous bonfire on the mountain have been coming in all day. I tried to remotely activate the surveillance in the cabin and came up with nothing."

"Nothing," Andris said.

"What exactly do you mean by nothing?" Ares asked.

"Zero connection, signal activity, everything has been destroyed," Goliath said, "they burnt everything."

The brothers stared at Goliath, silent for a moment before Ares spluttered, cleared his throat and tried again.

"Everything?" he asked.

"Appliances, furniture, clothing, plumbing items …. everything," Goliath said, "we are dead on the mountain."

"Silas," Andris muttered, gritting his teeth, picking up a glass he threw at the wall and grinning as it shattered, "I bet you that old coot knows where the real Bassetts are hiding."

"Why do you need the real Bassetts?" Goliath asked.

"We need Sandy Basset to sign over the land and the cabin to us so we can find the treasure," Ares said.

Goliath looked confused, "Never thought you boys would become treasure hunters."

"It's an old family feud," Andris said, "Sandy Bassett's great-grandfather stole a treasure from our great-uncle and hid it. They used to be friends, but that night they became enemies."

"What did your great-uncle want to do with the treasure?" Goliath asked.

"What everyone does with a treasure," Ares said, "live like the wealthy. Then we'd be able to rule that hick of a town we all come from."

"What did Sandy Bassett's great-grandfather want to do with it?" Goliath asked.

"Share the wealth with everyone in the town," Ares muttered, "every time I say that, I want to be sick."

"Yeah, I can see how that would make you want to do that," Goliath frowned, "there is one thing I still don't know. What is the treasure?"

"Various stories have been told," Andris said, fluttering his hand in the air, "we have our spies up there, people we own, but so far, they have been of little help."

"At least we know that Cherry is living up there," Goliath said.

"That is not good news," Ares said, leaning on the back of a chair, "she is on the land and in the cabin ..." he looked at Goliath, "you said the cabin is being repaired, and everything was burnt."

"Who is repairing the cabin?" Andris asked, glancing worriedly at his brother.

"Some old man, his son and grandson," Goliath said, "why?"

"Dammit," Ares said, turning and punching a cement column, "the sworn protectors of the treasure are assembling."

"Well, unless all of them assemble, they are not as powerful as one may think," Andris smirked, "Mavis' sister is very much under our thumb, and Mavis will do as she is told."

"Ah ... that may not be totally true," Goliath said.

"That's right," Ares said smiling, "we still have pieces in place."

"Gents, there is something you should know," Goliath tried again. The brothers were celebrating the well-planned destruction of the Bassett family to attend to him.

They moved toward the door patting each other on the back and laughing between themselves. Goliath watched them go, shaking his head.

"Aren't they going to be in for a surprise," Goliath said, "conceited idiots."