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John Smith checked his watch and looked around the Plaza Hotel's ballroom

Things were going well According to the report that had just come over his earpiece, the ambassador's plane had landed safely at La Guardia and theat the party on time

S crowd It was the same kind of flashy scene that always revolved around 5,000-a-plate dinners Woowns, men in tuxedos, the collective net worth of the roo throng, deals were being hts were exchanged with s

Underneath the chandeliers in the elegant ballroom, the whole lot of them looked as if they had the world by the throat Smith knew better He'd been hired by quite a few, had learned their dirty secrets and their hidden vices He'd even watched as soot their wake-up call to real life

Being the target of an arets pinched by so to hose you down for a couple million? That was a problem Whether or not your mistress's boob job was symmetrical paled in comparison

Danger, like illness, was the great equalizer, and the rich learned fast what reallyat their door Courtesy of the visit, they also picked up a few lessons about their inner depths S froth appear in a woman who'd only worried about her clothes before

Being a personal security specialist was a dangerous line of work but it was the only thing he could iround, and the fact that he didn't take orders well, it was a good fit An observer, a protector, a killer if he had to be, Smith was at the top of his field and his small firm, Black Watch, Ltd, handled everyone froures

For some, it would have been a hard life His chosen profession had hi in other people's ho on to the next job without a break To hi Necessary

An army duffel full of clothes and two metal briefcases of equipment were his only possessions The money he'd earned, a tidy sum, was spread around in various off-shore accounts under several different names Without a valid social security number, and with neither the Internal Revenue Service nor any other govern an unclassified record of hihost