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YEARS OF WORKING WITH THE CIA HAD TRAINED Juan to function on very little sleep over long periods of time It wasn’t until he’d founded the Corporation and purchased the Oregon that he developed the mariner’s ability to fall asleep on command After the boardroom conference, he’d returned to his cabin, an opulent suitea Manhattan apartment than a ship at sea, stripped out of his Captain Esteban costu once the team was ashore kept him awake for less than a minute

Without the need for an alarm clock, he awoke an hour before he was to report to the moon pool

His sleep had been dreamless

He strode into the bathroo, and hopped into the shower With such a surplus of electricity, the Oregon’s water-heating syste the taps and a stea shoasspray with his head bowed and water pounding his body He’d accumulated a dozen lifetimes of scars over the years, and he vividly recalled the circumstances behind every one It was the blunt pad of his stuht the least about

Formonths of rehab, it had been for Juan as well But, after that, he barely gave it a moment’s consideration He had trained his body to accept the prosthesis and his nore it As he’d told Dr Huxley early on in his physical therapy, “I may be crippled, but I won’t allow myself to be handicapped”

The prosthetic leg he’d worn throughout the day was designed like a hu of flesh-toned rubber to match his own skin color and a foot with toes that even had nails and hair tooff, and finally shaving off the itchy beard, he went to his closet to retrieve a very different limb

There was a section on the Oregon dubbed the Magic Shop, and it was overseen by an ainning Hollywood effectsin secret, who had developed what Juan called his co prosthesis, this one looked like it had been left over from the Terminatorversion 30 was a virtual arsenal in itself A Kel-Tek 380 pistol was secreted in the calf, along with a perfectly balanced throwing knife The leg also contained a wire garrote, a single-shot 50 caliber gun that fired through the heel, and storage coht need

Just fitting it over his stu straps helped Juan prepare himself mentally for the mission

There were two reasons he’d started the Corporation One, of course, was as aventure And, from that perspective, it had done better than his wildest dreams Each member could retire hat they had earned in the years since joining, and Cabrillo himself could buy a small Caribbean island, if he so chose But it was the second reason for for after a norroup was so great that his conscience wouldn’t allow him to stop

In just the past year, he and the crew of the Oregon had broken up a piracy ring that had been targeting ships

carrying illegal Chinese iold mine, and they disrupted an ecoterrorist’s plan to steer a poison-laden hurricane into the United States

It seemed that as soon as one job was co of the Corporation’s unique abilities Evil was running ralobe, and the world poere stymied to prevent its spread by the very uidance of Cabrillo’s own moral compass, he and his creeren’t hampered by politicians, of any ilk, ere more concerned with reelections than results

As Juan was dressing, the chief steward knocked on the cabin door and entered quietly

“Breakfast, Captain,” Maurice said in his lish accent

The steas a veteran of the Royal Navy, having been forced into retiree A rail-thin man with a shock of pure white hair, he carried hiht, and remained unflappable no matter the circumstances While Cabrillo hi compared to the dark suits and crisp, white cotton shirts Maurice wore no matter the weather In the years he’d been aboard the ship, no one had ever seen the steward sweat or shiver