Dark Spy’s Resolution Page 7

  Kian nodded. “But please keep the phone nearby in case I need Parker again.”

  The kid saluted. “Yes, sir.”

  After the two left, Syssi shook her head. “We were scaring Parker with all that talk about escape tunnels.”

  “I think he was more fascinated than scared,” Turner said. “I’m not in favor of coddling children. Ignorance is bliss, but it’s also dangerous.”

  “I agree.” Kian pulled a beer out of the cooler. “You said that you had updates for me.”

  “William and his equipment are safe in the van, the Guardians surrounding Kalugal’s estate are all wearing earplugs and communicating by texting. They have their phones set on vibrate.”

  “That’s brilliant since Kalugal’s compulsion is obviously delivered by auditory means. But I worry that no earplugs are good enough to block it completely. We need to test it, and there is no way to do it.”

  “I had the same reservations.” Turner tossed his empty water bottle into the trash bin. “I figured that it’s worth a try. Lokan is on his way to San Francisco, so we can have him test the earplugs’ effectiveness on a human. Not that it matters at this point. We need the men there whether the earplugs work or not.”

  Syssi sighed. “There must be something in the sound waves compellers produce that has a hypnotic effect. I wish we could test it.”

  Turner nodded. “If it can be measured, it can be reproduced. Imagine having a weapon like that. It would trump all other nonlethal measures.”

  “It reminds me of Dune.” Syssi lifted the thermos and poured coffee into three paper cups. “I was fascinated by the Order of the Bene Gesserit, women who could control others by modulating their voices.”

  Turner cracked a smile. “And I was fascinated by Kwisatz Haderach. I fantasized that it was me, the super-being that the sisterhood produced after thousands of years of careful genetic breeding.”

  Kian chuckled. “That would explain your god complex. It seems to me that you still believe you are that super-being.”

  “We are all entitled to our fantasies.” Turner took one of the cups Syssi poured and took a sip. “I later learned that Kwisatz Haderach meant a leap of distance in Hebrew, and that Bene Gesserit meant the daughters who bridge. Frank Herbert didn’t invent those names, he borrowed them from another language.”

  Syssi handed Kian a cup. “When I call Mey to check how they are doing, I’ll ask her if she read Dune and noticed that.”

  He lifted a hand to stop her. “Don’t tell me where they are. I don’t want to know. And don’t tell me where Jin is either.”

  “I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I don’t know where Turner sent them.”

  “They are safe from Kalugal,” Turner said. “That’s all you need to know.”

  19

  Kalugal

  “What are you going to do?” Rufsur got up and started pacing. “Capturing the immortal was not worth all this trouble.”

  Kalugal crossed his arms over his chest. “Taking him was the best thing in this fucked-up situation. Otherwise, I would have nothing to bargain with to get rid of the spy and her tether. I wouldn’t even know that I was being spied on.”

  Rufsur nodded. “Then we got lucky.”

  “Yes, we did.” Kalugal pushed to his feet. “I promised to give them better accommodations. Do we have a vacant room that can be locked from the outside? I don’t want them to wander around.”

  “We don't, but I’ll station a guard outside their door. The thing is, we don’t have cameras inside the rooms in the residential side of the bunker. Do you want me to put one in before we move them?”

  “That’s a good idea. I want to know what those two are talking about. Kian and his communications guy both claim that the immune is not the warrior’s girlfriend, but I don’t believe them. She wouldn’t have done a stupid thing like chasing after us to save a teammate. That was a desperate act of a woman in love.”

  Rufsur nodded. “They are also sitting huddled under one blanket on the lower bunk. I haven’t seen them kissing, but they’ve been whispering in each other’s ears like a couple of lovebirds.”

  Kalugal walked over to his desk and brought up the camera feed from the prison cell. “They are probably plotting an escape.”

  “From what I managed to hear, he was telling her about immortals.”

  “That should be interesting.” Kalugal sat back down. “I wonder what Annani’s people know about our history. It’s probably more than my father bothered to share with us.”

  “Why would you think that? For all we know, Annani is just as bad as Navuh. A female despot.”

  Kalugal glanced at Rufsur over his shoulder. “That’s what my father wanted us to believe. Given that she is my mother’s sister, Annani must have good in her.”

  Rufsur nodded, but he didn’t say anything.

  Kalugal knew what his lieutenant was thinking. A five-year-old boy’s memory of his mother was not reliable, and Areana was probably not the benevolent angel Kalugal remembered.

  He waved a hand in dismissal. “Put a bug somewhere they won’t notice.”

  “Yes, sir.” Rufsur turned around and walked out.

  His friend could think whatever he wanted, but even as a young boy Kalugal hadn’t been naive, and as an adult he was basing his opinion on facts and not just speculation.

  If Annani was indeed Areana’s half-sister, then she couldn’t be an evil dictator. His mother was the gentlest soul that Kalugal had ever encountered, and if Annani was only half as good, she was leaps and bounds better than Navuh.

  Besides, if Annani was behind humanity’s technological advancements, which was what Navuh accused her of, then her intentions were at least good.

  Misguided, but not evil.

  Humans were too susceptible to brainwashing and too violent to be entrusted with the future of the planet and their own survival. If not monitored and controlled by a strong and capable hand, they would destroy each other and the planet, which they unknowingly shared with immortals.

  Kalugal was not going to let it happen. The humans might not care whether their descendants survived, but since Kalugal was still going to be around thousands of years from now, he had to ensure that he had a habitable planet and enough humans on it to keep the machine working.

  Apparently, Annani wasn’t smart enough to see the trajectory humanity was on, or maybe she naively hoped that her influence would change their doomed future.

  Without him taking over, they would eventually nuke each other and every living thing out of existence.

  It would only take one crazed fanatic to start the chain reaction.

  Putting the earphones on, he listened to the recording, but the sound amplification distorted whatever his prisoners had been whispering to each other. He managed to catch a few words here and there, enough to confirm what Rufsur had said about the topic of their conversation, but not enough to piece together the story Arwel had been sharing with the immune.

  Getting the warrior to talk and tell him everything he wanted to know could have been extremely satisfying. But Kalugal had made a promise, which he wasn’t going to break regardless of the spy’s tether.

  He wasn’t an honest man or even a good one, but he held himself to certain standards.

  Going back on a promise was the mark of a lesser man.

  Besides, now that the channel of communication was open between him and his cousin, he could just ask Kian to tell him what he knew about their shared ancestry.

  It wasn’t as if the information would provide Kalugal with a strategic advantage, so there was no reason for Kian to keep it from him.

  In fact, if Kalugal played his hand well and pretended to want an alliance with his cousin, he might even get to meet the mother goddess herself.

  According to Kian, Areana had asked her sister to search for him, but he didn't believe Annani would have agreed to do it unless she sought to gain some benefit from it. At the very least, she was probably curious about her nephew.
br />   He was definitely curious about his aunt, and specifically whether she was susceptible to his compulsion.

  If she was, that would open up some interesting possibilities.

  20

  Wendy

  Wendy knew where she was, which was a big improvement.

  The guards hadn’t bothered to blindfold her or Richard, and as they left their underground prison, she’d seen high rises. But since she’d never been to Los Angeles before, it had taken several road signs until she’d figured it out. Then they had gone up and up, through narrow, serpentine roads that had snow piled up on the shoulders. When Bowen finally parked the car in the driveway of a fancy cabin, Wendy let out a relieved breath. Some of the narrower spots had been scary.

  “Everyone stay in the car. I’m going to open the garage and park inside, so you don’t have to brave the elements.”

  She wasn’t going to argue with that.

  The clothes she had on were not warm enough for snow. The heating in the car was on, and she was in no hurry to get out into the cold night.

  Mey turned to look at her and Vlad. “Tomorrow, I’m going to get you proper clothing. Tonight, we are just going to blast the heat in the cabin.”

  As Bowen opened the garage doors, Wendy’s eyes widened at the two snowmobiles parked in the smallest of the three bays. “Can we ride those?” She pointed.

  “I’ll have to check,” Mey said. “I don’t know if they are part of the package.”

  “I’ve never ridden a snowmobile. I really want to try it.”

  “Do you have a driving license?” Vlad asked.

  “Of course. I didn’t grow up in the boonies, you know.”

  He lifted his hands in the peace sign. “Not everyone gets a license right away, and not everyone owns a car.”

  “I didn’t have a car of my own, but I got my driver’s license as soon as I was eligible.”

  Her father would have never gotten her a car, and not because he couldn’t afford it. It was just another way for him to control her every move.

  After Bowen parked his car inside, the other guard drove in, and Bowen closed the garage doors. “It’s freezing in there. I turned on the heating, but it will take time for the place to warm up. Until it does, I suggest that you grab blankets from the beds.”

  Bowen was wearing a light jacket like the rest of them, but the guy didn’t seem bothered by the cold. Neither did Leon, the other guard.

  In a surprising gesture, Vlad wrapped his thin arm around her. “I’ll try to keep you warm until we get a blanket.”

  “Thanks.” She let him pull her against his body, and it didn’t even gross her out.

  Maybe she was just too cold to care.

  As they rushed inside, Vlad immediately zeroed in on the throw blanket draped over the couch’s arm. “This one is for you.” He wrapped it around her.

  “Don’t be silly. We can share it.” She lifted one end for him to get in.

  He looked at it longingly, but then shook his head. “I’ll get the fireplace going first.”

  The guy was too nice for his own good.

  “I like it.” Ingrid walked into the middle of the room and turned in a circle. “Not to my standards, but with a few tweaks, I could make this place spectacular.”

  Richard headed for the stairs. “I’ll get us blankets.”

  He seemed chilled to the bone, while Ingrid appeared as impervious to the cold as the two guards.

  “Aren’t you freezing?” Wendy asked.

  Ingrid smiled and waved a dismissive hand. “I was born in Scotland. This is a warm day for me.”

  Well, that explained it. Bowen and Leon had slight Scottish accents too, so it must have felt warm to them as well.

  Once Vlad had the fire crackling, he joined her on the couch. Too shy to take her up on her offer to share the blanket, he sat several inches away from her and wrapped his arms around himself to keep warm.

  “Come here.” Wendy lifted the blanket. “I’ll warm you up.”

  “Thanks.” He slid over, trying to get under the blanket while keeping a couple of inches between them.

  “Get closer. I’m cold.”

  It wasn’t as if he had enough body mass to warm her, but she had enough for both of them. The padding that she normally resented would finally be good for something.

  “Okay.”

  When his hip touched hers, it was trembling, and at first, she thought that it was because he was cold. But tuning into his emotions revealed the real reason. Vlad was excited, and he was trying to hide it.

  Strangely, though, his arousal didn’t repulse her.

  Maybe the reason it didn’t bother her was that she knew Vlad would never act upon it without massive encouragement from her, which he wasn’t going to get. He was safe, and that was something that Wendy had never felt around a male older than twelve.

  They were all predators, and they all wanted sex. Not all of them wanted it from her, some wanted it from other guys, but this was what they were all thinking about.

  Her father was an abuser and a liar, but he was right about that.

  Except, Vlad’s need had a different flavor to it. Maybe because he didn’t believe that he had any chance of ever fulfilling it, his longing felt more sad than aggressive, and it touched on the dormant nurturer in her.

  She wanted to take care of Vlad, to bring a smile to his sad, handsome face, to show him that he was wonderful and worthy, and that he was selling himself short.

  But that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, she was going to use him, and he was going to end up even less confident and more hurt.

  Maybe it would teach him not to be so nice.

  Good people were losers. Like sheep, they were just waiting for the big bad wolves to devour them.

  For better or worse, Wendy had vowed a long time ago never to be a sheep.

  She was a short, chubby wolf cub, but her bite was just as vicious as that of her big, bad compatriots.

  21

  Vlad

  It took almost an hour for the cabin to get warm enough for Wendy to put down the blanket, and it was the best and also the most torturous hour Vlad had ever suffered through.

  He’d never been so physically close to a girl. Huddling under one blanket, their thighs and their arms touching, he couldn’t help but get excited. And since Wendy was an empath, she must have known what he was going through.

  Talk about embarrassing.

  Still, if given the opportunity again, he would seize it without hesitation.

  Wendy was so soft, so feminine, and being close to her made him feel like a man. He could protect her, shield her from all threats.

  Provided she’d let him.

  Did he make her feel safe?

  She was hard to read, and he wasn’t an empath, but he was quite certain that she wasn’t repulsed by him or afraid of him. That was already better than what most girls projected at him.

  He should be grateful for that.

  Mey leaned back in her armchair, cradling a hot mug of cocoa in her palms. “I didn’t expect to find a 7-Eleven that was open twenty-four hours in such a small town. It would have been pretty miserable to have to wait until morning to get something to eat and drink.”

  Wendy lifted her own mug and saluted Mey with it. “This was a life saver. It warmed me from the inside.”

  Ingrid grimaced. “The sandwiches were terrible, but I was so hungry that I didn’t care. I forgot that cold weather makes people hungrier.”

  Vlad wondered whether that was why he had wolfed down more than half a bag of Oreo cookies and had chugged down three full mugs of hot cocoa.

  Not really. It had been warm under the blanket with Wendy, but it had made him nervous, and that was why he had eaten so much. It had given him something to do other than think about Wendy’s soft thigh that was pressed against his.

  Not that it had helped.

  He was still acutely aware of it and savoring every moment.

  “I love hot cocoa in the
winter. Jin and I used to drink it while watching Doctor Who.” Mey crossed her legs. “We need to figure out the sleeping arrangements. There are five bedrooms and three bathrooms in the cabin. The master bedroom has its own bathroom, and I think it should go to Richard and Ingrid.” She glanced at the two, who were squeezed together in one armchair. “Is that okay with you?”

  “We’ll take it,” Richard said.

  Mey nodded. “That leaves four bedrooms and two bathrooms. We can divide them in two ways. Wendy and I can share the bedroom that has two beds, while Vlad, Bowen, and Leon each get their own room. Or, Bowen and Leon can share the bedroom, and the rest of us each get a room.”

  “Bowen and I will share,” Leon said. “Since we are going to take turns guarding the place, we won’t be sleeping at the same time anyway.”

  “Then it’s settled.” Mey pushed to her feet. “I don’t know about you, but I want to take a hot shower and crawl into bed.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Wendy put her mug down. “I hope there are televisions in the bedrooms.” She folded the blanket and put it over the back of the couch. “Can I choose my room?”

  “Of course.”

  As Mey walked over to the front door and lifted her suitcase, Wendy got up as well, depriving Vlad of her warmth.

  “I’ll get your stuff.” He followed her.

  Taking Wendy’s bundle in one hand, he slung the strap of his guitar case over his arm and lifted the duffle bag full of video games and books with the other.

  Regrettably, he didn’t have a change of clothes in there, and anything he could borrow from Bowen or Leon would be six sizes too big.

  “I can take that.” Wendy reached for her bundle.

  Vlad shook his head. “It’s okay. I’ve got it.”

  Following Mey upstairs, they walked into the first bedroom.

  Wendy eyed the television. “Can this one be mine?”

  “Yes.” Mey opened the door to a bathroom. “I’ll take the room on the other side, so we can share the bathroom. The boys can use the bigger one that has a door to the hallway.”