Spies of the Angui - Cipher's Kiss Book 3

by Walker, Heather

  “He’ll do no such thing,” Malcolm returned. “If it comes to that, I’ll protect ye.”

  “How can ye?” Noah’s eyes snapped open. “If he finds out about ye, it’ll go ten times worse than for me. Ye cannae protect me. Ye must protect yerself above all else.”

  Malcolm turned to face him. “I’ll no’ allow him to harm ye,” he insisted. “If she tells him aught, I’ll convince him to take ye back to Stromness, to the Guild.”

  Noah groaned. “Perfect. Just perfect.”

  “It’ll buy us time to get ye out,” Malcolm added. “Perhaps we can get ye out and me as well.”

  “Throw me overboard right now, lad,” Noah grumbled. “Get it over with.”

  Malcolm cracked a grin. “Aye? So ye can swim back to Orkney? I think no’.”

  Noah started to relax. “What did ye have to bring her here for? Why couldnae I just slip off to America with the others and never be seen or heard from again?”

  “It wasnae me idea to bring her along,” Malcolm replied. “Boyd doesnae trust her. He thinks one of us sent her back here to do the Guild some mischief, and I dinnae blame him. I cannae puzzle out how she got here without kenning how she did it.”

  “Who is she?” Noah asked.

  Malcolm opened his mouth to answer when Boyd appeared on deck from the wheelhouse. He strode to the mast where Malcolm and Noah relaxed, gazing out over the open sea. Orkney had already sunk into the ocean behind the trawler.

  Boyd smiled at them both. “We’ll make good time in this breeze. We should be there by tomorrow morning, at any rate.”

  Noah remained silent, his eyes on the deck planks at Boyd’s feet.

  Malcolm only murmured. “Aye.”

  Boyd snorted and clapped Noah on the shoulder so hard the young man jumped a foot in the air. “Buck up, lad. Ye’re no’ still sore about me taking yer ship, are ye?”

  Noah cast a fleeting glimpse at Malcolm. “It’s no’ me ship, Master. It’s the captain’s, and since ye took it on Guild business, I’ll no’ question yer right. I only hope he doesnae begrudge me my place on his crew. I stood to land a decent job, and now I’m halfway over the sea in a vessel that isnae mine and responsible for returning it to him unharmed when I’m to sail it single-handed back to Stromness. I—”

  “Never ye mind, lad,” Boyd interrupted. “As ye say, it’s Guild business, so I’ll see ye done right by. If it’s yer place ye’re worried about, I’ll take it up with the captain. If he doesnae take ye back after this, I’ll find another place for ye. As far as getting the vessel back to Stromness unharmed, I’m sure ye can manage that without three passengers in the way. Ye do that, and I’ll handle the rest.”

  Noah didn’t look up or speak.

  Boyd started to turn away, then cast a glance over his shoulder at Malcolm. “I didnae ken ye kenned this lad.”

  “Aye,” Malcolm replied. “I ken him. I got him his place on this ship.”

  A cloud crossed Boyd’s face. The next minute, it blew away. He closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath of sea air. “It’s good to be out of the Guild House for a change. I’m looking forward to some real action instead of just paperwork all the time. Once we get to Stornoway, we’ll catch the British merchantman and head for Lewis. Then we’ll see what’s what.”

  “And the other?” Malcolm asked. “What do ye mean to do about her?”

  “She’s asleep in the cabin right now,” Boyd replied. “As to what I mean to do about her, I’ll keep her under watch and see what she does. Once I see that, I’ll ken what to do.” He strolled away and disappeared once again into the wheelhouse.

  Malcolm spoke in a low voice to Noah. “Looks like she didnae tell him about ye.”

  Noah gasped out his held breath and collapsed against the mast. “I cannae take this waiting. If I’m to die, just give it to me straight. That’s what I say.”

  “Ye’ll no’ die—no’ on this bucket, anyway,” Malcolm replied. “I dinnae like to count me chickens early, but I believe she’ll no’ tell him at all, even if she did recognize ye. She’s one of ours, even if she doesnae ken it as yet.”

  “How can she be one of ours when she’s with him?” Noah asked.

  Malcolm turned away so the young man wouldn’t see his face. “I dinnae ken how. I only feel it. Once she gets away from him, she’ll ken it too.”

  “Ye’re daft, do ye ken that?” Noah fired back. “Ye’d best keep away from her.”

  “Och, I will,” Malcolm replied. “Ye leave that to me and do yer job. As soon as we land in Stornoway, ye must hie along and warn the Prometheus.”

  “If ye’re right,” Noah countered, “the lads’ll already ken the British ship is after them.”

  “Likely. Just do as I bid ye, lad. I have another purpose in mind for it. Do ye understand what I want ye to do?”

  “Aye,” Noah replied, “but I dinnae like it much, leaving ye alone with that shark. If he finds out about ye…”

  “If he finds out about me,” Malcolm returned, “I’ll cut his throat before he has a chance to tell anybody else. Ye and I’ll disappear to America, and no one will ever find his body.”

  Noah cast his eyes over the wide Atlantic Ocean. “That’s what we should do right now. We should kill him and dump him overboard, and ye and I should hit the trades for America and never look back.”

  “What about her?” Malcolm replied. “What do you propose we do with her?”

  “I dinnae care,” Noah shot back. “Dump her over too, for all I care.”

  Malcolm shook his head and looked away. “If she’s one of ours, we owe her our protection.”

  “She’s his,” Noah countered. “Any fool can see that. Did ye see the look on his face when he talked about her? He’s entertaining designs on her.”

  Malcolm’s eyes flashed. “No doubt.”

  “And ye mean to interfere with that, do ye no’? I recognize it in yer face, Luppaki. Ye think ye’ll get the jump on Boyd, but he’ll beat ye to the punch. He’ll kill ye for her. Ye mark me words.”

  Malcolm’s head whipped around to fix his friend with a fierce glare. “Dinnae use that name here. If Boyd heard ye, I’d have to kill ye meself.”

  Noah lowered his eyes. “Aye. Sorry.”

  Malcolm jerked his head aft. “Get ye below before ye make any more trouble.”

  Noah slinked away below, while Malcolm strode toward the bow and gazed out over the water, his thoughts wandering across the ripple. He’d worked inside the Falisa ranks for thousands of years. In all that time, he had never come closer to being discovered than now. He had never come this close to death, not even in a conference surrounded by thousands of his sworn enemies. Now he was on a fishing trawler in the middle of the ocean with one Falisa and one of his own. He couldn’t count Vic as either, but he couldn’t shake off the sensation of impending disaster, even knowing the odds.

  If Vic hadn’t been on the trawler, he would have killed Boyd in a heartbeat. He would have thrown the corpse overboard and disappeared for a hundred years before he showed his face to the Falisa all over again and got his old job back.

  While he stood there thinking the whole situation over, a distinct swishing sound caught his ear. Before he could check what it was, Vic appeared at his side. He jerked his head the other way so he wouldn’t see her, but it was too late.

  The sun sinking into the sea cast its mellow rays on her rosy cheeks. The light set her hair on fire, and the breeze rustled her curls around her slender neck. She spelled disaster for Malcolm more than anything else. How had he gone all these years without a woman, only to fall for this one? He couldn’t. He wouldn’t let himself. She’d already set her mind against the Angui. Why would she turn against that while she had Boyd?

  She stood in silence at Malcolm’s side, but tension sizzled between them. It destroyed his nerves. He wished for the thousandth time she was anywhere but on this ship.

  “Tell me something.”

  Malcolm spun around at the sound of her voice.
It shattered his reserve and sent him into a tailspin. “What is it?”

  “Why do the Gunns hate the Lewises so much?” she asked. “I mean, what started all this? There must have been some reason for it.”

  He refused to let himself turn around. If he looked at her, he was ruined. “Aye. There’s a reason for it.”

  “What is it?” she asked. “How can your two peoples have kept up this war for so long?”

  “The Angui—that’s the real name for the Lewis immortals,” he began.

  “Yeah. Boyd told me.”

  “The Angui used to be the greatest superpower on the planet. They controlled dozens of countries on every continent,” he told her.

  “Boyd says they kept slaves,” she remarked. “Is that true?”

  Malcolm closed his eyes and sighed. “Aye. It’s true. That’s where the Falisa came from.”

  “Falisa? What’s that?”

  “The Gunns,” he replied, turning to glance at her. “The original name for their race was Falisa. They were the Angui’s slaves, and they rebelled around fifteen hundred years ago. The Angui cracked down and wiped out the ringleaders, and the others fled. The victory lulled the Angui into a false sense of security while the Falisa persisted in hiding. They kept the vendetta alive and retaliated by introducing a plague into the Angui’s water supply about eight hundred years ago. It wiped out all their women and girls, right down to infants, leaving only men and boys alive.” Malcolm closed his eyes and shuddered at the memory.

  Vic’s stare drilled into him from a few paces away. He hated even talking about it to a stranger, let alone seeing the horror of it reflected in her features. She couldn’t possibly know what the story did to him.

  “What happened then?” she whispered.

  “Then came the great war.” He opened his eyes again, but he didn’t see the sea spread out before him. He saw only the devastation, the blood, the wrath, the terror, the destruction. “The Angui civilization collapsed. Millions starved and lost their homes and livelihoods, and the men and boys went on the run. They became fugitives as the Falisa hunted them down, one after another. They did awful things to them, some of them much worse than the plague itself. They showed no mercy.”

  “Isn’t that what you want to do?” she asked. “Isn’t that the Guild’s sworn objective—to wipe out the Angui once and for all? As long as any one of them remains alive, they’ll keep trying to formulate the Cipher’s Kiss. They could come back. You can’t let that happen.”

  He rounded on her with bared teeth. “And that’s what ye want too, is it? Ye want to wipe out the Angui, every last man?”

  She drew back in surprise. “I…I don’t really know what to think. I’m not really part of this.”

  “Ye’ll do it for Boyd, will ye no’?” he fired back. “Ye’ll do whatever it takes to slaughter the Angui, to win Boyd’s affections. Admit it.”

  She gaped at him in astonishment.

  He couldn’t look at her anymore. He turned away. He didn’t understand himself. Why did he vent his animosity on her?

  “Boyd’s been very kind to me ever since I first got here,” she said. “I have no reason to doubt his word or question why he wants to kill the Angui. If he’s right about them trying to take over the world, then I agree they should be stopped. What about you? You’re not against this war, are you?”

  “I’m no’ against it. I’m a part of it, the same as everybody else,” he growled over his shoulder, facing away from her. He’d heard only one thing in all she said. She wasn’t sure. She hadn’t gone completely over to the Falisa—not yet.

  She took a step toward him. Out of nowhere, she laid her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry to bring up a sore subject. You all must have lost a lot in this war. It must be hard on all of you.”

  The touch rocketed through him so fast he didn’t know what hit him. Before he could stop himself, he spun around and smacked her hand away. “Dinnae touch me!”

  Her eyes flew open, and she gasped in shock. “Malcolm!”

  He turned his back on her fast so she wouldn’t see his face. “If ye’re going with Boyd, ye’d better go and do it. He’ll appreciate those sentiments more than I can.”

  Chapter 11

  Vic hurried away from Malcolm as fast as she could go, retreated to her cabin, and slammed the door. She collapsed back against the bulkhead and closed her eyes to catch her breath.

  That man was a raving lunatic. That’s all there was to it. He must have gone psychotic in this war against the Angui. Boyd said he sacrificed everything for his duty. That must have destroyed his senses to make him act like that against someone trying to sympathize with him.

  Vic made up her mind then and there to avoid Malcolm Gunn like the plague. Boyd wanted her to come along on this trip, and he knew how to behave. She would stick close to him. At least that man kept his head and didn’t fly off the handle when someone tried to talk to him.

  She’d made a mistake trying to bridge the gap with Malcolm. She should have known he was too far gone to reclaim. Reclaiming him wasn’t her job anyway. Her job was to keep an eye out for Lewises she knew from the twenty-first century, and one of them was right here, on this ship.

  She opened her eyes all ready to march off and find Boyd to tell him about Noah when she halted on the spot. There sat Boyd on her bunk—or, rather, the bunk where she had just slept.

  He leaned against the wall and crossed his legs in front of him. He grinned at her. “Ye’re up and about, lassie. Do ye feel better?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “What are you doing in here?”

  “I came to check on ye, and I found yer bunk empty. I took a peek out on deck and saw ye talking to that gorilla.” He shot her a grin. “What did I tell ye about him and women?”

  She blushed. “I thought I’d try to thaw the ice. It didn’t go so well.”

  “Just leave him to himself,” he said with a wave of his hand. “He can seduce any woman alive if it’s for the cause, but when it comes to relating to them, he’s a hopeless case. Ye never have to question his loyalty, though.”

  She crossed the cabin to sit down on the bunk next to him. “That’s a relief. He just told me the story of how the Falisa poisoned the Angui’s women. He was very broken up about it.”

  Boyd shook his head. “Ye shouldnae be alone with him. He’s a live wire. One spark’ll set him off.”

  “I found that out.”

  “He takes a controlled hand,” Boyd told her. “Stay away from him from now on. I mean this for yer safety, lass.”

  “I understand,” she replied. “I’ll stay away from him. He’s a loose cannon. I won’t go near him again.”

  “Good.” Boyd got to his feet. “Then ye can come to the wheelhouse and share a meal with me.”

  Vic glanced around. “This is the cabin. Why don’t you eat in here?”

  “Och, I couldnae do that,” he exclaimed. “This is yer private abode as long as ye’re on this ship. I’ll sleep below with Malcolm and that deckhand, and I’ll take me meals in the wheelhouse. Come along.”

  He ushered Vic to the wheelhouse where she found two place settings waiting on the captain’s table. All the charts and logs and papers had been stacked on top of a shelf along the side wall. The furnishings couldn’t compare with the Guild House. No crystal or silver or servants to make this an elegant affair. None of the plates or cups or utensils matched. Boyd gestured for Vic to sit and then sat down opposite her.

  Noah entered and served them bacon and beans. His cheeks burned bright red, and he kept his eyes trained on the floor until he finished his job, then retreated out of sight and left Boyd and Vic alone.

  Boyd raised a clay mug and touched it to hers, even though both held only weak brown tea. “Here’s to a smooth voyage and success on our adventure.”

  Vic took a sip and made a face, then put the cup down. “What is our adventure, exactly?”

  “We’re going after the Lewises’ ship, the Prometheus,” he replied. �
��We’ll get on board a British ship at Stornoway and intercept them off the coast of Lewis.” He glanced into his teacup and made a sour face too. “I dinnae think that man kens much about cooking.”

  Vic studied him across the table. He still didn’t know Noah’s first name. He probably never would. Why did she hesitate to reveal Noah’s identity?

  That conversation she’d had with Malcolm gave her further pause. A fanatic like him might take punishing Noah to the extreme. He might not settle for killing him and throwing him to the fishes. He might decide to torture the poor guy or something disgusting like that.

  Vic couldn’t be a part of anything like that. For all she knew, the Falisa had been doing stuff like that to the Angui for thousands of years. Maybe the Falisa weren’t the benighted slave race rebelling against their overlords at all. Maybe the Angui weren’t tyrants or dictators.

  Malcolm said millions of people died and became displaced when the Angui fell. What did the Falisa do to help them—or were they too bent on revenge to care who got hurt? The Falisa slaughtered who knew how many Angui women and girls, all the way down to infants. One of the Falisa told her that, so it must be true. They were proud of what they’d done.

  She blinked away her thoughts as Boyd smiled at her across the table. He was one of them. He was Falisa, but she couldn’t believe he would do anything like that. He was too nice and kind and considerate. One more time, she pushed her misgivings out of her mind.

  He set down his cup. His hand glided across the table. His fingers twined into hers, and a delicious thrill traveled up her arm and into her guts.

  “Now, lassie,” he purred, “I asked ye here to talk about yer people in the future. Ye said ye worked at a chemical company, and yer friend is using the resources there to create the Cipher’s Kiss.”

  For a fraction of a second, Vic stiffened against that insidious touch. What was he doing to her? Was he trying to seduce her for information about Ree’s activities?

  The next instant, she softened to that magical sensation of his skin caressing hers. She’d never felt anything so divine, and she wanted more. “They’re working on it, but they haven’t gotten very far with it. They’re still trying to identify the ingredients. The names they gave us don’t make any sense, so we’re doing a bunch of research to find out what they are.”