Lilith felt a jolt in the pit of her stomach. “Why does your saying that make me feel jittery inside instead of fearful?”
Closing his eyes, he groaned softly as if her words had hurt him.
“Let’s just say that was some of the more I was talking about. But in this case it should make you fearful rather than jittery. I’m very serious. Now to bed. We only have a few hours before we need to leave for the train station.”
With a shrug of acceptance, Lilith traded places. She gave Tarak some pillows and the top blanket and then she, too, slid out of her towel and underneath the fresh sheets. Never had she felt such softness as she did when she sank into the thick mattress. This time she was the one groaning and it definitely was not in pain. So many sensations she’d experienced today. So much pleasure. For fun she moaned again as she wiggled deeper into the bed.
“Lilith.”
“Yes, Tarak?”
“I say this with all due respect…. Please shut up.”
A sense of understanding settled over Lilith. Now was not the time to taunt him.
“Yes, Tarak.”
Chapter 17
A llison read the message off her computer screen for the third time before she allowed herself to believe it. Even then she still didn’t believe it.
“Because it’s unbelievable,” she said to an empty office.
It seemed as if one of her Oracle contacts, Lucy Karmon, had gotten a message from an old acquaintance. She was being asked to fly to New Delhi to help stop a woman from escaping with a valuable and potentially dangerous necklace.
A woman with strange abilities.
Allison shook her head as she considered the information. Was it possible that Echo had literally fallen into her lap?
If that was the case it almost seemed too easy. Her search had started with two locations. South Africa and India. It was easy enough to find Jackie’s first daughter. Her name: Echo. No last name.
Reports of a female, the right age, with a long history of illegal activity, not to mention strange talents, had immediately gotten a hit during Oracle’s data search. Apparently Jackie’s daughter had already established a fearsome criminal reputation in Johannesburg. Wanting to build on that intel, Allison had used her contacts to scour South Africa for more information on Echo. Her agents had been able to locate places Echo had been, learned of several people she had murdered and a lot of money she had stolen. But no one could tell her where she was.
But the other one in India—there was simply no trace of her. No leads on a woman with strange or unique powers. At least none that showed up through the normal information channels. This led Allison to believe she had simply gone into hiding. That or maybe she had no idea who she was or what she could do. With so many unknowns, it was hard to make assumptions.
But now this. A woman with strange powers shows up in India and obviously steals something highly valuable. Given her history, the likely thief was Echo. The question was who was chasing her and why?
Allison minimized Lucy’s message and brought up another window. Quickly she did some preliminary research on Tarak Hammer-Smith. She wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or nervous by what she found.
Like Lucy the man was a mercenary for hire. Following his father’s path, he started his career in the British military before signing on with MI6. A few years later he left the agency. An ex-MI6 agent with a grudge? Or maybe someone like Lucy who hadn’t been able to work well within a system?
Allison continued to read and discovered that it had been shortly after the deaths of his parents in a car bombing that Hammer-Smith had decided to quit the British agency to work independently. It didn’t take a great logical leap to realize what had driven him away.
Curious, she wondered if he’d ever found the terrorists who murdered his family.
Then she looked at his assignments for the past several years. For the most part, he’d worked as a contract agent for British or U.S. intelligence. In some cases even for the U.S. military.
She was going to have to assume he was one of the good guys. So, good guy Tarak Hammer-Smith finds himself back in India chasing a woman with unique skills who has stolen a necklace. How does a man not involved in a situation—Allison could find no links between Echo’s criminal activity and Tarak’s past assignments—become involved with a situation?
Because someone asks him to. Someone he might care about. Someone from his country of birth?
The scenarios played around in Allison’s head for a time. She was making huge leaps based on only fragmented information but if she arranged the pieces in the correct pattern they told a reasonable story. Jackie sends out three packages. One to Kwan-Sook, one to Echo and another to her daughter in India. Kwan-Sook is dead, her package stolen. Echo leaves South Africa and turns up in India where it appears another package, a necklace, has been stolen.
Allison could say for certain that Tarak wasn’t Jackie’s daughter, therefore it stood to reason that he was helping to get it back for the person who had lost it.
Arachne’s third child.
If all that were true the next question was why did Jackie’s third child want it back? Was she battling Echo for superiority or did she know what was on the files and know how dangerous they were?
Lucy was waiting on the other end of cyberspace for an answer. A call had to be made and Allison had really nothing more than instinct to tell her what to do. Trusting her gut, Allison tabbed back to the other window and replied to Lucy, giving her an update of the events she would need to be aware of if she was going to help her friend.
“Right time. Right place. Possibly the right man. Or the right woman,” Allison muttered aloud. “All I can hope for is that you’re one of the good guys, whoever you are.”
Lucy glanced down at her PalmPilot. “Yeah, I thought you would be interested in that little piece of information. Okay. You’re the boss.”
She replied to the message and then pocketed the PalmPilot. Lucy leaned against a wall and tried to look inconspicuous among an airport full of tourists and travelers passing through Rome. Not the easiest thing for a tall redhead to do, but she’d taught herself to become an expert at blending into her surroundings.
There was no question about where she was headed. She had already made up her mind to join Tarak in India before she’d sent the e-mail. A call for help from a friend wasn’t something she ignored.
Not that Nolan was thrilled. They’d just settled down into a nice homey routine and here she was off on another mission before they’d had a chance to calm down from the events of the last one.
He’d wanted to come along, but Lucy had protested, insisting this would be a quick in-and-out gig. Get in and get out. See what she could do for Tarak and then head back to Nolan as fast as possible.
Besides, she had something personal to discuss with Tarak that she was sure he would want to hear directly from her. After setting up some additional muscle that would be waiting for her when she arrived in New Delhi, Lucy settled down for the interminable waiting that was indicative of airline travel.
Arachne had daughters, she thought, recalling the e-mailed reply. How crazy was that?
“Will we know when she is on the train?” Lilith asked.
Tarak glanced at his receiver. “Yes. But after that the blip will essentially be on top of us. We won’t know if she’s three cars back or sitting directly across from us, although I expect we might notice if that was the case.”
Lilith nodded. Her heart was racing faster than it ever had in the jungle, in the anticipation that the end of their journey was close.
This morning she’d woken up to find Tarak standing over her, a gentle smile on his face. She returned the smile, sensing what he was feeling and returning the emotions. Without words, he’d expressed everything she’d needed to know. So much so that she was no longer worried about her future.
Their future.
He’d slid into the bed with her and spent time simply kissing her and holding her. Tickling her and
caressing her. Getting her used to the sensations she’d experienced the night before. Making it easier for her to accept his touches. But when she’d asked for more he’d resisted. Time was passing, he’d told her. And he’d convinced her that time was a critical element in order to show her more.
Instead she’d dressed in the sari he’d provided. It was a rich-looking gown with beads hand sewn into the vibrantly blue material. In her life she’d never seen anything as beautiful, but beyond that she’d never considered any clothing other than the encompassing silk material that had been her uniform for as long as she could remember.
He’d helped her arrange the petticoat and sari so that it draped over her right shoulder and then he’d made her turn around. Twice.
She thought he might have been checking to see if it was secure, but his mischievous smile when she turned around for the second time told another story entirely.
The sari wasn’t the only article of clothing he’d purchased for her. There were gloves, too. Silk gloves that she could pull up to her elbows. The relief of having them despite her newfound control brought tears to her eyes. So much had changed for her in such a short time. When he’d given her the gloves, he’d given her more than protection in case something should happen—he’d given her a sense of connection to who she was as well as to where she was going.
Looking down at her gloved hands, she was reminded of that all over again. He understood that she needed these as a barrier against the world that she was only just beginning to rejoin. At least for now.
“Stop fidgeting,” he scolded, reaching down to take one of her hands. “There is nothing to do but enjoy the passing scenery.”
Lilith sniffed. “And to worry about whether Echo is even on the train. Worry that we’ve correctly identified where she is going. Worry that if we have guessed correctly and she is on the train that she will spot us. Worry about what will happen if she does.”
“That’s a lot of worrying. All things you can’t control. Relax. You look like a beautiful Indian bride and I am your husband. We’re simply traveling together on this trip to Delhi. I doubt Echo is concerned with us at this point, but I suspect she would not realize who we were if she sat on top of us. Look around you. We look exactly like everyone else.”
Lilith took a sly glance around the train car. There was a mother and her child sitting across from them. The train was crowded with travelers. So crowded that others stood in the aisle. How strange, she thought. She did look like them. Her skin was lighter perhaps. And the color of her eyes. But here she was on a train with so many people and no one suspected that she was different.
She wondered if there would come a time, if she lived in this world long enough, that she would forget she was different.
“There we go,” Tarak said, bringing Lilith out of her musings. “The blip is on top of us. Looks like sis made the train.”
“What do you mean do I have a ticket? Of course I have a ticket. I have a ticket right here.” Echo pulled out a gun and held it against the belly of the man who apparently was the train’s ticket collector.
“Please,” he whispered to her in Hindi. “I don’t want to die.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Echo answered. “And I don’t care. You’re going to turn around and leave me and my two friends here alone for the duration of this trip. I have had a very long hike. I’m tired. I’m dirty. I’m hungry. When I’m tired and dirty and hungry I get cranky. You understand cranky?”
The man nodded quickly.
“Wonderful. Now run along.”
He turned and walked back down the aisle of the train not once asking anyone else for a ticket. Echo imagined he might try to report her, but she wasn’t worried. They wouldn’t stop the train so the worst that might happen would be that she would have to dodge some authorities when they got to New Delhi.
Glancing at the car, she could see there were no seats available. In fact, most of the people were stuffed into the center aisle like sheep. Turning to her left, she could see an older man staring at her. His eyes were wide with fear.
“Saw the gun, did you? Good. Then you know I’ll kill you if you don’t get up and give me that seat.”
Immediately the man sprang from the seat and pulled the woman who was sitting next to him with him.
“Excellent,” Echo crooned. “Such gracious people in this country.” She took the vacated seat and put her legs up on the other one preventing either Rolf or Kent from sitting next to her. After several days in the jungle they reeked.
“What next?” Kent wanted to know.
In her mind, Echo imagined herself waiting until she boarded the plane to get the hell out of India and then, at the last possible second, killing both of them. Her initial thoughts to keep Rolf alive were foolish. Anyone who knew what Lilith could do had to die. It was as simple as that. But she figured it wasn’t the best time to tell them that what was next…was killing them.
“Next we get to New Delhi and we get on a plane. I want a private one. As soon as we have cell reception get on that.”
“They cost money,” Kent pointed out.
The man really was brainless, she decided. “Really? Money.” Pulling out the necklace that she’d taken to wearing around her neck Echo held it up to him. “Do you know how much this is worth? Any idea?”
And since he would be dead before long it didn’t matter that she was going to tell them.
“Billions. No, more than that. Maybe all of the world’s wealth if I want it. It’s official. My mother’s empire is now mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. This obviously proves that I was the cream of her particular crop. You know what I’ve decided, boys? I’m going to hatch my own little offspring. Maybe a whole army of women with my skills and, of course, my killer smile.”
“I don’t give a shit what you do. I just want to get paid,” Kent said.
“You’ll get everything I promised. Maybe if you’re a very good boy and don’t whine for the rest of the trip, I’ll give you a bonus.”
Kent didn’t bother to reply. Instead he braced his legs apart to keep his balance as the train rocked its way out of the station. Rolf bent down close to Echo.
“I would gladly offer my services to be the father of your children.”
Echo patted his cheek. “Sweet boy. Yes, it seems I’m going to have to give you a bonus, too. Now go away from me. You smell.”
Immediately he backed away from her, obviously upset by her dismissal. Weak. Echo couldn’t imagine why she’d hired these two in the first place. Once she was back in South Africa it would be different. There she would carefully build her army. Handpicking only the most loyal, the most qualified.
The most deadly.
Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to imagine how it would be. She’d build a palace for herself. Certainly that would be her first order of business. Given what happened to her mother, security was paramount.
Then she would take a look at the world and determine where she wanted to strike first. Which president of which nation would she expose as an example to the rest? Which would she then choose to dangle over her particular pit of hell?
Oh, the fun she was going to have.
Suddenly a tingle on the back of her neck alerted her. She opened her eyes to find nothing had changed. Kent and Rolf stood in front of where she sat. There was still a crush of people around them, all of them now jostling as the train moved.
A flash of Lilith’s face entered her mind, but instantly she squashed it. There was no way the insipid creature had managed to find her way out of the forest. Not without her man. If Echo had to guess, they were still stuck where she’d left them. Him with a bullet in his body and her probably wringing her hands fretfully wondering what she should do.
Echo knew she was eventually going to have to go back to kill Lilith. It was the only way to ensure that Jackie’s empire would remain hers. Not that she was worried that Lilith presented any further threat. If the bitch showed gumption by coming after her
it was nothing more troubling than a fly buzzing at an elephant’s head.
But the idea of the two of them living in the same world didn’t sit well with Echo.
She would get back to Jo’burg and hire a team of mercenaries. A hundred if she had to. They would hunt Lilith down and kill her.
She would have them bring her Lilith’s head. Isn’t that what all the queens used to do with their enemies?
Echo smiled. Queen Echo. It really had a rather nice ring to it.
“We’re almost there.”
Lilith heard the whisper in her ear and popped her eyes open. She glanced out at the window and saw a rush of people standing on the other side of the tracks. Then her eyes spotted the buildings. So many buildings of different shapes and sizes. Silver and gold and brick. And there were automobiles on the streets. Driving alongside people pushing carts and selling all manner of things. Men argued. Women hustled their children from place to place. Dogs barked frantically.
These sights. In her life she’d never seen such things.
“So many people,” she whispered. It was one thing to be on the train with people. Sitting next to Tarak she felt insulated. But out there, walking around with all of these people, she would be crushed. “I do not think I can do this. I have never seen anything like this. What if I bump into someone? Fall or trip and I cannot stop my reaction. What if…”
“Calm down.” Tarak tightened his grip on her hand. “Remember, you’re in control.”
Lilith nodded. She took several breaths and tried to focus on why she was here.
“Echo.”
“Yes. We need to find her. Stop her. And get the necklace back. As soon as we do, we’ll leave. I promise.”
Again Lilith nodded. She could do this. She had to do this. The train eventually came to a stop. Slowly the people began to debark until finally it was time for Lilith and Tarak to stand. Carefully she looked around her. Obviously Echo was not in their train car, but they knew she was close. They needed to get off the train without being spotted by her or her men.
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