The Spy with the Silver Lining

by Wendy Rosnau

  “While I was in Louisiana, Yurii gave me specific orders. After we kidnapped Casmir, I was to kill Pierce. Of course I told Yurii I would see to everything. I even called and said it was done. But instead I killed the other soldato that Filip left with me, then cut off his ears and sent them to Yurii to prove Pierce Fourtier was dead.”

  “Then he’s alive?” Casmir’s heart started to pound.

  “Last time I saw him he was,” Ash Kelly said.

  Casmir jerked her head around. “And when was that?”

  He looked at his watch. “Six hours ago.”

  “He’s here?”

  The change in her voice had Ash Kelly raising an eyebrow. He said, “We sailed across the Mediterranean together. He came ashore a few hours ago.”

  Stay alive. I’ll find you.

  Pierce had said those words to her just before he’d kissed her—before hell had rained down on them at the cabin. Now she was silently saying those words to him.

  Stay alive, Pierce. Stay alive.

  “We need to get moving,” she said suddenly. “We need to find him.”

  “We?” Ash shook his head. “Your job is finished. You were the bait to get us in.” He looked at Nicky. “You get her out of here. Hook up with your contact and take off. I’ll take it from here. Once I locate Pierce and we have the data we’ll catch up with you in Capri.”

  Another tough-guy chauvinistic oinker, Casmir thought. There was no way she was going to leave here without Pierce. They were a team, and they would leave as one. She was about to tell Mr. Scruffy that when a voice descended on them over an intercom system.

  “Kisa, I know you can hear me. Come to me. Come out and show yourself now or your comrade will die a painful death. That’s right, Kisa. I have a surprise for you. It seems Mr. Fourtier isn’t dead after all. Say something, my friend. Express how much fun we are having getting acquainted.”

  “Aaaaah! Aaah!”

  “Come, my love. He will die either way, but it can be quick, or it can be slow. You have five minutes to surrender to one of my men before Fourtier loses a finger. A minute after that, he loses another, then another. You know how the game is played, Kisa.”

  “I’m told you’re very good with a knife, Mr. Fourtier. So am I.”

  Pierce sat in a chair dripping wet. His feet were shackled and his wrists manacled to a shiny silver table that had been crafted specifically with torture in mind. His hands had been spread out on the table. Yurii was damn serious about taking off his fingers one by one.

  An hour ago Yurii’s brother had worked him over with an electric prod after dousing him with water. He’d hung on, fought the charges frying his insides, but in the end his body had shut down and he’d passed out.

  He wasn’t sure how long he’d been out. He’d woken up in a cage with a dozen hungry rats gnawing on him. He’d strangled the rats before Filip showed up and took him to a place called the Meetro.

  As it turned out the Meetro was Yurii’s command center, something out of a science-fiction movie. It was more than just a control room, with the latest technology money could buy. It looked like NASA might look in another thirty years on another planet.

  But it wasn’t only a dispatch and delivery center, it was also a transport terminal. No wonder Yurii had been so damn elusive for so many years—his own private minisubmarine sat in the middle of the multi-leveled computer dome ready to ferry him to an awaiting yacht anywhere in the Mediterranean.

  “It seems Kisa is running late. Women, they do try a man’s patience, do they not, Mr. Fourtier?”

  Pierce saw Yurii pick up the knife that he’d laid on the table. He said, “Oui, women. You can never count on one when you need her most. But maybe we should give her another minute or two.”

  Yurii smiled. “That would be good for you, I agree. But it would be a bad business decision for me. You see, I’m a man of my word, Mr. Fourtier. It is why my people are loyal and my enemies afraid.”

  Pierce was prepared to lose a finger when an elevator door opened on the level above them and a guard nudged Cass forward.

  “Better late than never, as you Americans say. As I said, I always keep a promise. Your suffering is over, Mr. Fourtier. You will die quick. Within the hour.”

  Yurii took a stairway up to a circular level above them where Cass stood on a platform. Pierce took her measure as the guard nudged her along the narrow ramp to meet Yurii. She was dressed in white, and the damn thing was so sheer that, even at this distance, he could see every curve and asset she owned. Her hair was wet, and she was barefoot.

  Before he had entered the villa hours ago he’d seen her laughing with Yurii on a balcony—a happy couple enjoying a moonlit night.

  An act? At the time he hadn’t thought so. But now he wasn’t so sure.

  She looked around as if searching for him. Their eyes met, and he saw her frown as she took in his battered appearance. He hated for her to see him like this, but what he hated more was that his capture had lured her into Yurii’s trap. A trap she might not survive.

  When Yurii reached her, words were exchanged. Pierce couldn’t hear what was said, but by Yurii’s reaction, it wasn’t good. He slapped Cass across the cheek, and she countered the slap by spitting at him. Yurii’s hand was in her hair a second later, jerking her forward and twisting at the same time. He brought her to her knees quickly.

  Pierce swore, helpless to do anything but watch the scene unfold. Cass was now at Yurii’s mercy—at the mercy of a man who had been betrayed once too often by the woman he loved.

  It was true, Yurii still loved Cass. But Pierce loved her, too. Loved the sensitive secret side that he had discovered nights ago. But he also loved the fiery bitch, and right now the bitch wasn’t happy, and he knew what that meant. Yurii beware, he thought a second before she grabbed his crotch, much like he’d grabbed her hair. Yurii let out a scream, but it was overshadowed by an explosion that took the doors off the elevator and sent metal flying over the second-story railing and into a bank of computers below.

  Pierce saw the guard that had escorted Cass to the Meetro suddenly leap over the railing. He rolled to his feet and kept moving, heading straight for him with a knife. I’m a dead man, Pierce thought.

  A second later he recognized the guard.

  Chapter 20

  “You don’t look good, Pierce.”

  “Well, you look pretty damn good. Where the hell have you been?”

  Ash Kelly grinned. “Lucky for you I didn’t stay on the boat. Lucky for me, too. I blew it up.”

  In a matter of seconds, Ash released Pierce’s wrists from the manacles, then dropped to his knees and removed the shackles from his ankles.

  Pierce came to his feet out of sheer will. “I’ve got to get to a computer. Got to get the data sent to Jacy. I hope he’s there, ready to receive.”

  His insides were still quivering from the electric shock. He stumbled.

  “You all right?”

  “I will be. Where’s Cass?”

  “Last I saw her she was…” Ash glanced around. “Shit, where the hell is she?”

  There was total chaos in the Meetro now. Computers were burning and smoke was filling the room fast. Another explosion brought down a chunk of the ceiling, destroying more computers.

  “More of your handiwork?” Pierce asked.

  Ash grinned. “You know how I love to play with firecrackers.”

  Panic had sent Yurii’s guards scrambling for cover. They opened fire on Pierce and Ash, forcing them to flatten out on the floor. Pierce crawled on his belly to a computer that hadn’t caught on fire yet, as Ash sent a volley of gunfire in all directions. Pierce began to punch in the code from memory that would leave Yurii’s database open to be robbed.

  “Is it working?” Ash yelled.

  Pierce could hear frustration in his comrade’s voice. He keyed on that. “How much time do we have?”

  “I’ve synchronized the charges. Our window is thirty minutes to detonation. When this place blows
Petrov’s entire network will be scrap metal.”

  “The code’s in. Now all we need is Jacy to acknowledge that he received it. Shit, where the hell is he? Come on, Jacy, read your screen. Do you see Cass?”

  “I see her. But you’re not going to like where she is.”

  The minute Yurii let go of her hair Casmir was back on her feet running. She heard Yurii order his guards to stop her. He still hadn’t caught on to Ash Kelly’s impersonation of one of his guards.

  She heard someone behind her, spun around quickly and kicked out at the same time. It took the guard by surprise and he flew back into a burning computer. He caught on fire and continued to scream while he ran, frantic to save himself.

  Pierce had said all he needed was a few minutes at a computer to send the access code. She stopped to search the command center to look for him. He was no longer in the glass cubicle. HadAsh gotten him out?

  She continued to search for him. Finally she saw him. The minute she sighed in relief, she felt the familiar bite of metal poke hard into her ribs.

  “I’m afraid, my love, the day is not going to end well for you.”

  “I never thought it would,” she said, feeling Yurii’s hand grip her shoulder.

  “Move. There is another elevator.”

  He forced her at gunpoint to a second elevator as the chaos continued. He shoved her inside and followed her, quickly pushing a button. The door closed and then they were taking a ride to somewhere below the Meetro.

  Yurii leaned against the wall, his gun aimed at her chest. “The ring was a good trick, Kisa. I congratulate you on using it. It spawned doubt, and that doubt gave me hope. I thought I had lost you, then I saw the ring on your finger in Bratislava and I wanted to believe that maybe you really did love me. Now I realize that I never lost you because I never had you. Not for a second, da.”

  He was wrong. There had been moments, and it was those moments that still haunted her, and made her question who she really was. One thing she didn’t question was that she’d been wrong not to be honest with Polax. She’d allowed herself to get too close to her work. To feel things she shouldn’t have allowed herself to feel.

  “You should have killed me at the Kelt,” she said, then slipped the ring off her finger. “Here. It’s past time I gave this back to you.”

  “Put it back on. I told you once, till death do us part, Kisa.” He pressed a button on the elevator panel. “Filip, are you there?”

  “I’m here.”

  “Bring the submarine to the Vestigo. We leave immediately.”

  When the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Yurii motioned with his gun for her to step out. She looked around, saw that they were in another narrow channel surrounded by high rocks. Yurii would make a clean getaway now. That hadn’t been part of the plan, but hopefully Pierce and Ash Kelly had had time to obtain the data from Yurii’s computers.

  She wished she had been able to avenge Pasha, but Nicky would get his due one day. No matter who or what you were, fate did not discriminate. She had always believed that.

  In a matter of minutes Yurii’s submarine surfaced in the channel and the hatch opened. But instead of Filip climbing out of the hole, she saw Pierce emerge. Her expression must have shown her surprise. Yurii turned quickly and took aim.

  Casmir moved on instinct a second before he fired. She dived forward, felt the bullet rip into her flesh. Felt a burst of pain that stole her breath. Felt the warmth of her blood begin to flow.

  She heard Pierce yell no.

  Heard Yurii cry out.

  Then she was falling as a knife was hurled through the air and lodged in Yurii’s neck. He staggered and fell to the ground inches from her.

  His eyes found hers and she saw pain there. But it wasn’t for himself. It was for her, and the love that he had refused to let die.

  He reached out and squeezed her hand, brushed his thumb over the ring on her finger. Then slowly, as his life slipped away, he whispered, “Da, a fitting end, my love. Till death do us part.”

  “I’m sorry, amant.”

  Casmir faded in and out of consciousness. She was aware of Pierce saying those words over and over again. Aware that he was holding her hand, and touching her face.

  They were in the submarine. She remembered being carried inside. If Pierce was with her, who was operating the submarine? Was Ash there?

  She felt Pierce’s lips brush her cheek. Heard him whisper he was sorry again. Then his voice turned loud and angry. “I’m losing her! Get this sonofabitch moving, Ash.”

  She wanted to ask him if they got the data, if the mission was a success, but his hands were pushing down on her chest now and she couldn’t breathe. Then his face faded and everything stopped.

  Casmir woke up in a hospital bed. At least she believed that was where she was. She opened her eyes and saw Pasha Lenova standing over her. But Pasha was dead. Nasty Nicky had slit her throat in Bratislava.

  “She’s coming around. Finally.”

  Casmir blinked and when her eyes opened again she saw Nicky standing behind Pasha.

  “It’s good to have you back, Balasi. You’re one tough broad.”

  She looked at Pasha. “I thought you were dead. Or are we all dead?”

  Pasha smiled, reached out and squeezed her hand. “We’re alive.” She glanced back at Nicky. “This guy is full of surprises. I expected to be dead that night at the Kelt until I learned that he was working for us. I wish I could have let you know. I wanted to back you up on this mission, but it was too risky. It could have exposed Nicky, and he’s been a vital part of this mission’s success.”

  “So it was a success?”

  “Yes. Polax thought it would be best if everyone just thought I was dead. By the way, I called him and reported in. Gave him the good news first. Then the bad. That you’d been shot. He’s sending a plane for us. The doctor says you should be able to fly day after tomorrow. The bullet missed your heart by only an inch.”

  “I want to see Pierce.”

  “Ah…he’s not here. He was called back to Washington. He had to leave the minute you got out of surgery. Ashland Kelly flew back with him. Don’t worry about anything now. Pierce sent the data to one of their command sights, Nescosto is in ruins, and—”

  “What about Yurii?”

  “He’s dead.”

  Casmir looked down at her hand. The beautiful ring glistened back at her like a shining hopeful star.

  No one would understand the loss she felt. Those days with Yurii had been like a dream that you suddenly wake up from. But she was awake now. The dream was gone, and with it a part of her heart.

  Love… Such a mysterious word. Such a powerful, confusing feeling.

  “Cass?”

  She felt tears sting her eyes. Yurii had almost killed Pierce. He’d shot her. She should hate him, but she couldn’t. He was more than a criminal, more than a tortured soul. She felt the need to mourn the man, not what he was, but who he had wanted to be. But her guilt overshadowed the moment, and she felt like a traitor. Felt cold and alone.

  Don’t ever let them see you cry.

  She forced the tears away, and asked, “And Filip?”

  Again Pasha hesitated. “He got away. We don’t know how he made it out before the explosion, but Nicky saw him board his yacht. That’s enough talking now. Your vitals are strong, but you need to rest.”

  Her chest felt like it was on fire. There had been no pain after the initial shock of being shot, but now she hurt all over.

  “That’s it. Close your eyes and sleep. It’s what you need most right now. The old Casmir will be back soon. You just need time to heal.”

  Pierce and Ash had just stepped off the plane in Washington when Merrick called.

  Sober and in no mood to talk, Pierce handed the phone to Ash.

  “We just landed, sir. Pierce, ah…he’s gone to take a piss and have a smoke.”

  “How is he? Not too beat up, I hope.”

  Pierce caught Ash giving him a sideways g
lance. “He’s a tough sonofabitch, but then you already know that.”

  “Tell him he did a damn fine job. Tell him we got it all, everything Petrov had in his database. There was invaluable information on the Chameleon. It’ll put us back on his ass. I’d like to see both of you in my office in the morning to talk about it.”

  “I’ll tell him.”

  “By the way. Nice work on bringing Nescosto Priyatna down. It’s good to see you haven’t lost your talent. Welcome back, Kelly.”

  Chapter 21

  Three days later Casmir flew into Prague. As she descended from the plane she saw two cars waiting for them. Pasha had been kind enough to buy her clothes to wear. It wasn’t her usual style—Pasha had none—but she was grateful nonetheless.

  She stepped off the plane, and the two cars were a short distance away. Polax was standing next to one of them. She was in no mood to speak to him. He’d lied to her time and again about the mission, and she wasn’t ready to forgive him.

  He was smiling. She had expected that, but not the embrace he gave her as he greeted her.

  “It’s good to see you. Very good.”

  She winced when he gave her a squeeze, and he released her quickly. “Sorry, I just… Well, you did a fine job for us. I wanted you to know that.”

  “Where’s Mama?”

  “She’s here.” He motioned to the other car sitting on the tarmac. “She’s fine. Anxious to see you.”

  “You brought her here?” Casmir frowned. “But I haven’t had time to prepare what I’m going to say to her. I need to think up a—”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve handled it. Come on. I’ll walk with you.”

  As they began to walk toward the car she expected him to fill her in on how he’d handled it. But he never said another word. He was acting strange, she thought. Too kind. And what was that hug all about?

  He stopped ten feet short of the car and turned to her once more. “It really is good to have you back. You’ll be on sabbatical for a while. We’ll talk about the particulars later.”