The Phoenix

by Sidney Sheldon

  A couple of weeks too long, it now turned out.

  Oh God. Katherine MacAvoy put her head in her hands.

  Ella Praeger had slipped through their fingers. Again.

  How the hell was she going to explain this to the boss?

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Gabriel stood beneath a lamppost, waving as the black cab pulled away.

  He felt good.

  Content. Satisfied. At peace.

  There was something almost postcard romantic about the scene. The moonlit Mayfair street, on the corner of a cobbled mews. Gabriel’s Savile Row suit. Even the light drizzle helped with the general atmosphere of a classic London romance. And then of course there was the poignant look of farewell on Daisy’s pretty, wholesome, girl-next-door features as she looked through the rear window of the taxi, waving goodbye.

  Ah, Daisy. Twenty-eight, an officer’s daughter with a degree from the Courtauld and a job at Christie’s, she was the sort of girl featured on the engagement pages of Tatler magazine. The sort of girl that an upper-class English boy should bring home to mother, marry at an ancient village church in Hampshire, and go on to produce a large family of children with names like Torquil and Hermione.

  If Gabriel, in the guise of ‘Jeff Mason’, an American businessman, had been a blip in Daisy’s perfect English dating CV, then she had been a refreshing interlude in his jaded, world-weary womanizing. They’d met at Annabel’s one Saturday night, and enjoyed a passionate two-week fling that both of them knew couldn’t last. Tomorrow ‘Jeff’ left London for the States. But their brief affair had been enough to give Daisy a taste of an exotic ‘other’ world she would never again experience. And for Gabriel, it had achieved the minor miracle of banishing thoughts of Ella Praeger from his head, at least temporarily, and putting a dent in an obsession that was bordering on seriously problematic.

  The taxi turned out of sight. Time for bed. It was only a few blocks to Gabriel’s hotel and the rain was light, so he decided to walk. He did, in fact, have a flight back to the States tomorrow, his first trip home in almost four months. It was hard to believe he’d already completed two missions since Mykonos – since Ella. At first he’d resisted Redmayne’s decision to get him ‘out of sight, out of mind’. He’d refused to accept that his closeness to Ella had somehow endangered her safety, or her efficacy as an agent.

  ‘You could easily have let something slip, going rogue the way you did,’ the boss yelled at him.

  ‘Yes, but I didn’t,’ Gabriel yelled back. ‘We got Athena, for God’s sake. Isn’t that what you wanted?’

  ‘It was the first thing I wanted,’ Redmayne growled. ‘But not the only thing. It wasn’t worth the risk you took, Gabriel.’

  ‘So much for gratitude,’ Gabriel seethed.

  ‘What did you expect? A medal?’

  ‘Maybe,’ Gabriel shot back. ‘Why not? It wasn’t easy, you know.’

  ‘Well you’ve earned a medal for bull-headed arrogance, I’ll give you that,’ Redmayne snapped.

  ‘I’m going to Stockholm to get her,’ said Gabriel.

  ‘No you are not,’ Redmayne insisted.

  At the time, Gabriel was furious about his new deployments, but now he admitted grudgingly that, on this occasion, the boss may have been right. He’d needed to break ties with Ella, more than he’d realized. His current London trip was a detour, tying up a few loose ends on his way back from a dangerous assignment in Moscow. That had gone well. Along with a small team, Gabriel had successfully ‘neutralized’ a group of assassins targeting Western journalists and filmmakers who had dared to criticize the Kremlin regime. It was dirty work. But the mission had gone as smoothly as could be hoped, and it reminded him that the life he had chosen – working for The Group, taking on forces of evil that even security services were afraid to target – was valuable and important. Yes, sometimes the ‘means’ sucked. Sometimes, oftentimes, you had to be shitty and duplicitous and immoral and violent to people who might not deserve it. But we lived in a shitty, duplicitous, immoral and violent world. The bottom line was that the ‘ends’ of The Group’s missions were always justified.

  Well. Almost always. And that was good enough for Gabriel.

  He still hated Mark Redmayne on a personal level. And every time he thought about Ella, and his role in dragging her into all this, he felt a knife twist in his heart. But with each passing day it hurt less, as his old, self-sufficient persona regained strength. The work had helped. Time had helped. Daisy had helped. Tonight, for the first time in a long time, Gabriel felt light. Free. He would return to the States renewed, refreshed, and ready to be of service.

  ‘Evening, Mr Mason.’

  The receptionist at the Dorchester greeted him coyly, making no effort to hide her blatant sexual interest.

  ‘Hello, Anna.’

  ‘Are you turning in for the night? Can I … get you anything?’

  Gabriel thought about it. She was a seriously beautiful girl. And he missed Daisy terribly already.

  ‘Not tonight, thank you,’ he said regretfully. ‘I’ve a horribly early start in the morning.’

  Anna sighed. ‘Sweet dreams, then.’

  She would miss Jeff Mason.

  Upstairs in his suite, Gabriel poured himself a whisky from the minibar, drank it, stripped and showered. Powerful jets of hot water pummeled his aching shoulders, expelling the last traces of tension from his body. Stepping out, he reached for the oversized Egyptian cotton towel hanging on the rail when a movement in the mirror caught his eye.

  ‘Don’t move.’

  He’d already spun around but it was too late. The Glock, complete with silencer, glinted menacingly about six feet from his face, pointed right between his eyes.

  ‘One more step and I’ll kill you.’

  His eyes met those of his attacker, flashing a mixture of surprise and amusement as his fear dissipated.

  ‘Oh, I doubt you’ll do that, Ella.’

  ‘Try me.’

  In skintight dark blue jeans and a white tank top streaked with red and gold, with her short hair slicked back and her shooting arm fully extended, she looked stunning – lithe and tiny and exotic and deadly, a jungle mamba ready to strike. In other circumstances he would have been overjoyed to see her. But the loaded gun, snarling voice and eyes ablaze with hate put a bit of a dampener on the joyous reunion.

  ‘You’re angry.’ He raised his hands, and stepped back, like a footballer admitting a foul. The step was a mistake. Without hesitation Ella fired, a barely audible shot that missed his foot by millimeters.

  ‘Jesus!’

  ‘I SAID DON’T MOVE!’

  Gabriel’s amusement turned back to genuine fear. She wasn’t kidding around.

  ‘Ella—’ he began, but she cut him off.

  ‘You lied to me! About my parents. And Athena. You lied.’

  He returned her stony stare but didn’t deny it.

  ‘Athena Petridis never drowned my mother. My mother was still alive, two years after that summer. That whole story, the file you showed me, the pictures, the “evidence”. It was all faked. Wasn’t it? WASN’T IT?’

  ‘Yes.’ There was no point denying it. She clearly already knew the truth. And it was freeing in a way to be able to admit it, even if he was about to have his head blown off for it.

  ‘And you knew from the beginning?’

  He could deny that part, or at least try to. But that might anger her even further. He decided he might as well risk the truth.

  ‘I did. Yes.’ He looked down, conscious suddenly of his nakedness. ‘May I get a towel?’

  ‘NO!’ The shout vibrated with rage. ‘Don’t move. I mean it.’

  ‘Well would you throw one to me, then?’

  Ella hesitated for a second. Then, grabbing a hand towel from the basin behind her, tossed it towards him.

  He caught it one-handed. ‘It’s not very big.’

  Ella looked directly at his penis. ‘Yes, I’ve certainly seen bigger.’

  D
espite himself, he grinned, tying the tiny towel around himself as best he could.

  ‘Come on, Ella. Put the gun down. You don’t really want to kill me.’

  ‘Don’t I?’ Anger burned in her eyes. ‘You deceived me, in the worst way imaginable. I killed a woman because of you. You made me a killer.’

  ‘Athena was a monster,’ Gabriel shot back. ‘She deserved to die.’

  ‘That’s not the point!’

  ‘It is the point. Do you regret it?’

  Ella stared at him in astonishment. ‘Of course I regret it! Do you think I enjoy murder?’

  ‘Well, you certainly enjoyed the thrill of the chase.’

  Ella blushed scarlet, hating the fact that this was true.

  ‘That’s not fair and you know it! I thought I was avenging my—’

  He hit her before she knew what happened, flying across the bathroom, the full force of his still-warm body slamming into Ella’s, pinning her back against the tiled wall. She felt a sharp pain in her back and head, heard the gun clatter to the floor. He kicked it away, securing her arms behind her back and manhandling her effortlessly into the bedroom.

  ‘Stop fighting me,’ he commanded. ‘Stop it or your arm will break.’

  He forced her onto the bed, his face inches above hers.

  ‘Listen to me, Ella.’

  ‘No!’ She shook her head furiously, closing her eyes like a petulant child, refusing to look at its parent. ‘I won’t listen to you, ever again. Why should I? You’re a liar.’

  Gabriel let out a groan of exasperation. ‘You’re right. I am a liar. I lied to you, to get you to join The Group, to get you to help us. I had to.’

  ‘You didn’t “have to”. You had a choice and you made the wrong one.’

  ‘No, Ella.’ His voice softened. ‘That’s not how it works. If the boss gives an order, you follow it. The Group votes for the leader, but day to day we’re not a democracy. We’re an army. It’s the only way we can operate and stay safe.’

  ‘Bullshit.’ Ella shot back. ‘You break plenty of rules. We broke them together.’

  ‘That’s true,’ he admitted. ‘But that was different.’

  ‘How?’

  He closed his eyes and shook his head. It was hard having a rational conversation with someone whilst trying to restrain them from clawing out your eyeballs.

  ‘Because you’re different, Ella. Your gifts, what you bring to The Group, to our work. Your potential. That’s more important than anything else. I did feel bad, colluding in the lie about Athena killing your parents. And I did argue with Redmayne about it. So did Nikkos, and other people who knew. But you know what? We were wrong. We were wrong and the boss was right. Your anger for what you lost and your need for vengeance – those were your drivers, your most powerful emotions at the time of your recruitment. The Group has always worked by identifying people’s drivers and harnessing them.’

  ‘Manipulating them, you mean,’ hissed Ella. ‘You manipulated me, sucked me in, just like you did to my mother and father.’

  ‘We used your rage and anger and pain to perform a great good,’ Gabriel countered.

  ‘I didn’t perform a great good’ Ella sobbed. ‘I murdered somebody.’

  ‘Technically, perhaps. But killing Athena Petridis was justified, Ella. It was a collective goal for The Group. It was right. All the more so because it enabled your initiation. You’re one of us now.’

  ‘No.’ She shook her head again. ‘I’m not. I’m not one of you.’

  ‘Oh yes you are.’ His face moved closer. ‘You destroyed your enemy, you defeated evil, and it felt good. Admit it. You can blame me if you want to, Ella. Or Redmayne, or anybody else you want to. But the truth is, you felt that rush of power and you loved it, the same way we all love it. The Group is your calling. It’s your destiny, what you were born to do. And your powers are greater than any of ours. Your powers could change the world, Ella.’

  When his lips first touched hers, Ella flinched. She didn’t want to change the world. She didn’t want to be part of a group that had trapped and terrorized her parents, lied to her, and – for all she knew – was still lying, however much ‘good’ they did in the world. But she did want him. She wished she didn’t, but there could be no denying it now. She wanted Gabriel. His mouth, his body, his scent. She wanted to know him. The real him, not just the avatar he became on missions.

  ‘Close your eyes,’ he whispered gruffly, sensing the change in her emotions, her body.

  This time, Ella did as he asked, losing herself in the physical, the intoxicating feeling of his hands on her body, shedding her clothes like a snake slipping off its skin. There had been so much held back between them, so many lies, even in their closest moments. But this: his body around her, inside her, her hands in his hair pulling him closer, deeper. This was truth. This was reality. The past – her parents, Athena and the enormity of what she’d done – all fell away, overwhelmed by a present so blissful and powerful that there was no room for anything else. No doubts. No regrets. Even the white noise in her head, the signals that ran through her brain constantly like the background hum of a generator, had been pushed aside. All that was left was sweat and heat and pleasure, two animals pulled together by a life force stronger than either of them.

  ‘Ella!’

  Her name rang out like an echo in the darkness, but she pushed that out too, putting a hand to his lips.

  No words. Words aren’t the truth.

  They made love for hours, more times than Ella could count. Afterwards, words began to come back to her. Questions, half formed through exhaustion, but urgent again, demanding to be heard like impatient children.

  Did he know what had really happened to her parents? Or who the ‘M’ might have been that her father referred to in his letters, as her mother’s ‘dangerous’ lover? She couldn’t yet allow herself to hope that maybe, just maybe, her mother and father were still alive, still out there somewhere. But the possibility hovered in her subconscious like a shimmering cloud, its silver glow refusing to fade completely, despite the odds.

  Gabriel stroked her hair, pulling her damp, spent body closer against his own.

  ‘I don’t know, Ella. All of that was long before my time.’

  ‘Is that the truth?’ she mumbled, sleep already overtaking her. ‘Or another lie?’

  ‘It’s the truth. I swear to you. No more lies.’

  ‘Promise?’

  ‘Promise.’

  Closing his eyes, he inhaled the scent of her, hoping with all his heart that it was a promise he might be able to keep.

  It was gray when Ella opened her eyes. Heavy, laden rainclouds hung over the London skyline and a film of drizzle coated the windows. Gabriel was already up and dressed, standing next to the opened curtains in chinos and an open-necked shirt, sipping a cup of coffee and staring at Ella lovingly. A wave of desire tore through her.

  ‘Sorry to wake you.’

  She sat up, rubbing her eyes blearily. ‘What time is it?’

  ‘Early.’ Pouring a second cup of coffee for her, he brought it over to the bed. Sitting beside her he smelled of lemon verbena shower gel and toothpaste. Delicious. ‘I have to go,’ he whispered, setting the mug down on the bedside table. ‘My flight’s in an hour.’

  Ella felt as if she’d been punched. ‘Flight? What flight? To where?’

  ‘Washington.’ He took her hand and squeezed it.

  Ella squeezed back miserably. She could already feel him slipping through her fingers. ‘Can I meet you there?’

  ‘There won’t be time. I’ll only be there a day or two.”

  A day or two. That was good. That was OK.

  “After that they’re sending me on a new assignment.’

  Ella’s face fell. ‘A new … where?’ She hated how desperate she sounded, but it was too soon for this. Too soon for him to go. To leave her again.

  He looked pained. ‘I can’t tell you that.’

  ‘Well how long will you be gone?�
�

  ‘I don’t know. But when I’m back, I’ll come and find you. OK?’

  ‘No!’ Ella snatched away her hand and sat up, pulling the sheet around her to cover her nakedness, which was ridiculous after last night, but she was angry. ‘It’s not OK. None of this is OK. I can’t live like this.’

  He looked at her bemused. ‘Of course you can. This is how we live, Ella. It’s what we do. You’ll be on a new assignment yourself soon.’

  She shook her head. ‘Oh no I won’t. My only ‘assignment’ is to find out what happened to my father and mother after Rachel went to Africa with “M”. For all I know, The Group could be behind their disappearance.’

  Gabriel rolled his eyes. ‘Come on.’

  ‘“Come on” what?’ said Ella. ‘They could be. So until I know exactly what happened, I’m not going anywhere.’ She pouted petulantly. ‘And neither you nor Redmayne can make me.’

  To her annoyance, Gabriel erupted into loud and very genuine laughter.

  ‘I don’t see what’s so funny.’

  ‘I know you don’t.’ He kissed the top of her head affectionately. ‘It’s one of the many things I love about you.’

  Reluctantly, he got to his feet. ‘I have to go.’

  ‘Fine,’ Ella said grumpily from the bed, still refusing to look at him. Did he really think he’d placated her with last night’s promises? That she would forgive and forget Redmayne’s deception, and meekly return to The Group, ready to do their bidding? If he did, then he didn’t know her half as well as he thought he did. Whoever “M’ turned out to be, he had better be looking over his shoulder. Because Ella Praeger wouldn’t rest until she found him. She might love Gabriel, but from now on she trusted nobody but herself.

  ‘I could have killed you last night, you know,’ she reminded him.

  Gabriel grinned. ‘You very nearly did.’

  Ella tried hard to stop it but it was no good. The smile crept over her face anyway.