by Beth Abbott
“You said half of the work was on the engineering project.” She reminded him. “What is the other half doing?”
“They’re involved in medical research.” Gregor explained, no less enthusiastic. “We have teams trying to develop new types of antibiotics, which people are less likely to build a resistance to.”
“That’s an unusual area of medicine to be involved in.” Tulli frowned. “I thought most research programmes were involved with looking to cure cancers, or Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. That sort of thing.”
“Many are, and I do give large sums of money to all of those research projects here in the US.” Gregor explained. “But the reducing effectiveness of antibiotics is one of the biggest worries of the twenty-first century. If we don’t come up with something to replace existing antibiotics, in fifty years, maybe less, we could find ourselves with nothing to fight even the most common infections. Can you imagine what that would be like? People would start dying in large numbers from simple bacterial infections. It’s something the medical world keep shouting about, but governments are turning a deaf ear to.”
“But you’re listening.” Tulli said simply, her admiration for him growing by the minute.
“I’m not alone.” Gregor said simply. “A number of us are putting our money to good use on similar projects.”
“A number of you billionaires, do you mean?” Tulli teased.
“Yes, a number of us billionaires.” Gregor chuckled. “But unlike the various projects funded by different governments, we’re actually talking to each other, sharing knowledge, and most importantly, we’re not wasting time and money duplicating the same tests. Every penny we spend is actually used to make progress.”
“I envy you.” Tulli smiled. “You have so much passion for what you do. It’s amazing.”
“Hah, that’s just a small percentage of what I do. Maybe, one percent?” Gregor sounded rueful. “A lot of it is just your average day to day running of a large business, checking in with my senior management team, and running through any new projects. Nowhere near as exciting.”
“Well, it all sounds exciting to me.” Tulli argued. “I’d give my right arm to be involved in anything that made me use my brain. I feel like I’ve forgotten everything I ever learned.”
“You just need to be patient, Tulli.” Gregor said soothingly. “Once this mess has sorted itself out, then your life can start again. It won’t be long now. I promise.”
“I guess.” Tulli found it hard to show any enthusiasm. How could she when her future was so completely out of her hands? “Did Tuck tell you I messaged the college my father was hired by?”
“No, he didn’t. Did it get you any further towards finding out where your family’s belongings were?” Gregor sounded genuinely interested.
“No, not yet.” Tulli admitted. “I think the person who picked up the email was more worried that we were going to sue the college for wrongful termination of employment. She kept telling me to speak to the legal department. Even when I explained that my father was dead, and therefore couldn’t have been wrongfully terminated, she wasn’t sure whether she should be talking to me. In the end I got the number of some woman I need to speak to in legal, but she’s not in the office until Monday.”
“Ok, well the delay sucks, but at least you’ve taken the first step.” Gregor encouraged. “That’s a big positive. And it’s just the first of many small steps you’ll be taking over the next few weeks. You should be proud of yourself, Tulli. You’re already moving forwards.”
Tulli felt the tears prick the back of her eyes, and within a couple of seconds she had no choice but to sniff.
“Tulli?” Gregor didn’t miss anything. “Did I upset you, sweetheart? Are you Ok?”
“I’m fine.” She whispered. “I just wish…”
Gregor waited patiently, but Tulli just couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Talk to me, Tulli.” Gregor’s voice was gentle and concerned. “Tell me what I said that upset you.”
“Oh, Gregor, you said nothing to upset me.” She reassured him, laughing as she sniffed again. “You always say the nicest things to me, positive things, that I just wanted to hug you. And then I remembered that I couldn’t, because I’m here and you’re not.”
“Ok, that’s it. I’m coming over there right now!” Gregor sounded as though he was already moving.
“NO! Please Gregor.” She almost shrieked. “You can’t do that! It’s too dangerous.”
“Tulli, you’re upset, and you need a hug.” Gregor sounded frustrated. “And so do I, damn it!”
Tulli was more than a little surprised by Gregor’s outburst, and just a tiny bit amused at his admission that he needed a hug.
“If you asked nicely, I’m sure Dmitri would give you a hug.” She suggested and was rewarded with a Gregor chuckle.
“He probably would.” Gregor admitted. “But there’s only one person whose arms I want wrapped around me, and she’s being stubborn about letting me come and visit with her.”
Tulli couldn’t help but smile at the warmth his words created.
“I want you to stay safe, Gregor.” She pointed out. “And if depriving myself of your arms means that I can keep you from getting hurt, then it’s a small sacrifice to make.”
“Once this is all done with, you’re going to be thoroughly sick of having my arms around you.” Gregor assured her. “I fully intend to hug you every free minute of the day. And I should warn you that as the boss, I get to decide how many minutes are free ones, and at the moment I’m leaning towards all of them.”
Tulli chuckled.
“You’re not making that sound like something I’ll get sick of.” She tried to imagine ever wanting him to stop. Ok, maybe she could think of one or two scenarios. “As long as I get reasonable bathroom breaks, and time to attend to hygiene issues, such as showers and putting clean clothes on, I reckon you can hug away all you like.”
“I’ll agree to regular bathroom breaks, but as to showers and dressing… well, maybe I could help you out that way. I’m really good with a loofah.” He snorted. “And I’ve been able to manage buttons and zippers since I was about five. I think I’m well-qualified.”
Tulli loved this silly, flirty side of Gregor, and wondered how many people had ever seen this side of him. Precious few, she reckoned.
“I guess I could give you a trial run. In fact, I think I could get used to the whole hugging non-stop thing.” She agreed easily. “How long do you think it might take for you to be hugged out?”
“I’m thinking never.” Gregor admitted. “But let’s err on the cautious side and go for sixty years.”
Tulli burst out laughing.
“Did anyone ever tell you you’re a funny guy, Mr Diminov?” She snorted.
“Did anyone ever tell you I might not be joking, Ms Mazur?” He replied.
Before Tulli could respond, she heard a distant buzzing.
“Tulli? That’s my notification that the Japanese are coming on-line.” Gregor sighed, obviously frustrated. “I don’t know how long this will last, because often it goes on for a few hours. Can I call you in the morning, after breakfast and your swim?”
“About ten o’clock would be fine.” Tulli agreed, wishing she didn’t have to let him go.
“Sleep well, Tulli.” Gregor’s voice was so soft.
“Sweet dreams, Gregor.” She replied.
The click of the call ending was the most horrible sound.
“I’m missing you already.” She whispered to no one.
Chapter 39 – Hannah
“D’you know what I love about not having the kids jumping into bed with us in the mornings?” Danny’s voice in the quiet early morning made Hannah jump.
“Shit! You asshole! You nearly gave me heart failure!” She scolded, glancing at her husband over the top of the laptop screen on Tuck’s desk.
Danny was leaning against the doorframe, wearing jeans and an unbuttoned shirt, a steaming mug of coffee in
his hand.
“It’s when I wake up in the early morning, with my beautiful wife’s ass pushed into my groin, my hands already cupping her luscious breasts, and I can slide into her warm heat without hardly having to move a muscle. Well… except the important ones!” He continued as though she’d never spoken.
Hannah stared at Danny in shock.
“Thanks for sharing that with us, honey.” Candy’s voice came from the sofa, where she and Tuck were reading the newspaper, just out of Danny’s line of vision. “It’s a tiny bit more information than I need to hear with my morning coffee, but that’s the thing about family time… sometimes you end up sharing more than you want to.”
To Hannah’s disgust, Danny didn’t so much as blush. He simply stuck his head around the corner and grinned.
“Oh, hey guys. Didn’t see you there.” He chuckled. “It’s a good job you spoke up when you did. I was just thinking that my wife was looking so hot in the morning light, it would be fun to take her bent over that desk!”
“DANNY!” Hannah gasped. “When will you ever learn that there are things you say in public, and things you say in private, and sex talk definitely comes under the ‘private’ category!”
“Oh, come on!” Danny rolled his eyes at her. “Do you seriously think that a desk that sturdy hasn’t seen quite a bit of action in its lifetime?”
Danny turned to Tuck and Candy, who, to Hannah’s amazement were both blushing profusely.
“Am I right?” He grinned.
Tuck was the first to recover.
“On the basis that it will incriminate me either way, I’d like to plead the fifth amendment over whether I’d like to plead the fifth amendment.” He responded.
Danny turned to Hannah with a frown.
“Did he just admit it or not?” He asked.
“I think the response was a polite way of saying ‘no comment’, so as you’re running a risk of offending your hosts even more than you might have already, why don’t you zip it, hmm?” Hannah suggested.
Danny shrugged as he walked further into the room.
“Well, in case you missed the point of my earlier statement, all I was suggesting was that next time, you wake me first before sneaking off to be a genius.” He grouched.
“Ok.” Hannah hissed. “Message received and understood.”
Hannah glanced over at Candy, who had recovered from her embarrassment about the desk, and was now grinning at her.
Yeah, this was absolutely typical Danny behaviour, and they’d all come to expect nothing less of him.
“So, watcha doing that has you up and enthralled at… seven-thirty in the morning?” He came around to stand behind the desk and study the screen. “Is that Gregor’s place?”
“Yeah.” Hannah nodded. “That was taken yesterday by the PPD chopper doing a routine sweep.”
“And you were staring at it so hard because…?” Danny sat in Tuck’s chair and pulled Hannah back onto his lap.
“I don’t know.” Hannah admitted. “There’s just something not right about it.”
Danny peered over her shoulder.
“It just looks like a regular property to me. Nothing strange about it.” He shrugged. “Assuming that the car out front is Gregor’s of course.”
Tuck stood up from the sofa and came to stand behind the two of them.
“That looks like the car that he had me picked up in.” He confirmed. “If you look, there’s an identical one parked behind the security lodge.”
“What looks wrong about it?” Candy asked, coming up next to Tuck and slipping her arm around his waist. “Have you compared it with the one Gregor sent us from before he had the running track installed? That might show something.”
Hannah clicked a few keys and then they were looking at the two pictures on side by side screens.
“Apart from where the original picture doesn’t have the track, and where the new one does, I can’t make anything out that’s different. Can anyone else?” Tuck asked.
“Umm, yeah.” Hannah pointed at the screen. “Look at that.”
She pointed at the picture that had been taken the day before, and near one of the walls adjoining the next property, there seemed to be some kind of vehicle.
“Hannah, that isn’t even Gregor’s land.” Danny pointed out. “That’s the separating wall, and whatever that thing might be is on his neighbour’s property. It’s not even on Gregor’s side.”
“But it’s not on the other picture.” Hannah pointed out. “And it’s a long way from the house, so why would they park a vehicle all the way up there? It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe it’s an earth-mover, and they’re about to have some work done in the garden?” Tuck suggested. “There are a few large trees in the vicinity. Perhaps they’re going to have one of them felled?”
Hannah glanced at Tuck like he was going nuts.
“Does that seriously look like an earth mover to you?” She scoffed.
She pulled another laptop up in front of her and started to tap away, quickly accessing several websites looking for suitable satellites in the area.
“Hannah, did you just hack into the International Space Station server?” Hannah could hear the change in Tuck’s breathing.
“No!” She laughed. “Well, kinda! It’s not the ISS main server, but one they share with a few other parts of the agency programme.”
She turned and smiled at Tuck reassuringly.
“And I didn’t have to hack it.” She chuckled. “It doesn’t look good when all the US government and security agency servers get hacked all the time. It’s bad for their reputation.”
“So, how did you get in so fast?” Candy marvelled.
“They gave me my own login credentials and passwords.” Hannah shrugged. “That way it’s easier and quicker for me, and they can be sure I’m not doing things I shouldn’t be doing.”
“Don’t you still do stuff that maybe you shouldn’t be doing?” Danny looked at his wife suspiciously. “You haven’t gone completely legit, have you?”
“Of course not.” She laughed. “But if I’m doing something I don’t want them to see, I just hack in, like in the old days, and wipe everything clean before I leave. I only use my credentials for the ‘who gives a shit?’ stuff.”
Hannah clicked a few more keys and the screen split into a dozen smaller ones.
“Oh, come on!” She groaned. “One of you has got to be facing the right way!”
She flicked through each screen before she found something she recognised.
“Hah! Got you buster!” She smiled at Danny. “They’ve got one staring at DC! It won’t take me a minute to realign it to look at Philly.”
It actually took three minutes to move the satellite to where Hannah wanted it, but nobody was complaining about the delay.
When she eventually got it into the right position, the co-ordinates pointing it straight at Gregor’s house, she started to alter the zoom, taking it right down to almost street level.
A few more clicks, and they were staring at what looked like the top of a Humvee or armoured vehicle.
“That’s a strange thing to have in the middle of your garden.” Candy frowned, getting as close to the screen as she could. “And why are there people dotted around the garden?”
“Landscaping seems a bit far-fetched, wouldn’t you say?” Danny offered.
“What’s that?” Tuck pointed to a spot next to the neighbour’s house. A second vehicle seemed to be on the move, but instead of heading down the driveway, it was going up and over the lawn.
“I’ve got a really bad feeling about this, guys.” Hannah whispered. “What if those are Lucky’s men, and they’re about to attack, straight through the adjoining wall?”
As they watched, a third vehicle started to move away from the house.
“Shit!” Tuck breathed. “This is about to go down!”
“They’re not going to have enough men!” Danny jumped from the seat, almost sending Hannah sprawl
ing across the desk. “We need weapons and bodies.”
“Charlie’s in the kitchen with Joel. Get him, then get Marcus.” Tuck instructed Danny. “I’ll grab all the weapons we need. Hannah, get onto the Feds and the PPD. Let them know what we suspect is about to happen. Then call Brandon. We need every willing volunteer we can get.”
“What about me?” Candy asked, not making any assumptions as to where her husband would want her.
“I need you to stay here with Hannah.” Tuck growled. “This isn’t me being a chauvinist pig, sweetheart, but Hannah’s gonna be feeding us information to launch a counter-assault. She’s going to need someone to help keep in touch with the various groups as they move in. We don’t want any blue on blue incidents.”
Candy nodded and turned to Hannah.
“What first?”
Chapter 40 – Lucky
“Ok, is everyone in position? Remember, I want Diminov alive! He’s mine!”
Luciana waited for the mumbles affirming everyone was exactly where they should be.
Jesus’s deep, yet scratchy voice was unmistakable.
“Ok, it’s one minute to eight o’clock. We go in… forty-five seconds.”
She let the silence wash over her as the clock clicked down.
“Ok, five, four, three… two… one… Attack!”
She turned to her cousins and grinned. It was like old times, with just the three of them getting up to mischief.
She glanced at the dash and noticed Sol was doing over eighty. At this rate, they’d be at their destination in less than five minutes.
Four would have been better, but she’d take five.
Let the good times roll!
Chapter 41 – Gregor
“So, how’s Alex doing?” Gregor was smiling broadly hearing his daughter so happy. “Is he following doctor’s orders and not exerting himself?”
Sophia’s laughter was infectious.
“Well, he may be following a doctor’s instructions, but the doctor in question certainly isn’t me!” She snorted. “Actually, though, although he’s being very typically Alex, and stubbornly whistling to his own tune, he’s actually being very cautious and sensible. He knows that his entire military career depends on him being fit enough to rejoin his men. That means that he has to get his shoulder back almost as good as new or he doesn’t stand a chance.”