Commandeered (Mercury Black Authority Book 2)

by Finian Blake

  Susan and Lynn were waiting at the Hospital. Adam brought them both out of the room and explained about Liz and the actions taken. He asked their advice about telling Terri. After some discussion, it was agreed that Terri should be told without delay. Susan and Lynn came in the room and stood back while Adam explained that Liz tried to kill her.

  He made it a point to emphasize that what happened was not due to anything that she had done. The only mistake that Terri made was trusting Liz. She rolled away from him and cried quietly. She loved Liz and found the betrayal shattering. The whirlpool of emotions combined with the drugs leaving her in total confusion. Liz was her twin and was carrying Adam’s baby. How could she do this? What was Adam feeling about this mess? He lost two children and one wife. She would never be able to have children again. Terri was drowning in remorse. She could not even look at Adam. Susan and Lynn left because they were exhausted. Adam spent the rest of the day trying to comfort Terri. It was a critical time for her.

  Roger and Anna returned to Manchester Airport after taking out the trash with Frank picking them up and stopping by the hospital to check on Terri. They looked in the room seeing Adam with his head against her back and both hands on her side. Terri opened her eyes. She could feel Adam against her back, so Terri gave them a weak smile and waved them in.

  “Anna, what did Adam do about Liz?” Terri was worried about Adam.

  “Adam did nothing,” Anna whispered in her ear. “I did what had to be done. He might have asked me, but I did it first. It was quick and certain. I did not take revenge.”

  “What did you do with her?”

  “She went to feed the fish with Dianne,” Terri loved Liz. How could Anna do this? It was the sense of betrayal that ate at her the most. She and Adam went to extremes to make Liz fit in with her new life, but Liz wanted it all even Adam.

  Anna wanted to reassure her. “What about…” Terri patted Adam’s hand. She knew his feelings about betrayal.

  “He will manage just as you will,” Anna said as Adam reached up, stroking her head.

  “There are things that we all have to deal with. Right now, I want my Terri back. Sarah will help Anna and Suki straighten up the Knoll. They will clean all of Liz’s personal things out of the apartment and move all of Liz’s things from the house.”

  The three ladies went to work as soon as Anna returned to the Inn. The studio was a problem. They pulled all of Liz’s pictures out of it and removed the foot board with Liz’s name on it from the bed having the wood worker replace her name with an inlay. Sarah looked around at the setup. She took a walk to the editing area in the basement.

  “I could make this work. This equipment is top notch.”

  Suki pushed the idea, “We will need to talk to Terri, although I am sure that Adam will go along with it. All that I have to do is mention it.”

  Anna wanted to push her own agenda, “We can load it up and move it to LA.”

  Sarah took Anna’s hand and shook her head. “I mean that I can make this work, here.” She waved her arm around the room. Anna frowned at the thought that she would not be reclaiming her sister.

  “It is your choice to make,” Anna knew that she could get to the Inn a lot easier than she could get to Soviet Georgia. She sighed, “Let’s talk to Adam.”

  Adam was preparing to pick up Terri from the hospital when they found him. Anna pushed Sarah forward until she finally spoke up.

  “I can make this work,” Sarah said pointing to the studio. She meant to make a better approach to the subject.

  “Make what work…?”

  “I mean, I can make the studio work. One of my earlier responsibilities was running a photo reconnaissance division for the army. I can make this studio pay.” Adam reflected back to the opening of the pub. He remembered Sarah and Terri walking arm and arm as if they had known each other forever.”

  “It’s yours. Do what you will with it.” He said it weakly without emotion.

  “I mean that I want to work it here.”

  “I did too. It is all yours to do with as you please.” Sarah went to say something else. Anna pulled on her arm and led her away.

  “Adam meant what he said.” Sarah could not believe that it was that easy. “He needs to pick up Terri. We can talk about it when he gets back.”

  Sarah threw her arms around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth, “Thank you.” Adam got in the front seat of the Bentley driving off with Frank. He cracked a smile. It was the first real emotion he experienced since the opening of the pub.

  As they drove to the hospital, he decided to test his decision on Frank. “It looks like Sarah will be your new neighbor.”

  “I could do worse at least Terri likes her.” Frank smiled and drove on.

  The few days in the hospital and several pints of blood put some of the color back in Terri’s face and she was starting to come to grips with the emotional aspects. Susan picked out one of her loose dresses for Terri to go home in. The stitches which were covered by a thick bandage would be with her for at least a week. Everybody wanted to take her home but it was acknowledged that Adam would do the honors with Frank. He was earlier than they agreed upon, and the doctor still needed to sign the release.

  “It is a pure thrill to see you vertical. I have been longing for this day.” Adam said happily.

  “I am not anxious to go back” Terri said weakly. We still have to deal with the studio. What the hell are we going to do with all of that equipment?”

  “I gave the equipment to a person that wanted the space.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Sarah said that she could make a go of the studio. Her resume checked out and Anna vouched for her. We still have a studio. Sarah will even take the apartment.”

  Terri moaned, “I can’t…”

  “You seemed to like her,” Adam pushed. “How about giving it a chance? The least you can do is talk to her,”

  “Alright, I’ll talk to her.”

  Adam was crossing his fingers all the way home. He could feel Terri tense as the Bentley pulled in the gate. Everybody from the Inn was there to meet her. Susan and Lynn arranged a picnic in the Knoll’s courtyard. The conversation was casual and light. An hour into the picnic, Terri started to fade. Adam picked her up and started into the house. Sarah and Anna looked anxious as Adam carried her over to them.

  “Are you the man in control,” Anna joked at Adam. Terri was fading fast. She smiled weakly at the two well-wishers.

  “Adam told me about the studio. Everything will be as discussed. Make any changes you wish. You can have the equipment. We can talk later.” Sarah ran up to Terri and gave her a warm kiss on the cheek. She kissed Adam the same way.

  Adam reassured her, “Make your plans as if it were written in stone. You can have the studio at the same price that Liz was paying.”

  “What was that?”

  “Family rates apply, zero down and zero a month. Now go play. I will be over as soon as I get Terri in bed, we can talk later.” Adam laid Terri in bed and stayed with her until she was asleep. He opened the bedroom door to find Lynn waiting in the sitting room. She stood up walking in the bedroom without invitation taking the chair that was next to the bed.

  “We are not going to leave her alone for a second. Go take care of business.” Lynn’s dog Shultz was with her. He would not get more than a few inches from Lynn. “I think that he knows something.” Between Lynn and Terri, Shultz was in full protect mode.

  Adam started to look for Anna and Sarah finding them in the kitchen of the apartment.

  “We have other business to discuss.” Adam decided to skip the preliminaries. “How far do you wish to take this matter with your generals? I do not wish to exceed your intentions. I have to complete my contract with them. I promised them so much gold for so many weapons. I also promised one million in bribe money, one million each in profit and settlement in America for each general. After I deliver there is your business. However, I do have an id
ea.” The two ladies remained silent.

  “I normally do what I am doing for you right now. My option is letting the CIA settle them in. When I kill you, the letters will go out and their accounts will be seized by your government. Your name will be cleared and you will be listed as being dead. They will go down as traitors for selling guns to the Afghans. You will not kill them but they will sure be on someone’s list. Will that be good enough?” Anna and Sarah put their heads together whispering back and forth. After several minutes they returned to Adam.

  “It may work better than killing them.”

  “I need to kill you then.” This comment brought a worried look to Sarah’s face, so Adam expanded his explanation. “You need to be officially dead, so that they are only looking for the generals, and Anna has to tell them that their papers will be provided by the CIA. I am going to need a pint of your blood for now and another pint just before you leave. Where were you going to stay on your vacation?”

  “I had an ocean front house in Gonio. It is for high ranking officers and party members. I parked my car there and I left my luggage in the house. They let me have it for the month.”

  “It sounds like they didn’t want you to find out about the airlift and that might work in our favor. We should be able to set up something convincing. We can do the airlift on the night of the sixteenth and pull a raid on the house at the same time. I will have Frank and the old men set something up. Anna, get a hold of your contacts and set the sixteenth for our airlift. I will put everything else in motion.” He looked around the studio before leaving. “Feel free to change any of the furnishings to your taste and I will pay the bill. I would like to redecorate before Terri spends too much time up here.” Sarah and Anna knew exactly what he meant.

  Adam went over to Frank’s apartment to arrange the raid on the vacation home finding that Frank was making lunch.

  “I understand that you are planning a little action. Is there any role that the lads can play,” Frank asked as he placed his lunch on the table.

  “We have to kill Sarah in a convincing manner. I am going to need your help.”

  “What did you have in mind?” Frank took a bite of his sandwich offering Adam a seat.

  “I anticipate that they are sending a team to kill her. I don’t know if they have been there yet or not. They might be waiting for Seraphina right now. There are several million at stake. I don’t think that they will just fold up and quit. This one could be complicated. I am not going to assume that you are going to do this.”

  “The lads are always interested in some action. Toss me a few ideas, and we will see what can be done.”

  “Sera, is supposed to be staying at a beach house east of Gonio. I thought we might come in from the sea and do a quick recon. Her car is parked outside of the house and her luggage is in the house. Sera, is going to give us a pint or so of her blood to splash around. I was thinking that you could work out the details with her. We need to use current Russian weapons for the job so that it looks like it was a Russian team that did the job and we will need military precision for the attack. I was hoping that you could work out the fine details with her. Seraphina knows the area.”

  “I will get Mark up here to work this out he is good at tactics,” Frank volunteered. “We will talk to Seraphina and see what we can do. Stop down at the pub around seven and we will compare notes. How is my daughter?”

  Adam gave a weak smile, “She seems to be in better shape. Lynn is sitting with her while I run these quick errands. Lynn will not leave her alone for a second. We will be back at the house in a few minutes.”

  Frank went over to the studio and Adam went back to the house. Terri was sleeping peacefully in Lynn’s arms. Shultz was lying close to Lynn by the side of the bed giving Adam a short growl as he approached the bed.

  “Relax he knows that I am pregnant, Shultz is in the protective mode.” He slipped on to the other side of the bed. Lynn started to get up and he pushed her gently down.

  “You do not have to go. Terri loves you too.”

  Lynn smiled putting her arms back around Terri. Terri gave a dreamy smile stroking her arm softly. They gave Adam his time with Terri and now it was time to reciprocate. He wanted to keep Terri away from the studio until Sarah and Anna had done their work. Frank only made it as far as the door when Sarah and Anna came out.

  “We need some help from the rest of the men. Could you please give them a call?”

  Frank called up all of the 'Old Men' asking them to come to the studio. Sarah went around pointing out things that needed to be removed. As they worked she filled Frank in on the area surrounding Gonio. They interrupted her several times to ask questions about the vacation house. She had them switch beds with one of the others from the cottages. There were enough quality spare furnishings around the Inn to cover ninety percent of what was needed. The only thing that remained to do was to switch out the kitchen. She offered the pots, pans, and other kitchen ware to them for their help. Sarah planned to go shopping in the morning for the replacements. She invited Beth and Arlene up and they started remaking the draperies and bed curtains. Terri was their darling and they were more than happy to oblige in an effort to ease her pain. Beth and Arlene put their full resources on the project and by five PM they had removed most traces of Liz. Susan allowed them to switch out the bed linens and provided some of hers to complete the change. Sarah went around the studio removing all of Liz’s pictures.

  Sarah found a bag with several bottles of medicine tucked into the back of the top shelf of the linen closet. Many of the bottles had Dianne’s name on them. There were thirty bundles wrapped in foil in the bag. Liz retrieved the poison kit from one of Dianne’s stashes. Susan quietly wondered if they were ever going to be rid of that crazy bitch. Inside the bag there was a note:

  IF YOU READ THIS NOTE I HAVE FAILED. TERRI KEEPS TALKING ABOUT HOW ADAM WILL HAVE NOTHING IF SHE DEVORICES HIM. I MUST PROTECT ADAM. I LOVE TERRI BUT ADAM KILLED TO SAVE MY LIFE. I MUST PROTECT ADAM. The three women read the note. Most disturbing was the files under the bag. In them was all of the information Dianne collected on the Inn finding pictures of Terri, Lynn, Suki and Susan. Susan was first to speak.

  “This is a Greek tragedy,” Susan observed.

  “It is more like a Tolstoy novel,” Sarah added. “The tragedy never stops. What do we tell Adam?” Susan took the bag and the note from Sarah.

  “We tell nobody about the note or the bag. The tragedy ends here. Adam and Terri both believe they have the truth and are adjusting to it. There is nothing but harm that can come from this.” Anna reflected on the events leading up to this discovery. Susan dumped the foil packets on the floor. Adam gave you the studio and its contents. I guess you can keep these. Sarah picked up a bundle pealing back the foil. Her jaw dropped when she saw the contents.

  “With all of these bundles, there must be thirty thousand Pounds here.”

  “I want nothing to do with it.” Susan spun around and ran out the door leaving Anna and Sarah alone.

  “Sarah it is possible that I would have made the same decision even with this note. There is one piece of good that can come out of this.” Anna took Sarah’s hands in hers. “Sarah we need to cancel this business with the Generals. We do not know for sure that they intended to kill you. You are still alive and have a new identity plus you have the studio with all of its equipment. I will give you the funds to make this work and I know that Adam will do whatever it takes to protect you. It is entirely up to you, but I suggest that we release Adam to fill the contract with honor.”

  “Do we destroy the in the event of my death letter?”

  “No, but we will not use it. We will just kill you and let Adam set up the rest of the contract in his normal fashion. If there is a need for the letter it can surface at any time.”

  “Adam would do anything that you want. He owes you,” Sarah said. Anna shook her head in denial.

  “He does not owe me. We are exchanging loyalties, not debts. What I did wa
s out of loyalty. Liz thought she was being loyal to him. He has the same loyalty for me. If you release him to do what he needs to do, you will have his loyalty and that is worth more than revenge.” Sarah nodded her agreement.

  Anna continued, “Our whole operation is based on loyalty and Adam is as loyal to us as we are to him or as loyal as I am to you or any of the other people here.” Sarah had seen enough to trust Anna’s judgment.

  The two women found Adam in the pub with Terri. She was having a glass of wine and talking with the 'Old Men' and Adam was in serious discussion with Frank about the extra operation. Anna stood back while Sarah made her request.

  “Do your contract the normal way and we can worry about the rest later. Go ahead and give the generals your usual good treatment.”

  “Why are you making the change,” Adam wanted to clarify the matter.

  “I am alive and doing very well,” Sarah said. “We are not sure that they were trying to kill me and I cannot see punishing them for something that they might have done.”

  “We can still make it look like you are dead.” Adam was not ready to drop Sarah’s wish entirely.

  “I know that I do not have to ask you for a promise. You just gave me the studio.” Adam looked at Terri until she nodded.

  “I have to start trusting sometime and it might as well be now. Let’s have a look at things after we are done down here. I heard what you told Adam and I wanted to say thank you for releasing him from his promise. I think that you will fit in just fine.” The evening progressed smoothly with everyone enjoying the pub. Terri accepted a ride up the hill since she wanted enough energy left to go back to the studio. It was the one thing that she dreaded and yet could not stay away from.

  The studio was the last big barrier for Terri, since it was her personal project with Liz and Terri putting a major effort into getting it finished for Liz. Each stair drained a little more energy from her as she climbed to the second floor. When she reached the top, Terri was not sure that she was in the same room that she had worked on. Sarah and ‘the Old Men’ gave it a new look. The area rugs were missing and all that was left was the Welch slate tile floor, the furniture was different, there were no pictures on the walls, the curtains were gone and the kitchen was empty except for the appliances.