by Sara Schoen
“Are you sure?” he questioned with a lopsided smile. “I had a friend call in that you may want a ride and I’d be happy to give such a pretty girl a ride back to town.” He winked, enjoying himself as he joked around with me.
I smiled back at him as a gust of cold wind ripped through the layers I had on. I didn’t need any more convincing. “You know what? I would love a ride.” I got in his car, relieved to find the heater going. I let my chills slowly subside as my body relaxed in the warmth of the vehicle.
“Glad to see you again, Night Stripe,” Seeker stated after the door was shut. “I was hoping Sharp Shooter wouldn’t waste a lot of time after you got out of here. I just didn’t know he’d be sending you back.”
“I volunteered to come back.”
“That’s dangerous,” he said, not with ridicule or to mock me, but with understanding. “You left an impression on Nikolai. He’s been asking for you around town, which thankfully has made my job a little easier. He’s very willing to discuss you, and that’s allowed me an in with him. I’ve gathered information and sent it back to Sharp Shooter. I know where they’re going, who they’re planning to target, and how they’ll do it. This should wrap up with a bow right at the top.”
I let out a laugh as I connected the dots. “Oh, so you’re picking me up in hopes someone sees us together and Nikolai comes looking for you for information.
Seeker smiled, letting the small dimple on his cheek to show. “Well, that’s a bonus,” he said honestly, letting out a short laugh that eased the remaining tension I had left over from invading Katya’s home. “But I was serious when I said a friend asked me to pick you up. I wasn’t going to say no, anyone walking around out here is dumb.”
I ignored the playful quip he had given me. “What friend sent you? Was it Spit Fire?”
“No, I haven’t heard from her,” Seeker said, letting his voice drop slightly. If I hadn’t known that he trained her when she first entered the agency, I would have assumed there was something more from the concern in his voice. “She’s keeping her updates sporadic in case someone figures out what she’s doing. I’m keeping track of her as best as I can, but I’m sure she’s doing just fine.”
“Then who sent you?” I asked curiously. “Did Demon send you to watch after me? I told him I could handle myself just fine.”
Once again Seeker let out a laugh. “I have no doubt that you can and will handle yourself perfectly, Night Stripe. I have faith in whoever Sharp Shooter sends to complete a mission with me. If he didn’t trust you he wouldn’t have chosen you to come in the first place. I learned a long time ago to trust his judgment, even when I didn’t agree with it.” His words sank into me. I rarely agreed with Sharp Shooter, but Seeker was right. Sharp Shooter knew what to do, and I trusted him no matter what. He had earned that respect from everyone in the agency, not only for his service, but his choices. “But to answer your question, Renegade sent me.”
Bile raised in my throat at the same time anger took over my body. “Did he think I needed help again? Should I be thankful that you didn’t show up until later?”
Seeker took a calming breath, sensing my anger, before placing his hand lightly on my knee. He took another breath, and I took one with him, as I had done with Rum so many times before. The anger subsided, and allowed the car to return to a more neutral state.
“Before you get angry again,” Seeker stated tentatively, “Renegade has full belief in your abilities. He said nothing about you being unable to handle yourself. He worried you’d freeze in the cold because you’re so stubborn. I was in the area anyway, so I thought I would at least make sure you didn’t end up with frostbite.”
I let out an uneasy laugh and tried to relax as we neared the hideout. Seeker pulled up a few feet away. I thanked him for the ride and got out, but before I could shut the door, he spoke again.
“Don’t be so hard on Renegade. He did what he thought was right, and while he made mistakes, who hasn’t? I can recall a few you made, which included sending a cartel member straight back to your team. Demon and Whip Lash weren’t pleased with it, but forgave you. Learn from them. Forgiving is hard, but I’m not asking you to forget it happened. Just learn from it and forgive him. I know if he had a chance he wouldn’t do it again.” Seeker smiled at me, leaning over to take the door from me. “You mean a lot to him. Stop chewing him out and stop beating yourself up. You’ll do just fine. I have a feeling about it.” He shut the door, making sure he had the last word before he drove off.
The conversation still weighed heavily on my mind as Katya tried to talk to me. I was having a hard time focusing on her, trying to figure out if Seeker said those things truthfully or because Renegade asked him to.
“Night Stripe,” Katya called in desperation. “How is she? Is something wrong?” Her voice cracked, the emotion riding high through her words and body language. She had taken my lack of response as bad news.
The pang of guilt allowed me to focus on Katya. It was better than on a conversation I couldn’t question Renegade about until later. “She looked fine. She seemed excited when she read the note. What did you tell her?”
Katya offered a shy smile, glancing over her shoulder to see if Demon was listening. He seemed to be distracted as he got up from the sofa and rushed to answer the phone Sharp Shooter had given us. That didn’t seem like good news. Once Demon was gone, Katya spoke up. “Natasha and I haven’t always gotten along. We are eight years apart, going through different points in our lives, but we make it work. We may not spend a lot of time together, but we would do anything to protect each other. That’s why I had to come with you. I had to be here for her so she would know that I hadn’t left her behind. So when she was younger we had a phrase with our mother, it’s lost a little in translation—‘Maybe and somehow won’t make any good.’”
“And what’s that mean?” I questioned.
“Draw not your bow till your arrow is fixed,” Katya stated, a proud smile beaming on her lips. It slowly faded once she realized it hadn’t helped explain her saying. “Saying maybe something will work out, or somehow it will become better won’t do you any good.”
“But if it becomes ‘this will work’ then the arrow is fixed and you’ll shoot perfectly?” I guessed.
“You’ve got it,” Katya stated. “Natasha will know what it means. She understands while she’s questioning what’s going on around her, with Mother and I gone, she needs to make a choice and my letter will convince her of the right one. Like I said, we may not have gotten along, but when it comes down to it, we stand by each other.”
I couldn’t fight the smile that curved onto my lips. “It reminds me of my family—both of them actually.”
“You have two?” Katya asked, confusion etched in her features and lacing though her words.
“My family died a few years ago. I was adopted by the man who saved my life, and I was close with their oldest son. I missed them greatly when I joined CIRA, but Renegade made it possible for me to see them again. He asked if he could take me to see them, and since then I’ve been able to visit with them sporadically. It’s not perfect, but it’s something.” The whimsical tone in my voice surprised me, but as I glanced at Katya I knew she had latched onto something else.
The coy smile playing at the edges of her lips, the gleam in her eyes. I knew she was thinking about what Renegade had done for me. She had tried to fix our problems before, and then told me he had feelings for me on the plane. I wasn’t in the mood to have this discussion with her, not so soon after Seeker had said the same thing. Was it that obvious that Renegade had feelings for me to everyone but me?
“But anyway,” I said, moving the topic back on track. “I promise to protect Natasha as if she were my sister, real family or adopted. She will be safe, I’ll make sure of it.”
Katya bowed her head as a thank you. “I hope we can do this easily. I don’t want any more problems for you than I have already caused. I know you didn’t want to bring me, but I’m glad you
did. I can’t wait to see Natasha.”
“I’m glad we brought you too,” I said, placing my hand on her shoulder. “I wouldn’t have been able to make it through that house blind without you.”
A moment passed between us, one I hadn’t been expecting. One of understanding, acceptance, and most importantly, trust. She knew I would give my life for her and her sister, as I knew that she had done this for her family. We weren’t different; we just needed to gain an understanding.
“We need a back-up plan,” Demon said as he stepped back into the room. His footsteps were heavy with anger and fear.
A chill raced up my spine. Something was wrong.
“What happened?” I asked, meeting him at the table as he laid down the phone forcefully on the table. As I looked over it I felt a familiar pang of uneasiness. Something was very wrong. “I have a bad feeling,” I announced, turning to see Demon looking at me intently. He had the same one.
“Tell me about it.”
“I can’t describe it, but you’re right. We need a plan in case they change location.” I pulled out the maps of the compound and house from under the table and laid them out before heading to my coat, which I had left by the door on my reentry to the hideout. I produced the handwritten notes and more detailed maps I had taken from Seeker’s car when he wasn’t looking. I hope he didn’t need them any time soon.
Where did you get these?” Demon questioned as I laid them out before him. He picked them up one by one to inspect them, as if I had forged them. His features tightened, letting the confusion take over his face before his tone turned accusatory. “Did you steal these?”
“Does it really matter?” I asked, already knowing what the answer was.
“No,” he stated reluctantly. “I’ve learned to just trust you so I don’t get in the way. I don’t want to be on the wrong end of your blade again.”
I scoffed in disbelief. This was hardly the time to talk about this. “I stabbed you once, and it was by accident. Can you get over it already?”
“Yeah, when the scar disappears.” He looked at me with a glare. “So never. Just this time, let’s work together and make sure no one gets hurt.”
“Then don’t sneak up behind me again and you won’t be greeted with a knife to your thigh. It’s not my fault you went against the plan.” At least he learned his lesson. He’d never sneak up on me again, and I wouldn’t have to perform first aid in the field. A little trust goes a long way in this business, but so does the blade of a knife.
Chapter 18
Demon and I had spent most of the third day planning what I would do if it came time to go to the compound. We wouldn’t be leaving until tomorrow, at a set time given to us that day, but if we took Natasha before then we would be sitting ducks. We had to plan and be prepared because tomorrow we had to get her. I just hoped they let her stay home. The compound was larger than the house; more complex, which also meant a lot more places to hide and more chances to run into someone. There wasn’t an easy way to pinpoint where Natasha would be if she was taken to the compound, in fact it was damn near impossible. I had spent all day yesterday watching the compound, and I hadn’t been able to find a pattern. Matters only got worse as Seeker and Spit Fire came to the same conclusion. According to their information, the guard schedules had changed since Katya was here and precautions and extra measures of security such as cameras and random sweeps had gone into effect.
After watching the compound for about an hour I had ventured inside. Honestly, it was the only thing I could do to gain a cover. The bare landscape around the building provided little to no cover, and with the random guard sweeps going through every ten minutes or so, it was only a matter of time before they caught me.
It took watching multiple sweeps for me to sneak in behind the guards. Once inside, I faced a lot of new problems. Volodya was more cautious than the Cardozas had been. Cameras were mounted through the compound, guards posted on staircases, and teams going through the building. I attempted to make my way through the building, but continually ran into dead ends or almost came face to face with some of the guards. There wasn’t an easy way around them without alerting someone on another floor, and the floors above me were too open due to the stairs and hallway being visible. I felt a pang of annoyance burst through me when I realized I couldn’t do it. There was too much at risk, and I didn’t know the building as well as I needed to.
I knew I had to turn around instead of risking the mission, but the failure left a bitter taste in my mouth. I had never turned away from a dangerous situation before. I went in head first and a do-it-now attitude. I guess trying to win Sharp Shooter over with this mission overtook my desire to cause a little trouble for whoever was watching the video cameras. It could wait, for now. I’d be back if I had to, and then they would see what I could do to their precious security systems. That’s why when I returned I immediately called in Demon to strategize, and we hadn’t left the table since. There’s too much at risk for a mistake, but at the same time I knew what I would have to do when the time came. I’d kill a few guards and create chaos until Natasha was safe, then escape. That’s how it always went.
“You can’t go in there blind or we’re fucked,” he said simply, looking at the additions I had drawn in on the map. “Do you see all the teams and cameras he has going? And I can guarantee you it’s because Katya got away. He’s prepared for you. If you walk in there again, you may not come out. There’s no easy way around all of this.”
“You don’t think I know that?” I asked as I added in the last guard locations. I tried to be as detailed as possible on the building map, and Demon was right. There was almost no way around all of the precautions Volodya had taken. Random sweeps, guards who seemed relatively stationary, cameras, and needless to say, weapons that could blow a hole in my head if I was caught.
I shook off the thought as I drew in the final stationary guard location, or at least the last one I noticed before I ducked out of the building. I hadn’t noticed any of them moving far from their post, mostly just scanning the floor below, which took out my usual means of getting around large warehouses—the rafters. I’d be seen by one of the guards on the upper level before I could make it to the rafters. I had one shot and the more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed I’d be able to do it without making a lot of noise—something I knew Demon wouldn’t like. I wasn’t supposed to be seen or heard; when I was, mistakes happened and I ended up in trouble.
“I can’t go in there and try repeatedly, Demon. This isn’t a video game, I don’t get a restart or another life to use,” I said, leading up to telling him that I would need to cause havoc in the building to get Natasha out if necessary. This building was nothing like the house; while I could possibly get to her without a problem, getting her out safely still would need improvisation. There’s just no way to know how someone else will react in a given situation, and I had to be prepared for that.
“I know that,” Demon stated, letting an exasperated sigh leave his lips as he thought it over. “You shouldn’t have gone in the first time. You could have been seen. Then what? You have no idea how the building is laid out and we clearly didn’t know all the security measures. All it would take is one bullet, Night Stripe. As you said you don’t get another chance, and you’ve already taken a bullet once. Would you like another one?”
I narrowed my gaze at him. Every time he thought I did something wrong he brought up the lucky shot the Cardoza member got on me. It was my shoulder, not my heart. While I knew it could be a lot worse, he had to know a little fear wouldn’t keep me from doing my job. “I had to try. What if I didn’t and we didn’t know about the new security measures? I would have missed Maverick’s plane, and so would’ve Natasha. Better yet, maybe you’d get your wish and I’d be taken out. They’d put you out of your misery of dealing with me.”
“I never said that, Night Stripe. I have only said you worry me. You’re reckless, and while you’ve shaped up some you haven’t changed that
much. You could have been seen,” Demon repeated, letting the edge in his voice lace through his words. He returned my narrow gaze and continued. “Then what would have happened? You would have been found, and Katya and Natasha would be in further danger. You didn’t think.”
“But I wasn’t caught,” I pointed out.
“That you know of.”
“It would have been more of a risk to go in blind. Now I have an idea of the building and what to avoid and what’s the lesser of two evils. I can make it out of there alive because I know what’s there now,” I said, the pleading in my voice rang clear. I wanted him to see it my way, to tell me I had done the right thing. I wasn’t expecting him to reprimand me for my choices. I did what I thought was best, what he taught me to do. I knew the dangers, I knew that I could put them at risk, but if I hadn’t gone in then we wouldn’t be able to work out a plan now. I gathered information, granted Seeker probably could have figured it out, but it was useful to us now. We shouldn’t have to wait.
“How do you think?” he questioned. “Right now, I see it as reckless, which is just what I thought you would do. You can’t keep thinking of only yourself as a leader. You have to think of everyone!”
“And I did,” I stated. I saw his right eyebrow lift up slightly as his lips formed a tight line. The disbelieving gaze was one I had come to know all too well since explaining to him why I chased after Ash Crest. I knew I’d have to explain myself, and hope he came to see it my way or I’d never hear the end of it. But I didn’t have to, Katya took over for me.
“The chances of my father moving Natasha are slim,” she spoke up from her usual seat on the couch. She didn’t even bother to lift her head from the book she was buried in, the same one she’d picked up when we first arrived. “Though it’s getting close to her birthday. That’s when Father tries to spend time with us. Now that she has seen the building, and detailed the guard patterns as best as she can, she has a better chance of living. We can focus on getting her and Natasha out safely. Isn’t that what you wanted all along?”