by J L Terra
Mei laughed. Then she realized he wasn’t laughing along with her. “Wait. You weren’t joking?”
He sighed. “Can we focus, please?”
“Remy.” Mei eyed him. “He’s making that face again.”
“A man is entitled to his own thoughts. And methods.”
Mei huffed something about when Ben was coming back. Daire ignored her only because it maintained the secrecy he’d spent years carefully crafting.
At the next crosswalk they saw Malachi, another member of their team. He was on the opposite side of the street, standing on the curb. Ostensibly completely in his own world. Daire knew better.
The other person out here with them was Shadrach. The former sniper would be perched on a rooftop. Bringing a sniper rifle to New York City wasn’t a good idea, so he only had binoculars.
Malachi didn’t even seem to have noticed them.
Mei tapped Daire on the sleeve. Okay, so it was more like a whack, but he wanted to believe she was just getting his attention.
“What?”
She motioned to her ear, then mouthed for him to shut it off. Daire muted his radio so they could talk in privacy, but still hear Remy if she said anything.
“There’s something off about him.”
Daire glanced at Mei and started walking again.
“You know. Malachi.” She trotted to catch up and studied his face. She wouldn’t be able to see past his sunglasses to get a look into his eyes. That—and the lack of cloud cover today—was why he wore them. He didn’t need her seeing what was there.
“Malachi is part of the team on this mission.”
Mei flicked her straight black hair over her shoulder, those pink and purple strands flashing through. “I’m just saying.”
I’m not doing this with you. He should get it out there and move on. The holding pattern they were in was seriously messing with his head. Or maybe it was life in general lately.
It wasn’t every day you found out your boss was inhabited by an ancient mythical being. Daire had been zapped by the golem that had been bonded to Ben, and he’d ended up in a coma.
Ben might be cured, but that didn’t mean things had gone back to normal.
For Daire, nothing was normal. Ever.
Especially the hot breath on the back of his neck every second he’d been in that coma. Nightmares so real he swore sometimes he could still taste them. See them. Feel the heat.
Judgment was coming.
“Malachi isn’t in,” Daire said. “Not officially. Ben’s still making his assessment as to whether he’ll hire the guy.”
It didn’t matter what Daire thought of him. Malachi seemed like the kind of man who wouldn’t care if he was hired or not. Though why he wanted this job was anyone’s guess.
Ben had built a special kind of team. Mostly because he was a unique man with a colorful history of his own. If he’d sought out Malachi and brought him in, there was a good reason.
Daire stepped aside for a nun, with a dip of his head to the woman. His own past was so complicated there wasn’t a book in the world long enough to hold the tale. Who would read it?
“Aren’t you burning up in that leather jacket? You wear it so much it probably stinks to high heaven.”
He looked at her. Bare shoulders. The dress looked more like a toga but made of curtain material. “You want to smell it?”
The words slipped out before he could hold them back.
It would be better for both of them if she kept her distance. This détente had gone on so long it would take a force of nature to break it. Daire had experienced enough of those in his life. Now all he wanted was to do his job and live in peace as quietly as possible. Forcing a confrontation with Mei wasn’t the answer. Not with all these feelings bouncing back and forth between them. As frustrating as this was.
Her eyes met his. There it was, the unspoken thing between them.
Maybe he needed a vacation.
Shadrach’s voice came through his earpiece. “No heat signatures inside. Caperman Wells is empty.”
Mei glanced at him. Daire unmuted his radio and said, “Copy that.”
“In position,” was all Malachi said. Daire tried to reason whether he needed more than that from the guy. It was the bare minimum, but it was also efficient. Was he going to argue? They would have additional backup if needed.
Daire used a side door. Mei followed him through the ground floor of the building. She swept one hall while he walked the other. They met by the elevators.
“This place is, uh, interesting.”
She wasn’t wrong. The whole office had been decorated in Middle-East chic. A couple of the pieces—a matching bowl and pitcher—sat on a shelf together. He wouldn’t have minded buying them from the owner. He’d have to ask the next time he was here.
The rest of the décor was basically souvenirs. Old rugs he wouldn’t have put in a horse stall.
“Upstairs?”
He nodded, and they rode the elevator. The interior had been overlaid in gold. Even the carpet was colored gold.
When they stepped out, it was like walking inside a building after being out in the desert sun. His eyes adjusted and his shoulders shifted back as the room came into view. Mei took a step of retreat back toward the elevator. Same repulsed reaction, but he’d seen too many scenes like this in his life to be completely surprised.
“So…” Mei swallowed. Probably due to the smell. “She’s dead, right?”
There was no body here. Still…
Daire surveyed the scene. “It would be hard to lose this much blood and stay alive.”
She shivered beside him. “I’m thinking Doctor Penelope Silver is in some serious trouble.”
“Then we’d better find her.”
Right now they were three days behind. And if the woman they’d been sent here to find wasn’t dead already, then she needed help. And fast.
Malachi’s voice came over the radio. “Two men out back, headed for a truck. One is carrying a body.”
“Can you stop them?”
“They’ve had training. Best course of action would be to disable the vehicle.”
“Do that.” Daire paused. “Only two?”
“What?” Mei looked up from a desk covered in discarded files. If they were still here it meant they weren’t relevant. Still, there could be a document in this stack that had one of his aliases listed on it.
Malachi didn’t respond, which was good. Daire didn’t need him thinking he questioned what he’d said. He was simply wondering where the third man was.
Daire keyed his own radio. “Remy, anything on their surveillance for Doctor Silver?”
“Facial recognition is going through the footage, starting now and working backward.” She paused. “Mei, that dress is amaze.”
The slender woman grinned. “I know, right?”
Daire walked through the room and looked in the manager’s office, then listened. He checked another room that turned out to be a closet. In the center was a chair. Plastic ties, the kind that could be used to secure a person to the chair, had been cut and discarded on the floor.
He got on comms again. “Shadrach, you copy me?”
“Yeah, boss.”
“Any other people here besides us?”
“Just the two of you,” Shadrach informed him over the radio. “Two heat signatures.”
Daire went back to the middle of the room. Cubicles essentially, though all as ornately decorated as the rest of the place. He’d have a permanent headache if he worked here.
One person held captive here.
Two men outside.
Daire’s thoughts clicked into place. “We need to leave. Now. Before the whole building explodes.” He grabbed Mei’s hand and ran.
“What are you talking about?”
“Just hurry up.” He hit the crossbar for the door, and they headed down the concrete stairwell. It wasn’t decorated in concert with the rest of the building, thankfully. The cool air gave him time to think
through all this. Even if he was wrong, was it worth the risk to stay?
Either way meant that Mei would never figure out the secrets he was keeping.
Daire rounded the landing, one floor to go. A door opened below them. He hit the bottom step and barreled into the man. Slammed the guy against the wall, but heard no expelling of breath from him. Mei had her gun up. He didn’t have to look to know.
“How long do we have?” Daire demanded.
“The glory of death will be my eternal resting place.”
Daire pushed off the guy and stepped back. He’d met this kind before.
The guy looked no more than twenty-seven. Dressed in black fatigues, strapped with weapons. His hair was dark brown, and his skin held a dusky gray tone. Like he didn’t get much sun. The eyes were what gave it away. Dull. Unfeeling.
The guy placed his arm across his stomach and gave a short bow. Just a deep nod of his head really, “My lord.”
Daire bit down on his molars. There it was. The connection between the disappearance of Doctor Silver, and him.
“I’m thinking I shouldn’t shoot him,” Mei said. “This might actually be interesting.”
Daire didn’t acknowledge her. “Leave now,” he said to the man. “And I won’t kill you.”
“I will.”
“Mei.”
The man didn’t move. He didn’t do anything but stand there and hold eye contact with Daire.
“Mei, go help Malachi.”
She said, “Or we can both do that. Considering a second ago you thought the building was going to explode.”
“It will. Now go. Help Malachi.”
“Why does Malachi need help?”
He turned his stare to her.
“Okay, okay. I’m going.” She headed for the door, still eyeing the man they’d found. “Whatever. Have fun exploding.”
Chapter 2
Daire exited the building at the rear a couple of minutes later and saw the truck Malachi had mentioned. Mei had her foot on the throat of one of the men. Malachi fought with his.
A gun went off. Malachi swung his arm around and slammed the butt of his gun into the man’s temple. The man went limp and Malachi let him fall to the ground. Mei grabbed her guy’s shoulders and slammed her knee into his face. She shoved him aside.
Six feet away, Doctor Silver sat on the ground. She’d been hooded, her hands bound behind her back.
Daire used his cell phone to take photos of the two unconscious men.
“What about your guy?” Mei asked.
“Dead in the stairwell.” Daire wasn’t going to tell her how that went down. The man hadn’t even put up a fight. He simply pulled out a knife and slit his own throat.
Daire moved to Penelope Silver and pulled the hood off. “Let’s get you out of those restraints.”
She pushed out a breath. “Thanks.”
“You wanna tell me why you didn’t want me to see you kill him?”
Daire ignored Mei’s question and freed Penelope’s hands. She pushed hair back from her face while Daire helped her to her feet. He keyed his radio. “Remy, we need a pickup.” Then he turned to the woman. “Penelope Silver?”
Her eyes widened, and she nodded.
“The museum has been anxious to find you.”
She took a step back.
“But then, you know that. Ever since you went AWOL.” He motioned to the two unconscious men. “The kidnapping was only recent.”
A black van pulled up behind them.
Daire called out, “Gather what you can from those two men.”
Mei immediately went for weapons, and Malachi searched their pockets while Daire led Penelope Silver to the back of the van. He settled her on the bench seat and gave her water. “Seatbelt.”
She buckled up.
Malachi climbed in the front passenger seat. Mei got in the back with Daire, eyeing Dr. Silver. When they pulled away from the curb, she said to the woman, “So what’s your deal?”
“My what?” Doctor Silver sputtered.
Mei held her weapon loose in her offhand. She looked more disappointed than anything else. Apparently, this wasn’t the way she thought this day would go.
The building exploded.
Dr. Silver was the only one who reacted. “Whoa!” She even ducked her head.
“Answer my question.”
She glanced aside at Mei. “I was kidnapped tonight. That’s my deal.” Her accent was upper-class England with an edge of the southwest thrown in. Vacations on the coast. Devon, probably. Or maybe boarding school.
“Why did you come to Caperman Wells?” Daire asked.
“I’ve been through a trauma.” She turned to Remy, in the driver’s seat. “We’re going to a hospital, I assume.”
Daire said, “Mt. Sinai.”
She flinched at that.
Mei said, “I don’t see any visible injuries.”
“Some wounds you can’t see.”
Mei snorted. “That’s what you’re going with?”
“A woman’s got to do what a woman’s got to do. Am I right?”
“You’re seriously trying to bond with me right now? I don’t use my femininity to get what I want.”
Daire ignored their banter and tried to figure out what Dr. Silver could have been looking for at Caperman Wells. The place she may or may not have been looking for uptown was simply a cover. Use of an address. The valuable stuff was hidden sufficiently.
So how had she known about it?
Daire said, “Whose blood was that all over the office?”
“Some guy.” She sniffed. How she managed to look snooty still, even bedraggled like that, was impressive. “I think he worked there.”
“Why did they hurt him?”
“To get me to…” her voice trailed off, and she swallowed.
Daire said, “What were you looking for?”
She said nothing.
“You were going to find it yourself and sell it on the black market?”
She made a face. He figured she would’ve if those guys hadn’t shown up and interrupted. “They tied you to that chair?”
“No.” She pouted. “The Caperman Wells people realized I wasn’t there with the Museum’s authority. Their security people wouldn’t let me leave.”
Daire said, “They understand the importance of privacy for their clients.”
She huffed out a breath.
Remy pulled over and Shadrach slid the back door open. The former Marine sniper climbed in. A slender German shepherd hopped up behind him. The dog eyed Penelope Silver and sniffed once, then followed his master to the rear doors. Shadrach sat down, legs out straight in front of him. The dog laid down with the length of his back along Shadrach’s leg—between the man and the rest of the people in the van. Shadrach closed his eyes. The dog did not.
Daire turned back to Penelope. “How did you know to come here?”
“Are you going to question me to death?” She glanced at Mei. “Because I think I’d rather she just shot me and got it over with.”
He trained his gaze on the woman. “You tell me everything, and I’ll get you a new passport no one will ever question. You can start a new life where the museum—and the police—will never find you.”
Penelope lifted her chin. “I want money too. Two hundred thousand pounds ought to do it.”
Mei said, “I’m sure it will. But we aren’t your bank, and neither are we your retirement fund. We were hired to rescue you from kidnappers. I’m sure the British Museum will be interested to hear you orchestrated the entire thing yourself. That you went AWOL in search of whatever. And that you managed to get yourself caught before you even found it.”
For the first time since Daire pulled off the hood and cut her free, fear entered the woman’s eyes.
“How long have you been lying to the British Museum about what you’re doing?”
“I—”
“Tell me what you came here for.”
Penelope sniffed and looked away.
<
br /> Mei pulled out a short-bladed knife. She pressed it against the woman’s neck. “Start talking.”
“I’m the victim here. You’re treating me like some kind of common criminal!”
Daire turned back to Penelope. “What have you been doing for the last two weeks while the British Museum has been trying to keep your kidnapping quiet?”
She said nothing.
“Who hired you?”
Mei pressed the blade into the skin of Penelope’s neck. “Start. Talking.”
Daire had more questions than answers right now. And really didn’t like the disadvantage of not knowing what was going on.
Penelope winced. A bead of blood collected on the knifepoint. It trekked a path down her neck. Daire wondered for a second exactly how far Mei would go to find out what she needed to know.
Penelope said, “Okay, okay.” She took a breath, and her neck shifted against the knifepoint. “Tell her to back off.”
“Mei.”
She eased up on the knife.
“A couple of weeks ago, I was sent an email from an interested third party. I was given all the information and was asked to retrieve the artifact. It happens sometimes. I can get in and out of ancient sites without anyone suspecting what I’m really there to do. Especially when they provide me with the right paperwork. And enough cash to bribe security officers.”
He didn’t need to ask her who “they” were. The people who had paid her to get the artifact for them. Remy would hack Penelope’s life even deeper than she already had now that they had this information as well. If there ever was an email from this interested third party, she would find it. Then she would find them.
“They were about to turn me over to the police,” Penelope said. “Then those men came in.” She shivered in the seat.
Remy turned a corner. Daire braced his hand against the ceiling and absorbed the sway of the vehicle. He said, “What did they ask you to obtain for them?”
Maybe it hadn’t anything to do with him. Maybe it was something he’d never heard—
“A book.”
She was here for his book.
Daire swallowed. “And the men who killed the insurance agency employee?”
“They knew I was there to find out where the owner lived, and they wanted it too,” Penelope said. “Now they’re dead. Right?”