by Powers, Jade
Sven felt the pain in his chest, a soul wound that made breathing difficult. “Can you get me in to see her?”
“I’ll make the call. When you arrive, tell the hospital you’re her fiancée. She’ll be under police protection. Her attacker escaped,” Drake said.
“It was planned. That psycho who wants the sphere planned her death. He just didn’t want to deal with her body. This is my fault.” Sven ran a hand through his dark hair.
“Don’t blame yourself for this. You wanted out last year. I’m sorry, Sven. This one is mine,” Drake’s deep voice soothed Sven. They were brothers, if not by blood then by circumstance. Drake continued, “Give me a few months and you’re out. You and Minka can start fresh.”
If she gets better. Please let her survive this. His fault. Despite what Drake said, it was Sven who dragged Minka into a life of espionage, without giving her the information to choose for herself. That was unforgivable. And something Sven had never done before.
Sven said, “I appreciate it, but I’m not going to stop until this bastard and his co-conspirators are dead. I will go to the ends of the Earth to kill the man who hurt Minka.” Like General McFarland, Sven played on the edges of legality. He would find the man who stabbed Minka, and destroy him.
Dragging his backpack out of the plane, Sven told the pilot not to wait. He’d be in Seattle for a while. Sven drove a rental car to the parking garage near the hospital. The memories it brought back were terrible and dark. Memories that drove him back twenty years. Sven’s little sister had been hit by a drunken driver at two-o’clock in the afternoon. They were playing tag in the front yard, and that was Sven’s fault, too.
He felt a clench in his gut, a tight cold fist that assaulted his insides. That old pain was buried deep. How many years had he pushed it away. He joined the military and relished the physical challenges that pulled him out of his thoughts. And somehow over time he forgot. Not enough to take a drink, no matter what jokes flew about his manhood. The insults faded when he joined special forces.
The smell of the hospital brought it all back. Not that it was his first return to memory. Drake took a bullet three years back, and Sven played guard dog and entertainer for his friend while he recovered. But he still hated the smell, hated the sad and worried faces of the friends and family who waited for news. He detested the slow resurrection of thoughts of his sister, the girl who never became a woman. The last time he saw her, well, he wouldn’t dwell on that.
Checking in at the front desk in emergency, Sven was blocked. He said, “But Drake was going to call.”
The harried woman at the front desk, facing a dozen people in line with various needs said, “Immediate family only.”
“I’m her fiancée. I need to see her.”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
Sven stormed out of the hospital, frustrated and wound up. From the rental car, he called Drake, “They wouldn’t let me in to see her. Do you have any information about what they’re doing?”
“I’m sorry, Sven. My reach seems to be shorter than I first imagined. We have hacks into the databases. I can tell you she’s in surgery, but I can’t get you in to see her. The hospital called her mother. If you stay close, you might be able to talk to her.” Drake said.
In the end, Sven checked into a hotel. The blue and purple bedspread and inane art welcomed Sven with neutral and impersonal comfort. He grabbed a change of clothes and turned on the shower. As the steam rose from the water, Sven remembered washing Minka’s hair, a small thing and strangely intimate. And now she was fighting for her life.
After showering, he called Minka’s mother. Minka’s brother-in-law answered the phone. Her brother-in-law said, “They’re all in Seattle. Can you give me the number to your hotel, and I’ll ask her to call? With the attack on Minka, I don’t feel right handing over the family’s contact information.”
“Completely understandable,” Sven said. He gave the guy his hotel number while listening to a baby cry in the background. He wondered if Minka’s brother-in-law was even writing down the information. Sven asked, “You’ll tell her, won’t you? Whoever did this might try again. I need to protect her.”
“I’ll pass on your information.”
Sven hated feeling helpless. He scoured the news, found a description of the attacker and forwarded the information to Drake’s email. He didn’t dare leave the hotel room while he waited for Minka’s family to call. Instead he started connecting the dots, trying to figure out who was interested in the mind-control tech, who stood to gain the most, who had the resources for kidnappings on both sides of the country.
The list was a short one. General McFarland, known for big spending in cutting edge technology and parties that rivaled the Hollywood starlets. Vice President Kendall of SpaceTech, known for pushing the edge of legality. He once faced three counts of human trafficking that were dropped because they couldn’t actually prove Kendall knew anything about it. The guy who was going to testify against Kendall ended up in a mental hospital, his story discredited. Kyle Fortille, CEO of a competing tech corporation was another possibility. He had tons of money and liked to brag about his new attack bots.
Nothing was traceable. Someone watched AIT from the inside out. Sven started listing all of his friends and colleagues. Everything boiled down to one name, which made absolutely no sense. General McFarland hired Advanced Innovative Technologies to create the mind-control device in the first place. Why then would he compromise their security, kidnap employees’ families, and try to steal the tech?
It made no sense.
Sven was deep in thought when the phone rang.
It was Minka’s mom. She said, “This is Estella.”
Sven sagged down, sitting on the side of the bed while he talked. He said, “I’d like to see Minka. Would it be possible to add me to the visitor’s list?”
The connection was quiet for a moment. She said, “Meet me in the lobby tomorrow at ten. I’ll take you up.”
So she wouldn’t trust Sven alone with Minka, but at least he’d get to see her. He thanked Estella.
ESTELLA GOT SVEN INTO the hospital the next day. He held Minka’s hand. It wasn’t his first hospital visit, probably wouldn’t be his last, but this time it was hard. Minka was a civilian, an innocent. She didn’t sign up for this.
The hospital smelled like an institution. It was the smell of tile and cleaner and people. Minka’s mother was kind. She had hugged Sven and welcomed him warmly. The police ran him through their system at Estella’s request. Once he had earned her trust, Sven took turns with Minka. When Estella was asleep at the hotel, Sven was there, protecting Minka.
He had been watching for hours.
Minka opened her eyes.
Somehow Sven thought that Minka would welcome him, that she would honor him as her protector. Her voice was weak, but her words were clear. She said, “Are you one of them?”
His first impulse was to deny the question. He knew what she was asking. He knew without a doubt who she had encountered. After pulling a gun on her ex-boyfriend, Sven couldn’t easily deny it.
He stared at her hand, his fingers gentling hers, “I’m a mercenary. I work for Advanced Innovative Technologies. Before that I was special forces. I’m one of the good guys.”
“Have you ever killed someone?”
It broke Sven’s heart to answer. The accusation in her voice, even in her weakness left him undone.
He answered truthfully, “Yes.”
“An innocent?”
“Yes. In war and accidentally, yes.”
She tugged her fingers. They couldn’t escape his grip, but the meaning was clear. He pulled his hand away, unshed tears stinging his eyes. He’d held worse things in his soul, by God. He could take this woman’s disapproval.
She closed her eyes.
Sven held his hands on his lap and stared at the wall. There was no parsing pain. It came in one big jumbled lump, the innocent and the guilty all accusing him with their dead eyes. But Minka
was alive. He wanted to leave. Run. Not that he was a runner by nature, but right now he didn’t know how to handle this. He couldn’t argue with a woman who was sick. He couldn’t defend himself at all.
If she were able to converse, he could explain the circumstances. She would probably even agree that there was little he could have done to avoid what happened. When people shoot at you, you shoot back.
After rousting the doctors and nurses to tell them that Minka had awoken, he called Estella.
When Minka’s mother returned, Sven handed her a business card. He said, “Minka woke up for a few minutes. She made it clear that she doesn’t want me in her life. If you have any trouble at all, anything, please call.”
“She’s been unconscious most of the time. How could she break up with you in a single moment of consciousness?” Estella studied Sven with narrowing eyes.
“She pulled her hand away from me. I think she decided I am like the man who attacked her. Ma’am, I’ve been a soldier for over a decade. I care for your daughter, but I’m not the type to overstay my welcome. If you call, I’ll come.” He handed her his special card, the one held in reserve for emergency situations with three numbers. If Minka or Estella called those numbers it would go to the control center of AIT, he would get the message.
Sven walked away. He knew he was leaving his heart behind, precariously held by a woman who had experienced too much violence.
He called Drake next. Kendra answered. Sven said, “I need Drake.”
“Drake’s attempting a rescue. From the chatter, they are embroiled in the middle of a fire fight. You’ll probably hear it on the news tomorrow as a gang shootout. ”
“Damn it. He needs me there,” Sven said and followed up the damn it with a string of better swear words.
Kendra didn’t laugh, which told Sven how serious it was. She said, “I told him not to go in without you. I told him you’d come. He said that was what he was afraid of. I guess he thinks that salty old crabs like the two of you will only get one chance at love.”
“God, I hope you’re wrong.” Sven didn’t go into details. He just said, “I’m on my way. And don’t be calling me a salty old crab before I’m thirty.”
Kendra stopped him, “Sven. It will be over by the time you get here. You might not have spent much time talking about Minka, but we all know you met someone you care for. Stay there.”
Sven closed his eyes. He needed action. Needed something to keep him from storming into the hospital and demanding his rightful place beside Minka, whether she wanted him there or not. Of course he would protect her. She just didn’t want him anywhere close.
He said, “If you had to guess at who was behind this, what would you say?”
Sven’s question was general. He was trying to figure out whether General McFarland had betrayed the team or if one of the smaller players had stepped up. Kendra had a more detailed answer. She said, “The Baltimore Butcher. Born Christopher Mosselli. I’ll send you the file. He’s a mercenary known for knife-play. We know he’s changed names on three occasions. There are a few more in the database, but his pattern and description closely matches the man who attacked Minka.”
“Thanks Kendra.”
Within a few minutes, Sven had the photo of the Baltimore Butcher. Three different names and three photos with distinctly different features. In the first, Minka’s attacker wore his hair cropped short, military style and dyed blonde. In the second photo, his hair was long and he sported a scraggly beard and thick glasses. Without the fingerprints, police wouldn’t have known the two men were the same. They looked just that much different. The third photo wasn’t a big surprise, looking much like the first with hair dyed black. Sven printed all three.
Seattle and Tacoma were a couple hours apart, mostly because of traffic snarls. He spent the day on the streets near where Minka was stabbed, talking to store owners and the local population. The man who stabbed her was a transient. He begged money on the weekends. Where he spent the last week was anyone’s guess. No one knew much about him, except that he managed to disappear after the stabbing.
Sven had a few ideas about that. If he wore a fake beard and glasses, Minka’s attacker could have found a quiet place to discard the disguise. Sven spent hours scouring the streets and asking questions to no avail. A few people recognized the monster, but no one knew where he crashed. He had no friends, and no patterns.
ESTELLA ROOK CARRIED her coffee out of the elevator in time to see an orderly strolling down the corridor. He was coming from the right. Estella would have to turn left to go to Minka’s room. Estella watched the man’s facial expression when he saw the cop standing guard outside the room. It was just a hint of frustration, like a sneer here and gone.
He wore thick glasses, but his hair was black and no beard. Estella stopped, waiting to see what he would do. He turned into the elevator, passing just inches from Estella. She shivered involuntarily when he mumbled as he passed.
She didn’t hear what he said, but he gave her the total creeps. The elevator dinged and the man was gone. Estella stopped outside her daughter’s room to talk to the cop.
“Did you see that orderly?” Estella asked. To this point she had only exchanged greetings and spent a few minutes to thank the men and women who guarded her daughter.
“Which one? There were three on the floor today.”
“The one with the black hair that I just passed in the elevator. I haven’t seen him before and when he saw you, he made an abrupt turn.” Estella noticed everyone and everything. She’d stopped a nurse from giving Minka a change of I.V. bags because she hadn’t seen the woman before.
“I saw him. Don’t worry, we’ll keep your daughter safe.”
Brushed off.
Estella nodded. “Thank you.”
She turned into her daughter’s room. Minka looked so pale. Estella couldn’t remember a time when she was more frightened for her baby girl. Minka was getting stronger—Estella had to believe that.
Estella took her daughter’s hand. Her mind kept returning again and again to the orderly. She was paranoid. She knew that. Every strange person who entered her daughter’s room was a threat. But if she was right, even once, and said nothing. That would be the end.
It was a betrayal of her daughter’s wishes to call Sven, to ask him to come back. She didn’t know him well enough. Maybe she’d trusted one too few nurses’ assistants or doctors around Minka, but her daughter had police protection. She was in mortal danger. What else could a mother do?
Damn it. She wouldn’t let anyone hurt her daughter again. Estella fingered the card Sven had given her. When she couldn’t stand watching Minka sleep anymore, Estella left the room, thanking the officer who still stood guard, and went to call Sven.
SVEN STUDIED THE PICTURE of the Baltimore Butcher. When he showed Estella the photo, her hands flew to her mouth and she said, “That’s him. That’s the man I saw. He’s coming back for her.”
The Baltimore Butcher was a dangerous foe. An impatient man, in previous attacks, he hit even if the timing was wrong and relied on disguises to escape. Minka was in imminent danger.
The next several hours, Sven studied the hospital lay-out, the strengths of weaknesses of both the staff and security, and Minka’s placement in the greater scheme of things. He watched the shift changes on Minka’s floor, and introduced himself to the employees on that floor.
Then he dressed for success. Adding a white coat to his dress clothes and a name tag gave him the look he was going for. If he was going to catch the guy, it wouldn’t be hanging around Minka’s room in his normal clothes.
In midafternoon, Minka’s mother left to get lunch. She invited Sven, but he didn’t want them both away, even with Minka’s police protection. While Estella grabbed a bite to eat, Sven took up a quiet post near the pop machine. Ten minutes after Estella’s absence, the Baltimore Butcher, in disguise as a hospital orderly, strode out of the stairwell at the far end of the hall from the opposite direction.
&
nbsp; From Sven’s position he didn’t see the orderly’s progress down the hallway, but he heard the man when he stopped in front of the officer and handed him I.D., “Excuse me, Sir, I need to take vitals.”
Sven immediately stepped out from his quasi-hiding place to see Minka’s attacker in broad daylight talking to the cop. A ballsy guy. Which meant he was capable of anything. Sven wasn’t armed at the moment as the hospital posted a ‘no guns’ sign, but the officer standing in front of Minka’s door was fully armed and all Sven needed to do was keep the orderly out of that room.
Sven yelled, “Chris!”
It was the Butcher’s real name. With a start the Butcher lifted his head, just for a second, but it was enough. Sven grinned and walked toward the man, “I thought I recognized you. How the hell are you?”
He was about to get a knife to the gut or a surprised hug from a serial killer. Sven wasn’t sure which. His long strides took him to stand next to the officer. The orderly looked confused for a moment and then said, “Sorry, you’ve got the wrong person.”
“Yeah, it was just your face for a moment...looked just like him.” Sven would have given anything at that moment to communicate to the officer what he knew about this orderly.
“Nope, sorry. Hey, I need to get back to work. If you’ll excuse me, I’m here to do the vitals on Minka Rook.”
“Sorry, Man. They just took her out of here. Some rich cat flew the lady to Florida and put a decoy in her place. You should have had her removed from the schedule. I’ll check at the nurse’s station. All this technology and index cards would work better,” Sven grumbled cheerfully, grateful that the officer in charge was smart enough to go along with him. He said, “How long is Betsy staying?”
The officer gazed from Sven to the orderly. He said, “Need to know basis. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anyone else. The nurse’s station doesn’t have this information for a reason.”