Shadow Zone

by Johansen, Iris; Johansen, Iris

  “A circumstance for which many people are very grateful.”

  “Only if they’re fools.” He reached out and took her hand. “I’m not a fool, Hannah.”

  His grasp was strong and warm. No sexuality. Comfort, camaraderie, a rock to cling to in the darkness. She wanted to keep on holding it.

  “You’re not backing away from me,” Kirov said.

  “Because you’re not a fool,” she said. “And you’re not trying to seduce me.”

  He chuckled. “Wrong time. Wrong place. Besides, I told you it was in your court. I’ll just make myself available for any erotic game you want to play.” As he felt her sudden tension, his hand tightened on hers. “It’s okay, it’s fine. We can wait,” he said quietly. “We’ll take this. It’s good too. Right?”

  Yes, it was okay, Hannah thought. The tentative bond that they’d formed during the weeks since they’d met had been stretched taut, but was still in place. They were learning more about each other every day, and that was causing tremors in the relationship. But then nothing stayed the same. As she’d told him, unless you lived in a vacuum, there was always action and reaction. She didn’t want to live in a vacuum.

  And she didn’t want to let go of his hand.

  She looked away. “Yes, we’ll take this, Kirov.”

  CHAPTER

  13

  It was cold on this damn boat, Eugenia thought as she looked out at the moon-dappled water. She had never liked boats. They were too slow for her, and she’d never liked the idea of the only escape being that icy sea. She didn’t know how Kirov had stood it on his sub all those years. But then she and Kirov were different in as many ways as they were alike.

  Her glance shifted to Kirov and Hannah across the deck. Kirov wasn’t as grim as he’d been when he’d first boarded the boat.

  Hannah’s doing?

  Probably. Kirov could be moody, and Hannah wouldn’t put up with it. Good for her. Eugenia believed that the only way to keep from plummeting was to soar and look to the sky. If you kept busy and positive, no one could take you down.

  Her glance moved to Charlie, standing alone at the rail. He was hurting and couldn’t see anything but his own pain. If left alone, he’d either spiral into nothingness or get himself killed. Pity. He had potential.

  Oh, what the hell. She needed a project.

  She jumped to her feet and strode over to where Charlie stood. “We’ll be arriving in another hour.” She leaned her elbows on the rail. “I’ll be glad to get off this junk heap. Seven hours is too long.”

  Charlie didn’t answer.

  “How about you?”

  “I don’t care,” Charlie said dully. “I haven’t paid much attention.”

  “That’s right. You’re too busy hulking here feeling sorry for yourself.”

  He stiffened with shock. “Go to hell.”

  “Ah, a response. Maybe you’re alive after all. I wasn’t sure. You’re acting more like a zombie.”

  “I want to be alone.”

  “You’ve been alone. That’s over now. It’s time to come back and join the war.”

  He scowled. “I’ll join the war as soon as you show me Anna Devareau and Gadaire.”

  “That’s right, you only act if the situation is set up for you. That’s what your father did, didn’t he? He called the shots and made everything neat and tidy for you. Then you ambled in and helped out.”

  “Shut up.”

  “And that’s what you still want to do. You’ll lean on Kirov and the rest of us, then try to step in and get your revenge.”

  Charlie’s hands fell on her shoulders. “Shut up.”

  “Do you think that’s what your father would want you to do? Maybe so. He was very protective of his little boy.” She paused. “But do you think that he’d be proud of you? I don’t think so.”

  “He was proud of me. He told me so.”

  “He was proud of the fact that you’d kept out of jail. He was proud of the fact that you’d turned into a good-looking kid with a fair amount of intelligence and wasn’t completely obnoxious. Other than that, what have you done to make him proud?”

  Charlie’s hand tightened on her shoulders with bruising force. “Why are you saying this?” he asked hoarsely.

  “I liked your father. He had style and wit. He was a complete person.” She paused. “You, on the other hand, are a confused collection of bits and pieces. It’s a wonder he bothered with you.” She moved her shoulders. “It’s a wonder I’m bothering with you. You’re hurting me. If you don’t let me go in three seconds, I’m going to break at least two bones in your rib cage. Then I’ll start on mutilating your penis. You know I can do it.”

  “Yes.” His gaze was suddenly searching her face. “But why would you want to? If I’m such a piece of crap, why would you bother?”

  “Do we have a breakthrough?” She shrugged off his hold and took a step backwards. “Are you thinking about something besides yourself?”

  He slowly shook his head. “Hell, no, I’m thinking about my dick. That’s damn important to me.”

  She smiled. “Speaks the universal man.”

  “Why are you being such a bitch to me?”

  “I told you, I liked your father.” She made a face. “And I have to admit, I may be close to liking you, Charlie.”

  “So that’s a reason to take a knife to me?”

  “It’s my way. Cut, clean, and cauterize.” She looked up at him. “And then start over with a clean slate. Are you ready to listen to me?”

  “Do I have a choice and still keep my dick?” he asked ruefully.

  “You’ll have to discover that for yourself.” Her smile faded. “I think you’re torn with guilt about your father’s death. For playing the obedient son when you know you should have taken matters into your own hands and stayed to help him. Is that true?”

  Charlie’s eyes closed with pain. “God, yes.”

  “Then you made a mistake, and it’s one you can’t take back. The only thing you can do is try to make the best of it. You’re not going to do that by wringing your hands and brooding. But you could make Driscoll’s death mean something.”

  When his eyes opened, they were glittering with moisture. “It did mean something. He had more guts than I’ll ever have.”

  “You haven’t been tested. Not really. But life isn’t about dying well, it’s about living well. Your father was experienced enough to know that. What kind of man do you want to be, Charlie? Would you like to be like your father?”

  Charlie hesitated. “I don’t know. He was smart and funny and a real good guy. I loved him. Could I be like him? I don’t think so. I get too mad. I want to swing out. He was smooth as glass, and I’m just a rough kid from the streets.”

  “There’s such a thing as change and growth.” She let the idea sink in. “Anything’s possible if you want it bad enough. Driscoll loved you, and the best gift you could give him would be to not go back to being what you were when the two of you came together. I think your dad would have wanted you to be all you could be. But it doesn’t matter a damn what anyone wants unless it’s what you want.”

  He was silent a moment. “How would I do it?”

  “I can start you out. I’ve led a far rougher life than you have, Charlie. I’ve had to pull myself up out of the mire, but I know how to negotiate that mire. First, since I know you’re not going to be able to concentrate on anything until you make Gadaire pay for your father’s death, I can teach you how to do that with lethal efficiency. You’re good for an amateur, but a professional could put you down in a heartbeat.” She paused. “If you hadn’t lost your gun when you went over that embankment, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Everything hinged on that. A principal rule is always to protect your weapons.”

  He slowly nodded. “I can see that.”

  “If you survive Gadaire, and I find you teachable, I may take you back to New York with me, and we’ll see if we can file off some of those other rough edges. I often deal with Fortune
500 companies and countries who want their business. I know that jungle too.”

  “I don’t care about that right now,” he said impatiently. “Gadaire. I want to learn how to kill him and the bitch.”

  “Understandable.” She turned away. “But I’ll continue teaching you only as long as you do everything I say. The minute you explode or go off on your own, it’s over. Your time for being immature ended when Driscoll died. I won’t put up with juvenile displays.” She met his gaze. “Think about it.”

  “I don’t have to think about it,” he said quietly. “I’ll do whatever I have to do. When do we start?”

  She shrugged. “We’re on a job. I’ll have to find the time.”

  “What do you mean?” He frowned. “I want to—” He stopped. “Whatever you say.”

  “Yes, it is.” She smiled faintly as she turned away. “And that particular lesson will take you far.”

  Weston Executive Airport

  Dublin, Ireland

  7:30 A.M.

  Gadaire stepped off his private jet and glared at the man waiting in the hangar. It was Charles Ames, his director of security. The bastard had ushered him safely through some of the most dangerous countries on earth, yet he hadn’t even been able to protect an office surrounded by a large security force.

  “You know I don’t tolerate failure, Ames,” he said as the flight crew unloaded his luggage.

  “Neither do I.”

  “Then how in the hell did this happen?”

  Ames didn’t speak for a moment, then said reluctantly, “They found the one weak link in our defenses. The service company needs immediate access in case the refrigeration unit fails. By posing as employees of that company, they bypassed all the safeguards we have in place. When your unit failed, it basically told us to roll out the red carpet for them.”

  “It’s only because of Anna that we retrieved my merchandise. You should be feeling pretty damn stupid about that.”

  He shrugged. “We screwed up. It won’t happen again.”

  Not if I kick your sorry ass to the curb, Gadaire thought. Instead, he merely nodded. “I’m more concerned about what happened at the college. Not only did Dr. Lampman lose all of the working samples I gave him, he lost many of his notes. I thought you said things were under control there.”

  “Our man on campus was injected with a quick-acting sedative. He gave us a good physical description of the thief, but we don’t have much to go on yet.”

  “Unbelievable.” Gadaire turned toward him. “I need two things from you. I need my property back, and I need to know who did this to me. It has to be the same people who arranged to hit me at both sites. Do we have any leads?”

  “Yes, sir. We have a description of the man who stole the TK44 from Dr. Lampman. It was the same man who supposedly blundered into Lampman’s workroom a few days ago. He was with a woman that time. Lampman’s tail didn’t get a photo, but we sent a sketch artist to work with him when the actual theft happened.” He pulled out two charcoal sketches from his briefcase. “We’re not sure about the identity of the man yet, but we think he’s Nicholas Kirov, Russian submarine commander, and the same man who interfered with our dealings with Samuel Debney in Venice. We convinced Debney to tell us his name, but that’s all he knew about him. Kirov’s been very hard to trace. This time the only break we had was that he was recently linked with the woman in question.” He handed him the other sketch. “Positive ID on her. Hannah Bryson. You may have heard of her.”

  “Oh, yes. I recently took something very precious away from her. Now she’s trying to punish me?” He gazed down at the sketch. “It seems the bitch didn’t like being stung. I wonder how she’ll like what I’ll do to her when I catch up with her.” He handed the sketch back to Ames. “I want a complete report on both of them on my desk by the time I get home. Friends, family, business associates. Get me a telephone number for both of them.”

  “Bryson won’t be hard, but Kirov . . . I believe he worked with the CIA at one time, and he covers his tracks.”

  “Work on it. This is the second time that bastard has gotten in my way. I don’t want there to be a third. In the meantime, I’ll deal with the woman.” Though he wasn’t going to fool himself that she would be easier than Kirov. He knew just how deadly a woman could be. “I’ll make her wish she’d never been born. I want her to hurt. I want to see her cut to pieces.” Anna might enjoy doing that, he thought. Though she preferred working on men. No, he wanted to reserve that pleasure for himself. Bryson and Kirov had made him look like a fool. He needed to set an example. “Find them.”

  “I’ll get right to work on those numbers.” Ames turned away. “I’ll see you back at your suite, sir.”

  Ames might be there before he arrived, he thought, annoyed. His limo wasn’t here yet, dammit. No, there it was, pulling in at the far gates. He had time to make that call to Devlin that he’d meant to do before he left France.

  Devlin answered the call on the first ring.

  “Devlin, I had good news in France. The project is a go. Proceed as planned.”

  “Immediately?”

  “As soon as possible. Two days max.”

  “It may take a while to—”

  “No longer than two days, and I want a name.”

  “You’ll have it.” Devlin hung up.

  Devlin wouldn’t fail him, Gadaire thought. Not like those damn security men who had let him be stripped of his dwindling supply of TK44.

  The limo pulled into the hangar, and the driver jumped out to help the flight crew load Gadaire’s luggage into the trunk.

  Gadaire climbed into the limo, but called back to Ames at the last moment. “Meet me in my office at six. You can give me your progress report then.”

  The driver closed the door behind him.

  “Welcome back, my love.” Anna sat in the car with her long legs stretched out and crossed in front of her. She held up a champagne flute.

  “This is a nice surprise.” Gadaire kissed her. “A bit early for a drink, don’t you think?” Anna seldom drank. He always thought it was because she never wanted to lose control.

  “Apple juice. The tumblers are being cleaned.”

  “I see. Not that I couldn’t use a drink right now. Or four.”

  She nodded. “I know. I’m sorry you had to cut your trip short.”

  “Ames has found out that the bastards behind it are Hannah Bryson and Nicholas Kirov. We need to know how to find them. Call in every marker and work your charms. This is important.”

  She took a sip from her glass. “Too bad I didn’t find out more from the old man before he passed on to a better place.”

  “Dammit, you couldn’t have brought him in? We have people on the payroll who could have made him talk.”

  “None better than I am, darling. There were too many witnesses. Two minutes later there were half a dozen people there. And I still needed to retrieve your precious cargo.”

  “What do we know about the dead man?”

  “His name was Martin Driscoll. In his day, he was a pretty good thief. He was only convicted once, and that was several years ago.”

  “Has he worked for any of our competitors?”

  “Not as far as I could find out. We’re still looking into that.”

  “Any luck tracking down his partner?”

  “Not yet. The other man was quite a bit younger, in his twenties. Driscoll usually worked alone, and he had no known associates. I have people on it.”

  “Good.”

  She took another sip from her glass. “Judging from your phone call, it sounds like France was a success.”

  Gadaire smiled. “A rousing success. I didn’t want to discuss it on the phone, but I have the best possible news.”

  She gave him a questioning look.

  “Anna, we hit the jackpot.”

  “You don’t mean—”

  “It’s the missing piece of the puzzle. The artifact was everything we hoped it would be.”

  Anna laughe
d. “I can’t believe it!”

  “It’s true. I’ve informed our friends in Pakistan that we may only be days away. I’m expecting a call from them this afternoon.”

  She kissed him. “You never stopped believing.”

  “No, but you can see why I was so upset about what happened here last night. We can’t let anything derail us now. There’s too much at stake.” He nodded at the small cooler on the floor. “Are those the TK44 samples you recovered?”

  “Yes, I wasn’t sure what you wanted me to do with them.”

  He picked up the cooler and opened it. “We’ll take them back to my office in the stadium. I’ll have Ames put a couple guys there around the clock, at least until after—” Gadaire’s voice trailed off as he stared into the cooler.

  “What is it?”

  “I think there’s a tray missing.” He started moving the samples. “Dammit, where is it?”

  She frowned. “Are you sure?”

  He felt the tension and anger tightening his chest as he searched frantically. “I don’t see it.” He glared at her. “Where is it, Anna?”

  She stared him in the eye. Her voice was icy. “Just what are you accusing me of, Vincent? I suggest you keep on looking. Count them.”

  He did as she suggested. They were all there. One had slipped beneath the tray above it.

  “You’re right.” He closed the cooler. “I just thought there might have been a screwup.”

  “And you were the one who made it,” she said coldly.

  Gadaire leaned back in his seat. He had gone too far. If he couldn’t trust Anna, who in the hell could he trust? If she hadn’t performed so brilliantly last night, he could have lost everything and had to start the project over. “You’re right, as usual. I was out of line. Forgive me.”

  Anna relaxed a little, but her demeanor was still chilly. “I can understand that it’s been an upsetting night for you. But you really should think before you speak.”

  And she wasn’t going to let it go without him paying for that mistake. It might not be at this moment, but it would come. “You’re absolutely right,” Gadaire said. “Let’s forget about it.”