He sat uncomfortably on the edge of a deck chair, took a pair of sunglasses from his shirt pocket and slid them on. 'Nikolay just called me,' he said.
'Where is he?'
'Nearby, in Rose Bay. Not far from the Marlowe residence.'
'Has he been in contact with his friends in Kiev?'
Twist chortled. 'I don't think Nikolay has any friends, ma'am. But the answer is yes, and I gather they're not happy with developments.'
'They have every right to be disappointed. I promised them a trouble free delivery. My helpers in Foreign Affairs won't sign my export licences if my problem with Ada and her nosy journalist persists. We need to take preventive action.'
'I agree. We need to send a signal to our friends overseas.'
'I've known Ada since she was a child. She's an intelligent young woman but she sometimes displays a dangerous overconfidence. I know when she's trying to play tricks with me and she's trying something now. I don't know what it is, but I think she needs to be reminded of the seriousness of her position.'
'Marlowe?'
Zina nodded. 'Events have reached a tipping point. Without Marlowe's influence, Ada may be more amenable to my needs and less likely to make a foolish effort to outwit me. I hope in time to regain her affections, but that will have to wait until Marlowe is no longer an issue. Please contact Mr Tursunov and tell him I want a result, and quickly. I'll leave it to you to issue the necessary instructions.'
Twist rose from the chair, uncoiling himself like a cobra. 'I'm more than capable of completing this assignment, ma'am.'
'You'll be needed for other tasks later this evening. Someone needs to manage the logistics surrounding our old friend George Byron.'
Twist spoke coldly. 'He's caused us great difficulty in recent years. I admire your efforts in tolerating him. He turned your late husband against me, as you know. I admit to a certain animosity toward him.'
'Entirely understandable, Mr Twist, but have patience. Your moment will come.'
He nodded politely and licked his thin lips. 'I look forward to it, ma'am.' He turned and went below deck.
Zina heard him murmuring on the phone. The matter was now out of her hands. She stretched out on the deck chair and let the hot sun burn her skin.
CHAPTER 6
Ada stood in the kitchen at Vaucluse feeling determined but uncertain at the same time, wanting to take some kind of action but not knowing what. She was waiting, she realised, for some move by Marlowe, waiting for him to take the lead. Where was he?
'Alex is upstairs,' said Tony suddenly, as if reading her thoughts. 'Probably ringing his father. He's coming back from Melbourne later this afternoon. He might take charge of this whole business. Who knows?' He opened the microwave and removed a large container. 'Want some steamed veggies?'
Ada shook her head distractedly. She couldn't eat right now. It was impossible to stop worrying about her grandfather. Had he been injured, accidentally or deliberately? Zina would not use violence against him, but she couldn't say the same for Twist. Would Marlowe's father be of some help? He would have more influence with powers behind the scenes than his son. Though she was beginning to form a plan, its outlines were hazy and its tactics—an immediate rescue attempt—bordered on reckless. She wished that Alex Marlowe was standing beside her, making her feel the way she'd felt with him in the upstairs bedroom at Paddington: relieved to be with someone who wanted to help her, and hopeful that everything would work out right.
'Alex is worried too,' Tony said, once again seeming to read her mind. 'He screwed up a story like this years ago, before I began to work with him. It caused a load of trouble. The source was a woman who came to him with a story about a huge financial scam. He fell for it, and he fell for her, or so the story goes. Anyway, it turned out to be a con and he got slapped with some kind of entrapment lawsuit. Millenium got slugged with a big payout and the dirty company behind the scam got away scot-free. The whole thing made him a bit wary of women, they say. So if he seems a bit cold at times, well, he's just playing it safe, that's all. I'm telling you this because I know you want to trust him. Am I right?'
Without waiting for an answer he continued. 'I trust him. He takes the mickey out of me and sometimes he gives me hell, but he's saved my skin more than once.'
They heard Alex's footsteps on the staircase.
Tony raised his finger to his lips and grinned. 'Don't tell him l told you.'
Ada watched Alex enter the kitchen with his confident male walk and relaxed attitude. His brown eyes caught her gaze and held it. Tony's revelations made her see him differently now. She understood why he'd been unwilling to trust her. She realised she liked him more now, not less, for what she'd just learned about him, despite a niggling jab of what felt suspiciously like jealousy. A woman had made a fool of him. He was human. Like her.
'My father is arriving in a few hours,' he said.
For some strange reason Ada imagined she was hearing his voice for the first time. It seemed calmer and more vibrant than before. Because she knew more about him now?
'I bet he'll try and take charge,' said Tony.
'Not if I can help it,' Alex said.
Alex still held her gaze steadily. She saw a query in his eyes, as if he were waiting for her to speak. Suddenly she felt hungry again. She'd made her decision.
'I have something to tell you,' she said. She scooped some vegetables onto a plate and picked up a fork. 'Let's go into the lounge.'
When they were settled, she began.
'Years ago when they were more active, my grandfather and Zina's husband Jason used to be members of a caving club. But it was an unusual club. Instead of exploring caves in the mountains they explored Sydney's underground reservoirs and tunnels and stormwater drains. They called themselves the Subterraneans. On my twelfth birthday they took me to an underground air raid shelter beneath Hyde Park used by the Air Force during World War II. What a birthday present! It scared me half to death at first, but then I was thrilled. It was their secret, and they shared it with me.'
'And you think this is where Zina is holding your grandfather?' said Alex.
'No. Access was blocked off a few years ago. I remember reading about it.'
'So what's the point of the story?' Alex said, with a hint of impatience.
'They showed me another part of this underground network, about a hundred metres from the air raid shelter. This is where my grandfather is being held. I'm sure of it.'
'How did you figure that out?'
'The mess in the kitchen at my grandfather's house this morning. The oyster shells scattered on the table. He knew where Twist was taking him so he left a sign for me. The oyster shell is the emblem of an old religious saint from centuries ago: Saint James. My grandfather is being held at an old Air Force command centre room in an unused tunnel directly beneath St James rail station. I know exactly where he is, and I remember how to get there.'
'Are you sure?' Alex said. 'That was ten years ago.'
Ada nodded. 'Its burned into my memory.'
'How does Zina know about this place?'
'Jason would have told her about it. He probably took her down there once.'
'If you're right,' Alex said, 'we have a big advantage. We can catch Zina unawares and get your grandfather out of there. Then we're free to go to the police.'
'It mightn't be so easy,' said Tony. 'Won't someone be guarding him?'
Ada shook her head. 'Not all the time. It's a very secure room. He's probably sitting there alone right now.' She found it hard to shake the picture from her mind. 'We have to hurry. The sooner we get to him the better.'
'We've got to assume he'll be guarded constantly,' Alex said. 'Will Twist be there?'
'Either him or one of his men,' said Ada. 'That's why we need to hurry. Twist hates my grandfather. The thought of them being together down there underground frightens me. George knew Twist years ago when Twist was mixed up in a fraud in the astronomy world selling faulty telescope lenses. George cou
ld never understand why Zina hired him as her security chief. He told Jason about Twist's past and Jason tried to get him sacked. Twist would love the chance to get back at my grandfather.'
'I know it's going to be hard on George,' Alex said,' but we have to play it safe. We have to wait. At the moment we don't know his circumstances. He might not be in that exact place underground. There might be more than one guard, and they might be armed. Right now Zina will be edgy, not knowing what to expect from us, so we have to wait until she contacts you and tells you where to go. If she's going to drop her guard it'll be when she thinks she's in full control. Then we move before the scheduled time and take her by surprise.'
'I don't want to wait,' Ada said impatiently. Even as she spoke she realised Alex was right. If she wanted to rescue her grandfather safely, they had to plan their steps.
'I don't want to wait either,' said Alex. 'But we need a plan of approach and some backup. And at least one weapon. My father has experience in these areas. Let's wait and get his advice. In the meantime we can start to get ready.'
'Should I take my camera?' said Tony.
'Absolutely,' Alex said. 'You'll get some good footage down there, and we can use it as evidence for the police later.'
'I don't like the idea of using guns,' Ada said.
'Neither do I,' said Alex, 'but whoever we meet down there is sure to be armed. We have to be able to defend ourselves. My father has an old Colt pistol he used in Vietnam. It's in the upstairs office. He also has friends, old army buddies, who might be useful.'
'You're assuming he'll agree to help us,' said Ada.
'Don't worry,' Alex said. 'When he finds out what's happening he'll probably want to take command of the whole operation. When you meet him you'll know what I mean.'
'We need new phones,' said Ada. 'When we're on the move, our old phones will show us located here.'
Alex thought for a few seconds. 'Tony can go into the city and collect three company phones.'
Ada shook her head. 'No. Zina might have them on a monitoring list. She can't listen to our calls, but she'll be able to track our locations.'
'You're right,' Alex said. 'We can't take that chance. Tony, does Tickle still work for Telstra?'
Tony nodded. 'In Sales.'
'Call her on the landline and organise four new phones in your name. The fourth is for my father. Take the SUV into the city, pick them up and get back here fast.'
'Who'll pay for them?'
'Use your credit card,' said Alex.
Tony gave an exasperated sigh.
'Stop worrying. The company will reimburse you.'
Tony hurried into the studio to call Tickle.
'I'll get my father's gun,' said Alex.
Ada watched him skip athletically up the stairs. On a normal day did he go for a run and work out regularly? Probably. She tried not to imagine what he looked like in short shorts. This wasn't the time. Suddenly she felt tired. It was only two in the afternoon. She'd been running on adrenalin most of the day, but she had to keep going. She was impatient to start moving and bring this whole nasty business to an end. Only then could she finally rid herself of the feeling that it was all her fault.
Tony rushed past her with a wave. 'Back in an hour.'
In a few minutes Alex returned with the Colt pistol and its magazine and placed them on the coffee table.
'Don't look so concerned,' he said looking across at her from the sofa. 'I used to belong to a gun club. I know to handle a weapon safely.'
Ada was reassured, but not so much that she could relax completely. She needed to relax, to be sharp for the events to come later. When would Zina call? She remembered she hadn't replaced the SIM card in her phone. Maybe Zina had tried to call her already. She got up, panicky, and hurried into her bedroom. She found the card and paper clip in her wallet where she'd put them last night—was it only twelve hours ago?—and slid the card back into the phone. After thirty seconds the screen updated and showed no messages. Zina had not yet rung. She went back into the lounge.
'Problem?' said Alex, with a look of concern on his tanned face.
Ada shook her head. 'Zina hasn't called yet.'
'She will. When she's organised and thinks she's got us over a barrel. But she doesn't know what we know.' He smiled at her. 'You did a good job picking up on the message that you grandfather left for you. You're smart.'
'I know,' she said, returning his smile. Why shouldn't she agree? She knew she was smart. Was that the first time he'd smiled at her like that? A genuine smile with no motive behind it? Was that the first time she'd smiled at him in return? She finally began to relax. She leaned back in her chair and stretched her long legs. She pretended not to notice where his eyes were wandering. She stretched her legs again, just a little.
Alex forced himself to look away from Ada for a moment. She was playing with him, which he could only take as a positive development. The earlier hostility had gone and now she seemed to trust him. Entirely? Probably not. She was probably working on the assumption that when it came to the crunch he would put the story before her welfare. It wasn't true, but he could hardly blame her. The media world he lived in was not noted for the purity of its motives, and the public knew it.
He couldn't tell when she might switch unpredictably to one of her other personalities. At the moment she was Miss Vulnerable, or close to it. She'd put aside Miss Aggressive for the time being. But he had to be constantly on guard for Miss Perceptive. That was her default mode, always purring away beneath the surface. Still, he'd made real progress with her. Or had she made progress with him? After all, he was the one who'd made the promise to help her, and she'd done a neat job of holding him to it.
They'd spent so much time in each other's company over the last twelve hours they might as well be boyfriend and girlfriend. Did she enjoy his company? Why did he care anyway? If she liked being with him she would be more cooperative, but was that the only reason he wanted her to like him? She was on his mind all the time now and he wasn't sure why. But he was just kidding himself. He knew why but he didn't want to admit it. He was breaking the second rule: no personal involvement. He knew it, he was aware of the dangers, but he couldn't just click Undo and go backward in time.
Unless, of course, he discovered over the next few hours that she was just stringing him along for her own reasons. But even then, could he switch off his feelings? The puzzle was that she wasn't his type, personality-wise. Physically she was definitely his type. In that department he had no objection and he could tell that she knew it. But he'd never met a woman so... unusual? That was a tame word. Somewhere between eccentric and bizarre was more appropriate. And completely single-minded and uncaring of what others thought of her. The single-mindedness he could understand in the current circumstances, but did she really not care about the opinions of others? What about his opinion?
He knew almost nothing about her past. In his research on Argentum personnel he'd stumbled across references to a murky incident in her university days but the details were sketchy.
'None of my business,' he said, 'but do you have a boyfriend?' He was almost certain of the answer but he had to ask.
She gazed at him calmly. 'You're right, it's none of your business. But the answer is no. Not much spare time lately.'
Well handled. A direct answer that told him nothing.
'I don't want to pry into your private affairs...' he began.
'But you will anyway.'
He ignored the quick comeback. 'Someone special in the past?'
'Is this an interview?'
'Just gathering background material.'
'I've only worked at Argentum for a year. Anything before that is irrelevant.'
She'd stumbled. So there was a boyfriend in her past. But what was so surprising about that? A love affair was a common enough event in most young people's lives. So why did it bother him that he cared? He wanted to know more, but she would never tell him now. He felt a small prick of jealousy about the unknow
n boyfriend. Warning! Rule number two was in serious danger of being irreparably broken, if that hadn't already happened. Hadn't he learned his lesson once before? Hadn't that been enough?
She seemed to realise that she'd slipped up. He caught a brief flash of annoyance as it crossed her face.
'None of my business,' she said, 'but do you have a girlfriend?'
He could hardly refuse to answer given their previous exchange. And anyway, he'd had a good win. 'No. Not much spare time lately.'
'Someone special in the past?'
He should have seen that coming. This was something he definitely didn't want to talk about. 'Too long ago to remember,' he lied. A cop-out, but the question and answer game had gone far enough.
This time he caught a brief flash of amusement as it crossed her face. It left him puzzled. It was as if she thought she'd scored a small victory, but he'd revealed nothing that might justify it. The amused look had brightened up her face. The worry had gone and for a moment she seemed almost lighthearted. He couldn't stop staring at her. He almost wanted to stretch out and touch those curved, pink lips. She glanced away and shifted her legs again. The movement created a small bedroom fantasy in his mind that he knew didn't belong there right now. He shook his head to make it disappear.
What was his brain up to? What had happened to his common sense? This couldn't go any further. It had to stop. He was tired, that was the reason. He had to get back to business. He couldn't afford to get close to her, or touch her. He shook his head again to clear it. Tonight he had to embark on a dangerous venture and help to rescue a man. He needed his wits about him.
Despite the way Alex smiled at her it bothered her that he might still distrust her. Since they'd returned from her grandfather's house she'd been unable to forget the touch of his hands on her shoulders. She didn't want to think that a man who could burn her skin like that could be suspicious of her motives, but what she'd heard from Tony went some way to explaining what made Marlowe tick. She wanted to know more but he wasn't about to reveal it. Not yet. Was the femme fatale in his past younger or older than herself? Why did she do it? Where was she now?
Unwelcome Protector Page 7