Finding Thyme

by TJ Hamilton

  I laugh at the rebellious teenager memory and Tench laughs along with me. I look over to Tatiana and realise that our lives didn’t end up so differently in the end. I’d always believed that we were so opposite to one another as teenagers, yet here we are ten years later and we’re not so different, after all.

  There’s one thing we share in common with one another that led us to this point. We both used our bodies to get ahead in life. Does that make us prostitutes, or smart? Tatiana will go on forever being a prima ballerina who has men falling at her feet and criminals willing to protect her. I will always be the bitch who took Joe Tench down.

  Tench takes a seat next to me and Luka conveniently sits next to Tatiana. I lean on my left arm and touch my Shadow of Love diamond. Rubbing it, I realise my brother has been listening to everything tonight. There’s a lot of my life that Tatiana and I certainly didn’t go into too much detail about. Then my eye catches my new sparkly engagement ring. Shit. I am in so much trouble tomorrow.

  SIXTEEN

  Relishing in the idea of me being good friends with the city’s most celebrated prima ballerina, Tench agrees to let me and Tatiana venture out for the day on our own. What I realised as much as Tench no doubt did, is that I will be far from alone with Tatiana. Not only will he have his men shadowing us, Tatiana alone draws a crowd. Paparazzi and adoring fans follow her wherever she goes.

  I need to do an immediate reconnaissance on the surrounding park as soon as we get to the Bronze Horseman statue, and find somewhere to meet that isn’t a public café. The media can’t see us talking with my brother in Russia. They would already have photographs of him when I met him and Liz in Sydney, and all it’d take would be some slimeball like Dimi to read the local paper, show it to Tench and catch me out.

  I dress fashionably while I’m with Tatiana. From what she’s said so far, people love seeing what she’s wearing every day. We can actually use this to our advantage. I keep my hotel robe on until Tench leaves the suite for the morning so he doesn’t know what I’m wearing for the day, then I slip into a very structured navy-blue Armani suit, and wear high red suede pumps that have thicker heels to make it easier to run in, but still don’t compromise on style. I tie a red and white nautical Hermes scarf around the strap to my navy Kelly bag, and lastly tussle my fingers through my hair to loosen my waves and make them more Aussie beach girl and less Hi, I’m a secret agent, everyone.

  “Simon or Liz, if you’re listening to this, get a car and wait around the park somewhere. I’ll wear the Shadow of Love necklace today to give you instructions on where to meet us. I think we’ll need to plan a hot extraction to get me and Tatiana out of the public eye,” I say into the necklace as I clasp it around my neck.

  Smearing my favourite new red lipstick across my lips, I pucker them across the mirror and leave a nice little mark behind; a message for anyone who comes back here with Tench so they can see that I’m around. I don’t know for sure if Tench would see other women behind my back, but given his history, I can’t be too naive. It’s just another reminder why I am better off away from this life. I can’t stand the thought of Tench being with other women and then have him confess his love for me when we’re together. I just don’t get why men are like that.

  These men are different. These men make a living off selling girls. This isn’t even prostitution; this is worse. This is the sex trade. Trade! That’s what Tench calls it, the trade. He also said he wants to get out of it? But there’s no way Dima is going to let him out that easy. I know men, and everything about Dima makes my skin crawl. I have a feeling Dima is the true mastermind behind the whole operation, and he is bad news.

  A light tap on the front door interrupts the string of theories going on inside my head. I open it to Tatiana smiling and looking breathtaking in a multi-coloured Pucci dress. Her green eyes flash up from under her very fashionable silk blush-pink turban. She smiles her dazzling smile. I love seeing her again.

  I greet her with a tight hug. “You’re so cute. Look at you … come in,” I offer.

  “Wow, Mi. You look stunning.”

  I glance down the hallway quickly but no one is around. “Be careful calling me that,” I whisper.

  “But my nickname is Tia and you’re Mia.” She winks. “The joke’s on everyone else.” She raises a white-gloved hand as she giggles and steps into the suite and throws the white cape she was holding over the back of a chair and places her small white Chanel bag next to it. She is so delicate and everything about her is well put together. It all seems a long way from the days where we were borrowing each other’s cheap Sportsgirl outfits.

  “So there are a couple of changes about today. We’re going to have to make a quick dash for it when a crowd of protesters starts up. I think our best bet will be to have a car waiting to get us out of the area completely. That way we can lose any tails following us and you can give my brother and Liz every bit of information you can about the whole operation.”

  Tatiana looks down and shrugs her shoulders. “What’s going to happen when they find out that I was part of all this, Mi? You don’t understand what these men do to girls like us. When they find out you were an undercover agent all this time, they’ll surely kill both of us.”

  Her furrowing brow shows her worry. I put my arm around her to reassure her. “Don’t worry, babe. I have everything covered. They won’t even know I’m part of it, so they will never know about you. After I’m gone, your life will be as it was.”

  Her green eyes peer at me. I can see that this isn’t exactly comforting news to her. There’s something more that she’s not telling me. Despite having the immaculate shell she’s created on the outside, I finally see there’s so much sadness on the inside.

  “Come on. Let’s have some fun with these guys today.” I wink at her as I grab her cape and head for the door.

  “How do you know if anyone is following you?” Tatiana asks nervously as we stroll along the street.

  “There’s a few ways you can tell.” I slide my sunglasses on and have a quick glance around the street.

  I see two men standing on the bridge talking and pointing towards the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood at the end of the canal.

  “Okay, let’s just try something. See those two guys in black standing on the bridge?” I look at Tatiana and tip my head towards the men.

  “Yes.”

  “They’re following us,” I reply.

  She smiles. “But how do you know that?”

  “We’ll quickly make a stop-off into the Dom Knigi bookstore. We’ll slowly take a walk around the books and make sure they’ve seen us, and then we’ll leave out of the exit that gets us onto the rear lane. We’ll stop for coffee in the lane somewhere and I can guarantee that we’ll see them again within minutes.”

  Tatiana giggles.

  We walk into the grand bookstore that I was in yesterday and do everything I suggest. We stroll across the laneway to the coffee shop on the opposite side of the lane and take a seat at a table and order a coffee. Within three minutes—quicker than I anticipated—the two men come out of the same exit we just did and stop to look around the lane. I smile and wave at them as soon as they spot us. Tatiana giggles. The men look at one another and one of them pulls out his phone as they walk off towards the main street, Nevsky Prospect.

  “How did you know they were the ones following us?” Tatiana asks and takes a sip of her coffee.

  “They looked completely out of place amongst the families and tourists who were looking at the church on the bridge. How many big guys do you know who would stop and appreciate the beauty of this city together like that? And neither one of them had a camera, taking photos like the rest.”

  She chuckles again. “Good point. You’re very clever, Miranda.”

  “Not really. They’re just not very bright.”

  Tatiana’s entire body relaxes a little and she settles back into her chair. I check the time on my watch and see it’s ten thirty. There’s two hours left bef
ore the protesters start up at the Bronze Horseman statue. I still need to locate the Babushka doll stand and find the best spot for a hot extraction where no one will see us get into the car.

  We walk along the Prospect and pass another beautiful canal framed by a line of tall buildings either side. The needlepoint tower of the Russian Navy’s Admiralty building is getting bigger as we get closer to Alexander Park. As we reach the end of the Prospect, I see the most spectacular palace to the left of us. I can’t help but gasp.

  “It’s magnificent, isn’t it?” Tatiana smiles. “I never ever tire of this city. Why do you think it never interested me to come home after being away for over ten years? This is home to me. I would never have had these kinds of opportunities in Australia. Even if I am owned here.”

  That’s it. There’s the sadness. These guys control everything Tatiana does. She is their little Russian doll. They do whatever they want with her, whenever they want.

  “So who has you at the moment?” I urge her to speak.

  “No one, really. Although Luka wants more, and I do too, but I am used goods now. Half of the Russian government have had their piece of me. They come to my theatre; they sit in the private balcony that you were in. I dance for them, and then I get sent home with whomever they need to influence the most at the time.”

  Her words are morose, but she makes it sound like there’s no way out of this situation when all she needs to do is give up the ballet. They allow her to be the prima ballerina, as long as they all get a piece of her. My heart breaks for the girl who was Kira Pemberton. She paid a price to be the best ballerina in the city.

  “How do they get the other girls? Do you know?” I ask as we walk through the lush green gardens before the Bronze Horseman.

  “They mostly find them in the country villages in eastern Russia. The girls are told they will get a chance at a new life. They’re promised the world. Their families are paid more money than they would ever make in a lifetime, which isn’t much, and then they are brought into St Petersburg and shipped off internationally. Mainly to Australia, I think, but I know they have branched out further recently, and now they send them anywhere. Joe Tench is the most essential component to it all, from what Luka tells me, and has all the contacts overseas.”

  I think about what she’s telling me for a moment. Is this where Miss Stephanie fits into the picture? Is she helping Tench import girls into the country? She would have the contacts; not Tench. My mind spins wildly at the possibilities. I told Nick months ago that I had a feeling Miss Stephanie had something to do with all of it, and I just know I’m right. But I still can’t work out why Tench had Sally murdered? Was she going to expose all of it? Who was she going to expose it to?

  I see the massive statue of the Bronze Horseman ahead of us. “Let’s go and sit on that bench and watch the crowd for a while. I need to see exactly how many tails we have following us.”

  A shorter round man with a wispy comb-over runs up to us, shooting fast Russian at Tatiana very excitedly. He pats all of his pockets desperately trying to find something. She winks at me.

  “A fan. He’s looking for a pen and paper for me to sign.” She laughs.

  The man’s commotion causes a few other onlookers to take notice of Tatiana standing near the statue. A couple of mothers lean down to their small children and point in our direction. Within an instant the little girls tug at their mothers’ sleeves, begging to come over to us. I smile and nod, and they rush over. They all start firing off their praises to Tatiana and she graciously dips her head in appreciation. When the little girls approach her, she bobs down and starts speaking to them gently in their native tongue.

  “Keep going. I’ll watch for who’s around us while you tend to your fans.”

  Tatiana looks back up at me with a big grin and starts talking to the little girls again, and then points to me. The people gathered around us in a semi-circle turn their attention in my direction and smile.

  A lady in a headscarf shakes my hand. “Welcome to Russia. My daughter wants to be ballerina just like Tatiana Pavlenka. You are ballerina too, she says.”

  I smile. “I was, but not anymore. Nothing like Tatiana though.”

  Tatiana stands up straight and wraps her arm around my shoulders. “You should have seen Miranda,” she says in English. “When we were at ballet school together, she was the best ballerina I had ever seen. She would practise really hard, every day.” She looks down at the little girls. “She wanted to be a ballerina and nothing else.”

  “Why aren’t you a ballerina anymore?” a little girl asks in accented English.

  “I had a very bad accident, so I had to stop dancing.”

  Tatiana looks to me and slowly shakes her head with sad eyes. “I’d forgotten all about that.”

  “Come on. Let’s go sit on a bench so you can sign some autographs,” I say.

  She nods. When we get to the bench, she sits and starts scribbling her autograph on anything that’s being held in front of her to sign, and the crowd around us begins to swell. I scan around the park and see the group of university protesters gathering. I count three men who have been following us since we left the hotel, and I’m sure there has to be a couple more around the place. I look down at my watch. Just after twelve o’clock.

  I lean my head down towards the necklace. “Have the car ready to approach the park on the southern side. There aren’t any fences there so I can draw these fans right down to the roadside. We’ll jump in as soon as you approach. Hot extraction, Simon.”

  I hope he’s actually listening. I search the vehicles as they pass the statue to see if I can spot Simon and Liz, but I don’t see them in any cars. Beyond the statue are some cars parked on the water’s edge and I make out Simon and Liz arm in arm, looking towards the harbour.

  “I can see you, Simon. Look over towards me and cover your eyes from the sun if you have a car ready.”

  I watch for a moment. He doesn’t move. Shit! Finally, he turns and puts his hand against his forehead to shield his eyes from the sun as he looks in my direction.

  “Thank fuck for that,” I breathe.

  Tatiana looks up at me. “Everything okay?”

  “Sure. Hey, I really want to buy a Babushka doll,” I say as I point to the stand near the forming protesters.

  Tatiana says something in Russian to the crowd. “Get them to meet us near the stall,” I tell her.

  She repeats what I said in Russian and the crowd moves around us as we walk towards the stall. A paparazzo jumps in front of us and starts snapping away. Tatiana stops and poses with me before barking orders at the man. He takes a couple more shots and ducks away behind the crowd.

  “I told him I won’t pose for any more pictures today and he has the exclusive.” She winks.

  “Good idea.” I smile.

  As we approach the Babushka doll stall, the protesters pick up their placards and start chanting. There are at least fifty people around us now, and their numbers continue to swell. Tatiana bobs down and signs a couple of little girls’ pieces of paper while I purchase a Russian doll from the stall. It gives me an idea.

  “When we move over to the sidewalk, I want you to bob down and give a little girl your turban.”

  Tatiana looks up at me and frowns. “But it’s Dior?”

  I glare at her. “Even better. Imagine how good you’re about to make a little girl feel.”

  She grins and shakes her head as she continues to scribble away at the things being held in front of her. I pull on her arm and we slowly make our way towards the kerb with the swarm of fans around us. The chanting of the protesters and the commotion of the adoring fans is the perfect amount of activity to help us escape. I watch Tench’s guys around the park. Only two of them seem to actually care about what’s going on.

  “Prepare for extraction,” I say into the diamond necklace.

  I see Simon and Liz get into a dark blue Volvo. I wait for it to turn the corner and make its way towards us.

  “Oka
y bob down and put your headwear on her.” I point to a girl in her teens with brown hair the same as Tatiana’s. “And stay crouching until you’re in the car, okay?”

  She nods and takes her turban off and says something to the girl in Russian, and puts it on her head. The crowd applauds and surrounds the little girl just as the car pulls up alongside us. The door is wide open so I push Tatiana in first and jump in behind her. The car only slows to a creep, but doesn’t stop. I rip the door shut and watch the crowd of people around the little girl in Tatiana’s turban, and smile to myself.

  “Okay, you can sit up now.” I pat Tatiana on the back.

  “How fun was that?” she squeals.

  SEVENTEEN

  We drive over a series of canals flanked by intricate bridges, and soon pull up outside an old boarded up building in a deserted street. Simon gets out of the car and we all follow him inside. Liz’s eyes keep shifting across to Tatiana. I’m not sure if she actually realises that Tatiana and Simon have a history together, but I certainly don’t have the heart to tell her.

  Tatiana stays silent. I think what we do for a living is finally sinking in. I follow them through a couple of hallways until we make it to a door that looks like it should be shielding a bank vault. My brother enters a code and it bleeps twice back at him.

  “Shit.”

  “Don’t enter it incorrectly again,” Liz snaps.

  Simon enters the code again. This time the green light comes on and the machine beeps once. The entire door swings open in front of us.

  I look to Liz. “What would’ve happened if he had?”

  I’m asking this mainly for Tatiana’s benefit. I’m sure it’s something catastrophic, but I want her to hear it. Plus, I love that Simon got it wrong. He’d be squirming with fury inside.

  “The detonators in the bottom of the building would’ve gone off and most of the building would collapse.”

  I feel Tatiana’s eyes burn into me. I look at her and smile. When it comes to the agency, not even the most hardened criminals can beat our tactical response to stopping the world’s organised crime. I want Tatiana to know this so her decision to stay on our side doesn’t crack.