“You heard wrong. That’s my girl. So get your ass to work. Save her and I’ll make you rich.” It wasn’t unusual for off-the-books doctors to double dip, as in get paid to take the bullet out, and then rat out their patient to the people who put the bullet into them in the first place. “Cross me, and they’ll be picking pieces of you out of that drain.”
Apparently, he believed me. The Serbian nodded toward the other two, and said something in his native language. Despite their shifty appearance, they immediately flew into action, and even appeared to know what they were doing. The fat surgeon went to the sink, spit his cigarette out, and began washing his hands. “For you, Mr. Lorenzo, special price of only double my usual fee for bullet holes. This is good?”
“This is good.”
“Then go to waiting room. Drink coffee. Have a smoke. Read magazines. Clean off the blood first. You look like shit. Do not get blood on the couches or I must explain it in morning. I’ll save your woman.”
“You better.” I turned without another word. In a daze, I walked out of the operating room. Reaper asked me where I was going, but I was having a hard time hearing him. I said something about ditching the car. We couldn’t have a car with broken windows and bullet holes sitting out in the open parking lot. He tossed me the keys. Then I went and sat in the car, stared at the blood, and punched the steering wheel until my hands hurt, worrying that Jill was going to die, and cursing myself for being powerless to stop it.
I prayed for a chance to murder everyone who’d wronged me. I shouted, and cursed, and slammed my fists against the dash, so incredibly furious and filled with hate that I couldn’t even contain it. I’d never wanted to kill anyone that badly before. Until the ringing in my ears got so bad that for just a moment, the briefest of moments, I thought I heard the familiar whispers of Sala Jihan’s dungeons.
I stopped. Put my face in my aching hands, and wept.
VALENTINE
The Hotel Gueguen had once been a Directorial-style manor house. According to the info Reaper had just sent me, this small luxury hotel only had five suites, but all of them were currently being rented on the same credit card, which more than likely belonged to a Montalban shell corporation.
The streets were nearly deserted as the dawn began to overtake Paris. It was a cool but lovely morning. Next to the street-level entrance was a small coffee shop, where a few early risers sat drinking the local brew and eating croissants, conversing, or staring at their phones. There were a few tough guys, trying to look inconspicuous. Security men, undoubtedly Kat’s. With a ball cap on, I looked like just another tourist. In any case I’d never met Kat. They would be looking for Lorenzo, not for me. I was six inches taller than him, so there was no mistaking us for one another.
This is insane. You are out of your goddamn mind, I told myself. I’d made Ling drop me off a couple blocks away before falling back a safe distance. She was adamantly opposed to my plan, but for once I got her to listen and do as I asked. She had been really angry with me, though. If I somehow lived through this I was going to catch hell from her later.
Actually, all of my Exodus comrades had been angry at me. Once we roused the team, they all thought my plan was stupid. Skunky called it “suicidal,” which I thought was melodramatic. In any case, Katarina Montalban apparently had a nuclear weapon. There was no more time to screw around, and it was better to risk just my life. They had decided that I was in charge of this show, so it was my call to make.
The only person who hadn’t disagreed, surprisingly, was Ariel. But that was mostly because when we’d found her, she’d been staring at a computer screen going through shipping manifests, mumbling about Kat having a nuclear weapon. So it wasn’t so much that she was opposed to my plan, but that she was too distracted by potential Armageddon to notice.
When I asked her if she was sure Katarina had a nuke, Ariel swore that she was certain. That was enough for me. This was worth the risk. If I went down, it would be by myself, and Exodus would still have another shot.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, a text message from Tailor. He called my plan stupid, but he still backed my play. He had called in his reinforcements. Now his team was in position and standing by. Good. Now there was only one thing left to do.
I bought myself a hot chocolate from the little coffee shop, sat down at one of the tables on the sidewalk, and pulled out a different phone, a prepaid flip phone I’d paid cash for. I paused for a moment, heart racing, and dialed Hawk’s old number. It rang, and rang, and rang, and I just let it go. After about twenty rings with no answer, I hung up, and waited. I hope this works, I thought to myself. Part of me hoped it didn’t.
After about five minutes, the phone buzzed in my hand, a call from a hidden number. My heart was pounding in my chest now. I didn’t want to answer it. Taking a deep breath, I flipped it open, and brought it to my ear.
Underhill didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “You evaded me for a year and a half, and now you want to talk?” He sounded like he was in a moving vehicle, but I couldn’t be sure.
“I’m assuming you’ve triangulated my location and are en route as we speak.”
“What’s your game, Valentine?” His voice was gravelly and cold. He sounded weary, and he should be, since they’d pulled him out of retirement for me. “Just go quiet. You try anything stupid and more innocent people will get hurt.”
“I’ll save you time trying to zero in on my exact location, old man,” I growled. “I’m at a little coffee shop next to the Hotel Gueguen.” I didn’t bother trying to pronounce the French name correctly. “Staying in that hotel is Katarina Montalban.”
“I don’t care about some Illuminati harpy. What is it you think you’re doing?”
“I know what Project Blue is. You remember, the thing you guys tortured me for months for? I didn’t know then, but I know now.”
“We can talk about it when I get there.”
I gave him a sardonic laugh. “Hard to talk with a bag on my head. Listen to me. There’s something bigger going on here than you assholes wanting me dead. Katarina Montalban has a nuclear weapon. I don’t know how, I don’t know where, and I don’t know when she plans to use it, but that woman has a nuke. If you want to stop Project Blue, if you’re really so goddamn worried about it, come get me. How far out do you think you are?”
“Just stay where you are and nobody else has to die.”
“Right, threatening bluster. Where are you? Will I be waiting long? Should I have another hot chocolate?”
I could tell that Underhill wasn’t used to being talked to like that. I knew I was pissing him off, but he kept his cool. “You just sit tight.”
“Whatever. Look, I’ll be waiting for you, with the Montalban woman. Valentine out.” I ended the call and snapped the phone in half, dropping it in a trash can as I made my way toward the hotel lobby. I sent Tailor a text: He’s coming.
Tailor’s only response was, Rgr.
An Illuminati strike team couldn’t do anything to Underhill, and vice versa. For the same reason, Romefeller wouldn’t let Tailor and his team simply grab Katarina Montalban. I had kind of assumed that shadowy organizations operating above the law wouldn’t have so much bureaucratic red tape to deal with, but that’s what you get for making assumptions. These people took their gentlemen’s agreements seriously. In any case, Underhill might not care about Katarina Montalban, but her guys would probably start shooting the moment Underhill showed up, especially since they were paranoid that Lorenzo was gunning for them. If this worked, I’d take out both of them in one move, and I might even get out alive.
If it didn’t? Well, I told Ling I loved her and said goodbye. It was about all I could do. I even left my custom .44 Magnum with her. My lucky charm had seen me through countless bad days, but not today. If the worst happened, I didn’t want Underhill taking it as a damned trophy.
I was unarmed. There was no way they’d let me get close to Kat with a gun on me, and having a gun wouldn’t matter when I was th
is badly outnumbered. The chances of this working were slim. Ling was right: it was stupid, but somebody had to do something. Better me alone than everyone. I thought about how anguished Lorenzo had sounded with Jill bleeding in his arms. I’d done that once with Sarah. I’d be damned if I was going to do it with Ling.
The small reception area of the hotel was ornately furnished, including a sitting area with plush furniture. Two guys, also trying to look nondescript, watched me over their newspapers as I walked in the front door. The newspapers weren’t for reading, they were for hiding the guns on their laps. I smiled at them but didn’t say anything as I made my way to the reception desk.
“Good morning, Monsieur,” the woman behind the desk said. She was a pretty thing, wearing a tight dress, her hair done up in a bun. I must look American, because she spoke English to me. “I am so sorry, but we are completely booked at the moment. I can direct you to other hotels in the area if you are looking for a place to stay.”
“Thank you, darlin’, but I’m not looking for a room. I probably couldn’t afford it anyway. I’m here to speak to one of your guests.”
That certainly got the security guys’ attention. The receptionist didn’t seem to notice the change in the wind, and was oblivious to the fact that a gunfight could break out any second. “I see, but, I cannot disclose who is staying here. We value our guests’ privacy.”
“Could you send Katarina Montalban a message for me? Tell her that I know where Lorenzo is.”
“Monsieur?” The receptionist seemed confused. The two security men both stood up, and the woman behind the desk got very nervous.
“It’ll be okay, I promise,” I said reassuringly. I stopped her before she could pick up the phone. “I think you should deliver the message in person.” If they were going to just blast me, she really didn’t need to see that. I could see them in the mirror. Both were staring me down, and one was on his phone, but neither approached.
She nodded at me slowly, then stepped back from her desk. “Oui. I will go knock on her door. Please, ah, wait a moment.” Her shoes clicked on the floor as she hurried out of the room.
One of the goons, a muscular man with blonde hair cropped into a flat top, walked over to the main entrance and locked the door. The other, a short, skinny fellow with long hair, remained staring. Neither one was bothering to hide the pistols in their hands.
My heart rate slowed, and the anxiety receded. I felt the muscles in my face relax as The Calm washed over me. I didn’t want to die, but I was prepared to.
“Nice morning, huh?”
They looked at each other and blinked. The long-haired man stepped toward me.
“Relax.” I raised my hands to show they were empty. “I’m here to talk to your boss about the guy trying to kill her. She’ll be mighty pissed if you do something stupid and she doesn’t get that information.”
“Indeed I would be.”
I heard multiple people coming down the marble stairs behind me, including the distinctive sound of a woman in high heeled shoes. I turned around. A woman in a white dress stood on the stairs. With her were four armed men, guns all drawn.
“I do not like people interrupting my breakfast; however, I am very interested in where Lorenzo is.” Katarina Montalban was blond and could’ve been a supermodel ten years ago. She had a little bit of a Swiss accent, and a smoky voice that put sex line operators to shame. “If you are wasting my time, I will be most upset.”
“Right. I’m just here to talk. I’m unarmed. I’m not trying to start anything.”
She nodded and the two lobby guards grabbed me and roughly patted me down, not being shy about getting all up in my nooks and crannies. Katarina Montalban slinked down the stairs. Once they were done with the search, they still held onto my arms.
“Now, that’s better,” she purred, stepping close to me. “Who are you?”
“Michael Valentine.”
She tilted her head, a little taken back. “It must be the real you. Only a fool would come here claiming the name of the man who murdered my older brother. How did you find me, Michael Valentine?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Do not worry, you will tell it. Because I need to know which of my men needs to have his tongue cut off for talking too much.” Her guards shared nervous glances. Apparently that wasn’t a bluff. She sensually ran a fingernail down the side of my face. I could smell her perfume, and her sleeveless dress was both tight and low cut. Who the hell dressed like that before six in the morning?
Lorenzo had warned me about his ex-girlfriend. She was frighteningly intelligent, but loved when men just assumed she was some dumb sex bomb. Everything about her was a weapon, including her looks and her charm. She could go from flirting to murder in seconds. He swore that she’d had good qualities once, but I didn’t particularly believe him.
“But first, tell me, how do you know Lorenzo, and where is he hiding? I miss him. I want to see him again.”
I glanced at a clock on the wall behind her, then looked Kat in her cold blue eyes. Her features were lovely, her lips were full and pouty, her makeup was perfect, but her eyes were dead. She had the eyes of a killer. “It’s . . . complicated. But I can tell you what you want to know.”
She ran a hand down my chest, to my pants, and rested it on my crotch. Even though the Calm, I winced a little as she grabbed my junk and squeezed. “I should hope so, or I will cut your cock off and fuck you with it.” She let go, smiling again. “Now, you may talk as I finish my breakfast.”
My survival depended on my ability to bullshit a manipulative psychopath for a while, until another psychopath showed up to arrest me. Not for the first time, I found myself questioning my life choices.
“And that’s how it happened,” I explained. “Lorenzo took off on his own and left us to die. He’s a fucking coward, and I hope you skin him alive.” I was sitting in a very plush chair in Katarina Montalban’s hotel room, which was probably the nicest hotel room I had ever seen. She sat on her giant bed, her long legs crossed, daintily picking at a bowl of fruit. There were four armed men in the room with us, and none of them looked happy I was there.
“Mm,” she said. “That does sound like my Lorenzo. He was never one for commitment.”
Yeah, I simply couldn’t imagine why Lorenzo hadn’t put a ring on that finger.
“But, Michael, I find myself curious . . . why would an Exodus operative come to me, all things considered?”
“I’m not an Exodus operative.” That much was true. I had never officially joined. “I’m an independent contractor. I go where the money is, and they offered a lot of money for my expertise. I had worked with them before, in Mexico.”
“Anders told me of your involvement in Zubara as well. He also told me should I ever have the opportunity, to just kill you. He said you are most troublesome.”
“You can tell Anders to go fuck himself. I still owe him a bullet to the face.” That was also true. Lying is easier when you’re sincere about it. “I’m not here because I want to be your friend, lady. I’m here because Lorenzo took off and left my team to die in the snow. I’m the only one who made it back. I’ve wanted payback ever since.”
“I don’t recall seeing you at Sala Jihan’s fortress,” she said coolly, leaning in a little.
Truth be told I had never been inside Sala Jihan’s fortress. I was on the other side of the valley, at the dam, during the battle, but I had been briefed on what happened well enough to lie about it, convincingly. “I remember you,” I said, ice in my voice. “I remember you taking off in that big fucking helicopter and leaving us to die.”
She smiled a hateful little smile, like abandoning a bunch of brave men and women to die at the hands of a bunch of fanatics was amusing. “Indeed. So tell me why you’re so concerned with Lorenzo, and not concerned with me? After all, you would not have been stranded on that mountain except for me. I would hate for you to harbor such vengeful feelings toward me.” She popped a grape into her mouth. “Perhaps
I should just have my men shoot you now?”
“You want to know the truth? I can’t do anything to you. I never trusted you. I advised them to leave you out of the operation. You did exactly what I thought you were going to do. I trusted Lorenzo. I trusted him and six men died because of it. So no, he doesn’t get to escape Sala Jihan’s mines and live his life while my friends are still buried there. He doesn’t get that.” I took a deep breath. “Besides, I figure that when you try to kill him, there’s about a fifty-fifty chance he’ll kill you in the process. Either way, I win.”
Had I not still been under the influence of The Calm, Katarina’s glare may have been intimidating. Even still it was unsettling. After a moment, the mask went back on, and she looked much more pleasant. “I see. I must say, Michael, I appreciate your candor. I’m . . . unused to people being so casually blunt with me. I daresay it’s refreshing.”
“I don’t deny that I’m the one who shot Rafael, either.”
She barely reacted to that, like I’d just said I was the one who ate the last donut. “So Anders said. I never thought much of that stuffy fool.”
It was the death of Rafael at my hand, and Eduard at Lorenzo’s, which had put Katarina into her current position of power. Ultimately, whatever she did, it was on our heads.
“So you screwed me over at the Crossroads, sure, but I screwed you over first. The way I see it, we’re even. And I’ll give you Lorenzo in exchange for a small fee. He’s in Paris, and I know where he’s been staying. I don’t know what happened to him in Jihan’s mines, but he’s sloppy now. He’s not as good as he thinks he is. I was able to track him down.”
Katarina cocked her head slightly to one side. “Why not just go after him yourself, if you’re so certain?”
“Because I’m one guy with a couple of friends who do intelligence stuff. He’s still dangerous, and I’m pretty sure he has a crew with him. Besides, I can risk getting killed doing it myself, or I can bring it to you and have it done for me, and maybe make a little bit of money in the process.”
Alliance of Shadows (Dead Six Series Book 3) Page 24