Mick nodded. She was thinking more clearly than he was. He got in the passenger side of the car and stared at the crumpled body of his friend as long as he could, until Kylee wrenched her car free of the wrecked Trabant and sped away.
Krystof Scherba was going to pay, Mick knew, and the man was going to pay in blood.
Kylee found Mick standing in the living room of the safe house, staring out at the catamaran tied up on the Vltava River. Knowing that the object of his agony and hatred was so near and yet so far away filled Kylee with pain.
“I just got off the phone with my mission controller,” Kylee said.
Mick nodded but didn’t look at her.
“She’s talking to some people in the State Department,” Kylee said. “They’re going to make sure the…the body gets shipped back to his wife. International favors, I guess.”
“Always pays to know somebody who knows somebody,” Mick stated flatly.
Kylee crossed the room and sat on the floor with her back to the wall near the window Mick stared through. She sat with her knees against her chest, her arms around her legs.
He acted as though she wasn’t there.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Josef was a good man,” Mick said hoarsely. “He was…was a good father.” He paused. “And he was the best friend I ever had. He stuck by me even after the CIA decided to pass on my services after the Hong Kong incident.”
“What happened?”
“You mean that wasn’t in my file?”
“No.”
Mick waited a moment. “The CIA hired me to look after a special witness they had in New Jersey. Guy was going to testify against Chinese Triads that went all the way back to mainland China. If they were successful, a deal was going to be cut that would give them better Intel on Triad activities Stateside or something. I don’t know.”
Kylee understood. She didn’t always know the overall ramifications of her own assignments. Even the Egorov mission was something of a mystery.
“Anyway, I hired Josef in,” Mick continued. “Took him away from his family again. His wife always hated me for that.” He was silent for a moment. “We were watching the family when a Triad hit team tried to kill them. The assassins nearly killed their eight-year-old son.”
Kylee listened intently, feeling even more guilt.
“The CIA wouldn’t do anything about it,” Mick said. “The boy was in the hospital. They didn’t know if he was going to live or die. I went to Hong Kong, went after the Triad leader that had sent the hit team as a message. And I sent a message of my own. I killed him, and I killed eight of his people.”
“And that’s why the CIA put you on the black list?”
“Yeah. Turns out, the only guy their witness could testify against was the man I killed.” Mick cleared his throat. “Josef stood by me, but it didn’t do any good. We both had good records with the CIA. In the end, they pushed me out. Josef followed because he chose to. We’ve been putting together jobs we normally wouldn’t have touched. Mainly just to keep his family financially afloat.”
“And that’s why you were working for Scherba?”
“Yeah. Until I got him killed.”
“You didn’t get him killed,” Kylee said. “That was my fault.”
He looked at her then. “Not your fault, Kylee.”
“You were trying to protect me.”
“Maybe. But my duty was to my principal, even though I thought he was the worst kind of slime. But even more than that, my duty was to my partner.” His voice was ghost-thin, a shadow of anything she’d heard from him.
Feeling his pain so much, Kylee got up from the floor and walked over to him. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close.
He went stiff at first, then tried to push away from her. Kylee started to step back, then his arms swept around her with crushing intensity. She held on to him, and their mutual pain and guilt at surviving, the knowledge that they were going to risk their lives again in only a matter of hours, pulled them together.
Mick reached for her, cupping the back of her head in his big broad hands. She felt the calluses along his palms against her jaw, then she looked up at him and her breath caught in her throat as he leaned down to kiss her. That kiss transformed all those mixed feelings she’d been having into something totally different, into something so strong she couldn’t ignore the pull.
She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck and molding her body to his. She felt his hard chest against her breasts, felt her own reaction and desire building by the heartbeat.
His hands slid down her neck, across her shoulders and down her back. He cupped her bottom and pulled her to him, letting her feel the strength of his desire. Kylee pressed against him, feeling her body come alive with a rhythm of its own.
Mick broke the kiss and gathered her up in his arms. In three long strides, he carried her to the couch and gently placed her there.
Passion consumed Kylee’s mind, pushing away any doubts she might have had. Her hands fumbled with her clothing and his, just as his did, both of them trying to undress each other as well as themselves. They never did quite get all of their clothing removed, but they got enough of it out of the way.
Kylee lay on her back, looking up at him as he drew back. He breathed in, rasping loudly. There didn’t seem to be enough air in the room for both of them. Kylee knew she was breathing in gasps as well.
His shirt still on, but the buttons ripped away while her own turtleneck was pushed up so her naked breasts pressed against his chest, he looked down at her. “Are you sure?” he asked. His hard length lay against her tender flesh, so tantalizingly close that the sensation and the pulses of his own desire that shook him were nearly driving her crazy.
“Yes,” she said hoarsely. “Yes, I’m sure.” She reached down and took him into her hand, squeezing reassuringly to let him know what he was asking.
His fingers dipped into her, awakening her fully, arousing the molten core of her, feeling her own hunger trying to clasp and hold him. Then he removed his hand and grabbed a condom from his jeans, quickly sheathing himself before sliding his hips forward.
She matched his movement, felt his hardness push gently into her, penetrating her and stretching her. He went slow, trying not to hurt her, but her own wants drove her upward to spear herself on him.
He settled his hands on her hips, holding her tightly while he thrust into her fiercely. She met him, welding her own desires to his. Even when they fell off the couch, the hunger wouldn’t be denied. Kylee rose above him, rising off him, then crashing back down, taking control of both their pleasures.
He reached up, taking her breasts in his rough hands, touching her nipples till they were hard points, then leaning up to kiss each one in turn. Without warning, Kylee hit her release, shuddering through it while he held her. He waited, raining kisses over her breasts and face. Then, when she could go on, she started the rhythm again and felt him surge against her till he filled her with his passion.
When he was spent, he turned her into his arms and cuddled her against him, letting her feel the hammerlike explosions of his heart inside his chest. To Kylee at that moment, it was the most comfortable and safest place in the world.
She kissed his face, and he rolled her over onto her back as he raised himself above her.
“Yes,” she said, looking up into those cerulean-blue eyes.
“Yes,” he agreed, and pressed into her again, finding the center of her even more deeply.
South of Prague, Krystof Scherba’s castle stood on a promontory nearly two thousand feet up from the craggy rocks of the abbreviated bank fronting the Vltava River. The high stone wall, part of it hundreds of years old and part of it only dozens of years old, was topped by state-of-the-art sensors and alarms. A single road, covered in shale, wound up to the castle.
Impenetrable had come immediately to Kylee’s mind when she’d first seen the structure.
That had been before Mick had told
her about the old supply tunnel that led from the castle to the river. The tunnel had been built shortly after the castle had been constructed. According to Mick, a small docking area had once existed inside the mountain of rock. Boats traversed the river bringing supplies to and ferrying trade goods from the castle.
Now the supply tunnel was largely forgotten. Disuse and neglect had turned it into a warren for rats, bats, owls and slippery green slime that evidently got enough moisture from the nearby river to continue growing.
Also, despite the security improvements, the tunnel was largely unguarded. Nearly two hundred years ago, a group of pirates had penetrated the castle through the tunnel and took hostages that were later ransomed at great expense. As a result, the lord of the castle had ordered the tunnel mortared over.
During the short amount of time he had spent there, Mick had discovered that the tunnel led up to the wine cellar. Mick was certain the ancient mortar blocking the supply tunnel would give way easily. Once Scherba had returned to the castle, Mick had intended to rebuild a stronger wall over the tunnel. That hadn’t happened, and the knowledge and Scherba’s laxity now worked in their favor.
No one, to Mick’s knowledge or the research available to Stony Man, had ever attacked Castle Creepstof. The cracker’s wealth was all stored in Swiss and Cayman Island banks, or hidden between the cracks of cyberspace. Anyone breaking into the castle wouldn’t have been able to get through Scherba’s firewalls and encryption codes. Only the CD that Bethany Riggs had uncovered in Cape Town gave them the chance now.
Dressed in black jeans, a black turtleneck, and carrying a black backpack with everything Kylee hoped they would need, she followed Mick through the darkness. She and Mick both wore night-vision goggles from the cache of supplies at the safe house.
They had arrived outside the castle only a short time ago. Scherba remained on his boat, out of Mick’s reach. He had been reluctant to let the man out of his sight, but Kylee had convinced Mick that getting into the computer system was the best revenge he could get for Josef.
They hadn’t talked about what had passed between them, about the physical turn their relationship had taken. It had been wonderful, but now Kylee felt somewhat guilty. She had taken advantage of Mick while he was vulnerable. Maybe they had taken advantage of each other.
Or maybe they had simply both been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Affairs happened like that, Kylee knew. She’d seen stars on movie sets through situations like that, and later regret it.
She didn’t want to regret what they had shared. It had been wonderful. Even if, in the end, nothing came of it.
It was almost one in the morning. The day’s exertions wore on her, and the last hours in the safe house hadn’t exactly been restful. If it hadn’t been for the adrenaline spiking her nervous system, she felt certain she’d be ready to collapse. Nine minutes after they’d begun their journey at the mouth of the cave that let out onto the Vltava River, they arrived at the plug of mortar and stone that blocked their way.
Mick, also dressed in a black turtleneck and jeans, looked like an alien insect in the night-vision goggles. The single monocular of the NVGs thrust out like a mosquito’s proboscis. He wore a silenced Colt .45 in a shoulder rig and carried an H&K MP5 machine pistol favored by several special forces in armies around the world.
“Ready?” he asked, taking a short-hafted rockhound’s pick and sledge from his backpack.
“Yes.” Kylee took a sledge from her pack and stood on the other side of the mortared plug.
He swung the sledge.
The hollow boom of the sledge meeting the wall filled the tunnel, followed by echoing explosions that faded down the empty space below.
Kylee joined in, getting the timing immediately. Broken mortar dropped from the wall. The work was surprisingly easy, but the humidity trapped in the enclosed space was murder. In minutes, she was covered with perspiration and her breath began to drag through her lungs.
Mick Stone worked like a machine. Despite the damage he had taken at the hands of Creepstof Scherba’s goons earlier, he seemed tireless and unyielding.
“Can your friend—” Mick asked as he swung “—still see inside the castle grounds okay?”
“Yes,” Kylee answered, certain that was all she had the breath for after the long climb, despite her good physical conditioning.
“No Scherba?”
“No. Just the guards keeping the perimeter and inside grounds under observation.”
Those security people remained with the castle at all times and were a risk, but if everything went right, they would never be encountered. Scherba’s private quarters were off-limits to them.
A moment later, Mick waved her off. Kylee put her sledge down and rested as he inspected the damage they’d done. Her breath whistled against the back of her throat.
“We’re through,” he announced. “Let me have that crowbar.”
Kylee passed him the crowbar from her pack.
Mick attacked the wall with renewed vigor. Chunks of mortar and rocks ranging from fist-sized to cantaloupe-sized dropped from the wall to their feet.
“We’re leaving a mess,” Kylee commented.
“Yeah, well they’re going to know we were here anyway. As long as none of the guards decides to nip on down here for a bit of the grape with their tucker, we should be all right.” Mick knelt and pulled stones out of the way.
Kylee joined him, shifting the rock and chunks of mortar back from the hole he had created.
Mick pulled his gloves on more tightly. “Not much head room, maybe, but I can get through all right.” He squeezed through, duckwalking to avoid the low wall.
Kylee pushed his backpack after him, then passed the H&K MP5 to him. She shoved through her own backpack, then slipped through the opening. They took a moment to clean up the biggest part of the mess made by the forced entry, tossing the rocks and mortar through the hole in the wall.
“Good enough,” Mick said. “As long as one of the guards doesn’t come down here and walk around on this side of the shelves, he shouldn’t notice anything.”
Stray bits of broken mortar cracked under Kylee’s feet as she followed Mick through the low, cavelike wine cellar, past the racks of bottles. He made no noise, moving as effortlessly as a big cat on ball bearings. He kept the silenced MP5 in one hand.
The castle was huge and drafty, and kept mostly in the dark except for a few security lights outside of rooms that weren’t often used. Kylee was thankful for the flannels they both wore under their clothing. The trip along the river had been cold, but having to paddle in the dark for the last mile downriver to reach the castle had warmed them.
The wine cellar stairway let out into the spacious kitchen. Mick picked the lock and peered through, waving her up when he found the coast clear.
As they moved through the kitchen, Kylee planted a few of the F/X boxes from her backpack. Surprises for opponents always aided in get-aways. She also had some C-4 plastic explosive to add to the confusion if necessary. The plan was to come back through the tunnel quietly once Scherba’s computer had been accessed with the encrypted disk.
From the kitchen, Mick led the way through a formal dining room that could have hosted a Shriners convention, then through the grand ballroom. Moonlight ignited at least a thousand points of light in the massive chandelier hanging from the tall ceiling nearly three stories up.
A curving staircase led up to the second story where Scherba’s den-bedroom was supposed to be. Kylee followed Mick, aware of television noises farther down one of the main floor hallways.
Television noises meant some of the security personnel were nearby. But the thought only sent a thrill of electricity screaming through Kylee’s senses.
Oh, Uncle Keiran, these throwback genes of ours are definitely going to get us killed one of these days. But the thought didn’t even slow Kylee.
At the top of the stairs, Mick signaled Kylee back against the wall. In the next instant, she heard the scrape of sh
oe leather against stone that signaled the approach of a guard. The tinny sounds of a Walkman playing industrial music reached her ears as she flattened against the wall.
The man passed them, then some primitive sense seemed to call out a warning to him. He turned in their direction, his hand drifting down for the large pistol holstered on his hip.
Chapter 8
Mick moved out of the shadows like a wraith. The Y between the thumb and forefinger of his right arm caught the man in the throat and silenced the warning cry that had been about to erupt. Mick powered a left to the man’s jaw and laid him out on the stone floor.
As the guard tried to get up, to get away, to draw the pistol from his holster and to breathe, Mick kicked him in the head. The guard fell. Before he could move again, Mick dropped a knee to the man’s back and grabbed his head in both hands.
Kylee had seen the move in a number of action films and knew that Mick was about to break the man’s neck and kill him. Nausea swirled through her stomach. Killing was a part of the spy business, but so far she had managed to stay away from most of it.
“No,” she said.
Mick looked up at her. “Can’t leave him behind.”
“He’s unconscious.”
“No way of knowing how long he’s gonna be unconscious, darlin’.”
“Yes there is.” Kylee took a tranquilizer pistol from her backpack and shot the man in the neck with a liquid hiss. “Six hours. We’ll be in and out of here in that time.”
Mick released the man’s head and stood. The guard lolled, dead to the world. Grabbing the man around the chest, Mick hauled him to one of the bedrooms and shoved him inside.
“We’re still operating on an unknown timetable,” Mick reminded. “We don’t know when this guy checks in with the standing post. He could have been on his way there now.”
“Then we’ll hurry,” Kylee said.
Mick took the lead again.
“Oz,” Kylee said.
“I’m here,” Barbara replied. She was totally cool.
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