Comeback

by Doranna Durgin

  "Saving the day," Aymal said tightly, his lips tense and thin and trying to peel back from his teeth, "is your job. I'm here to save me. And I have plenty of other valuable information to trade for that privilege."

  Okay, now. Now was a good time to ask. Before Cole actually reached Aymal.

  "What—"

  It was as far as she got before Cole whirled around to stab out the words. "The morning we got here. It's fuzzy, but not so fuzzy it didn't eventually come back to me." Back to Aymal, and another stalking step closer to contact. "Tell them I can save the capitol. What the hell was that supposed to mean, Aymal? And did you really think I wouldn't eventually remember it?"

  "I hoped," Aymal snapped, though he'd flushed at Cole's words. "I thought you'd already fainted!"

  "I don't faint," Cole snapped back, but Selena barely heard him. Suwan? Or the actual capitol building? Again?

  Selena tossed aside the demure facade she'd been wearing and stepped up next to Cole, effectively cornering Aymal. "What about the capitol?" she demanded. "What's going to happen there? And when?"

  Dobry had gotten to his feet. "Selena—"

  "I didn't go through hell last winter just so some new idiot could come along and bring that building rumbling down!"

  "Voices, voices!" The boy gave a tentative tug on her coat sleeve from behind. "Voices!"

  "Even a child gets the point." Dobry stepped firmly between Cole and Aymal. "Whatever there is to say, do it quietly."

  Silent glares filled the communication gap well enough. At least until Aymal, his voice much lower, grudgingly said, "Soon. It will happen very soon."

  "Define soon." Selena nudged Dobry aside and filled the space directly in front of Aymal. His eyes widened slightly. "That's right, it's me. The woman. And this is exactly where I'm going to stand, right here in your personal space. And guess what—I've even got my period."

  And that did what she wanted it to do—aside from horrifying Aymal, it made Cole snort in dark amusement. She felt more than saw him relax, and something within her relaxed, too. She'd seen him upset, she'd seen him intense…she hadn't ever seen that look in his eye, that deadly tone in his voice. Fevered or not, wobbly or not, Aymal had been the one in danger there.

  And amazingly, Aymal seemed to realize it. As disgusted as he looked, as much as he tried to draw away from her, he said, "It's too late. It's this evening. Eight o'clock this evening."

  "Why the hell didn't you say anything?" Cole demanded, just as Dobry said, "What's this evening?"

  "Because!" Aymal blurted, a reply so ridiculous that Selena drew back to give him some thinking space. "First your people promise me safety, and then leave me open to attack. I lived for weeks in that miserable city, hiding out in the worst of it, smelling as if the streets were my home! Weeks! And finally, this man finds me there. I get a bath. I trim my beard. I have new clothes. And then I'm beset again! And now I've been running and hiding and riding the damn bus for days, and I am no closer to that promised safety than I ever was." He glared, spreading the blame thickly and indiscriminately. "Why didn't I say anything? Because it was your job to take care of me, not those in Suwan. Because you were hurt and couldn't do both. Because I knew you would try to do both. And you would die and I would be caught."

  There was a moment of silence. Dobry looked at Selena, his expression as clearly asking What have I gotten myself into with you people as it ever had been. And Cole looked at Selena with anger glinting in his eye, and she instantly knew Aymal's diatribe hadn't nearly gotten him off the hook. But his voice remained low, his tone harsh…and if it cracked on the edges from the sickness he fought, he was no less imposing because of it. "You came to us with information to trade," he said. "That's part of the deal. Prove you're not good for the information, and we'll have no interest in you."

  "I am—"

  "No," Cole said, and he relaxed slightly, letting go of the energy he'd kept coiled up and ready to move. Suddenly he looked sick and bleary again. "Not if you wait until it's too late. Not if you pick and choose, denying us the ability to set our own priorities. That's not the way this works."

  Strong words. But they could walk away from Aymal and live…he couldn't say the same of them. And they all knew it.

  Including Aymal.

  He managed to gather his dignity about him as Cole turned away, finding a narrow rock shelf to perch against. "As I said, the attack is this evening. This is the last thing I learned before leaving my home. Gossip only, you understand? Not part of my people's doing, only that they…advised." A deep breath. "The prime minister plans a special private open house for the capital staff. The repairs to the building have been completed, and Razidae has decided to install all his people in their offices before the public opening next week. There will be no special security, to avoid drawing attention."

  "But the place has state-of-the-art security as a matter of course," Selena said. "Dobry and I met the contractor ourselves." Scott Hafford.

  A man who had been stressed and tense and whose name had been on the Spider File list. Arachne's list.

  Selena felt an undeniable tingle of foreboding. She struggled to hide her suddenly fast breathing and racing pulse, the trembles that came with it all. Don't be stupid, she told it. This isn't about you.

  But she had the feeling it would be.

  SELENA DIDN'T LOOK RIGHT.

  Cole could tell it at a glance, could see her demons coming to roost. And in the background, Aymal's resigned voice droned on, words that painted a picture Cole couldn't ignore.

  "The contractor has been…influenced. I don't know details. The safeguards will not be fully activated this evening, and the leftover Kemenis are willing to martyr themselves to this cause." Aymal shrugged; it was there in his voice, even as Cole watched Selena fall into her deep-breathing routine, the one that had lulled him back to sleep early this morning when she'd woken him with her sudden start into awareness. "You have to understand. If they so much as break through the first line of defense into the building, then their symbolic success will be irrefutable. They expect to die in the process, but this is as nothing to a Kemeni who seeks glory after failure. And then those who have spoken against Razidae's ability to lead will take it as their proof that the man cannot. They will turn to his deputy. And you must know that Davud Garibli is a conservative man who very much disagrees with Razidae's course for this country."

  "Garibli is behind this?" Dobry demanded. "The new deputy prime minister?" There was an eager note to his voice that Cole couldn't remember hearing before. And he still found himself bemused by Dobry's new looks—his padded torso, the intense eyebrows, the glasses…this was a man who knew how to hold a cover.

  Another shrug from Aymal. "Speculation. It hardly matters. The Kemenis are poised to act, no matter who drives them."

  "And if we call in…" Cole heard his own voice, hoarse and tired. He shouldn't have blown up at Aymal as he had; he should have marshaled his so very limited resources.

  "If we call in, we reveal our location," Selena finished, and the full realization of their predicament came through in her expression. "We might even trigger the attack early." She looked at Dobry, fresh realization widening her eyes slightly. She might well have forgotten the young boy, had she not had a quiet hand on his head. "This is why we had so much trouble in the village. They weren't just letting Cole and Aymal hide up here. They had an interest in keeping them safe."

  Cole sent Aymal a sharp scowl. "What exactly did you tell them?"

  "What does it matter?" Aymal responded, and he looked as weary as Cole felt. "It gave them reason to protect us."

  "A little too well," Cole grumbled, but ceded the point. It didn't really matter at that.

  But Selena knew these people better than he did. "It matters if they've gone off on their own to do something about it."

  Aymal responded with a withering scorn. "Do you think I told them it was tonight? I didn't know how long we'd need to hide here. I told them it was in the near f
uture, and that if they sheltered us until Cole recovered, I would tell them what I know."

  "Risky," Dobry said. "They might have decided to convince you to tell them sooner."

  Dobry merely received a shrug. Aymal reached a finger under his kufi to scratch at hair that had to be every bit as dirty as Cole's felt. "I gave them no reason to think it was urgent. And frankly it is still not my urgency. I still intend that I should leave here this evening. I want to go to the border. I want to find safety."

  Selena returned the scorn he'd directed her way only moments before. "Funny," she said, "that's how most people feel. They just want to be safe. From, say, terrorism."

  Dobry plunged into the middle of it with the clear intent of driving the conversation forward. "I don't see any reason we can't continue more or less as planned. Selena and Aymal leave tonight—but instead of waiting, Cole and I will head straight for Suwan. We've got time to warn them before this evening."

  "You're kidding," Selena said, her voice flat.

  And Cole heard himself say in the tired new voice that seemed to be a permanent fixture, "Let's get real. I'm not in any shape to pull my weight. It might be better if I waited here." Not better for him, of course. Selena had already said it—he needed to get some serious medical care, and he needed to do it as quickly as possible.

  But Dobry nodded, his mouth opening—except Selena cut him off. "You're kidding," she said again. "Is that because you're so fluent with the language, or because you know this area so well—?"

  "Give me some credit," Dobry said, though his face had taken on the same flushed hue he'd worn for a week after his ambush of Selena in Virginia had gone wrong. Cole felt a sudden foreboding, and Dobry's next words did nothing to forestall it. "I've arranged for help."

  Selena, Cole and Aymal responded in startled unison. "You what?" Even the boy understood enough Russian to blink in surprise.

  Into the long silence that followed, Dobry finally muttered, "That's not exactly how I'd planned to tell you."

  "No," Cole said. "I imagine not." And he would have been able to dismiss the tension that tightened the skin down his back, triggering pains both dull and sharp, if he hadn't seen it in Selena's posture as well. She had a remarkable instinct, his Selena. It had gotten her through the hostage crisis, and if they listened to it, it would help get them through this.

  "I didn't see any reason to stay out in the cold alone." Dobry crossed his hands over his padded chest, awkward over the padding. "When I went down to the village last night, I asked to use a phone. It might not have been scrambled, but it wasn't tapped, either. And I didn't call the station—we still don't know where the compromise it. I called Betzer."

  "Fuck." The word was out of Cole's mouth before he even knew it, damn that fever. The utter, stunned shock didn't help any either. "You didn't."

  Aymal understood. Aymal had gone as pale as a man could be and still be breathing. He pressed himself back against the cave wall as though he hoped to disappear. He whispered a few words that no doubt amounted to a pleading prayer.

  And Selena's eyes, as blue-green as they ever got in the early-morning light near the cave mouth, riveted on Cole. "What?" she said, and it might as well have been a private conversation between them. "What about Betzer?"

  Cole all but snarled the words. "Sonofabitch shot me, that's what."

  Selena's breath hissed out. "I knew there was a reason I didn't like him. I knew it." She glared at Dobry, who seemed to be in shock. "I told you I didn't trust him!"

  "I—" Dobry said, and went nowhere with it.

  "Do you still think it's coincidence that he killed that Kemeni? He knew damned well I had things under control. The man either knew something we weren't supposed to hear or Betzer did it deliberately just to gain my trust. To gain our trust. And it damned well worked on you, didn't it?"

  "Don't hurt him too badly, Lena," Cole muttered, swamped by the implications of what he'd heard. "We're going to need all the help we can get to make it out of this one."

  Chapter 19

  Fury combined with imminent danger to build up in Selena, demanding action. She couldn't go for a run, she couldn't hit the shooting range…she couldn't hit Dobry.

  She really wanted to hit Dobry.

  Instead she let the energy explode into motion, harmlessly slapping the cave wall. Slapping it hard enough to make her palm sting reproachfully…hard enough so Aymal's eyes widened.

  Dobry's might have done the same had he not been stuck in his stuttering shock of reaction.

  "Fine," Selena said, her voice so low and controlled she surprised even herself. She was peripherally aware of the boy now hiding behind her, but…first things first. "Tell us everything. What do they know?"

  Dobry cleared his throat. It seemed to take some effort. Good. She couldn't believe—couldn't believe—that he'd done this. Been so eager for his success, been so eager to take the credit for it, that he'd gone behind her back. He'd assured her he'd put his all into this operation for his own sake, and then he'd been so blinded by his goals as to sabotage them all.

  But to his credit, he didn't hold back now. "They know enough. That we're here, hiding in the ridge above Oguzka. That we won't move out until tonight. By then I'd hoped to change your mind about going with you. I figured Cole might well be better by then."

  "I told you he needed a hospital," Selena said, incredulous—but just as quickly as she'd said it, she shook her head. "No, never mind. Of course you hoped I was wrong." So many things made sense now—Dobry's hesitation the night before, almost telling her what he'd done…his preoccupation with various phones…and before that, his willingness to strike out for the Plush and meet Betzer.

  Well, she'd asked him to take more initiative. She'd just underestimated his desire to earn the credit for this op.

  Badly underestimated.

  "They won't expect it if we move out now," Cole said, and he looked terrible—haggard and far too aware of what they faced. "They won't expect us to be together."

  "You can't—"

  "I'm fine," he said abruptly, and she knew how to translate that: I'll get through it because I refuse to believe I can't. "Listen. I set up a meet with the exfiltration team—it was just a test, when I suspected the local station was compromised. Betzer showed up. I overheard some conversation…enough to confirm everything Aymal said. For so many reasons, we need to get out of here now."

  "We can try the phone in the village," Dobry said.

  From inside the cave, a small voice repeated, "Phone?" in Russian, and then added in Berzhaani, "No phone. The damned rebels did something because of the woman." The words were startling from that child's voice, even if they were obviously parroted. "Maybe fixed later today." Clearly a conversation overheard…and all the detail they needed. Although the boy added, in a much more natural voice, "I think they meant you."

  The woman. No doubt.

  "We can't wait," Dobry said, and he scrubbed both hands over his face, momentarily distorting his features. "We need to move. And we need to do it together. If we can find a vehicle in the village—even if we grab someone's wagon—we can still make it to Suwan in time to stop the attack. And if we make it that far, we can get protection at the embassy."

  Assuming Berzhaan didn't find a reason to detain them. Selena's hero status wouldn't buy her any favors if Razidae became convinced she'd been covertly manipulating events on Berzhaani soil.

  More like events have been manipulating me.

  "Let's pull it together, then," she said. "Our little visitor needs to get out of here ASAP, just for starters."

  Dobry and Aymal looked into the dimmer recesses of the cave with surprise, having clearly forgotten the boy's welfare. Only Cole reacted immediately. "Hell, yes." He beckoned to the kid, who responded immediately, and rested his hands on the boy's shoulders to ask, "Lutfi, do you understand what's happening?"

  The boy looked at Selena, worried. He'd almost certainly understood some of their conversation, although the anger
in the cave was enough to send any kid into hiding. She spoke to him in Berzhaani instead of the slow Russian Cole had used, glad to finally have his name. "Lutfi, we just found out that some people will try to hurt us. We've decided to leave right away. It would help if you let your family know, so they can let your magistrate know. Tell them we intend to stop the Kemenis."

  "That's a lot," Cole murmured in English.

  "If he gets half of it, it'll send them thinking in the right direction," she responded, keeping it light in utter contrast to the heavy feel of her stomach. "We'll be there soon enough, hunting a car. At least he'll think he's off to do something important."

  Lutfi's gaze switched back and forth between them, waiting for the side conversation to end so he could tell Selena, "I can go right to the magistrate!"

  "That's good, too." Whatever. He just didn't need to be here, with them. Or anywhere near them when they first emerged into the morning sunlight, blinking and getting their bearings and providing Betzer and his men the first opportunity to cause trouble.

  Busy fellow, Betzer. Selena would do her best to make sure his social calendar became much more restricted. Berzhaan would hardly be kind to foreign terrorist criminals on its own soil—and that's all Betzer had become. Selena drew the boy from Cole's gentle grasp and turned him around, facing him toward the cave entrance. "See how fast you can do it," she suggested to him. "I bet you're a lot faster than last time, when I asked you to run up here."

  Lutfi scoffed. "I was just a kid then."

  "Exactly. Now show me!" Just the slightest of nudges and he was off, running with much surer steps than the last time.

  Little boys in terrorist country. They grow up too fast.