by David Archer
“Cinderella? I heard the story when I was a kid. What is this supposed to mean?”
“Our goal in hiring Victoria was to eliminate the sitting director of the American assassination organization, E & E. Ironically, one of the death squads that organization employs has been referred to as the Cinderella team. You, my dear, are not Victoria; you are in fact an impostor, I know that you are actually that female assassin from E & E who goes by the codename of Cinderella.”
The door to the office opened behind her, and Jenny didn’t need to look around to know that there were suddenly armed guards in the room with guns pointed at her. She let the smile slip away and looked directly into Alexandra’s eyes. “If you believe that,” she said calmly, “then why am I still alive? For that matter, why am I here?”
“Because we still need the job to be done,” Alexandra said. “In my experience, even the most loyal agent can be turned. It’s simply a matter of finding the right incentive.”
“Assuming, for the sake of argument, that you are correct in any way, what possible incentive could you offer this Cinderella that would make her turn on her own people?”
The chill raced down Jenny’s spine again, and she knew what was going to be said before Alexandra ever opened her mouth. There was only one thing they could possibly try to use against her, and she was suddenly furious with herself for letting Neil come with her on this international jaunt.
“Your lover,” Alexandra said. “Peter and his people have been observing the two of you together since you left London. We have him, and he will remain safe and alive only so long as you do what we tell you to do. Once your mission is complete, we will release him to you, but by then you will have nowhere else to go. You might say that we are simply using him to encourage you to accept long-term employment with us.”
Several options raced through Jenny’s mind, but she knew there was no way she would be able to kill these people and escape alive. She slowly turned her head and counted five men with machine guns behind her, more than she could possibly handle. She had no weapons, no backup…
“I’ve never been all that fond of the Dragon Lady, anyway,” she said. “Do you know how E & E operates? They take young people in bad situations and offer them a new life, but the price of that new life is to become a killer. I’ll cooperate, and then we can discuss the long-term employment. However, and I know you’re expecting me to say this, if any harm comes to Neil, I will personally skin each and every one of you people alive. You might want to know that I’m very good at it, and I can keep you alive for an awfully long time.”
Alexandra burst out laughing. “How delightful,” she said. “Perhaps we should only have offered you money. In fact, when the job is done, we shall pay you the ten million dollar fee, as well as give you back your boyfriend. You will see that he is unharmed, and we will make certain that he is quite comfortable. Now, let us discuss the mission.”
“Yes, let’s do that. The sooner we get on with it, the sooner I get him back.”
* * * * *
The car Neil was riding in left the city, and the Brazilian countryside offered wonderful opportunities for sightseeing. Unfortunately, he was in no mood to enjoy the view. His captors weren’t talking to him, and he had absolutely no idea where he was going or what was happening to himself or Jenny.
After a four hour drive, they pulled up in front of a large house, something that reminded Neil of the old plantation homes in Virginia. There were four huge pillars holding up the porch roof, and the building itself was constructed of a mixture of red and white bricks. It was a lovely place, if he had been in the mood to enjoy architecture, but all he saw when he looked at it was a prison.
His guards made him get out of the car, and the front door opened. A tall man wearing jeans and a T-shirt came out, flanked by half a dozen armed guards. The guards wore uniforms that looked almost military, but not quite.
“Good afternoon,” the man said. “Please allow me to introduce myself. You will know me as Michael, and I will be your host while you are with us. Please let me explain that the guards you see behind me are here as much for your protection as for my own. While it is true that they will prevent you from leaving, they will do everything possible to avoid causing you any harm. The only way you could get yourself shot would be to steal one of their weapons and try to turn against them. In that case, they are authorized to use whatever force is necessary. Unfortunately, we cannot allow you to escape our hospitality at this time. Do you understand?”
Neil glared at him. “I understand that you just signed your own death warrants,” he said. “Victoria will be coming for me, and you probably won’t even know about it until it’s too late.”
“Your young lady is no longer trying to pretend to be Victoria,” Michael said. “You see, my employer has many contacts around the world, and so we know that the true Victoria is dead. We know that your young lady is an employee of the very agency we seek to decapitate, but that could actually work in our favor. We have determined that she will do anything she has to in order to get you back, and so she has already agreed to terminate your director, in return for your safety. It is my job see to it that you are as comfortable as you can be until she completes that mission, and then we will take you back into the city and release you.”
The revelation struck Neil like a sledgehammer, and he felt lightheaded for a second. He recovered quickly, and managed to shake his head.
“I don’t know what you people are smoking,” he said, “but it must be some pretty good stuff.”
Michael shrugged, but he was grinning. “I’ve just gotten off the phone with my employer,” he said, “and he has assured me that your young lady—incidentally, she says her name is Jenny—has already agreed to cooperate. All you have to do is enjoy the comfort of my hospitality and wait for her to return.” He put an arm around Neil’s shoulders, and that’s when Neil realized that Michael was almost as tall as himself. “Come, our dinner is ready. I have told the chef to prepare something to make you feel at home, and he has chosen something he calls Western beef stew. I’m not sure what he’s added to it, but I can tell you that it smells wonderful.”
As much as he hated to admit it, Neil’s stomach had been rumbling for the last hour. As tall and skinny as he was, he had an appetite that never seemed to be satisfied, and it’d been over six hours since lunch. He remembered something Noah had told him once, about how prisoners will refuse to eat in protest, but that it was always stupid to pass an opportunity to keep up your strength, especially in captivity.
“Fine,” he said. “Then let’s eat, and you can tell me more about just what the hell is going on.”
The stew was absolutely fantastic. Who would have ever believed that Brazilian cooks could turn out such wonderful American food? The gravy had been some of the best he had ever tasted, the potatoes had been awesome and the dinner rolls were absolutely fantastic.
Michael had been his only dinner companion, which he had expected. He was one of the most polite men Neil had ever met, but he didn’t let himself forget that it was only a role the guy was undoubtedly trained to play. His job was almost certainly to try to get Neil to relax, so that he would be willing to tell him what he wanted to know, but Neil understood the game and was determined not to let that happen. While some people considered Brazil to be one of America’s allies, Neil wasn’t all that interested in political mattters and didn’t really care. What mattered to him was that anything he said might end up harming Noah or Jenny.
As they ate, Michael told Neil about the conditions of his imprisonment. “You can go anywhere in the house or around the grounds that you like,” he said. “If you try to leave the property, of course, my men have orders to stop you. It really wouldn’t be a wise move on your part, anyway, because there are an amazing number of wild animals around here, and many of them are quite deadly. As I said, we are not supposed to allow any harm to come to you.”
“That’s good to know,” Neil said. “So, if I
slap one of your boys across the face, he’s not allowed to hit me back?”
Michael chuckled. “I’m not sure how far I’d want to test that theory, if I were you. They wouldn’t shoot you, but that’s not the only way they could express their displeasure.”
When they finished eating, Michael led Neil up the stairs to the second floor. He was taken to a bedroom, and was surprised to find a closet and dresser full of clothing that would fit him. Whoever these people were, they had done their homework.
“This makes it look like you plan on me being here a while,” he said.
“Well, that’s not really up to us,” Michael said. “That would be up to your young lady. The sooner she completes her assignment, the sooner the two of you can be together again. And please believe me when I tell you that you truly will be released. My employer believes that your Jenny will be coming to work for us on a regular basis, after this mission. After all, she’s probably not going to be very popular within your organization after this.”
Yeah? Neil thought. Apparently, you don’t know anything about Noah and the rest of our team. Jenny will run screaming to him as soon as she can, and he’ll pull out all the stops. Sorry, Michael, you seem like a decent guy, but I’m pretty sure Jenny is going to cut off some pretty important parts of your body before she’s done. And the rest of your men will all end up dead, because you don’t piss off two of the most deadly killers in the world without facing the consequences.
The new room he’d been assigned was very comfortable. There was a large bed that almost seemed to have been designed for him, a TV with satellite service with hundreds of channels, chairs that he could be comfortable in, and it had its own bathroom. All in all, it was one of the nicest jail cells he could ever imagine, but there was no doubt that’s what it was. Two of the guards stood watch outside his door, and there were four of them on the ground outside the windows. If he tried to leave, Michael had warned him repeatedly, they had orders to take him alive and unharmed, but they might have some room for interpretation on just what “unharmed” could mean.
Being Neil, he naturally tried to test the limits. Every time he got close to the perimeter fence around the property, the guards made it clear that they weren’t going to let him go further, so he would turn around and go back toward the house. After an hour or so of testing their resolve, he finally went back inside and found the library in the house. There were thousands of books, and he was looking at many of the titles when Michael came in.
“Are you a chess player, Neil?” Michael asked. “I haven’t had a decent game in quite some time.”
Neil turned and looked at him. “Then, set up the board. At least I can kick your ass that way.”
* * * * *
Newsom and Jenny left Alexandra’s house an hour later and made the drive back to the hotel. Newsom seemed nervous all the way, but Jenny kept up her lighthearted act.
“Relax, Newsom,” she said. “Do you think I don’t think about getting out of E & E? This may turn out to be the best opportunity I’ve had yet.”
Newsom smiled, but the nervousness was still there. “I certainly hope so,” he said. “From what Alexandra said, you could be even more valuable to us than the real Victoria. I’ve got to tell you, you had me fooled.”
“Yes, well, this is the kind of thing you risk in this business. I always knew that my cover would be blown sooner or later, but I always expected to be killed as soon as it was. This turned out to be a potential opportunity to move up in the world. I suspect I’ll be thanking you before this is over.”
They were back at the hotel in short order, of course, and Newsom insisted on taking her directly to the restaurant for dinner. They ate rather quickly, and the conversation was mostly mundane. Forty-five minutes later, Newsom escorted her up the elevator, and she stepped into her own room.
Jenny waited until she was back in her hotel room without anyone paying attention, then turned on her subcom. “Jenny to Noah, are you there?”
“Noah to Jenny, yes. Situation?”
“They made me. Alexandra Hofmeyr is highly connected in intelligence, and knew that Victoria was killed by Mossad. They ran photos of me through facial recognition and found one that matched, from a mission in Sweden last year. They didn’t have my name before now, but they knew I was Cinderella from E & E. I told them my name is Jenny Lindstrom, and they bought it. They don’t know anything about my joining Team Camelot, but they took Neil and are holding him hostage to force me to complete the mission. Noah, they want me to kill Allison, then come work for them.”
“You have to stay with them, then,” Noah said. “Neil was able to reach me for a few seconds, but all I know is that he was taken. He suspected it might be for leverage, and this explains it. Any idea where they’re keeping him?”
“Nothing, not a clue. They told me they’ll give him back as soon as I complete the mission, and since that would burn me, they want me to come work for them. Noah, I can’t let anything happen to Neil. You got to find a way to beat this, and soon. They cut me off from any more meetings, and I’ll be going back to the States tomorrow, to somewhere in California. They want Allison dead within the next four days, and they want absolute proof of death.”
“How do they expect to get that?” Noah asked.
“They’ll settle for video, as long as it shows enough physical damage to make survival impossible. You know, shotgun blast to the chest, chop her head off, something like that.”
“All right,” Noah said. “We’ll head back to Neverland, and start working with Wally on how to pull this off. It’ll be just like London, but it has to be good enough to convince them she’s really dead so that you can get deeper into the PRA. Then, we can complete the real mission.”
“I don’t how you can make it look that real, but if anybody can it’ll be Wally. I’ll be in touch every time I can get into Wi-Fi, and I’ll be out from under Newsom by tomorrow evening. Just remember, we’ve got a very short window. I’m not going to let anything happen to Neil, Noah. You might not understand this, but Sarah would; I waited too long to find him, I’m not going to lose him now.”
“We’ll get him back,” Noah said. “Contact me tomorrow, as soon as you can. One of us will be on and monitoring at all times.”
“All right,” Jenny said. “I’ll talk to you then, unless I come up with something you need to know.”
She left the subcom on as she took a shower and got ready for bed, then curled up under the covers. She fought back the tears as long as he could, but finally they forced their way out. When she felt the sobs starting to build, she quickly turned off the subcom so that Noah and the others wouldn’t have to hear it. It took a couple of hours to get to sleep, but finally exhaustion took its toll on her.
Still, she had the best night’s sleep she’d gotten since the whole mission began. She dreamed she was lying next to Neil, and had wrapped her arms around him the way she always did. She felt his hand clasp hers, pulling her arm tighter. That was something she always loved when he did it, but it was only when he was sleeping. She enjoyed the feeling for the fleeting moment it lasted before the dream faded away.
Jenny woke refreshed and took care of morning necessities before getting dressed and packing the rest of her things. It was only a few minutes later that Newsom knocked on her door, and he smiled appreciatively when he saw her.
“My goodness,” he said, “but you do look lovely this morning. Compared to you, I look like I fell out of bed and landed in a pile of my dirty laundry.”
She gave him a sarcastic grin. “Very funny,” she said. “Are we ready to go?”
Newsom nodded. “Yes. The plane is fueled and ready, and we need to get moving. It’s a little more than a twelve hour flight to San Francisco, but that’s where we’re headed.”
“Okay, I’m ready,” Jenny said. “Everything is packed, and we can get out of here as soon as you like. Are we stopping for breakfast? Or maybe we should just head straight to the plane.”
; Newsom smiled, and it almost seemed for a moment as though they were friends. “We can have breakfast in the air,” he said. “After all, it’s going to be a long flight. I made sure they laid in plenty of food, since we’ll be eating all of our meals there today.”
“Fine by me,” Jenny said. “I laid here all night just thinking, and I’m ready to make the change we discussed yesterday. I think it’s time my career took another turn, and I just hope it’s for the better.”
“I truly believe it will be,” Newsom said.
Jenny wondered if he really believed her, or was simply saying what he thought she wanted to hear.
* * * * *
Neil woke to the sound of knocking on his bedroom door. “Okay, okay, I’m coming,” he yelled. He rolled out of bed and staggered over to the door in his boxers, then yanked it open.
Michael stood there, comfortably dressed in jeans and another T-shirt. “I thought you might like some breakfast,” he said. “Steak and eggs. Sound appetizing?”
“Oh, hell, yeah,” Neil said. “Give me five minutes to throw clothes on.”
“No problem, take as much time as you need. You know where the dining room is, and I’ll be waiting for you there.”
Neil closed the door, then rushed to the bathroom to take care of things. He sniffed at his underarms and gave them each a shot of whatever spray deodorant it was that was sitting on the bathroom counter, then climbed into jeans and a shirt of his own. He put his feet into his shoes and then hurried down the stairs to the dining room.
“Okay, so what are we doing today? If you’re planning to try to get information out of me, you might as well give it up now. A, I don’t know anything, and B, I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”
“Well, personally, I thought we might just begin with breakfast, if that’s all right with you.” He waved a hand, and people suddenly appeared holding a platter with several large steaks and a big pan of sunny side up eggs. They placed them on the table and hurried out of the room.