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Billy Conners' apartment was on the fourteenth floor in a building where the thirteenth floor did not exist, giving him the dubious pleasure of living on what, in another building, would have been an unlucky floor. Alina never really understood the superstitious custom of skipping the number thirteen in a high-rise. Didn't the truly superstitious realize that they were still thirteen floors up? If the Boogie-Man was coming for you, she was pretty sure he would know how to count.
The SUV from last night was in the parking garage downstairs, the engine cold. Alina glanced around the empty hallway and set her ear briefly to Billy's door, listening. There was no sound on the other side. Glancing at her watch, Viper shot another look around the deserted hallway. The building didn't have a security system once you got past the front door, so there were no cameras to distract her. She turned her back to the hall, bent over the door handle, and disappeared into the apartment a moment later.
Closing the door silently behind her, Alina glanced around the living room. The seating consisted of a leather couch and a navy recliner that looked as if it had seen better days. A fifty-two inch flat screen TV took up most of the far wall, and an entertainment center below it was packed with high-end electronics and game systems. Across the room, in front of a bay window, was a desk with a laptop and two twenty-two inch monitors. Alina looked to her left and saw the door to an eat-in kitchen and a short hallway that led to two additional doors. One was open and led to a bathroom. The other was partially closed.
Viper moved away from the door and peeked into the empty kitchen. Dishes were piled in the sink and the small kitchen table was littered with empty beer bottles and take-out containers. She grimaced slightly, imagining roaches lurking in the mess, and moved into the short hallway. She paused for just a moment outside the bedroom door, glanced into the empty bathroom, and then pushed open the bedroom door.
Billy never heard a thing. Viper moved swiftly and silently to the side of the full-sized bed, looking down at her prey with detached curiosity. He was sprawled on his back on top of the covers, snoring loud enough to wake the dead. He was wearing only a pair of boxers, giving her an unimpeded view of the tattoos covering his arms and torso. Viper studied the king cobra etched across his chest thoughtfully. The work was good and she took a moment to admire it before pulling out her gun. Billy had clearly paid top dollar for all the artwork on his body. Viper smiled coldly. Now she knew what was important to him.
Casting an experienced eye over him dispassionately, she estimated that he was about five foot ten and maybe a buck ninety in weight. He was wiry, but he clearly lifted weights and his shoulders and biceps were well-defined. His stomach, however, was turning pudgy and Alina guessed the culprit to be too many beers and not enough cardio. She could see him landing maybe one hit before she could put him down. Bracing herself, Viper reached over with one hand and squeezed his nose closed, putting an abrupt end to the loud and God-awful snoring.
He came awake with a choke and a start, his eyes popped open wildly, and Alina was confronted with bloodshot brown eyes in a lean and scraggy face. An old scar ran alongside his nose, giving his face a mean twist, and his thin lips parted as he sucked in air. When he saw Viper standing over him, Billy started to sit up but never got the chance. Pressing the barrel of her gun to his temple, she pushed him back down, staring at him silently as his lips curled into a snarl. She liked him better snoring, she decided, as he swung his arm to knock the gun away. Blocking the blow easily, she cracked him on the temple with the handle of her pistol. His eyes rolled up into his head and Billy sank back down onto the bed, out cold.
Yep. Definitely prefer him unconscious.
A few minutes later, she had him off the bed and into a chair. A quick look around the room offered up a few belts, which she used to secure him to the chair tightly. Once he was trussed up, Viper sat on the edge of the bed to wait. It wasn't long before he started to moan, and a few seconds later those bloodshot eyes opened again, slowly coming into focus.
“What the...” Billy muttered, trying to move his arms.
His face contorted with anger as he realized he couldn't move, and a stream of profanity poured out of his mouth while he strained against his bonds. Viper ignored him. She took a pair of latex gloves out of her pocket, pulling them on slowly and deliberately, her eyes on her hands.
“What the hell are you doing?!” he roared. “Do you know who I am?!”
Billy had a loud, gravelly voice that echoed around the room, but when Viper lifted her eyes to his, he fell suddenly silent. While her green eyes glittered dangerously, it was the look on her face that stopped him cold. His eyes dropped abruptly to the long, serrated military knife that appeared in her hands.
“You should be more worried about who I am,” she purred.
Billy visibly flinched at the soft tone and Viper let that sink in for a moment, watching as the wheels slowly started to churn in his head. Realization dawned on his mean face and those bloodshot eyes returned to hers suddenly. They were filled with a mix of anger, defiance and fear. It was a strange mix that Alina had seen many times before.
“You're...you're her!” Billy's voice cracked and he coughed. “You're the one they're all looking for.”
Alina stood up and stretched languidly before slowly circling around until she was directly behind him. When he turned his head to look at her, she pressed his face forward with the flat of her blade against his cheek. Once he was facing forward again, she slowly slid the knife back until its point was pressing lightly into the soft spot behind his left ear. He kept his head perfectly still after that and, leaning forward until her lips were a scant inch away from his ear, she whispered,
“Say my name.”
Viper watched dispassionately as Billy swallowed and beads of sweat started to form on his upper lip. He kept his lips pressed together, silent, and she gently increased the pressure on the knife-tip, watching the pulse beneath his Adam's apple start to beat rapidly. He was fighting to remain calm, but she could almost smell the fear starting to build up. She slid the tip of the knife up behind his ear, the razor sharp blade leaving a path of red in its wake. Billy gasped and swallowed again. Alina continued until her blade was resting on the top of his ear. She didn't say a word when she started to apply pressure. The blade began to slice easily through his ear.
“Viper!!” Billy choked out, panic edging his voice.
Alina immediately lessened the pressure of the blade and he gasped in relief. Sweat started trickling down his temple and she straightened up, remaining behind him and removing her knife from his ear.
“Do you know why they call me that?” she asked conversationally, her voice an icicle that slid over him. She watched as he shivered slightly.
“Some kind of codename,” Billy muttered.
“Ah, but every codename has an origin,” Viper told him softly. “Do you know what a Viper is?”
“It's a car,” Billy sneered, regaining his courage now that the knife was no longer touching him.
The words had barely left his mouth when the knife slid skillfully into his right bicep above a tribal tattoo. He cried out in shock and tried to jerk his arm against the restraints again, succeeding only in driving the knife in deeper. Viper angled it slightly and it started to slide down under the tattoo.
“Have you ever seen a tattoo skinned?” she asked almost pleasantly. “I've heard it makes a remarkable decoration...almost like leather.”
“It's a snake! It's a snake!” Billy cried out, watching as blood started to pour down his arm.
The knife was removed and she draped her arm around his shoulders, bringing her lips close to his bleeding ear.
“That's right,” she said quietly. “It's a snake. It kills its prey so quickly that it doesn't even know it's being attacked. Most people never even see me.”
Viper straightened up and patted his right shoulder, just above the deep slice in his arm. Blood gushed out in response and Billy flinched. Sweat was pouring freely down his face now and Alina pursed her lips, staring down at the back of his head.
“So you see, you're really very lucky that I'm taking the time to have a nice little chat with you,” she told him, her voice cold and steady. “You should feel honored.”
Billy was silent and Viper studied him silently. He was still a little too self-restrained for her liking. She walked around slowly to stand in front of him, taking her time and trailing the flat of her blade around his shoulder and across his collarbone as she went. She rested the tip of the knife above the cobra's head on his chest and stared down at him for a long, silent moment.
“But you know all about snakes, don't you?” she murmured.
Billy was silent, shooting daggers out of his eyes. The anger was still prominent over the fear. Alina crouched before him and slowly began to trace the tattoo on his chest with the knife, outlining it with his blood. The skinned tattoo remark hung heavily in the air as she carefully sliced around the cobra slowly.
“Funny. A big, tough man like you, with a big ol' snake tattooed across your chest, and here you're all trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey,” she said mockingly.
Billy spit at her and it landed on her cheek.
Viper didn't hesitate. She rose up and slammed her forehead into his face before he had time to blink. His nose crunched loudly and he howled in pain as blood started pouring from his broken nose. His howl was cut short when Viper whipped behind him again, her arm around his neck, forcing his head back while her knife pressed against his carotid artery. He stared up at her, his eyes wild, fear edging out the anger. Viper kept his head extended back at an odd angle and moved her knife, inserting the tip into the hollow at the base of his throat.
“If you're having problems breathing now, I can make another hole if you like,” she offered, watching as the blood poured freely from his nose. “I've seen them do it on TV.”
“No!” Billy gasped out, too afraid to shake his head. Viper smiled slowly, her eyes cold.
“No...what?” she whispered.
“No, Viper! Please,” his voice was hoarse now with fear, “what do you want?”
Viper stopped the pressure on the knife and blood started seeping around it, trickling down to his chest. She considered him silently for a long moment, watching as he tried to gasp for air through his mouth without pressing against the knife-tip inserted in his throat.
“Who do you work for?” she asked after he was finally able to get some breaths in around the knife.
“Regina Cummings,” Billy rasped out.
“And why is she interested in me?” Viper asked softly.
Billy took too long to answer and she pressed gently on the knife, inserting it deeper into his throat. He made a panicked noise and she stopped.
“I don't know!” he gasped, his eyes wide and staring up at her. “For real, I don't know. She never told me. All she ever said was that you knew too much. That's it.”
“And the hit last night? Why did she do that?”
“She didn't do the hit,” Billy told her quickly. “We arranged for the guys to go in and rough up the Marine and get his laptop, but she didn't know about the hit on the SEAL.”
Viper raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Then who ordered that?” she asked.
“Marty.” Billy was trying to breathe and talk at the same time, but found that it was pressing the knife in further. He resorted to taking short breaths and inserting words in between, his eyes filled with terror now. “Marty...he said...Frankie...Solitto...ordered...it...”
“Who pulled the trigger?” Viper asked, momentarily diverted by Frankie's name.
“One...of...Solitto's...trigger...men...” Billy was trying hard not to move and add pressure on the knife.
“Why did your boss want to attack the Marine?” Alina went back to her main line of questioning.
“She...said...he...was getting...too...nosy...”
Billy paused, trying to take a couple breaths. Blood from his nose was pouring over his face and getting into his mouth, making breathing even harder. Viper didn't move or relieve the pressure of the knife on his throat.
“Something...about...engineers...she wanted...to know what...was on his...laptop.” Billy paused again and Viper watched him struggle coldly. “She...wanted...to teach...him...lesson...”
Billy ran out of air and started to choke on his blood. Viper pulled the knife out and let go of his head, stepping back as it fell forward and he gasped for air. The gasp for air turned into a coughing fit and she stood behind him silently, waiting for him to finish coughing and regain his breath.
“Why did she want to teach him a lesson?” she asked softly once he had finished coughing and spitting out blood. Billy shook his head.
“I don't know, man,” he confessed. “She's kind of crazy. With men, you know?”
Viper walked around to stand in front of him and Billy lifted his bloody face to look at her. He looked defeated. Blood covered most of his body, mixing with sweat, and his eyes were still filled with fear. He eyed the bloody knife in her gloved hands warily.
“She gets real jealous. I figured the Marine was seeing someone else and Reggie didn't like it.”
Viper stared down at him silently, studying him. The fear had taken over completely now and she knew he was incapable of lying at this point.
“You said she's crazy. What kind of crazy?”
Billy tried to shrug but grimaced with pain and stopped mid-shrug.
“She had some kind of thing for a lawyer once,” he told her. “He was married. She had me go take care of the wife.” A look of pleasure crossed Billy's face and Viper's eyes narrowed. She knew she wasn't going to like what came next. “Best piece of ass I ever had, aside from the bitch that got me locked up for ten years. She screamed so loud I had to cut her throat before I was done.” Billy tried to grin through the blood on his face. “Didn't matter, though. I still finished.”
He glanced up at her slyly, hoping for some flicker of emotion in Viper's face. He was disappointed when there was none. This woman wasn't a woman at all. She was just a killer.
“Turned out the husband never even looked twice at Reggie,” Billy continued. “She made it all up in her head.”
Viper filed the information away and went back to her main interest.
“And what do you know about engineers?” she asked, watching him through cold, emotionless eyes.
Billy stared at her. She saw the moment of indecision in his eyes and watched as his fear of her won the inner battle.
“I know that she arranged entry into the country for one a few months ago.” Billy was talking quietly now, almost as if he was afraid to say the words out loud. “She brought him in to take care of clean-up for an issue up in New Jersey. She said he was supposed to have taken care of you then.”
“What was he cleaning up?”
“I don't know.” Billy shook his head slowly. “I heard rumors there was a terrorist up there planning something, but I don't know details. I just know that she brought in this engineer to clean up a mess.”
Viper was silent, watching him. When she flipped the knife skillfully in her hand, Billy gasped.
“Ok! Ok!” he exclaimed hurriedly. “In the back of the closet, there's a panel cut into the wall. I keep an external hard-drive there with files and information.”
Viper raised an eyebrow, stilling her knife.
“Do you now?” she drawled. “Information on what?”
“Regina. Insurance...just in case, you know. Everything about the Engineer and the terrorist is on there. Dates, memos, flight information, payments, account numbers...it's all there.”
Viper studied him silently for a long moment. The only sound in the room was the sound of his ragged wheezing as he stared at her. She believed him. Billy let out a sigh of relief as she calmly leaned down and wiped her knife clean on his bedspread.
“How do you know Marty?” she asked, tilting her head to look at him curiously.
“We work together from time to time on different things,” Billy answered, his head drooping.
He was starting to fade and his face was taking on a grayish pallor. Viper inserted the knife back into her sheath on her ankle and straightened up. Billy watched as she pulled her .45 from her back holster. His eyes widened in alarm again.
“Just one more question before I'm finished.” Viper raised the gun and aimed it at his forehead. “How did Regina find out where I was three months ago?”
Billy stared at her hopelessly through all the blood.
“She's the Vice President's cousin,” he said tiredly. “She can find out anything.”
Damon lowered the binoculars and glanced at his watch. Alex Ludmere was attending a fund-raising dinner at a hotel, and Damon was waiting for him to leave. It was easy enough to determine which exit the Vice President would use simply by watching the Secret Service detail. The dinner would be wrapping up soon, and then Alex would emerge out the side door into the alleyway. Hawk stifled a yawn and lifted the binoculars again. A black SUV pulled into the alley and he watched as the advance detail came out the side door, securing the alley ahead of the Vice President. A few minutes later, Ludmere emerged. Damon watched as he paused outside the door and turned to look behind him. A tall, dark-haired woman followed and Damon adjusted the binoculars to zoom in on her face.
Her dark hair was pulled up into a chignon at the back of her head and she was dressed in a wine-colored suit. Damon clicked the button on the side of his binoculars to snap a picture. She had just pressed a button on her cell phone and long red nails closed around the phone, holding it tightly. He snapped another picture as Alex tilted his head towards her to listen to what she was saying. Whatever he heard, it clearly did not please him. He frowned ferociously before disappearing into the back of the SUV. The woman followed him, unaware of the series of pictures being snapped and saved onto an SD card.
Damon lowered the binoculars with a frown as the SUV started to move out of the alleyway. Given the height and build of the woman, he had no doubt that she was the woman in the grainy pictures from London two years before. He also suspected that she was the mysterious Regina Cummings, the sole shareholder of the security firm that leased the SUV Billy Conners drove last night. Those facts alone made him dislike her, but there was something else. Damon's frown grew as he dropped the binoculars into his cargo short's pocket and departed from his watching post.
He knew her. Everything was different; the name, the clothes, even the hair was wrong. He couldn't place where he knew her from, or how, but Hawk was sure that he knew Regina Cummings.
“You're sure about this?” the man asked, his dark eyes probing Alina's as if he could read her soul.
If there was any one man on this forsaken globe that Alina feared, it very well could be this man. This was a man who knew so many secrets, so many classified missions, so many scandals that he was virtually untouchable. In theory, he reported to the Director of the CIA. In reality, he answered to no one. He knew something about everyone, everything, and everywhere, and that magnitude of knowledge placed him in a class all his own. He was intimidating. He was ruthless. He was her boss.
“Absolutely.” Alina nodded once, her gaze firm.
Charlie, as they all called him, watched her quietly for a moment, his face unreadable.
“It's a huge risk,” he finally said, “even for you.”
Alina smiled slightly and turned her head to look out the window of the hotel room where they were meeting. She looked out over the city thoughtfully. The sun was setting, bathing the city in a beautiful, purple hue and casting pale pink and orange light between the tops of the buildings. It was probably the only time of day that she thought the city looked pretty.
“You told me once that it was my job to take risks,” she murmured, her eyes dropping to the city far below. She watched the traffic on the street absently.
“Calculated risks, yes,” Charlie retorted.
Alina turned her head and he encountered a flash of amused ruthlessness in her glance.
“Oh, trust me,” she assured him. “This is far from uncalculated.”
“Of course,” Charlie said with a slight smile. “I should have known,” he added, walking over to stand beside her at the window. He only stood a few inches taller than her, but she felt dwarfed by him. “You never do anything without evaluating it first. You have a plan for everything. You would be perfect for running ops.”
Alina was surprised into a quick laugh.
“Not for me, thanks,” she replied, a grimace passing fleetingly across her face. “I'm better suited to field work.”
“Perhaps,” Charlie answered thoughtfully.
Alina was left to wonder at the meaning of that comment as he turned his attention, with her, out the window. The purple hue over the city was already fading and gray shadows were lengthening between the buildings and into the streets below. In another half hour, the light would be gone completely. Street lights were already on, insignificant now, but holding promise of light for the coming darkness.
“This is my favorite time of day,” Charlie told her suddenly. Alina glanced at him under her lashes. His eyes were fixed out over the city and his hands were in his suit pants pockets. He was relaxed. “The light's fading. All the creatures of the day are settling down and this is when the night begins to stir. This is when all the action starts.”
Alina stared at the pink, orange and purple streaked sky over the city in the distance. She could almost feel the sun breathing its last sigh over the city. She stood in silence with Charlie, both staring out the window at different things. He stared downward, into the streets, where the shadows grew darker and the night creatures began to stir and spill out into the city. Alina stared up at the fading light in the sky, watching the promise and hope of a new day fade as it came to a close. She didn't need to look at the shadows below. She lived in them.
“You've had the agency's support throughout this whole operation.” Charlie finally spoke again, turning away from the window as the last bit of light left the sky and darkness fell to cloak the city.
“I appreciate what you did.” Alina turned away from the window and followed him across the sitting area of the hotel suite. “I didn't expect it. When Hawk told me that you told the other agencies to pound sand, I was surprised.”
Charlie flashed her a quick grin.
“When I can do so, I will protect my agents,” he said humorously. “The fact is, this administration has a serious problem on its hands. It has a traitor. Worse, it doesn't even know it. I need you to take care of it. I'll protect you as much as I can so you can do your job.”
Alina raised an eyebrow.
“You really think they don't know?” she demanded. Charlie shrugged.
“If they do, we have an even bigger problem,” he replied obscurely. “I'll arrange what you requested.” Charlie picked up his suit jacket from the back of a chair and put it on. “I don't know that I'm happy about it, but I'll trust you on this. God knows you've never let me down before.”
“Never?” Alina prompted, her lips twisting humorlessly despite herself. Charlie looked her right in the eye.
“Never,” he reiterated. “Cairo was a success, as far as my objective was concerned.”
Alina stared back at him steadily as the meaning behind his words sunk in.
“You mean...”
“It was a success,” Charlie said firmly and Alina sucked in a deep breath.
“One day, I hope you'll explain that remark,” she said grimly and Charlie smiled.
“One day,” he agreed, heading toward the door. He paused at the door and glanced back. “You know how to reach me if you need to.”
Alina nodded. She would wait half an hour before leaving herself, and then she would be on her own. There would be no more contact between her and the agency until this was over, barring a national security emergency. They stared at each other for a long moment and Charlie smiled again.
“Happy hunting,” he murmured.
Alina smiled slowly, her eyes glinting dangerously, and nodded. Charlie returned the nod and then was gone, closing the door softly behind him.