| |
––––––––
Kai sat back in the uncomfortable hotel chair and stretched, her eyes on the laptop screen before her. The matching software she’d just finished installing began to run, and she sighed, glancing at her watch. This was going to take a while.
She got up from the desk and walked over to the mini fridge in the corner, pulling out a bottle of water. The shadows from the helicopter blades that appeared in the last video clip of Masha’al had proven more difficult to track down than she’d anticipated. While the sample size was big enough to match, the shadows were more grainy than she’d first realized. Even after slowing it down and cleaning it up, it was still proving difficult to get a match on existing helicopter models.
Twisting the cap off the bottle, Kai took a long drink, her eyes straying back to the laptop. This software was her last try before she took it to Asher and asked for help, but she was very reluctant to go to him. Asher would want to know what she was working on, and she wasn’t about to tell him. She had no idea why Jared had given her the video clips, but it was obviously done without the intention of anyone else knowing about it.
At the thought of Jared, Kai shook her head and went over to the window. Pulling the heavy curtain back, she looked out over the city. He hadn’t given her any warning that she would be in charge of the team of assassins he’d put together, nor had he even bothered to ask her if she was willing to take on that role. Her lips tightened as she stared out over the bright lights glittering in the darkness below. She didn’t like working with a team in the best of times. She most definitely didn’t want to be the one they all had to come to with their complaints and problems. She wasn’t a problem-solver, or a leader. She was a killer. That was what she did best. So why the hell had Jared put her in charge of four other killers?
Not that anyone could really be ‘in charge’ of any of them, she thought with a sudden wry smile. They all marched to their own drum, and none of them really gave a fig for anyone else’s input. Mossad didn’t pay them to fall in line with the rest of the departments. They paid them to break the molds and do what no one else could without being seen. They were ghosts, all of them. They were the elite. Jared was the only one who knew anything about them, and he had hand-picked them for his section. He was the only one who held any power over any of them, and he wanted her to take charge of the op.
It just seemed like a very bad idea all around.
Kai watched as a fire truck and ambulance sped through the street below, lights flashing as they weaved through the traffic. The silence in the room was at odds with the flurry of bright lights below, and she watched as they disappeared around a corner.
What was Jared up to?
The question exploded into her mind without warning and she frowned. She had never had reason to question her boss. Their relationship was very simple: he gave her targets, and she eliminated them. That was it. There was little interaction and no complication. Yet in the past forty-eight hours, that had all changed without warning. Not only had he appeared at the house in Spain out of the blue, invading her personal space, but he had now made it very clear that four of his top assassins were to answer, not only to him, but also to her. And he hadn’t bothered to inform her of any of it.
Kai let out a small chuckle and turned away from the window, dropping the curtain back into place. Well, at least that part was in keeping with his character. Jared only ever told her exactly what she needed to know, never any more or less.
A knock fell on the door and her eyebrows came together in a frown. Reaching behind her, she pulled out her Jericho and moved across the room towards the short hallway leading to the door. She paused, listening, but could hear nothing. Pursing her lips thoughtfully, she tilted her head and waited. When the second knock fell, she turned to grab a small throw cushion from the love seat. She moved to the door, staying against the wall as she went. Reaching the door, she held the cushion up to the peephole and waited. When nothing happened, she exhaled and tossed it back into the room before peering through the hole. Jared’s distorted head loomed on the other side of the door.
Kai flipped the lock and opened the door, raising an eyebrow as she looked out at him.
“Everything all right?” she asked.
“Fine. May I come in?”
She nodded and opened the door wider, motioning him in. His eyes dropped to the Jericho in her hand as he passed her. He made no comment but the faintest indication of a smile made his lips curve. Kai closed the door and followed him into the room, tucking her gun back into the holster at her back.
“All I have to offer you is water,” she said, “but it’s cold.”
“I’m fine.” Jared looked around, his eyes resting on the open laptop briefly before he moved to sit on the love seat. “What are you doing?”
Her lips twitched and she went over to close the computer with a snap.
“Just some research.” She turned and looked at him. “Are you making the rounds?”
He shook his head with a small chuckle. “No. You’re my only stop.”
“I’m not sure if I should be flattered or not.” Kai picked up her bottle of water and took a drink, her green eyes considering him. “Especially after this afternoon.”
Jared shrugged. “You’re the logical choice to be in charge once you leave Cairo. You know the terrain, the culture, and the fastest ways out of Egypt if anything goes wrong.”
“A little warning would have been nice.”
“Would it have made any difference?”
She sighed and smiled reluctantly. “No.”
“Then I don’t see the problem.”
She shook her head and looked at him for a long moment in silence.
“What’s going on, Jared?” she finally asked, dropping onto the chair by the desk. “Nothing about this op is right. Why did you come to Spain? Why are you here now? I’ve seen more of you in the past forty-eight hours than I have in the past six months.”
He hesitated, then sat back and crossed his legs, making himself comfortable.
“It’s imperative that nothing go wrong in Tanta, Kai,” he said. “You’re right. This op isn’t like any of the others. The political and diplomatic repercussions if we fail are...well, I don’t need to tell you how sensitive this is. There can be no mistakes. There’s no margin for error. The Americans absolutely cannot know we were ever involved, and they definitely cannot ever suspect that there’s a possibility Masha’al is still alive at the end of it.”
Kai looked at him steadily, her face an emotionless mask. “Agreed.”
She was silent, waiting, but when he didn’t seem inclined to add anything, she tilted her head to the side and raised her eyebrow.
“Jared, I know you’re not here to reiterate what I already know,” she finally said, a note of amusement creeping into her voice. “So why don’t you stop stalling and tell me why you really came.”
A laugh lit his dark eyes. “Still as direct as ever, I see.”
She shrugged. “It saves time.”
That drew a chuckle from him.
“Yes, it does.” He sobered, pressing his lips together thoughtfully for a moment. “You asked why I went to Spain. It’s not quite an easy, straight-forward answer. You see, I’m breaking one of my own personal rules by bringing you on this op.”
Kai blinked, surprised. “What?”
“I’ve always been very careful to make sure that none of my agents end up working any operation that could possibly connect them to one they’ve done previously,” he said slowly. “This isn’t a Mossad directive. This my own personal guideline. I’ve found in my years of working in this business that the one thing bad ops usually have in common is agents who are exposed by previous interactions. I eliminate that risk by not cross-contaminating, so to speak.”
“What are you saying?” she asked with a frown.
“Your job in Bucharest last month may put you at risk in Tanta.”
Kai’s breath caught in the back of her throat and she stilled, staring at him.
“Melnik?” she asked. When he nodded, she exhaled. “How?”
“I can’t say yet.” He held up a hand when she would have protested. “Not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t. I really shouldn’t have told you this much, but I need you to be very much on your guard.”
“He was in New Delhi when Masha’al bombed the embassy,” she said slowly. “Is that why there’s a connection? Was Melnik part of that attack?”
“Not that I can discover, but you’re right. He was there. That’s an entirely different issue, and so far it’s unrelated to why you’re here. But don’t take that to mean that you can relax. I brought you into this for a very specific reason, and that reason doesn’t involve you getting yourself killed or, worse, exposed.”
She scowled and looked at him in silence for a long moment, her mind spinning.
“There are others who could do this just as easily.”
“Yes,” he agreed easily, “but I don’t trust them.”
Kai felt her jaw drop and she was momentarily left speechless. He smiled at the look on her face, his dark eyes lighting with amusement.
“You look surprised. Is it really that shocking?”
“Well...yes.” She got up restlessly and chugged some water. “I was trained in a certain way. I know I’m very skilled, but with that comes a certain amount of...well...moral ambiguity. That doesn’t usually lend itself to being trusted. What makes me any different from the others?”
Jared was silent for a long time, staring at some random point on the industrial weave carpet. When he finally raised his dark eyes to hers, she was shocked to find something resembling fondness lurking in their depths.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Perhaps it’s because you admit that you have a moral ambiguity, as you phrase it. You don’t pretend to be one of the good guys. I don’t know. But I’m enjoying a long career and am still alive because I’ve always followed my instinct. It’s never let me down. Will now be the first time?”
Kai swallowed and stared at him, her forehead creased in a frown.
“This op isn’t just about Masha’al and the Americans,” she said suddenly, the realization hitting her as she stared at him.
He smiled faintly. “No.”
Her eyes narrowed sharply when he didn’t elaborate and she felt a surge of frustration well up from deep inside her. He was deliberately withholding information, information that would help her understand what the hell was going on.
“You’re not going to tell me any more, are you?”
His silence was her answer and Kai made an impatient sound in the back of her throat. After taking a turn around the room, the frustration receded and she shot him a considering look.
“Is there anything I need to know before I get on that plane tomorrow?”
“Don’t trust anyone.”
She let out a short laugh. “I never do.”
He nodded and stood up. “I know. That’s why I put you in the position I did. Plan the op to the last detail and make sure the Americans are convinced Masha’al is dead. The rest will come.”
Kai watched him walk to the door.
“And after the op?” she asked as he reached for the handle.
Jared glanced over his shoulder, his face unreadable.
“That will depend on whether or not we succeed.”
Kai moved down the narrow aisle towards her seat, memorizing every face on the plane. She hadn’t seen any of the others in the airport, but as she was boarding the turboprop passenger flight, she’d passed Raj in the second row, already seated next to the window. She didn’t even know if they were all on the same flight. Jared may have split them up to ensure that no flags were raised. Not that her identity on the passport she’d used was even known to Mossad, or Jared for that matter. When she got to her hotel and saw the ticket was under a known alias, she’d contacted the airline and had it transferred to a name no one knew. Call her paranoid, but nothing about this operation sat right with her. As far as she was concerned, she’d rather be overly-cautious than compromised. And Jared’s visit last night had only reaffirmed her decision.
Reaching her aisle seat, Kai removed her cross-body bag and nodded to the man already seated in the window. He nodded back, then returned his attention to his laptop, pushing his glasses up on his nose as he squinted at the screen. Sending one last glance around the cabin, she sat down, stowing her bag between her feet. Kodak had just entered the cabin and she watched from under her lashes as he took a seat further up on the opposite side. So at least three of them were on this flight.
Leaning her head back, she watched through half-closed eyes as the last passengers were boarded, looking at every face that entered. It was a habit she’d developed years ago, and it was one that had only ever worked in her favor. When no one else from their team boarded, Kai pressed her lips together thoughtfully. The other three were on a different flight. Jared was being cautious as well.
As the flight attendant began his safety demonstration, Kai leaned forward and pulled her bag onto her lap. She reached in and pulled out some ear buds, plugging them into her phone. Swiping the screen, she started a playlist and leaned her head back, keeping her bag in her lap. She watched the safety demonstration absently, her mind going back to the bizarre conversation with Jared the night before.
Why was she the only one he trusted? She certainly hadn’t done anything to earn it. While she admitted that she did her job exceedingly well, they certainly had never developed the kind of friendship or relationship that would lead him to believe she was trustworthy. Reliable? Sure. Focused? Definitely. But she was about as far from ethical as it was possible to be, and if push came to shove, she would break every bone in someone’s body without a second’s regret if it would get her what she wanted. He knew that. She’d come close a few times. So why her?
Kai was still puzzling over it ten minutes later when the plane turned onto the runway and began picking up speed for takeoff. She was pressed back into the seat as they hurtled along the pavement and she turned to look out of the window at the scenery zipping by. Her heart thumped in her chest and she was conscious of a sense of exhilaration as the plane suddenly lifted into the air, the wheels leaving the tarmac. Her stomach dropped as they left the ground behind and she watched as the distance between the plane and the runaway rapidly grew. Exhaling, she turned her eyes from the window and looked at her watch. They would be in Cairo in an hour.
And then the real work would begin.
When the seatbelt light went off a few minutes later, Kai stood up, draping her bag across her body as she turned to move towards the back of the plane. As she approached the last row of seats before the bathrooms, a man sitting in the aisle seat caught her eye. He was dressed in linen pants with a loose shirt open at the neck to show off a thick gold chain, and the heavy scent of cologne hung around him. Shifting her eyes away from his face without any expression, Kai moved past him. She knew his type, and had no patience for the sweeping glance he’d sent over her when she approached. When she felt him get up and follow her, her lips tightened. There was no scenario in which this would end well. It never did.
Reaching the lavatory, she suppressed a sigh at the occupied light on the door. She could hear the man moving up behind her, and she could either wait or make her way back to her seat. While she was weighing the pros and cons of dealing with the man, the curtain at the back of the plane opened and a flight attendant stepped out, closing it behind him. He nodded cheerfully to her and Kai nodded back, moving to the side so that he could make his way up the aisle to the front of the plane.
As soon as he’d moved away, the man closed the distance between them.
“Ah, there’s a line already,” he said in Arabic, his voice deep.
She made a non-committal noise in the back of her throat, not saying anything.
“It must be all the coffee,” he continued, undeterred.
Kai’s back teeth clamped together when she felt his hand brush across her rear end. Oh, this was definitely not going to end well at all.
“Touch me once more and you’ll never drink coffee again,” she said in a low voice, flicking him a warning glance.
He grinned and moved closer.
“Why so hostile? With eyes like yours, a man could be lost forever. They’re a very powerful weapon you have. I think you could be very dangerous for me.”
“Oh, you have no idea.”
“No? Why don’t you show me?”
His hand settled low on her hip, his body almost touching hers. Kai gripped his wrist swiftly with her left hand as she spun to face him, her right fist plunging into his solar plexus and pressing up into his diaphragm. His dark eyes widened as the air was forced out of him and he doubled over silently. As he opened his mouth to try to suck in some air, her left elbow made contact with his temple and his eyes slid closed.
Kai caught him as he fell forward and supported his dead weight as she maneuvered him backwards. A minute later, he was back in his seat, his head hanging over his chest. She looked down at him and patted his shoulder none-to-gently.
“I did warn you,” she muttered, turning away. Encountering a startled look from the woman seated across from him, she smiled. “Too many muscle relaxers. He hates to fly. I did warn him, but they never listen.”
The woman relaxed and laughed, nodding. “No,” she agreed. “They don’t.”
Kai turned to go back to her seat and found Kodak moving down the aisle towards her. As they passed each other, he glanced down into her face.
“Everything all right?” he murmured.
“Fine.”
She continued back to her seat and sat down again. She’d wait until they reached Cairo to use the bathroom. Her lips curved despite herself as she made herself comfortable. Muscle relaxers indeed. Well, his muscles were certainly relaxed, and would remain that way for a little while, though she didn’t envy him the headache he’d have when he woke.
Leaning her head back, she started her music again and looked at her watch. Forty-five minutes before they landed in Cairo, one of her least favorite cities in the world. She stared up at the cabin ceiling, her lips pressed together. The last time she was there, she’d almost been killed. With any luck, this time would go a bit smoother.
Kai’s lips twisted humorlessly. As long as she left Egypt under her own power and not in a body bag, she’d call it a win.
