I can confirm that the woman called Kritta is missing, Elbakitten says in a message.
Neva opens the hardback book and crosses Kritta off her list for possible committee members. In her world, ‘missing’ usually means ‘dead’. She looks over the remaining names. Banwick (Cardiff); Petters (Oslo); Conor (Edinburgh); Drake (Venice); Cruik (Madrid).
There are so few of them remaining, Neva wonders which of them is now running the Network. Taking a chance of scaring her source away, she returns an enquiry to Elbakitten.
This will be a dangerous question to ask. Be careful. Who is the chairman of the Network?
Neva watches the messenger idle and then sees three dots that signify Elbakitten is replying. Then the dots disappear. Neva waits for half an hour but Elbakitten doesn’t reply. She realizes that the hacker has been frightened off. She’s about to give up when Elbakitten begins to reply again.
Sorry for delay. Confirming intel. Heard this one last week. Codename: Annalise was appointed Acting Chair.
Neva responds with another question. ‘Acting Chair’, what does that mean?
Elbakitten replies. My source wouldn’t tell me.
Neva stares at the message and then she shuts down her computer. Annalise is in charge. This must have been her plan all along. And, if Fracks told her the truth, Neva knows where to look for her.
Neva prowls around her small apartment. She feels caged and useless. This hide-out is a prison. She wants to return to London more than anything but such a move would be dangerous as she is sure she is on a watch list. With little else to do, Neva returns to her laptop. She opens it again and logs back on to the dark web. She is about to send Elbakitten another message when she sees further comments from her.
Rumour is Annalise took Kritta.
Neva sends a reply giving Elbakitten the other names on the committee. Find them all for me. But don’t take any personal risks. Wiring funds now.
Elbakitten does not acknowledge receipt until fifteen minutes later. By then, Neva is deep in thought. What did Annalise want from Kritta?
She goes back to the web and hiding behind several IP addresses, she searches for ‘Kritta’.
An image comes up of a screenshot of a woman. Neva examines the source of the picture and realizes it’s attached to a few clone IP addresses from some months ago. Someone was searching ‘Kritta’ using this photograph. All of the links that it led to, or from, have been erased, but the picture has been missed from the apparent clean-up.
Neva saves it, and then she studies the face again. Is she familiar? Yes. She has a flash of memory. A burst of gunfire, and then Neva had thrown herself down at her enemy: Kritta was the woman she’d incapacitated in the stairwell. Kritta was the Network spy who’d come after Michael. But the police had captured Kritta and her colleague after Neva had left them both injured and unconscious, hadn’t they?
Neva shakes her head – no, it’s not just that. Something else makes Kritta familiar. The serious set of her jaw?
The image of Michael comes into Neva’s mind, but she dismisses the thought that he’s somehow linked to this woman in any other way than that failed attack. He’s nothing like her.
Neva’s brain becomes washed with detail as she pulls up her perfect-recall memory of Michael’s sister, Mia, holding her child in the farmhouse when she learned the truth of her heritage. Impossible!
Neva looks back again at the picture she’s found. Is this a coincidence? Could this really be Kritta? And is she Mia’s biological mother?
Neva walks away from the laptop, frustrated with herself and her search. She’s sure she’s imagining the connection. Kritta is a plain woman, nothing like Mia who was very pretty. It can’t be right.
Neva returns to the laptop once more. She copies Kritta’s photo and puts it into Photoshop. There she manipulates the picture, turning the sour, downturned lips upwards. Even as she does this, the eyes show nothing. Kritta is a dark and humourless soul.
‘It can’t be,’ Neva says aloud. ‘I’m seeing connections where there aren’t any.’
She closes the laptop a final time and then, because she can’t stand her own company any longer, she leaves the flat and goes out for a long walk. But the feeling that she’s right won’t leave her. Instead it grows stronger and clearer in her mind along with the thought that Kritta isn’t dead. Annalise has her, and there’s only one reason why: she wants to activate Mia.
I need to warn Michael. But would he even listen to her?
Neva pauses at the water’s edge and looks out at the Amstel. This river flows from Nieuwveen to Amsterdam and she always enjoys watching the movement of the water. But unlike other times when she’s stood here, the flow of the river doesn’t soothe her. The current pushes and pulls at the foliage and pebbles in the water, reminding Neva of life and how futile it is to struggle against it.
Neva is torn as she tries to decide what to do. She could go in search of Annalise. Finding a winery in Toulouse surely can’t be that difficult? But what would she do once she came face to face with her possible birth-mother? What does she really want from Annalise?
Revenge.
No. Even though Neva had used it as an excuse when enlisting Michael’s help, revenge was for other people. It wasn’t what she wanted. She analyses her emotions. As time has passed, her original anger at being given to the house has faded. She’s curious more than annoyed. She wants to know what sort of woman Annalise is. Who gives away their child to someone like Beech?
But her search for answers will have to wait. Neva has to warn Michael. No matter how he reacts to her and the news, she is compelled to try to help him anyway: even though it puts her at risk. After all, there is no more use denying to herself what she feels for him, even if Michael doesn’t reciprocate.