The Guardian

by Donna Grant

  “So be it,” Maks murmured and continued driving.

  They were forty minutes outside of Oradea when Eden woke. She stretched and covered her mouth when she yawned. Her hazel eyes sought him as she smiled. “I needed that, apparently.”

  “It’s all that sex you wanted.”

  She laughed. “It had nothing to do with you keeping me up to have sex.”

  He smiled at the easy way they joked. “All right. You win. I’ll take half the blame.”

  “Actually, I’m pretty sure it was all me.” She reached over and touched his arm.

  Little gestures like that always affected him deeply. He was coming to seek out Eden’s touch. And he knew that the more he did it, the more he would fall for her. Falling? He wasn’t fooling anyone. He had already fallen head over heels for her, and it didn’t matter when. It had happened without him even knowing it. Not that he could’ve stopped it had he wanted to.

  And he didn’t want to.

  “You okay?” she asked, a tinge of worry in her voice.

  Wyatt turned off the radio. “I noticed people acting weird.”

  “Weird how?”

  “Fighting to get groceries and drawing curtains closed.”

  Eden’s brows drew together. “Like they were hiding from something.”

  “Yeah. A flu-like virus, apparently. It began in Germany a few weeks ago. The death toll is what has gained everyone’s interest, as well as how fast it’s spreading.”

  “And how fast is it spreading?”

  He glanced at her. “Fast. Only the remotest of regions in Europe are unaffected. It’s gotten into Russia, Asia, and Africa. The first case in the States has also been reported.”

  “These super flu bugs happen about every other year.” She shrugged. “That’s all this is, right?”

  “Remember when I told you about Ragnarök?”

  She nodded slowly, her face going pale. “You think this is the Saints.”

  “With the rate this is moving through people and the death toll of those infected, it has all the earmarks of the Saints. And those other superbugs you spoke about? I know for a fact that the Saints were involved with one of them. My guess is that they had their hand in all of them. Testing them to see how quickly it could move.”

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” she said and turned her head to look out the window.

  Maks sent her a worried glance. “Do I need to pull over?”

  “No. I just…why is this happening? Why does this have to happen?” She looked at him then. “Who the hell are these people that they think they can make decisions like this? They’re not God. They can’t decide when it’s someone’s time to die, and they certainly don’t have the right to unleash some virus on the world and then sit back and watch as thousands perish.”

  Maks felt the pain in her words, her helplessness and anger. He understood it all because they were the same emotions he felt within himself. “Now more than ever, I’m positive the Saints need to be ended. We’re going to find someplace to hide out. You’ll get to work, and I’ll make sure we have food and anything else we need.”

  “You can’t go out there. You could get infected.”

  “We might already be infected.”

  She swallowed and took a deep breath. “What are the symptoms?”

  He rattled them off as she said no to each one. “I’m fine, as well.”

  “Good.”

  The silence that filled the car was fraught with tension and agitation. When Maks reached the edges of the city, he noticed that there were few people on the streets. Those who were, had their arms laden with bags of food as they rushed home.

  “Where are we going to stay?” Eden asked.

  Maks had prepared for all kinds of eventualities, but not this one. How did one prepare for a pandemic? “I’ll find us something.”

  They drove past stores where fights were breaking out over food, and authorities struggled to keep the peace. Restaurants were getting takeout orders faster than they could make the food. Visitors were desperately trying to get on trains, buses, and planes to get home.

  “It has an apocalyptic feel to it,” Eden said in a small voice.

  Maks had to agree with her. He drove around the city three times, searching for a place. With the hysteria, he wanted to make sure he found the right spot. He’d circled the block a few times, noting that one of the finer houses looked unoccupied. He pulled the car to the side of the road and parked.

  “Stay here. Keep the doors locked,” he told her.

  Eden nodded, her eyes wide as she watched him.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  “Hurry,” she said.

  Maks got out and closed the door. Immediately, there was a click as she locked it. He smiled inwardly as he went to the sidewalk and walked back the way he’d come. The guest house was yellow with a Spanish-style roof and a wrought iron fence. He glanced around him to see if anyone was watching as he approached the gate. It took little for him to pick the lock and open it.

  Then he went up the path to the stairs. He climbed them and stood in front of the wooden door. A look into the glass on the door showed that no one was home. Once more, he picked the lock and opened the door.

  Maks said hello in Romanian, but no one answered. He quickly went from room to room and found it as deserted as he’d hoped. He hurried back outside and went to the car. In short order, he had his pack, and Eden stood beside him with hers. He put his hand on the small of her back and guided her to number 27.

  She said nothing as he closed the gate behind him, locking it. Only when they were inside, did she let out a sigh. “This is a nice place.”

  “It’s a guest house, and the owner rents out rooms. I think we got lucky that no one was here.”

  “How did you know about this place?”

  “I keep my eye on a couple of houses in each country in case I need a place to hide out.”

  “Like a safe house?”

  He shrugged. “Something like that.”

  “I’m guessing there’s no food.”

  Maks walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. A peek in the cabinets showed there was little to nothing. “I’m going to have to get us some.”

  “I don’t want you to go out.”

  “I don’t want to either, but we have to eat. Trust me. I’ll be careful. Before I go anywhere, let’s get you set up.”

  Eden chose one of the bedrooms where she could spread everything out. Once they had a secure connection, Maks waited until she set the gun beside her and gave him a nod. Then he leaned down and placed his lips on hers.

  “Be safe,” she said.

  He shot her a wink. “Always.”

  “Maks,” she called when he turned away.

  He paused and looked back at her. “Yes?”

  “I… You better come back to me.”

  “I will,” he promised.

  31

  Eden was more terrified now than ever before. You could look for men with guns, you could hide from them. Viruses? Germs? They were in places you never thought to look. And there was no getting away from them.

  She opened the laptop, but instead of searching for the Saints, she looked for updates on the virus. Eden decided to check the main news stations in the States where she learned that the virus had already mutated once, and that over five hundred people in Europe had already died from it. It struck the old, the young, and the healthy.

  Flipping from one news source to another, she gathered all the information she could. The fact that she and Maks were very near the epicenter of the outbreak frightened her. No one had been able to identify how the virus had begun, which immediately made Eden think of the Saints.

  If they had been willing to go through with Ragnarök, and had made viruses similar to this current one before, then who was to say they weren’t behind this one? It wasn’t some random act of God or a freak of nature. This was something that had been given to the human race. And at the rate it was taking individ
uals and spreading, it was clear that this was a culling of the herd.

  Ragnarök had been a way to control the population by determining who would be able to have children. If you were one of the select few the Saints chose, then you got the antidote. This virus wasn’t much different. Eden could guess that every Saint would no doubt have the antibodies in place to prevent them from getting sick.

  That would make the Saints easy to pick out in such chaos. Though that didn’t help with the fear that threaded through her, choking her. She thought back to the people she’d been around, wondering if any of them had been sick. While she couldn’t think of any that had shown symptoms, that didn’t mean they weren’t infected.

  It didn’t mean that she wasn’t infected.

  “Stop,” she demanded when her mind began to race with what-ifs.

  The only thing she could control was her work. Maks was counting on her to find something. The longer she sat there looking at news outlets as they spoke about this new virus, the further behind she’d be. It was getting them nowhere.

  She closed all the news tabs and put on some music at a low volume. Then she went looking for some tape in the house. She found some, along with some string. She went back up to the room and took down the pictures so she had a blank wall to work with. Then she used the tape and hung up what she had found by date. Her brain worked better when she could see information in several different ways.

  Once that was done, she stepped back and looked at it for a moment. Then she went to the computer and put in one of the pen drives. The files were compressed, so she had to expand them before she could look through any of it. All of it took time. At first glance, the files didn’t seem to show much, but she knew there was more there.

  Eden wished she had a printer, but she had a pen and some paper, and that was enough. She made notes, sorting through the numerous pages in the first of over a hundred files on the drive. A few things caught her eye, so she switched to the internet and did a few searches, though she came up empty. That didn’t worry her, at least for the moment. She knew she would have to dig deeper, and that was just one of the many layers an information broker had to sort through to get what they were looking for.

  She heard something below. Eden picked up the gun and quietly walked out of the room. She pressed herself against the wall and listened. Heavy footfalls came from the kitchen, stopping at the foot of the stairs.

  “Eden?” Maks called.

  She sighed and turned the corner to find him with one foot on the stair and a hand on the banister. “You scared me.”

  “Sorry I was gone so long. Things are rather crazy out there,” he said.

  She frowned. “I’ve not been keeping track of time. Did you find everything we’ll need?”

  “I hope so. Pickings are slim.”

  “I can only imagine.”

  He jerked his chin to her. “How are you faring?”

  “Well, I have to admit, I spent some time investigating the virus.”

  “I don’t blame you. Did you find out anything new?”

  “Over five hundred deaths in Europe alone, and climbing.”

  Maks let out a whistle. “That’s even more since I first heard of it.”

  “This scares me in a way that men with guns doesn’t.”

  “Honestly, it does me, as well.”

  She sagged at his confession. “Thank you for saying that. Even if it isn’t true.”

  “It’s true,” he said with a lopsided smile.

  “I was thinking that the Saints would’ve vaccinated themselves against this.”

  His brows rose as he nodded. “That’s definitely a possibility. I don’t know if they’d vaccinate all the Saints, but certainly the ones who are high up in the chain of command.”

  “It’ll be a good way to pick them out in a crowd, though. Won’t it?”

  “If they’re not worried about getting sick, absolutely. I’m always on the lookout for Saints. I didn’t see anyone that would draw my attention today, but then again, everyone seemed too intent on getting what they needed and getting home.”

  Eden shifted her feet. “I’ve only just gotten into the first drive. I wasn’t expecting so much information. It’s going to take me a while.”

  “I have a feeling we’ll be here for some time.”

  “Too bad we couldn’t have stayed at your cabin. We had just about everything we needed there.”

  “We certainly did,” he said with a grin.

  Eden glanced down the hall. “I guess I’ll get back to work.”

  “All right.”

  She returned to the bedroom and her computer and turned off the music. She could hear Maks moving around in the kitchen, putting things away and looking through cabinets. It had been a while since they’d eaten lunch, but she wasn’t hungry. Fear could do that to a person.

  For the next few hours, Eden worked through each file, making notes and doing a basic search online for things she uncovered. It wasn’t until she smelled something delicious that she looked up and found Maks standing in the doorway with a plate of food and a glass of wine.

  “I could get used to this,” she said with a smile as she set aside the computer.

  Maks smiled. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to eat while you worked.”

  “A break sounds great. Let’s go downstairs.”

  They made their way to the first floor and the small table in the kitchen. She looked at the food on her plate, then up at Maks.

  “What?” he asked.

  “If I’d been the one preparing this meal, I would’ve dumped the tuna out of the can onto a lump on the plates. I certainly wouldn’t have made it all pretty with the different olives, slices of various cheeses, and crackers.”

  Maks shrugged. “I’d already cleaned all my guns, so I had to do something busy with my hands. Since you needed to eat, it was the perfect opportunity.”

  “Do you always do this with your food?”

  He snorted and pulled a face. “I would’ve eaten the tuna out of the can.”

  They shared a laugh, both reaching for their forks at the same time.

  Eden was mildly surprised to find that the tuna had been seasoned. “This is good. What’s in it?”

  “Garlic, onions, and lemon juice.”

  “So simple, but really packs a punch. I might hire you as my cook.”

  His bright blue eyes crinkled at the corners as he popped a cracker and some cheese into his mouth. “There are some important documents on the drives. I’m sure you’ll know them when you get to them.”

  “That’s the problem. It’s taking time to sort through what’s junk and what’s important. As I mentioned, there is a lot there. Where did you get the information?”

  “A laptop. I’d spotted a man inside the FSB. He wasn’t one of them, but he was obviously important by the way everyone treated him. No one said his name. When I asked about him, I was told I didn’t need to know anything.”

  She swallowed her bite of olive. “And you just happened to be in this man’s office and copied files.”

  Maks shrugged. “Something like that. I followed him for a few days. He changed offices each day, but he was always put in one of the best ones in the building. I knew he would eventually be put in my boss’s office sooner or later. And I knew the space like the back of my hand, including how to sneak in.”

  “No one checked the office before he used it?”

  “Nope. I waited in there while he worked and took phone calls.”

  “So, you know what he looks like.”

  “Damn right, I do.”

  She set down her fork. “He’s Russian?”

  “That’s the tricky part. I heard him speaking Russian, English, Italian, and Turkish. I know dialects, but I couldn’t tell where he’s from. He’s an older man. I’d put him in his mid to late fifties.”

  “Did anyone come to see him in the office?”

  Maks shook his head. “Never. He went there to take calls and send emails. He left
to visit others in the building. During one of those times, I got the information off the computer and copied it to the drive.”

  “It took up both?”

  “Only one. The other contains things I’ve gathered from other computers in the FSB. I can help you sort through the files.”

  She lifted her glass of wine to him. “Much appreciated. I know some Russian, but not nearly enough. My translator is working overtime, and it’s taking a lot of time.”

  “As soon as we’re finished, we’ll head up and start going through them.”

  Not for the first time, Eden realized how lucky she was to have Maks. He not only made her feel safe—especially now—but the man had a way of calming her in any situation. It took nerves of steel to do what he did. She was awed by him.

  In more ways than one.

  When the meal was finished, they went up to the room where she’d been working. She showed him where she was. In less than five minutes, he went through what had taken her hours to look at before because she didn’t know the language.

  “You are certainly handy to have around,” she told him.

  Maks pulled her close and pressed his lips to hers. “I’m glad you think so.”

  It would be so easy to forget the files and spend the night in his arms. That’s all Eden wanted to do, but the world was falling apart. What she wanted would have to wait until later.

  As one, they turned back to the work at hand.

  32

  The world might be falling into utter pandemonium, but being in the house with Eden, Maks found a sense of contentment he hadn’t dared to dream could be his. For four days, they worked through the pages of intel he’d gathered. He went out twice more for supplies, and each time, things were more and more dangerous and chaotic out there.

  They had the basic essentials at the house. And they had each other. When they took breaks from looking through the intel, they checked on how the virus was progressing around the world. The sheer number of fatalities struck terror in Maks. He wanted to check in with his family to see if they were all right, but he didn’t dare.