Gamble

by Nicholas Bella

  I was used to staying in cheap places, didn’t care to spend more than hundred and fifty for a room per night and that was me splurging. This shit was on a whole different level of rich ass living. It looked like a room you’d find in a palace, one that could make up someone’s home because there were sofas, chairs, dining tables, and two bedroom suites. Full baths with marble everywhere, and a rain shower I was looking forward to getting into.

  I walked out of the bathroom and noticed Bishop checking the bedroom for bugs.

  “Do you think that—” Bishop held his hand up, silencing me.

  He went about his business, checking the entire room over, running his device over vents, plug outlets, under furnishings, behind paintings. He did this until he seemed satisfied. “Okay, it’s clear,” he announced.

  “Jordan didn’t book under Richard’s real name,” I said.

  Richard snorted. “You don’t think these people aren’t spying on us? You even wonder why it took us so long to hail a cab at a fucking airport?”

  “You’re saying we were being watched from that moment on?” I asked.

  Richard nodded. “Like I’ve been saying from the moment we made our unfortunate acquaintances, you’re in over your head. They have eyes all over from the lowest of low places to the highest of the elite. You may have registered us under false names, but my face is still very much the same. Your partner was right to check before we started talking. He’ll have to do so several times a day, as we don’t know who our neighbors are and if they could be bugging us once we leave. Or even as we’re sitting here talking.”

  Shit, way to make me feel even more paranoid. I didn’t like this shit one bit. “Maybe we should just book the other room next to us,” I suggested.

  “Oh, we should, should we… with whose money?” Richard snapped.

  “With yours, you rich motherfucker. Stop acting like we’re putting dents in your bank accounts,” I retorted.

  “Oh, you are and you have. But, you’re not wrong about the room. Fine,” he agreed with an off-handed gesture that caught me off guard. “Perhaps you should also book the one directly beneath us as well.”

  “So, you think that’s a good idea?” I asked, I didn’t even know why I did. It wasn’t like I needed his approval. Maybe I just wanted to see where this was going.

  He plopped down on one of the lavish chairs and crossed one leg over the other, looking like he was at home for the first time since we’d met. “I do or else I wouldn’t have agreed to it. Best do it now before the rooms become booked. Hand me the phone.”

  “Look, asshole, we’re not in the public eye now, don’t think you can order us around,” I said.

  “Can we just work together toward the greater good right now, geez,” Richard whined.

  “I’m going to close these drapes,” Bishop said, then he went to taking care of all the business that was slipping past me. I really was off my game. Was it because I was so far away from those I loved most in this world? I wasn’t sure. I just knew I didn’t want to be in Richard’s presence any longer than I had to be. I decided to make things easier on all of us and just handed him the hotel phone.

  “Don’t make the call yet. Not until I set up my comm,” I said. It was time Bishop and I knew exactly every word his ass was saying, with Alexi’s help. I unpacked our very expensive gear, set it up, and tested it. “J, Silver Fox, do you copy?” I asked.

  “Loud and clear, this is some very nice equipment,” Alexi said.

  “It was worth stealing from the CIA,” I bragged.

  “Wait, what? You stole this?” he asked.

  “It was either that or buy it off the black market, and stealing it from the CIA was just cheaper, like free. But enough about that, are you ready for action?” I asked.

  “For fuck’s sake. We really do need to have a longer conversation about your extracurricular activities,” Alexi said. “Anyway, yeah, we’re ready.”

  “I’m recording everything, Cobra,” J chimed in and I was so happy to hear his voice. For one thing, it meant Alexi could be trusted. He hadn’t taken the opportunity to run J off to jail. I did wonder what the two of them had been doing for all those hours they’d been alone. I would have to ponder that shit another time. For all I knew, they had probably slept their asses off.

  I gave Bishop an ear bud and he slipped it inside his ear cavity, no problem. He did his testing and gave me the thumbs up. I nodded, then motioned for Richard to make the call to the receptionist in Reservations. I stood next to him so Alexi could hear every syllable, and as Richard spoke, Alexi translated.

  “He did book the one suite next to you, the one beneath you as well, and the one across from you.”

  “Mind if I order something to eat?” Richard asked me after he hung up.

  “Sure,” I said, giving him permission.

  He hit a button and started speaking in Russian once someone answered. After about a minute, he hung up.

  Alexi translated. “He ordered a lobster, steak, roasted veggies, and potatoes. For you guys, two sandwiches, no cheese or any kind of condiments. Oh, and a borscht.” Alexi chuckled.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “What’s what?” Richard asked, looking at me, confused.

  “I’m not talking to you,” I said, then stepped away a little. “What’s that?”

  “You have your partner listening in?” Richard asked.

  I looked at his smug expression. “Yes.”

  “Smart, I guess, since you don’t speak Russian.” Richard laughed and settled more comfortably in the chair as if he was thrilled he knew something I didn’t.

  “Glad to have your approval. I can die a happy man now… asshole,” I said, then turned my conversation back to Alexi, because I wanted to know what borscht was.

  “A Russian beetroot soup, it’s very good,” Alexi stated.

  Ugh, beetroot soup didn’t sound like my thing at all, but I was willing to try it. I mean, Alexi was half Russian and vouched for it… why not?

  “He’s being petty, I guess, but it’s better than ramen noodles,” Alexi said.

  I rolled my eyes because ramen noodles were better than what Richard deserved to eat. I wasn’t so sure Alexi fully understood just how despicable Richard was. Or how horrible the Killing Game was. Maybe after this, he would.

  “Sandwiches and some borsche?” I asked Richard with a scolding look.

  Richard shrugged and laughed. “It’s pronounced borscht, and be glad I bothered to order you two anything at all. Your lack of hospitality doesn’t warrant warm fuzzies,” he remarked.

  “Need I remind you that you had your bodyguard boyfriend gouge out my fucking eyes?” I snapped. “Not to mention, the rest of the torture you were taking pleasure in.”

  Again, Richard shrugged. “You had managed to successfully infiltrate my home. Killed my bodyguards and my client, costing me a lot of money. No doubt, you were planning on killing me like you did your other victims. I’m sorry, was I supposed to treat you like a treasured guest?”

  Okay, he had me there.

  Bishop cocked both eyebrows and shook his head. “You two are more alike than you want to admit.”

  “No the fuck we ain’t,” I growled.

  Richard sighed. “In any case, I’m sure the sandwiches and soup will suit you two just fine.”

  “Maybe I’ll eat your fucking lobster, Bishop can have the steak,” I countered.

  Richard’s shoulders slumped because he knew that was a very plausible scenario. “Come on, let me just have this one meal.”

  “Did any of the victims of the Killing Game get such a meal?” I asked.

  “I never participated,” Richard said.

  “Yeah, yeah, you just watched. That doesn’t make you better than those who did,” I said.

  “Let him eat it,” Bishop said, stepping in between our back and forth.

  I wanted to argue that he didn’t deserve succulent foods, but then I saw the look on Bishop’s face and remembe
red he knew shit about Richard that I didn’t since he’d been sitting next to him on the first half of our travels. This could very well be Richard’s last meal. Even convicts in jail can eat good for the last time. Fine.

  I just walked away and started to unpack my guns and check them over. Bishop did the same with his, then he took a seat on the sofa opposite Richard.

  “So,” I heard Bishop say, and I turned at an angle where I could watch them converse and still take care of my business.

  “So?” Richard mimicked with a bit of attitude as he was want to do.

  “This meeting with Zia. Do we let her know we’re here and she comes to us, or do we go to her?” Bishop asked.

  “We go to her. I thought I told you she gave me a location,” Richard said.

  Bishop shrugged. “You were guarding yourself pretty well. There really is no way of telling what’s true and false coming from you.”

  Richard smirked, because I thought he liked having his intelligence praised. Either that or his conniving ways. “We have a meeting with her in three hours at the Savior of the Spilled Blood. I wanted to pick someplace public enough that even they wouldn’t want to make a scene. Not if they didn’t have to.”

  “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you, if you think this place is so dangerous for you, why was this the place you were trying to escape to for safety?” I asked.

  Richard sighed. “There really isn’t any place in the world where I could continue to live my life and not be in danger from those in charge of the Killing Game. My plan was to use what I know to garner their good graces. Better to do that with a face-to-face meeting with their top contact. If they could see that I was still an asset, maybe they would reconsider getting rid of me. It’s a gamble, but one I had to attempt if I was going to live the life I’d work so hard for. That, of course, was before you changed everything. You attacking me so publicly and killing Takahashi raised the stakes for me. Now, I’m a liability to them for sure.”

  I nodded, because now Richard’s plan made sense. He thought he would have his money, his bodyguard, and thus leverage. He had none of that now. I bet if he had it his way, he’d take his losses, fake his death, and go hide in a cave somewhere and pray that I took down the Killing Game on my own. Maybe then, he could return to the world of the living. Too bad for him, I guessed.

  “I see. So, this Savior of the Spilled Blood, how far is it from here?” I asked.

  “Not far at all. You could get a beautiful view of it from the other side of this hotel,” Richard said.

  “I remember Al—Silver Fox telling me about that church. It’s famous and pretty much a museum now, right?” I really did have to work on keeping my mouth shut on real names. Better start calling Bishop, Black Knight or at least “B.K.” No more first names, not even in a safe place. I could get too comfortable and blow covers. Well, I was looking forward to going to this church. After how Alexi had described it, I knew it was going to be another cultural wonder.

  “It is famous, and huge with plenty of police surrounding the area. Zia will want to keep a low profile. She may want to speak to me privately in a corner,” Richard stated.

  “You’ll be bugged, don’t worry,” I said.

  “She’ll check for that.”

  “You’re a smart cookie, if she finds the bug, tell her your bodyguards planted it to keep you safe or something,” I countered.

  “Along with a tracker,” Bishop added. “Let’s hope she doesn’t want to search you.”

  “She will… these people are very cautious,” Richard informed us. “They’ll have someone watching us as they always do.”

  “Fuck,” Bishop hissed. “Well, we knew this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.”

  I huffed. “Depends on which park you’re talking about and at which time. Some of those walks can be seriously dangerous. This is one of those.”

  “We need to come up with a plan,” Bishop said.

  I looked at Richard. “Okay, so she’ll want to talk to you alone and she’ll scan you. We don’t want her to be any more suspicious of you than she already is, so we’ll remove the bugs. Insist that you want one of your bodyguards close by and we’ll listen in. Come up with an excuse that she won’t turn down. If they want to take you to another location, we go. The further down the rabbit hole we can get, the better.”

  “Do you think the meeting will end there or that she’ll want to relocate?” Bishop asked Richard.

  “I honestly don’t know. Not sure what they want from me. They still think I’m seeking protection from you and have information to take you down.” Richard nodded in my direction.

  “Okay, then we’ll stick with that. Did you tell her that I can change appearances?” I asked him.

  “I did not. I did tell her that you attacked me on my plane after your first attempt failed at my home,” Richard said. “I didn’t want to let her know just how clever you were. It would only look bad on me that I’d been unable to take you out before you had a chance to kill my client that night. I let her believe your attacks were more akin to a bull in a china shop than the long con you played.”

  “You speak as if you were impressed,” I stated.

  “Well, I was, and still am. I’m not sure what all you can do, but I hope you put all those skills into keeping me alive. Like I’ve said, I’ve got more info you will need,” Richard stated.

  “Ugh, if I hear you say that shit one more time, I’m going to cut out your fucking tongue and you’ll have to write everything down from then on. We’ll keep you alive, okay? Geez, paranoid fucker,” I groused.

  “Getting back to why we’re here,” Bishop began. “Where would they take you since you’re seeking protection?”

  It was good to have a level headed person on the team with me. When I was on missions, I relied on J to be that person. Bishop was holding his own. “And we need to know who they’ll send after me, the threat against their organization,” I added.

  Richard nodded. “I’ll make sure you know everything that I do. That was the deal.”

  There was a knock on the door and I answered it, hand on the handle of my weapon.

  “Room Service,” the waiter said in English with a thick Russian accent.

  I took the cart from him, tipping him more than I have ever tipped anyone in my life. I’d just get it back from Richard later. I closed the door and Bishop did his thing, checking the cart for bugs, and just when I thought he would come up empty like he had with the room, he found one. It was an inconspicuous gadget hidden ever so discreetly in the wheel of the cart. It looked almost like a screw, but was everything we had to be worried about. I wondered if the guy who brought us our lunch had been aware of the bug? Regardless of if he was or wasn’t, they knew we were in Russia and wanted to know everything that was discussed.

  Question was, did we fake our conversations from this moment on or let them know we found their little bullshit bug? I walked over to the pen and pad and jotted that question down for both Richard and Bishop to read. Richard cocked an eyebrow as he pondered and Bishop played with the new stubble on his chin. I waited, of course, and tried to ignore the growling in my stomach as the aroma of the food drifted into my nostrils. I was really debating on changing my mind and taking Richard’s steak and lobster for myself.

  Richard took the pen and paper from me and started writing. “Bring me the plate, for crying out loud, I’m starving,” he said as his hand worked furiously over the paper.

  “Here, sir,” I said, and handed him the food.

  He looked at it and shook his head. I raised my eyebrows inquisitively. He tilted his head sideways and looked at the plate, then back at me again, and that was when I figured it out. He was worried it might be poisoned. I healed pretty fast, though I didn’t think I’d ever been poisoned before. Would it kill me or just make me sick? Would it have any effect on me at all? When Richard said that I was getting in over my head, I was starting to see what he meant by that. Wasn’t going to turn me away, though.<
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  I braved it all and took a tiny bite of the lobster and then the steak, which were both exquisite. When nothing happened, I took a bigger bite of the lobster and that was when Richard snatched his plate out of my hands. He shoved the notepad in place of the plate and I chuckled as I read what he’d written.

  Bishop joined me, reading over my shoulder.

  We let them know that we’re on to them. I can play that card later for my meeting with Zia, but not before giving them something to chew on. They want to know what I might know about who attacked me. They want to know about my new bodyguards. We talk a little, then allow me to grow paranoid, but not about them… but about who I think may be following me. Let them go on high alert, force them to make moves.

  Bishop and I finished reading the note and looked at Richard, who was savoring the hell out of that meal if his closed eyes were any indication. I had to admit, it was a good idea. Too bad Richard was a total piece of shit, because he could probably make a decent human being and ally. I walked back over to the plates and tasted Bishop’s sandwich and soup, then waited. Again, no effect, so I nodded in approval and he began to dig in. The beetroot soup… what had Alexi called it? Borscht, was pretty damn tasty. I sat down and began eating my meal, because I was hungry.

  “In less than two hours, I have my meeting. I want you two to be at my side the entire time,” Richard said, making sure to give the bug listeners something to rub their hands together over. “If this son of a bitch followed me here, he’ll be watching me, watching us. This asshole is crafty and highly skilled, so never let down your guard, not even for a second.”

  “Do you think he’ll attack you in a public place, sir?” I asked, playing along even though I had to accept Richard talking about me like I wasn’t there.

  “I don’t know what this crazy fuck will do. He attacked me on my plane, in front of the crew.”

  “Are you sure you can’t give us more on what he looks like? I know you said he was wearing a mask, but perhaps there is other identifying attributes such as a tattoo,” Bishop asked.

  Richard shook his head, waving his hand in the air. “The bastard knows how to hide his identity, he’s a pro. The only reason I knew he was the same guy who attacked my home was because my last bodyguard was an Enhanced Human and could smell the familiar scent. I don’t have that advantage now, so any face in the crowd could be a problem.”