by Mike Gomes
"Are we gonna reach a point here, Nikolai, where you stop pissing and moaning and feeling bad for yourself over what happened to me, and we can get on to business?" Gabriella’s tone was forceful, grabbing control of the situation, "If you want me to say I forgive you, fine, I forgive you. You want absolution from what you've done, great, you've got it. Time to move on and toughen up a little bit. If you're gonna be this flaky on a mission with me, then I've got no use for you."
"Don't worry, Gabriella, I'm still the same guy, and I still know how to do the same things." Nikolai’s voice was laced with irritation. "Keep in mind there were a few times that I saved your ass from things. And I also kept you out of the view of everybody when I could have turned you over and made myself a hero."
"Well, it looks like I'm in everybody's view now," she snarked, holding the end of her comment for just a moment to provide just the right effect. "That was until you called me."
"If you want to go on the run on your own, Gabriella, go ahead and do it. I just thought the two of us working together would have a better chance than if we were both alone." Nikolai made a motion for the waitress to bring his check.
"Ready to leave so soon?" Gabriella asked. "You invite me here, halfway across the fucking world, and you don't even buy me a drink?"
"Pardon me. I don't know where my manners went," Nikolai said sincerely, he nodded, recognizing Gabriella’s strength as he could see she did not want to leave, but simply wanted to let him know that the damage he had caused was not to be forgotten.
"Can you get the lady a whiskey, please?" Nikolai asked the waitress who nodded her head as she moved by. "Was that good enough for you, Gabriella? You've got your drink."
"No, Nikolai, it's not good enough. What I need to know is that you're in this thing to the death. I need to know that you're gonna fight as hard as I'm gonna fight, and that you're not going to look for an escape."
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Nikolai banged his hand on the table, causing others in close proximity to turn their heads. "You're questioning my fucking loyalty? Really? You're questioning me after everything that I've done, after everything we've been through, you really feel like I'm the guy that's gonna roll over and take off from you?"
"You have to admit, there's always questions," Gabriella shrugged her shoulders. "You and I haven't worked together in a long, long time, and I don't know if you're the same man that you once were. The man that I'd once known and the man that I loved, I don't think would have asked me to do this."
"I asked you because you're the only one I could trust. At least that's what I thought." Nikolai leaned his head back on the booth and folded his arms in front of him. "Gabriella, do you wanna do this together or do you wanna do it apart? Let's just answer the question and forget the games.”
"It's not a game to me," Gabriella admitted. "I lost my husband to this, and now I'm halfway across the world from the place that I called home that's no longer there for me. And to make matters worse, when our relationship ended, you walked away without saying a word. You didn't even give me the common decency of a break-up phone call."
"I'm sorry, Gabriella, but times were different back then. There was so much risk." Nikolai shifted uncomfortably in his chair, and found eye contact between the two uncomfortable and difficult to bear. "I know I was a jerk. I know I should have called you or I should have done something, but the heat had started to come down on me. I was starting to get questions. So as soon as that happened, I realized that I needed to get you away from it. And I couldn't even risk a phone call to you, because I knew they were listening and following everything I did."
"Or did you just get afraid?" Gabriella kept her eye contact strong, not letting him loose for a moment. "You could have found a way. You could have used the satellites; you could have used the different connection methods. You could have had a three-second conversation with me, quickly saying that it wasn't safe and you had to leave. You knew I would have understood, but you didn't have the courage to do that, did you? You only had the ability to run."
"I was on the run to protect your life and mine. You need to believe that," Nikolai insisted. "Why would I do that? Why would I lose the woman I love for no reason?"
"Because it's the one thing you couldn't control. You didn't have control over me and you didn't have control over your feelings for me. That's what haunted you, and that's what's hurt you. You just got afraid of the relationship and what it was becoming. The other stuff around the missions you were involved with were an easy excuse to let you run for the hills and hide from what was real."
"You're right." Nikolai’s voice dropped sheepishly with a softness that held no strength. "The more I thought about the both of us, I thought we could make it for the long-term. But the problem was what I did for a living, and what you did for a living. I always felt that we'd get one of us killed if we were together. That eventually the KGB, the CIA, MI6, somebody was going to come after us and use the other one as the bait. I just never knew they'd do it to the man that you married and that it wouldn't be me."
"Well, it did happen. And they're not stopping. They want you dead, and they sure as hell want me dead. Or they want to recondition me." Gabriella felt a shudder go through her body. "I'm sure there are things they've implanted deep in my mind that will be used to draw me back. I would hate to give up on all the things I've fought for to make my life a little bit more human and less an automaton of the KGB."
"Gabriella, I want to make a commitment to you right now." Nikolai straightened himself up in his seat and stared at the beautiful woman across from him. "My commitment to you, is that I'm going to fight by your side to the end. I won't run. I won't get afraid. This is my penance for what I've done to your husband and what I did to the relationship we once had. If it costs me my life and costs me everything I have, I'll happily give it to make up for what I've done to you."
Chapter Twenty-Two
A man with jagged teeth and a bruised cheek turned his head back to Nikolai and Gabriella in the cab. "Where're you going?"
"Just drive, I'll tell you where to turn." Nikolai didn’t want to divulge too much information to anyone. It had long been known that the cabbies of Bangkok were a source of great information. A cupped hand with the right amount of money in it could get you any amount of information from cabbies who had driven every member of the underworld from place to place, as well as high ranking officials from different countries when they choose to meet in secrecy.
"That's not how this works," the driver said in broken English to the two people in his back seat. "I need a location, I have to radio in."
"Just take me to the Royal Palace that'll be good enough," Nikolai told him. "Wait a minute we're at the Royal Palace, or at least it's down the street, maybe drive us over to the river."
"What part of the river do you want?" the man asked, getting frustrated listening to Nikolai talk in circles. "You new to here?"
"Yes, it's my first time, you'll have to excuse me, I don't know the names of the streets or where I'm headed," Nikolai said, glancing over to Gabriella who sat sternly in the seat next to him.
"No, you seem like you've been here before," the driver said looking in the rear-view mirror at his passengers. "You are just one of those men that doesn't like people to know where you're going."
"Well I can't change what you think, all I can do is ask you to get me where I want to go." Nikolai smiled at the driver who had his eyes narrowed on him.
"You got money?" the man asked, now shifting his full body around looking into the back seat, making sure the two knew that he was clear about their faces and what they had on. "It costs double to keep things quiet. I don't tell anybody anything for the right amount of money."
"Unless the other person has more money, right?" Nikolai laughed but got no response from the cabbie.
"Are you saying that I lie?" the driver asked, finding no humor in his fare.
"No sir, I meant that as no disrespect. But I have no reason
to hide from anybody, I'm not in those kinds of work. I do assessments for bars, try to find ways for them to make more money."
"Lots of bars in Bangkok." The cabbie put the car into gear and pulled away from the curb. "Bangkok's known for its bars, the government doesn't get messed up in them, so the owners can do what they like."
"That's what brings me here, my friend."
"How about the lady, does she talk?" asked the cabbie letting out a small laugh. "Don't worry, lady, I'm only teasing with you. You look very nice, and seemed like you could take joke."
"I have a good sense of humor, I'm just very, very tired." Gabriella let a small smile touch her lips. "I'm sorry if I'm not in a very good mood."
"Well, you know what they say, no matter where you live in the world, it's hard to get to Bangkok."
The cabbie continued to drive, taking directions from Nikolai in the backseat. The third street on the left, then the second street on the right, one time wrapping around itself and then back onto another thoroughfare. And after twenty minutes of twisting and turning, Nikolai pointed to the side of the road and said that his hotel was there, to nothing more than an empty lot.
"You have very low standards for your hotels," the driver furrowed his brow. "You must not have anyone looking for you, because this is much too obvious."
"Well, sir, my hotel is just up the street. It's just as easy to stop here, and maybe me and my wife can get some time to talk alone before we reach the hotel."
"Are you two on the prowl, are you looking for some entertainment or some action?" the cabbie asked, brightening up a little. "If you are interested in joining with other men or other women, I know people that I can call that could assist with this. Bangkok is a very forgiving place for any kind of entertainment you might like."
"No, nothing like that," Nikolai shook his head. "The lady and I are business associates, we have no relationship beyond that.”
"Sorry for saying so, sir, but you must be a fool. She's beautiful." The driver looked to Gabriella. "Lady, if you get sick of this guy sometime, you come look me up."
The three people in the cab laughed heartily at the joke before Nikolai handed him his fare with an ample tip, letting him know that the silence would be appreciated. Spilling out onto the sidewalk, Gabriella and Nikolai walked side by side as the cab pulled away.
"So, we got about a two-mile walk from here," Nikolai said. "I hope you don't mind, I saw that you weren't wearing heels, so I figured it'd be okay."
"It would be good for me no matter what, I'm here for the mission," Gabriella said sharply.
"Well, I remember how much your feet hurt in those heels, so I was just trying to be respectful."
"No, you were trying to soften me. Don't treat me like a child, Nikolai. You know how that irritates me. If you want to use any information from our past to help you out in our relationship now, remember to treat me as an equal and not like I'm some damsel in distress, or this damsel in distress could wind up kicking your ass."
"Sorry, not trying to offend," Nikolai said apologetically. "I'm just trying to be a decent guy, that's all. After all these years working with the KGB, I've finally got to the point where I realized I don't really have my own personality, I don't really know who I am. The idea of being courteous and polite to people just as a matter of fact has been lost on me all these years. I constantly answer people and talk to them in rigid tones, and then wonder why they feel like I'm so aggressive."
"Well, we were all taught not to care about things like that." Gabriella shrugged. "The way the KGB operated with us was to be singularly focused on the mission and nothing more. They missed a lot of the parts of the job that required finesse, as well as influence."
"And that influence is not always found at the end of a gun," Nikolai agreed, feeling the temptation to reach over and hold her hand as they walked. It was the perfect opportunity to say it was simply part of their cover, making them look as if they were lovers out for a stroll. Though the words did not dare leave his mouth, knowing that what he was really in search of was not a disguise, but the displaying of his true feelings for the woman that still held his heart.
"So, what are you doing to take care of everything?" Gabriella asked.
"I'm going straight ahead on this one, Gabby. I'm linked in with all the facial recognition, all over the airports, trains, anything I could connect to."
"Did you just call me Gabby?" she asked in a stern voice, causing Nikolai to look over at her. "When the hell have you ever heard anybody call me Gabby?"
"Sorry, I forgot."
"Let's not let it happen again. I'm not a Gabby, I'm not some fun time girl for you, and I see we're going to have a problem getting by what you think is okay to say to me and what I think is okay to say to me."
"I think one of the things we’ve got to get over is your anger toward me." Nikolai stopped walking, causing Gabriella to stop next to him and look at him. "You know, I asked you if you wanted to be part of this, and initially you said yes, then we got some really bad results that cost you a lot. And now you're here trying to run me through the ringer at every turn. I'm just asking you to be a partner right now so that we can be a team, and not have you criticize and attack me on everything that I say."
"I don't like being called Gabby, I like being called by my name," she told him in a firm and unrelenting tone.
"All you had to do was say that in a nice way. Just say it in a way that lets me know, you don't have to dismantle me at the same time."
Holding herself still for a moment, Gabriella could feel the words he said ring true. She was making him do time, not only for Antonio’s death, but from the death of their relationship in the past. His failure to ever contact her to say goodbye still preyed on her soul, making her wonder if she had done something wrong to force him away.
"Getting back to what you were talking about, I've got the facial recognition set up. We shouldn't have too much of a problem with it. I have a feeling that Victor is going to travel through open channels."
"I bet he wishes it was like the movie where you just slip on some rubber mask and you can hide from it." Gabriella chuckled.
"I remember seeing that for the first time, and that's some of the funniest shit I've ever seen. Some rubber covering that makes you look like a completely different person."
Both of the highly trained agents laughed in unison at the idea of what they had witnessed in the movies. The facial recognition was far more technical than that depicted in the movies. The systems that were used by the KGB and the other high intelligence agencies focused in on the eyes and the shape of the eyes. It looked down to small features, detecting hundreds of points on the face to detect what they were looking for. Anything that was too much out of the ordinary or smoothed over in any way was rapidly detected as being false, an alarm was sounded, letting the people at the train stations, ports, and airports know that the information they were receiving was that of someone trying to slip through without being detected.
"I can't wait to see what kind of results we get when we get back," Nikolai rubbed his hands together. "I set it up a few hours back, so hopefully we're drawing up something."
"And what about you, do you think you're inside the system yet?"
"I hope so. That's what I'm hoping draws them in."
The couple reached the hotel and turned up the stairs, walking through the lobby and disregarding the concierge or the check-in. After a brief rise up on the elevator, they went down the hallway and entered their room.
"Let's see what we got," Nikolai said, sitting in a chair in front of the table. Sliding the laptop over, he began to scan any matches that look close to Victor.
"I had the KGB picture of Victor, I kept it all this time." Nikolai smiled. "I knew some day that it would come in handy. I always thought that he'd go missing or someone would get a hold of him and I'd be flashing this picture to people trying to track him down to save him from ruin. Now it seems that I'm using it to try to kill him."
/> "He's an ugly son of a bitch, isn't he?" Gabriella laughed, knowing that the man held no features that would be considered off-putting to anyone. Instead, it was his personality that caused her to see him in a different light, and the way he had treated Antonio in the last moments of his life.
"Check it out, four matches." Nikolai moved his finger around the center pad, pulling up the images of each match.
"That's him." Gabriella pointed to an image of a man moving through customs at the airport.
"That sure as hell is him," Nikolai agreed. "It looks like he doesn't have any luggage with him."
"That means he's got all the guns he needs here already." Gabriella held her mouth tight, looking at the back of Nikolai’s head.
"It's what I expected," Nikolai told her. "He and I had quite a few missions down here. I figured this would set the tables even for us. It was terrain that we both knew, that we both had inspected together and separately. We shouldn't have any surprises around here, and if we do, it's going to catch me totally off-guard."
"Hopefully it won’t come to that. I’m sure you know some things and I know some things that he doesn't, so we can catch him completely off guard." Gabriella moved closer to Nikolai to see the screen. "Do you have a way to track down where this guy is staying?"
"I can, but it will be everything that's just on his itinerary. I can use all his aliases, see what hotel he's in, but if I know Victor, he's just going to start searching for us rather than set up a location to stabilize himself. He'll go get his guns, load himself up and then wait for us somewhere. He's a very patient man."
"Well, I guess that means we're gonna have to make him impatient." Gabriella let out a small laugh. "We just have to give him something tempting enough to come out of his shell and come after us."
