by Kat Mizera
I froze. “What about you?”
“If there’s time, I’ll be right behind you. If not, this was all my fault anyway. There’ll be people waiting for you at the bottom, and you’ll be safe. Trust them.” He gave me a look.
“Daniil, what’s—”
“I don’t have time to explain. I’m sorry about all of this.” He yanked open a small wooden door. “When you get to the bottom, make sure to close and seal the hatch. And if I don’t make it, tell Jesper I’m sorry.”
“What?” I didn’t know what to do; everything was happening too fast.
“Go!” He lifted me and put me through what was essentially a hole in the wall. I screamed as I flailed in midair. Then I landed hard on my backside and started to slide on something smooth but steep. This was like the waterslides the kids loved and I clutched my sore arm to my side as I whiplashed from side to side. Somewhere behind me, an alarm was going off and I heard the door slam shut. I didn’t know if Daniil was behind me or had been caught, but right now, I was trying not to get sick. It felt like I was going to slide forever, but at some point I realized I was slowing down and coming to a stop. I gasped out a breath and was just reaching for the hatch in front of me when it opened and I came face-to-face with a young woman, no more than twenty-five or so, dressed in fatigues with a rifle on her arm.
There was a noise behind me and the young woman pulled me up just as Daniil slid in behind me. “Bet you didn’t think I could be such a fun date!” he snickered.
I gaped at him. “What the hell just happened?”
“Did you close the panel?” the woman demanded of him.
“I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t,” he said quietly. “You know I wouldn’t risk everything.”
“Let’s go then. This was a foolish move, Daniil.” The woman seemed annoyed and she moved ahead of us.
“We’ll discuss it later.” He gently took my arm and guided me down a hallway.
“Where are we?” I whispered.
“Not now,” he muttered.
We reached what appeared to be railroad tracks, with a handcart waiting for us. “Come, this is easiest.” The woman spoke sharply. We got on and Daniil began moving the cart with a smooth up and down motion.
“Where are we going?” I demanded.
“The New Rebellion’s command center.” Daniil didn’t look at me.
“The New Rebellion?”
“What used to be called the anti-rebellion.”
“Which you have now put in jeopardy!” the woman spat at him.
“I had no other choice. Omar decided he wanted her for his harem, and I wasn’t going to let that barbaric bastard have her any more than I allowed your cousin to have you.” He gave her a look and she finally looked away, obviously embarrassed.
“What’s going on?” The adrenaline had started to wear off and I was suddenly exhausted.
“This is Edita,” Daniil said quietly. “She’s a friend and ally. You can trust her.”
“Thank you for your help,” I responded automatically since I didn’t know what else to say or do.
Edita looked up. “We’ve arrived. Would you like me to look after her while you meet with the others?”
“Yes.” Daniil stood and helped me. “Go with Edita. She’s in a bad mood right now, but she’s my most trusted assistant and friend here. She’ll take you to a shower, clean clothes and we can meet in the dining hall to regroup.”
“Okay.” I followed the young woman blindly. I had no idea where I was, where I was going, or what we were going to do, but at least I wasn’t with Omar, and that was a huge bonus.
Edita was quiet as we walked and I decided not to make small talk. Daniil said he trusted her, and right now I’d have to take his word for it. Edita unlocked a big steel door and suddenly we were inside what appeared to be a big building. The hallway was wide and well-lit, and we only walked about fifty feet before Edita opened another door.
“This is Daniil’s quarters,” she said quietly. “There’s a shower with everything you need. I’ll bring clean clothes for you, as well as a few essentials. I apologize if I seemed churlish before, but we were banking on Daniil’s intel from infiltrating Anwar’s inner circle. Now he’s blown his cover, and while I understand he must have had his reasons, it was a shock.”
“I’m sorry I’ve caused trouble for you,” I said quietly. “But believe me when I say this is the last place I would be right now if I had a choice.”
“I know that.” Edita touched my arm. “Go, take a shower and relax. I’m sure you feel grungy—I know I would feel gross if I didn’t have a shower for three days. I’ll have clothes waiting when you’re done.” She turned and left.
I followed her advice and took a long, relaxing, hot shower. It felt wonderful to scrub my scalp and skin. When I finally stepped out, I wrapped myself in a large, soft towel, brushed my teeth with a brand new one that had been left for me, and combed the tangles out of my hair. There was a hair dryer and I dried my hair before putting it back with a ponytail holder I found on the counter.
I found clean clothes, including panties and a sports bra that looked new, and I put them on hurriedly, finishing with a white T-shirt, camouflage pants, socks and black boots that were only a little too big. As soon as I entered the hallway, Edita appeared and motioned for me to follow.
“The main dining hall is on the other side of the compound. Are you up for a walk?”
“Sure.” I nodded, following her.
It took about ten minutes to find the dining hall and I felt strangely self-conscious as we entered the large room. There were at least twenty people here and most glanced up when we walked in, all movement and conversation coming to a stop. Edita spoke loudly. “Everyone, this is Casey, the latest victim of our rogue king. Rescuing her means our plans have changed, but that’s not her fault, so let’s not forget why we’re here and focus on our end game. Daniil and I hope to get her out of the country in no more than twenty-four hours, and then we can get back to business. In the meantime, she’s one of us so please make her feel at home.”
A few people nodded and called out greetings, and Edita turned back to me. “Get something to eat and we’ll talk. I have to speak to Daniil for a few minutes and then I’ll join you.”
“Thank you.”
“The food is fairly bland,” she told me. “I hope you don’t mind. Chicken, hummus, pita bread.”
“I’m so hungry, I’m pretty sure I’ll eat almost anything.” I dug without shame into the dish she put in front of me. I was almost finished when Daniil sank into the chair beside me. “How is it?” he asked, smiling at my empty plate.
“I’m not sure I tasted anything,” I admitted. “I scarfed that down like I haven’t eaten in weeks!”
“Good.” He took a breath. “I owe you an explanation, but I have to do some damage control first. I also need to stop Erik from doing something stupid.”
28
Erik
The old railway station was abandoned. Jesper didn’t look surprised as he stood in the middle of the dusty room and I gave him a dirty look.
“You don’t look like a guy who was expecting to find anything here,” I said, hands on my hips.
“I wasn’t sure, but now we know.”
“Casey could be getting raped or tortured or worse and you’re doing things by process of elimination?” I yelled.
“Relax.” He waved a hand. “I have a plan.”
“You have a plan. Five minutes ago, you were changing diapers and trying to figure out why your husband dumped you and now you have a plan?”
My harsh words didn’t seem to impact him as he began feeling around the edges of the table, like he was looking for something. “To be fair,” he said, continuing along from one side to the next, “it’s been approximately three days since I changed a diaper, and I’m still wondering what my husband is up to, but hopefully I’m going to get a clue about that any time now.”
“What the hell is going on?” I dema
nded, planting myself in front of him and preventing him from moving any further.
He looked up, his blue eyes twinkling. “Just give me another minute.” He moved around me and I nearly growled in frustration. Luckily, he seemed to find what he was looking for and held up a flash drive.
“What the fuck is that?”
“Hopefully, it’ll tell us where the New Rebellion has relocated to.” He took off his go-bag and pulled out his laptop. He stuck the flash drive in it and we all watched in fascination as a decryption program came to life and a million characters began moving across the screen.
“That’s high-level decryption,” Ace commented.
“My sources are high-level agents,” Jesper replied.
I eyed him warily. “Your sources?”
He grinned. “Did you really believe I settled into suburbia and forgot about my people? Thanks for that.”
I didn’t even know what to say.
“Got it.” Jesper shut the laptop and got to his feet, stuffing it back into his backpack.
“Going to take a few hours to get there,” Ace said, typing something into his phone.
“What did I miss?” I demanded.
“The anti-rebellion starting morphing into the New Rebellion a few years ago when I was diving into fatherhood. For my safety as well as that of my children, I distanced myself from them. However, we had a contingency in case I ever needed to find them.”
“What if someone other than you found it?”
“It was heavily encrypted. Besides, they would have had to know where to look, because as you saw, they made sure the place looked abandoned.”
“Great. Where are we heading now?”
“The New Rebellion headquarters is located just outside of Hiskale.”
“That’s a solid four-hour drive.”
“Not the way I drive.” Ace dug out the keys. “Let’s go.”
We piled into the SUV the CIA had provided and Ace got on the country’s only highway. We couldn’t stay on it long, but we could make good time for at least an hour. After that we’d be relegated to country roads and stretches of highway with lights and roundabouts.
I hadn’t been home for years and nothing was familiar anymore. Streetlights didn’t work in most towns we passed through and they seemed sparsely populated. I knew from the CIA’s intelligence that most people either lived in Hiskale or the port cities unless they were on farms. Much of the northern part of the country was deserted, taken over by mercenaries and the military. People had migrated south because getting supplies to the north in the winter had become impossible and nearly twenty thousand people perished the first two years Anwar was in power.
Things were a little better now because Anwar had finally relented and started allowing some basic imports and exports. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing and people were surviving. It was just hard to look at what my country had become. So many abandoned towns and buildings, it made my heart hurt for the people.
Shame crept through my psyche as I stared out at the darkness. While I’d been living a pretty cushy life in Monte Carlo, the people of Limaj had been starving to death, abandoning their homes and land just to survive. While I’d been giving up on myself, I’d also given up on them and I didn’t know how I was going to make this right.
“Whatever you’re thinking,” Jesper said quietly, “don’t. You didn’t fail the people—Anwar did.”
“Then why does it feel so fucking personal?”
“Because you’re a good man struggling with duty and survival. If it was my lover, my kids, I’d have made all the same decisions you did.”
“But would you have sat back and done nothing for a decade?”
“Well, I kind of did.” He eyed me. “I mean, we had no power and the only thing rushing in there would have done was get us killed. We didn’t forget, we were simply waiting for the right time.”
“And Daniil?”
His eyes darkened and he looked away. “I don’t know what the fuck he’s doing. I just can’t…” His voice trailed off. “I don’t know, man. I don’t fucking know. He’s always been frustrated, since long before we got together. I thought he loved me. I mean, how do you fake that? Sex is easy, but the other stuff? The family times, the romance…” He blew out a breath. “Fuck that. Plenty of time to nurse my broken heart after we get Casey back and kick Anwar’s ass.”
“Where are the kids?”
“With my parents.”
“Do you think he’ll try anything?”
“With our kids?” He shook his head. “No. Besides, he knows those kids mean everything to me. I’ll blow his fucking balls off if he touches a hair on either of their heads.”
I chuckled. “I know exactly what you mean.”
Just before dawn, we arrived at the address Jesper had given us and he made a call as we pulled up to what looked like another abandoned warehouse. We followed him inside, using our flashlights to illuminate a path. He walked to the back and felt around until a panel popped open and he unlatched a small door of some kind.
“There’s a drop,” he called over his shoulder. “Last person down needs to make sure he closes the hatch behind him.” He disappeared from sight and we heard a thud a little while later.
“What the fuck?” Sandor peered down curiously. “It’s a fucking slide or something.”
“Probably an underground compound,” Ace said. “You guys go ahead. I’ll bring up the rear and make sure everything here is cool before dropping down.”
“Don’t wait too long,” I told him, following Sandor.
A minute later we were standing in a dark hallway, waiting for Ace, who joined us after another minute or so.
“Now what?” Sandor asked.
“Someone should be here to meet us,” Jesper said. “Finding the chute is only the beginning. There’s a coded lock on the other side of the door that leads to this hallway, so you need to know someone to get them to open it.”
We waited, fidgeting restlessly. Then there was a clicking noise and what sounded like gears turning as the door opened.
“How was your trip?” Daniil asked, smirking at us.
“You dirty—” I lunged at him but Sandor caught me just as I heard someone scream my name.
“Erik!”
Casey.
I wrenched myself free of Sandor and caught her as she threw herself at me. I dug my fingers into her hair as I tilted up her head to get a good look at her. “You’re okay?” I whispered.
“I’m fine.” She nodded.
I glanced at Daniil sideways. “You and I are going to have a long talk later.”
“I know.” He winked before turning to Jesper. “The kids with your mom?”
Jesper nodded, his face tight with unspoken emotion. He and Daniil exchanged a look and Daniil leaned over to whisper something in his ear. Jesper looked surprised but merely nodded.
“We have a lot to discuss,” Daniil said. “Anyone hungry?”
We followed him down a dimly lit hallway, but I kept my arm tightly around Casey as we walked.
“You sure you’re okay?” I asked her.
She smiled. “I’m fine. Really.”
“I lost my mind when I thought Anwar had taken you.”
“Yeah, I was pretty freaked out too.”
“Did anyone…” My voice faded. I couldn’t even articulate the words rape or molest.
“No one touched me. Daniil made sure I was okay.”
“I’m still going to kick his ass.”
“It’s a little complicated,” was all she said.
We got to what Daniil called a conference room, though it was really more of a bedroom without a closet and with a big table in the middle.
“If anyone’s hungry, there are sandwiches in the kitchen,” Daniil said, “but since it’s still early here, you’re on your own.”
“Just tell us what’s going on,” Sandor said, giving him a dirty look.
Daniil glanced at Jesper instead of his broth
er and then looked at the rest of us. “I owe you all an apology.”
“You think?” Sandor made a face at him.
“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I just…” He rubbed his hands down his face. “It’s been eleven years since my parents, our cousins, the king…were killed. In those eleven years we’ve allowed Anwar to manipulate us and torment our people. I was never meant to rule, nor do I have it in me, but you do.” He stared at me. “I’m sorry, Erik. I thought if I could lure you out of hiding, get you angry again, we could do what we haven’t done for the last decade. Sam acted on his own—we had no idea he was going to do what he did, trying to kill Casey. I would have gotten word to Sandor it if I’d known.” He stopped. “It was an error in judgement on my part, but I just wanted us to get our lives back. All of us.”
No one spoke for a few minutes and I wasn’t sure who was more pissed—me or Sandor. He was drumming his fingers on the table while simultaneously tapping his foot, which was never good. It was his version of counting to ten, except he’d probably counted to a hundred by now.
“How could you be so careless with the people I’ve spent the last decade protecting?” Sandor finally said.
“I know. Believe me, I know. I also had no part in Casey’s abduction, but it turns out this was a test. Which is why it coincided with my being named President of the General Assembly.”
“You didn’t think they were going to test you?” I asked, shaking my head.
“I’ve been worming my way into their inner circle for two years,” Daniil responded sadly. “I thought I was past that.”
“Never underestimate Anwar,” Sandor said. “Never.”
“You’re an idiot,” Jesper said, his voice low and filled with anger.
Daniil turned to look at him, narrowing his eyes slightly. “At least I haven’t taken off my wedding ring.”
“Can you two do this later?” Sandor drawled, scowling.
Daniil blew out a breath. “I’m glad to know the people I love and trust the most feel the same about me.” His voice was laced with sarcasm. “Unfortunately, we don’t have time to deal with that right now. I blew my cover by—”
