She hung her head and studied the two stubs where she'd once had fingers. An anger at the disfigurement surged inside.
"Thad, I want first shot at the main guy, if it's who I think it is."
"Karli? He's one of them."
She felt her heart rate increase.
"I knew it. I knew they would send him."
"Of course they would. He has much face to save since he lost you."
"Well, you just made my day. I want that bastard. Want him in the worst way."
"Please, leave that up to me."
"What about the Agency?"
"CIA? They told you they would deny all knowledge. So far, I can't get a callback from anyone in that entire division."
"Figures."
"Yep. So you start packing and we'll do the next indicated thing. Which is to get you downtown where we can all keep a closer watch over you."
"Roger that."
"Later. Get to it, now."
"Roger that."
They hung up and Christine started packing. She slowly realized that she was actually feeling positive for the first time since returning to the States. Positive, as in, the entire drama was going to come to an end. And maybe she would have a leading role, as in, facing down Karli herself. On her own. One on one.
She couldn't wait.
Less than an hour later she was packed and waiting for Thaddeus' people. Who could tell? She might even call the kids and tell them goodnight. She was feeling better by the minute.
She might even talk to Sonny without biting his head off.
51
"Do you know what today is?" she asked him.
He looked up from his laptop. He was sitting in the family room, where Turquoise and Sarai were watching Animal Planet. Vaguely, he knew the show was about an orangutan island or some such thing. It was good to be home, good to be feeling normal again.
"What is today?" Thaddeus asked. "I give up."
"Today is O day."
"I don't get it. What's O day?"
From where they were sitting, the kids couldn't see Katy when she pointed to her pelvic region.
"Ovulation," she mouthed the word to him."
"Got it. I'm up to bat. So to speak."
"Uh-huh. Tonight. So get ready."
He looked at her quizzically. "How do I do that?"
"You know—"
"Afraid I don't know. Wash my hands? Take a shower? I do that just about every night anyway." He was teasing her and she hadn't caught on quite yet. Given her serious look and intense feelings about the new baby, he realized how important it was to her and told himself to lay off. He had to honor her. "Just kidding, forgive, please. I'll be ready."
"You pitch, I'll catch."
Turquoise turned her head around, taking them in. "TMI, folks. TMI."
"Sorry, Turq," Katy said. "My bad."
Turquoise had turned back to the orangutans. She shrugged and let it go.
* * *
He usually wore a T-shirt to bed. But tonight he didn't. The sheets were cool and soothing to his skin and exhausted muscles. Moscow had been much more than he had expected and he was still trying to decompress from the ordeal.
Katy finally finished up in the bathroom and slide under the covers beside him.
She snuggled up, totally nude, and he was immediately aroused.
He kissed her. She tasted like Crest toothpaste and mouthwash. And, she had showered. He hadn't, and kicked himself. But she didn't seem to mind.
"Now. This is a very important night. My bulls-eye is waiting for your arrows."
"I think I follow that. C'mere and kiss me."
She moved closer, throwing a leg over his mid-section. He rose up to meet her and felt the cool inner thigh that he loved so much and always desired.
"Mmmm, feels good," she murmured.
"What feels good?"
"You know what."
"I'm glad. I've really missed you," he whispered. "Terribly."
"Good. Even Angelina didn't turn your head?"
"Not once. I'm not that way."
"All men are that way. Trust me, I know."
He pulled back and looked at the top of her head. It was dark, but he could see the outline of the head he loved.
"Well, your man isn't that way. I'm only interested in one bulls-eye."
"Thank you for telling me that. Now take your hand and put it right here, please."
She took his hand and placed it between her legs.
"That's perfect."
"You're right."
"Now. Let's get us a baby."
"I'm ready. Baby it is."
52
"I'm hurt and I'm angry!" Christine yelled at Thaddeus. "The fricking CIA wouldn't even acknowledge me over there!"
"I think they probably told you that going in," said Thaddeus.
Christine's pale blue eyes flickered. She was hurting and he knew it. He honestly didn't know what else to say to her. But something had to take away her pain. What was it? Shooting Karli herself? He knew she would do exactly that, given the chance.
"They told me just the opposite, going in. They said there would be helicopters to get me out, S.E.A.L. teams if need be—whatever I needed, I would get."
Thaddeus held up a hand. "Whoa, you're talking about Syria and MESA if I'm not mistaken. There's no way they could have promised that for Russia because they didn't know ahead of time the hijack was coming. Let's get our heads straight about this."
She slumped back in the visitor's chair in his office. Outside, the snow was swirling past the windows and seagulls were gliding and settling to the sidewalks far below. It reminded Thaddeus of a hungry world, of the World Vision kids he and Katy had adopted. So much need, so short of help. And now Christine. She was wounded beyond reason, beyond having clear thoughts about what had happened to her and who was at fault and who owed her. He tried again.
"I think you turned up in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Russians are in deep shit over the whole Ukraine uprising they've caused. The U.S. has seized assets and embargoed them to where it's really hurting. They needed a PR chance, a photo-op, and you showed up, a CIA operative on special assignment to the Middle East. You weren't supposed to even be in Russia. But that didn't stop President Irunyaev. He jumped all over you and used you. In a sense, you were innocent and just got caught up. Don't you see it?"
She shook her head violently. "I see the CIA refusing to help. If it weren't for you and Tony, I'd still be strapped to a dentist's chair with a towel over my face and water flowing down my throat. Thank God for you, Thaddeus. And thank God for Tony. I'll never forget what you guys pulled off for me."
Just then, the phone buzzed on Thaddeus' desk. He held up one finger.
"Yes?"
"Thaddeus," said Melinda, the receptionist. "I have Angelina Sosa out here. She says it's urgent and says you wanted to see her."
Thaddeus covered the received. "Angelina," he said to Christine. "I've got an idea for you and her. Let's get her in here."
Christine shrugged. "It's your office. Fine by me."
Angelina entered the room with Melinda's guidance.
"Hi, Angelina," said Thaddeus as he stood behind his desk. "I think you might remember Christine?"
Angelina smiled and took a seat beside Christine. She touched her on the shoulder and nodded at her. "I remember her grabbing my tablet on the plane. I remember trying to locate her. I remember one night at the hotel with her. But there's lots more I'd like to know. If she's willing."
Christine gave her a dour look and brushed her hand away.
"I'm not one of the willing. I don't want to see my name in your damn newspaper."
"Actually, you might," said Thaddeus. "Which is why I've asked Angelina to join us this morning."
Christine sighed. "Okay. What's up your sleeve?"
"Well, we're smarter than these people who came for you yesterday. Especially this Karli thug. So I'm thinking we bait a trap and then see who gets caught."
"And if s
omeone gets caught, do I get to shoot them?"
Thaddeus shook his head. "Chris, I can't tell you how to live your life. You'll do what you need to do. You always have. My idea only goes so far."
"So tell us," said Christine. "What do you want me to do?"
* * *
An hour later Christine and Angelina left the office together and walked across the hall to the elevator. A dark woman wearing sunglasses on top of her head was standing there, seemingly waiting for the elevator too. She gave the twosome a half-smile and returned her gaze to the numbers above the door.
Christine gave the slightest nudge to Angelina.
The doors opened and the three women climbed inside. It was a four-minute ride to the lobby, with two stops in between.
Finally, the lobby doors opened, and Christine guided Angelina toward the side exit onto LaSalle Street. The other woman went out the main entrance.
"Watch this," Christine said. "She's still back there."
"Russian?"
"Bet your booty, honey."
"Exciting."
They headed east.
"How did you get here?"
"Cab."
"Okay, me too. Let's grab one and see who follows."
Angelina was all in. "Are these the Russians?"
"Uh-huh. Near as I can tell. No one else is after me. Yet."
They stepped up to the curb and looked left at oncoming traffic. Several cabs sped by—middle lanes, impossible to get over. Until finally a white van with All-day Taxi written on the side pulled over. A man leaned down and caught their eyes. Turban, earpiece (why were they always on the phone? Christine wondered), and he was smiling. They climbed in back.
Christine looked behind. Coming up fast was a green and yellow taxi with a woman in the back seat. She was wearing sunglasses—that much could be ascertained.
So Christine began doling out nonsense directions to the driver.
"Turn left, up two blocks, go right, back down four blocks, then pull over to the curb."
"Excuse please, what?
"All right, get in the left-hand lane. Good, good. Now go two blocks and then right. Then go four blocks and pull over to the curb."
"I think I know."
"Fine, you’ll do great."
Christine tugged to loosen the drawstrings on her purse and it was then that Angelina saw it: Glock pistol with a sound suppressor.
"You have a gun!"
"I do. And I know how to use it."
"Are we in danger?"
"Lady, what movie have you been watching? See this," she said and held up the hand missing two fingers. "This look like danger to you? Yes, I'd say we're in danger."
"Good. I've always wanted to be in a thriller movie."
"Well, this ain't no movie. This is my life and I'm not liking the opening scene one bit."
As she spoke, she swiveled in the back seat and peered out the rear window.
"Got you, lady," she said softly. She whistled. "Uh-huh, there's two of them now. She stopped and picked someone up."
"Can you see them?"
"Hang on. A white cube truck just pulled in front of them, they'll have to come around—yes, there they are!" She stretched and looked down the cross street. "But where's XFBI? Our guys should be on us now too."
"Can you see them? Anyone?"
"Driver, pop a U-turn and gun it."
The driver complied and in a brief instant the cab was across the centerline, then speeding up to sixty-five and passing the green and yellow cab, which was trapped in the curb lane, headed the opposite direction. Christine waved at them as they blew by and the occupants pretended not to see.
"That felt good," she said to Angelina. "Wave at those sons-of-bitches."
She pulled her pistol from her purse and worked the slide. Satisfied she had one in the chamber, she slipped the gun back into the purse.
"When we get out, you hit the sidewalk running with me. I want us inside and out of sight by the time they find my street. If they even find it; I don't know they will. Okay, driver, right here, then go four lights and left."
"Whew," Christine said. She comedically wiped her forehead. "Whew. Haven't had one that close since Donald Duck," she said in her best Bugs Bunny.
"Hey, that's the first time I've ever seen you smile."
"You're right. But you know what? I'm gonna enjoy this. I'm gonna enjoy taking these assholes down."
"I can see that. Well, rock on, sister."
They did a fist bump, and both exploded in laughter.
After the left turn, they went up two blocks, and Christine told the driver to stop. They were right beside a well-known Chicago landmark consisting of a round tower of condos.
Christine tossed a twenty-dollar bill and a five-dollar bill over the seat.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
"Let's go for it!"
They joined hands and ran into the lobby of the building. The doorman held the door and then stepped backward twenty paces.
Angelina looked back. Why was he moving away from the doors?
Just as her mind formulated the thought, the green and white cab pulled up and double-parked next to the cab the Christine and Angelina had arrived in. Three people jumped out and came running for the building's front door. The woman with the sunglasses was in the lead, then Karli, then Madi. Guns were drawn, and it was clear nothing was going to stop them. They clambered through the open door, held by Glynda, the sunglasses woman, now that the doorman had disappeared.
As they came through the door, a series of eleven gunshots blasted the quiet interior.
Thaddeus Murfee was there, waiting behind the information desk, and firing at the oncoming Russians. Glynda went down. Then Madi was spun around by a shot in the shoulder and one through the back of his head. Karli, halfway through the door, stopped and then ran back for the first cab, which was still hemmed in by the green and white cab. Now the green and white moved on and so Karli, on his back in the taxi, calmly instructed the driver to flee the scene. The taxi lurched and picked up speed. By the time Thaddeus was on the sidewalk, it was too far gone and there was just too much traffic to risk a shot. So he went back inside.
Glynda was moaning, eyes half-open, a mortal wound in her neck. As Thaddeus toed the Russian named Madi, Glynda died with a long sigh. At the elevator, Angelina and Christine were stopped, frozen; and suddenly Christine was advancing with her pistol trained on the two dead Russians.
Thaddeus brushed her pistol aside.
"We're good now, Chris. You can put it away."
* * *
Sergeant Branerton of the Second Precinct Homicide was impressed with Thaddeus and impressed with the doorman, but most of all he was impressed by the CCTV video that undeniably showed the Russians charging the door with guns drawn. Clearly Thaddeus had saved the two women with his gunshots. Thaddeus knew his law: Illinois allows shooting to kill when done to protect the lives of others from imminent death. Sergeant Branerton applied the law and announced Thaddeus' shooting was a justifiable homicide. The shooting occurred just before noon. Just after midnight, Thaddeus was released. He was told not to leave town, that more questions would follow; but for now he was free to go.
XFBI had arrived on the scene and taken Christine and Angelina across town to Christine's real address.
"Serious," said Angelina. "We were bait?"
"We were. I taught Thad to shoot so I knew we'd be all right."
"But why that building?"
"Thaddeus has a condo there. The doorman knows him; the HOA knows him, and the District Attorney's Office knows him. It was clever, eh?"
"I'll say."
"So now we're down to Karli. I wonder how I'll get him?"
"You want to fight him yourself, don't you?"
"I don't especially care about fighting him. I just want to torture him. I owe him big time."
"That's cool. I understand. But you won't get the chance, with all the cops and Thad and XFBI running around. They'll get to
him first."
Christine walked across the gray carpet in the condo Thaddeus had provided her. She slipped behind the bar and retrieved two Bud longnecks from the refrigerator.
"Here, have one on me."
"I don't ever drink more than one."
"Well, it's time to break that rule. You earned a second one."
"I'm going to drink this one and then I'm going to scoop this story to my editor. Inside info."
"Go for it. Just don't use our names. Not yet."
"I'll keep a lid on it."
"Exactly."
53
Christine wanted to sue the Russian president. And Thaddeus needed no encouragement to agree to file the case for her. The president had fabricated the entire "attack" by Christine and Thaddeus was going to prove it.
But how do you sue a Russian president?
From her home, Christine did the legal research. She learned the United States federal courts have adopted an important mechanism for acquiring jurisdiction over foreign defendants. She sighed: it was always about jurisdiction. The question was always, had he done something within the United States or to a U.S. citizen that would warrant the U.S. courts accepting a lawsuit? She read further. The willingness of federal courts to accept such cases was known as the effects doctrine. The doctrine says that if the effects of extraterritorial behavior harms citizens in the United States then jurisdiction in a U.S. court is permissible.
The first case to establish the effects doctrine was United States v. Aluminum Company of America, 148 F.2d 416, a Second Circuit case handed down in 1945. The doctrine, it turned out, was well established. All of which meant President Piotor Irunyaev could be sued in Chicago for the injuries he had caused to a citizen in the United States. The injuries in such a case would be the mental and emotional distress of being ambushed twice by Russian agents.
Then Thaddeus had an even better idea: he would go for punitive damages based on the injuries caused Christine in Russia. The theory was that the abuse was ongoing; and while the injuries hadn't occurred in the U.S., the abuse in the states was part of a series of ongoing abusive acts. Therefore, the court should be allowed to consider the Russian torture when considering the amount of damages to award Christine.
The Girl Who Wrote The New York Times Bestseller: A Novel (Thaddeus Murfee Legal Thrillers Book 8) Page 22
