SLEEPER (Crossfire Series)

by Gennita Low

  He broke off to study the slight woman. She’d never shared any of her experiences with him during their talks together, although he’d always been very attentive to her explanation of mental withdrawal and identity replacement. With her belief in internal balance and self-healing, she’d added an esoteric bend to her workshop that had appealed to him. It was hard to imagine she’d ever been a victim.

  “I wasn’t a sleeper cell, so I can’t explain how it feels to be under that kind of control, but my experiences as a prisoner for all those years give me insight into how the mind can be injured in different ways.” Nikki took a deep breath, as if she preferred not to think of her past. “The mind’s a strange muscle. It can heal its wounds by destroying parts of itself or hiding the events that caused the pain. In my case, it was amnesia, and with the use of drugs by my captors, it induced a state similar to Level Four hypnosis. You could live quite normally without any desire to remember, as I did for a while, but once the mind’s ready, the need to know burns inside.”

  She patted her chest. She smiled wryly and added, “I know, you’re wondering how that’s connected with Lily Noretski. You must already know her well enough to expect her to come back to you.”

  “No, I’m interested in what you’re saying,” Reed said. He had no explanation about his knowing Lily well enough, so he skipped that part of Nikki’s observation. “It helps me understand what’s going on in her head, what she’s planning to do and, maybe, why. As a sharpshooter, I never have to do this, Nikki. I point the weapon, sight the target, and shoot. I did wonder why I was picked to do this particular operation.”

  “That’s something you’ll have to think about or ask Admiral Madison,” Nikki said, her smile widening. The twinkle in her eye suggested that she had an idea but wasn’t willing to share. “I believe he picked you because you’re the best one for this job. Isn’t that what SEALs believe?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s a state of mind, isn’t it? To know you’re the best and only you can do this one thing? To be trained to focus on one mission over all obstacles?”

  Reed frowned. “Yes. Are you trying to tell me something?”

  Nikki Harden was, after all, a GEM operative trained by T. And he’d come to know about T and her very odd ways of manipulating thoughts. Hawk had even told him the name for it—NOPAIN, short for nonphysical persuasion and innovative negotiation, some kind of interrogation program specialized by this agency.

  Nikki tilted her head to one side. “I’m telling you Lily Noretski is on a mission. If you help her finish it, she’ll be done with her journey and will be ready to start anew. It doesn’t have to take ten years, not if you look for the right clues.”

  “Tell me,” Reed said, knowing his answer was a commitment of some kind. It was no longer point, sight, and shoot.

  “First you have to make her trust you. You’ll have to figure out how to do that yourself. But do it quickly, Reed. Time’s ticking.”

  CHAPTER 13

  It was a little over an hour and her contact still hadn’t shown up. Lily finished her martini and signaled for another one. It’d been a while since she’d bought herself any alcohol. She wouldn’t mind a cigarette either, another luxury she’d given up. That hadn’t been easy, since she tended to smoke one or two cigarettes when she was under stress. She could bum one off any of these men sitting at the bar, but she didn’t feel like talking to anyone. Besides, she was getting paranoid again.

  Funny, she hadn’t had that looking-over-the-shoulder feeling when she’d been with Reed. She’d actually slept through a whole night. Since then, the last two nights, in comparison, had brought back the same misery from the previous months—restlessness and weird dreams that she couldn’t quite recall.

  The bartender placed the new martini in front of her. She might get a good night’s rest after finishing it. Her body was tired enough.

  Maybe it was the nice, expensive, and comfortable bed at that hotel suite. Lily made a face as she swirled the liquid in her glass. Oh yeah. That and the man who’d come with it.

  There was something about that man that made her feel safe. Ridiculous, of course. She didn’t know him and he was in a business that didn’t include “safe” people. In fact, the way he’d deliberately kept her vulnerable showed how unsafe he really was. She shivered at the memory of how well he knew her body, of how she’d been so willing to give in to him.

  She should be angry. At him. At herself. Something. Instead, she felt lonely and a little mad that he’d actually dared to let her go.

  “Knight in shining armor,” she murmured, taking a big sip from her glass.

  She coughed and chuckled softly. Another no-no from the Wretched Wench List. Amber had written that one. A Wretched Wench needed her knight in shining armor to save her, she’d said. And then bed her, Lily had added, to which they’d both cackled like the tipsy idiots they’d been.

  Lily sighed. She didn’t want to go down that road tonight. Thinking about Amber would just lead to thoughts about what she’d done to her friend and that certainly wouldn’t give her the rest she was craving.

  “No knight in shining armor for bad, wicked Lily,” she murmured again, as she took another sip, then added, “Poor bad, wicked Lily.”

  She finished her drink. Two days of walking around the city trying to figure out her next move. Two days of wondering who to turn to next. She didn’t have enough money to pay for another batch of passports. She’d gotten the hotel manager to call Tatiana for her again, passing on the message that she was all right. Then she’d bought a postcard and sent a longer note.

  After that, she’d driven to an old address of one of her contacts. For once, luck had been on her side. Or so she’d thought. He’d told her he’d check around to see whether he could call in some favors.

  Viktor was one of the few people who owed Lily a favor. She glanced over at the empty seat by her. Guess he wasn’t going to pay her back this time.

  She grimaced. Pity party over. She rose and jumped off the bar stool. There was no knight in shining armor coming to her rescue, so she would have to get off her ass and climb out of the hole into which she’d dug herself.

  Outside, she wrapped her scarf around her neck to keep the chill away. There were a good number of people still out at this hour. She walked past the souvenir shops with their bright interior lights.

  Someone was following.

  How did that old song go? “Paranoia will destroy ya.” The feeling persisted as she rounded the corner where she’d parked the car.

  Lily slipped her hand into her jacket pocket. There were no milling people down this road. She thought she heard footsteps behind her.

  “Dobro govorite engleski,” a voice called behind her.

  She turned around. A man was hurrying toward her, waving. She pulled her hand out of her pocket and waved back. “You’re late, Viktor,” she said. With his hat pulled low, she scarcely recognized him. That was probably why he’d used that greeting, so she’d know it was him.

  Viktor dealt with stolen art and artifacts. They’d met when she’d saved him a bundle of money during a black market negotiation with an English art dealer and his associate. Viktor didn’t speak English well enough and the other two had used certain nuances in their conversation that had gone over his head. Lily had stepped in then.

  Afterwards Viktor had used that incident as a private joke whenever he introduced her to his business acquaintances. She “speaks good English,” he’d say, “so you guys better quit talking about me like that.”

  “Sorry, sweet, couldn’t be helped,” he said as he came forward to hug her. “I’m glad I didn’t miss you.”

  He suddenly grabbed the ends of her scarf and jerked her hard toward him. Lily’s hands immediately went up defensively as she pulled back, but she’d wound the scarf around her neck snugly, and now it was choking the air out of her.

  Viktor wrapped the long scarf around her wrists. Lily jerked her knee up and made contact with his gr
oin.

  “Fuck!” He tightened his hold on her scarf, twisting her hands painfully as he pulled the rest of it around her face.

  With her hands imprisoned against her face and blinded by the scarf, her only hope was to pull a surprise. Instead of continuing to resist, she lunged forward, head down. The top of her head smacked hard against his chest area.

  Viktor yelled out again. Lily pulled back and repeated the move, this time aiming a little higher. The hold on the scarf loosened enough as Viktor struggled with her, and she managed to squeeze one of her hands free. She didn’t have time for finesse. Reaching down, she grabbed hard at the obvious.

  This time Viktor’s yelps of pain were piercing enough that she hoped they would bring her some help. Grabbing the scarf with her free hand, she desperately pulled and twisted to free the tangled mess. From the sound of it, Viktor was on his knees somewhere at her feet.

  The sound of squealing tires. She had the feeling the car wasn’t there to check out the commotion. She managed to pull the scarf from her head in time to see the car stop a few feet away. Two men came rushing out toward them. She turned to run, only to fall over when Viktor tripped her with his leg.

  She fell hard enough to have the wind knocked out of her. Hands grabbed at her, pulling her to her knees. She turned and bit a hand. Someone grabbed her hair and pulled her head back. Another hand covered her mouth. She was being dragged back toward the car.

  Suddenly a shot rang out. The assailant holding her hair groaned and the hold loosened.

  Lily turned and swung a fist upward, hitting the other man in the solar plexus. He crumpled but didn’t let her go. From the corner of her eye, she saw Viktor pulling up unsteadily, stumbling forward to help.

  “Hurry up! Get her in the car!” the driver yelled out from the waiting vehicle.

  Another shot rang out. The other man holding her didn’t even let out a scream as he slid lifelessly to the ground.

  “Fuck!” Viktor dove into the open door. “Let’s get out of here!”

  A bullet hit the top of the car. The door slammed hard and the car drove off, leaving Lily and their friends.

  This time she didn’t wait to see who was coming to her aid as she staggered clumsily to her car. Not when there were two dead men at her feet. She didn’t want to spend hours at some police station while they dug around for clues and reasons.

  She sped off in the opposite direction, looking in her rearview mirror. No one was following her. After a few minutes, she slowed down to normal speed.

  She massaged her neck wearily. Viktor must have gotten that information about her when he started asking around. She sighed. Even her contacts were seeing dollar signs when they saw her.

  This is what happens when you betray your friends, girl. You get betrayed back. But someone had been watching her.

  Lily thought about the whole incident. The shots had been from a high-powered weapon, probably with a zoom lens. The shooter was a good shot. He’d taken out two men standing in very close proximity to her.

  Maybe she did have a knight in shining armor after all.

  * * *

  “I’m sorry I was delayed, but I was in the middle of something and couldn’t get away. I hope I didn’t cause too much trouble.”

  “Not at all, Talia. Please come in.”

  Greta remained where she was. She cocked her head slightly, listening to the sounds and conversation going on in Gunther’s foyer, which was directly outside the living room where she was sitting.

  “Please, I hope you don’t mind? Protocol,” she heard Gunther say after a few seconds.

  “An electronic wand? How…spy-ish, Gunther.” Talia’s voice was rich with amusement. “Ah well, as long as you don’t zap me with that thing.”

  Greta frowned. Gunther hadn’t used that on her. Either he trusted her—which she doubted—or he wasn’t as afraid of her as he was of Talia. The thought didn’t make her happy.

  “Surely you’ve dealt with this type of security measure when you visit other agencies. Again, I apologize. We’ll dispense with such formalities when we get to know each other better.”

  The husky laughter was very attractive. Cool as ice. Her niece knew how to handle tension. Either that or she was totally foolish for walking in here unarmed. Yet she was supposed to be a smart woman.

  “Do you say that to all the women you meet?” Talia asked teasingly. “As well as look through their handbags so thoroughly? It’s fortunate I’m not embarrassed by a man playing with my tampons.”

  Cool as ice, Greta decided. After all, Talia was her niece. She would be able to run circles around men like Gunther.

  “Only…the special ones,” Gunther said. “Here you go. Please, do make yourself comfortable. You’re going to enjoy meeting your aunt Greta.”

  “Yes, that was good bait. I wouldn’t have come here if you hadn’t dangled that, Gunther. I haven’t seen my aunt in a long time.”

  Gunther needed her to get Talia’s attention. That meant he’d been trying without any success. Greta smiled cynically. So that was why he hadn’t gone beyond sabotaging her plans. He’d managed to infuriate her into coming here to see him and all this while, he’d been planning this meeting.

  The door opened. Greta looked up expectantly. This would be the first time in a decade that she’d seen any family. Talia, the snow princess. Talia, with whom she wasn’t close because she was the older child, growing into womanhood when Greta had left. And it suddenly occurred to her that none of those nieces and nephews would be kids anymore. She’d missed their childhoods.

  The woman walking in through the door had little resemblance to the dark-haired, chubby preteen with the rosy cheeks. Greta remembered the jet black hair and eyes. The woman stopped and studied her just as closely, her dark eyes piercing in their intensity.

  Her niece had grown into a beautiful woman. Except for that scar on the left side of her face, her skin was porcelain smooth, glowing with health. Her shapely lips curved into a knowing smile, as if she knew what Greta was looking at.

  “Aunt Greta,” she greeted, closing the space between them. Her next words were in Russian. “How marvelous to see you. I’ve heard that you were coming home.”

  Greta rose from her seat and let the other woman hug her. She didn’t like hugs. She patted Talia’s back awkwardly. She found she had nothing to say.

  “When will you be officially back?” Talia continued. She sat down after Gunther indicated a seat for her. “I’m sure there’ll be a celebration. We love our parties, as you know.”

  Oh, yes. That was the best part of Russian life, which she’d missed while in the States. No one celebrated like the Russians.

  Greta smiled. “As soon as I’m finished with business,” she replied, shooting Gunther a sly look. “Gunther thinks you and he can form an alliance.”

  Talia’s eyebrows lifted a fraction. “That was a fast hello, Aunt. Did poor Dragan get the same treatment?”

  Greta looked hard at her niece. “I barely know you, so I’m not sure exactly how you think I should react. If I’m too enthusiastic, you might be suspicious. As for Dragan, I’d been in contact with him on and off because of business, so when I finally saw him again, our meeting was warmer.”

  “Interesting,” Talia murmured, turning to accept a drink from Gunther. “Thank you, Gunther. I came because I have these wonderful memories of Aunt Greta giving us treats and money, like an angel of mercy, really, since we were getting so damn near poverty from the job situation. You were always generous with Papa and Mama, Aunt Greta. I guess I let that color my views of you. Of course, I now know why you disappeared and left us and understand you better for what you are.”

  It was true she’d given money to her relatives. Many of them had needed it after the cold war was over. There hadn’t been many real jobs to begin with, and with the government shutting down, many government employees had gone without pay for a long time. Sometimes Greta had wondered how her relatives had fared after she’d gone off on
her last operation.

  “And what am I?” she asked. “I’m curious to see what you know…or don’t.”

  “I’m sure Talia knows a lot, Greta, since she married a general and has access to a lot of powerful people,” Gunther chimed in. His eyes were admiring as he glanced at Talia. “You were rather low profile till recently, of course,” he said to Greta’s niece, “but you’ve grown into quite a legend yourself, especially with that last escape from the explosion.”

  Talia touched the left side of her face, then shrugged. “Everyone brings that up,” she said in a bored voice. “It’s just a part of my life now. I’m good at what I do and am glad there are people jealous enough of my success to kill me. It’s a good sign.”

  Gunther laughed. “A very positive outlook on life,” he said. “Most women would have been destroyed by the whole experience. And yes, I also meant the injury to your face. The plastic surgeon did a fantastic job, by the way, and if nothing else, the disfigurement is superficial at most and adds to the mystique of The Baroness.”

  Greta watched as Talia laughed that smoky laugh again. She couldn’t quite decide whether she liked her chubby little niece growing up into this sophisticated adult. She could kill this woman.

  “A new face, Gunther, is easy to get these days,” Talia said. “I’m blessed with great bone structure, so the doctor said, and he just corrected minor problems. I’m glad you approve.”

  Her smile was too perfect. Everything was very practiced. “You’re very well trained,” Greta said.

  Talia turned back to her. “Of course,” she said. “After you left and after my marriage, I found out where you went and what your real job was. I applied and went through the same training you did, Auntie. Can’t you tell?”