I’ve overreacted, she tells herself. And then she feels guilty for her deceitful and untrusting behaviour. Elliot has been a sweetheart from the day they met. She has no right to question him: omission is not a lie.
Despite feeling anxious about her own actions, Beth drifts off to sleep feeling more confident that she’s made the right decision in getting involved with Elliot. Perhaps it is time for him to meet the boys, after all.
Chapter Fifty
Jewel
When she checks her email in an internet café Jewel finds the first message in a while from Mother.
Keep Kozem’s money if it makes you happy. Our dreams are almost a reality. It’s time to come home, little one.
Jewel feels the swirl of Mother’s love come over her as she reads these words. Mother wants her home. She is not to be punished for the theft. She can return. But still she has to find the one thing that has always been between them.
Neva.
She had hoped the beautiful deaths she’d delivered would bring her out from wherever she was hiding. But it appears that Neva is oblivious to them. Of course, Jewel had been banking on Michael to share information about them because Neva was being brought into MI5. But Jewel hadn’t predicted that Neva and he would be parted so abruptly. Damn Granger and his accusation. It almost ruined everything. She’s annoyed even now about it. She should have had access to Neva. She shouldn’t need to still be trying to grab her attention from a distance.
The same intense fury she’d rained on her victims rises up inside her, and it pushes away the warmth of Mother’s summons. She casts a gaze around the place, noting the other users of the computers around her – mostly teenagers, and one man that looks like an itinerant. No one is paying particular attention to her activities or her anger which is on the brink of exploding from her.
She reads Mother’s email again and this time sees the command for what it is. ‘Little one’ is a trigger she’s built into them all. A way to bring them right back to the days spent in the nursery. She takes a deep breath, then slowly exhales, centring herself, bringing back all calm and control.
Returning her attention to the computer again, she uses a VPN to mask her movements and logs on to the dark web. She goes back to the forum where she touches base with Neva as Elbakitten. She’s spent months building her trust, and now, after sending her to be near Mother, she has left her to sweat for a few days. Neva is ripe for picking and Jewel will make one final triumph before she kills her. The most glorious and extravagant death of all.
She falls into a reverie about her last kill. Cassandra – named after a Greek prophet whose predictions were never believed. In the end Cassandra saw her own death and she too was unable to avoid it.
Jewel brings her mind back to the present and types a message to Neva. Though Neva goes under several different names in onionland, Jewel has been able to recognize her new handles each time. But she sends the message to the GloriaBoo identity because this is the one that Elbakitten has always worked with.
Sorry for delay. Think I was being tracked for a while but managed to lose them.
Neva replies almost in an instant. Yes, she’s been waiting for her.
In Toulouse. Where is my mark? she asks.
Jewel takes a breath. She feels excited and adrenaline pumps into her like always when she’s speaking to Neva. She can almost touch her – just like that day when they stood side by side! Jewel often thinks about it. That moment when they were briefly together, exchanging pleasantries. And Neva hadn’t recognized her.
Jewel sends Neva the location of the château with no explanation. Then she logs off the borrowed computer knowing that she has just set wheels in motion that will gather momentum and end with her final revenge.
She looks at her watch. It’s time.
She gets up and leaves the internet café, then walks down the street towards the bar where she’s arranged to meet Janine. Her revenge has been gestating for a long time. Long enough to have used Neva’s prodigy as a pawn. But now she will be the ultimate sacrifice.
She reaches the bar and goes inside.
Janine, ever punctual and so desperate for attention, is waiting at the bar, a shot of neat vodka already in her hand, and a tight-fitting fuck me dress clinging to her body.
Janine turns and again Jewel sees how close to Neva’s double she really is. The tones in the hair are perfect. Jewel flushes with excitement and anger as Janine stands to greet her.
‘Kady,’ Janine says. ‘It was nice to hear from you.’
Jewel kisses Janine on the lips, then she pulls her into her embrace. She’s trembling as she tries to hold herself in check. She sees it all behind her eyes. The victims, all in a tableau with Neva at its core.
‘I’m such an idiot,’ Jewel says. ‘I’ve missed you so much.’
Janine’s arms linger around her and when they pull away, Jewel can see the pathetic vulnerability shining through a confident veneer.
Yes, Jewel thinks, you’re very needy, Janine. I must cure you of that trait.
Chapter Fifty-One
Michael
When Neva receives the note from Elbakitten, with the address where Annalise lives, I want to go there straight away and find Mia. Neva takes my arm and pulls me down onto the bed. She holds me in an uncharacteristic display of sensitivity.
‘No, Michael. No. Listen to me,’ she says as I try to pull away.
The smell of her hair is enticing and too distracting. I have to save my sister from the clutches of Annalise.
‘Annalise is no fool,’ Neva whispers in my ear. ‘The place will be surrounded by security.’
I feel her hot breath on my neck and I shudder. I’m torn between desire and resentment. As I stop fighting and start listening, I’ve never been so divided about anyone before. Neva brings out such emotion in me. Rage, anger, lust. I don’t want to resist her any longer. From the moment we met as children, and our fingers reached for each other, I’d belonged to Neva. That’s why I listen to her now and don’t rush away though every instinct makes me want to.
‘Then how will we get to Mia?’ I ask.
I nuzzle her neck. She takes a breath as she feels the change in my mood.
‘Recon,’ she says. ‘We have to check out the perimeter first. At a safe distance, because they’ll have security for miles around that place.’
Once she’s certain that I won’t just walk out, she lets me go. Now we are no longer touching I’m spiralling down into a pit of frustration.
‘Neva…’ I say.
I pull her back to me and kiss her. She allows it, and just when I think we are at the point of no return, she pushes me aside and gets up off the bed.
‘Let’s check this place out, shall we?’ she says.
She leaves me hanging and I’m thrown again by that sudden coldness that she puts on and takes off as though it’s a piece of clothing. It takes a minute for me to switch my libido off. I’m only human, after all.
I focus my energy on the idea that we may soon find Mia.
Neva opens her laptop. She Googles the château and vineyard: D’Aragon Wines are held in high regard, especially with local bars and restaurants. They operate a tasting house on the premises that’s open to the public, with tours of the winery included.
‘We’ve probably even had some of her wine since we’ve been here,’ Neva says, taking us back to the problem at hand.
She studies the location on Google Maps, zooming in to see three main buildings, one of which is the seventeenth-century château at the heart of the hundred or so acres of land. As Neva focuses on gaining information, I watch her, wondering what she is feeling about the prospect of coming face to face with her real mother. Though Neva has always suspected her mother gave her to the house, we have never discussed what she hopes will happen when this reunion occurs.
‘Do you know this place?’ I ask her as she frowns down at the still image.
‘I probably do, but I don’t recall it,’ Neva says.
/> She doesn’t need to say more. I suspect the first five years of her life were spent here until the Network took Neva. Was Annalise willing to let her child go? Or did she resent Beech’s power to take her away?
Neva continues to search around the perimeter of the château and vineyard, working out a possible access point to the place.
‘Look at this,’ she says.
She zooms in on an aerial shot of a courtyard.
‘One of the buildings has this as its centre. It looks like… an arena,’ she says.
‘This is a kill house?’ I ask.
‘Very likely,’ Neva says. ‘Which means there will be more than a few trained assassins on the complex.’
‘Come on,’ I say.
‘Where?’
‘We’ll go and hire a car and take a drive to the place. It’s open to the public, right?’ I say.
‘I need to change my look,’ she says. ‘And so do you. That bristle you’ve grown over the last few days will help.’
I run my hand over my chin and nod.
‘Different hair then?’ I ask.
‘Wait here. I’ll be back soon,’ she says. ‘Don’t go anywhere without me.’
I nod. My moment of insanity has passed and I know I can’t do this without Neva or a viable plan.
‘Don’t be long,’ I say.
Neva comes back a couple of hours later with wigs, make-up and clothing that will transform us both.
She makes me sit at the dressing table and then she cuts and changes the style of my hair, making it shorter at the sides than usual. She leaves the bristle on my face, and then hands me a pair of contact lenses. They are brown to cover my blue. I put them in my eyes and blink until they settle down. Then she gives me a bag containing new clothing. A pair of charcoal-coloured chinos and a black polo shirt. There is also a pair of brown leather loafers which are my size. I change as Neva sets about transforming herself.
She pulls on a brunette bobbed wig, and puts green lenses in her eyes, covered by a pair of metal-rimmed glasses. Her make-up is light and natural, browns around her eyes and a pale-pink lipstick to finish the look. These small touches make her look completely different.
The clothing she’s chosen is simple. A pair of jodhpurs, with a polo-neck shirt and a sleeveless padded tabard. Added to this look is a pair of low-heeled, brown leather boots which she pulls on over the jodhpurs.
‘We’re looking for wine to ship home to England to our country estate,’ she says.
And I realize our somewhat understated country look is exactly the image she was going for.
In another bag, Neva has a Glock 17, and several cartridges. I check the safety is on, and place the gun in the waistband of the chinos. I cover it with a jacket. Neva puts a knife in her boot, and a gun in the back of her jodhpurs. The tabard hides the bulge of the weapon.
Online I hire a car, opting for an Audi R8 V10 sportscar, reasoning that a couple with money wouldn’t drive a boring Fiat. When the hire company arrive with the car it’s bright red. It suits the image we are trying to put across.
Using Neva’s phone, I put the address into Maps and drive the car away from the hotel towards our destination.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Jewel
As she gets on the Paris Métro and heads to Charles de Gaulle Airport, Jewel’s mind drifts back to the years spent at the château. And the brief time that Mother sent her away to England to further her education.
She’d arrived there, confident that she knew what she had to do. They’d called her Elizabeth for the sake of the visit – though that wasn’t her real name. Then the woman known as Tracey changed her name to Jewel. She’d liked it much better than her real name. ‘Jewel’ implied that she was unique and precious and above all valuable.
Mother had briefed her before the visit. It was like their other exercises when they pretended to be soldiers and fought to win Mother’s approval. Only this time, these other children, they’d all be several months into a different kind of training from the château children. Some of them had even forgotten who they once were. Like Fae. Jewel knew who she really was but she wasn’t allowed to say anything. Fae was Mother’s missing daughter and they called her Neva.
Jewel had been pleased to see her. But Neva behaved like they’d never met. She behaved as though she hated Jewel on sight, treating her like a usurper.
She realized it was impossible to befriend any of the other children – they weren’t comrades like in the château and they didn’t ‘play’ – they were pitted against each other instead like dogs in a ring. Jewel had tried so hard to prove herself worthy, mimicking their behaviour: a perfect chameleon. But then Neva had ruined it all for her when she’d started that fight in the dormitory.
Jewel hadn’t wanted to hurt her, Mother wouldn’t like that, she was sure, but as the sparring began to get personal, Jewel fought back as hard as she could.
The others had surrounded them. They watched Neva beat Jewel, without raising a hand to help. They were feral creatures, craving violence as much as they craved food or sleep.
Jewel understood later that it was a rite of passage. One of them had to lose. One had to win. And Neva had overpowered her because she wanted it more: taking away Mother’s love when Jewel failed to prove herself the best.
She remembers now Mother’s disdainful expression when she collected her. She went inside the house, and there was an argument between Tracey and Mother that Jewel didn’t understand. It wasn’t supposed to happen. The two of them had not been meant to fight each other. Mother blamed Tracey for it.
Back then though, all Jewel saw was how Mother stayed inside and sat with Neva, holding her on her lap, showering the kisses on her that Jewel deserved.
Jewel waited by the door and listened to the words of love that poured from Mother’s lips. Words that had never been said to her in such a way. Mother showed Neva a different side than her other children saw. She told Neva how proud she was of her – there was to be no punishment for her vicious turning on Jewel, even though she hadn’t merited it. Neva was absolved of fault.
‘You are what they are making you,’ Mother had said. ‘No one can blame you for that.’
Jewel was taken back to the château in disgrace. Her wounds were tended by the nurse in the medical room. But Mother never hugged or comforted her while she healed. She never said words that took away Jewel’s guilt. It was as if she was a major disappointment to Mother. And she was returned instead to the training school with instructions that she must work harder.
She never considered that Mother was the one who really had something to prove by putting her in the house in the first place. No, the blame was all Jewel’s to bear.
Jewel worked harder than the others after that. She rose in rank among Mother’s children. She became the most trusted, the strongest, and above all the most dangerous of her operatives.
When she graduated from the school, and was sent out on her first assignment, she killed her mark with emotionless skill. She hadn’t been alone, but the others with her were under instruction not to interfere. She had to win or lose on her own. It was a final test and this time she passed it.
She returned to the château immediately afterwards where Mother waited for her.
‘I’m so proud of you,’ she said. ‘Come and embrace me. My little one. My brave and strong child. You will lead my army. You will make the Network stand up and take notice. One day, the kingdom will be mine.’
Jewel had melted in her arms breathing in her musky perfume. Mother. Mother. I love you, she wanted to say. But the words wouldn’t come. I do everything for you.
And then Mother said, ‘One day Neva will return to us and then she will inherit my empire. And we will once again be a complete family.’
Jewel’s heart broke into a million pieces. The pain was worse than the physical beating she’d endured from Neva. No one had done more than Jewel to prove her devotion to Mother. But in that moment, she knew that as long as Neva live
d, Mother would never love her the same. Neva was the sacrificial lamb. She was the prodigal daughter that would one day return. She was the ultimate weapon. Neva was everything to Mother that Jewel wasn’t.
Jewel had hidden her feelings. She’d let Mother hold her for as long as she wished. Then, when Mother let her go, she stepped to the door and took up the inspection stance.
‘Fall out, soldier,’ said Mother. ‘Do something fun tonight. Have sex with one of the boys if you like. You’re a woman now and can chose from any of them you wish.’
‘Thank you, Mother,’ Jewel had said.
She left her then, and went for a walk around the perimeter, checking that Mother’s other soldiers were doing the job they were meant to. She didn’t take any of them to her bed though. Jewel didn’t want the touch of anyone other than Mother, and certainly never some sweaty boy who she could beat in the arena anytime she wished.
No, it was not for her, despite Mother’s permission to indulge: such liaisons should only be used for real gain. Jewel had learned that sex and love were for the weak.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Beth
It’s just after five in the morning when Beth wakes. She reaches out her hand and discovers that Elliot’s side of the bed, though still warm, is empty again. Light filters into the bedroom from the landing window because Elliot has left the door ajar. Beth lies in the gloom and listens. Even though he’s speaking in hushed tones, she can hear his voice drift upstairs.
Beth turns to the bedside cabinet and opens the drawer. Taking the clone phone out, she looks at it. She can see he’s on a call and the recipient is once again his mother. Beth fights with herself not to listen in. It would be so easy to press the phone to her ear but before she does, Elliot hangs up the call. Beth puts the phone back in her drawer and waits for him to return.
Kill a Spy: The House of Killers Page 24
