She gently traced the curve of the steering wheel, until she found and turned the key in the ignition, killing the engine. “I have enough time tonight. We’ve fallen behind on our paperwork.”
“But you turned the car off,” he teased, a big schmucky smile taking over his face. “Which means you want to.”
“Alas, needing and wanting are two different things all together,” she replied aloofly. She drummed her manicured nails along the dashboard. “You should get going before it gets too dark out.”
“God forbid I get jumped. A geezer like me? All the CIA training in the world couldn’t help me take down a common criminal.”
Da Vinci was stalling for time and Diana was catching on. Every time she dropped him off, he invited her to go dancing or join him for drinks. Some nights, he’d be a lot more forward and ask if she’d stay the night. She only accepted sometimes, but he knew that she would always consider.
“You crack me up,” she cooed, sliding along the bench seat closer to Da Vinci.
“I can tell by how much you laugh at my jokes,” he jabbed.
Diana smirked.
“What do you want?” Da Vinci teased. “I can tell you’re about to ask for something.”
“So quick to assume,” she replied.
“But I’m right.” Da Vinci looked out of the front window, pretending Diana wasn’t practically on his lap.
“You are.” She leaned her head back against the cool driver’s side window, face to face with Da Vinci. “I want the file on Marina and Brahe’s recent missile obtainment.”
“Oh, my god, why that one?” Da Vinci groaned. “I miss when you asked for the stuff that was easy to get.”
Diana and Da Vinci both laughed, and Diana intertwined her hand with his, while playing with his soft, dark hair with her other.
“I promise this is the last time I’ll ask for a couple months. I just have a hunch about something, and I think this can help me confirm some suspicious activity on Brahe’s part.”
“You think he’s defecting?” Da Vinci asked with an edge of excitement in his voice.
“I may have a hunch.” She rolled her eyes and laughed again. “We’ll just have to wait and find out.”
“Now, I have to get the files. I’ve been dying for some in-house drama. Adams has been holding out on me.” He mimicked her body language, tilting his head off to the right. “But I’d be lying if I said you didn’t scare me sometimes, collecting all these files and secrets.”
“Niccolò, you can’t be serious.” Her eyes grew wide and her face twisted, displeased. “You think I’m going to try to defect?”
“Not defect, but maybe start freelancing. You’ve certainly got the skill for it. Not like you’ve got an ace of a team that you’d regret leaving,” he replied.
“Niccolò.” She had a sultry way of saying his name. She traced from the back of his head to the jaw of his stubbly narrow face with her hand. “You’re right. I do have the skills for freelancing, but no cause.” She shrugged. “We’ve got things easy here. I’m just antsy to get back out into the real world. Things are nice now, but it’s too many missions, not enough coups, invasions, large-scale rescues. It’s fine, but it’s nothing compared to what we’re built for.”
Da Vinci kept his mouth shut, knowing there was more on her mind.
“If I can reveal Brahe, I’m hoping we’ll end up back on those kinds of missions faster.”
“Do you really miss those missions, though, or are you just trying to get back at Dresden?” Da Vinci’s voice didn’t falter.
“Oh, please.” She giggled. “Dresden isn’t worth my time or yours, for that matter.”
“So that’s it, just trying to get back into good graces? A narrative I can support.” Da Vinci rested his head against the passenger-side window, his gaze falling into hers. “Won’t you come dance?”
“Not tonight, but tomorrow? You know I’m good for my word.” Her smile revealed two rows of perfect teeth. “We can grab dinner down at the Hometown.”
“Promise me a burger from there and I’d say yes to just about anything.” He grabbed her hand and kissed the top of it. “Until then?”
She threw her arms around him and pressed her lips to his, smiling when they eventually pulled apart. “Until then.” She slid back to her side of the seat and waited until Da Vinci had vanished into the bar before pulling back out into the nighttime traffic.
*
“What if I stayed?”
“Stayed?”
“The night we went missing. You asked me to come into that pub on the west side of town. What if I stayed? Do you think we could’ve taken them?” Diana rested her head on Da Vinci’s chest, the two of them lying out beneath the stars.
“We would have been drunk off our asses. If anything, we would have been easier targets.” He shrugged. “There are some things that can’t be changed.”
“Who took you? The night they came for you, was it Nikola?” Diana drew circles on his hand with her finger.
“No, no.” He shook his head. “It was the big brute and his negotiator. They were set on convincing me without physical force, but I was noncompliant. So, they shot me.”
“I took them both down,” she said. “Kal and Gulliver. I beat them no problem, but Nikola got me on my way out to the car. I’m guessing they had her positioned behind another vehicle. I didn’t realize it was her until we saw them out here with Rigan.”
“There’s no use dwelling on what we cannot change.” Da Vinci dropped his voice and shifted himself uncomfortably. He cleared his throat. “It’s something that can’t be and will never be undone. It’s our job to just keep pressing on.”
Diana was silent. Her eyes glassed over. “I haven’t felt real pain in so long.” She pulled her hand from his and held it out in front of their faces. “These were down to nothing on the day we fought them. I pounded Kal’s face into nothing and all that was left was soft membrane, but it never really hurt that much, and after a bit, it healed right up.” Diana looked to him but saw that he had no intention of responding. He seemed to still be listening. “If they capture me, or Tim, for that matter, they’ll be able to torture us indefinitely. We could be alive for decades just locked away.”
“You talking like that terrifies me.” Da Vinci focused on the stars. “You will feel pain again, Diana. You can die.” He paused for a moment, biting his lip before speaking. “You’ve always been able to, and nothing about the steroid changed that.”
“It’s just such a high pain threshold, Da Vinci.”
“Sure, you’re stronger, but you’re not invincible. They’ll come up with something to kill us. I’m certain of it, and when they come, we have to pray we’ll be stronger than they are.” He propped himself up on his elbows, using slow and careful movements. “There, you have your answer. Now, don’t do anything reckless.”
“What?” She pulled away from him. “What’s that mean?” She leaned closer in. “What do you know?”
“I’m not giving you any ideas.” Da Vinci shook his head. “I told Rigan what to look out for when we sent him to ring Adams, and he ended up worse off than before. I can’t risk that with you, too, Diana. Just trust me and let it be.” He took her chin in his hand and kissed her forehead.
“So no chance of me finding out what’s going on in that big brain of yours?” The slight smirk on Diana’s face and her increased leaning in was enough to make Da Vinci swoon. She knew it. The other day, he’d told her that she was beautiful before the steroid, but now she was “ethereal,” something that never was and never will be again. She might have been taking advantage of that fact. There was a sudden genialness to the two of them that hadn’t been there for a long time, but this moment of timeless bliss was cut short by the sound of rustling rhododendron.
Diana turned to the brush around them, pink flowers bobbed before them. She put her finger to her lips and stood, signaling for Da Vinci do the same. From then on, it was just waiting. They listened as the footste
ps got closer. There was something urgent to them. Whoever was coming was plowing through the woods. Diana and Da Vinci were in position to strike when Ruby burst through the bushes and into their clearing.
“Surprise! Look who brought good news,” she sang, an envelope in hand.
Diana relaxed, still frustrated that earlier that week Rigan and Tim just decided it was time for her to know and brought her to camp without clearing it with the rest of them. Luckily, she’d grown very fond of Ruby and allowed it.
“Is that from Adams?” Diana swung from lethal to friendly in under a second. She stepped close to Ruby and picked the envelope from her hand. It was. “Good,” she said as though the wind had been taken right out of her. “Thank god.” She felt cautiously optimistic.
“Let’s go get the others. We’ll open it together.” He pressed past Ruby and Diana.
“Get the others?” Ruby scoffed, turning to Diana. “You’re going to open it now, right?”
Diana smirked. “You and I think alike, sweetheart.” She slipped her thumb under the envelope’s flap and opened the letter. She only peeked, but the look of delight on her face must’ve given her away.
“Good news.” Ruby let out a long breath. “That’s a relief. I would’ve peeked myself, but I couldn’t even understand the first one.”
Diana tucked the letter away and chuckled. “It’s a cipher. I’ll teach you how to break it later tonight.”
Ruby squealed and followed behind. The next twenty-four hours were the happiest Ruby and they had. Adams was coming.
When Ruby showed up the next day crying, everyone assumed it was because whatever special connection she’d had with them was coming to an end. They’d return to the CIA, undergo treatment, the world’s finest scientists would work on them, and then they’d be real again, but no. Not even Da Vinci seemed ready for what she told them.
“Ruby, what’s wrong?” Rigan took her in his arms, and although the top of her shirt was already getting damp from his skin, she stayed there, heaving.
“K-Kennedy,” Ruby struggled to be heard in between the long, heavy sobs.
“What’s going on?” Da Vinci rushed over to Rigan and Ruby. Diana followed close behind him, more curious than concerned.
“Kennedy’s been shot! Killed!” Ruby gasped for air. “He’s gone.” Her words teeter-tottered between sobbing and screaming. Ruby was still weeping, hugging Rigan as though her life depended on it. “There—there weren’t even commercials on TV. It’s just been nonstop. I-I ca-a-a-ame here to-to get away from it. I’m so-o-orry.” She pushed her face into Rigan’s shoulder.
Diana felt void of anything but dread. She turned away from the group and walked toward the woods. “Kennedy’s dead?”
“Diana.” Da Vinci followed her but knew better than to touch her. She was moving farther away from the group. “Diana, wait.”
She stopped on the brink of the woods. She was drifting, spinning worst-case scenarios until she was partially paralyzed. She wiped away what little tears she had left.
“I know how important he was to you and the others,” Da Vinci seemed to be pulling whatever trite cliché came to him. “But you have to think of i—”
“That’s not what this is about.” She shook her head, a cry condemned to her throat. Her words came out calm and articulate. “We’re never getting out of here. Go tell Tim. He’ll say the same thing.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Adams won’t come. He’ll be tied up with the investigation. Brahe, Reginald, Minerva, Nike, none of them, Da Vinci.” She was shaking. “None of them will come.”
“This is just a setback. This investigation may not take as long as you think it will.”
“Do you know that?” She spun around, holding back tears. “Do you know that, Da Vinci? Did you know about this? Because if you did, then fucking tell me!”
“You think if I knew this was going to happen, I’d have been celebrating yesterday?” he growled back, his face instantly reddening with embarrassment.
“Da Vinci Moretti, the man who sees all and says nothing.” She paused before her stare flicked over to Tim. He was already walking toward them.
“Seems like we’ve got some planning to do,” Tim said evenly.
“You’re right. Come on.” Diana turned to address Da Vinci. “Take care of them. We’ll be back.”
OUT IN THE woods, Diana and Tim pressed on, waiting until they were completely out of earshot before beginning.
“So we are screwed.” Tim still looked behind them, as though worried they’d been followed. “Like this is Bay of Pigs levels of fucked, Diana.”
“Believe me, I know.” She sighed, sitting on a fallen tree trunk. “What the hell are we going to do?”
“Start planning our plea bargain with the KGB.” Tim shrugged and sat next to her. “Do not even bother trying to tell me you are not thinking the same thing.”
Diana took a long, sharp inhale and then let out an equally tense exhale. “There won’t be a plea bargain, Tim.”
“Please, you are the Goddess. Not a goddess, the goddess. The KGB wants you. And that’s all I’m giving you, because complimenting you feels like drinking gasoline.”
“Not after what we did to their agents.” Diana ran her hands through her matted hair.
“So we are as good as dead?” Tim then added, “Or as close to dead as we can get?”
“We’re as good as relentlessly tortured for decades on end.”
“You don’t think we age, either?” Tim asked, curious. “I was just thinking we were unbreakable, not immortal.” Tim seemed to be waiting for a response, but she didn’t even acknowledge that he’d spoken.
He twisted his mouth into just a shadow of a crooked smile. “Perhaps you’re right.” He shook his head. “There is no death in our futures.”
“Just this—waiting.”
“If we keep ourselves moving, we might be able to buy enough time for the CIA to get back in order.”
“Da Vinci’ll freeze to death by the time the CIA gets itself back in order,” she scoffed. “Besides, with Kennedy dead, there’ll be some kinda coup.”
“There had better not be,” Tim grumbled. “The last one was a mess.”
“Won’t be ours to clean up.” Diana laughed at her own joke, ignoring Tim’s molten anger.
“We can’t live like this.”
“We’re not living.” Diana laughed again, this time just a bit more off-kilter. “Not dyin’, either.”
Tim grimaced. “You are beside yourself. Come get me when you are actually willing to talk about a plan.”
Tim stormed off, but she stopped him right as he seemed to be leaving earshot. “Tim? Not a word to Da Vinci.”
“Wouldn’t want him to know you are coming undone at the seams.” Tim’s words were jarring. “I doubt you truly care.”
She waited until Tim was gone to pull out a small, red pocket knife she’d taken from Ruby a few days earlier. One of the fortunate parts of having a non-agent pack mule was that getting close to her, getting what she needed from her, was easy.
There was safety in death. Diana had known this since she was a child. Carefully, she took the blade to her arm and began to carve away, little pieces at first, and then large chunks as her flesh grew back. The littleness of what she knew, compared with the unreliability what she guessed, ate her alive. Diana depended on logic and certainty. Without these two things, she was at the mercy of imagination. There in the woods, she crafted a tempting solution. This was nothing shocking. It was something premeditated. Something she’d been thinking about for weeks now. How far could she push herself? How far could the KGB push her if they ever got the opportunity? More importantly, how far could Nikola?
It was a sermon of slicing and not feeling for a few minutes. She was dissatisfied with her lack of response. She raised her arm mechanically and drove the blade deep into her skin. Now that she felt, small tinges of pain hit as muscles snapped apart like broken rubber bands. It wa
s barely anything, but it was a beginning. She quickly yanked the blade out and healed from the inside out. The act mesmerized Diana. She did it again and again. Stabbing the knife into her legs, arms, and stomach. Her stab wounds healed again and again. What started as a hypnotizing fascination quickly became a harsh reality.
“Shit,” she whispered, taking the blade, driving it in, and slicing upward. The wound healing as the blade moved along.
“No. No. No.” Her muted desperation led to her frantically flailing away at her arm. She cut and cut, chunks of shell and membrane falling to the forest floor. She waited for the arm to finally fall off, but the blue membrane remained and her arm grew back over.
There was a hushed terror overcoming her as her arm failed to fall. She could feel the pain now. The KGB could inflict pain if they wanted, but they couldn’t kill her. These were her worst fears confirmed. She kept her breathing steady, but inside, her heart trembled. In no world did she ever imagine death as a luxury, but here it was. Without a second thought, she raised the blade and drove it into her chest. A sharp gasp escaped her lips, but the situation lacked gratification. For a few seconds, there was pain, but then her heart healed and pushed the knife out of her chest and onto the ground without assistance.
She could feel another cry welling up in her throat, but she resisted. Instead, she took the blade and drove it into her chest a second time, a weak whimper escaping her lips as it penetrated her skin.
“Fuck.” She sat there for a moment, pulling on her hair. She felt as though sitting there and rotting away to nothingness might be the only solution, but instead, she picked herself up, scooted the fallen pieces of shell and membrane away, and started back toward camp. Da Vinci was quick to meet her when she returned.
“Hey, is everything all right? Tim said you had a crack-up.”
Diana raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Tim would say any woman was in hysterics if it’d benefit him,” she scoffed. Light, believable laughter left her lips. “I’m fine. I’m just trying to figure out what to do.” She shrugged. “We’ve got to escape one way or another.”
Seven-Sided Spy Page 15
