Seven-Sided Spy

by Hannah Carmack

  “Da Vinci, we’ve already lost so much time. We need to get moving.” Diana reached out to him, and for the first time ever, he flinched away.

  “We’ve got to bury him.” Da Vinci shook his head. “We can’t go until we do.”

  “The KGB will take care of that, Da Vinci. I am certain.” Tim guided a sniffling and hoarse Ruby closer to them.

  “I don’t want that.” Da Vinci pressed his lips together and took a long inhale, never wanting to let it go.

  “Even if we had the time, Da Vinci, we can’t. We’ve got no way to.” Diana took his hand and squeezed it firmly.

  For a second, there was silence but no tension, just the acceptance that she was right. Short of burying him under loose leaves and snow, they had no means of covering the body. It wasn’t about where the KGB was and when they’d come back. It was about the fact that they didn’t have a shovel to spare—that was until Ruby spoke.

  “I-I know a place,” Ruby said quietly. Da Vinci looked to her for answers. “There’s a waterfall close by. People drown in ’em all the time. They get pulled under by that current and never resurface. Happens every couple years.” For the first time, perhaps ever, Ruby spoke with no enthusiasm, no fear, no emotion but a dry tolerance. It broke his heart that this broke her.

  Da Vinci looked at Ruby as though she were a savior. He slid his arms under Rigan’s body before Diana could stop him.

  “We’ve got this.” She looked up to Tim, who quickly helped Da Vinci to his feet.

  “Okay, all right.” Da Vinci found Ruby had joined him at his side. Her knees still shaking, her forehead poorly bandaged with one of her scarves. “You’ve got to show us the way, kid.” Da Vinci tried to muster up a smile, but couldn’t bring himself to it. Tim nudged Ruby forward and she started walking.

  Ruby was at least a few feet ahead of them when Diana spoke, creating the illusion of privacy. Her words were well-intended. “Keep your eyes on the tree line, Tim.”

  They navigated through the cold, frosted mountains. Ruby was a blur of color in the muddy, icy terrain. As they came closer to the waterfall, the wind picked up and the tiniest specks of snow could be seen in the air. There was no sign of the KGB. As they reached the end of the woods, Ruby froze just a few steps before the falls. Her eyes welled with tears again.

  “Come on, sweetheart.” Diana kept her distance from Ruby, likely not wanting to bring the body closer. Ruby continued to sob, her chest rattling and heaving. Da Vinci knew that at any moment her knees would buckle. But before she could fall, before she could cry any louder, Da Vinci was there for her, his arm around her. He helped her stand straight.

  “We’ll go together.” Da Vinci swallowed hard, and he met Ruby’s gaze for the first time since the attack.

  A wail started in Ruby’s throat, but she stifled it with her hand. She collapsed against Da Vinci, her head on his shoulder and his support being the only thing that seemed to keep her upright. They moved forward through the trees and into the clearing. Despite the weather, despite the cold, the waterfall still ran, dumping gallons of water a minute into a large pool. Da Vinci turned his attention back to Diana.

  Just a second, he mouthed as he led Ruby to the river. He could trust Diana and Tim to watch over Rigan one last time.

  He and Ruby stood over the pool of water, the lapping of the waterfall drowning out Ruby and Da Vinci’s voices.

  “This is why you wanted me to go. That first night we met and then again when I came back.” Ruby sounded distant. “If I hadn’t come back, would things have been different?”

  “Don’t torture yourself like that,” Da Vinci replied. “He would have died without you.”

  “Doesn’t change that he still died.” Although Ruby was growing hoarser, the tears kept coming.

  Tim interrupted their vigil. “We need to get moving soon. We are exposed out here. Are you two ready?” He placed a hand on Da Vinci’s shoulder.

  Da Vinci nodded and Ruby let out a low whimper. Diana walked over, Rigan’s body still cradled in her arms. She paused as she came to the riverbank.

  “It should be you, Da Vinci.” She turned to him and it took him a second to register what had been said. He was consumed with how small Rigan looked in Diana’s arms. Finally, he took the body from her.

  Da Vinci laid him down in the water with a tender kindness. For a moment, Rigan remained visible, but then quickly vanished, pinned under the current of the waterfall. Ruby dabbed her wet cheeks with one of her scarves.

  “Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget, old friend…” Tim murmured.

  Da Vinci wiped his face clean with a spare bandana he’d had in his back pocket. “Yeah. That sounds about right.”

  “We need to move.” Diana spoke softly but firmly.

  There was a quiet between them that no one seemed to want to break. No one knew what came next. But, never being one to wait around, Diana spoke again. “Where do we go from here?”

  “I say we get Ruby down the mountain.” Tim shoved his hands in the pockets of his pants and turned to face Ruby. “She’s saved us. Least we could do is save her.”

  Diana’s face lit with an indescribable surprise, like she hadn’t expected him to be so forward about wanting to die.

  “If we can get to my van, you could all fit. We’ve got nowhere to go, but it could help,” Ruby suggested timidly.

  Tim shook his head. “The point is to get you away from the danger, not keep you in the middle of it.”

  Da Vinci didn’t like the sound of anything, but this suggestion was the only one that felt morally right. “I want to get Ruby down the mountain.” Da Vinci’s sad gaze drifted up and locked with Diana’s. “But you both know what it means if we do. You both know the prices you pay.”

  “What are you talking about?” They could see the gears turning in Ruby’s mind as she put two and two together. “This is it.” Ruby wobbled again, a hand raised to her stomach. “This is why I shouldn’t have come back. It’s all because I came back. We’re not all going to make it down the mountain, are we?”

  Da Vinci’s throat tightened, the words unable to leave. Before he could find the strength, Diana did it for him.

  “Oh, sweetheart.” Diana hushed her. “What’s to come will be taxing, but it will not be fatal.”

  “She’s right, Ruby.” Tim smiled at Diana with no sincerity in his expression. Da Vinci couldn’t watch their petty witticisms. He focused in on Ruby. Diana and Tim lying wasn’t enough. Ruby apparently needed to hear it from him, to know that Da Vinci had seen the future and things were going to be okay. Otherwise, she’d fight them tooth and nail on taking her down the mountain, but before Da Vinci could make any empty promises, gunfire cracked and echoed against the tall walls of the mountains.

  “Get down.” Diana grabbed Da Vinci and pulled him close. Tim covered Ruby, but there was no bullet erupting dust and no shrapnel beating against the rocks behind them. No screaming out in pain, no bleeding, the bullet wasn’t meant for them. There were no KGB agents in the clearing, or the treetops, or the field. It was a false alarm.

  Ruby spoke breathlessly. “It must’ve been-a bear.”

  “Or friendly fire,” Diana said. “Come on. Let’s move.” She pushed Ruby gently on the shoulders, starting their descent. Da Vinci followed her in a daze, leaving Rigan behind for good.

  “You’re sure about this?” Diana whispered, but not low enough for it to be unheard by Da Vinci.

  “Are you?” Tim asked.

  They crept cautiously. Everyone was doing their part, keeping their gazes shifting and their stance fluid. Every breeze that rustled the naked limbs sent the four of them into a moment of panic as they made their way down the mountain, racing against the setting sun.

  “You will have to be quick once you get out there,” Tim said. “There is no knowing what will be waiting on the other side of the tree line.”

  Diana shook her head in disagreement with Tim. “They’re here for us. They
might not even connect Ruby with us if she comes out looking enough like a hiker.”

  “True,” Tim agreed. “Ruby, once you get out, you know not to come back, right? No matter what?”

  “Yeah.” Ruby was nodding mindlessly. “We’re about sixty minutes out from the van. We’ve got sixty minutes left of this.” They had to stay like this, back to back, white-knuckled, and scared. But then Nikola stepped out from just beyond the tree line, gun in hand.

  “No.” Da Vinci’s word came out as a whisper.

  Nikola moved like a lioness, walking over with such prowess and lack of fear. She struck terror into their hearts. Her hair feathered in the light breeze. Her lackeys were nowhere to be seen. She smirked.

  “You want to play nice?” she asked.

  “Turn around, sweetheart.” Diana shook her head. “You don’t want this fight.”

  Nikola laughed coolly. “I’ve waited my whole life for this fight.”

  Diana tilted her head and stepped past her partners. “You think a gun and some flashy abilities are going to save you?” Diana grimaced. “You’ve got to remember. We’re still the better fighters, Nikola.”

  “I think more than anything it’s the poison that’ll do you in.” Nikola tsk’d.

  “What do—” Diana’s words were cut off by a loud commotion behind her. Da Vinci had dived at Tim, sending Tim crashing into the ground just seconds before a bullet flew through the air and cut right where Tim had previously been. Da Vinci was quick to spot Roderick and Sergei coming out from the woods. They stood talking amongst themselves as though this mission was no big deal.

  “Run.” Tim pushed Da Vinci off him and stood, his fists already up.

  Nikola quickly took aim at him, only to be struck by Diana.

  “Ruby, come on.” Da Vinci took her hand and tried leading her away, but she stood frozen, as though possessed by the erupting violence. She wouldn’t budge until the second crack of gunfire. Then, they all ran.

  They moved like animals. Diana to the left, Da Vinci to the right, Tim straight ahead. When they’d moved forty-five degrees opposite, they circled back. It was their signature split-up plan, but somehow, in all the madness and the rushing and the panic, they lost Ruby.

  “No one managed to grab her?” Tim was livid.

  Da Vinci looked ready to puke.

  “This is how we die,” Diana said to herself. “We had it. We just needed to make it a bit farther.” She picked at her skin, visibly frustrated.

  “We cannot stay here,” Tim cut in. “We are sitting ducks. We need to make a plan and get moving.” Tim dove into the band of his pants and pulled out a gun.

  “What?” Da Vinci gawked at the weapon in Tim’s hands.

  A smirk lit up Diana’s entire face. “The finest goddamn thief I have ever had the pleasure of working with.”

  “It’s the negotiator’s, Gulliver. I rushed him when we broke. I am assuming it has the poison Nikola spoke of.” Carefully, Tim removed the clip, peering at the oddly colored and encrusted bullets. “These are special made, all right.”

  “So you’re saying we go for the negotiator first?” Diana’s eyes danced with a dangerous excitement.

  “This isn’t The Most Dangerous Game. This is us saving Ruby.” Tim put the clip back in.

  “Of course.” Diana’s regained her composure. “Are you all right, Da Vinci?”

  Da Vinci shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know how we’re going to get there, but by the time this is all over, you’ll both be dead.”

  “Haven’t you changed the future before?” Diana cooed.

  “Sentence order, meal decisions, clothing, the future changes only in the most minor of ways.” Da Vinci rubbed his hands together. It was getting colder.

  “Then perhaps consider that this can be changed, too.” Tim placed his hand on Da Vinci’s shoulders. “You are often the one with hope, Da Vinci, but for now, we will have enough for the three of us. Now come on.” Tim shifted his weight and started back toward the clearing. “We’ll likely be able to follow her footsteps.”

  “If they don’t find her first.” Da Vinci shut his eyes for a moment and let out one long, deep breath.

  “They won’t.” Diana wrapped her arm around him and pulled him along as the three returned to find Ruby Starr.

  Forward

  DECEMBER 12, 1963

  Nikola appeared to be in full hysteria. She stood strong. It was enviable, her ability to remain calm in the throw of things. He and Sergei approached from behind.

  “What’s the plan, boss?” Sergei asked.

  “We’ve got five minutes at the most until they catch up and reconvene. We gotta get this done fast. Check your guns.” Nikola’s gun was still in her hand.

  Roderick and Sergei both felt for their weapons. Sergei pulled out a standard handgun. Roderick, however, came up empty-handed.

  “Bollocks.” Roderick felt around his back holster again. “There is the possibility that I just forgot it.”

  “No.” Nikola shook her head, already pulling one of her own guns from her holster. “That thief has it, fucker. That means she has it. The real question is, was it loaded with the poison?”

  Sergei could die. Nikola could die. He could die. The weight of what this meant hit Roderick hard. “Yes.”

  “Here.” Nikola placed her hand on his shoulder and offered one of her guns. “Take this, cover each other, and don’t let it happen again. They’ve got…three to five bullets left at best. We’ll have to bait them.” Sergei and Roderick nodded in confirmation. “You two take the negotiator’s tracks. I’ll take the thief’s. Hera has likely covered hers. Good luck, comrades.”

  “Good luck.” Sergei cocked his gun and turned toward Da Vinci’s exit point. He and Ruby had gone to the right.

  Roderick and Sergei moved back to back, both with their guns out and ready to fire at any moment. Nikola’s gun felt so foreign in Roderick’s hands. She had been using hers much longer than Roderick had been using his. They followed the pair’s tracks for a while, right up until they diverged.

  “She went the wrong way.” Roderick stood over the hiking boot tracks that led far off from the negotiator’s swift and calculated steps. He bent down, and picked up a yellow elephant-print scarf, and ran his thumb over it, feeling snags in the linen from constant wear. “Let’s go find her.” Roderick looked over Da Vinci’s path. “It doesn’t look like he came back. What if she’s hurt?”

  “Those weren’t the orders.” Sergei always said things like this when he didn’t want to give a clear answer. It was leaving the decision up to Roderick, and he was immensely grateful for this.

  “To hell with the orders.” Roderick looked around the vast, white wasteland. “They’ve got one of our guns. This mission just got more dangerous than any other. Let’s run. Together.”

  This was not the first time Roderick had suggested running. In fact, this was not the first time in the past week that he’d suggested running. Sergei would reply as he always did.

  “I can’t just leave Nikola, but you may go.”

  Roderick sighed and then bowed his head. “I’m not going.” He wrapped the scarf around his knuckles. “But I’m also not leaving this civilian out in the open. Help me at least clean up her mess.” Upon examining her footprints, he discovered a trail of scarves and mittens leading deeper into the forest. Roderick loved to save civilians. He had no problem icing an agent, but people on the streets? It was too much for him. He suspected it was one of the things Sergei loved about him.

  “We need to make it quick.” Sergei moved past Roderick, heading toward the next misplaced piece of clothing. “We can’t let Nikola get caught out. She’s our best bet for getting out of here.”

  “I don’t know. She feels off. She’s more intense than usual, if that’s even possible.” Roderick snorted, stuffing a paisley-print scarf in his jacket.

  “Well, you know what the goddess did to her, don’t you?” Sergei handed off a jacket to Roderick.
r />   “No.”

  “You must have her tell it to you sometime. It is a good story, a sad one, but a good one.”

  “Why don’t you tell me? We’ve got time to kill.” Roderick approached the edge of the bluff, curious as to where she’d gone from this point.

  “It is not mine to tell.” Sergei shook his head, and in that split second, the ledge under Roderick gave way and he slipped, surviving only because Sergei was quick enough to catch him. “You must be careful.”

  Roderick’s heart had jumped to his throat. As he slipped, he saw something he could never unsee, the corner of Ruby’s skirt hanging off the ledge below them.

  “Oh, no.” Roderick curled inward, closer to Sergei. “She’s down there.”

  “What?” Sergei craned his neck over the ledge. “Ah, I see. She will be fine.”

  Roderick looked around the woods for a moment, no other spies in sight. “I’m going down.” He slid off his heavy Kevlar and handed it to Sergei.

  “Roderick, we do not have time. Nikola will notice our absence if we don’t hurry.”

  Sergei’s words went unacknowledged as Roderick stared down the icy ravine, eventually dropping down just a few feet and landing on the very same ledge as Ruby Starr.

  “Don’t scream. I’m here to help.” Just looking at her, Roderick could tell she’d gotten into more trouble than she ever bargained for. Her shoulder was dislocated and her leg was bent and bleeding. She’d need a tourniquet. He crouched down, careful not to slide farther into the ravine. “I’m going to tie up your leg. It’ll help stop the bleeding.”

  He took one of her scarves and began to tie the fabric above her knee. “If I’ve got time, I’m also going to set your shoulder. I want you to stay here, though. Nikola is still out there, and if she finds you, she will kill you without hesitation, all right?”

  “She killed Rigan.” Ruby barely moved her lips while speaking, her eyes bloodshot and her face tearstained.

  Roderick went to tap her leg and found her tender to the touch. She recoiled away from him. “Ah, he was the navigator, right?” Roderick tried to keep her distracted. “Your friends are in a dangerous profession… What’s your name?”