by Maddie Wade
People started to check their weapons and comms units. The weapons had been incredibly easy to get inside the venue, and it went to prove that hiring cheap security put people at risk. It had only been slightly hairy when one of the dogs had reacted. Luckily, they had thought of that and had put a small Swiss army knife in Alex’s bag. Security had of course taken it, but it had taken the emphasis off the other luggage and given the impression the dogs had done their job and allowed them to slip through.
People started drifting out of the room, each acting slightly loud and drunk as if they had been having a small party instead of an elite military strategy meeting. Within minutes it was just him, Will, Roz, and Angel, who were sharing the room they were in.
“You want some food?” Angel asked, and Zin saw her motion to Will. She was trying to give him and Roz some space.
“Yes, yes absolutely. I’m starving,” Will said as he got up to follow Angel.
“We’ll bring some food back,” she called as she left.
He looked at Roz and grinned as she rolled her eyes. “I swear she is a much better actress than that most of the time. In fact, can you believe she is one of my best undercover girls?”
“She is a good operative,” he agreed. Zin knew she was. He had done a few ops with Zenobi and had seen Angel in action.
Zin stretched his big body on what he thought was his sister’s bed and put his hands behind his head as he closed his eyes and allowed himself to take a few minutes. He felt his sister watching him but didn’t say anything knowing that she would talk when she was ready. He felt the bed depress and opened an eye to look at her. She was observing him quietly as she unwrapped a sweet.
“You’ll get fat,” he said with a grin and braced for the punch that was coming his way. Sure enough, he felt the dig to the ribs.
“Asshole! I’m not fat,” she denied hotly. She wasn’t of course, she didn’t have a spare inch of flesh on her, despite giving up smoking like he had nagged her.
“Seriously, what is with the sweets?” he asked even though he had a feeling he knew. She shrugged her shoulders. “They keep appearing in my saddlebags on the bike. I have no idea who it is.”
He could tell by her face though that the thought of someone doing that for her pleased her. “You do know you’re just in denial.” His words were quiet.
“Maybe. But it can’t work,” she whispered, and he heard the regret in her voice.
“Anything can work if you want it enough.”
“Maybe I don’t want it enough.”
“Or maybe you do, and you are scared to let yourself want it.”
Roz got up then and paced to the window, peering out through the blinds. She turned back to him then and looked at him intently. “You really love her, don’t you?”
Zin nodded. “More than I ever thought possible. I feel like I can’t breathe without her near me. She gives me something that I never thought I would have.”
“What is it?”
“Peace. She gives me peace in here,” he said tapping his heart. “And more than that, she makes me want to be better, to be someone to make her proud. She saved me.” He did an ab curl and sat up before holding his hand out to his sister, who took it. “You need to let yourself have the same. You deserve to be loved and adored.” Zin watched as a tear slid down her cheek silently before she swiped it away.
“Love isn’t meant for some of us, Zin. Some of us are too damaged to be repaired. You were always such a sweet boy. Darkness was forced on you, and I’m so glad you found Celeste. She is so good for you, and I promise you we will get her back. I let you down once. I promise I won’t do it again.”
“Fuck that! You never let me down. You are the best sister I could wish for. I know you will find your happy ever after, you just need to believe it.”
She shook her head in denial. “I’m tired Zin, so tired of fighting.”
Fear gripped him as he looked at his sister the Zenobi leader who was a force of nature and saw how tired she was. “I got you,” he said. “Don’t fight. Let’s get Celeste back and then you can take a break and go sit on a beach for a few months. I’ll handle things for a while.”
“You’ll handle Zenobi?’ she said incredulously.
“Why not?”
“Um, because they will run rings round you.” She smirked at the thought.
Relieved to see the darkness leave her he laughed. “As if.”
He sobered then and looked at his older sister, “We got this, you and me.”
She nodded and smiled. “You and me.”
They linked pinkies and shook like they had as kids and then she smiled a truly genuine smile. “Hate you.,”
“Hate you too,” he replied as they had always done.
They had learned early that saying I love you was not allowed, so they used the word hate to replace the word love. Maybe love should now replace hate. The door opened, and Angel and Will walked in laughing.
They had arms full of vending machine food that looked like it had saturated fat dripping from it. He ate it none the less and enjoyed listening to Will and Angel banter, but his main focus was on the monitor and his Pixie.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Rhea Winslow had been lying when she said today would be her last day to live Celeste thought as she sat on the small single bed in the Olympic village accommodation. They had pushed her in here and locked the door from the outside hours ago. She could hear the noise of people coming and going and even the sound checks that were happening.
It was her understanding that the huge, spectacular opening ceremony would be televised as it had in other years. She just hoped it wasn’t her death that would be shown. It was late now, and she wondered if they had simply forgotten about her, or if leaving her alone so long was deliberate.
Her mind kept going back to the conversation with Rhea earlier. Despite her being a royal psychotic bitch, she felt sorry for her. Losing a child must be the most horrendous pain imaginable. For Rhea, it felt like it had happened yesterday. Celeste wondered if grief like that ever really eased or if a person got used to coping with it better. She thought perhaps it was the latter.
The door opened, and a tall, lithe woman whom she had never met walked in. She was probably in her fifties and stunningly beautiful, with dark, thick shoulder length hair and almond shaped eyes that were so dark they were almost black. She was wearing black cigarillo trousers and a pale blue silk blouse. On her feet, she had flat ballet pumps.
Behind her was Rhea in her trademark white. She looked tiny in comparison, but both had one thing in common, they were stunningly beautiful on the outside. It only took looking into their eyes though, and Celeste could see they were both cold and dead inside.
“Celeste, this is Dr Margo. She wanted to come by and meet the woman who was going to put the wheels in motion for us.” She turned to Margo and looked up at her. “What do you think?” she asked.
Celeste shuddered as Margo ran her eye over her critically, then stepped forward and tipped Celeste’s head up to her and looked her in the eye. “Actually Rhea, I think she is exquisite. It’s almost a shame to kill her. She looks like she could be fun, and she does have some very helpful gifts.”
Celeste looked at Rhea as she went red and pouted slightly. “You promised me,” she hissed.
“I know, and I won’t go back on that. I’m just saying,” she replied coolly. Celeste blinked as she tried to understand the dynamic between these two women. What was their relationship? Were they friends, lovers, colleagues or even frenemies? It was a very odd vibe that she was getting from them.
As if they loved and hated, trusted and mistrusted, each other. It was odd. Celeste saw relief cross Rhea’s face and hate filled her. She couldn’t believe she wanted her dead out of sheer jealousy over Zin. Anger bubbled up in her. Up until now, she had been a good little hostage, but she was sick of this shit. “You know it’s sad when you have to kill off the competition for a man because you just haven’t got it anymore
,” Celeste spat as she eyed Rhea with disdain.
“Why, you little whore,” she said and swung her hand back to strike her. It never came though because Margo grabbed her arm.
“Settle, Rhea. She is trying to rile you, and she is entitled to be angry. You can always go after her man after she is out of the picture,” she said coldly.
Rhea fumed, and her chest heaved as she tried to control her emotions.
“Zin wouldn’t touch that piece of old mutton when he is used to fillet steak,” she said pushing her again.
“Oh, I like her a lot. She has spunk. Are you sure I can’t keep her? I think she would be wild in the sack. We could share like the old days.” Margo laughed then.
Celeste felt her stomach roll at the thought of these two pawing at her body. “No thanks, I think I’ll take death,” she said flippantly.
“As you wish. In fact, this time tomorrow night you will be world-renowned and a name that will live in history. My tiny, little microscopic virus that I created will be known to the world. You will have made me into an icon amongst my people,” Margo crowed.
Celeste fought the urge to tell them that by this time tomorrow they would be rotting in jail while she snuggled up to her man.
“Well, now that’s decided, I’m just going to give your virus a little top up. Can’t be too careful can we?” Margo smiled as she took out a syringe from her pocket and slipped off the cap.
Celeste started to back away. “No,” she said as she held out her hand as if to ward them off.
“Davis,” Rhea called and in walked Brutus. “Hold her down.”
Davis, as she now knew he was called, grabbed her arms, and held her still as Margo stabbed the needle into her arm and depressed the plunger, filling her body with more of the virus.
Brutus flung her savagely on the bed, and the three walked to the door.
“Get some sleep. We will be back tomorrow,” Rhea said with a smug smile of someone who had gotten the last laugh.
Celeste curled up on the bed, pulling her legs to her chest and fought the urge to cry. She would not let Zin hear her cry. Instead, she plotted. These bitches were not going to kill her, and Rhea Winslow was not getting her old wrinkly hands on her man. Oh, no way this girl was not having that. She would let the team do what they had to, but she would be ready to help herself if the opportunity arose.
~~~
After hearing what had happened to Celeste, Zin had refused to leave monitor and Angel had gone to share with Will instead. It had taken Will and Roz to talk him down off the ledge and in the end, it was only the fact that she had not seemed overly upset or affected by more of the virus being injected into her, that had made him decide to stand down.
Now it was four in the afternoon, and he had the others had spent the day either monitoring Celeste and doing recon on the stadium under the pretence of doing the scheduled jobs assigned to them.
Alex and his team had checked in several times. There was no sign of a bomb or any locked doors. It was frustrating as hell and made him feel twitchy. According to Celeste, her visions were never wrong, which meant they were missing something.
Roz walked out of the bathroom in her khaki skirt and a turquoise polo shirt. Zin felt his mouth twitch with a grin. She looked ridiculous.
“What the fuck is that smile for?” she asked with a frown.
“Nothing,” he said and turned to the window, so she couldn’t see the outright grin. He saw people moving about on the street outside, and a vehicle caught his attention. It was a T98 Kombat, an armoured vehicle favoured in Russia, and it was known to be used by the Denisovich family.
His stomach took a dive when a line of them started to filter in around the back of the village. This was so much worse than they thought. Taking out his burner phone, he motioned to Roz, who seeing the look on his face, rushed to his side and followed his line of sight. Her indrawn hiss of breath mirrored his feelings and further clarified that they were up shit creek without a paddle.
“Zack,” he said the moment his boss answered. “We have a big fucking problem. Eight T98 Kombat vehicles just drove around the back of the village, headed to the stadium.” He took the phone away from his ear at the barrage of expletives that came from Zack. “We need a meeting. Call everyone now,” he shouted and then hung up. Zin turned to his sister. “Get the girls here, we need an emergency meeting. If that is Denisovich, then things are about to get very ugly!”
~~~
Celeste shivered and tried not to let her teeth chatter as her body fought the fever she was running. They had injected her with a live virus, and she felt awful. It was like the flu times ten. Every bone and muscle ached, her eyes itched, and her throat hurt like the fiery razors of hell were being scored across it.
Margo had checked on her once and seemed satisfied all was going how she had planned it. She’d left after leaving her some water and telling her she couldn’t die yet as that just would not do.
She wished she had had the energy to throw it over the bitch, but she hadn’t so she had taken a sip and relished the cool liquid on her throat before lying back down and dozing.
Now the noise from outside had woken her, and her heart started to hammer like it did when you were woken suddenly from a deep sleep. With great effort, she sat up and swung her legs to the side of the bed. On legs that felt like jelly, she walked to the window and saw large vehicles that looked like something the army would use parking across the outside of the building at hundred metre intervals.
She placed a hand on the windowsill to steady herself as she tried to figure out what they were doing. The outside looked empty of people, and in the distance, she could see the same vehicles lined up around the outside of the stadium.
That was it they were blocking the exits the stadium and the village. Her vision swam as a wave of nausea hit her. She swallowed it back. Lurching for the bed, she made it to the edge and fell down. Her head touched the cool pillow, and she closed her eyes for second and thought that she needed to tell Zin what she had seen. It was her last thought before she fell into an unconscious sleep.
~~~
“Lizzie,” he called softly as he touched her shoulder. She flinched and jumped back opening her eyes in fear until she realised it was him, then recognition filled her eyes before the deadness came back.
“Smithy?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the matter?” She stretched her stiff legs and as she tried to sit up her face paled in pain. They had stopped giving her pain pills, and he knew she was in agony from the crush injuries she had sustained. Guilt for his part in her injuries filled him, and he fought the self-hatred that filled his brain.
If only he had been stronger and fought the drugs sooner, but he had been like some brainless dumb robot doing The Divine Watchers bidding, all the while hurting his friends. It had been seeing her that had started to bring him around and make him fight against it. He still had huge gaps in his memory and terror at what he may have done while under their evil influence tortured him.
He wondered if Dane or Sly would kill him when they saw him. He hoped they did because he wasn’t sure if he could live with what he had become and what he had done to the woman in bed in front of him.
She had only ever looked at him with kindness in the past. Now she looked at him with a bland deadness, as if they were both victims of the same heinous cult. She didn’t seem to see him for what he was. A machine, a mindless killer, who needed to be put down before he hurt anyone else. But first, he needed to get her home to those who loved her and deserved her. Those that could help her heal from her ordeal.
Then, he didn’t care what happened to him. With a bit of luck, he would be dead.
“We need to get up and be ready if an opportunity arises,” he said softly.
“Okay,” she murmured as she looked at him with eyes that were clouded with pain. He helped her sit up and stretch her muscles as he had done for weeks now and wondered if she would miss him like he would miss
her when she went home. She didn’t talk a lot but when she did she was intelligent, and he could see the spark of the person she had been. It was still in there, and he would miss her.
It mattered not, he had no intention of making it out of this alive, just as long as she did, he didn’t care. With that in mind, he stood and listened at the door for any sounds. Hearing none, he crossed back to Lizzie and crouched down in front of legs and placed his hands either side of her hips. She looked at him as if waiting for something.
“You need to be ready when I say so and do as I ask, okay?” he asked.
“Okay,” she replied immediately but with no inflection in her voice. It was that dull monotone that had been getting worse and worse since the telephone call Rhea had forced her to make.
The evil bitch had told her if she made the call she would get to go home to her son. She had been so excited and talked nonstop about Mateo. After the call, Rhea had laughed and called her stupid, saying she was never leaving and would not see her son or her family again, but if she were lucky she would let her have more babies.
He’d know she meant for her breeding program and had been sickened by it. After that, Lizzie had just started to fade away until all that remained was a husk of the woman he had known and liked. It was precisely that reason that had made him decide to get her out of there. He knew this was his best opportunity and he wasn’t going to fuck it up. After all, once upon a time, he had been SAS. He still had all the skills even if he had lost all the integrity.
He had no clock, but his internal clock was telling him it was around six. It would soon be time to make his move, he just had to be ready.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
