She was right. She didn’t have much time left, and he felt bad robbing her of her last moments, but she wasn’t the only one running out of time. “I’m sorry, but I have to ask. My people don’t have grown food—”
She raised her hand, stopping him. “Come closer.”
He slid the chair until it touched the bed, then took the hand she offered. She pulled him toward her until he was leaning over the dog, looking directly into her clear, hazel eyes.
She drew a breath. “I am Cumorah. From the City of Angels.”
Ten
Port Townsend, Washington
Nikolai arrived in the formal dining room alone wearing the pressed shirt he’d found hanging on the Carriage House doorknob. He adjusted his tie, reflecting on how he’d much rather have dined in his own clothing—or in no clothing at all—in his room with Lisette. Ordinarily, he might have begged off, insisting his mother wait until morning. But her demeanor had nagged at him, so he stood waiting behind his chair in her dining room.
His mother breezed into the room. Now he knew something was on her mind—she normally kept him waiting at least five minutes.
“Niko, darling.” Corinne extended her hand to be clasped and her cheek to be kissed.
Nikolai dutifully clasped then kissed. “Mother, I didn’t think it possible, but you look even lovelier now than you did in the green Chanel.”
She smiled, her fingers grazing the silk of the black cocktail dress. He held her chair for her, then returned to his end of the table, appraising her expression as he took his seat. He could usually read her mood by her eyes. They were invariably sparkling with joy or flashing with anger. He’d rarely seen them smoky and worried as they were now.
“I’m glad you’re here, Niko.” She rang the silver bell beside her empty wineglass.
“You’re back in wine?” Nikolai’s mouth watered at the thought of a good merlot.
“A delightful man from Tacoma brought some bottles from a decent cellar he came upon. I think tomorrow we should invite people for wine and dancing. I might even be persuaded to open a magnum of champagne.”
“Champagne?”
“Of course we won’t know if it’s good until we open it.”
“Drinking and dancing? You read my mind, Mother. My crew is in desperate need of frivolity. But save the champagne for a special occasion. The men are happy with cider, and you know you don’t need these trappings for me.” He gestured to the table adorned with more crystal and china than he’d use in a week. While he was grateful that Corinne’s predilection for formality had prepared him for his State role, his personal tastes were simple.
“You think this is for you?” Her eyebrows arched and she laughed gently. “There’s another man in the family now who thrives on my—what did you once call them? My ‘haughty, pretentious dinner parties with no cause, purpose, or redeeming value.’”
“Chevo? Did I really say that?” He was puzzled, but not about the barely-recalled insults he’d issued as a teenager. He wondered about the man his mother considered “family.” She’d never even considered his father family, though she had loved him.
“Ah, here’s our wine, delivered by the very gentleman who appreciates my pomp and circumstance,” she said with the first real smile that night.
Nikolai looked toward the entry, anxious to see who had accomplished what so many had tried before—to ensnare his mother’s stalwartly independent spirit.
A boy strode into the room wearing a sharp black suit, a white towel draped over one arm. Nikolai recognized his nephew immediately, even though Josh had grown half a meter since he’d last seen him. He ached to leap from his chair and crush him in a hug, but he held back, waiting for Josh’s reaction when he finally looked down the table.
“Madame.” The boy made a slight bow to Corrinne. “I have a 1998 French merlot from the Mont Sainte Chapelle vineyard for your inspection.”
“Very good, Joshua,” Corinne said. “Why don’t you pour a taste for my guest. I trust he will tell you more plainly than most if it’s to his liking.”
“As you wish, Madame.” Josh turned and his eyes opened wide. “Uncle Niko!” All pretense vanished as he ran to the end of the table, setting down the wine at the last moment before Nikolai scooped him up.
“You’ve grown so much I almost didn’t recognize you.” Nikolai squeezed Josh tight, then released him.
“Grandma,” Josh scolded. “Why didn’t you tell me he was here?”
“And miss witnessing this? You know me better than that.” Corinne’s face softened, a grandmother, not the mistress of the manor now.
“So this is the man who appreciates you, eh, Mother?” Nikolai was surprised to feel equal measures of relief and disappointment. He roughed Josh’s slicked auburn locks. “You’re quite handsome as a wine steward, but I was hoping you’d develop a yearning for the sea and become my apprentice.”
“Like Will?” Josh’s eyes sparkled, but Corinne’s darkened.
“Yes, like Will.” Nikolai flashed a smile at Josh while noting the abrupt change in Corinne’s mood. He should have guessed. Will was probably at the root of another scandal. It wouldn’t surprise him if his son were the sole source of Corinne’s tension.
“I may have a nose for wine, Uncle Niko, but sailing’s in my blood.”
“That’s my boy. I’ll be expecting you when you turn fourteen, if you’re not too busy being a diplomat or reinventing airplanes by then.”
“Fourteen? I want to come now.”
“Fourteen. Now, can I try that wine? I’m starting to wonder if your grandmother got taken and it’s a bottle of vinegar.” Nikolai winked.
Josh poured the glass one-quarter full, neatly rotating the decanter and catching the lone drop with his towel. “So far, only one bottle from this cellar has turned. Judging from the smell, I mean the bouquet, I’d wager a dozen silk scarves this is still good. If you swirl it, you’ll see it has good legs. I trust you’ll appreciate the woodsy flavor as well.”
Nikolai tried to appear serious as he swirled his glass. Josh looked to Corinne for approval and received it in the form of a nod.
“How do you find it, sir?” Josh asked.
Nikolai held the glass below his nose and wafted the air across the bowl. “Very fine.” He tipped the glass and touched the wine to his lips. “Very fine indeed. Not a hint of vinegar.”
“Can I see you later, Uncle Niko? I’ve been practicing chess like you taught me, and I’m getting pretty good.”
“Absolutely. Tomorrow morning we’ll have a match.”
“Fresh!” Josh ran across the room, shadow-boxing with the air. “See you first thing in the morning, Uncle Niko.”
“Not before nine,” Nikolai shouted as Josh disappeared through the doorway.
“He forgot my wine,” Corinne said.
“I’d be happy to oblige.” Nikolai carried the decanter to Corinne’s end of the table and poured with panache, using a napkin as his torchon de sommelier. “Your wine, Madame. I trust it will be to your liking.”
“You do a fine imitation of the boy.”
“We had the same tutor.” Nikolai returned to his seat and topped off his glass. “He’s a great kid, huh?”
“I’m going to miss him.”
“What do you mean?”
“I assumed you came home because you’d heard. Your sister is moving to San Francisco and taking Josh with her.”
“Wait, what happened to Marseille taking over the business when you retire?” This was a whole new set of worries, but at least it had nothing to do with Will.
“A rebellion of sorts, though she’s awfully old for it. She thinks I don’t know she’s been conspiring with that lot of colonists. I expect she’ll break the news to me soon, now that the secret preparations have been completed.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I’m too old and too tired to run all this for much longer.” She gestured to the lavish furnishings surrounding them, but
she didn’t mean the material things. They were never as important as the women and children who relied on her for their well-being.
“Nonsense, Mother. You’re not old, and you look half your age at that. Even so, do you want me to speak to Marseille?”
“It won’t do any good. What I need is a viable replacement. I’ve been thinking of little else since I learned of Marseille’s defection, but there’s no one with the head and the heart for it. Except your daughter, of course.”
“We’ve been over this,” Nikolai warned.
“But—”
“I’ll be here a week. We’ll figure out who to groom as your replacement. But leave Tatiana out of it.”
“She’d be perfect.”
“It’s not what she wants.”
“She doesn’t know what she wants. She changes her mind like the wind.”
“Not anymore.” Nikolai never would have indentured himself to the Democracy if Tatiana weren’t committed to studying at the University. “She’s made her choice, and she’s sticking to it. I wouldn’t have chosen politics for her area of focus, but if that’s what she wants, I support it.”
“Politics?”
“Be glad of it. Some day she’ll be our voice in the Democracy. I wouldn’t be surprised if she fully legitimizes what we do here on the fringes. Your services, and bootlegging too.”
“Don’t tell me you’re fool enough to believe she’s gone to Lost Angeles for political reasons. She got Will to take her down there to look for seeds.”
“What?” Why would Tatiana and Will have sailed straight into danger when they knew the seed bank in Southern California was destroyed?
“You didn’t know?” Corinne asked.
“Of course I didn’t know! Why the hell didn’t anyone tell me? Why didn’t you stop them?”
“I don’t see why you’re so upset. Will assured us he could handle the pirates. I’m sure everything’s fine.”
“Maybe I can catch them before it’s too late. When did they leave?”
Corinne frowned, swirling the wine in her glass. “I think a month ago, more or less.”
“A month? Jesus, why am I only learning about this now?” Nikolai stormed to the door, calculating how long it would take him and Creighton to get a ship under sail, and trying not to imagine what they’d find when they arrived in Lost Angeles.
Eleven
Colorado Springs
“Landers!”
Reid opened his eyes, surprised he’d fallen asleep.
“At attention!” One of Vega’s soldiers, Beckum, stood in the doorway holding a lantern.
Reid came to his feet. Vega entered, followed by Kayla. Kayla’s mouth was bloodied and one eye was swollen. Vasquez, another of Vega’s men, had an M4 at Kayla’s back.
“What happened?” Reid asked, but Kayla wouldn’t look at him.
“She did what you said,” Peregrine said, coming through the door with another lantern. “But I couldn’t keep it from Commander Vega. Not something like this.”
“Dad, no.” Reid’s body felt hollow, like his insides had shriveled up and turned to ash.
“You had to know what I would do.” Peregrine said. “It’s for the greater good, son.”
“Lieutenant Landers,” Vega said, “I find it interesting you thought your father would keep such a secret from me.”
Reid wanted to lash out, to reveal all the secrets Peregrine knew. But he held his tongue.
“Your father’s complicity will be dealt with later,” Vega continued. “Along with your treason.”
“Renata, please,” Peregrine said. “His actions were misguided, but not treasonous.”
“Stay out of this, Bishop,” Vega said. “This is a military matter.”
“But Renata—”
“Shut him up,” Vega said to a hulking silhouette in the doorway.
Leigh stepped into the lantern light. “You want I should take him outside, Commander?”
“No, he’s going to watch. But if he makes another sound, shoot him.”
“You can’t do that,” Reid blurted.
“I can’t?” Vega’s eyes widened in mock surprise. “Who’s going to stop me, you? Broken little Kayla? Now that I have evidence of Raiders, I can do whatever the hell I want.”
She was right. A stranger gave her everything she wanted. With hard evidence of a “military threat,” the balance of power shifted. The church was required to give full control to the military. To Vega.
“Commander,” Beckum said from the other side of the bed. “The Raider’s dead.”
“Then Lieutenant Landers will tell me what I need to know.”
“I don’t have anything to say.” Earlier, he’d begun to feel guilty about keeping the stranger and the grown food a secret. But now there was no way he was going to tell Vega anything. She’d never intended to help the stranger. She hadn’t even brought the doctor.
“I suggest you rethink that, Lieutenant.” Vega raised her Beretta. There was a click as she released the safety. “Where are the other Raiders?”
“I said I have nothing to tell you.” He could almost see Vega’s blood pressure rise. There was too much tension in the room, too many guns. He should say something to defuse the situation, but he refused to kowtow like his father.
“You will tell me,” Vega said. “Everyone has a breaking point, and I’ll find yours.”
“It won’t do any good,” Kayla said. “She didn’t say anything. She was unconscious.”
“Get her out of here,” Vega told Vasquez.
“My pleasure.” A sick grin spread across Vasquez’ face. He butted Kayla with the M4. “You and me, outside.”
“Screw you,” Kayla said, standing her ground.
“Bitch!” Vasquez backhanded her, and she staggered back.
“Kay!” Reid started toward her, but was stopped by the muzzle of Vega’s Beretta.
“Wait,” Vega barked. “We’ve struck a nerve. Whatever you were going to do outside, do it here.”
“No! Stop this,” Peregrine shouted.
A shot sounded and Peregrine crumpled to the ground, a small hole in his white shirt.
A primal cry came from somewhere deep inside as Reid tackled Vega, propelling her backward. They collided with Leigh, and the three of them fell in a tangle. Reid grabbed Vega’s wrist and slammed it against the ground to dislodge the gun. The gun fired as it flew from her hand.
Kayla screamed. A snarling flash of black fur came from the shadows. From the corner of his eye, Reid saw the dog barrel into Vasquez, knocking him from where he sat astride Kayla.
Reid wrestled with Leigh for control of his gun. Leigh squeezed off several rounds, and Vega shrieked, grabbing her leg. Reid wrenched the gun away and cracked Leigh on the head with it. Leigh went limp. Reid dropped the gun, nauseated by what he’d done.
Vega writhed on the ground, clutching her knee to her chest. Reid knew he should tend to her, but not before he helped Kayla. He stood and turned, but Beckum was there, gun raised. Shit. He’d forgotten about Beckum.
A shot went off.
Reid looked down at his chest wondering why he felt no pain.
Then Beckum’s uniform shirt blossomed red, his face went slack, and his knees buckled.
Kayla held a knife in one hand and Vega’s Beretta in the other. She’d shot Beckum. Now she had the gun pointed at Vega.
“Don’t, Kay,” he said, his voice muffled by the ringing in his ears.
“It’s for the best.” Kayla sounded like she was underwater.
“This is never the answer.” Reid held out his hand. “Please, give me the gun.”
“Everything would be different with her gone.”
“I know.” With Vega out of the picture, people could live outside the Mountain without the fictional threat of Raiders. They’d be free to speak up against leadership, even try to grow food. “But not like this.” He stepped between Kayla and Vega and took the gun.
The disgust on Kayla’s face was plain, ev
en in the lantern light. “Then we run.” She turned her glare on Vega. “Don’t move. Don’t even breathe.”
Reid followed Kayla to the door, then looked back at the carnage. His father. Beckum dead in a pool of blood. Vasquez staring at the ceiling with unseeing eyes. Leigh unconscious. Vega grimacing, hugging her leg to her chest.
“Reid, we have to go,” Kayla said.
“Don’t try to come after us,” he told Vega, then followed Kayla into the night.
Reid didn’t know how long they’d been running or how far they’d gone when Kayla stopped. She took her canteen from the clip on her belt and drank, then handed it to him.
“I had the chance to change our future. Everyone’s future,” she said. “Without Vega and your father, everything could be different.”
“My father.” Reid flashed to images he didn’t want to remember. With horror he realized— “I didn’t check. What if he was still alive?”
“He was dead before he hit the ground. You know that.”
“But I didn’t check. I should have checked.” Reid’s eyes prickled and his throat constricted. He knew his father was dead.
“We have to keep moving. They’ll be coming.”
She stepped into the moonlight and Reid thought that, even with blood crusted at the corner of her mouth and one eye swollen shut she looked beautiful.
“You should have let me kill her,” she said.
Twelve
Port Townsend, Washington
Nikolai knew that his former partner, Simon Creighton, wouldn’t arrive in the dark. Still, he paced the pier, watching the mouth of the inlet for the familiar silhouette of the Juggernaut. He’d come to the docks straight from Corinne’s, and had been there all night getting soaked to the bone by a persistent drizzle and more enraged with every step.
Inside there would be dry clothes and a hot cup of tea, but he refused to step foot in his old office and see everything he’d given up for Tatiana to go to University. He couldn’t face how casually she’d tossed aside his sacrifice and destroyed her future, at least not until he knew she was safe.
And his son? Nikolai’s cheeks heated despite the cool rain. Will was oblivious to danger, ignorant of his own shortcomings, his own mortality. He’d risked not only his own life, but the lives of everyone else naïve enough to sail with him, including Tatiana. No, he couldn’t think about Will now either, or how he’d throttle him if the boy made it back to land alive.
Seeds Page 5
