Cold Bastard

by India Kells

  Lance touched his own ear. “Mr. Ahmad is in the lobby. He’s coming up.”

  Archer nodded and looked at her. “Ready?” Zoe nodded jerkily. The tension was about to make her break into pieces, but if he believed she was anxious due to the meeting, that was for the best.

  For a long moment he faced her, and she worried he would ask her to back out. Instead he nodded and walked out. As she replaced her headset, her cell buzzed.

  “Zoe? You can hear me OK?”

  On the screens, she saw Archer walking the different sections. It took all her strength to answer with a steady voice. “Yes, loud and clear.”

  Lance said something she didn’t hear, and Zoe looked at her phone. It was a picture and text message. The picture was one of Lucas at a baseball game. The message was to the point.

  Stay on standby. You will know your assignment in a few minutes. You know the stakes.

  “Zoe? Do you hear me?”

  “Yes, sorry. You have my attention.” Which was a total lie, but she couldn’t falter now. On the screen, Lance and Archer looked around and for a moment, Archer stared at one camera in particular, as if conveying a message. But it was Lance who broke the moment.

  “Zoe, your door is locked, keep it that way. Mr. Blackwood, Jones, and I are the only one who can come in, so don’t worry.”

  A statement that was supposed to reassure her only spiked her stress levels more, especially not knowing what Finch required of her.

  Exhaling a shuddering breath, she looked at the screen as Lance and Archer were standing by the door.

  “Everything will be alright, Zoe. Breathe.”

  Shit! He must have heard her doing just that. And at his obvious concern, a tight ball formed in her throat preventing her from answering. But it wasn’t necessary as Kareem Ahmad and his entourage entered the living room.

  The men exchanged cordial greetings and went to the lounge area. Kai and Lance were on screen, waiting by the door with two huge men she assumed were Ahmad’s bodyguards.

  The first hour was mostly a general conversation about the city and done in English. It was incredible to see Archer confronting those men all on his own. She expected advisors and strategists with him, but he was a one-man army, unshakable and eerily confident. That was his calculating, cold persona, an alpha predator and he knew it.

  Once they all ran out of niceties, they moved to the conference table. It took a moment for Zoe to find the perfect mic combination as sound reverberated over the glass in the immense room. Once she found it, the quality made her able to even hear whispers.

  And as if on cue, as Ahmad was talking to Archer, two of his advisors started whispering.

  She immediately relayed the information. Her voice remained low. So as not to startle him, and so she could continue hearing what the two men said. A third one scribbled a note on a piece of paper, and Zoe was fortunate enough to decipher it before it disappeared from the screen. Again, she told Archer who seamlessly redirected the meeting with this new bit of information.

  Not once did he signal her, and Zoe fell into a reassuring comfort zone. This had been her work for many years, and relying on her experience, letting it take over her nerves, was a godsend.

  Halfway through the morning schedule, Archer proposed a break and all the men agreed. As if on cue, two waitresses came in, carrying trays and started setting up on the outside terrace.

  Her phone buzzed with an incoming call. Unknown ID. Immediately, she muted her microphone. “Hello?”

  “If your control freak boss is on time, it should be time for the break.” Finch’s voice made her skin crawl. “Listen. The bodyguards won’t stray far away from their masters, giving you the perfect opening.”

  “Opening for what?” The question terrified her, but she was damned if she would let him know.

  “I need you to get to Ahmad’s phone and send me his contact list. All of it.”

  Zoe gasped at what it implied. “Mr. Ahmad won’t certainly leave his phone behind.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. He trusts his security system more than anything else. It doesn’t even bother him to lose it! That’s the kind of fool I like.”

  “I’m not a hacker!”

  “No, my dear. His phone is not even locked. Inside, everything is written in an old tribal dialect, the one his grandmother speaks. Over and over again, we’ve tried to find an interpreter, but it’s been no use. You will do this little task for me. Get the phone, find the contact list and transfer it to the number I give you. Understood?”

  She hesitated a second and he immediately jumped on her like the hyena he was. “You know the penalty for not doing what I say or hinting your intentions to your little friends. I won’t warn you another time, Miss Somersby.” And he hung up. One second later, a phone number appeared in a new text message.

  Time was of the essence, but she was scrambling over what she could do. One look at the screen to her left showed her that Ahmad had indeed left his phone on the conference table. If she remembered well, the conference table’s view was partially blocked by two pillars, and if the sun was on her side, its reflection on the glass would prevent the man from seeing her. Lance was on the terrace with the two other bodyguards and Kai probably at the door. All she needed was an excuse. Frantically analyzing her surroundings, she started rummaging in the cases to find one of the extra microphones that Lance had shown her this morning. Not that Zoe knew how to install it, but at least she wouldn’t look like a complete fool. The other problem was the cameras. Then she remembered Lance’s words about being careful to not shut down the system. Three minutes... it would give her three minutes only to get in, decipher the dialect, and send the contacts.

  She had to act. Now! One last glance at the screen told her that the conference room was empty, so she shut the system down then started the reboot. All the cameras and mics went down. Three minutes. Without rushing, she went out the door and saw Kai guarding the door, clearly not happy about her unexpected appearance.

  “What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be seen. If Ahmad catches you around...”

  Instead of answering, she showed him the mic. “The one near the conference table is acting out. It’s an in and out. From where I’ll be standing, they won’t see me.”

  Kai shook his head. “Give it to me, I’ll do it.”

  “Great, gimme your gun and I’ll guard the door.”

  As she expected, Kai cursed and opened the door, peeking inside before letting her in. “Be quick.”

  She intended to, and waited for him to close the door again before moving in. Walking straight to the table, she grabbed the cell phone with trembling hands. In the distance, Zoe could hear the voices of the men on the terrace.

  It was exactly as Finch had said. No passwords. Pressing the buttons, the screen lit up. The symbols were foreign to her. Well, some were Arabic, others... she wasn’t sure. Stress made her brain fuzzy and she often looked at the terrace, terrified that someone would come in. Forcing her attention back on the screen, Zoe fumbled through the applications. The setup didn’t look familiar, so she couldn’t do anything else but decrypt the symbols and fast.

  Disconnecting herself from her surroundings, she let her brain take over. The symbols moved in her head, trying to find a familiar pattern in them. Adrenaline spiked inside her as it took forever before she noticed something familiar. In an instant, her heart rate picked up, and her brain started solving the puzzle at exponential speed. As if by magic, the symbols started making sense. And she saw the contact application on the second screen.

  It was becoming difficult to breathe as if she had run a sprint. It took more time to understand how the system worked and three painstaking attempts to enter Finch’s phone number before sending the text with the file. Dizzy from stress and lack of air, eyes glued on the sending message and blinking dots, Zoe prayed for it to hurry up. Movement caught her eyes and she saw Lance and one of the bodyguards moving toward the sliding doors. She couldn�
��t leave until the message was sent!

  Lance and the man stopped and turned their backs on her. Someone was probably talking to them. Zoe almost screamed when the phone vibrated in her hand, telling her that the transfer was complete. Shutting down the screen and replacing it on the table, she dashed to the door. Kai almost yelped at the way she scrambled out.

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing. I was just about to come back when I saw Lance and another guy coming back inside. I didn’t want them to see me.”

  “Did they?”

  Zoe shook her head. “No! Thank goodness.”

  “Yeah, you can say that. Lance would have my head knowing you were in there. Go back to the room.”

  It took tremendous effort to walk to the door and appear normal. Her nerves were on the fritz and she was feeling shaky.

  Dropping in her chair, ready to throw up, Zoe checked the cameras that were still rebooting. There were about thirty seconds to go.

  As her breathing was slowly getting under control, her own phone vibrated. She jolted, and almost sobbed, her entire being ready to crack into a thousand pieces.

  Well done, my dear. Your brother can live another day. Unharmed. I’ll contact you tomorrow with your next assignment.

  Zoe erased the message, put her headset back on her head as the cameras went live. Making sure her mic was still muted, she put her forehead on her arms and cried.

  Chapter 17

  A real trooper, she thought to herself, as Zoe fought through the afternoon, now able to focus on the task at hand and not look at her phone as if it was about to explode in her face. Her little mission hadn’t raised any suspicions. When Ahmad checked his phone as the men returned to the negotiation table, she believed her heart would leap out of her chest and run out the room. But nothing was out of the ordinary. Kareem Ahmad put it down after a moment and resumed talking. The assignment had worked. Lucas was safe, for now at least.

  It was a good thing her head was a bit clearer as the negotiation process was becoming tighter. The men were like fighters. But her role was to relay any information that she could gather from side discussions, and as expected, Ahmad’s advisors were chatty. And the language they used was a mix of Arabic, English and that tribal dialect she suspected. But as they mostly used Arabic, Zoe assumed that said advisors were not native speakers, but had most probably picked up bits and pieces from Ahmad along the way.

  A few times, Kai and Lance came into the room, checking on everything, but as she was hard at work, they left her alone. At some point, one of the men came with a tray of food, but her stomach was still tied in knots. However, coffee was welcome. And it came black and strong, exactly how she liked it. Thoughtful of Archer.

  When they adjourned the session, Zoe was about to drop from exhaustion. The events of the day had taken a toll on her, with the lack of food and her coffee overdose, her body felt wired and tired all at the same time. Archer had left just after Ahmad and his men, with some meeting to attend. It was Kai who came and packed everything up before driving her home.

  Zoe was completely disconnected from her surroundings on her drive back. The city slowly fading into night was like a senseless movie to her. What she had done whirled in her head. She had deceived Archer and hid crucial elements from Gabrielle and the team. She was compromised, and that was an understatement. Archer wasn’t really in danger. Never was. All this time, she had been the prey and there was nowhere she could hide. That’s what hurt the most; not being able to fight back. She may never have been a warrior, or a soldier, or a secret agent like Beatrice and Gabrielle, but since she’d realized her own parents were using her talents, tricking people and abusing her, she had retaliated, and embraced her own power. Even if it left her half dead in the process, it was a much-needed spark. One that only grew over time and enabled her to get out of there, and help Lucas do the same.

  One thing that Beatrice told her all those years ago, was that she was brilliant, and that it didn’t have anything to do with her unusual skill. At the moment, she hated her talent; it was what made her life a misery.

  “Zoe?”

  Kai seemed annoyed with her and Zoe blinked several times, realizing that it wasn’t the first time he’d called her name.

  “What?”

  He pointed at the dashboard. “Gabrielle is on the phone.”

  Whoa, she had to get her head back together. “Yes, Gabrielle?”

  There was a moment of hesitation on the other end of the line. “Are you alright, Zoe?”

  “Yes, just tired. It’s been a long day.”

  “I can see why. Quick update for you two. I’ll talk to Lance later. Nothing of worth on our prime suspect and intruder. He’s keeping mum and apart from requesting his lawyer, there’s nothing we can do about him for the moment. If he gets bailed, that would be a completely different story. Also, nothing worthy on the autopsy report or the forensic analysis. Cynthia didn’t have her phone on her either. The Police are getting a warrant to try to get access to her phone account. We’ll see where it goes. But if it’s the killer who indeed called her before her abduction, I doubt we’ll trace back the call. Harker will keep us in the loop. On a more positive note, I had someone look at Blackwood’s servers and that’s a bit more interesting. Someone had been in the servers using the virus implanted by Cynthia. We haven’t determined the location yet, it’s still in progress, but they are kind of lurking. Quite strange behavior. We don’t know what it means. Either it’s a trick, they’re planting something into the system, or they’re complete idiots.”

  Kai snorted. “Too bad they aren’t the last option, it would make our life easier.”

  Gabrielle was still obviously considering all three possibilities. “I wish, but that’s too hopeful for my poor heart.”

  Zoe forced herself to say something coherent so as not to draw attention to herself. “Any possibility of linking it to Finch? Or one of the buyers yet?”

  “No, nothing. We’re digging even further but that son of a bitch has a way of hiding his tracks a thousand times over. But we’ll get him. Lazarus won’t let anything happen to his brother. He’s ready for anything, waiting for our cue. That’s why you both need to keep your head in the game. Anything you see, any insight or ideas, I’m a taker.”

  Zoe’s throat went sandy and she was grateful that Kai answered. “We’re on it, boss lady. We’ll keep you updated as we go.”

  When silence returned, she let her head fall on the headrest.

  “Are you sure you’re alright? You’re pale. Are you coming down with the flu?”

  Opening her eyes, she sighed. “No, don’t worry. It’s the result of PMS, coffee overdose, and not eating anything.”

  “Yeah, when I went into the room, there wasn’t any coffee left. I hated you for that.”

  Zoe slatted her gaze to his laughing face. “Poor boy! I should have remembered that you were a spoiled little princess in a past life. And that past life is still haunting you today. I wish you could have it easier because it must have been hell doing all your super soldier training wearing a pink tutu!”

  The booming laugh she got as a result triggered her laugh too. “You’ve got a sharp tongue, I like that.”

  The look he gave her should have made her all shivery. Kai Jones was more than a handsome man; he was witty, fascinating and sexy as hell, but his mercury eyes made her think about Archer. Immediately, a familiar heat balled between her legs.

  She was saved from embarrassment when he parked in front of her apartment. Turning to her, he looked at her with a mix of concern and heat. “Do you want me to go grab you something to eat?”

  And with his question, he offered much more. But again, even if she called herself a fool for turning that god down, it couldn’t be helped.

  “So sweet of you, but by the time you come back, I’ll be drooling on my pillow.”

  It was obvious he debated whether to insist or not. “Call if you need anything. Pizza or tampons.”

  Shak
ing her head, she bid the crazy man good night and dragged herself to her door. As she passed by her neighbor’s door, it cracked open.

  “Is that you, Zoe?” Her patience was paper thin, but she forced herself to smile at the anxious Marcus peeking at her. Mrs. Lupe’s roommate and occasional caretaker was acting like a frightened watchdog.

  “Yes, Marcus. Is everything alright?”

  “Oh, yes. I was about to go out and I saw the car. I couldn’t see who got out, that’s all. I just wanted to make sure.”

  She offered him a reassuring smile. “That’s very kind of you. Is Mrs. Lupe still up?”

  “Oh yes. All comfy in her chair, watching her favorite TV show. You need to see her?”

  An idea popped into her mind. “Not really. I need a drink and I was wondering if I could buy a bottle from her. Whatever she has is fine. Hard liquor preferably.”

  Marcus blinked. “You okay, honey? Hard liquor means a broken heart, you know.”

  “Only a hard day at work. Don’t worry about my heart.” It’s already lost, Zoe told herself.

  His bald black head disappeared for a second and came back with a bottle in his hand. “Mrs. Lupe told me to give you this one. Whatever the ailment, it will cure it. Her words, not mine.”

  Zoe frowned, taking the bottle in her hand. It was an unopened bottle of rum, and an exceptional one. “Whoa! It’s too much. I’m sure she has a bottle already open.”

  She tried to give it back, but Marcus pouted. “No, dove. It’s what she told me to give you. Nothing else.”

  Resigned, Zoe reached for her wallet. Once again, Marcus shook his head. “And she said that if you tried to give me money, to shut the door in your face. One piece of advice from a man who needs hard liquor more than he should on a regular basis, be careful and don’t drink too much. Broken and painful just means that it’s still beating. And that life is giving you another shot.”

  Zoe was tempted to set him straight when she realized that broken possibilities were like a broken heart too. She would drink to that.

  “Thanks, Marcus. Say thank you to Mrs. Lupe for me.” And Zoe made a mental note to find something for the old lady as a thank you gift.