“Aware of its existence, maybe,” Dr. Crask said, picking up Edie’s thread. “But that’s not helpful when no one knows who may be carrying information. You didn’t know for months.” It sounded like an accusation, but Edie ignored the tone.
“True. It’s the benefit of the technology, isn’t it? It could be anyone.”
“But they need hypnosis to embed it and retrieve it?” Crask said.
“I don’t know about that,” Edie said. “Embed it, yes. We used hypnosis to retrieve it. But maybe…” She trailed off, unsure where her thoughts were taking her.
“They wanted to know how else the data could be retrieved,” Skye said from across the room. She hadn’t moved, still leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest. But her eyes were alight, sparked by a problem to be solved. “The sensory tests—the lights and the drumbeat at the bar—they weren’t keys to understand the code, they were testing keys to see which would unlock the safe. And it worked. You heard those words in some form after the incident at the bar. They unlocked it using that drumbeat.”
Keys and locks. And treasure. If you were hiding treasure in a safe, it made sense to know who could duplicate the key. But what did the Russian want with her? Why take?
Edie’s stomach dropped. She felt suddenly cold, and the brightness of the room dimmed briefly before lighting up again in a disorienting pulse of sensation.
“They don’t need me for information.”
“What do you mean, Edie?” JC said.
Edie was having trouble pulling the thought and words together. Linking her brain to locks and keys. To being followed. The drumbeat was a heavy bass thunder no one else seemed to hear.
“Take it easy,” JC said. “Whatever you just figured out, take it easy. Take a full breath. When you’re ready, let us know what you’re thinking.”
Edie wanted the words out, she wanted proof. She wanted this over. Edie looked back over her shoulder at Skye, who had taken a step away from the wall but seemed frozen in place. Edie pushed down the ache in her chest. This was very nearly too much. She closed her eyes, felt the pull of the words she wanted to say, rearranged them, then opened her eyes again.
“We know Alex Rada is not after me to get the information in my head because he put it there. He is after me to prevent your locksmiths from inspecting the lock and discovering the safe technology that he’s developed. He wants to keep the lock out of your hands. He doesn’t intend to let me live.”
Her theory was met with silence. Donaldson and Petrie exchanged glances. JC looked at her with a concerned and calculating expression, Dr. Crask with a grudging approval. Edie could not bear to look at Skye.
“So, if you want to continue to crack the code of what the verse means, be my guest. You’ll excuse me if my focus remains on how to extricate myself from this situation unscathed.”
Edie stood, proud her voice had remained steady and her hands didn’t visibly tremble.
“Is there somewhere I can go?” She looked at JC. “I just need a break. Outside?”
“Good idea, come on,” JC said, standing and leading Edie out of the room. Skye quickly followed, and they made their way through headquarters. JC took them up three flights of stairs at the back of the building, and then she pushed open a door with a neon yellow sign that warned them to keep out.
Edie welcomed the wash of air over her face as she stepped onto the graveled, dirty surface of the half roof. Fans whirred and generators hummed through the thick smell of city and oil. Edie didn’t care. She wasn’t inside the office. Wasn’t inside that office, trapped with the knowledge that someone wanted her dead.
“God.” Edie doubled over and tried not to throw up.
JC got to her first, putting a reassuring hand on her back. Skye joined her seconds later, a gentle touch on the back of Edie’s neck. Edie didn’t move, just breathed and anchored herself in JC and Skye’s strength. Their combined touch kept the panic at bay.
“Sorry,” she muttered, straightening but keeping her eyes closed. A gust of wind hit her face and cleared her thoughts. The fact that Alex Rada wanted her dead was one piece of information. It had been true for weeks. It could help them move forward. That was where Edie needed to focus.
“Don’t worry about it,” Skye said. Her voice sounded stilted. Edie felt the distance and knew she’d created it.
Edie gently extricated herself from their grip. “Thanks. Both of you. I…just got overwhelmed.”
Skye stared at the pebbled ground. JC blew out a short, frustrated breath before answering. “No problem. Really. We should have called for a break earlier.” She checked her watch. “Actually, why don’t I get Faina and bring her up? She’s probably due for a break as well.” With a meaningful glance at her fire buddy, JC took the roof access.
Edie knew neither Donaldson nor Petrie trusted Faina enough to allow her to sit in on the brainstorming sessions. Instead, Edie imagined she’d been getting a similar interrogation to Edie. Trying to find what Faina knew of poetry and the illegal arms trade. Under any other circumstances, she and Faina would laugh at that.
“What’s so funny?” Skye said, obviously having heard Edie’s snort.
“This whole situation. Their questions. The fact that two hours ago I spouted poetry under hypnosis. The knowledge that someone wants me dead.” Edie shook her head. “There’s a definite element of the ridiculous here.”
“Not the word I would have chosen.”
Edie hadn’t expected Skye to get it. Capable Skye, the one with the skills and the intelligence to take on Russian arms dealers who wanted her dead. She could lay out a mission, collect intelligence, identify weakness, and build fortification. She could execute a plan. But that wasn’t the way Edie lived her life.
She gathered information and burrowed deeper and asked questions until she understood. She connected with a story, a person, a country, an idea. She looked for the interesting, the ridiculous, the curious, the heart. And she pursued impulses, finding out where she fit, staying with a story or an event until she’d learned what she needed to learn. Until her gut told her it was time to move on.
They were so different, Edie concluded. So very, very different.
“You’re angry at me, aren’t you?”
Skye had launched her question into cyberspace, the cursor blinking, waiting for a response.
“No. Nothing that happened was your fault.”
Skye stopped scanning the surrounding buildings. “Fault is one thing. Result is another.”
It may have been the most revealing thing Skye had ever said. Edie felt the urge to ask, to dig and burrow deeper into the vulnerability Skye had just revealed. Yesterday she would have. But right now Edie felt cautious, as if she was incapable of holding on to any more pieces of Skye.
They stood in uneasy silence until the rooftop door opened again and JC emerged with Faina. JC looked between Edie and Skye, possibly evaluating their distance and their silence.
Faina looked exhausted, but she held her head high and her back straight, as if her posture could keep her from sagging under the weight of the interrogation and the suspicion. Maybe it would. Faina was still standing.
“How are you holding up?” Edie said.
“I keep trying to tell myself that my patience and consistency in responses is what will get me out of this mess. But it gets harder and harder to remember as the day wears on.”
“Sorry this is so shitty,” Edie said. An inadequate response, but truthful.
“Yes, shitty is the right word for it.” Faina cracked a smile. “And while I was betraying my startling lack of knowledge of the illegal arms trade, I understand you were giving a poetry performance.”
The explosion of laughter was exactly what Edie needed, a forced exodus of toxicity. They both grinned and laughed. Neither felt the need to explain or apologize for her response. They were simply friends sharing a weight, taking the burden of the other person’s trouble and releasing their own. Everything became lighter
in that split second of laughter.
The laughter died down as awareness of their situation returned.
“They’re asking you about those lines of poetry, aren’t they?” Edie said.
“Yes. I’m not sure they believe me when they said I don’t know them. And that no one I lived with here spoke poetry, especially not English poetry, around me. I did share that it was a love of my father’s, both my parents actually. I had always liked the fact that both my parents were gifted with words and language. They did not raise me together, but I felt it was something that bound us.” Faina kept her eyes on Edie as she talked, none of the hunched shoulders and dropped voice of the past when she talked about her family. Still, the sadness of her loss of connection was palpable.
“What about Alex and Yana?” Edie said.
“Nothing as whimsical as poetry for Alex and Yana. Alex is military to the core, and Yana is a scientist.” Faina shook her head. “They tell me Yana has disappeared. Left her post at the university in Kiev. They can find no trace of her.” Faina gave herself a small shake and pulled herself away from her past. “They are very intent on this code, aren’t they? These police and agents and what have you. Maybe, though…”
“Maybe what?”
“Maybe we are done?” Her hopeful tone tore at Edie’s heart. Faina rushed on. “Now that the information has been retrieved, and maybe if they begin to believe that I know nothing…Maybe we are done. We can leave this behind.”
Edie wanted to leave behind the knowledge that someone had taken advantage of her weakest moment, had invaded the space in her head and manipulated her memories. That they wanted her dead. And when Edie looked up into Faina’s pleading, brown eyes, she wanted to leave behind the knowledge of what had been done to her friend. They’d seized her life, used their connection as family to gain advantage. Kept her hidden and scared. The evidence of her defiance was still visible on her face and neck. Edie wanted to tell Faina it was over. But she wouldn’t lie.
Faina seemed to read the truth in Edie’s expression. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, as if sending up a prayer for strength or guidance or simply the will to continue. Edie expected tears from Faina, though she’d only ever broken down once. What she saw when Faina opened her eyes, however, was not defeat. It was a fervor, the long sight of a mission and the absolute belief that it would be fulfilled.
“They are asking me the wrong questions,” Faina said. “Locations and dates, type of weapons and ammunitions, transportation and warehouses. These are things I do not know. But I do know where to find them. I do know how they wanted me to make a connection with you, track you even. And I do believe that before I ran, before Constable Caldwell took me away, their plan was to capture you. I was to be part of that plan.”
“And your resistance cost you those bruises,” Edie said evenly. They were talking, finally. They needed this.
“Yes. The presence of Skye made them desperate. They could not track you on your phone. You stopped going to your apartment. You changed all your patterns, and they had no access to you.”
“I’m no use to them as a safe of information if I am aware of it.”
“Or even if you are suspicious. Your behavior was suspicious.”
“Right,” Edie said. She didn’t want Faina to come to the next conclusion. All she knew was that she wasn’t strong enough to say it out loud. It didn’t matter, Faina connected the pieces as Edie had done earlier.
“No,” she said quietly. “This is why take. This is why contact became vital. Not for access. For…”
“Retrieval,” Edie said. “Capture. I think they want me…gone.”
“No,” Faina said, her voice shaky. “Say the truth of it, Edie. They want you dead. This is the conclusion you have reached. This is something you know.”
Edie swallowed against the fear that pressed onto her vocal cords, her chest. “Yes.”
“This will not happen,” Faina said, the tone of her fervor matching the fire in her eyes. “That may be the goal, but many barriers are in their way.” She nodded toward JC and Skye, who stood talking intently only ten feet away. “We will come up with a plan. And then it will be over. And we will both be free.”
Steps to an achievable goal. Edie focused on that. “We?” she said, letting a smile surface.
“It will have to be our team of women,” Faina said, her eyes lighting up. “The boys seem intent on war games and guns. Our goals are different. I say we make a plan.”
Edie looked to Skye, her protector and guardian. She would probably not approve of this plan.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” Edie said.
“We need the head of the snake, and we need it now. The authorities want information. They want to catch as many as they can in their net as they pull it in. Fine, we can use that. I say we propose to meet with Alex. I should make contact.”
“What are you approaching him with?” Edie said. “What’s your hook?”
“What does he want from me, I wonder?” Faina said, obviously to herself. “I am no longer useful, in fact I am a liability. He wants only to silence me. But he thinks I am only scared, that I have no connection. That I have no protection. So maybe he thinks I am asking him for safety. That I will exchange what I know of the investigation for my immigration papers. My passport. The tools I need to disappear from the authorities who are treating me badly.” She paused and looked at the ground, then up at Edie. “Do you think he will buy it?”
“I’m not sure it’s enough,” Edie said. “Realistically, he wants both of us silenced. We need to give him the opportunity to do that.” At Faina’s look of protest, she clarified. “We need to make him think he has the opportunity to do that. If he needs access, we give him access.”
Faina nodded slowly. “Yes. But why would you approach him? What possible reason could you have?”
“We tell him I want it out. We tell him just enough to let him know we have some of the information but I want the rest out. We tell him it hurts, and that the police won’t believe me. That they’re treating me like I’m crazy. We tell him…”
Edie saw it then, the entire scene in her head. She arranged and rearranged it, but she was very, very sure he would fall for this. “We tell him I want to recreate the scene where it takes place. If he believes the police don’t yet know everything, he might agree to this meet. Especially if we can convince him we are doing this without their knowledge.”
When Edie looked up, she could see JC and Skye watching them intently. “We should tell them,” she said. “JC and Skye.”
“Agreed.”
“You two look like you’re plotting,” JC said as she and Skye joined them.
“I guess we are,” Faina said. “I think I should make contact with Alex and bring him out into the open so he can be captured and this can be stopped.”
Both of them met Faina’s declaration with a shocked silence.
“Let me complete the thought before you give us reasons why this is not a workable plan,” Faina continued. As Faina laid out their admittedly half-formed plan, Edie had to admire her friend’s strength. Faina was unapologetic in her approach as she discussed the goal, the risk, and the ultimate pay-off in the end.
As Faina spoke, Edie watched as Skye became more and more agitated. She was completely unsettled by this plan. By the time Faina had summarized their plan, JC looked thoughtful and Skye was shaking.
“What’s your plan for making contact?” JC said to Faina.
Before Faina had a chance to answer, Skye’s restless agitation boiled over.
“You can’t possibly be thinking of approving this?” Skye said. “This plan has no tactical merit. It’s a terrible fucking idea.”
“It does have merit,” JC said evenly. “If you’d put away your feelings for Edie for just one goddamn minute, maybe you’d be able to see that this plan could achieve a number of goals. Including keeping both Faina and Edie safe. Long-term safe.”
Skye clenched her jaw and
flexed her hands. In that moment, she was a dangerous creature, cornered and captured, ready to bite any hand that came near her, captor or rescuer. Skye spun on her heel and stalked to the edge of the roof. Edie watched as she braced her arms on the concrete half wall and hung her head down. Everything about her was tight and stressed. Edie wished she had something to offer, but she knew with absolute certainty she did not. She turned back to find JC watching her.
“I know,” Edie said, responding to JC’s advice before she had a chance to give it. “She’ll come around faster if we leave her alone.”
JC looked surprised, then amused. “Skye has no chance against you,” she said before refocusing on Faina. “We’ll talk about what you’re proposing, but I need you to know this has to go through the proper channels. I need authority and clearance and support on this.” She looked between Edie and Faina. “And I need both of you to promise that you’re not going to go rogue.”
“Because you would lose your job if we did,” Faina said. “We won’t risk that.”
JC looked startled. “No,” she said. “I mean, yes, but that’s not why I’m asking for your promise. We don’t have enough manpower, even using Skye’s security contacts, to cover a plan like you are proposing. And I won’t put either of you at risk. It’s either aboveboard and fully resourced, or it doesn’t happen.”
Edie and Faina exchanged a quick look.
“Promise,” Edie said.
“Yes, I agree also.”
Edie heard the soft grinding of gravel as Skye approached. She looked more in control, though no less stressed.
“I’d like to hear your plan for making contact with Alex Rada,” she said.
“At the laundromat,” Faina said immediately. “He knows the owner. I can have a message delivered there and explain I want to meet. Tell him I have Edie with me, that she wants him to re-hypnotize her to get the information out.”
“Would you ask to meet him there?” JC said.
“No,” Skye said. “The massage therapy office.”
“He will remain suspicious,” Faina warned, “no matter what story I give him. He will believe the police are part of it, setting this up.”
Repercussions Page 19
