Obviously, yes, thought Edie. She was about to walk into a meet with a man who embedded information in her head. Who held his half sister captive and beat her when she didn’t comply. Edie had to hope his ego would make him overstep.
Donaldson’s face disappeared as the video conference wrapped up. JC and Skye kept looking at the schematics, and Sasha wandered back out to join them.
“I’ll take the lead,” Edie said to Faina. “I think you should still play it scared. From what you’ve said of your brother, I think he’ll like that we need something from him. It will make him feel powerful. And hopefully boastful. The sooner we get him to talk, the sooner this can be over.”
“I agree,” Faina said. “About his ego and feeling powerful. But he is suspicious. He’s a monster, but he’s smart. I just don’t think he’s going to fall for this.” She waved her hand at the schematics of the clinic on the screen.
“He might not,” JC said from across the room. “He might not be there at all. He might try to derail plans. In fact, we have to anticipate his agenda. And intervene at the right time.”
Skye walked closer to Faina and Edie. She was in full planning, protective mode. “You both need to know that my agenda is to get you two out of there safely. I don’t give a fuck about information or a confession or anything else. You’ll listen to me, and I’ll get you out. Understood?”
Faina glanced quickly at JC, who was staring pointedly in the other direction. “Yes, understood,” Faina said.
Skye switched her gaze to Edie, the first time she’d looked directly at her since she’d walked back into the loft. Edie wanted to welcome her back, to remind Skye of their connection. But the Skye who would listen to that was not present.
“Yes,” Edie said. “Understood.”
Half an hour to debrief was no time at all. As they discussed evacuation routes, optimal positions in the room, leading questions, wireless communication, and distress signals, Edie felt a slight break from the energy around her. She felt disconnected, as if she was an observer simply trying to make sense of a scene. As everyone else ramped up, Edie slowed down.
“You ready for your tracker?” JC brought a plastic kit over to Edie on the couch. Edie blinked and realized Skye was adjusting her earpiece and Faina was slowly turning her head from side to side as if testing her range of motion.
“These look more like what they have on TV,” Edie said.
JC gave a short laugh. “Let’s hope they work as well as the ones on TV. I’m going to put this just inside the back of your shirt. It’s tiny, you won’t feel it. Just don’t lose your shirt out there.”
“Not a problem.” Edie appreciated JC’s attempt at humour, even though she was struggling.
Edie felt JC’s cold fingers on the back of her neck.
“I get the sense my fire buddy over there has fucked up.”
Edie didn’t reply.
“If she has,” JC continued, “she’ll make it right. And if she doesn’t…” JC laughed quietly. “I was going to say that I would kick her ass. But I believe, Ms. Black, that you will have that covered.”
JC patted Edie’s shirt back into place and sat back. “There, we’re done. You good?”
A layered question, Edie thought. So many ways to answer.
“Yes,” Edie said firmly.
JC put a hand on Edie’s shoulder. “Ten minutes, Ms. Black. We’ve got this. I’ll see you on the other side of this thing.”
Ten minutes. Ten minutes to breathe and think and not think. Ten minutes to catapult herself forward and backward through time. To relive moments of regret, reassess her readiness, find the sparks of anger that put her in this position and fan them into a controlled, burning flame. Edie looked around the loft at her own team, placed herself firmly in this present with these people and their shared goal. Scared or not, this was happening. And Edie was ready.
* * *
“Edie in the front with me. Faina, you take the back.”
The two women complied without saying a word. The garage was cold and damp, the sounds of the car doors slamming were too loud. Edie shivered. Her nerves were taut, and a low-lying headache had settled at the base of her skull not long after JC had left and the whole plan had finally been set into motion. The car was uncomfortably silent, a moving tension that stretched and filled the space. Edie breathed.
Skye tapped at her phone, and the garage door opened. The sun was still a few hours from rising, but the deepness of the dark caught Edie off guard. The streets were completely empty.
“I need you both to know that I will follow the plan as outlined by Donaldson, insofar as it aligns with keeping you safe. If you can get information, get information. If you can’t, I’m pulling you,” Skye said in her authoritative voice. “You both have two trackers and a backup. So do I. I’m armed because they’ll expect that. The Russians will likely make me give up my weapon and my phone. I have a backup of both. Get in there, ask questions, draw out Rada. Leave the rest to Donaldson’s team. Any questions?”
A meet. An interview. An information exchange. That’s all this was. Edie had done this countless times before.
“If Rada hasn’t shown up in five minutes, then I’m calling off the—” Skye paused and tilted her head, touching her finger to her earpiece. “Go ahead.” Another pause as she listened. “Just now? What does it say?” Skye cursed under her breath and yanked the steering wheel over abruptly to the curb. She looked in her rearview mirrors and scanned the area before speaking again. “Send the image to me. Faina can read it.”
Skye pulled out her cell phone from one of the cargo pockets. She tapped at her earpiece as she tapped at her phone.
“Sasha, did you get that? Yes, stand down for now.” Skye turned in her seat to address both Edie and Faina. “Someone just put a note on the door of the clinic. It’s in Russian. Donaldson is getting his own interpreter, but I want you to take a look at it.” Skye opened an image on her screen and handed the phone to Faina. “It’s blurry because it’s zoomed in. See what you can decode.”
Faina took the phone with a steady hand and zoomed in on the image. She was frowning.
“I’m not sure I understand. I believe it says five morning and pig’s back and this word could mean building or…what’s the word…kiosk.”
Skye took the phone back from Faina and started typing as she talked. “They want a meet at Hog’s Back Pavilion, that’s near the falls. At five a.m. JC, did you get that?” Skye sighed in frustration. “Yes, Donaldson, I can identify access points as well as you can. That’s not my primary concern. We have no sitrep, no teams in place, and no time to get teams in place. I’m aborting.” Even from the passenger seat, Edie could hear the faint buzz of noise through Skye’s earpiece. “Yes, I’ve read them in. No, this is a completely unacceptable level of risk. Only an idiot would—”
Edie put her hand gently on Skye’s forearm. “Put it on speaker,” she said quietly. She and Faina needed to hear what was going on, and Skye needed to be rescued before she said something she couldn’t take back.
Skye said nothing, just stared blankly down at Edie’s hand as if she were evaluating an unknown object, trying to assess its function in the environment. Then she reached up and put her phone in the hands-free unit on the dash, subtly and effectively breaking their connection.
“Okay,” she said and hit the icon for speaker. “Donaldson and Caldwell, you’re on speaker.”
Edie heard Donaldson swear. The spiraling lack of control around this situation clearly had everyone on edge.
“We can have backup teams on site in twenty minutes. Twenty-five, tops,” Donaldson said. “Both sides of the falls and the bridge. I’m sending a map now.”
“That’s not good enough,” Skye said. “We’ll have no one at the pavilion other than two beat cops at the end of their shift who don’t have a fucking clue what’s going on.”
“Ms. Kenny—”
“Don’t bother, Donaldson,” Skye said shortly. “Twenty-five minute
s puts us past the meet time. And don’t pretend these are advance teams. They’re cover teams or cleanup teams, and that is unacceptable.”
“We lose them if we don’t make this meet,” Donaldson said, his voice hard. “We lose any chance of recovering the information that will—”
“I don’t give a—”
“I want to go.”
Faina’s voice was loud enough to be heard but calm enough that it cut through the escalating fight.
Skye and Edie both turned in their seats to face Faina. The streetlights lit up half her face with an orange tinge, the other in shadow. But her eyes had an internal fire, a zeal and purpose that made her look powerful. That made Edie ever so slightly afraid.
“I think we should listen to Skye on this,” Edie said. “Donaldson’s agenda is to get that meet information at any cost. It’s not worth it.”
Faina was shaking her head, emphatic in her denial. “I think you should stay. I will go on my own. My own risk. If I am ever going to convince the officials that I am not a threat, that I am not now and have never worked with my brother or sister on this, I need to follow through. I need to see my brother. I will bring him in, and maybe then they will believe me. Maybe then they will let me stay.”
Edie’s breath fled as an ache of sadness pressed against her chest. So many competing motivations, so many assessments of risk. And so much to lose.
“Not on your own.” JC’s voice came over the speaker. Edie had almost forgotten they were listening. “You go with backup or you don’t go at all. Kenny’s right about the risk. I’m leaning toward not at all.”
The car was suddenly filled with noise, voices that argued and chased each other down. Edie was lost in it, and she closed her eyes, the headache ratcheting up another notch. They were losing time.
Suddenly silence filled the car again. When she opened her eyes, she saw Skye had muted the conversation.
“It’s not safe,” Skye said to Faina.
Faina smiled sadly. “You are not telling me anything I do not already know, Skye. But either way, I am not safe. I will be deported, likely charged with multiple offences. I am not safe.” She emphasized every one of those words and Edie felt them all like hammer blows to her skull. “For the first time in a very long time, I have the opportunity to pursue a life course, to contribute something for the greater good. I see a glimpse of my own life at the end of this. I want to make that happen. If that means risking meeting my brother, I will.”
More silence. Edie didn’t know what to say and, clearly, neither did Skye. How to contradict Faina’s logic? How to argue the pursuit of happiness in her own life?
“I will leave the car,” Faina said when neither of them spoke. “Skye, you will stay with Edie. Call it in. They’ll pick me up and take me to the new location.” For the first time, her voice quavered. “And I’ll see you at the end of this. Edie, I’ll need some tea, so you can have that ready for me, okay?”
Crying was unhelpful in this moment, but Edie cried anyway. This wasn’t right.
When Edie did not speak, Faina once again filled the silence. “I love you, you know. You are family to me. Skye, take good care of her.”
Edie couldn’t breathe or swallow. This could not be happening, everything was spiraling so quickly, and all of it was so wrong. She heard the car door open.
“Stop,” she said, the word a command and a force and a directive to the world to just slow down, pause, and take a moment. She was suddenly very sure this was not where they were headed. This was not the next step in a life that had been hijacked. She would write the ending to this. As much as she could.
“We go together,” she said. “We stick with the plan. Just a new location.” She reached up and unmuted the speaker. A cacophony of voices. “Listen up,” she said, loudly enough to be heard over the din. “We’re going to the clinic as planned, assume they are watching for us. Skye will get out and pick up the note. We’ll drive to Hog’s Back Falls. Set up your teams. Do what you need to do.” She leaned back and waved vaguely at the phone on the dash. Skye could take over and figure out the details. The certainty in her chest that going with Faina was the right move outweighed the uncertainty at the outcome. Edie could hear Dr. Wallace’s voice in her head. They are all just moments. You can handle moments.
She felt a light touch against her arm. “Thank you, my friend.” Edie squeezed Faina’s hand.
Edie closed her eyes when Skye pulled her Jeep back onto the street. Voices continued unabated, Skye adding her thoughts, the anger in her voice a steady simmer Edie wasn’t sure anyone else could detect.
“I’m taking the most direct route,” Edie heard Skye say. She opened her eyes and oriented herself in space. “Elgin Street to Colonel By Drive. Sasha, give me an account of the route every step of the way. Caldwell, I want an update from the street cops near the falls. Donaldson, tell me how far out your teams are.”
Moments. Pieces of the puzzle. Edie looked around. Traffic was bare, just the occasional car or taxi or produce truck passing them on the straightway through downtown.
“Approaching Pretoria Bridge underpass. Taxi ahead,” Skye said. Still so tense. Mind on the mission. “I’ll make the right onto Colonel By in one minute. Donaldson, I could use that update.”
Edie could hear the cars on the Queensway above as they entered the underpass. It was the city’s major artery, connecting them to Toronto, Montreal, and beyond. It never slept.
Edie heard the squealing of tires and the revving of an engine almost at the same moment as the crash from behind them sent her flying forward against her seat belt.
“Ambush!” Skye yelled. “JC, I need you. Pretoria Bridge underpass. Now!”
Skye wrenched the steering wheel of the Jeep hard left into the empty oncoming traffic lane. The taxi in front peeled around until it blocked them in and straddled the median. Skye swore and gunned the gas, trying to get around, but the taxi lurched forward, cutting her off. Skye jammed the gear into reverse, halted by another crash as Skye hit whoever was behind them.
“I’m boxed in,” Skye said, even as she tried to find a way out. “Full-sized commercial transport truck, dark paint, no logo, can’t see the plates. Shit. Two, no, three assailants emerging from the truck. Anytime now, Caldwell.”
Edie’s heart wouldn’t stop pounding, adrenaline making her shake, making everything sharp, making her fear acute. A figure emerged from the taxi and walked rapidly toward the Jeep.
“Skye, the taxi.” Edie got no more warning out before men were banging at the windows and kicking at the doors.
“Fuck that. Hold on.” Skye pressed her foot down on the gas, sending the men flying back as the Jeep rammed into the taxi. It skidded sideways with the awful screech of metal on metal, and then a sharp crack ricocheted through the underpass as the back window of the Jeep exploded in a shower of glass. Edie screamed and ducked, Faina cried out, and Skye swore as the window beside her exploded and arms reached in through the broken glass.
“Edie, Faina, run!”
But Edie was reaching across the centre divide and punching the hands that grabbed at Skye, wrenching a finger back until it snapped and someone yelled in Russian as Skye elbowed the unseen assailant. One of them wrenched the passenger door open, pulled Edie’s seat belt away, and got her out of the car. Arms gripped her hair and around her chest, lifting her off the ground. She knew she was supposed to go limp, to make it harder to carry her away. She tried, but every muscle in her body screamed for action, to hit and kick and bite and run.
When she saw Faina being pulled from the Jeep as well, her rage and fear would not let her go. Skye emerged, kicking one of the assailants so hard in the chest he flew back and bounced against the pavement. Two more attacked, and she caught one with a blow to his throat that sent his head snapping back. But as he went down he must have swept her legs and she fell, disappearing behind the Jeep. Edie could hear the scuffle of bodies, the echo of shouts in the underpass, and her own continuous scream.
<
br /> “You shut up,” the man holding her yelled in her ear in a thick accent. A side door of the truck opened and the men passed Faina to another set of hands that jerked her inside. Edie tried to crane her neck around to see where Skye had ended up, but the man yanked her head around and tried to lift her.
Edie kicked back. She didn’t have enough room to get much power behind it but she connected with his shin, tangled her legs with his, and he faltered. Without thinking, Edie snapped her head back and felt her skull connect with his cheekbone. The man cursed and his grip slipped. Edie fought like a wild animal and got two full steps away from her captor. Skye was being kicked on the ground, then a man knelt and pulled Skye’s hands behind her back.
“No!” Just a few more steps and Edie could have reached her. She was strong enough for this. JC was seconds away. She could help Skye to her feet. They would fight.
But the grip tightened on her wrist and Edie’s captor swung her around so violently that she ended up right at the entrance to the truck, where she was lifted and flung inside. She hit the metal floor, sliding with momentum until she lay still. Edie could taste blood in her mouth, and the mixture of rage and fear made her want to throw up.
“Edie.” Faina’s voice was very faint, almost lost in the rumble of the engine, in the lurching movement as the truck began to move.
“No,” Edie moaned. This wasn’t happening. She heard a thud behind her then the slam of a door, shouting, and the truck accelerated, making Edie slide a little as the truck rapidly gained speed.
“Edie? Faina?”
Skye. Relief flooded Edie’s system. She pushed herself up on her arms and crawled toward Skye’s voice. The truck swayed and lurched around a corner. Edie fell over, but she pushed herself back up until she touched Skye’s boot with her hand. She kept moving until she had crawled up beside Skye, who was half propped against one of the walls.
“Are you okay?”
“Just winded. Need a moment. You?”
Repercussions Page 22
