A small intake of breath came from him just as the door to the bedroom burst open, bathing the otherwise dark room in light. Rurik did his best to get his fully erect penis back into his pants and cleared his throat, still facing the window.
“Hey, Sput-Rurik,” said Bill, strolling in as if knocking was a thing of the past. As he pushed the door open farther, the broken pieces of the microphone were shoved aside. “Did I interrupt a special moment between you and your hand? Want me to grab one of my girlie mags, or are you just picturing Liberty Bell while you choke the shit out of your monster of a chicken there? Dude, you doing that raw? I’ve got lotion. Want me to grab that too or are you Russians into pain?”
With a grunt, Rurik rounded on him fully. “I told you not to open that door unless it was an emergency.”
Bill held up a cell phone, confusing Rurik, since he knew damn well that he’d relieved Bill of his mobile device earlier on the drive into Durham. “The dead guy says it’s important. Ergo…it is an emergency.”
With a grunt, Rurik shook his head and then made sure his pants were done up. That was easier said than done seeing as how his dick wasn’t cooperating at the moment.
Bill grinned. “I’ll never tell—that many people.”
“Where is Gus?” asked Rurik, knowing full well the pair could get into trouble in record time.
“Down in the living room, watching the street,” said Bill with a shrug. “He’s on high alert. I ain’t gonna try to talk him down. When he sets his mind to something, there is no reasoning with him. You gonna talk to Frenchie or not?”
Rurik nearly declined but gave in, going for the phone if for no other reason than to get Bill to leave him alone. “What do you want?”
“You to learn to answer your phone,” snapped Auberi, annoyance evident. “I’ve been trying to reach you for hours.”
“I’m aware,” returned Rurik, still glaring at Bill as the man went over to the surveillance equipment and began toying with it. Within seconds, he’d knocked over a tripod, tried to catch the camera mounted to it, only to send it flying in Rurik’s direction. Putting out a hand, Rurik caught the camera, never taking his eyes from the annoying man, all while continuing to speak to Auberi.
“Nice reflexes, Russia,” stated Bill, moving his arm in a way that left him knocking over yet another piece of equipment. This time Bill managed to catch it himself but not without a loud production and several colorful curse words.
“Dare I ask?” questioned Auberi.
“No,” said Rurik.
Chapter Nineteen
Silence greeted Rurik on the other end of the phone, and he entertained hanging up on Auberi. He didn’t want to talk to the vampire. All he really wanted to do was punch the damn Frenchman in the face for having ever suggested Liberty and her friends might be working with the bad guys. Had Auberi been standing before him, France would have been down one vampire.
“Very well then,” returned Auberi. “Now, about the mission.”
Rurik twisted and glanced out the window again in the direction of Liberty’s house. For a second, he thought he saw someone in the upstairs window, looking back at him, but he blinked and there was nothing there. Just the light sway of the curtains as the fan continued to blow them.
Taking a deep breath, he caught the telltale smell of pending rain just as a light breeze started. That only added to the movement in the windows from across the street. If he didn’t get a handle on his jumpy over-vigilance, he’d end up waging a war against drapery.
That would earn him Asshole of the Week for sure. Hell, the guys would probably get him a valance or something to commemorate the moment.
“Are you listening, or did you hang up?” asked Auberi, aggravated.
“I hung up,” snapped Rurik.
“Aren’t you pleasant. I’m almost sad I’m not there with you to enjoy your lovely disposition,” said Auberi.
“What did you want to tell me about the mission?” demanded Rurik. “More bullshit about Liberty working for The Corporation? She’s not. Neither are her roommates. I’m sure of it.”
Auberi was quiet a moment before speaking. “Rurik?”
“What?”
“Want to tell me why it is you sound so passionate about the women not being part of The Corporation?” asked Auberi.
Rurik considered telling Auberi to go fuck himself but resisted. “Because they’re not. They can’t be. I know evil. They’re not it. They were concerned over Bill’s well-being and confronted me over my treatment of him.”
“Do I want to know what kind of treatment we’re talking about here? This wouldn’t happen to be Geneva-Convention-level infractions, would it?” asked Auberi, concern in his voice. “My daughter has taken a liking to Bill. I don’t want to have to explain why I let a bear-shifter eat him.”
“I haven’t eaten him,” said Rurik, glancing at Bill to find the man had somehow managed to wrap himself up in the cords of the surveillance equipment and was now hopping on one foot in a rather pathetic attempt to get loose. “Yet.”
With the way Rurik’s last several weeks had been going, everyone in the neighborhood was probably watching the events unfold since Bill had left the door open to the room, permitting the hallway light to illuminate the room for all to see. They’d probably gotten a good look at Rurik’s dick in the process too.
He groaned at the thought.
“That really is all I can ask for when it comes to Bill,” admitted Auberi. “Now, back to the women you’re there to observe.”
Going to the door of the room, Rurik closed it before taking his position at the window once more. His eyes needed a second to adjust to the absence of extra light. When they did, he thought he saw shadows in the upstairs windows of the other home.
That couldn’t be, especially since Liberty was currently opening the front door and checking the mailbox and Isobel and Daisy weren’t there.
He really needed to get his head straight. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he was masturbating while on watch and had entertained the idea she could be his mate, he was now seeing things. Duke would mock him endlessly if he found out about it all.
“Rurik,” said Auberi. “Are you there?”
“I am,” returned Rurik as he considered killing Bill simply to keep his secret. “I know you sent me here with the idea these women are wrapped up with The Corporation, but I don’t think they’re part of it at all. No. I know they’re not.”
“Here is the thing, Rurik, I have confirmation that they are wrapped up with The Corporation,” said Auberi.
Rurik’s bear side picked then to surge. He snarled into the phone, his mouth starting to change shape. “No!”
“Oh shit!” shouted Bill, putting his hands up as if to signal surrender. “Don’t go bearing out on us. I ain’t in the mood to handle a massive shitstorm. Speaking of shit…what kind of question is ‘does a bear shit in the woods?’ Of course bears shit in the woods. Unless they’re Russian shifters and then they do it in a toilet—at least I hope they do.”
Rurik snarled at Bill.
“Whoa, calm down, Rurik,” said Auberi. “You didn’t let me finish what I was trying to say. I have confirmation the women are tied to The Corporation, just not in the way we first thought. There’s been an incident at headquarters. We’ve uncovered another mole at this division of PSI. With that discovery came new intel. So, you’re right in the sense the women aren’t working with The Corporation, but you’re wrong in thinking they have no ties to them, because they do.”
Rurik tensed, his mouth returning to its normal shape. “How so?”
“Are you ready for this?” asked Auberi. “If what I’m looking over is right, the women were part of The Asia Project testing. I have people digging for additional details, but what they’re coming back with already is eye-opening. The level of detail the mole had on the women in Durham is frightening.”
Rurik felt faint. “W-what does the information say?”
Auberi was quiet a
second before speaking. “That the women were among one of the groups of children that came through this PSI branch about twenty years back. I didn’t have any direct dealings with them because I was locked in a cell on a cooling-off period, if you’ll recall, but I think you did, Rurik. At least that is what these notes indicate.”
Rurik stared blankly at the house across the street as the onslaught of additional information swept over him. Hope surged as he thought about Little Paw, until he realized none of the women had scars on their faces. Knowing how substantial her injuries had been, it meant none of the women were her. Still, the women could potentially have ties to Little Paw. Through them, he might find leads as to what happened to the little girl who’d trusted him.
As he stood there, weeding through the implications of it all, his mind kept forcing his thoughts back to Liberty. For a split second Little Paw and Liberty blurred in his head. He saw Little Paw there, peeking out at him from under his desk with wide chocolate-brown eyes and brown hair. Then the image quickly morphed into Liberty in her place, with the same color eyes and same shade of brown hair.
He took a half step back as he closed his eyes, seeing the two blur again and again. He thought about Little Paw holding the Statue of Liberty figurine Duke had given him and reading it, thinking his name was Jackass.
Instantly, he recalled Liberty’s first word to him in the driveaway.
“Jackass,” he whispered with a sharp intake of breath.
“You’re no peach either, Rurik,” said Auberi.
“Not you,” said Rurik, his eyes snapping open, his sights set on the house across the street.
The fact that Liberty lacked the scars Little Paw would have most certainly been left with kept him from overreacting more, but just barely.
“Talking to you on the telephone is like speaking to a wall. I never know if you’re there or if you’ve hung up,” said Auberi. “Is it a Russian thing or an asshole thing?”
“Bite me,” snapped Rurik before clearing his throat. “You mentioned them having ties to me. How so?”
“You’re gonna love this, Boris,” said Duke, sounding close to Auberi.
Additional voices came from the other end of the phone. If Rurik was correct, Auberi was near Garth, Duke, and Blaise, all of whom seemed to be talking at once, making it difficult to follow the conversation.
“If someone doesn’t get to the fucking point soon, I’m going to find each of you and let you know what I think about your information-relaying abilities,” he warned.
“You’re sure?” asked Blaise in the background. “This is a problem.”
“A big fucking problem,” added Garth.
The voices were suddenly muffled before Auberi returned. “The situation is fluid. Information is continuing to come in. The long and short of it is, we believe you and the women you were sent to observe are in danger. Keep your head on a swivel. We are headed your way.”
Rurik’s chest tightened as he thought about something happening to Liberty.
“Before I hang up, do you know someone named Pavel?” asked Auberi.
Instantly the scent Rurik had thought he’d smelled near Liberty at the university came flooding back to him, making his pulse race.
“Did you hear me?” asked Auberi. “Do you know a man by the name of Pavel?”
“Yes,” said Rurik, his throat constricting. “W-why?”
“His name is scribbled in the margins of this notebook,” said Auberi. “I’ve seen manifestos that are more coherent than most of these ramblings. What can you tell me about the man?”
“That if he’s involved, there is a reason for concern,” confessed Rurik. “And that there is a long game occurring. One we’re not fully aware of. He’s a master manipulator and twisted in the head. And Auberi…”
“Yes?”
“He is involved,” stated Rurik as sweat began to trickle down his spine. He wanted to run to Liberty, but doing so would only scare her. If she didn’t already know about the testing from her childhood or The Corporation, his showing up ranting about it all would only serve to scare the shit out of her.
“You’ve seen him?” asked Auberi, surprise in his voice.
Rurik shook his head. “No. I smelled him earlier, near one of the women. I thought it was my imagination. His scent was slightly off. Different from what I remember, but not by much. The scent was also all over a classroom and office at the university, as if he’d spent a great deal of time there.”
As the words left Rurik’s mouth, he thought back to the subject matter Liberty had said the professor taught—Russian literature.
Any doubt he’d had that Pavel was involved melted away. Too many things lined up to be explained away as random happenstance. Rurik’s past was back to haunt him.
Suddenly, Rurik’s being in Durham seemed less like chance and more like part of a greater plan.
He needed to be armed with as much information as possible. Already he was behind the curve and standing in the proverbial bear’s den. Pavel had the upper hand, for now. “What can you tell me of the mole?”
“You know her better than I do,” said Auberi.
“Her?” asked Rurik.
“Yes. Garth wanted me to tell you that you were apparently right in calling the mole Satan,” said Auberi. “She is evidently in cahoots with Pavel.”
Rurik’s eyes widened. “The perky therapist? She’s a mole? A plant? She’s in league with Pavel? Are you sure? She was a pain in my ass, but I’m not so sure about her being diabolical.”
“Yes, we’re sure,” said Auberi. “A few hours back, a call came in. Operatives were dispatched to the apartment of a young woman named Miranda Sillier.”
“Isn’t that the therapist’s name?” asked Rurik, thinking of how perky the woman had been and how unnatural that was. There was something about her that he’d never liked or trusted, obviously for good reason. How had she managed to gain access to a secure facility? Didn’t PSI have checks and balances in place to prevent such a thing?
“Miranda isn’t her real name,” said Auberi. “She assumed the real Miranda’s identity and used her credentials.”
“What happened to the actual Miranda Sillier?” asked Rurik, his gut telling him he already knew the answer.
Auberi was quiet a second. “Her body was found in her apartment. Estimated time of death is around fourteen days ago. At least that’s what I’m being told. Keep in mind, Garth is the one relaying the newest information as Duke drives. Garth is on his phone with James back at headquarters. I find the Viking to be dimwitted so who knows if he can count or not.”
“Suck my… Never mind,” said Garth loudly. “I forgot who I was talking to. You’ll take me up on the suggestion.”
“Oh please. You are not my type,” Auberi shot back with a grunt. “Someone tell me what my daughter sees in you.”
“I was hurt two weeks back, and a week after that was when I woke to find Satan there, inserting herself into my recovery,” said Rurik in a state of stunned disbelief. His thoughts were a mess. He hadn’t had a straight one since meeting Liberty and was starting to think he never would again. “I don’t understand her motivation for pretending to be someone who would only gain access to injured operatives like me. I’m of no real importance to The Corporation. I get why Pavel would pop up out of the woodwork. He and I have unfinished business, but I’m not important to The Corporation.”
Auberi was quiet a second. “Rurik, if these notes are right, you’re of huge importance to them. From what I’m reading here, they think they know who your mate is, and they want to test the theory. You’re aware of the lengths they’ve gone to with other mated pairs? They want to create an army of super soldiers. They’ll go about it any way they can. With a mated pair, they could bypass their issues with hybrid creations and have access to a supernatural child in utero and the ability to create more.”
At the word mate, Rurik’s head filled with images of Liberty once again. He swayed and would have fallen had he n
ot reached out fast and grabbed the small side table to steady himself. His near-miss of a meltdown only moments before Auberi had called came flooding back to him. He’d been right about everything lining up perfectly. That all the indicators of her being his mate were in place.
She was his woman. The one made for him.
“Rurik!” shouted Auberi, gaining his attention.
“She’s my mate?” asked Rurik, desperation clinging to his every word. Denial was a powerful beast, managing to win out over the actual animal he carried in him. “She can’t be. No.”
“Rurik,” said Auberi softly. “I hear it in your voice. I think you’ve already suspected as much, am I right?”
“Yes,” admitted Rurik.
“Shit,” said Auberi. “We’re on our way to you. Stay close to her. Be vigilant. The mole escaped our clutches and there is no telling how much information she’s passed on to the enemy. She was there when I gave you the assignment this morning. She heard vital details. She knows PSI is now involved, and if she’s any good at her job, she has to know we’re on to her. That makes her and this Pavel character all the more dangerous.”
Rurik stood there, too horrified at the implications to move or think.
“Rurik!” shouted Auberi.
“W-what?”
“Would he harm your mate?” asked Auberi, hesitation in his voice.
Rurik closed his eyes a moment and hung his head. “Yes.”
“You’re not at full strength,” said Auberi. “Get your mate and the other women somewhere safe. Secure the location. Reach out and pass the details on to us. We should be there in about two hours.”
Looking up, Rurik glanced toward Liberty’s house. He saw movement happening in more than one window again. It was probably nothing more than the fans blowing the curtains again, but on the off chance it wasn’t, he needed to be there.
Knowing his head was hardly in a place where it could make a rational decision, he turned to Bill for help.
Act of Surveillance: Paranormal Security and Intelligence® an Immortal Ops® World Novel (PSI-Ops/Immortal Ops Book 7) Page 18
