Licensed To Thrill

by Gemma Brocato

  I scrambled into my sleeping bag and fluffed the covers over the lower half of my face, tucking my chin to my chest. Outside the thin tent walls, one car door slammed, then a second.

  “Good evening.”

  My skin crawled when I recognized Viktor Koszlov’s voice, and a phantom ache coursed along the scar on my belly. Danger imminent, my fangs descended from my gums so hard and fast I gasped at the pain. Breath dammed up in my chest, and had my heart still been mortal, it would be slamming against my ribs loud enough to be heard. Dreaded memories took viselike possession of my thoughts. Slowly, I located my Walther in my waistband and pulled it free. Before I let him near me again, I’d shoot the bastard in the balls and head—that way I’d get both his brains.

  “Hello,” Lucien took the lead in introducing himself and Bax.

  Tamsyn wisely remained mute.

  “I vas told of a third scientist, but I see only two of you. Gregorie, vere you mistaken?”

  Viktor’s heavily accented, deadly tone etched icicles down my back. I still heard that voice in my worst nightmares. I tightened my grip on the pistol, the cold metal digging into my palm. Deliberately retracting my fangs, I fought to ease my breath.

  “Nyet, there was a third.” Gregorie’s reply was gruff, as though he didn’t like being questioned.

  The fruit didn’t fall far from the tree.

  “Ah, you’re referring to Ms. Bellows. She developed a severe migraine, the poor dear. Took some medication that knocks her clean out. I expect she’ll sleep for hours.” Lucien lowered his voice as though confiding a secret. “Left Turner and me here by ourselves to do all the work.”

  “Yeah, kind of a drag.” Oh, Baxter. We were really going to need to work on his degree of suave. So lacking at the moment.

  “Like a woman, da? Trying to get out of a little vork?” The harsh chuckle Viktor released was so flipping familiar and brought so much horror careening to the surface of my skin, I nearly wept with loathing.

  “Our Bellows is a hard taskmaster when she isn’t ill.” Lucien’s deep voice was filled with laughter.

  I was glad he’d stuck to using our phony surnames instead of our first. Less chance Koszlov would connect Jayne Bellows with the spy he’d tortured twenty some years ago.

  I was so looking forward to ending the son of a bitch’s life.

  Gregorie interjected, “And where is your pilot?”

  Oh, yeah, the jerk that was meant to keep tabs on us.

  “I’m afraid I shared a wee bit too much of a lovely bottle of Jameson with him. He’s also sleeping,” Lucien drawled in his cultured Italian accent.

  My sensitive vampire hearing picked up Gregorie muttering and stomping toward Yuri’s tent. He could have been shouting for the intensity in his tone. It wouldn’t matter. The flyboy wouldn’t be waking any time soon.

  “My son informed me Yuri is needed early tomorrow on Pitcairn. I came by to let you know my private plane is at your service.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Lucien replied. I wondered if Viktor could hear the edge of panic in Lucien’s voice. “We’ll be finished here before dawn. We’ll be able to load up and return with Yuri. I doubt he’ll be sober enough to fly much before then anyway.”

  God bless my favorite demon.

  “Ah, vell, the offer stands. If you need additional supplies, or perhaps you have to make a trip back from Pitcairn. In fact, I vill be flying there myself tomorrow. An important shipment of cargo must be transported to London.” Hold on. He was heading toward London. My heart skipped when images of all the possible targets flickered through my brain, like an old school kaleidoscope. Viktor continued, “I’ll refuel at Pitcairn. Alas, it would have been nice to have company other than Gregorie and my bodyguards for the trip. The vork of UNESCO fascinates me.”

  “You’re headed to London?” Baxter’s voice cracked like a twelve-year-old boy’s.

  “Yes. There is a pressing matter I must attend to near the Thames estuary. I vill leave around noon, if you have a change of mind. I would be happy to…how do you Americans say it…punch hit for you.”

  “Pinch hit,” Baxter replied.

  “Ah da! Sometimes I mess up your quaint sayings and sports analogies. Vee did not play baseball in Soviet Union.”

  Just listening to Viktor’s smarmy laugh made me long to crush his skull with a baseball bat. Terror had zipped through me when he’d mentioned the Thames River. Given what Thierry-Sue had told me of the water-soluble nature of the chemical being produced in the underground facility on Rapa Nui, I worried for the safety of the population of the British capital.

  For damn sure, we’d be checking out of the resort this morning and catching the fastest transport back to the UK.

  “Vell, I am sorry to not have met your fellow scientist, er…Ms. Bellows. Perhaps another time, if you are still in the vicinity vhen I return. Gregorie! Da-vai!” Viktor ordered his spawn to get a move on.

  “Hey, wait!” Baxter’s voice was animated. “I wondered…nah, you wouldn’t want to…”

  “I wouldn’t vant to do vhat?”

  “I was wondering, well, you see, my mom wants a picture of me by one of the moai. But she insisted that someone who lives on Easter Island be in the shot. I hoped maybe you’d take a picture with me.”

  “Vhy would your mother request this?”

  “I can’t be sure. But she’s my mom. I try to please her.”

  “Very vell.”

  “Really? That’d be swell. Here, Lucien. Can you take a pic?”

  “Sure,” Lucien replied. After a moment of silence, he said, “Say moai!”

  His command was followed by laughter and then by Baxter’s profuse thanks.

  The instant the car’s motor turned over, I released a pent-up breath.

  I whipped my cell phone out of my pocket before the vehicle’s engine noise faded in the distance and dialed VIS headquarters.

  Penn answered on the third ring. “How may I help you, Solo?”

  The zipper hissed as I slid it open and emerged from the tent. “Book three tickets to London. First flight out tomorrow morning.”

  Hard gravel dug into the soles of my feet. I ignored the discomfort.

  Lucien and Bax scurried around, already breaking down the camp.

  “Have you finished mapping the facility?”

  “We’ll be done in an hour and on our way back to Pitcairn shortly after.” I’d fly the helicopter myself. “It’s vital we return to London immediately. And I must speak to T right now.”

  “She’s in a meeting with the Prime Minister.”

  I exhaled harshly. “So much the better. Interrupt her. I have information vital to the safety of the people of London.”

  “Standby, I’ll try to connect you.”

  “Penn, do not put me on—” Too late. An instrumental version of George Michael’s “Faith” was already searing my ear. I hung my head, imagining putting a bullet in Penn’s phone because he’d put me on hold.

  I slapped the Walther still clutched in my fist against my thigh. I hated it when a plan had to be thrown together hastily. And this was going to be one for the record books.

  “Are you arranging flights?” Lucien asked as he passed me hauling an oversize, rectangular plastic carrying case.

  Phone still pressed to my ear, I replied, “Penn’s on it. Have you contacted Lucifer?”

  “Not yet. I’ll do it after our gear is packed up.”

  “What’s the ETA on the program’s completion?” We couldn’t leave Rapa Nui with an incomplete schematic. That might result in disaster if we had to infiltrate without knowing an exact point of ingress and extra exit options, just in case.

  “Twenty minutes. I’ll send Baxter to collect the booster discs as soon as we have the full view.”

  I turned and followed him to the helicopter. “Seriously? You want to send the human when you and I run faster?”

  He grunted as he shoved the crate into the cargo hold. “I thought you wanted to ditch
the mortal.”

  “I do. But not here. He’d be easy game for Viktor if I stranded him here. He’d never survive the torture. I’m not a total monster.”

  He pecked my lips, a grin curving his mouth up. “I never thought you were.”

  I resisted the urge to lean into Lucien and surrender my worry for a moment.

  But now wasn’t the time. I followed him back to the campfire.

  Baxter had tossed the contents of my tent out the door and was deconstructing it. “I’ll be done here in a flash. Should I wake Yuri?”

  “Not yet. He’ll be the last order of business. In fact, we probably won’t wake him at all.”

  “Who’s gonna fly the bird?” Bax got on his knees and folded the polyester fabric into a small lump.

  “I’ll do it.”

  A curt nod was my only answer as Bax crammed the tent into the convenient carry bag. He went to work on the second tent.

  “Tamsyn, what was that with the picture taking?”

  “We don’t have a recent photo on file of the asshole. But now we do.”

  “Hmm, that was fast thinking.”

  Baxter arched a brow and smiled at me. “Was that praise, Jayne?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe.”

  Lucien fiddled with his laptop, hopefully figuring out a way to speed up the mapping process.

  “Lucien, call Drax Quinn,” I instructed, urgency hardening my voice. “He might have a work-around that can help.” We wanted a complete picture, and Drax was brilliant with technology.

  I pulled the phone away from my ear. I’d been on hold for five fucking minutes. Three hundred seconds we just lost in the rush to protect the Thames and London’s water supply.

  I was about to disconnect and redial when the phone clicked, and a tinny woman’s voice came across. “This call is being moved to a secure line. Code in?”

  Shit, what was my code? Something stupid, I remembered that much. “Um…daybreakers?”

  “Thank you. Stand by.”

  More clicks and a high-pitched squeal. Each second felt like a lifetime. I couldn’t remember experiencing this level of impatience or anxiety ever. Even when Koszlov had held me prisoner, making me listen to my teammates tortured screams. A bead of sweat trickled down my temple.

  I flicked on the Walther’s safety and tucked the gun back in my waistband in order to swipe away the annoying moisture.

  Finally, I heard the tone indicating my encrypted call had been connected.

  “Bond? Where are you?” T demanded.

  “About to debark from Rapa Nui. We were right…Koszlov is behind the plot. He’s here now.”

  She gasped. “Did he spot you?”

  “No. But that’s not important.”

  “It is, Jayne. You’re our best operative.”

  I pulled the phone back from my ear and stared at the screen. When had she decided I was the supreme super spy?

  “Bond? Solo?”

  “Yes, I’m here.”

  “I’m putting you on speaker with the PM.”

  Irritated, I waited for the elected official to come on the line.

  The instant he did, I launched into my explanation. “Viktor is heading to London tomorrow, complete with a cargo of God knows what. As I reported earlier, we suspect he’s designed the chemical to be used with a water source. That’s confirmed now. He mentioned the Thames estuary.” Uncharacteristic panic clogged my breath. Sometimes my lingering humanity sucked. This would be easier if I could be dispassionate…detached emotionally.

  I hauled in a deep gulp of air. “I think we need to dispatch the military to the Barrier and any other major drinking water facilities. We need to watch for attempts to poison the water supply.”

  “Good God!” The startled outburst came from the PM.

  T echoed the sentiment, punctuating it with a harsh inhalation.

  “I have Penn booking flights. Our map is nearly complete. We’ll need architectural analysis to determine points of entry and extraction before we can take him down here. With the DIA’s help, meaning Lucien diAvola, we’ll be of more assistance in London, putting a stop to his madness.”

  “If we can catch him here, the facility on Rapa might become a secondary target. We’ll have the mastermind in custody.” Morose mirth sounded in T’s voice.

  Except… “He’s got an evil spawn working with him. Gregorie Koszlov, his son. I need eyes on whatever intel we have on him.” Desire to nail the son became almost as great as my driving urge to remove his father from the face of the earth.

  Lucien stepped over to me and displayed his phone. Confirmation of the reservation of a private jet had been delivered. Which meant Baxter and my phones would have the same message. I was going to petition for a raise for Penn.

  When I nodded, Lucien went back to his laptop. I could see on the monitor he’d used the supernatural web to video chat with Drax, the man’s strong, handsome features filling a small square on the screen. The technology was in beta testing, but as far as I was concerned, it was the shit. Mortals might have FaceTime, but we creatures of the night had way cooler toys.

  “Whatever we have or can dig up will be in your inbox for you as soon as you land at Farnborough.” T’s voice was knife sharp. “Operatives from the VIS will greet you at the Arrivals Hall and escort you to wherever you need to go.”

  “Thanks, T. We’ll be done here shortly and on our way.”

  “Stay alert, Solo. And keep Duet safe.”

  I rang off without acknowledging her sentiment. She knew I’d do my best.

  The computers pinged, one after the other.

  “Done. The map’s complete,” Lucien announced.

  I shoved my phone in my pocket and located my boots where Bax had tossed them from the tent. I worked my feet into the high-top leather brogans and laced them tight.

  “You’re right. You’ll run faster. Here.” Lucien handed me a piece of equipment that resembled a stud finder. “Aim it at the ground as you run. It’s dark and we don’t want you missing them. This device will let you know when a disc is in the vicinity.”

  “Can you grab the one I buried just over there?” I gestured to a nearby moai where the surveyor’s level was still planted.

  “On it.”

  I patted his cheek. “Keep the guppy working. I’ll be right back.”

  In two seconds, I was on my way and up to top vampire speed, the demon tool Lucien had given me bleating out a slow, steady locator beacon.

  I hoped whatever destructive device Viktor planted in London would be as easy to find.

  8

  Mission Day 5

  Over The North Atlantic

  Lucien uploaded the schematic to the DIA and VIS clouds on the flight from Rapa Nui back to Pitcairn. Yuri had remained unconscious for the entire return trip. He never knew I’d commandeered his bird. Using my NLP skills, I suggested via the radio to the tower personnel that Yuri was at the stick. No one looked twice at us when I scrambled out of the pilot’s seat. Our landing on the helipad was textbook. As soon as I shut down the motor, we blasted from the interior and hotfooted it to the private airstrip where our next transport waited.

  We’d traveled for nearly twenty hours with stops in Bogota and Algiers to refuel and change pilots. Thank goodness for those stops. We were on the ground less than an hour each time, but it was long enough to stretch our legs for a few minutes and climb back aboard.

  Bax, the only mortal among us, had slept for five hours once we took off from Colombia. Even now he drowsed.

  Lucien and I, being dedicated spies and supernatural beings, worked through the flight. Adrenaline flowed through my veins and kept me alert and jittery. But I felt the lack of nutrition, either psychic or sanguine. I couldn’t remember the last time I had a headache this severe.

  Poor Lucien wasn’t in any better shape. He downed the dark, bitter coffee the plane was equipped with like it was water.

  We were in constant contact with Drax and the 3-D architect he’d coerced into
crawling out of bed on short, short notice. Connected via secured satellite phone, we finally pinpointed the best way into the underground facility.

  Unfortunately, there was three hundred feet of water between the surface and the small subsurface effluent pipe.

  Traveling through a stream of excrement from the facility was literally going to be a shitty experience. Fortunately, Drax had pointed out a clear-out tube that looked large enough to accommodate Lucien’s broad shoulders. At least we wouldn’t be in the grated pipe too long.

  I check the time on the display on the corner of my laptop. “Drax, can you alert T we’ll be landing in five hours?”

  “Will do,” he replied.

  Damnation, he was even attractive after having been working steadily for the past thirty-six hours with no rest. There was no mistaking the twinkle in his deep brown eyes.

  I was certain I didn’t look nearly as good.

  “And thanks for all your help. You and Penn have been tireless.”

  “It was nothing. Get some rest, Jayne. You look done in.”

  His image vanished from the screen as Lucien disconnected the link.

  On a long, sibilant exhale, I relaxed my head against the seat back and indulged in the luxury of closing my eyes.

  “This assignment sucks.” Lucien wound his arm around my shoulder, drawing me near.

  I stiffened my spine, resisting the intimacy. “On every level,” I agreed.

  He cupped his palm on my cheek and urged my head to his shoulder.

  Tired of fighting, tired of working so hard to save humankind from a monster like Koszlov, tired of warring to keep my own humanity and maintain my existence, I gave into the pressure. His upper chest made a hard but warm pillow.

  “I wish…” I wasn’t sure how to finish my thought.

  “Tell me.”

  I drew a sigh and shifted in the plush leather seat until I found a more comfortable position. “I wish we were dealing with any megalomaniac other than Koszlov.” I hadn’t been around at the time, but Genghis Khan had a rosier reputation than Viktor.

  “We play the hand we’re dealt, Jayne. You know that.” Lucien wove his fingers through mine and pulled our joined hands to his stomach.