Fauchet had once had a rugged handsomeness, but that had gotten buried in his fleshy face. Or maybe Misha was just biased. Still, it pleased him to note that Fauchet was no longer the trim man he had been a decade ago. He had thickened out. And some of that thickness was not muscle.
“Well if it isn’t Mikael Yurinovich Orlinski and the mystery woman.” Fauchet leaned back in his chair. It actually groaned under his weight. “To what do I owe this honor?”
“It’s not about you, Fauchet,” Misha said. “I have something very serious here, and if you can’t work with me, let’s find someone who can.”
Misha still held Rikki’s hand, and he squeezed it. He wanted to reassure her that everything would be all right, but he didn’t want to focus on her. Right now, he needed to concentrate on Fauchet and making sure this got done right.
Whatever bad he could say about Fauchet—and he could say a lot—there was one thing Misha knew: Fauchet was the best financial investigator that the Guild had.
“I don’t even know what the problem is,” Fauchet said. His gaze wandered to Rikki. She remained quiet beside Misha, clearly waiting for an opportunity to speak.
“Someone wants to kill Kerani,” Misha said.
Fauchet shrugged. “And this is news how?”
When Misha had told Kerani of this near the office, she had reacted to the news the same way. She had barely thought it worth his time to report it.
Their meeting had only taken a minute, so short it could barely be counted as a meeting. She hadn’t thought the threat important. She figured she was safe here. But she had been the one to give him permission to investigate the threat.
Apparently, she hadn’t contacted the investigative unit, leaving it to him. Misha hated explaining this.
“They hired Rikki to kill Kerani.”
Four people stood up. Another grabbed a weapon. Misha raised his hand to stop them all.
Rikki didn’t move. He had warned her this would happen, and he had told her a lot would ride on her remaining nonaggressive.
So far, she was listening.
“Rikki turned the job down on her own,” Misha said. “She couldn’t track the client, and that’s important to her.”
“Oh, a Rover with a conscience,” someone said from beside the door. Misha couldn’t see that person clearly, because he was in shadow.
“I’m not a Rover,” Rikki said. Misha squeezed her hand. He didn’t want her to talk. But she ignored him. “Not all independent assassins are affiliated with the Rovers.”
“Anyway,” Misha said over her. “I convinced her to take the job.”
The person with the weapon turned it toward Misha.
He ignored it, and continued to focus on Fauchet, who looked fascinated.
“I wanted the client to pay her so that we had a money trail,” Misha said.
Fauchet shrugged. “So why didn’t you follow the trail?”
“We did,” Misha said. “Whoever hired her is good. We kept losing the trail, and always in different ways. We need an expert to track it.”
Fauchet grinned. “I’ll take the compliment, even though I’m sure you didn’t mean it.”
“I did mean it,” Misha said. He didn’t add that he would have brought this to whoever was running the financial investigation division this afternoon. “This person is serious. He wants Kerani dead.”
“So you bring the killer in here,” said the person with the weapon.
Misha finally focused on him. He was young, clearly an in-the-field washout. Misha had never met him.
“Rikki didn’t want the job,” Misha said. “She’s not going to do the job. But you can bet with the kind of money this client is throwing around, someone will.”
“They won’t be able to get into the Guild,” Fauchet said. “And Kerani never leaves.”
“Rikki got in,” Misha said.
“With you vouching for her,” Fauchet said.
“See how easy it is?” Rikki asked. She clearly didn’t like Fauchet and she didn’t have Misha’s history with him. Misha squeezed her hand again, wishing she would shut up.
“Rafiq died inside the Guild,” Misha said, reminding Fauchet that the previous director had been murdered.
“Because one of ours went off his nut,” Fauchet said.
“Did one of ours go off his nut?” Misha asked. “Or was he hired?”
“We never found any money,” Fauchet said.
“People can be paid in ways other than money,” Misha said.
“Like sex,” said the man with the gun.
Misha had had enough. “Sit down,” he said to the man with the gun. “You’re embarrassing yourself. I can disarm you in a nanosecond and you know it.”
“But I’d still get a shot off,” the man said.
“And you’d miss, the way you’re holding the weapon,” said Fauchet without turning around. “You’re reflected in the door, my man, and believe me, it’s a wonder you even made it through training.”
The man glared at Misha, then looked at the others as if he expected them to back him. They didn’t. He set the gun down on a nearby table, and sat, looking chastised.
“You made your point,” Fauchet said. “Give me the information, and I’ll see what I can find.”
“You need to give Rikki a tablet,” Misha said. “She’ll open her accounts for you.”
Misha said that with some import, because he wanted Fauchet to know that Rikki was making a sacrifice too.
But as Fauchet picked up a blank tablet, he didn’t seem impressed. He handed it to Rikki.
“I’m sure you’re smart enough to decouple the accounts from your personal information,” he said to her, in a tone that implied she wasn’t that smart at all.
Misha started to defend her, but this time, it was Rikki who squeezed his hand. She took the tablet with the other hand.
“Thank you for the reminder,” she said sweetly as if she hadn’t thought of it.
She squeezed Misha’s hand a final time, then unhooked her fingers from his. Quickly, she put the account information into the tablet, then handed it to Fauchet.
“I’ve never used this account before,” she said. “So all the contacts and all of the money in it have come from the client. I made a secondary file of all the passwords and names linked to the account so you can trace the information better. Misha and I didn’t get far because this client knows what he’s doing. He encrypted things in a way I’ve never seen before.”
Her tone was careful, respectful, as if she had no idea how poorly Fauchet was treating her. Her entire behavior in the Guild had been a revelation to Misha.
No wonder people underestimated her. She lied easily, often playing dumb or downplaying something’s importance, all the while fooling the people she was talking with.
Misha hated downgrading his own intelligence, even when he was playing a role. Yet Rikki used that technique to her advantage.
He had a lot to learn from her.
She smiled sweetly and handed the tablet back to Fauchet. He took it from her, his gaze running over her face as if he was trying to memorize it.
“I can contact you if I have questions?” he asked.
“Of course,” she said. “You can reach me through Misha.”
Fauchet still held the tablet. “You’re a mystery, you know,” he said. “I’m not sure I would give up five times my usual fee for love. Even if it is our Misha here.”
Rikki smiled at him. “I never said I gave it up for love,” she said. “I didn’t like the client. He presumed that he could buy me, and I can’t be bought.”
Then she grabbed Misha’s hand. Her grip was tight, but her palms were sweaty. He frowned at her.
“Can we leave now?” she asked.
He nodded. “Find this person,” he said to Fauchet.
“Oh,” Fauchet said, bending over the tablet. “I’m sure I will.”
Rikki practically pulled Misha from that second floor room. She knew she had to keep up appearances. She had to seem out of her depth, almost subservient, just so that no one would think she was conniving.
But she knew she wasn’t the most conniving person in this compound. She wasn’t even close.
She got Misha down the steps and the moment they stepped outside into the sunshine and the flowers, she said, “I don’t like this.”
“He has hated me for years,” Misha said. “But he’s good at his job. He—”
“I don’t care about your past relationship,” she said. “Two things happened this afternoon that shouldn’t have.”
“The Guild isn’t the friendliest place to non—”
“Shut up and listen!” She raised her voice, then made herself take a deep breath. “Your friend Liora knew my name. I blew it off, figuring that I gave up my identification, but I didn’t like it. Even your friend Hazel seemed surprised by it.”
Misha frowned. She had his attention now.
“And upstairs, just a minute ago, that horrible man said that he wouldn’t give up five times his usual fee for love.”
“He wouldn’t,” Misha said. “He’s not the kind of man to care about anyone but himself.”
“You’re so caught up in your past relationships with these people that you’re not thinking about what’s actually going on,” Rikki said, her voice even lower. She had no idea if this courtyard was bugged, if there were listening devices on the bushes beside her. “Pay attention to me, Misha. I never told him about the fee. There’s nothing in my accounts that mentions the original fee that the client offered me. Only three people know that I got five times the original fee offered. You, me, and the client.”
Misha froze. She could see all of the information filter through his brain, plus, she would wager, other pieces of information as well, things that happened that had clearly caught his attention, things she couldn’t know because she didn’t have the history. She watched him put things together, and she watched him become even more serious than he had been before.
“Come with me,” he said, tugging on her hand.
“You said I can’t go anywhere else,” she said.
“If I leave you here,” he said, “someone will probably kill you. That’s what we’re all trained for, remember?”
“I can defend myself,” she said.
“Against five or six, maybe,” he said. “Against dozens? No one’s that good, Rikki. No one.”
He had a point. He pulled her forward, and together they ran in a direction she hadn’t gone before. Misha set a good pace and he had a great point about the risks to her life.
But she didn’t like any of this. They had entered some kind of no-win situation from the moment she let herself get hired.
She should have realized it when Misha told her it had been too easy to get her inside the Guild. And then that horrible Liora woman had known her name. She hadn’t taunted Rikki because she disliked Rikki or because she wanted Misha for herself.
She had taunted her to make her mad, to make her seem reckless to Hazel. But Rikki hadn’t played along. And then Misha had arrived.
Liora hadn’t left because she was angry. She had probably gone away to institute plan B—whatever that was.
Misha was running too quickly for Rikki to tell him this, and honestly, at this point, it was all supposition anyway. She had no idea where he was taking her. Maybe he was getting her out of the Guild.
That would be best for all of them.
Then they rounded a corner, and actually went through some greenery. It was a projection of some kind. The path sloped downward, and Rikki was so surprised at what she saw that she almost skidded to a stop.
Somehow, hidden among the buildings and the greenery, was an oasis of calm. A reflecting pool, surrounded by weeping willows. A woman sat on one of the benches with her feet tucked underneath it. She was elegant, wearing a deep blue sari.
She turned toward them, and Rikki gasped. It was the target. Only she was lovelier in person, with an angular face and hair so black it seemed to absorb light.
She stood when she saw them.
“Misha,” she said. “What are you doing? You are not to bring this woman here—”
Something moved behind her.
Rikki shook her hand free of Misha’s and ran toward the woman. Misha grabbed for her and missed.
The woman raised a small pistol and shot in a single movement. The shot hit Rikki, sending searing pain through her, but she didn’t stop. She passed the woman, leapt onto the bench, and used it as leverage, so that her feet hit the intruder in the throat.
Rikki landed on her back, but she wasn’t surprised to see Liora sprawled beside her.
Liora raised another pistol.
“You are so cooperative,” she said and fired.
Liora’s shot missed, just like Rikki expected it to.
At least, it missed her. She hoped to hell it hadn’t hit Kerani. Because Liora was holding Rikki’s favorite pistol, and it wouldn’t take much to make it look like Rikki had just completed the job she was paid for.
Despite the searing pain in her side, Rikki pushed off the ground and lunged for Liora. Liora let the gun drop, just like Rikki expected, and Rikki knew that the worst thing she could do at this moment was pick that gun up.