Operation Heartbreaker (14 page)

“I still don’t get why Cole doesn’t just erase Mitchel. I mean, okay, he is the president and extremely well protected. But it’s not impossible.“ What’s more, her father was supposedly the best, so shouldn’t he be able to manage it? That’s what all this was about anyway, right?

“Cole’s aim is not the death of the ones responsible,” Sergej informed her. “Well, with the exemption of Cyrus, whose guts he hates.”

“Why?”

“Cyrus was the head of the CIA research department. He initiated the SK project and presented it to his boss at the time, Mitchel. Cyrus was the motor and the head behind it, and when the shit hit the fan he took over the crisis management.”

How convenient. First he messed up, then he took over the cover-up. In order to save his ass, Cyrus had every single test person including their families killed. The thought made her nauseous. How could somebody be so unscrupulous?

“Cole wants Mitchel to be held accountable. If he’s dead he is of no use. To prove Mitchel’s involvement he needs the list, otherwise he can’t do anything.”

“And why do you want the thump drive?”

Sergej sat up straight and pointed his index finger at her as if wanting to push it against her chest.

“I want revenge for Elena.”

~ * ~

An overwhelming feeling of déjà-vu engulfed him while pointing the gun sight at the Russian. Forty-eight hours earlier he’d been lying in the exact same spot. Sergej’s suite was right above Viktor’s, so it hadn’t even been necessary to find a new hide-out. It said a lot about his sloppy security, that he didn’t even bother to place a security post on the roof. And yet, the entire world was supposed to believe he was dead. If he continued working this sloppily, that would probably be the case in the near future.

Cole’s focus went back to Ally. She looked tired, no surprise there. Ever since she’d landed in Paris she’d been keeping him on his toes. Underneath her exhaustion was something else though, a new strength. As if somebody had lit up a light, and he deeply regretted not being the one to set this power free.

At home she often seemed depressed. To his shame he had to admit that at some point he’d gotten used to her sadness. Looking at her now, he wanted to put a bullet into his knee for his ignorance. He’d made a lot of mistakes in his life, but one of the worst had been not to care for his daughter the way she’d deserved.

Though the isolation had been intended to protect her, the ensuing loneliness certainly didn’t help a child to develop. At the end of the day this protection wasn’t worth shit if she died on the inside like an abandoned flower without sunlight. It was her girlfriend who conjured a smile on her face, not him. Cole regretted the time he’d missed with his baby girl. The opportunity to watch her grow up was gone, lost forever. All the missed birthdays and tributes he hadn’t been able to attend because he’d been busy hunting down the bastards who’d done this to him.

He wished his gift would work like Ally’s. It would have saved him a lot and made things easier. Unlike his daughter he had to touch things or people before he could locate them. A photograph didn’t help, he needed the direct energy of a person or an item he wanted to track down. That’s why it had been so complicated to find the USB drive. Only Sergej’s accidental coup had turned the tide. Thanks to the weak Russian security it had been a breeze to get it into his possession. Sergej should be happy that he’d taken it, otherwise it would have ended up in the hands of the Secret Service. It was more than doubtful if he would have found it again. It was the last memory stick with the list of conspirators including President Mitchel.

A commotion at the entrance drew his attention. A young woman vehemently demanded access to the hotel. The doorman spoke into a walkie-talkie, but the girl squeezed right by and entered the revolving door faster than he could react.

Cole shook his head in disbelief. Weak was an understatement describing Sergej’s security.

He couldn’t help smiling. Who would have thought that the observation of his daughter would be so entertaining?

13

Ally frowned. All of this was well and good, but what did Sergej’s wife have to do with SK and why did he need the flash drive for his revenge?

Before she could ask, the phone on Sergej’s nightstand rang. Viktor’s father cursed and ripped the receiver off the hook. “Da!”

Judging by the row coming from the receiver somebody was making a big fuss down in the lobby. Unfortunately, the nagging seemed awfully familiar to her.

“Prinesite yego!”
Bring her up!

Sergej slammed the receiver back down and threw a resentful glance at his son. “I thought you nabbed her without attracting attention.” He nodded towards Ally.

What was that supposed to mean?

Before Viktor could react, the door to the salon slammed open and a shrill girl’s voice reached them.

“…told you already that you should take your paws off me! My horoscope said that today’s the day to make friends. But the way you’re approaching this we’re not getting there!”

Ally suppressed a groan. What had she done to be cursed with hard luck? Julie was the last person she wanted to see near the Russian Mafia boss.

On the other hand a part of her was relieved to have her friend by her side. A pretty big part of her, to be honest.

“What’s more, I’m writing a Math exam tomorrow which I still have to study for. That’s why I’m a little bit in a mood if you know what I mean.”

With these words she entered the bedroom, accompanied by Goliath. The head of the shaven giant had taken on the color of an overly ripe tomato. Judging by the expression on his face he was about to throw something against the wall. Or somebody, for that matter.

Yes, Ally thought and smiled. Julie had this effect on some people.

“Ally!” she called out after discovering her friend. She freed herself from the vise-like grip of her escort in one go and ran towards her. They fell into each other’s arms like they hadn’t seen for weeks, despite the fact they’d been together a few hours ago.

“I’ve been worried sick! Your uncle is livid! He’s having the entire city searched for you.”

Ally could visualize that oh so well.

“It took me forever until finally the idea struck me to ask our Mr. Hottie here,” she nodded towards Viktor, “if he knew where to find you.” She threw Viktor a look of reproach. “But his iron pumper friends refused to let me in!”

Viktor opened his mouth, but Julie wasn’t finished yet.

“Ally,” she said and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial tone. “You won’t believe what I’ve found out. I finally got something useful on this worthless notebook. And you know what, it was all in a single data file. In the end it was so simple my forehead almost landed on the keyboard. The file had a number, your birthday, can you believe it? I was going to tell you last night, but you were sound asleep.”

As if. She’d had a sleepless night and slowly the lack began to take an effect. Maybe that was the reason for her next words: “And, what was in it?”

“Everything! I mean, I had no idea of the dimension–it’s unbelievable! Did you know that even the president is involved?” Julie looked at her expectantly. “Um, the president of the United States, not the one of the school newspaper,” she added when Ally didn’t show the desired reaction.

Sergej broke into dark laughter. Only now Julie seemed to notice him, for she starred with her mouth hanging open. She leaned towards Ally. “Why is this man wearing a curtain as bathrobe?”

It was as if somebody had flipped the switch. She’d had little to laugh about recently, the burden of the last days hung like a millstone around her neck. But Julie was like a ray of sunshine, bringing light even into the darkest abyss.

Disregarding all logic, Ally burst out laughing. She laughed until she started crying and had stitches. Oddly, Viktor joined in with her. Finally, she sunk into a ruby colored chair with golden tassels, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Julie squeezed in beside her and wiped away her tears of laughter. “What’s so funny?”, she asked, earning yet another roar of laughter from Ally.

Shaking her head, she sat up straight. “What would I do without you, Julie?”

Her friend grinned. “Wait until you see what I’ve found. You’ll never believe it!”

“Mitchel and this Cyrus Patrick-dude created the SK program,” Ally began in a flat voice, “and now they’re after the list to cover their tracks.“

Julie seemed taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered. “Every member of this killer club had to put a fortune down to be admitted to this exclusive circle. By fortune I mean at least a hundred million dollars. For security, and to protect the partners from each other. Every freaking member got a copy of the list. It was a guarantee that nobody bailed out. But one after the other was deleted until in the end there was only one USB stick left, Mitchel’s. For a while nobody knew what was going on.

Unfortunately Cyrus hadn’t informed his partners that the stick could be erased via remote control. You only have to be close enough, push the button and,
puff
, all the information is gone.”

Wow! What cunning skunk! The members probably hadn’t been happy about this little detail.

“Your father snatched Cyrus’ stick and deactivated the self-destruction mechanism thanks to a virus.” Her eyes took on a dreamy look. “Your dad must be a genius. I’d give my pinkie to know how he did it.”

She sighed and blew a strand of hair out of her face.

“The problem is that one can’t copy the data. That’s why the stick is the only proof of Mitchel’s crap. Whoever has the flash drive, has the president by the balls,” Julie closed and threw Ally a meaningful look.

“Well, I guess that means,” Ally finally said, “that the entire apparatus of state is after my dad, right?”

Julie nodded with sorrow.

“And you thought you could take them on?” Ally asked Sergej.

“Da!” he said and nodded. “Though I wasn’t actually aware that the CIA knew that the list was in my possession.” He shrugged as if his almost-death was an embarrassing trifle.

“Is that why they killed your wife? To shut you up?” Ally still didn’t understand the connection between Sergej, the CIA and Viktor’s mom. Her own mother had died because Cole loved her. The first one they took are those held dear in order to hit where it huts the most. But Cole was in it up to his neck. He was one of them. The same doesn’t go for Sergej, right?

“Elena had to die,” Sergej started quietly, looking at his son, “because she was also part of
Special Skills
. She was one of the first test persons.”

After that declaration she needed a moment to digest all of this. She starred at Sergej in disbelief until Julie tugged at her sleeve.

“It’s true,” she whispered. “Her name is on the list of subjects, Elena Janowski.” She looked at Sergej. “That was her maiden name, right?”

Instead of answering, he took a sip of tea and closed his eyes.

Ally internally shook her head. Why in the world had Elena gotten involved in this? What had she hoped to gain?

“They recruited her while she was doing a voluntary year at the
Smithsonian
,” Julie continued.

The
Smithsonian Institution
was a research and educational institute in Washington D.C. If Elena had been enlisted she must have had special skills with focus in sciences. Ally’s eyes fell on Viktor, who looked pretty upset. His hair was messy and the expression in his eyes had darkened.

“She was,” Julie swallowed, “an exceptionally gifted doctor, right?” It was directed at Sergej, who was rubbing his forehead.

Finally, he slowly nodded. “Elena was working at the
AmClinic
in Sankt Petersburg,” he said quietly. “I was admitted there after I…” He stopped, but Ally didn’t understand.

“He was poisoned,” Viktor said in a calm voice. “Dioxin,” he added as if this made it clear.

Sergej threw him a grim glance, then he turned to Ally. “I had a dioxin concentration 50,000 times higher than normal.” He pointed at his face. “That’s the result.”

So that’s why his face was scarred. Slowly the loose puzzle pieces came together. Viktor’s mother had been part of the project. She was probably dreaming of super healing powers or something like that. Maybe she intended to do well. Every test person had a reason for joining–they all had been dreaming of something. After all, she had no idea what the government had promised them in turn.

Ally’s mind was spinning. If Elena had a gift for healing, her son was also gifted. And that would mean… Her eyes met with Viktor’s.

“You saved your father.” She didn’t say it like a question.

If possible Viktor’s expression darkened even more. He’d gotten up from the bed and was pacing the room. “They broke into our house in Sainte-Maguerite,” he squeezed out through gritted teeth. “They killed our men, the chef, the house keeper, and maids–everybody in the house. Then they tortured my father for hours. He’ll never be able to walk again without help.”

Ally and Julie stared at him with their jaws ajar.

“After it had become clear that he no longer had the pen drive they left him to die. When I found him he was more dead than alive.”

Julie grabbed Ally’s hand, who was thankful to her friend for doing so.

“Is that why you left Ukraine?” Julie asked. “Because you weren’t safe there any longer?”

Ally was glad for the change of subject. She couldn’t think of a reply or anything intelligent for that matter. How did one console a person who had lost his mother and whose father had nearly been tortured to death?

Sergej was fanning the air with his hand as if trying to chase away a fly. “The poison attack had nothing to do with any of this. I’ve got my folks back in Kiev to thank for that. Originally I had intended to go into politics but my opponents had other plans.”

She better left that uncommented. Ally cleared her throat. “Let me sum it up. Your son is one of the offspring of the SK members, just like Jean and I.” Her eyes wandered to Viktor. “Do you know anybody else?”

“We know of further offspring that were found by the CIA. The exact number is unknown,” he said quietly and leaned against one of the bed posts opposite her. “But we assume there must be more. We don’t know who they are–what they are.”

If the test persons hadn’t been unable to reproduce, and that was clearly refuted by their own existence, it was quite possible that there were further offspring. Most of the SK Soldiers hadn’t had a steady partner, but that didn’t mean that they hadn’t had sex.

Was it really possible that there were more like her and Viktor running around out there? Teenagers that were capable of doing stuff that made them different from others? Just thinking about how she’d felt when her gift alias defect had shown for the first time made her feel sick. Even though David hadn’t told her the truth, he’d been by her side. The unknown SK children weren’t that lucky. They were alone, without any idea what was wrong with them. They had to think they were mental, at least not normal in any case. Which was basically right: They were everything but normal.

“Okay then,” she got back on the subject. “Just like me, Viktor is a product of the CIA, who killed your wife.” And her mother. “You vow vengeance, steal the stick, which in turn is swiped by Cole, and now you want it back–to do what?”

“It’s not that simple,” Sergej said.

“But it is,” Julie chirps in. “I don’t want to spoil the good mood, but why do you think you can take on the CIA this time? They’ve flayed you alive before, maybe you won’t survive next time.”

When the room filled with silence, Julie looked around in discomfort. “I’m sorry, but I think we should approach the matter pragmatically.”

“I made a mistake the last time,” Sergej grunted. “It won’t happen again.”

Who was ever planning making mistakes, Ally thought, but kept it to herself.

“When I stole the pen drive I didn’t know what I held in hands. My snitch had only told me that it was a medium containing top secret information about the president and a secret project. Only when…,” he paused and corrected himself, “when being interrogated by the CIA I realized what kind of weapon I’d lost.”

Ally suppressed a shudder. Interrogation? Well, that was a way to call it.

“The data on the memory stick is encoded,” he continued, “Even the ciphers themselves are encoded. We were working on a decoding program when the Secret Service found me.” Sergej shook his head and uttered: “I had no idea.”

“What do you intend to do with the list if you get it back?”

“I’ll make its contents public,” he simply said.

“Public?” Ally and Julie asked simultaneously.

“Da! As soon as the code is deciphered a copy of the contents will be sent to every newspaper in the US.”

“You don’t have to break the code any longer,” Julie interjected. “Ally’s father has done so already. You only need the stick as a proof, since it holds the digital fingerprint of the president and his co-perpetrators. Everything else is merely formality.”

“Do you have a copy of the list?” Sergej’s icy eyes appeared like steel in the semi-darkness of the canopy.