Harlequin Nocturne March 2014 Bundle: Shadowmaster\Running with Wolves (20 page)

She followed Behr and his colleagues to the heavily guarded elevator bank and up to the top floor, where dozens of security personnel lined the hall leading to the mayoral suite. After further identity checks, she and her escorts continued past a quartet of heavily armed guards outside the door and entered the mayor's reception room. Another eight guards ranged around the room. The security panel had been closed over the reinforced window overlooking the square.

“Nix,” Aaron said, embracing her under the hard eyes of his security team. “When I heard you'd nearly died...”

Forcing her body to relax in spite of her urge to spit in his face, Phoenix smiled. “As you see,” she said, “I'm fine.” She pulled away and met his troubled gaze. “I only wish I'd been able to stop the assassination.”

With a low mutter, Shepherd walked a little unsteadily to a teak sideboard. “If you don't mind,” he said, and poured himself a measure of rare whiskey. He downed it in one swallow and turned abruptly to face her again. “You know it wasn't Patterson they wanted. The assassin thought
I'd
be there.”

Phoenix took a deep breath and looked around, noting the expressionless faces that watched her as intently as they did their employer. As if they expected her to attack the mayor right in front of them.

But his would-be assassin was already in custody. He might have some reason to fear a second attempt by one of Drakon's allies. But how could any of them be so stupid as to try now?

Drakon,
she thought.
Focus on Drakon
.

Feeling unsteady herself, Phoenix took a seat on the couch. Aaron fiddled with an empty glass as if he was considering a refill. But he set it aside and glanced around the room at his army of protectors.

“I want all of you to step outside,” he said.

“That won't be possible, sir,” said the woman who was obviously the head of the team.

“There is no other entrance or exit from this suite except that one,” Aaron said, nodding at the door. “And no one's getting through that window. I want to speak to Agent Stryker alone.”

At first it seemed that the team leader would refuse, but at last she signaled to the others, including Phoenix's escort, and they all filed out of the room.

“We'll have to leave the door partly open, sir,” the woman said as she stood in the doorway.

“Fine,” Shepherd said. “But don't interfere unless I call.”

“Understood, sir,” the woman said with a short nod. She closed the door halfway and stepped outside.

Phoenix got to her feet, unable to bear sitting still. “Are you all right, Aaron? I know this has been a terrible shock....”

He smiled as he joined her, though his expression was more than merely strained. It concealed the kind of suppressed fury that only comes with the frustration of some grand ambition.

The ambition of a man who wanted to make a name for himself that would never be forgotten.

Chapter 20

“Y
ou've decided to use my name again,” he said to Phoenix. “Maybe coming so close to death has made you see things a little differently than you did before.”

His words truly startled her. They were almost malicious in tone, as if he felt he'd won some kind of victory. Over her.

“Sit,” he said, almost pushing her down onto the couch. He sat beside her. “Agent Ward gave me a personal report when you returned,” he said. “She told me how courageous you were, following the assassin up to the roof.” He stretched his arm along the back of the couch, his hand inches from her shoulder. “She also told me what a remarkable job you did in gaining his trust, in spite of your ultimate failure to stop him.”

That Brita had given such a glowing report was only another cause for alarm, Phoenix thought. She remembered her last conversation with Shepherd, how he had expected her to bring
“Sammael”
in before the meeting to exchange Matthew Patterson. How he'd implied that Patterson wanted him dead. How he'd asked her to work for
him,
not Aegis, and report any suspicions she might have about Patterson directly to his office.

Instead, Patterson had died. And somehow Shepherd still believed
he
had been the target. Wouldn't his rival's death have changed all his theories about Patterson's possible part in an assassination attempt?

But if Brita's claims were true, and Patterson was working with Shepherd in the creation of the unknown weapon...what did his reaction mean?

“I fully acknowledge my failure,” she said, lowering her head. “I let you down, after you trusted me.”

He turned toward her and tilted her chin up with his fingertips. “Don't be so hard on yourself, Nix. I know you did your best. Though I admit I'm a little puzzled about how it took you so long to realize he was a Nightsider, let alone the assassin.”

Taking care to breathe normally, Phoenix waited for the other shoe to drop. Had Brita told him that she and Drakon had been lovers, and that she'd deliberately failed to report any suspicions she might have had? Could Brita have told him she and Drakon had planned to leave the city together?

No,
she thought. If Shepherd really believed that, she'd be in a detention cell herself. He was probing, trying to extract more information than he'd already been given. She didn't plan to let him have any more than she had to, and she'd have to be extremely careful about asking to see Drakon. Or asking any questions about him at all.

“You're right,” she said, meeting Aaron's gaze. “I wasn't prepared for how far I'd have to go to get the information I was sent to retrieve. I suspected he had some connection to the Opiri almost from the beginning, or that someone in his Hold did. I had to earn his trust, and I was eventually put in a position where I had to admit that I had been sent to locate and expose Bosses in the Fringe. After that, I had to win his trust all over again.”

“By becoming his lover?”

Phoenix knew she was walking on the edge of the Wall, in danger of cutting her feet to ribbons even if she didn't fall.

“I was told to use any and all means at my disposal,” she said. “But I'm sure you know that.”

He pulled his hand back and clenched his fist against his thigh. “And you finally discovered what he was
after
you left Aegis with our response to his offer for Matthew Patterson's life.”

“Yes. I did what I could to protect Lieutenant Patterson. And until the end, Drakon wouldn't let me out of his sight. He had a personal grudge against Patterson, but that was from before he was converted. I was only able to get through to him as much as I did because he was still attached to his human past.”

“But not enough to refuse to kill the leader of his own former people.”

“No.” She looked down again. “I'm sorry, Aaron. Sorry I didn't do a better job. Sorry I had to go so far with him, and ended up with so little.”

“Are you?” The harshness in his voice compelled her to meet his gaze. “You didn't develop any feelings for this monster?”

She widened her eyes as if she were genuinely shocked. “For a bloodsucker? The kind who killed my father and caused my mother's suicide?”

“But you're part of them, too, aren't you?”

She held his gaze, refusing to give ground even if it might have been the wiser thing to do. “So was my father,” she said, “and he died a hero. So are the best Aegis operatives, and the Enclave couldn't survive without them to patrol the Zone. That doesn't mean we have to
be
like them.”

He seemed to relax a little, as if she'd just passed some kind of test. “I'm glad to hear you say that, Nix,” he said, running his hand through his perfectly groomed hair. “We've picked up three other Opir spies in the Fringe, exposed by an anonymous informant. We hope to get more information out of them, as well as this Drakon.”

Anonymous informant?
Phoenix thought with a deeper sense of dread. “It's possible Drakon intended to kill Patterson all along,” she said, testing the waters to see how Shepherd would respond to the suggestion...especially when it was very close to the truth. “When Drakon was human and Patterson was Commissioner of the Enforcement Bureau, he was responsible for killing Drakon's wife and son. Maybe it wasn't enough for him, holding Patterson's son hostage and forcing the senator to hear his private records read aloud in front of his peers.”

“Yes,” Shepherd murmured, as if he'd never considered the idea at all, so intent had he been on the idea that the assassin's bullet had been meant for him. “I'm sure the prisoner will tell us very soon.”

“I know how important it is to get the intelligence,” she said cautiously, “but I came to understand Drakon well enough to know he's not likely to give up any information that might in any way reveal the details of his mission.”

“He has courage,” Shepherd said, rising and moving toward the window as if he could see through the panels. “It has required stringent measures to even begin to break down his resistance.”

It was one of the most difficult things she had ever done, but Phoenix managed to conceal her rage. “You mean torture.”

“That's forbidden by Treaty,” he said. “Though of course we know the Opiri use it against our people.”

“But you're considering the possibility that Drakon really was trying to kill Patterson?”

“You always managed to make me see things more clearly, Nix,” he said, turning back to her with what seemed a genuine smile. “Perhaps I was too hasty. But if Patterson was the intended target all along, we still have to be sure of the motive. Revenge seems the obvious reason, but if it wasn't...”

“Could someone inside the Enclave have hired Drakon to do it?”

“What?” He stared at her as if she'd gone crazy. “Hire an Opir spy?”

“Drakon used to live in the Enclave. He knew people here, had family. There might have been others who hated Patterson as much as he did.”

“Highly unlikely.”

She decided to step straight off the cliff, hoping she wouldn't end up broken at the bottom along with Drakon. “I knew you and Patterson weren't friends. You even said he wouldn't mind seeing you dead. But
you
didn't hate him, did you?”

“No,” he said, a harsh note entering his voice.

“Still, if someone—one of Patterson's more fanatical supporters, for instance—were to get hold of that idea, no matter how unlikely it seems,” she said, “someone could possibly think one of
your
supporters had it done.”

All at once Shepherd was striding toward her, his eyes filled with irrational fury. “Shut up!” he yelled. “Don't you dare—”

The security chief appeared in the doorway, her weapon halfway drawn. “Your Honor?” she said, staring at Phoenix. “Do you need assistance?”

“No,” he snarled, standing over Phoenix with clenched fists. “Get out.” He breathed sharply through his nose, obviously struggling to gain command of himself.

“Why would you even say something like that?” he demanded, his voice raw with anger. “None of my people—
none
of them—”

“I'm sorry,” she said, injecting a plea into the words. “I was only considering every possibility, especially the ones that might hurt you and what you're trying to achieve.”

The tension went out of his clenched jaw, but there was no lessening of the ferocity in his eyes. He almost looked like a Nightsider out for blood.

“You know I would never allow that to happen,” he said softly.

“Of course not.”

“But you're right. It isn't impossible that someone might come up with such a fantastic scenario. That's why we have to get a full confession out of Drakon.”

Phoenix's stomach knotted. She'd managed to make it worse. He'd do anything it took....

“I see how much that disturbs you, though you've done an excellent job trying to hide it,” Shepherd said. “I guessed at our last meeting, but I kept telling myself I was wrong.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Don't bother, Nix.” He sighed, returned to the sideboard and poured himself another two fingers of whiskey. “There are a few things I need to tell you, things I'd never confide to someone who didn't have as much riding on this as I have.” He swallowed the whiskey and set it down very carefully, as if he was afraid another loud noise would arouse his security to stronger action. “I want you to understand something very clearly. Patterson and I were not enemies. We were allies. Almost no one knew about this, but we shared the same goals. Defeat the bloodsuckers once and for all.”

Rigidly still, Phoenix waited. Waited for him to admit his part in creating the biological weapon, trusting her with a secret that literally meant life or death for thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands.

“We know they're planning something,” Shepherd said, apparently unaware of her horror. “Something big. We needed to get them panicking over the prospect of a mayor who wanted to stop deportation, and let Patterson take the heat in the Enclave for continuing to support it. We wanted the Nightsiders confused, off balance. We wanted their war party to make a premature move, without the backing of the entire Erebusian Council. And when we heard about the assassin, we knew it was paying off.”

Phoenix released her breath. “I...I don't understand. You
wanted
them to make an attempt on your life?”

“We deliberately set things up so that there would be opportunities for a clever Opiri operative,” he said. “We let it get out with our agents in the Zone that our government was weakening because of the battles between me and Patterson. Obviously, we succeeded in provoking a response.”

“From the Expansionist Party,” Phoenix said slowly, remembering what Drakon had said. “But you were taking a huge risk. A successful assassination attempt would give that party power enough to gain support for a more direct attack.”

“But if they failed, and word of the failure got to the Council, there would be political upheaval in Erebus. We'd have more time to...deal with the unstable situation between our nations.”

More time,
Phoenix thought. But not merely to
“deal with the unstable situation,”
as he'd suggested.

“But Patterson is dead,” she said.

Shepherd picked up a pack of cigarettes and tapped it against the sideboard. “Because you weren't the only agent who failed. Brita was one of the first. She discovered the plot in the first place, but we still didn't know who the assassin was, who he'd be targeting, or if there was more than one. She was supposed to carry out the same assignment you were, but not to break cover until she was certain she could identify and expose the assassin or assassins. We sent out more than a dozen other operatives to support her. We were lucky; only three of them died, apparently in ordinary altercations with Fringe crews. The rest of them got back before they were exposed.”

Phoenix got to her feet. “Why wasn't I told any of this?”

“We didn't want any future operatives to be...influenced by what had happened before.”

“And you sent
me
in...why?”

“Because you were an unknown quantity, and that was exactly what we seemed to need. Not human, not full dhampir. And I knew you were motivated. You wanted to prove yourself. We decided to take a chance.”

She laughed. “Phoenix Stryker, the only agent capable of finding and defeating the evil assassin you wanted to show up.”

“We didn't know what would happen,” Aaron said, removing a cigarette from the pack. “We hoped Brita would be able to make contact with you and pass on information, in which case she'd have instructed you to return immediately. Which was, I believe, what you were originally ordered to do.”

Phoenix ignored his chiding, knowing it was just another way Shepherd was trying to throw her off balance. “Brita didn't contact me or tell me who she was until she knew Drakon was going to make the assassination attempt.”

She expected disbelief, but Shepherd only pushed the cigarette between his lips and pulled a gold lighter from an inner pocket of his jacket. He lit the cigarette.

“I'm aware of Brita's...shortcomings,” he said in a flat voice. “More than you can imagine. And that's why I've got a proposition for you.” He inhaled and blew the smoke in Phoenix's direction. “Maybe your lover won't have to suffer quite as much if you help me out now. I'll let you speak to him alone, with no cameras or recorders.”

Black dread fogged Phoenix's vision. He wouldn't believe any more denials now. He knew
her
too well. And what he was about to ask must be terrible, indeed.