The Phoenix Encounter (19 page)

Yanking off the cover, he dropped to his knees in front of it and hit the power button. Only then did he realize that his hands were shaking. That his heart was pounding. At first he didn't understand it; he knew he wasn't in imminent danger. But he sensed it coming. Like a dark storm on the horizon full of violent wind and killer lightning and heading in his direction. Or maybe toward Lily and Jack.

He loved her and that little boy more than anything in the world. More than he'd ever believed possible. He knew Lily loved him. There was no way in hell she could look at him the way she did, make love to him the way she had if she didn't feel something powerful and real and soul deep. How in God's name was he going to make her see that? How was he going to make her see past what she deemed as her duty to a little red-haired girl named Strawberry? How was he going to keep her and Jack safe when her sense of responsibility kept putting her in harm's way?

“Damn, it, Lily,” he muttered, his voice sounding strange in the dead silence of the room.

Shoving the thoughts from his mind as best he could, he set up the digital camera and hailed ARIES headquarters. “This is PHOENIX, do you read?”

“Got you, PHOENIX.” It was Hatch's voice.

Robert tapped on the monitor, and the older man came into view.

“What do you have for me?” Hatch asked.

“DeBruzkya's headquarters is in the old Veisweimar Castle.”

“Satellites have seen some activity there,” Hatch said. “The place has been derelict for years. Now that activity makes sense.”

“He's probably using underground tunnels to store tanks and missiles, to keep them out of sight of the spy satellites.”

“Not to mention the weapons inspectors from the United Nations. Good work.”

“He is, indeed, amassing gems, but this is where things get funky.”

“Funky?”

Robert told him about the old Rebelian Gem of Power legend. When he was finished, Hatch scratched his head and said, “DeBruzkya doesn't strike me as the superstitious type.”

“You think there's more to it?”

“Don't you?”

“You mean aside from his being a lunatic?”

Hatch smiled. “What about Dr. Alex Morrow?”

“My contact couldn't place the name but said it sounded familiar.”

Hatch regarded Robert with sharp eyes for a moment. “You look strung out as hell.”

Robert didn't have anything to say about that so he remained silent.

Sighing, Hatch flipped a switch on his end. “Okay, Davidson, off the record. What the hell's going on?

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

“You know exactly what I'm talking about. Damn it, when my agents are in the field, I like to know what's going on inside their heads. I have no idea what's going on inside yours right now.”

Robert rolled his shoulder. “I've been busy. Haven't had much sleep—”

“You look like hell. You've checked in all of three times since you've been there.”

“I'm a little…distracted. That's all.”

“A little distracted can get a man killed, Robert. What gives?”

For an instant, Robert was tempted to sign off. To turn off the radio and end the questions. The last thing he wanted to do was make a fool of himself in front of his boss. How stupid was it for an agent to get involved with his contact while on a dangerous mission? Plenty stupid. Imbecilic if he wanted to be truthful about it.

“You going to talk to me or are we going to burn up the satellite waiting each other out?” Hatch snapped.

“My contact,” Robert began. “She's a woman.”

Hatch's eyes sharpened. “I'm listening.”

In all the years they'd worked together, Robert had never discussed his personal life. He was a private man and he'd always sensed Hatch was the same.

“Lillian Scott,” Hatch said after a moment. “An American journalist. I know all that.”

“She has a son.” Sighing, Robert looked out the window, realized it had begun to rain. “He's mine.”

Now it was Hatch's turn to curse, and he did so quite thoroughly. “I knew you knew her. That's one of the reasons I chose you for this mission. But I had no idea you two were involved.”

Robert looked at the monitor to see Hatch thumb an ant-acid from his pocket and pop it into his mouth. “I guess there are some things even ARIES intelligence can't know in advance.”

“I guess so,” Hatch agreed.

The rumble of thunder broke the silence, and Robert found himself thinking about Lily and Jack in the basement of the hospital all alone.

“I'm bringing you in,” Hatch said.

Robert's hackles rose. “No, you're not.”

“It's done. Cross the border into Holzberg. There will be a jet at the airport waiting to take you to Paris.”

“I haven't found out about Dr. Morrow yet.”

“You've set up base camp. You've obtained information about the gems. You've discovered the location of DeBruzkya's headquarters. That's enough for me to deem this mission successful.” He glanced at his watch. “It's oh ten hundred there in Rebelia. I want you at the airport in an hour.”

Robert stared at him, aware of the steady thrum of his heart, keenly aware that he was about to disobey a direct order and more than likely screw up his career. “I can't do that.”

“Why the hell not?” Hatch snapped.

“I'm not leaving without her.” Robert reached for the keypad to sign off.

“What do you need, PHOENIX?” Hatch asked quickly.

Robert moved his hand away from the keypad. “I need a chopper with night vision and a winch.”

“You got it. Just tell me where and when and I'll have someone there.”

“I'll let you know.” Robert hit the keypad and the screen faded to black.

L
ily lay on her side in the narrow bed and snuggled Jack against her. Exhaustion dragged at her, both physically and emotionally, but her thoughts refused to let her rest. She couldn't get Robert out of her mind. Couldn't stop thinking about all the things that had happened between them since he'd walked into her cottage just two short days ago. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw his face. The way he'd looked at her when he'd walked away. The way his eyes darkened when he touched her. The emotion in his eyes when he'd told her he loved her. He was a good man, and he loved her. But it hadn't mattered to her. She'd hurt him anyway.

Shifting restlessly beneath the blanket, she eased Jack's little body more closely against her and closed her eyes tightly. Dr. Orloff had left one of the overhead lights on. Just enough for her to make out the clock on the wall, and she'd spent the last forty minutes watching the second hand sweep endlessly around the dial.

The transfusion had taken forty-five minutes. Once the
bag of donor blood had emptied, Dr. Orloff had removed the needle from Jack's arm and applied a small pressure bandage. Lily had spoken softly to her son while the doctor checked his blood pressure and took his temperature. She'd been inordinately relieved when he'd told her Jack appeared to be tolerating the transfusion well and that he didn't expect any complications. The mild sedative he'd given Jack would wear off in a few hours, and Jack would be back to normal shortly thereafter.

But as Dr. Orloff had scrubbed down, he also reminded her that at some point Jack would need a bone marrow transplant. While her son might be the picture of health now, he could relapse in a few weeks. Leaving her with that unsettling thought, he'd told her to get some rest and then left.

That had been nearly an hour ago, and she still couldn't quiet her thoughts. Robert had always told her she had an unreasonable conscience. She felt too much for others. Not enough for herself. A flaw that had cost her plenty over the years. But Lily had always been an old soul. She'd been born knowing things—feeling things—that normally came with experience or age or both. Closing her eyes, she thought of Robert.

I love you.

His words echoed inside her head. She told herself she didn't want him to love her, but she knew that was a lie. She wondered when she'd gotten so damn good at lying to herself. She wanted him to love her. Wanted that desperately. She loved him, too. Had loved him since the day she'd met him over two years ago in that smoky little pub. She wanted a future with him. A father for Jack.

But what about your work here, Lily? Are you going to walk away from it? Are you going to walk away from the children? From Strawberry?

Closing her eyes against the barrage of thoughts, the stab of pain in her chest, she listened to the drip of water in the sink. The tick of the clock on the wall. The occasional
thump of a water pipe in the corridor beyond. Fatigue dragged at her, a turbulent river sucking her into its murky depths. She fought the current but felt herself slipping into darkness. Too much to think about. Too much to do. I love you….

Lily jolted awake, aware that she was breathing hard, that her body was slicked with sweat despite the basement chill. She wasn't sure what wakened her. Maybe the dream she'd been having about the gun. The soldier wearing the black beret…

Turning her head slightly, she glanced over at the clock, realizing only fifteen minutes had gone by. She sagged into the bed, set her hand against a soundly sleeping Jack. A series of loud pops from the corridor shattered the silence. Lily bolted upright. She'd been in Rebelia long enough to be intimately acquainted with the sound of gunfire. But she'd never grown used to it, and the sound brought gooseflesh to her arms. Next to her Jack stirred and began to whimper. Scooping him into her arms, she hugged him to her and set her hand gently over his mouth.

Her heart slammed against her ribs when she heard another series of pops, then the shuffle of boots on tile outside the door. Angry voices followed and Lily knew the soldiers had come to the hospital looking for her. Terror knifed through her at the thought. Not because she feared for her safety, but because of the child she held in her arms.

Vaulting from the bed, holding Jack against her with one arm, she kicked the pedestal brake and shoved the bed toward the small storage room. If she could get it out of sight and hide beneath it, there was a chance they wouldn't find her.

The door swung open before she'd made it halfway across the room. She looked up, saw the silhouettes of a dozen men, heard the sound of steel against steel as automatic weapons were cocked. Her only thought was that they would shoot her—shoot Jack—before even knowing who she was. Razor sharp terror cut through her. The rush
of adrenaline came so hard it made her dizzy. “Don't shoot!” she screamed in Rebelian. “I've got a baby!”

Her heart beat a hard tattoo against her ribs as several men shuffled into the room. She could tell by the black berets they wore that they were part of DeBruzkya's army. They had a distinctly cruel, ragged look about them. The look of men who'd lost a little bit of their humanity.

A tall, thin man with a goatee stepped forward, his eyes skimming the length of her and landing on Jack. Without speaking he reached into the pocket of his torn jacket, withdrew a badly wrinkled sheet of paper and showed it to the man behind him.

“En hur.”
It's her.

The man behind him was overweight and pale. A cigarette dangled from the side of his mouth. He looked at Lily and smiled. “General DeBruzkya is going to be very pleased.”

Lily glanced over her shoulder, but she knew there was no escape. She thought about the doctors and nurses aboveground and wondered how many of them these men had killed. Aware that she was shaking uncontrollably, that Jack had started to cry, she watched, horrified and transfixed, as the crowd of men parted. Her knees went weak when she saw the reverence in their eyes. Only one man she knew of could command that kind of respect—even if it wasn't earned.

Shock rattled her entire body when General Bruno DeBruzkya entered the room. For a moment, she couldn't catch her breath. Her vision tunneled on his face. A wave of disbelief swept through her. His gaze sought hers. An emotion she didn't understand touched his eyes briefly but was gone so quickly she couldn't be sure she'd seen it at all.

“Lillian Scott.”

DeBruzkya was a short, rotund man, but he had the voice of a giant. She jolted at the sound of it, then silently berated herself because she saw clearly the moment of twisted plea
sure her fear gave him. His boots clicked smartly on the tile floor as he walked to her.

“How did you find me?” she asked in a voice that sounded amazingly calm considering she was coming apart inside.

“Ah, such a lack of manners.” He tsked. “You Americans. All business. No time for small talk.”

“My son is sick,” she said, praying that would touch him in a place that was still human. That even if he killed her here and now, he would spare her son.
Please, God, don't let them hurt Jack.

Robert, where are you?

A shiver went through her when DeBruzkya reached her. He wore a snug brown-and-black uniform. Ribbons and medals adorned the left shoulder just above his heart. She thought of the pistol strapped to her thigh and wondered if she could get to it and shoot him down before the other soldiers opened fire.

He stopped a foot away from her and studied her the way a potential buyer might study an expensive piece of real estate. “You're beautiful, as always,” he said.

“What are you going to do with me?”

The hairs prickled at the nape of her neck when he walked behind her. Vaguely she was aware that the room had gone silent. That her heart was beating out of control. That her precious son was warm and soft against her breast.

“A little pale. A little thin.” He came in front of her and cocked his head. “You've lost weight since I last saw you. Are you feeling well?”

A quiver ran the length of her when he raised his hand and caressed her cheek. His hand was inordinately soft, and she wondered how such a cruel man could have such a gentle touch. Because she knew he would draw pleasure from any show of emotion, she endured his caress, steeling herself against the revulsion it brought her.

“You left me with the impression that you were going to write my autobiography,” he said. “I'd been looking
forward to working with you. And then suddenly you simply dropped out of sight.” Dropping his hand, he looked at Jack. “Nice-looking boy. I didn't realize you'd had a son.” He eyes snapped to Lily's. “I didn't realize you were…married.”

Without warning he grabbed her left hand, baring the ring finger, squeezing painfully. “Why no wedding band?”

“Let go of me.”

He squeezed with so much force that his jowls shook. Pain radiated through her finger and wrist, but she endured it without crying out. She refused to give him that much satisfaction. “I—I'm not married.”

Once again calm, he released her then leaned forward and lightly pinched Jack's cheek. A doting uncle visiting his favorite nephew. “What's his name?”

“Please don't hurt him,” she said.

“What's his name?” he repeated.

“Jack.”

“Rebelia is a dangerous place for a child.” He stepped back and folded his arms, studying them both. “I've seen terrible things happen to children.” He shrugged as if that were out of his control. “If the parents aren't careful.”

Her heart pounded furiously. “Don't you dare threaten me.”

DeBruzkya raised his eyebrows as if the thought had never occurred to him. “Such fire.”

“Don't hurt him,” she repeated.

“The rebels, Lillian. They're the ones causing all this…violence. They're out of control.”

Lily thought of Strawberry and felt her hands curl into fists. She could hear her breath coming swiftly. She tried to calm herself, but the combination of fury and terror pumped pure adrenaline through her veins. “What do you want?”

He smiled, like a rodent that had made off with the cheese an instant before the trap snapped closed. Leaning
close, well out of earshot of his men, he whispered, “You will know in due time, Lillian. It is our destiny.”

She flinched when he raised his hand abruptly and snapped his fingers. “Search her for weapons, and then they will be coming with us!” he barked in Rebelian.

“No,” she said. “Please, no.”

Glaring at her, DeBruzkya grasped her bicep and jerked her toward him, so close their faces were nearly touching. “Do you think you can make of fool of me?”

“Please, just let us go.”

“I'm never going to let you go. That's the one thing you can count on.” Cruelty glinted within the depths of his eyes. He pulled away. “Be careful with her,” he said to his men. “I don't want either of them injured.”

Trembling and incredulous and more terrified than she'd ever been in her life, Lily watched as two soldiers started toward her. She had no idea if DeBruzkya knew that she was part of the rebellion; he'd given her no indication. If he did, she felt sure that she was as good as dead—or worse. The thought sent a bitter rise of bile to the back of her throat. She'd heard the stories of what happened to rebels who were captured. Most kept a final bullet in the chamber of their pistols, preferring death over capture.

If there had been an avenue of escape at that moment she would have taken it. She would have risked a bullet in her back simply to escape whatever they had in mind for her. But with her child in her arms and a dozen soldiers surrounding her, she knew it was useless. There was no escape, and she wasn't yet to the point of suicide.

She stood motionless, her heart banging against her ribs like a mad drum. The two soldiers approached her, their faces completely devoid of emotion. Lily looked at the youngest of the two men. He couldn't have been much over twenty, and she found herself wondering if he had any idea what kind of man DeBruzkya was.

“Don't do this,” she said.

Grimacing, the younger man took her arm while the
other quickly and impersonally ran his hands over her body. Lily closed her eyes when he discovered the pistol strapped to her thigh. “General!”

But DeBruzkya was already at her side, his eyes amused and unnervingly cruel. “Ah, Lillian, you have many surprises in store for me, no?”

Because her heart was in her throat, Lily didn't answer. Just stared at him, horrified by the realization that if he took her pistol, she would have no way to protect herself or Jack.

Never taking his eyes from hers, DeBruzkya yanked up her skirt. She tried to shift away when he ran his hand over her thigh, but the soldier holding her squeezed her arm painfully, and she stilled. The general's fingers lingered inches from her panties, then quickly unholstered the tiny pistol. Smiling, he examined it and shoved it into the waistband of his slacks. “I'll keep this for you,” he said, then to his men, “let's go!”

The soldier holding her arm forced her toward the door. Lily clutched Jack tightly and tried hard not to think about what DeBruzkya had in store for them. More frightened than she'd ever been in her life, she pressed her face against the top of her son's head and began to pray.

 

Robert had learned to trust his instincts over the years. As he made his way to the hospital, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. He felt it as clearly as he felt the light rain on his face.

One block from the hospital, he ducked into the alley across the street and looked at the three-story structure, his eyes moving to the top floor, the third window over from the south side. His blood stalled in his veins when he saw the white length of curtain flapping in the breeze. It was a signal he'd discussed with Dr. Orloff. If there was a problem—any kind of problem—while Robert was at base camp, Dr. Orloff was to open that window and put out a white flag to warn him.