Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Fearghas’s knees took a beating as he followed Catya through the dark crawl space connecting her apartment with the other side of the church basement. The wood ceiling over her room quickly ended, becoming a cool stone passage barely big enough for a man his size to crawl through. His back scraped against stone, forcing him to hunker down in several places.
Whenever Catya slowed, Fearghas bumped into her and Atkins bumped into him. Without a light, Fearghas had to trust Catya to guide them through.
The banging sounds dissipated the further away they moved from the door beneath the stairs.
How far did the tunnel extend? They had to have gone the length of the church, if not further, when Fearghas bumped into Catya for the sixth time.
She scooted around, grunting softly until she sat with her back to him. “Brace me,” she said softly.
Fearghas leaned his shoulder into her back as she strained against him, pushing something with her feet.
Stone scraped against stone, and a beam of light crept through a crack.
The more Catya pushed, the more light shone through until the stone block she shoved dropped with a thump onto the soft earth below, revealing sunshine and what appeared to be a garden.
Catya crept up to the edge of the tunnel and peered out. Moments later, she dropped to the ground and disappeared from Fearghas’s line of sight.
His pulse picked up. He didn’t like it when he couldn’t see her. With killers loose in the city, anything could happen.
He hurried toward the sunlight, looked out and spotted Catya moving through the garden to a gate in the far corner.
Too big to turn in the tight space to ease gracefully out of the tunnel, Fearghas had to dive out headfirst.
When his hands hit the ground, he tucked, rolled and came up on his feet. Without waiting for Atkins, Fearghas sprinted through the garden toward Catya.
She stood at the garden gate, peering through a gap at the walkway and the canal beyond. “There’s a boat with an enclosed cabin tied to that dock,” she said. “If we take the boat, we can get closer to the train station in less time than if we walk through the streets.”
Fearghas studied the old boat. Based on its wooden decks and hull, it had been constructed in the middle of the last century. Despite its age, it was in good shape, the wood gleaming with a fresh coat of varnish. “Think we can get it started? I doubt her owner left the keys inside.”
Catya’s lips curled. “If the engine is in working condition, I can start it.”
The woman never ceased to amaze Fearghas with her vast array of talents. He leaned in and brushed his lips across hers.
When he started to straighten, she reached up, cupped the back of his neck and drew him down for a deeper version of his kiss. Though brief, it rocked him, making him want to crush her in his arms and continue kissing her, danger be damned!
When Catya broke away, he didn’t try to stop her. They had to get to the train station before the men knocking down Catya’s apartment door realized they were headed that way.
Fearghas would bet people were monitoring the train station in case Catya and Atkins made a run for it.
Catya swung her backpack from her shoulders, pulled out a baseball cap and shoved her hair up into it. She slid sunglasses over her nose and settled the backpack over her shoulders again.
She ran her glance over the two men. She nodded toward Atkins. “You should be all right.” Her attention turned to Fearghas, her brow wrinkling. “You need a hat. Your red hair is a beacon.”
Atkins pulled the cap he’d worn earlier out of his back pocket. “He can use this. The hood on my jacket is enough for me.”
Fearghas took the proffered hat and settled it on his head.
With one last glance at Fearghas and Atkins, she said, “Wait here until I get the engine running.”
Before either man could protest, Catya turned to the garden gate, looked both ways and then stepped out onto the cobblestone walkway.
She quickly crossed to the dock and jumped into the boat.
Fearghas held his breath for what felt like an eternity. When the roar of a marine engine erupted and settled into a blub-blub-blub purr, he released the breath. “Ready?” he asked the man beside him.
Atkins nodded. “Ready.”
The men left the garden and boarded the boat. Fearghas untied the line securing the craft to the dock and slipped into the cabin with Catya and Atkins.
His Russian assassin shifted into reverse, expertly breaking away from the dock. Once in the middle of the channel, she pushed the throttle forward, sending them toward the train station.
“So, once we get to the train station, where do we go from there?” Atkins asked.
“We’re meeting my guy in Brussels to see if he can break the code to get us past the logon and password.”
Fearghas kept watch on the port side of the boat while Atkins manned the starboard.
Catya focused on getting them as close to the train station as possible, to a location they could climb out without making them easy targets.
She pulled the boat into a smaller, less traveled canal and parked it against the concrete wall.
Fearghas double-checked the walkways and shadows, then climbed out of the boat and secured the line to an iron ring.
Atkins climbed out beside him and watched his back while Fearghas helped Catya up onto the walkway.
She didn’t waste time, setting off at a brisk pace, leading the way through the streets, across a bridge and into the train station.
Fearghas and Atkins flanked her, using their bodies as shields in case they ran into attackers.
“Should we purchase tickets?” Fearghas asked as Catya paused in front of the digital train schedule.
“No,” she said. “I don’t want to take a chance of someone overhearing us talking about our destination.”
“Understood,” Fearghas said.
Catya knew what she was doing, having lived the dangerous life of an assassin. She was still alive because of the precautions she’d taken along the way.
Fearghas located Brussels on the monitor and committed the platform and time to memory. “Got it.”
“Got it,” Catya echoed.
“Same,” Atkins said.
Moving through the station, they kept their heads down. Fearghas laid a hand against Catya’s back.
“See the man dressed in black jeans and a black shirt leaning against that pillar at eleven o’clock?” Catya whispered.
Fearghas’s look in the direction indicated where a bulky man leaned, seemingly engrossed in something displayed on his cell phone. He didn’t move, smile or express any emotion at what he was seeing.
Without lifting his head, the man glanced up, his gaze zeroing in on Catya.
“I see him,” Fearghas said. “And he sees you.”
“Check out his twin at two o’clock,” Atkins said.
Fearghas casually scanned the opposite side of the corridor and nodded. “Don’t forget the guy who fell in step behind us a few minutes ago.”
“So far the odds are even,”
“They just tipped in their favor,” Catya tilted her head toward a man directly ahead of them. “Ready to play some bait and switch?”
“Always,” Fearghas responded.
“I’m in,” Atkins seconded.
Catya turned toward the area where people milled about, waiting for their scheduled trains to arrive.
Two trains pulled into the already busy station, one after the other, and belched their passengers. The platforms filled with people exiting and boarding the trains.
Catya ducked her head. “Head for platform seven.”
Fearghas glanced at the electronic scheduling board and leaned close to Catya. “That’s going to Hamburg.”
She nodded. “Those men are following us. Let them see us board that train. If they’re determined to stay with us, they’ll get on the train as well.” She touched his arm. “Stay with me and be ready to do as I do.”
Fearghas met Atkins’s gaze over the top of Catya’s head. “You hear that?”
The other man nodded.
Rather than hide in the crowd, Catya stood tall and marched toward the train to Hamburg.
Fearghas and Atkins flanked her in case the men following decided to do more than follow.
Catya stood beside the train and checked the electronic sign indicating the train was due to leave in three minutes. She stepped onto the train.
Fearghas climbed the steps after her, and Atkins brought up the rear.
Catya led them down the aisle and chose seats near the opposite end of the car from where they’d entered and sank into one, facing the direction from which they’d entered.
Fearghas sat beside her, his gaze on the platform outside the train.
Atkins dropped onto the seat facing them. “Are they taking the bait?”
“They’re talking to each other.” Catya glanced at her watch. “Two minutes until the train leaves.”
The three men split up. Two entered the train car through the same door as Catya had.
“Time to move,” Catya said.
Before the two men cleared the interior door, Fearghas, Catya and Atkins left their seats and moved into the next car.
The third man walking alongside the train must have seen them through the windows. He broke into a jog.
Catya hurried down the aisle of the next car, glancing down at her watch. “Be ready,” she said over her shoulder.
Fearghas stayed on her heels, glancing back past Atkins to the men coming through the door behind them.
As Catya reached the far end of the car, the man outside the train entered the car behind them and met up with his two counterparts. They strode down the middle of the aisle, walking fast.
Catya stepped through the door into the middle space between the car with the men and the next car.
Fearghas and Atkins stepped through as well.
“I hope this works,” she murmured, hesitated a couple of seconds and then dove down the steps and out of the train.
Fearghas hurried after her.
Atkins leaped through the door the second before it snapped shut, and the train began to move away.
The men on board dove into the middle compartment, but the doors had closed, and the train began to pull away from the station.
Catya kept moving, heading for the platform where the train to Brussels stood, ready to leave in less than five minutes.
They arrived in time to board. The doors closed and locked immediately after Atkins.
The train pulled away from the station.
The three of them remained in the connection area between the two railcars until the train cleared the station. Once out of Amsterdam, they settled into seats close to the end of a car. When the train employee approached them, asking for their tickets, Fearghas paid using his credit card.
If someone was tracking his card use, it would take time to realize they were on their way to Brussels. With less than twelve hours remaining to get to Bruges, they wouldn’t be in Brussels long.
As Catya settled beside Fearghas, she drew a deep breath and let it out. “You want to tell us what this plan is and why we need to get to Brussels?”
He gave her a twisted grin. “Brussels is on the way to Bruges.”
She nodded. “Given.”
“My team is meeting us there. Dmytro has a contact who might be able to decode the password. The rest of the team is coming as backup when we head to Bruges.”
Atkins’s brows dipped. “They warned me to come alone, or my daughter would die.”
“With the amount of effort they’re giving this, they want that disk,” Fearghas said. “They won’t kill your daughter when she’s the only leverage they have over you to bring the disk to the exchange. At least they won’t kill until they have the disk in hand or within reach.”
Atkins frowned. “You’re willing to bank on my daughter’s life? What if it was your loved one they were holding?”
Fearghas’s gaze met Catya’s. “I’d mobilize every goddamn connection I had and do everything in my power to get her the hell out of there alive.”
“You have people you can trust with the life of someone you love more than your own life?” Atkins asked. The shadows in the man’s eyes darkened.
Fearghas’s eyes narrowed as he thought about the team he’d helped in Athens. Would he bet Catya’s life on them?
They’d gone all out to rescue a woman’s son being held hostage to get the woman to retrieve and deliver an ancient artifact. They’d risked their lives to help the woman and the little boy.
The team was on their way at that moment, having offered to help. He believed they would risk their lives to help him and Catya.
“Yes. I have people I trust,” Fearghas said.
Atkins shook his head. “MI6 sent me on a mission to kill a woman who might not have been a threat to anyone except for the information on a disk that likely belonged to her father. No one but the MI6 should have known of our mission—which leads me to believe someone in my organization knew what would go down before I even got the assignment and leaked it to the people who took Madison.” He drew in a breath and let it out. “I don’t know who to trust.” He waved a hand at Fearghas and Catya. “I’m putting my faith in people I don’t know and who don’t have to do this. She’s not your daughter. Why should you care?”
Catya leaned forward, placing her elbow on her knees, her gaze meeting Atkins’s. “These people killed my parents and killed a preschool teacher all for a disk. They will pay for that. As Gia Rosolino died, she was adamant I get the disk back and give it to someone I trust before more people die. Whatever is on it has people scared or greedy. I want to know who. Those are the people responsible for what’s happening.”
Atkins nodded. “Agreed. And I’m afraid someone in MI6 is that person or works for them. I have nowhere else to turn. Are you sure you can trust this Dmytro with the disk?”
Catya turned to Fearghas. “He’s your man.”
Fearghas nodded, praying he was right. “He’s got a wife and daughter. I’m sure he’d do anything for them.”
“Do you think he can get into that disk before we have to leave Brussels for Bruges?” Atkins asked.
“I don’t know,” Fearghas said. “But, right now, he’s our best shot. We need to know who is behind all this.”
Catya nodded. “That disk might be our best chance of finding the ones pulling the strings, maybe even who they’re manipulating in MI6.”
“Right,” Fearghas said. “And if Dmytro can’t get in, at least we will have tried before taking it to exchange for your daughter.”
Atkins glanced from Fearghas to Catya and then his shoulders slumped. “I don’t have any other choice. I can’t walk into Bruges alone and expect to get my daughter out alive.”
“I know you have no reason to trust me,” Catya said softly. “I mean, I’m a killer.”
“As am I,” Atkins said.
She snorted softly. “Call it professional courtesy. Call it what you like. I don’t believe in killing innocents. The people I’ve targeted deserved to die. They were people who killed indiscriminately, murdering women and children.” She stared at Atkins. “I give you my word that I’ll do my best to get your daughter back.”
“ We will do our best,” Fearghas seconded. “And my team will help.”
Atkins nodded. “Thank you.”
Catya laughed without humor. “Don’t thank us yet. Let’s get to Brussels, do what we can and then move on to Bruges. We’re running short on time.”