Chapter 5 #3
“The attacks on Admiral Varda predate the issue in Crimea. That could mean they’re unrelated.
” Grigoris’ voice was smooth, but he grimaced slightly as he added, “However it’s more likely that Crimea was an escalation—he wanted us to know his name.
I think we can all agree that it’s not just about Admiral Varda.
If it was, the archive wouldn’t have been attacked. ”
Nikolett gritted her teeth. She would love to keep this issue in house, handled by her territory alone, but that was no longer an option.
“This might be about exposing us, as the Oscar Wilde book would have been very difficult for us to contain. It may be that he knows about the society, and Nikolett is the only person in a position of authority he’s been able to identify, which is why the focus is on her.
” Colum hesitated. “He appears to be…toying with us.”
Everyone took a minute to absorb that.
Nikolett again held her expression steady, knowing people would be looking at her.
Assuming the Spaniard was the one behind all her recent issues, and given that he’d sent her a page of the Wilde book, she was clearly an important player in the Spaniard’s game.
Maybe the only player. She had to fight the urge to explain and justify why it was that every other admiral was able to maintain secrecy.
She’d inherited a crumbling territory, and in her efforts to repair the damage, had angered members who didn’t want anything fixed.
Those people might have said something they shouldn’t.
When she, Grigoris, and Nyx eventually found the person who spoke secrets to outsiders, they would be dealt with appropriately.
“That’s what Petro did,” Grigoris said after a moment. “He puppeteered the reincarnation of several old enemies in an effort to destabilize the society. His end goal was to become fleet admiral. A fleet admiral with extended powers.”
“Is this about the Masters’ Admiralty? Hungary?” Hande’s words bluntly laid out the issue. “Or perhaps about Admiral Varda personally.”
“The archive was attacked,” Colum reminded everyone.
“While you were technically married to her,” Hande countered. “It could have been an attempt to kill her husband.”
“They didn’t try to hurt or kidnap me. They wanted something that could harm the society, not Nikolett.”
Hande was undeterred. “Perhaps they think Nikolett is the fleet admiral.”
“A piece of the book was sent to Triskelion,” Vicente said. “It’s more likely that the Spaniard knows about our society, enough to know about the archive and Trikellion Castle, but he doesn’t know specific identities of any of the admirals, or the fleet admiral, besides Admiral Varda.”
“It always comes back to her,” Hande said.
Nikolett wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking that perhaps everything that had happened to her was a cover. That she was injuring herself to both throw off suspicion and to ensure she was included in meetings like this.
Nikolett wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking she was the Spaniard.
She also knew it would be better to let everyone talk, even if by this point, they were talking in circles. Defending herself rarely went well because she came off as defensive or standoffish, but she didn’t have the patience to waste time on dead ends.
“I’m not the Spaniard.”
Her declaration silenced everyone else.
“Nor have I hired the Spaniard if that’s what people are considering. If I were to injure myself to deflect suspicion, I assure you it would not have involved a bear trap and broken leg.”
Several people startled at that, and Hande looked vaguely green.
“Bear trap? Like…” Hande mimicked jaws snapping closed with her hands.
Nikolett nodded.
Hande’s expression softened into real alarm and concern.
“You are my neighbor,” the other admiral said after a moment. “If you need help, call on me.”
In the past, that would have been a veiled threat, but this time it felt like a genuine offer of assistance.
“Thank you,” Nikolett said in Hande’s native Turkish, and she meant it.
The conversation continued, rehashing details and going over what little they knew about the Spaniard, who may or may not be the same Spaniard as the infamous fixer and assassin of the same name, but her declaration had cut some of the tension, so there was less talking over one another and more talking to each other.
“Enough,” Eric cut in twenty minutes later. “What are we going to do about it?”
Nikolett held back, waiting and listening. The plans proposed by other people were all ones her people had brainstormed and discussed, though the names of who would initiate the plan were different.
Colum was going to arrange to have a rich American with no ties to the Masters’ Admiralty hire the Spaniard to steal something.
Vicente was going to do a deeper dive into familial connections of current and past members of Castille.
The Spaniard may be the forgotten or ignored child of a member who was bitter at not being a part of the society.
He was also going to look for ties to Nikolett’s lineage which might explain why she was at the center of what was most likely an attack on the society.
She didn’t like the idea of anyone looking at her family or childhood, but there was nothing she could do about it. And on paper, it was only a mildly depressing story. The trauma hadn’t been the sort of thing that left reports.
Hande’s people were going to run a digital investigation on the fixer known as the Spaniard to try to confirm it was the same person who confronted Vicente in Crimea rather than someone using the name of an infamous criminal as a cover. Grigoris spoke up then, offering Zoran’s help on that project.
The only plan the group didn’t discuss, the one she and Grigoris had fought about for several hours a week ago, was to use Nikolett as bait.