Chapter 4 #2
“I think it’s adorable.”
“Nothing about this is adorable.”
“You invited her to a wedding.”
“While intoxicated.”
“So romantic.”
“I was surrounded by idiots.”
Stella walks over carrying champagne.
She is, as usual, the least excitable person in the room.
“Has she responded since receiving the invitation?”
“Yes.”
Four sets of eyes sharpen.
I immediately regret answering.
Jade folds her arms.
“And?”
“She said she would consider it.”
Isa makes a sound like this is the greatest love story she’s ever heard.
Stella looks less impressed.
“That’s not yes.”
“Thank you.”
Jade gives me a hard look.
“Do you trust her?”
That stops me.
Trust.
Strange word.
“I trust what I know.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“She’s never given me reason not to.”
Jade’s expression remains protective.
Not of Vesper.
Of me.
That realization is unexpectedly uncomfortable.
“If she screws with you,” Jade says, “I know people.”
Leo’s wife saying this should be amusing.
It isn’t.
“What people?”
“People.”
Isa laughs.
“I think she means us.”
Jade’s mouth barely moves.
“I wasn’t limiting it to us.”
I glance toward Stella.
“Is this where you explain to her that kidnapping violates several laws?”
Stella takes a sip of champagne.
“I’d need to know jurisdiction.”
I stare.
Hannah starts laughing so hard the makeup artist has to stop.
Isa points at Jade.
“I’m picturing interrogation room. Black hood.”
“Too dramatic,” Jade says.
I should leave.
I don’t.
Isa looks dreamy.
“What if she shows? What if she walks in and they recognize each other immediately?”
“Recognize what?” Hannah asks. “They don’t know what each other looks like.”
“Energy.”
I close my eyes.
Isa continues anyway.
“And then they get married eventually, and their invitations could have an encrypted monogram.”
“Stop planning my wedding.”
“I said eventually.”
“You don’t even know whether she exists.”
“She exists.”
The room goes quiet.
I realize I said it with more conviction than intended.
Stella studies me.
“You’re sure.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
I could give them the technical answer.
Behavioral consistency.
Photographic analysis.
Language patterns.
Years of conversation impossible to sustain convincingly without some coherent identity beneath it.
Instead I shrug.
“I know.”
Isa presses both hands against her chest.
“Oh, I love this.”
“I don’t.”
“You absolutely do.”
Hannah turns toward me.
“Xavier, my wedding has security boats, a cellular blackout, analog guest lists, and apparently an anonymous mystery woman entering under a cryptographic pseudonym.”
“Credential.”
“That correction is exactly why I’m confused.”
Jade laughs.
Hannah points toward the window.
“There are men outside checking the sky for drones.”
“Correct.”
“Someone inspected my florist.”
“Also correct.”
“You background-checked the harpist.”
“She had three bankruptcies.”
“She's a harpist.”
“That doesn’t make her financially responsible.”
Hannah puts both hands over her face.
Stella laughs quietly.
Then Hannah looks at me through her fingers.
“Do you like her?”
I almost answer automatically.
Instead I stop.
The room does too.
Four women.
Waiting.
This is worse than the boat.
Significantly.
“I don’t know her.”
Jade’s brows lift.
“Bullshit.”
“Jade.”
“You’ve talked to her for years.”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
Because she has no face.
No name.
No place in the physical architecture of my life.
Because the moment she becomes real, I lose the safety of pretending whatever exists between us is merely intellectual entertainment.
I straighten my cuff.
“I find her interesting.”
All four groan.
I look toward the ceiling.
“Not again.”
Hannah laughs.
“What?”
“Apparently that word is unacceptable.”
“It’s awful,” Isa says.
Stella nods.
“Very.”
Even Jade agrees.
“Coward’s word.”
I stare at them.
“I liked this wedding more before I came upstairs.”
Hannah smiles.
Then her expression softens.
“If she doesn’t show, don’t take it personally.”
Too late.
I don’t say that.
Instead I look toward the window.
The Pacific is brilliant beneath the afternoon sun.
For the first time all day, a tiny part of me hopes Vesper doesn’t come.
Because I understand computers.
Systems.
Information.
I understand what happens when someone penetrates a network and what to do when a threat crosses a perimeter.
Jade, Stella, Isa, and Hannah?
Different threat model entirely.
Vesper would survive them.
Probably.
Maybe.
Jade looks like she already has interrogation questions prepared.
Isa is mentally monogramming hypothetical children.
Hannah has apparently accepted that her wedding includes an international cyber-romance subplot she did not request.
And Stella is watching me with the quiet expression of someone who has already figured out more than I’m saying.
Maybe Vesper is safer wherever she is.
My watch vibrates.
Once.
Different pattern.
Not standard security.
Every muscle in my body stills.
The women notice.
“What?” Jade asks.
I raise one hand.
Quiet.
The alert appears across my lens.
OUTER PERIMETER — MANUAL AUTHENTICATION REQUEST
My pulse kicks.
A second line loads.
CREDENTIAL: VESPER
For a moment, I simply stare.
Isa gasps.
She cannot see the message.
Apparently she can see my face.
“What?” Hannah asks.
I don't answer.
My wrist vibrates again.
AUTHENTICATION PHRASE RECEIVED.
Then:
MISS LONDON brIDGE HAS ARRIVED.
I close my eyes.
Drew.
I’m going to kill him.
Isa jumps off the sofa.
“She’s here!”
Jade grabs my arm.
“Wait.”
“For what?”
Her eyes sharpen.
“What's the plan?”
I look at her.
“Plan?”
“Yes.”
“For meeting a woman?”
“You have plans for breathing.”
Fair.
Stella puts down her champagne.
“Leave him alone.”
Hannah starts smiling.
Not a bride smile.
A trouble smile.
I don't trust it.
“Go,” she says.
I look toward the door.
My heart is beating too fast.
Ridiculous.
I’ve walked into rooms with heads of state.
Negotiated with men whose security teams carried automatic weapons.
Built systems capable of seeing things people spend fortunes trying to hide.
This is one woman.
One.
A woman I have spoken to for years.
A woman whose mind I already know.
A woman who once left me standing on London Bridge for ninety-seven minutes.
I crack my neck.
Jade notices.
“Nervous.”
“Not remotely.”
Four women laugh.
I open the door.
My watch vibrates one final time.
GUEST CLEARED TO INNER PERIMETER.
Somewhere downstairs, Vesper is walking into my world.
And for the first time all day, I forget about the wedding.
My pulse kicks.
I’m already moving.
“Xavier,” Hannah calls.
I reach the door.
Jade’s voice follows me. “Do not scare her.”
I glance back.
“I don’t scare people.”
All four women look at me.
Right.
I leave.
The hallway blurs beneath my feet.
Down one flight.
Then another.
I take the main staircase instead of waiting for an elevator because apparently patience has abandoned me along with rational judgment.
The first floor opens below.
Drew, Leo, Vale, Jalen, and Kane are gathered near the bottom of the stairs with drinks in various stages of completion.
Every head turns when they see me moving fast.
Drew pushes his sunglasses higher onto his nose.
“Whoa.”
I keep going.
He steps sideways into my path.
“Where are you going?”
“Move.”
His grin appears.
“No fucking way.”
Kane straightens.
“Did she show?”
Vale looks at my face.
That tells him enough.
“She did.”
Jalen nearly drops his drink.
“Miss London Bridge?”
“Do not call her that.”
Drew points at me.
“She’s here.”
Leo laughs.
Actually laughs.
“Blackwell’s running.”
“I am walking.”
“You skipped three stairs,” Vale says.
“I have long legs.”
Drew turns toward the others. “He’s nervous.”
“I’m handling a credential exception.”
“At Haverhill’s wedding.”
“Yes.”
“For a mystery woman.”
“Yes.”
“Who stood you up.”
My jaw tightens.
He smiles wider.
“There’s the face.”
“Travers.”
Kane steps closer. “Seriously. She’s here?”
The excitement in his voice irritates me for reasons I don’t have time to examine.
“I have a Vesper credential at the outer checkpoint.”
Drew lets out a triumphant shout.
Jalen claps once.
Vale lifts his glass.
Leo says, “Hundred-to-one is officially alive.”
“There is no bet.”
“There is absolutely a bet,” Kane says.
I move around them.
Drew falls into step beside me.
Then Kane.
Then everyone else.
I stop.
“Why are you following me?”
Drew looks offended.
“You think we waited this long and we’re staying inside?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You are supposed to be getting married.”
Kane checks his watch. “I have time.”
“Not for this.”
“This is the most interesting thing that has happened all morning.”
“It is your wedding.”
“Exactly. I’m allowed.”
Apparently marriage creates temporary insanity before the vows.
I keep moving.
All five follow.
Naturally.
We cut through the west garden toward the outer checkpoint.
Drew is practically vibrating beside me.
“What if she’s hot?”
“Shut up.”
“What if she’s hideous?”
“Still shut up.”
“What if she really is Sergei?”
I stop walking.
Drew nearly runs into me.
“Say that again.”
He grins.
“Sergei.”
Vale groans behind us. “Do not start.”
Jalen laughs. “I bet he has gold teeth.”
Drew nods. “White tank top.”
“Basement,” Kane adds.
Leo points toward me. “He’s going to kill all of you before the ceremony.”
“I’m considering it.”
We round the last hedge.
My security chief is waiting.
His expression is wrong.
Not alarmed.
Confused.
That is worse.
“Mr. Blackwell.”
“Where is she?”
He looks toward the checkpoint.
“We have a situation.”
I follow his gaze.
Six members of my security team stand in a loose circle.
In the middle is an elderly man.
I stop.
Behind me, somebody makes a choking sound.
The man is impeccably dressed.
Charcoal three-piece suit.
Silver hair combed neatly away from his face.
Black shoes polished to glass.
Ivory pocket square.
One hand rests on a dark wooden cane with an ornate silver handle.
He looks like old European money with a criminal-defense team on retainer.
Then he smiles.
Two gold teeth.
Drew doubles over.
“No.”
I don’t move.
He grabs Vale’s arm.
“No fucking way.”
Vale covers his mouth.
Leo closes his eyes.
Jalen whispers, “Holy shit.”
My attention never leaves the old man.
“Name.”
His brows rise.
“Sergei.”