Chapter 6 Dimitri #2
Number One leaned forward. "We are. We have access to most areas of the island. The exception is the harem, which is off-limits to everyone. We're also not supposed to enter the breeding enclosure, but we have visited regardless. If the women are to be rescued, they'll need to be prepared."
"Don't tell the women anything yet," K said. "Not until we have a plan, and not until you know who you can trust."
The clamp squeezing Dimitri's heart loosened its hold, and he took in a deep breath, expanding his chest. K was thinking of a plan. He was going to do something for those women.
"Yes, that's our assessment as well," Number One said.
"Who am I speaking with?"
"Number One."
There was a pause. "Number One?" K repeated. "What's the name your mother gave you?"
Dimitri watched Number One's face for any flicker of reaction, but there was none. The enhanced soldier's expression remained blank.
"For now, Number One will suffice," he said in his regular flat tone.
K chuckled. "Touché. We'll talk in two days. Same time. Make sure Losham's phone shows no trace of this call."
"Of course," Number One said.
"And, Doctor Volkov?" K continued in the same resolute tone.
"Yes?"
"I'm not dismissing what you said about the breeding program and the strategic implications. If it were feasible, I would do it in a heartbeat, but it's not. At least not under current conditions. I'll consult with my team, and we shall see what we can do."
"Thank you," Dimitri said. "I appreciate that you're not dismissing it completely."
"Good night." The line went dead.
Dimitri stared at the phone for a long moment, then picked it up and handed it to Number One, but the soldier didn't get up as Dimitri had expected. He remained sitting.
They still had some time left before the Eight needed to head back and return the phone.
"Well," Petrov said. "That went better than I expected but worse than we hoped."
"He didn't say no to the women," Mattie said in a shaky voice. "He said maybe and that he needed time to think of a plan."
"He also said it was impossible," Petrov pointed out. "Which is what I said."
"He said a full-scale evacuation was impossible," Mattie corrected. "Then Dimitri made the strategic argument, and he paused. He recalculated. I could hear it."
Petrov shrugged. "You heard what you wanted to hear."
She glared at Petrov. "K was intrigued. He was tempted. I heard it in his voice."
He looked at her for a moment, then turned to Dimitri. "She might be right."
"She might," Dimitri said, but he didn't really believe it, and Mattie must have heard it in his voice.
She was looking at her bandaged hand, flexing the fingers as much as the splint allowed, testing the boundaries of her injury the way she tested the boundaries of everything else.
"We have to wait two days," she said.
Petrov rose to his feet. "I suggest we spend them working in the lab and acting normally. We don't want to give Losham or anyone else any reason to look at us twice."
It was sound advice.
Dimitri looked at the Eight, who sat in their usual stillness on the two single beds, no doubt conducting a heated conversation inside their hive mind.
Petrov stretched, his back popping audibly. "I'm going to bed. We have a lab to run in the morning and a human enhancement proposal to fake for Losham, and I need at least three hours of sleep to maintain my charming personality."
"What charm?" Mattie asked.
He looked down his nose at her. "You lack the cultural context to appreciate Russian charm. I'm considered very charming among my people." He turned to Dimitri. "Right?"
"On a good day."
"Tough crowd." Petrov shook his head and left the room.
His heavy footsteps receded down the hall, and a moment later, the sound of his door closing was followed by the familiar clink of a bottle being retrieved from the vodka supply drawer.
Mattie looked at Dimitri, and even in the dim light of the night lamp, her face showed every hour of sleep she hadn't gotten, every worry she'd been carrying, and underneath it all, the stubborn, unreasonable, magnificent refusal to accept that some things couldn't be done.
"K is going to help us." She put her good hand over her chest. "I know it in here."
Dimitri sat beside her on the bed and put his arm around her shoulders. "Maybe."
She leaned into him, resting her head against his shoulder. "Maybe is probably the most dangerous word in the English language."
"More dangerous than no?"
"Much more. No is final. You grieve and move on. Maybe keeps you hoping, and hope is the thing that either saves you or destroys you, depending on whether it comes true."
He pressed his lips to the top of her head. "Then let's pray it comes true."
"We should return the phone." Number One rose to his feet, and the other seven followed.
Number One looked at Mattie, and for just a moment, something passed behind his eyes that could have been mistaken for compassion or commiseration, but then the impassive mask slipped back into place, and he turned, heading out the door with the others filing out behind him.
When the door closed, Mattie took in a long breath and released it in a whoosh. "These are going to be the two longest days of our lives."