Chapter 14
Her adrenaline faded on the flight to Prague.
Raven sat at the small table in the Guardian aircraft and felt her body settle incrementally into something that wasn't quite rest but was close enough.
Her arm was clean and bandaged—the cut from Kade's man’s blade had been shallow, exactly the kind of operational hazard that happened when trained people went at each other without intent to kill.
Dan had cleaned it on the aircraft. His hands steady and methodical, the domesticity of medical care sharpened by combat.
She'd watched his hands work and thought about Kuro's files. Subject K demonstrates a protective response to Subject E.
Kuro had cataloged that instinct when they were children. He’d noted it and filed it as useful.
And there, in a Buenos Aires airport with her blood dried on her arm, Dan had done it again. The protective response. Was it a response, or was it more? Did he do it because of training or because he loved her?
She knew the answer immediately. It wasn’t because Kuro had shaped him. He did it because it was who he was and who he was with her.
She looked across the cabin.
Dan was reviewing Ring's latest report on his Guardian issued tablet. The same one Ring had sent thirty minutes after they'd left the warehouse because Ring never stopped, never paused, was perpetually three steps into the next problem before the current one had finished resolving. He’d identified a possible leader of the Scroll based on several pieces of information he’d obtained through his searches and connecting dots with some information in the interviews they’d conducted.
Ring was building the network map in real time, each piece of intelligence they gathered adding another node, another connection, the architecture of the Black Scroll Society was becoming visible, one careful line at a time.
She felt Ring's voice in her ear. There was a familiar weight to the comms device she'd been wearing for years now. It was like the background hum of someone who was always there, always processing, always six questions ahead of wherever you currently were.
"The Prague profile for Sienna Ito appears to be clean," Ring said. "She was recruited two years ago, declined, and has been living carefully ever since. She’s an Interpol analyst. I don’t believe the analyst part.
An agent is more likely. I have a record of lots of time away from her apartment, low power usage, no data usage from her internet carrier, and typical slowdowns when a place is left vacant.
She knows how to stay invisible when she wants to.
The approach should be straightforward."
Raven sighed audibly. For a computer nerd, maybe … "Define straightforward."
"Well, think about it. Won’t she be relieved to see you? She's been waiting for someone to come along. You or the Scroll. I’ll bet she’ll be relieved it’s you."
Okay, she had to give Ring that one. Sienna was waiting. Like Kade had been waiting.
How many others were waiting? People who'd been touched by the Scroll's recruitment efforts and were living with the knowledge that they'd refused something dangerous. Were all now living with the consequences of that refusal? Watching their backs, moving away from a perceived threat.
She looked at Dan again.
He glanced up and met her gaze.
The silence between them was different now.
The cold space where a dead memory used to linger was now warmer; it was hopeful, and it was familiar.
Just like the hand on her back. The way she'd leaned into it without thinking. Her body remembered that comfort and warmth. If she let him back in, to lose him again wouldn’t break her, it would destroy her.
And maybe that was the fear that kept her from falling into his arms.
She didn't look away.
Neither did he.
Ring's voice crackled in her ear.
"You're doing that thing again."
"What thing, Ring?"
"The thing where you're both staring at each other, and nobody's saying anything, and I'm sitting in Virginia feeling like I'm intruding on a moment."
She rolled her eyes. "Ring."
"I'm just observing."
"How about you observe more quietly, okay? Yeah, that would really work for me."
Dan’s mouth curved slightly. Not quite a smile. Close enough.
"What did he say?" Dan asked.
"Nothing useful."
"That's not what your face says."
She almost smiled but pointed to her face instead. "This doesn't say anything."
"Your face has been saying things since Lisbon. You're just pretending it hasn't."
She looked at him. He still read her better than anyone.
"We'll be in Prague in two hours," she said, changing the subject deliberately. "Sienna's at her apartment. Ring sent the address."
"Good."
He didn't push. She didn’t ask what her face had been saying. She didn’t need to.
* * *
Prague was a city of history, settled next to the Vltava River. It was the kind of city that had survived everything thrown at it with grace. The Old Town sprawled in careful preservation, the Castle loomed on the hill, and the bridges connected everything.
Sienna Ito's apartment was in Vinohrady.
There was no tourist traffic here, nothing but residents of the city who lived quietly with little fanfare.
Her building was Art Nouveau, all curves and detail.
It was the kind of place where an Interpol analyst could live quietly, and nobody would think twice about it.
They knocked at 4 p.m.
Sienna opened the door thirty seconds later.
She was small with dark-hair. She also held the operational awareness of someone who'd been trained to notice everything.
Her eyes went to Dan first. Then to Raven.
Recognition.
Not of faces but of what they were.
"You're Shinobi," Sienna said. Flat. Not a question.
"Yes," Raven said.
Sienna looked at them for another long moment. Then she stepped back and opened the door wider.
"I’ve told you no once," she said. “You won’t change my mind, and don’t even think about threatening me. I can and will defend myself.” She showed the gun in her hand.
Dan stopped immediately, and both he and Raven lifted their hands. “We aren’t the Scroll. I’ve been searching for them for years, piecing together bits of information.” Dan nodded to Raven. “Her organization is helping me, and yes, we are both Shinobi; we trained under the same teacher as you did.”
She stared at them. “What organization?” The question was immediate and sharp.
“Guardian,” Raven said, and the woman relaxed notably.
She lowered the gun a bit and smiled. “I assume you won’t mind if I keep my little advantage handy?”
“Whatever makes you happy,” Dan said, and Raven nodded because they all knew, if needed, the gun wouldn’t stop both of them.
The apartment was small, clean, and deliberately unmemorable. The books on the shelves were analysis texts, intelligence theory, and a few novels in Italian that suggested Sienna still read in her first language. A window overlooking the quiet street. A kitchen that looked rarely used.
They sat in the living room. Sienna had made a pot of tea prior to them arriving, and she kept the weapon with her as she retrieved two more cups for them. It was the ritual of hospitality, even when circumstances didn't require it. Her gun never left her hand.
When the tea was poured, she sat across from them and said, “What can I do for you?”
Raven leaned forward and carefully lifted the teacup. “Tell us what you know about the Scroll. Anything may be the key we need to unlock the final pieces of the puzzle we’re putting together.”
Sienna leaned back, "Tell me what you’re doing here first.”
Raven liked the mental chess game, and she’d play it. “We’re actively tracking personnel who could be associated with the Scroll through documents we retrieved from Kuro’s compound.”
Sienna smiled. “No honorary? So, you know he’s involved? You know his intent?”
Raven lifted her chin. “He deserves no honor.” The scathing tone in her voice was clear and sharp.
“I agree. Let me be methodical about this. The recruitment approach was subtle, professional, and dressed as an opportunity for enhanced intelligence sharing between agencies. My realization, six weeks in, was that the ‘opportunity’ was something else entirely. At that point, I refused to participate, and I withdrew. It wasn’t a consensual breakup.
They didn’t like the fact that I was removing myself.
I had to send a signal that coming after me would be costly.
“Since then, I’ve been careful," Sienna said.
"I don't use the same routes twice. I vary my schedule.
I check my apartment for surveillance." She paused.
"But I knew eventually someone would come. I just didn't know when."
Sienna looked between them. "You trained under Kuro."
"Yes," Raven acknowledged before taking another sip of her tea. “Many years ago.”
"So did the man who tried to recruit me."
Raven’s eyes immediately popped over and met Dan’s.
"Describe him, please," Dan said quietly and carefully.
Sienna looked at the window at the quiet street beyond.
“He was tall, at least six feet three inches tall, with broad shoulders.
The kind of physical presence that commands attention without trying.
His face was scarred. Badly scarred. Burns.
The left side of his face was a patchwork of healed tissue.
His head was shaved completely. His eyes were dark and steady, and he calculated everything.
He moved like someone who'd been Shinobi-trained.
I recognized it as the awareness that came from our doctrine.
The man had known our greeting. Had answered it perfectly.