Chapter 14 #5
Cole was silent for a moment before shaking his head.
“I’ve been playing their game, gathering information, letting them believe I was an asset that needed to be wooed with information, but …
no. I work for an American black ops contractor.
Getting the scum of the world into the garbage bin where they belong is what I do.
I would never use what I know for the likes of the Scroll.
“That follows the profile we have on him,” Ring said into her ear.
“If you ever need anything, contact this number. We’ll take it from here.” Raven handed him a card with only a cell number on it.
“Damn, thanks.” Cole let out a sigh. “I’ll let you take this on and move away from it. It was getting tricky pushing them down the road.”
“Rest now,” Dan said as they stood.
“I sure as hell will. Once I hear you completed the mission.” Cole winked at her as she stood. He leaned back after picking up his coffee cup.
Outside, on the Beyo?lu streets with Istanbul's chaos pressing in from every direction, Raven looked at Dan.
"Yuki," she said.
"Yes. That's what Alexei called himself. When we were training. Before he had an operational name. Before Kuro gave him the designation Mori." Dan paused. "He said it meant purity. Said snow covered everything and made the world start over."
The pieces were falling into place.
It wasn’t Diego, but Alexei.
Alexei. Who was supposed to be dead. The guy had been obliterated in a fiery car crash.
He was the leader of the Black Scroll.
The quiet student who'd been favored by Kuro. Who'd absorbed the doctrine more completely than anyone. Who'd taken everything their teacher had given them and twisted it into something monstrous.
Ring's voice in her ear was quiet but certain. "That fits the data. Alexei Mori's operational signature matches the Scroll's leadership patterns. I should have seen it sooner."
"None of us saw it," Raven said.
"We see it now," Dan said. “Ring is running with it?”
“You bet your ass I am.”
“He says yes.” Raven rolled her eyes.
Dan smiled at her. “That’s not what he said.”
“Damn right it wasn’t. He needs his own earpiece.”
“Close enough,” Raven said. They stopped at the corner of the street. The Bosphorus was visible in the distance. The water cutting through the city, Europe on one side, Asia on the other, Istanbul existing in the space between.
"We have everything," he said.
"Yeah, I think we do."
"Coordinates. Operational locations and a name."
"Yeah, all of it."
He turned toward her. "Then it's time."
She looked at him. The man she loved. The man who'd come back from the dead. The man standing beside her in Istanbul with the endgame finally visible.
"Guardian briefing first," she said. "Then if the bosses agree with us, we assemble the team and finish this."
"Agreed," both Dan and Ring said at the same time.
They stood hand in hand on a street in Istanbul and watched the city go about its evening.
Somewhere in the Philippines in an underground facility in the Cagayan Valley, Alexei Mori was training more assassins. Building more cells. Expanding the Black Scroll Society one careful operation at a time.
But not for much longer.
They had everything.
The intelligence. The location. The team.
And each other.
Whatever came next, whatever Guardian authorized, whatever the assault required, whatever it cost … they'd face it together.
The way they always should have.
* * *
That night, back in the hotel, Raven stood at the window and looked at Istanbul sprawling below. The city glowed, unbothered by the temporary concerns of the people moving through them.
Dan was beside her.
Not touching. Just … there.
The silence between them was comfortable now. The walls that had existed for weeks were gone.
"What happens after?" she asked.
He put his arm around her and asked, "After the Scroll?"
"Yes."
He was quiet for a moment. "I don't know," he said. "To be honest, I've been focused on taking them down for so long that I haven't let myself think past it. Except …"
She turned to him and put her hands on his chest. "Yes?"
He looked down at her. The Prague hotel room was one day behind them.
The words they'd said. The moments of complete vulnerability and truth that night and the morning after still lingered. The knowledge that they’d chosen each other deliberately, consciously, without Kuro's files or the Scroll or the mission standing between them. It was as big as emotion could get, and she wasn’t going to minimize it.
"I want—" He stopped. Started again. "I want to be wherever you are. Doing whatever you're doing. I don't need it to be Guardian. I don't need it to be operational. I just—" He paused. "I want you, and I want to stop being alone."
Closing her eyes, she laid her head against his chest as his arms tightened around her.
"You're not alone," she said. “We have each other now.”
"Believing it is hard."
“It is, but not as hard as living without you.” She lifted her head, and he dropped his lips to hers. They’d never be alone again. No matter what it took, no matter how long it took, they’d find a way to remain one. Because that was what people got to do.
Even people like them.