Chapter 9
Was this really happening? No matter how much Eden wanted to deny it, there was no way she could.
She’d seen firsthand how quickly—and easily—Maks had subdued the man.
It had been done in such a way that no one even noticed.
She hadn’t realized that people actually had skills like that.
In movies and books, yes, but not in real life.
When she looked over and saw him, her heart had skipped a beat before pounding at a furious pace. She hadn’t been sure whether to run or pretend that she didn’t know who he was. She was out of her element, and it showed because she had done nothing but sit there stupidly.
She was still a bit peeved that he’d been in her flat while she slept, but she was beginning to understand why he’d done it.
Especially if she could believe him. And why wouldn’t she?
She knew better than anyone that there was nothing out there on Maks Volkov.
What she did know was that he had skills only someone who had been highly trained could have.
And he’d just told her that he was a spy. Weren’t operatives supposed to keep that to themselves? Then again, what did he have to lose? If he doubted she could keep his secret, he could end her in a heartbeat.
“You doing okay?”
His question surprised her. She jerked her head to him. “Considering everything? I suppose.”
“You’re in shock.”
Was that what this was? She couldn’t be sure. All she knew was that she felt safer with Maks around.
“Why Budapest?” he asked.
She filled her lungs with a big breath and released it.
“I have a friend who owes me a favor. After I did a quick search on the Saints last night, I found two instances with the word as an entity, not a holy person or an American football team. The first page was no longer up, and the second came up and then disappeared before I even got to see what it was about.”
“What else did you do to have men after you?”
Eden blinked, shrugging. “I knew that something wasn’t right, so I spent the next couple of hours doing research on different churches in Prague since I planned to go there for the weekend to do some sightseeing anyway. I thought I’d done enough to throw anyone looking off my trail.”
“I admit, it was a good try, but they keep their eyes open.”
“You should’ve warned me,” she admonished.
To her surprise, he grinned. “I suppose I should have. But I was watching you.”
“I didn’t know that. What if someone had gotten into the building like you did?”
His face went hard. “That wouldn’t have happened.”
She believed him, even though she had no proof. “Are you CIA?”
“It might be better if you didn’t know who I work for.”
“You involved me in…whatever this is. Don’t you think I’m owed an explanation?”
His bright blue eyes stared back at her for a long moment. Then he sighed and looked away. “I was in the military, Delta Force. The CIA recruited me to serve as an undercover spy in the FSB.”
She hadn’t thought she could be shocked any more, but she was. She glanced around nervously and then whispered, “The FSB? You can’t be serious.”
“It’s where I’ve been for the last few years. They think I work for them. The CIA believes I work for them.”
“So, who do you work for?” The moment the words were out, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
He smiled as his head swung to her. “Myself.”
She held his gaze, her mind going through everything she now knew. Then it dawned on her. “This is about the Saints.”
“Yes.”
“They’re the reason I’m going to Budapest. I wanted to know what it was I was supposed to find but couldn’t.”
His brows drew together in a frown. “You know someone there?”
“An old colleague who owes me a favor. I’m meeting him.”
Maks shook his head, the baseball cap covering most of his blond locks. “You can’t. They’ll know exactly who it is you texted, and they’ll be watching that person, waiting for you to get there. They’ll also have every public transportation hub watched.”
“In other words, they’ll be at the train station looking for me. What am I supposed to do then?”
“Trust me,” he stated calmly. “I can get you off this train undetected.”
She glanced around, knowing she didn’t have a chance on her own. She didn’t know the first thing about escaping anyone’s notice, much less that of the authorities. “Then what? I’m supposed to run for the rest of my life because I looked up the Saints?”
“I can give you the information you want. I have a ton of it, though I’ve not dug through it all.”
She frowned at him. “Why would you get information and not look through it?”
“Time. I gathered what I could, when I could, and stored it for the day when I could look through it.”
Eden bit her lip, thinking about what she was up against. If what Maks said about the Saints was true, if she didn’t go with him, they would likely have her in a matter of minutes.
And she had no trouble thinking of all the different ways they could hurt her.
She had, after all, seen numerous movies depicting just that.
“Or…” Maks said. “You can get off the train in Budapest and pretend that you’re there to see an old friend. Make up a valid reason for why you texted him last night and changed travel plans.”
“That’s easy,” she said with a shrug. “We were once together romantically.”
“When whoever it is comes for you, just go with it. Act confused and concerned but follow through with exactly what you did last night by looking up churches because you had planned to go to Prague. Tell them that you then thought about your ex and sent off a text to see if he was free. It’s simple, and I’m pretty sure that after some lengthy interrogations, they’ll let you go. ”
Eden drew in a breath. “Then what? Will they continue watching me?”
“Most likely for the rest of your life. Or until I can expose them and take them down.”
She couldn’t believe that he was so cavalier about such a statement. “You told me they’re worldwide.”
“They are. They infiltrate at the top and work their way down, be it governments, militaries, or companies. They are everywhere.”
She glanced behind them. “They could be on the train.”
“No doubt, they are.”
“And they’ve seen me talking to you.”
Maks gave a single nod of his head. “Tell them you feared for your life. That you remained because I terrified you.”
“You’re missing the point. If you’re right, then the Saints are all around us. How do you think you, one person, can take down such an organization?”
“Because I have to,” he stated in a soft voice.
Eden looked out the window, digesting their conversation.
She liked facts. It was part of her job to find facts and gather evidence against others.
But there was another part of her who fell into those classified as conspiracy theorists.
She considered herself intelligent enough to get the facts about things, and yes, her secret addiction was ancient aliens.
The naked truth about extraterrestrials was out in the world, even though so many discounted it for one reason or another. But if they just opened their minds to the possibility, they would see the truth for themselves.
Were the Saints the same thing? Was she purposefully trying not to see what Maks was attempting to tell her because she didn’t want to believe it?
“Tell me something they’ve done,” she implored as she looked at him.
Maks didn’t hesitate when he said, “They developed a bioweapon called Ragnarok that they intended to deliver all over the world to control the population. It was designed to make women sterile without an antidote, only given to those they deemed to have the genes necessary to continue our species.”
Eden felt as if the ground had been yanked out from under her. She had asked, but she hadn’t expected…this. Though she wasn’t sure what she had expected. Obviously, something less extreme.
“I have no proof to give you,” Maks continued. “Another group of people in Texas stumbled upon all of that and stopped it from happening. I joined in at the last moment when there was a battle on their ranch.”
Her eyes widened. “A battle? Like…a battle?”
“Of course. It didn’t make the papers or any news, but there is footage of it. I can get it to you if you want to see it. To check my facts.”
“I’m not sure I do,” she admitted.
He shrugged. “You might need to.”
“Possibly.” Was she really getting into this? Did she really want to?
Eden faced forward again, her mind running through the two paths before her.
She could take the out that Maks had given her.
She would be detained and questioned for hours, if not days, and it would mean that she would be watched for the rest of her life.
But she could be free of the fear that currently knotted her stomach.
Or would she? When catastrophes happened, wouldn’t she always wonder if it was the Saints? She would, without a doubt.
So…that left her with the other path. One that meant constantly looking over her shoulder, hiding, and worrying that anyone she interacted with might be a Saint. However, she could be a part of taking them down.
The world wasn’t a perfect place. Nothing could be.
But no one had the right to choose if someone was allowed to become pregnant or not.
No one should be able to dictate who was elected for public office, or who won wars.
Humans were supposed to have free will. Many people had given blood, sweat, and tears for their countries to be democratic and have the right to vote on who they wanted in office.
All of that was being threatened on a scale that was bigger than she could fathom. And yet, very few knew what was happening. The fact that it was all done behind the scenes terrified Eden because that meant the changes happening could be done with an ulterior motive.
Out of the corner of her eye, Eden saw Maks take out his cell phone and text someone. She didn’t think anything of it as her mind continued down a spiral of anxiety that made her realize that she had no other choice but to go with Maks and see if what he said was the truth.
If it wasn’t, then she’d still take the other path. If he was a liar, then she wouldn’t hesitate to throw his handsome ass under the bus to save her own skin.
But if he was telling the truth, then she had a responsibility to help him.
To sit idly by and hope that someone else would take a stand was not what America had been founded on.
Hundreds of thousands had lost their lives for her to live in a free world.
As a woman, she stood on the shoulders of others who had come before her and fought for her right to vote and have a voice.
How could she, as a woman and a human, not take a stand?
How would she ever look at herself in the mirror again?
“Here,” Maks said and handed her his phone.
She briefly met his vibrant blue eyes and took the cell.
His face gave nothing away, but her curiosity was already piqued.
She looked down at the screen to see a video that was paused, overlooking a fenced-in, rolling field.
There were small groves of trees, and she spotted what looked like several men hunkered down together, holding rifles and getting ready to shoot.
Her hand shook as she raised her finger to press play.
The volume was turned down, but she still jerked at the sound of rapid gunfire from a rifle.
She couldn’t look away as she watched the battle playing out on the screen.
There were explosions, screams of pain, and the spray of blood that was clearly not fake.
It was raw, gritty.
Chilling.
Eden didn’t know how long the video played. She saw the different camera angles looking out over the field, towards a barn, and even the area between a house and an outbuilding. She wanted to think this was some part of a movie, but the moment she spotted Maks, she knew she couldn’t.
Her gaze was riveted on him. He moved like someone used to finding himself in such situations. He was calm, methodical, and determined. When the video ended, she sat there in silence before handing the phone back to him.
“That was several months ago,” he said.
She blinked, unsure what to say.
He switched to something else on the phone and handed it back to her.
“Here is the information on the Ragnarok virus. You don’t have to read it, but it’s here if you want to know more.
You’re a smart woman. I shouldn’t have pulled you into this.
For that, I’m sorry. But we need people like you.
Those who are appalled at what’s happening right under everyone’s noses. ”
“I’ve seen movies with such storylines.” She met his gaze. “Do you know how many times the woman who helps out is killed?”
“I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She twisted her lips and snorted. “You can’t promise that.”
“I can, and I am. I’m very good at what I do.”
“Spying?” she retorted. She wasn’t angry at him, and she shouldn’t be taking it out on Maks.
He briefly lowered his gaze. “I was an elite soldier who went to work for the CIA because I had an encounter with the Saints. I saw for myself what the organization was about and knew it had to be stopped. I’d thought I would have to do it on my own, but then I discovered that I wasn’t alone in this.
I have people I can trust, friends and allies who have my back.
And I have theirs. I’ll continue having theirs.
No matter if you help me or not, we’ll watch over you and do everything we can to throw the Saints off your trail. ”
Eden hadn’t expected such words from him, and they affected her deeply. More deeply than she wanted to admit. She took the phone from his hand once more. “Let me see this.”
On the first screen, she found herself reading the components of a virus.
When she got to the bottom and saw that the desired outcome was indeed to control the world’s population by preventing women from getting pregnant, her gut clenched.
She scrolled back to the top of the page and saw the seal of the office of the president in Russia.
“It’s not faked,” Maks said.
She nodded slowly. “I know. I did research on a couple of people in the Russian government not too long ago.” Her head swiveled to him. “Why was Russia developing this?”
“It’s one of the headquarters of the Saints.”
Now it all came together. “You’re part Russian, aren’t you? That’s why you went to the CIA, because you knew they’d use you to get to Russia, and it would allow you to gather intel.”
His mouth curved into a smile that made her blood quicken. “I knew you were smart.”