Chapter 52
FIFTY-TWO
Lyon, France
The building behind them was four stories tall and twice as wide.
Built nearly four hundred years ago, it had been a hospital for most of its existence, a place where French lives ended and others began.
Where the authority in charge of the nation never superseded the care a doctor provided their patient.
But in wartime, that often wasn’t the case.
Steph watched a butterfly fly frantically from a bush, across the lawn where patients in wheelchairs visited with family members, or others were escorted around the grounds by staff in white scrubs.
The war might not be over, but this place had the potential to provide a semblance of peace nonetheless.
“You worry.” Her father reached over and patted her hand.
She looked at him, barely a shadow of the man she remembered. This man was free. At least for now. “The prognosis wasn’t what I hoped.”
“I’m an old man. Years of…” He shook his head. “Who would recover?”
“Dad, I’m sorry.”
He made a choking sound, but when she looked over, he seemed to be laughing. “Sorry?”
“What do you expect me to say?”
“Not sorry.”
Steph blew out a breath, trying not to be irritated when she should be happy she had her father back now.
He clasped her hand, his veins visible through pale skin, his nails yellowed and broken.
She studied his face, and the lines embedded beside his mouth.
The flat expression in his eyes and the dark shadow of beard on the lower half of his face.
His hair was threaded with gray between the almost-black strands.
His fingers tightened around hers. “There is nothing to apologize for. Not when you’ve been protecting me your whole life.”
Steph didn’t know what to say, so she just sat there on the bench beside his wheelchair and held on to his hand.
“I know the deal you made with the CIA to keep them from questioning me.”
But he didn’t explain whether it had worked, or if they kept up their end of the bargain.
He continued, “I know you only became a spy to protect me. And that’s exactly what you have done. I’m free now, because of you.”
“I think you might not be the only one who is free.” Steph closed her eyes for a second, feeling the warmth of the sun on her face in a way she hadn’t for a long time. Then she opened her eyes again. “But that doesn’t mean it’s over.”
“Thomas Kraus is dead.”
“It was him, the whole time?” She might already know the answer, but it had to be asked.
“For years, yes. He had me in a secret facility. I don’t know where it was, but I have enough ideas to piece together a general area, if someone that is not me wants to try and find it.”
Steph shook her head. “I don’t think I do, but the team might be interested. Were there other prisoners?”
“If there were, I never saw them.” He closed his eyes to the sky. “It’s been a long time since I saw the sun.”
Her fingers flexed around his.
“But now I can see it whenever I want.”
“I’ll get you some sunscreen.”
He chuckled. “I would like it if you could deliver it personally. I don’t trust the world now, and all these package deliveries I’m hearing about.”
“I can do that.”
“I don’t expect you to be here much, though. You’ll be busy with your work.”
“Maybe. Once I figure out what I’m going to do.
” She had come here intent on being truthful, figuring he hadn’t had much of that for a long time.
“The CIA offered me my job back. Full reinstatement, and a bonus. I’m keeping the money either way, but I’m not sure that I want to work for them. Not anymore.”
“Thinking about joining a certain team?” He shifted in the chair but didn’t quite turn his head far enough to see behind them. “And a certain gentleman?”
Adam wasn’t close enough to be able to hear them.
“Perhaps.” She smiled. “I like that word. It has a lot of hope, and possibilities.”
“Both of which have been in short supply for us.”
She had to agree with that.
He squeezed her hand.
“Do you want to talk about Vesper?” Steph shifted on the bench so she could turn to him. “Past explaining how she died, we haven’t said much about her.”
Her father didn’t respond right away. He drew his hand back to his lap, smoothing down the blanket that covered his legs.
“I wish you could’ve seen her. She was…impressive.”
He almost smiled. “She was complicated and always would’ve been. Her mother…” He trailed off and shook his head. “Thank you for giving me the truth so I could know what happened to her.”
The fact it had happened mere hours before she saw her father again for the first time since she was a child was like an ache in her chest she couldn’t get rid of.
She felt the weight of grief, of lost chances and the realization that despite all her wishing she wouldn’t ever have her family—or the idea, the dream of it.
Instead, she would be creating a new dream. One that had a whole lot of “perhaps” to look forward to.
The promise of something that could be amazing.
He sighed. “I knew even back then Vesper would be a force the world would need to reckon with.”
“You were right.” Steph found a smile, shaking her head.
“She tormented me, got in my way, and was a giant pain in my…” She cleared her throat, deciding not to downplay the pain her sister had caused her or the way she’d contributed to Steph’s anxiety around trying to fix her.
“Everything she did was to make me stronger, to prove to me that I could be who she seemed to believe I was.”
Her sister had believed Steph would need the strength Vesper was intent on forging in her, and if the fight against Earthnet turned out to be even half of what the Division Zero team believed it would be, she would turn out to be correct. Not that Steph would ever have admitted that to her sister.
“And who are you?”
Steph tucked a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear. “I guess I’ll find out.”
“I think we both will.” He smiled at her, but it didn’t lift the shadow in his eyes. “I, for one, have plenty of time by myself to decide who I’ll be now. Time to reflect.”
“Write a memoir?”
His wheelchair shook, and she realized it was a laugh. “I don’t think anyone wants to read that.”
“I would.” Though he was probably right that she might be the only one. “Maybe Vesper left a journal or wrote her own memoir. The team has agreed to work at uncovering her entire network and making sure they’re shut down. If we find anything personal, I’ll ensure it’s returned to you.”
He nodded. “I appreciate that, and everything else you’ve done.”
“I’m just glad we found you before things got any worse. Montrose would’ve used you against me to torture Adam.” She hadn’t said those words aloud yet, and didn’t like the sound of them now. “It would have been bad.”
“We’ve had enough ‘bad.’ It’s time for some good.”
She spotted an orderly approaching them. He came around so her father could see him before he clasped his hands in front. “Monsieur, I believe it’s time for your treatment.”
Her dad nodded, then glanced at her.
Steph kissed his cheek. “See you soon.”
She watched the orderly push her father’s chair to a walkway that ran along the building, with brick arches shielding it from the weather. Until the door opened and he was wheeled inside.
“Everything okay?” Adam stood beside her, his hair tied back. Sunglasses on. T-shirt and jeans, and a leather jacket.
“Everything is different,” Steph replied. “‘Okay’ is relative.” Not the first time it occurred to her that he might be one of the few people in the world who truly understood what she, and her father, had been through.
Adam slung an arm around her shoulders, and she laced her fingers with his as they walked to the parking lot out front. “He’ll be okay.”
“Yeah, I think he will.”
“Because of you.”
She squeezed his hand. “Pretty sure you were there as well.”
“Thanks for going with me to get the team.”
“If I hadn’t, I’d never have found my father.” She glanced over. “But that’s not the only reason why I’m glad I did.”
He stopped beside the car and turned to her. A French police car whizzed by on the main street, siren and lights going. Steph could hear birds, and a couple talking as they headed for the hospital.
“Are you taking the job?” he asked.
“You mean, going back to my old life?”
Adam hesitated. “It would be different. This time they can do right by you, and the team will always come to back you up if you need it.”
Steph leaned her hips back against the side of his car. Adam took a step closer to her, closing the gap between them. She said, “I told them I was busy.”
His eyes flared. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, Winston is going to teach me how to make crème br?lée.”
Adam grinned, sliding his hands around her waist. She slid hers up to lace her fingers behind his neck. He lowered his lips to hers. “I love crème br?lée.”
Steph laughed, and he caught her lips with his.
Turning her world upside down again.