“I hear and obey.” Fitz grinned. “I didn’t mean any insult.” His smile faded. “But maybe you should think a bit about whether you want to go back there. Cambry might guess that’s what you’d do.”
Kendra shook her head. “It’s the last place Lynch went before he disappeared. I need to go back there and see if I can find alead. From what Cambry told me, he didn’t seem to be all that great a tracker when he was searching for Lynch. Jessie’s right, we can set up a safe camp and take care of ourselves.”
“Whatever you say.” Fitz was frowning. “But you won’t mind if I check up on you occasionally? I wouldn’t want to hurt your pride.”
“Like you said, it would be my pleasure.” She smiled. “You’re excellent company.” She added ruefully, “And I have to admit that when Cambry told me about Korkil’s men being seen up in the hills, it made me a little nervous. By all means, drop in now and then. As long as it’s just occasionally and you promise not to hover.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” His grin was back. “Unless I thought I could get away with it.” Then he shook his head soberly. “Korkil? I’ve heard of that bastard. One nasty dude. Don’t blame you for wanting to stay out of his way. I’ve heard stories . . .” He pulled the van into the parking lot of a grocery store and opened the driver’s door. “Let’s see how fast we can unload that cycle in the back and get it on the road . . .”
KORKIL’S YACHT
CADNOR ISLAND, NORTH SEA
“Dammit, Bremmer, where the hell is Dekker?” Vlad Korkil shouted as Bremmer came hurriedly up the gangplank toward where he was standing on the bridge. “I told you I might need all of you for something special, and he was supposed to come with you.”
“Not my fault,” Bremmer said sourly. “Dekker thinks he’s better than the rest of us. I let him know you’d be pissed off if he didn’t come right away. But just because he’s some highfalutin professor, he’s sure that you won’t punish him for doing stuff like this.” He was scowling. “Just give me the go-ahead and I’ll show him that no one disobeys you. I don’t know why you haven’t done it already.”
“Because I didn’t choose to do it,” Korkil said coldly. “You have no right to think you’re involved with any of my decisions. You’re only a rather foolish man whom I sometimes allow to obey my orders.” He added impatiently, “And you can’t even do that efficiently. How long have you been back in London? It’s been days, and you still haven’t brought that Kendra bitch to me. I told you I needed her right away. She may be the key I need to my taking over a position that will make all those politicians and billionaires sit up and take notice when I walk into a room. They don’t realize the power I’ll be able to generate as soon as I make my final entry move. But they’ll learn.” His lips curled. “I think maybe it’s you who needs to be taught a lesson. I realize you’re eaten up with jealousy about Dekker, but I won’t have you trying to damage my relationship with him. He’s much more valuable to me than you are.”
“Why?” Bremmer’s tone was surly. “I’ve been working for you for years and he’s just a damn newcomer.”
Korkil swore with disgust. “Maybe I should tell you why so you won’t make me this angry again. Listen to me while I reel off the reasons why your stupidity offends me. Everyone knows the world is changing around us. It’s only people like me who are smart enough to know how to cope with it so we can come out on top. But we sometimes need a little help, so we have to hirepeople who aren’t smart at all to follow our orders, and when they don’t we either punish them or get rid of them. But now and then we manage to hire a Dekker, who is not only highly educated but can associate comfortably with the diplomats and professionals who can move my business endeavors forward. He has also shown an admirable skill in obtaining information for me from whomever I wish because he was trained by his uncle in the Taliban in Afghanistan in the art of extraction by torture. I find that ability very . . . satisfying. I’m soon going to need all of those talents when I take my rightful place with other world leaders. You understand?” He made a face. “You probably don’t. But you could possibly have a place if you did. You just have to accept that it’s all aboutme. I’ll permit you to have your place as a sort of glorified worker bee in my organization, which will give you a certain position in the order of things. Even Cambry has been stepping forward and showing me that he knows which side his bread is buttered on and giving me hints that he has ambitions that are growing by leaps and bounds. You all know that I’m in control and that it’s only a matter of time before you’ll have to come begging if you want favors. But I’ve chosen Dekker for now, and you’ll all treat him with respect. I need everything to go smoothly because I’m getting ready for a very big push. I have something planned that will literally blow everyone away.” Korkil suddenly started to laugh. “Isn’t that an amusing play on words?” He stopped laughing. “You’ll all do what I say when I say it. And one of the things is the woman. She shows signs of being a troublemaker, and I won’t tolerate that. Take care of her, Bremmer.”
“I’ve been trying to locate her.” Bremmer was almost stuttering now. “We just keep missing her.” He moistened his lipsand took another step back as Korkil started to frown. “I’m trying to get you whatever you want. But I was just going to tell you that I’m almost certain I’ve located Michaels. All I need is orders from you about how and when.”
“And I’ve just given you a lecture about questioning anything I do. You might take it as a warning that I always have people around me who can give me what I need. And if they don’t perform, I make sure they don’t survive to disappoint me again.” His voice was suddenly harsh with barely contained fury. “I don’t like how everything has been going lately, and you’ve been part of it. I won’t have it!” He drew a hard breath. “That’s all going to change. I’m going to call a meeting right away with all the people I’ve brought to build and strengthen my organization and give them their orders.” He added gratingly through set teeth, “So tell me, what are you going to do to help me?”
“I’ll bring you Kendra Michaels,” Bremmer said hoarsely. “You’ll have her within two days. No excuses.”
“You’re damn right!” Korkil turned on his heel and strode back across the deck toward his cabin. The next instant the door slammed behind him.
CHAPTER
8
It was almost midnight before Jessie and Kendra arrived back at the hill country, and they spent another few minutes scanning the area to make sure neither Cambry nor any of his men had arrived there before them. Jessie pushed her motorcycle across the hilltop overlooking the creek. “This is where you and Cambry set down in the helicopter, isn’t it? I see the marks on the ground. I guess this is as good a place as any to set up camp.” She moved toward a thick stand of pine trees at the edge of the path. “There’s fairly good cover over here in these woods. Okay with you?”
Kendra shook her head. “No.” She was already striding toward a rougher area covered with large boulders and thick beds of heather a short distance away. “I want to set up shop somewhere in those hills over there.”
Jessie gazed skeptically up at the hill where she was pointing. “You’re sure this is the site you want to choose?” She followedKendra to where she was standing staring intently up at the rough terrain on the distant hill. “I agree that someone could easily get lost up there, but it might be hard to get out of that tangle of heather and brush and back to the road if any of Korkil’s men show up.”
Kendra nodded. “But it won’t be a problem if we keep a close enough watch and avoid them before they become a threat.” She went a few steps more, her gaze on the shadowy boulders a short distance away. “And when I was exploring that cave earlier today, I saw a cliff on the other side of the hill that looks as if it leads down to another cave somewhere in that main stretch of heather. I didn’t have time to explore with Cambry watching me like a hawk, so I decided to come back.”
“What made you return here?”
Kendra reached into her knapsack, pulled out the prosthetic hand, and tossed it to Jessie.
Jessie caught it. She peeled back the leather glove and looked at the metallic fingers beneath. “Wow. This is what you were talking about before?”
Kendra nodded.
“Where did you find this?”
“In that first cave.”
“And you’re hoping you could find something equally bizarre tucked away in the second cave?”
Kendra nodded. “Maybe something like that. This hand looked as if it had been hurriedly stuffed out of sight beneath loose stones with some kind of carving. That combination confused me. I did a quick search inside the cave but didn’t find anything. It was very tempting to keep on searching, but I decided to follow my instincts and not mention it to Cambry. I wasalready suspicious of him by that time. I thought it might be better to just get away and instead try to distract him by searching another site down by the creek that had been on my list, too.” She made a face. “It appeared to work fairly well, but I could barely wait to get back here and search more thoroughly.”
