Page 5 of The Ghost

I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. That was one item off our to-do list if we could get ahold of Regg and pump him for information. We needed to know if he was affiliated with New Dawn or if he was working for himself. If he was part of the greater conspiracy, then he might lead us to some more power players. If he was working his own agenda, we needed to shut that down. No one had time for fun and games while we were trying to stop World War Three.

“Thanks,” I told Lukas, although I was sure Theo had already expressed his gratitude.

Chapter 3

Theo

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IT WASN’T JUST ONE more flight, but a flight and a car ride and another train. Lukas kept us moving for another day and a half, crossing our paths back and forth to throw off anyone who might have been following us. I appreciated the sentiment, but it was frustrating given the urgency of our mission. I approached him several times about the process, but he assured me that it was necessary.

The scrap of paper he’d given me was burning a hole in my pocket. I wanted to get back into the action and track down my former handler. I would never forget the days of heartbreak I’d suffered not knowing whether Clark was alive or dead. Regg was responsible for splitting us up. We’d both thought the other had perished in the gunfight, and when we finally found each other on a boat at sea, we’d sworn to get revenge.

Lukas’s exaggerated precautions were getting in the way, and I’d had it up to here with all the travel by the time we arrived at our destination. Despite traveling back and forth across the continent, I knew exactly where we were when we landed. We were back in France, in the foothills of the Alps. For operatives as well traveled as Clark and I were, there was no mistaking the shape of the land or the language of the people.

“Why couldn’t we have just taken a direct flight?” I complained.

“You know why,” Lukas assured me. “It wasn’t for your benefit.”

“You could have just told us where we were going,” Clark agreed.

“We could have been monitored.” Lukas resisted common sense, digging in his heels.

“How’s your leg?” Clark demanded. It was no secret that she wanted her foster brother to have his injuries checked out. Throughout the journey, she’d brought it up periodically. Lukas had brushed off her concerns, but he maintained a limp.

I kept my mouth shut. If Lukas wanted to postpone medical treatment in favor of keeping his secrets, that was his business. And if he was in just a little bit of pain for his trouble, so much the better. I didn’t appreciate getting the runaround.

We walked the last leg of our voyage, from the train station down a dusty highway. I was about to say something like “We should steal a car,” when Lukas turned off the road to follow a dirt driveway up into the hills.

I glanced at Clark, trying to get her read on the situation. She shrugged. I supposed she was more accustomed to Lukas than I was. Z walked along with purpose, neither complaining nor taking the lead. She seemed content to do things the way Lukas wanted them done, and I supposed that worked for them. I was near the end of my rope. If something didn’t materialize soon, I was going to jump ship and go after Regg myself. I didn’t think it would take much to convince Clark to accompany me. Forget Lukas and his deep cover. This was getting ridiculous.

At the end of the driveway, there was an old farmhouse. Constructed of weathered stone and bright red boards, it was the picture of domestic tranquility. I couldn’t imagine who we were meeting or what high-tech gadgetry was hidden in the bowels of that old house. There had better be an arsenal, or I was going to give Lukas a piece of my mind.

We walked by an old woman who was hanging laundry out on a line. She clearly wasn’t a spy, or at least she hadn’t been in some time. Plump around the middle and slower than dirt, she shook out one shirt and grasped the line before pinning the clothing up. I watched her, mesmerized, for a moment, feeling lost.

“Where are we?” I demanded.

“You’ll see,” Lukas promised.

He walked away from the house toward a barn. The old woman didn’t even look up, as if strangers tramping through her yard was an ordinary occurrence. That sent up all kinds of red flags. And before we stepped foot into the barn, I realized that she was a lookout. The laundry probably didn’t even need to dry. It was all an act designed to deflect suspicion but allow a set of eyes on the entrance to whatever was hidden in the barn. Bravo, I thought.

Sure enough, once we got into the barn, Lukas took us to a horse trailer. Inside the trailer, a set of steps led down into the earth. I took up the rear, following Clark and Z down into the hole. As soon as we descended a level, I could clearly see that the operation was much better funded than an ordinary resistance organization.

Underground, the hallways were made of bulletproof steel. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were designed to resist a bomb blast. We walked the length of a basketball court before coming to an elevator. Lukas pressed a button, and the car came. When we piled in, I began to understand why he had taken such precautions to keep this place secret.

The first stop was the command center. The elevator doors opened onto a narrow metal platform. A set of stairs ran down to the command floor, where dozens of computers were set up. Massive screens lined one wall, each one with a different display. There was a map of Eastern Europe with moving lights indicating the presence of operatives. The screen in the center was broken into six panels, each one a schematic depicting the major European cities. I recognized London based on its grid of streets and knew that Dark Sparrow’s reach was even more extensive than I could have imagined.

Huddled behind their computers, at least twenty-five specialists traded data back and forth. The room was eerily quiet, everyone focused on their own tasks. Lukas led us straight through the bull pen to a person at the front of the room.

Lukas made the introductions, identifying both me and Clark as people who could be trusted. He then took us back to the elevator, where we rode down another level to what looked like offices.

“This is just a quick tour,” Lukas said, pointing out each room as we passed. He took us to a large hangar that opened into the side of the mountain. The bay door was closed at the moment, but Lukas assured us that through it, we had access to both air and ground transportation.

“You mean, we could have flown directly here?” Clark demanded.

Lukas gave her a longsuffering look. It was obvious that he was tired of explaining himself to us, and that if we really looked at the situation, we would see that he’d elongated the journey out of necessity.

“Is there a doctor here?” Clark asked, pointing to his leg.