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Wren’s eyes scrunched. “For how long?”
“I’m not certain. He called Fucile and Sognatrice in as backup. They’ve arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh but haven’t been able to make contact.”
“What about you?” Wren asked her.
“Negative.”
The mobile Cayman had arranged for me to have once we arrived in Shere rang with a call from him. I answered immediately. “Cay? Are you there already?”
“Calling from the plane.”
“Are you all right?”
“Hearing your voice gets me closer to being so.”
His words warmed me all over. He’d only been gone a couple of hours, yet I missed him so much. “I feel the same way.”
When he asked how I was managing, I told him Wren and Kima were helping me with a “project.” I couldn’t explain why, but I didn’t want him to know about my desire to join MI5. At least not yet. What if I failed? He’d be so disappointed in me.
When he suggested I redecorate, starting with what he referred to as his mother’s “red-and-purple fiasco,” I laughed. I had to agree her preference for modern decor didn’t exactly mesh with the exterior of the main house or with the cottages on the estate. I couldn’t imagine changing a single thing in her home. I supposed it was Cayman’s house now, but it would take me some time to get used to the idea.
While our conversation ended sooner than I would’ve wished, that he’d called at all made me smile, especially when he said he missed me already.
I missed him too. I hadn’t said it to Kima or to Wren, but one of the reasons I’d asked what was required to work for MI6 was because I knew of no other way to stay close to him and be a part of his life.
He was so muchmorethan I ever realized. I was astounded to hear he was being considered as assistant chief. It had been his dream for as long as I’d known him. “Someday, I’ll run MI6,” he’d said one day when we were lying in the grass, watching the clouds roll by.
“And I’ll be a model.” It seemed so trite now. Sad, really, that the only thing I’d wanted to do in life was entirely dependent on my looks.
“Ready to get started?” Wren asked.
“Um, sure.”
“Let’s see where you’re at and what we need to focus our efforts on.”
When she set the paper in front of me, it was all I could do not to cry. I flipped it over, hoping I knew the answers to the questions on the back, but I didn’t. I only knew a handful on either side. “Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea,” I said, not looking up at Wren or the other two women.
“Let’s not give up before you’ve started.”
“What if I can’t do it?”
While, on the surface, my question could be taken to mean I was worried about passing the test, on a deeper level, it concerned my whole life. Would Cayman still be interested in me if I had no useful purpose in life? He was slated to achieve his dream while I had none for myself. God, I was no better than my mum. The only thing she’d ever done was work in other people’s homes. People like Winston’s family.
“Bexli?”
I looked up at Kima.
“You can do this.”
“The real question is whathappensto me if I can’t?”
20
CAYMAN
There were six explosive devices on the underside of thePernicious, O’s yacht. Upon closer inspection, what made disarming all of them especially hard was that four of the six were wired differently. A slipup on one would result in the boat blowing up. The other three divers with me would lose their lives as well. There was also a chance the detonation would be powerful enough to impact the patrol boat.
“We’re aborting the op as planned,” I said through the comms. “Divers, return to the transport boat.”
