AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After leaving the hospital, it had taken another six months to get herself back into shape so she could fight without getting her tail handed to her on a plate. Her body was stronger now than it had even been before her accident, her muscles honed and lean. The scars from the bullets were only another reminder of her mistakes. Mistakes she’d never make again.
It had taken her another six months to get a trace of Jonah’s whereabouts. He’d lain low for a while, avoiding most of the terrorist activitiesProteushad been suspected of. Jonah was arrogant, and that was going to be his downfall. Her patience finally paid off when she’d picked up his trail along the Kamchatka and Russian border.
She had a safe house up in the mountains. It was time to regroup and restock her weapons since she’d had to leave her others behind before crossing the border. She only had the knife in her boot and her fists for protection. It was enough. But one could never be too prepared.
It hadn’t been hard to pass through unnoticed. She spoke the language like a native. And no one paid any attention as she started the climb up the mountains to where her safe house was located. She’d only been there once before. Had only needed it once before. But her memory had never failed her.
The weather was brisk and wind slapped at her face the higher into the mountains she climbed. Her jacket was made out of a special material that was thin enough to give her freedom of movement if she needed it, but was as warm as any heavy coat. Neoprene gloves covered her hands for the same reason. They weren’t the warmest, but they wouldn’t impede her if she needed to fight.
The higher she climbed the quieter it became, and the little hairs on the back of her neck began to stand on end. The temperature had dropped a good thirty degrees and snow crunched beneath her boots as she continued to climb.
There were little signs that most people wouldn’t pay attention to—broken twigs or the displacement of small rocks. But she wasn’t most people. The mountain was silent, no birds or wildlife to be heard, and because it was silent she walked an extra mile around the perimeter where her cabin was located. She pulled the knife from her boot and waited—just listening—ignoring the white puffs of air that escaped her mouth and the way the cold made her muscles twinge where she’d been wounded.
She crept closer and closer until the cabin was in sight, but she knew by looking at it that Jonah was already gone. He’d definitely been there, though. And he’d left a gift for her to find.
Eden secured the house first, making sure he wasn’t waiting to ambush her, before she came back around to the front. The body was placed just in front of the steps of the front door, so she’d have to step over him to get in.
She didn’t recognize the victim, only that he’d been a man of some importance. He was dressed in full military regalia and had enough badges and medals pinned to his chest for her to know he’d been in command.
Jonah never did anything without a reason, and leaving the body here was significant, though she wasn’t sure why. He’d laid the body out like it would be inside of a casket, with arms crossed over the chest and the ankles crossed as well. His throat had been slit, and the blood had turned the snow beneath him brown. The man’s eyes were closed, which meant Jonah had made them that way, and a light dusting of snow covered his eyelashes and hair.
The weather made time of death tricky to pinpoint, but she was guessing the kill was right around twenty-four hours old. Eden had wondered if Jonah would feel her closing in on him. It didn’t worry her, but it did complicate matters. Now it would become a game, to see who could outmaneuver the other.
The Russian military would miss this man, whoever he was, which meant she needed to get what she could and get out as fast as possible before she had the Russians on her trail. She didn’t have time for another complication.
She left the body where it lay and approached the cabin, stopping in front of the door. The number165was written on the lintel, and when she touched her fingers to it, she realized Jonah had used the blood from the man at her feet to write it.
Definitely a game. He was emulating the Passover with the blood over the doorframe because of her Jewish faith, letting her know that this message was meant for her and no other.
Eden reached down and gathered a handful of snow and then rubbed it across the numbers, wiping them away until the snow in her hand melted red. The number would be committed to her memory forever and there was no reason to give whoever would come after her any clues.
The cabin could be wired for explosives. It was a trap she’d considered and discarded. Jonah would want to see this played out and he’d wait before he tried to kill her again. So she was safe. Probably.
She tested the doorknob and found it unlocked, and then she pushed the door wide and stepped inside. It looked exactly as it had the last time she’d seen it. She’d been Mossad then, but a safe house was a safe house. All agents had them, no matter what country they served, and she’d thought this one would be safe from Jonah. She had no idea how he’d found out about it.
The floors were wood and barren, with nothing scattered about to get in the way of an easy exit. A single twin bed was shoved in the corner with blankets folded on top of it. There was canned food in the cupboards and a wood-burning stove.
Eden went to the bed and shoved it across the floor so it screeched against the wood, and she knew by looking at the boards beneath that Jonah had found her stash. But she pried up the loose board anyway and stared down into the empty space.
“Hell.”
She grabbed a penlight from her belt and knelt down, shining the light and running her hands along the sides of the small crawl space. She was looking for the next part of his message. Obviously the number165was a coordinate, and considering where they were the distance wouldn’t be too far. Etched in the dirt in the far corner was the number66.
“Not too far away at all.” She plugged the numbers she had into her handheld device so it could start searching for possible routes and locations by process of elimination. She stood and dusted off her hands. He’d taken her extra clothes and the main stash of weapons and supplies she’d kept inside.
“I really hate that man.”
The cabin groaned and creaked from the cold, settling into itself as she took stock. Annoyance and frustration bit at her and her first thought was to rush through and see if he’d found her reserve stocks, but she held herself back and centered her focus on the room itself. He wanted her to find him, for whatever reason, but he wasn’t going to make it easy on her.
“Found you.” One of the cupboard doors was ever so slightly ajar. It wasn’t noticeable unless you compared it to the order of the rest of the room.
On her way to the cupboard she stopped at the little stone fireplace and stuck her hand up inside it. Her fingers brushed against the gun taped inside the chimney and she ripped it down, at once feeling more at ease with it in her possession.
She held the gun down at her side and approached the cupboard door, edging it the rest of the way open with her finger. And there it was, written in pencil this time.0800. And just beneath that was a51W.
Eden looked at the watch on her wrist and swore. Wherever she was going she had less than twelve hours to get there. She needed the other coordinate and she needed it fast.
But there was no coordinate to be found. At least not on the inside of the house. She put her gun at the small of her back and stepped back over the body of the man at the base of the outside stairs. Sunset was still a couple of hours off, but she needed to be gone before dark fell and the chances of an ambush rose. She’d prefer not to traverse unfamiliar Russian soil in the middle of the night.
