Lib Novel Page 86
He shut the door, stripped, climbed into bed beside her, and pulled her against his brilliant warmth. Then he placed three kisses on top of her head, rubbed her back, and somehow found the space to tuck her even closer.
“As you know, Qas and Ahmed got out safely,” she began. “However, I was wondering if you could help me with two more transports. The first one is a little girl and her mother.”
“Mauritania again?”
“Yes.”
“Where are they being held?”
“I don’t know, but I have information about where to start looking. If you think you can help, I’ll get you some photos.”
“Of course, I’ll help,” he said. “It’s for you, and I get to kill people. It’s a win and a win.”
“As for the second,” she continued, laughing. “Well, first, my mother was here. While she was here, she told me she wanted me to go with the man named Novi.”
“Does your mother not enjoy being among the living?”
“She wanted to see if it would cause you to snap.”
“It would.” He patted her on the butt. “I’m crazy about you.”
“For other people, that sentiment usually involves feelings. For you, I have the strangest desire to take that literally.”
He smiled. “Go with option two.”
“As far as my mother…I know something I’m pretty certain she doesn’t know I know. See, when I first came to Morocco, I was miserable—extremely miserable. I would have preferred death over being held captive by my mother and her goons. So, I would look for ways out. Naturally, she has everything locked down, so I didn’t find anything. But then, I received a message. It was from someone named ‘Atlas.’”
“An alias?”
“I was on a laptop that was supposed to be more secure than the White House. Yet, there he was. He knew my first name—the real one. As a way to trust him, he told me that he knew about a list.”
“Hannah said something about a list while we were training,” he said. “But she wasn’t exactly free to speak about it.”
“Atlas said there’s a radio station in Russia known as UZB-76. It’s been around since the late nineties, and it broadcasts via shortwave radio. For the most part, it’s a monotone, buzzing sound that goes on and on, twenty-four hours a day. Occasionally, a Russian voice comes over and gives some kind of code or signal. You and I seem like people who might love a good conspiracy theory. Am I wrong?”
“Did Papa-Figo tell you nothing about me?”
She kissed his neck. “So, there are people who believe the station is connected to a Russian spy network. Atlas told me to look it up to prove it was real. Afterward, he sent me a similar-sounding transmission, only this one was broadcast in English. He said he’s working on decrypting it, but so far, he knows it’s a list. Then, he sent me one of the names he’s decrypted. Aron Price.”
“Do you know who that is?” he asked.
“No, I don’t.” She didn’t want to share any hunches until she received more information.
“Hannah mentioned the same name. She thinks he’s someone tied to your mother. So, what do you think?”
“I think my mother knows who he is. Honestly, I think my mother created the list. Her ego’s too big, and she has too much power for me to believe she’s innocent in all of this. Then, Atlas unearthed another name. Hannah’s.”
Adrían sat up in the bed and pulled her up with him. “Hannah, Hannah? But why would your mother want Hannah dead?”
“I don’t know.”
“So, the last transport…”
“It’s Hannah,” she finished. “And me.”
His brows came together, and the air around them grew visibly warmer. “Are you on the list? Hannah said you weren’t.”
“As far as I know, I’m not. Regardless, I think there’s a reason my mother wants Novi to ‘take’ me, and it’ll be somewhere I won’t want to be. It might even be more locked down than this one. If that’s the case, I need to get out of here. Adrían, baby, I’m not you. She can crush me. The scariest thing about her is that I don’t know what her motivations are.”