Leopard Dreaming (27 page)

Mira raised her brow, curious yet speechless. Nobody had ever been so considerate. Not even Ben or Matron Sanchez, who’d worked hard every day to make Serenity the nicest high-security “health sanctuary” she could ever imagine.

‘Try
The Sixth Sense
,’ he suggested. ‘It’s about a boy who sees dead people — the supernatural variety.’

‘I’ve seen enough dead people, thanks.’ Scratching her head, she recalculated the time she’d lost, and realised he’d been gone for more than an hour. ‘What took you so long out there anyway? I thought you only went to check out the other hotel.’

‘I did, but the best popcorn never comes out of a microwave. The concierge also recognised me when I walked in. Apparently he’d been sent a picture of us with a signed authority from Scarlet Pernel to collect the room key, whichever of us turned up.’

‘Scarlet?’ A shiver made her feel cold all over. ‘I haven’t signed that name anywhere yet. There’s been no need or opportunity.’
No desire either,
she thought.

‘Kitching and Leopard; they’ve got their act together, I’ll give them that much, but if the key was meant to be a test to see if they could get me up in that room alone, they should have also known that nothing dramatic was going to happen yet.’

‘You’re planning a counter-ambush?’

‘Not in that building. He has five men up there waiting.’

‘Five? So he obviously expects you to stay with me all the way, even after he told me to ditch you?’

‘He knows me better than you do. Either way, the upper hand is yours now, Mira. I’ve made sure of it.’

Uh-oh,
she thought. ‘You didn’t call backup from General Garland so soon?’

‘I didn’t need to.’ Pockets hopped over to play with him. ‘She’s already here.’

‘No luck there,’ Symes said as he switched off the sea patrol officer’s phone. ‘Lost reception, but both constables have been released from questioning already and can only confirm what we already know.’

‘So neither of them got a good look at their hijackers?’ Moser didn’t bother looking up from the rear engine of the
Ski Ya Later.
Instead he tilted the motor, lifting the props out of the water while they drifted and giving a much better impression of engine failure from a distance. And the ruse of a good excuse for not making a beeline back to the
Liquid Limo
while they satisfied their watch on the nearest inlet into the maze of islands.

‘Four Asian men in ski masks. Specific nationalities unclear. Armed with MP5s and Uzis and spoke in a hybrid language of Japanese, Chinese, Russian and English. Aside from that, no details. It happened too fast, in response to an otherwise standard distress call regarding a crab fisherman caught in mud at low tide.’

‘So where to now?’ Moser asked. ‘If those grunts have salvaged the
Peacemaker
as evidence by now, they didn’t come out this way.’

Symes pocketed the phone, keeping a mental note to return it through official channels in due course. He knew many officers had been reprimanded over the possession of personal phones while on duty, but he’d
just found an example that deserved recognition for highlighting some of the benefits.

‘Now we can buzz off.’ Symes reached for the two-way radio handset at the helm. ‘We’ve got a jet boat to return to its owner. But first we have to find him.’

M
ira paced the room furiously with her fists clenched; betrayed yet again by a general who kept lying about withdrawing surveillance from her.

‘If she spent half that energy finding Kitching in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess, Lieutenant! And if you’ve done anything to scare him away —’

‘If I have, he’ll put a bullet in my head and make new plans. He’s gone to this much trouble so far, he must need you for something big. So I figured a little deception could work two ways. I asked Garland to get a message back to the
Liquid Limo
for Darkin to keep circling as if he still has you, while I came ashore to scout the town.’

‘And what if you were meant to spring the trap in that room?’

‘He knows I’m equipped to see inside buildings, night or day, so it shouldn’t really surprise him that I haven’t gone up in person yet. He’ll assume you’ll try to ditch me for real when the time comes.’

‘You think I’d do that?’

‘You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t consider it. But I’m not about to let you get anywhere near him, so we’re at odds right now. And I think that’s what he
really wants, because if we’re together, I doubt he can beat us.’

‘I have to meet him, Lieutenant!’ Mira hugged herself, struggling to control her fear as much as her temper. ‘What happens to Maddy if he’s only using her to control Freddie?’

‘He has to
think
that you’ll meet him. Right up to the last second. And will you please stop calling me Lieutenant whenever you’re mad at me? What’s it going to take to finally convince you I’ve left the army?’

She came to a halt with a huff and folded her arms. ‘What makes you think he can’t see inside the
Limo
as well as you can see inside a building? It won’t take him long to learn I’m not really aboard, and then he’ll know for sure that we’re onto him!’

‘It’s a risk, I admit. So I asked Garland to put a lookalike aboard for you with instructions for Darkin to sail a few laps of the islands.’

‘Oh, he’ll love that,’ she said and took to pacing again. ‘More inspiration.’

‘Not entirely. He’s been sworn to secrecy again.’

‘I was thinking of him backing in and out of that cove — and of the poor girl who gets to be alone with him. I hope she’s trained better than him in self defence.’

‘Count on it. And try to relax, if you can. Garland has only a rough idea that you’re here on the island, and now we’ve got time and a decoy to ensure you can slip the lot of them when the time comes.’

‘More likely to buy Garland a chance to make her own plans. She can’t find either Kitching or whoever it is who’s been covering his tracks and making his deals for him. She’s not even sure if this “Mr Mystery” is a man or a woman, and in my experience it’s the people you can’t see who can hurt the most. So don’t try to kid me. She wants me back on her leash so she can hunt them all down, finally.’

‘Obviously, but the general isn’t about to make a move on you, or your cooperation will drop to zero.’

‘Yours too?’

‘Mine too. Absolutely. You’re calling the shots now, Mira. If you want soldiers across the street or choppers in the air, just say so.’

Mira laughed. ‘If Garland doesn’t come bursting through that door in the next minute, it’s only because you’ve made a bargain or compromise already.’

‘Or offered a plan she can’t beat.’

Mira thought about that for a long moment, telling herself she didn’t want to know any more. ‘If you expect me to ask what you’ve used as a bargaining chip, keep waiting.’

His turn to pace the rug. ‘I wanted to run it by you first. But I couldn’t. I needed to scout the hotel first to make sure we could get in and out undetected. So when Kitching shows, you’ll be meeting him by closed circuit TV from another room, and Garland will spring the trap on him and however many men he brings to the party. With her as backup, we can get a whole battalion. Except there’s one little safety precaution that you’re not going to like.’

‘I don’t like it already, Lieu —!’ Stopping herself near the bed, she sighed and folded her arms. So far, she didn’t totally hate the idea. ‘I’m listening.’

‘Maybe you’d better sit down first?’

‘Trust me. There’s nowhere in here a decent person should sit.’

‘Suit yourself, but I … I know how much you hate surveillance.’

‘Duh! Who doesn’t. I’m twenty-two and I’ve never had a whole day of privacy.’

‘Except, to keep you safe …’ he said, backing up out of striking distance, ‘I need you to wear a bug for me.’

‘A surveillance bug?’ Mira’s mouth fell open and she slumped onto the bed.

Ben caught himself daydreaming about Tarin. Brave, brilliant and beautiful. She’d lost her hand fighting for him, which made him want to fight for her on a level he’d never felt before. Yet she was so far out of his league, and he still had obligations and feelings for Mira. He had to get focused. Find her.

Leaning his ear against his bedroom door, he heard Nurse Springs down the hall in the kitchen, arguing.

Not with his mother. Mel snored quietly next door, having bathed and taken all her sleepers and painkillers. She’d be down for hours.

‘I don’t care what she says,’ Willow argued. ‘I’m a nurse, not a nanny. Mel’s no trouble, but Bennet —’ A long pause followed, as if the other participant in the conversation was on the far side of a phone connection.

‘Well, if the general wants to keep him here any longer, Airman, she’s going to need another nurse for the day shift. Or maybe a bodyguard. I barely had enough holidays from the hospital to babysit them all weekend … No, I can’t extend my time off without pay. I’ve got bills … okay, okay, I’ll wait.’

Too long, from Ben’s perspective.

‘What’s a
secondment
?’ she asked. ‘For six weeks?’

Ben didn’t need to hear the answer to know it meant borrowed from one government department to another with higher pay or benefits. Lockman had only been a corporal before General Garland had seconded him from Colonel Kitching’s unit to work with Mira, but if the general was seconding nursing staff now too, Ben wanted no part of it. Especially for six weeks.

Using his forearms again to roll his wheelchair, he headed for the bathroom that his room shared with his mother’s. Sliding his wallet off his bedside table into his lap first, he rolled out past her bed to the rear dog-legged hall, and out through the laundry.

The first home his parents had ever owned, before they’d built the beach house over on Straddie, overlooked the pier where his father used to service the ferry engines. Ben could barely see that far with his injured eye for the moment, even though most of the swelling had gone down in the last few days. Puffiness from his cracked sockets kept his vision blurry, especially first thing in the morning. Lady Luck smiled grimly at him anyway, since he could hear the ferries and make out their shapes well enough to find his way.

Accelerating downhill, he turned for the ticket gates where four queues of vehicles crept slowly aboard past the ticket booth, and the irony struck him that Mira had escaped him in a wheelchair on their first day together, but not with public transport so close and accessible to her. He could see the next ferry pulling in already, with the gate dropping to take on pedestrians ahead of the cars and trucks, and he accelerated down the ramp to make it on with them.

Mira sprang from the bed the moment she realised what she’d slumped onto. The young couple were coupling again, and had rolled through her. She paced the room, fighting the urge to strike at Lockman.

‘A bug?’ she repeated, tightly. ‘You can’t possibly be serious. You want me to wear a bug?’

‘It’s over here if you’d like to check it out.’ He tapped the small ghostly dining table. ‘Switched off, so there’s nothing to fear. And we’re going to break it.’

‘Say again?’ She couldn’t tell if he was joking.

‘It can’t be operational, or Kitching could track you. Apparently someone on his team can hack the encrypted signals. They tracked one of Garland’s bugs earlier today, and took the Hilux before she could get to it.

‘I don’t know what makes me maddest: that you let Garland track a bug in the car, or that Kitching’s now got all my things! Not to mention your guitar.’

‘To be honest, I’m more concerned about the skills of the people he must have working for him.’

‘Or maybe Garland has a traitor in her team who’s leaking information to him?’

‘That’s certainly a possibility. I just preferred not to scare you with that one.’

‘So what else aren’t you telling me? And what’s the point of wearing a bug if it’s off or broken?’

‘He’ll expect us to tag you, so we tag you. Otherwise, going in, his men are likely to put you through a strip search for nothing. I’ll attach it to the back of your dress, near the top of your zipper, so that’s as far as they need to go in harassing you.’

‘Will he believe that I broke it?’

‘He should. He knows how you feel about surveillance. The trick is to make it believable. You can’t break it simply by leaning on it. You’ll have to put some back into it. Against a doorknob, for example.’

‘Will you be wearing one too? Or is that how Garland already managed to catch up with you so soon?’

‘I do have a bug,’ he confessed, ‘but it’s not switched on yet either. And won’t be, until it’s time to make the rendezvous with Kitching. That way, if we strike any trouble, Garland will get to see our last known coordinates. At the real place and time, if you’re ready to tell me yet.’

She laughed. ‘You give me too much credit. It’s just like I told you, at the hotel at nine tonight.’

‘Mira,’ he said, sounding disappointed. ‘I know you better than that.’

‘Obviously not.’ She needed to keep her options open. ‘Anyway, how can I be sure you’re not already tagged with a bug that’s operational?’

‘Care to search me?’

Something in the way he said it made her want to say yes. But that thought only frightened her. Flooded
her with guilt. Made her turn away from him, hiding her face and trying to reassure herself with memories of Ben. That didn’t work. The only picture that came to mind was his battered face turning away from her.

Shaken, she hugged herself. ‘I wouldn’t know what to look for. Or feel for.’

‘Then you only have my word, but if I was going to tag you, would I warn you first? Or give you the chance to learn what a bug feels like? This model, at least.’

Trusting him wasn’t really the problem any more. It was trusting Garland, knowing that he’d been her soldier. Her pawn. One of many that were no doubt expendable.

Curiosity lured her closer to the table in conflict with her instinct to shy away. ‘How big is it?’

‘Like a shirt button. Hold out your hand.’

She did, reluctantly, and he dropped it into her palm. Heavy for its size. ‘Feels like plastic. Do you attach it first, before we break it?’

‘Break first, then fit. In the kitchen, please. It’s a tough little bug, so we’ll need two large spoons to squash it, otherwise it might bruise you or break your zip.’

‘Will I need a bruise to make it believable?’

‘Not an option. You don’t get hurt for any reason.’ He followed her through to the sink, where she delved into the cutlery drawer and retrieved two soup spoons by touch — where the sight of the ghostly knives and forks also triggered a memory flash of the bleeding man with his three girls. Sick and dizzy again, Mira turned to the fridge, wavering.

‘Hey, you okay?’ Lockman said, close behind her.

She nodded, but her head felt like it had been stuffed with a tonne of dynamite, and if he came any closer, he’d ignite it.

‘You’re in pain.’

Obviously, so she didn’t bother answering. She only leaned against the fridge, rubbing both temples and wishing the pain away.

‘Do you want me to … I mean …’ He should have known better than to offer anything from his med kit. He leaned against the fridge too, making it slide a little. ‘It’s so hard watching you like this. I feel useless, like I can’t do anything that won’t make it worse between us.’ Triggering endorphins meant a kiss or fright.

She bumped her head against the fridge, knowing it couldn’t get any worse. The dynamite went off, and she spun about, grabbed him and clung to his chest.

‘Do it,’ she pleaded.
Idiot!
screamed her guilt. She clamped her eyes shut, desperate to try almost anything. ‘Better you than a painkiller that will only mess me up in other ways.’

‘Are you sure?’ His hands came to her bare shoulders, only to hold her apart from him. ‘I can’t,’ he said, sounding frustrated. ‘I won’t force myself on you again.’ His hands trembled hesitantly on her shoulders, as he lifted them, setting her free.

‘It doesn’t need to change anything. Just one short burst of endorphins, or I’ll pass out again.’ She didn’t know how else to ask him. ‘Please don’t make me beg. Just kiss me or hit me, but either way, I need a jolt of adrenaline.’

Hesitation lasted barely a second. He swept her into his arms with such ferocity she dropped the spoons and all sense of time and animosity. She closed her eyes as his lips claimed hers, but when she tried to recall her first kiss with Ben so she could relive it again, she felt Ben’s note of goodbye crumple against her skin and the only face she could conjure up was Lockman’s. His ghost smiling and calling her ma’am so politely. Nobody had ever treated her so much like a lady, and yet he was supposed to stay a normal nobody to her.

Gripping him tighter and kissing him back, she tried desperately to draw the more comforting memory out of him. Of Ben loving her, holding her. Yet the only memories that surfaced were Ben shunning her, and Lockman shielding her from a painful jet stream from a water cannon, followed promptly by machine guns.

Her knees weakened as she clung to him, one hand around his neck and the other straying down the side of his muscled chest to his waist. He caught her weight, and as he lifted her with greater passion, she felt swept up and away with him on a hot wind. Confusion struck with a pang of guilt at betraying Ben’s memory, and she tried to lean away; tried feebly to find the ghostly kitchen bench so she could keep a small grasp on reality, at least as it had been. And realised she was too near the sink, and Lockman too near that man …