Locket full of Secrets (21 page)

              At this the nurse simply shrugged as she finished checking my charts before heading out of the room with a polite smile on her face. The silence after she left was haunting. I laid my head back on the pillow and began counting the tiles on the ceiling above me, hoping it would help to calm me down. There were 26 of them, one of which had a stain from a water leak. I stared at the stain until I heard the door open once again. Turning to see who it was I watched as two men in suits walked towards my bedside.

              “Hello Claire,” a man said in perfect English, with no hint of an accent. “I am Agent Hodwell, and this is Agent Kace. How are you today?”

              “I’m not sure,” I admitted slowly. I struggled to sit up, causing Agent Kace to move to my side and help me. Propping a few pillows up behind me after raising the back half of the bed, he smiled kindly at me before stepping back and pulling out a notepad and pen.

              “We have a few questions for you if you are up to it,” Agent Hodwell began, reminding me instantly of the last time I was in the hospital, after Olena had killed Alexi. When I nodded he continued. “Can you please tell us about your time in the Ukraine?”

              “We got here Monday,” I started, but was cut off before I could continue.

              “Who was with you?” Hodwell asked as Kace held his pen over his paper, ready to write the details.

              “Steven Jackson and Olena Kozak,” I paused, waiting for another question. After a moment of silence I continued. “Well, we got here Monday, then we went around town for a little bit looking at souvenir shops and stuff. Then we went to our hotel for the night. It was the big one over by the water.”

              Hodwell nodded, looking at me intently. He was not taking notes, but I had the feeling he would remember every word I said. Clearing my throat, I began telling the hard part.

              “Tuesday morning we went on a tour of Chernobyl.” I paused to take a sip of water. “We had booked it the day before, and had to meet there at 9am to leave. We were on the tour all day, but after lunch we kind of left the tour for a little.”

              “This was when you got the film that was in your camera?” Hodwell asked.

              “Yes,” I said before adding, “it was from Uri’s house. He was Olena’s uncle that died when the power plant had the big accident. The photos-”

              “What happened next?” Hodwell said, cutting me off.

              “When we got back to the bus there were two men with guns,” I went on, my voice shaking from the memory. “They took some already developed photos Olena had with her and then were going to kill us, but the tour group came back. So we got back on the bus and continued on with the rest of the tour. The men were following us, claiming that they were there to protect us in case wild animals attacked.”

              “Wild animals?” Agent Kace asked, his first words since entering the room.

              “Yeah, like bears I guess?” I shrugged. “That’s what the tour guide told us when we asked.”

              “Let’s talk about what happened when you made it back to Kiev,” Hodwell suggested, his eyes more piercing than ever.

              “We knew that getting to the Embassy was the only way to ensure our safety,” I explained. “So Steven and I took off one way while Olena went another way. One of the men followed us though, so we had to run the whole way while he was shooting at us. And Steven-”

              My voice caught in my throat as tears instantly sprang into my eyes. The two men were no longer a concern of mine as my body was wracked with sobs. Everything was still all too emotional to process. After a few minutes I was able to calm down enough to continue.

              “Steven shot at the man too, but I still got hit,” I said with a shaky voice. “Then we were here. And, I guess, I passed out.”

              “You said Olena headed in the opposite direction and was being chased as well?” Hodwell asked, one eyebrow raised. When I nodded he continued. “What did the man look like that followed her?”

              “He was really big and bald,” I said quickly. “And had this nasty scar on his face.”

              Hodwell nodded at Kace once. Agent Kace turned then and walked out of the room, leaving me alone with Hodwell. I watched in silence as he pulled a chair closer to my bedside and took a seat. He sat back in the chair, not slouching or leaning forward. It looked like he was trying to get more comfortable, but relaxing was clearly not something he did often.

              “We found the body of the man who was shooting at you on the sidewalk down the street. Then, last night we found a body that matches the description of the man that you said was chasing Olena,” Hodwell explained. “There was no sign of Olena. Although your story matches the boy’s.”

              “Steven?” I croaked, more tears forming instantly.

              “Yes, the boy you called Steven,” he nodded, before leaning closer to me. “His real name is Gevorg Moskovitch. He is cousins with Olena Moskovitch. He was assumed dead last spring after a car accident in Canada that took the life of his mother as well as Olena’s mother.”

              I closed my eyes and rested my head back on the pillow. Tears were spilling down my cheeks once again. Steven lied to me. He was not who he said he was, and even more, he and Olena had been keeping me in the dark for so long. Part of me was glad he was alive, but it did nothing to lessen the pain and heartbreak I felt at knowing everything between Steven and I was a lie.

              “We have kept him in custody until we could confirm his story with yours.” When Agent Hodwell continued, his voice was softer. “He has been asking to see you.”

              “What about the photos?” I asked using the back of my hand to wipe the tears from my face. I refused to look at Hodwell now, knowing his concern would push me even further over the edge.

              “We have developed them and are looking into their credibility,” Hodwell replied curtly. I had a feeling there was more to the story than that, but it was likely information for only a few important people to know as of yet. “You did the right thing bringing the film to the Embassy.”

              Opening my eyes, I looked at Hodwell while his words sunk in. We did it. We got the photos to the right people, finally shedding some light on what happened that day so many years ago. Something about his words bothered me, however.

              “Where are we now?” I asked, looking at Hodwell finally.

              “We are in a hospital outside of Berlin,” Hodwell explained. “Your wounds needed immediate attention, and based on the film you had with you we felt getting you out of Kiev was the safest option.”

              “And Steven?” I held my breath while I waited for the reply.

              “He is in Kiev still,” Hodwell replied, ignoring the fact I refused to call him Gevorg. “Now that we confirmed his story he will be turned over to the Ukrainian government for protection until Olena can be located as well. Finding her is the key right now.”

              Hodwell stayed for a little longer, explaining to me that although the information Steven gave them was useful, they needed to hear about the photographs from Olena as well. They needed proof that what they were seeing in the images was real. I had a feeling that whatever it was those photos told us, it was about to change what we knew of history.

              When Hodwell finally left I could feel the walls inside me breaking down. Olena was still in danger, and Steven had lied to me even more than I realized when we first entered the embassy. I cried, my chest heaving with sobs. It felt like I was suffocating, my breath ragged as I faced the gravity of all I had just learned. Eventually a nurse came in and adjusted my IV. I could feel it as the additional morphine coursed its way through my body. Sinking deeper into the bed beneath me, I allowed the drugs to put me to sleep. I could only hope that when I woke up there would be good news from Kiev.

              The next time I woke up it was the middle of the night. After pressing the call button for a while a nurse came and brought me some juice and crackers. The doctors had been pumping fluids into me for a while, but having real food helped to settle my stomach some. Falling asleep once I was satisfied, it was late the next morning when I was woken up by my mom’s voice.

              “Oh Claire!” she whispered in shock as she entered my room. Her voice had me up and alert immediately.

              My mom cried and hugged me while my dad did his best to pull her off of me before I got hurt. Thankfully he managed to get her in a seat next to my bed before she pulled my arm off my body. Holding hands, we both cried while dad went off to the cafeteria to get me some hot tea and soup for my sore throat. Between crying and being heavily medicated it felt like I had been swallowing glass.

              “Agent Hodwell told us everything that he could,” mom explained while wiping her eyes. “I still can’t believe all you went through sweetie. I wish you would have told us.”

              “I wanted to,” I sniffed, trying my best to smile and make my mom feel better. “But I didn’t want someone coming after you guys, too.”

              “Let’s not worry about all that now,” mom sighed. “The important thing right now is that you are safe. And the doctors said the surgery went really well. There was a lot of muscle damage, but with some physical therapy and maybe another surgery it should heal nicely.”

              “Did the doctors or Agent Hodwell mention anything about Olena?” I stopped myself before asking about Steven. I knew asking about him would only bring back all the emotions I finally was more or less numb to.

              “Not yet, honey,” she frowned. “But they are looking for her all over Kiev and they are confident they will find her. Hodwell said they lot of information from- Well, they have a lot of information now.”

              “It’s okay mom, you’re allowed to say his name,” I sighed, despite the tears already welling up in my eyes.

              “We can talk about that later too. For now I think just being here together is enough.” She held my hand tighter and leaned closer to me, her chin quivering with more emotion.

              Leaning my head back on the pillow, I tried my best to blink the tears out of my eyes. I knew things could never be the same, but for now it was nice to simply be with my mom. When my dad returned from the cafeteria, the three of us chatted about Christmas plans and a new project my dad was working on at home. It felt nice to continue on like nothing had changed since the last time we were together before I left for school. Sadly our moment could not last forever.

              “Sorry to bother you folks,” Agent Hodwell said, entering the room later that day as we were finishing the pizza we had picked up for lunch. “But we need Claire to look over some papers. You two are welcome to stay, but it could take a little while.”

              “What do you want, Claire?” dad asked, turning off the TV on the wall. We had been watching German sitcoms with subtitles. It was proving to be nothing more than background noise, but it was great all the same.

              “Maybe you guys could get some coffee,” I suggested. If Steven was brought up again I did not want mom to see me get too upset. I knew it would only make her more freaked out than she already had been.

              “Okay,” dad nodded. “Time to go.”

              Before mom could voice her protest, dad ushered her out of the room. I heard him say something about giving me room to breathe before the door swung shut. I also noticed Agent Kace and at least four heavily armed Marines were outside of my door. Guarding me was apparently high on the list of important things in Berlin at the moment.

              “I need you to answer some questions about what happened back in the United States,” Hodwell began as he settled into the seat my mom had just occupied. “Gevorg mentioned you ran into some trouble when you were on your way to get the necklace that was at your house in Ohio.”