The Red Queen (14 page)

“I don’t care about the cure,” Lucienne said. “I want Kian back in one piece. So, no, I won’t wait another week. You have three days, Director Pyon.”

“I want to bring him home as much as you do, Siren,” Pyon said. “I’ll oblige you. Three days it is. But here comes another tough task. I need you to play a role.”

“You always drive hard bargains, Director,” Lucienne said drily. “I’ll play the role. You can count on me to fight as hard as any soldier on the team.”

“Your role is not to fight, Siren. We’ll do the fighting.”

The veins on Lucienne’s temples bobbed as anger flared in her. “You agreed to let me fully participate in the action.”

“Participate in observing,” Pyon said, “from a safe distance.”

“That’s very comforting, but know this: no one can stop me from going for Kian. Not even you. Not even him.”

“Do you really want him back?”

Lucienne had a deadly look in her eyes, but Pyon was unmoved. “The men and I can’t function at our best when we have to look over our shoulders,” he said. “We can’t worry about your condition and rescue the chief at the same time.”

“I didn’t realize I’ve become such a dead weight,” Lucienne said. “As I recall, before you came aboard, I was in the heat of every action.”

“You aren’t a burden, Siren,” Pyon said. “You’re a national treasure. You’re the hope of the new world we hold onto. That’s why things have to change. I’ll bring Kian back to you, but you need to stay safe for him, for us. The closest place I can put you is our Greece op post. Greece is only on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. You can observe and supervise how we attack the jihadists’ base from there. You can do that, can’t you?”

But what if Pyon failed?

Pyon met her dark gaze firmly. “I seldom lose.”

“You can’t afford to lose this time, Director Pyon.”

“On my life, I’ll make sure Kian comes home.”

And Lucienne blinked back her tears.

CHAPTER 10

BAYROSE

Bayrose Thorn was reviewing the interrogation on a recorded hologram.

Kian McQuillen, chained by hands and feet, was forced to sit on an iron chair bound to the ground. A dozen heavily armed
jihadists positioned themselves along the walls and at every entrance and exit of the stone room as their leader,
Mirrikh Schwartz, roamed around the captive, assessing him as if the Sphinxes’ chief were a wounded lion, and a lethal one.

Mirrikh, wearing a tennis top and a pair of khaki pants, bit his fingernails when he stopped milling and looked into the lens of the camera with a wink. Bayrose had to admit that Mirrikh had the bluest eyes in the world
, but she also knew he was a psychopath. As she grew up with him, she kept overlooking his dark side. She needed more supporters other than those she inherited from her father to establish her new reign, and Mirrikh was loyal to her, at least to a degree.
Their families had once discussed enhancing their influences through their son’s and daughter’s marriage.

Mirrikh had succeeded his late father.
With his new power, he un
apologetically let menace and nastiness roll off him. But standing
before the bloody, battered Kian McQuillen, he was like a small vicious bulldog. McQuillen
’s sapphire eyes were steely, yet his posture was carefree, as if nothing in the world could break him.

“No wonder the Siren’s force has grown so strong,” she murmured to herself. “She has men like Kian McQuillen.” But Bayrose had the bitch’s lion in her cage now.

Mirrikh stopped biting his fingernail and towered over the seated McQuillen.
“I’m Mirrikh Schwartz, the new elder of the Sealers.”

McQuillen
stared at Mirrikh as if he could pierce through him, and Mirrikh didn’t appear appreciative of his captive’s silent disdain. “My subordinates say you refuse to talk to any of them,” he continued. Even as a boy, he’d been talkative. And he hadn’t changed. “You wouldn’t spit out a word even under the influence of the new drugs.”

“Drugs and torture are child’s play,” said
McQuillen
.

Mirrikh sniggered. “I heard that you’re the master of torture. Surely you know how to resist it. I apologize for not being able to arrive earlier. A man with your status shouldn’t be touched by vulgarity. My subordinates will be punished. We need to set up a standard for gentlemen like us.”

“You heard it wrong,”
McQuillen
said. “I don’t resort to torture to extract information.”

“But you pump fear into men’s heart. I admire that even more. Now that you’re chained, can you still exact fear?”

“I did not come to evoke fear. I came to make a deal.”

Mirrikh raised both eyebrows and said, “I’m intrigued.”

“Find me the elder you put in your dungeon. Give me five minutes with her, and you’ll have the second ancient scroll your Brotherhood has spent centuries searching for.”

“You want to see Samantha.” Mirrikh broke into a wolfish smirk. “What does she have that interests you so? Has it to do with the last scroll she stole from the Brotherhood? Or is it a physical attraction? She’s formidable, but a rare beauty.”

Bayrose’s face reddened in anger.  How dare he show this disrespect?

“You want the deal or not?” McQuillen asked.

“Even if I want it, I can’t grant it to you.” said Mirrikh, his smirk gone.

Rage flashed by Kian McQuillen’s hard eyes, but he was in control of himself the next second. “Send me the one who can say the word,” he said. “My business with you is finished.”

“Our business is far from over, McQuillen,” said Mirrikh. “You see, you’ve come to the wrong place. You’re in a military fortress, thousands of miles away from where Samantha is held.” He looked pleased at watching McQuillen suffer distress. “Now I know you staged your own capture, but
your plan went awry
. True, it’s a tradition we put the most dangerous animals like you and Samantha in Abaddon 5, but the founder has a different vision when it comes to you and your little Siren. Don’t look so disappointed. Even if we threw you into the North Korean prison, you wouldn’t be able to see her. No one but the founder has access to Samantha.”

Or the one who had the founder’s ring. Bayrose flashed a ruby ring on her index finger, the original Sealers’ symbol of an arrow piercing an all-seeing eye engraved atop the priceless gem.

“Inform your founder that I’ll trade the second scroll for a talk with Samantha,” McQuillen said. “Thousands of miles are nothing. Modern transportation can make the mileage as narrow as the space between your eyes. Bring her to me, or me to her, and you’ll have the scroll.”

Mirrikh shook his head. “We want the scroll, but Samantha is more important than that.”

“I won’t hurt her,” McQuillen said.

“You won’t hurt her?” Mirrikh threw back his head and gurgled. “She’ll hurt you. That’s how her reputation precedes her. When we put her in Abaddon 5, we had to take extreme care with her.”

We?
Bayrose rolled her eyes to the back.
You’re not at that rank, Mirrikh Schwartz.

“Isn’t your founder interested in what I’m going to say to Samantha?” McQuillen said.

“You want the information about the cure,” Mirrikh said. “What else?”

“Samantha’s long-buried secrets.” McQuillen leaned back in his iron chair. “But I’m done talking to you. You have no real power or access to the founder. Why don’t you fetch me Bayrose Thorn, the new speaker girl?”

Bayrose felt her heart skip a beat at McQuillen’s mentioning of her name, then winced as Mirrikh delivered a punch to McQuillen’s jaw. McQuillen rattled his chains, straining to strike back, but he was bound completely. McQuillen spat blood at his antagonist, and Mirrikh kicked his captive in the chest. With a raging yell and a violent pull, Sphinxes’ chief half broke free one of the chains. That was incredible! Mirrikh reeled back, and his jihadist guards sprang forward like a pack of mutts toward McQuillen, their weapons pointing at the prisoner.

Mirrikh picked instruments of torture from a nearby operation table and closed in on Sphinxes’ chief again.

Bayrose jumped as a chortle rose behind her. She verbally commanded the hologram to turn off, and the violence in it faded out. She wheeled around, facing Mirrikh
Schwartz
with a syrupy smile. “Mirrikh!”

“You’ve arrived, my lady,” Mirrikh said fondly.

Another holo-screen played a live feed of Kian McQuillen in his cell. He shut his eyes—one of them swollen— in meditation. The man obviously knew he was being watched.

“Since when must you call me that?” Bayrose chided Mirrikh, but she stretched her hand for him to kiss—a respect all elders paid to the speaker for the founder.

Mirrikh kissed the founder’s ring. His mouth opened wider to wrap her ring finger in it. Bayrose shivered and pulled back her hand. Being licked by Mirrikh felt like committing incest.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“Showing my respect to the new speaker for the founder.” He peeked into her eyes with a spark of amusement. He must have mistaken her shiver as pleasure despite her clipped tone. “Any words from the founder?”

  Bayrose didn’t answer him. “Our enemy has Nickolas M. Poles,” she said. “Do you think they’ll demand to exchange him for McQuillen?”

“If they do, they’re kidding themselves,” Mirrikh said. “Nickolas has no one but himself to blame. He trusted the wrong people. In this business, you can’t count on your own family. His first cousin Laura is next in line for the elder’s seat.”

“So McQuillen threw himself at us for nothing.”

“He wouldn’t be so desperate to give up his own life if his Siren queen wasn’t running out of time. Didn’t Prince Vladimir once act equally desperate for her? It’s quite ironic that in order to gain back her grace, he actually delivered the poison down her throat.”

Bayrose gave him a sharp look.

“He broke your heart, didn’t he?” Mirrikh shrugged. “You’ll have your revenge. They’ll all die. First McQuillen, then the Siren of Sphinxes, and then the Czech prince.”

“You’ll not touch him.”

“Still harbor feelings for the prince,” Mirrikh sounded jealous and angry, “after what he did to you?”

“No more than I did to him,” she said coldly. “And he’ll be sorry when he meets me again.”

“He’s already sorry that he met you.”

Bayrose’s eyes narrowed to slits. If she had claws, she’d use it to ruin Mirrikh’s vicious, good-looking face.

“His relationship with you cost him his Siren.” Mirrikh placed his hand against the small of her back as if wanting to sooth the tension out of her. “He never imagined an innocent, sweet-looking girl like you could outsmart him. You were really sweet to him when he was around, weren’t you?”

Sidling out of his reach, Bayrose fixed her gaze on McQuillen on the holo-video. He opened his eyes and stared ahead as if he could see through her via the camera lens. There wasn’t any human warmth in his steely eyes. Bayrose shuddered, but soon recollected herself. She could be that way too. She could be cold, hard steel, and no one could ever hurt her again.

Her world had shifted overnight when Vladimir had deserted her, and when the Siren bitch had blown up
Rose
with her father Immanuel Thorn inside.

She could no longer live a sheltered life full of roses without thorns. She’d been thrown under the wheel of a war machine thanks to the power-hungry Siren. The pain hadn’t stopped for even a second ever since she’d lost her love. It would lessen when she had the Siren’s head, literally. It was time for Bayrose to return the favor. Actually she’d revenged the Siren with Blood Tear. She only needed to make sure there was absolutely no antidote for Lucienne.

Her enemy wouldn’t last long. It was a wonder Lucienne hadn’t died on Bayrose’s ancestors’ altar in the Temple of Lemuria after taking the ancient poison. The Siren’s power preserved its host. Jimmy Lam, the Siren’s biological father, had reported back that he’d never seen any power like that. His daughter had brought down the ancient force field and destroyed the temple after he’d escaped. Of course, his daughter had let him flee.

No matter, Blood Tear was the most potent poison, its antidote far beyond the reach of this world. Lucienne wouldn’t escape the horrible ending she deserved. After she was gone, would Vladimir return to Bayrose? They had unfinished business. His careless laugh that had once drawn her heart toward him echoed in her ears, and the image of the mischievous light dancing in his hazel eyes swung back and forth before her.

He betrayed her, but she’d betrayed him first.

“You’re moody today, my Lady,” Mirrikh said, cutting off her trance. He glanced at McQuillen on the holo-video. “Will you actually consider his bargain?”

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Bayrose said. “We don’t make peace with them. It’s been our motto since the beginning. I’ll dance on the Siren’s grave. I’m only thankful she won’t go down easily. The ancient poison is the worst kind. It’ll burn her inch by inch until she has no skin left. I hear it’s already burning her.”

“Who would expect a girl who looks so sweet and lovely contains such venomous hatred. Hell hath no fury like a woman—”

Bayrose controlled her urge to kick him in the balls. He must have seen the scorching look in her eyes, so he cut out the final words. “However,” he said. “I adore your ferocity. The fire in you has finally ignited.”

All it had taken was pain and loss, and Lucienne was the source of them all. Bayrose glued her eyes on the injured McQuillen. “How will the Siren react if I send her McQuillen’s head in a box?”

“My lovely Rose,” Mirrikh leered, “let’s find out.”