Poison Evidence Page 24

  Ivy woke in stages, logic being the last thought process to come online. Disoriented, it took her a moment to grasp the concept of hospital room. Well, really more medical clinic, and a small one at that considering Palau’s population was lower than that of her outer-beltway hometown in Maryland.

  Her arm was numb, as though it didn’t exist. Surgery, she remembered. To remove the bullet, clean the wound, and set the bone. They’d used a general anesthetic in case they needed to use metal pins to connect the bone.

  She looked toward the man sitting in her visitor’s chair. Luke Sevick. She’d told him and Ian as much as she could before the surgery.

  “The break was relatively clean,” Luke said. “But they did have to rebuild the break with metal reinforcement.”

  She offered up a weak smile. “Please tell me they gave me bionic parts.”

  He smiled back. “Sadly, no. Your arm is splinted for now. The doctor said they won’t cast it until after the swelling goes down in a day or two.”

  “Thank you. For staying with me. I know you wanted to go with Ian.”

  He tilted his head to acknowledge her thanks. “Zack Barrow escaped.”

  She’d feared that, but she had another concern. “And Dimitri?”

  “He wasn’t in the cave either.”

  If she wasn’t drugged from the surgery, she might feel more pain—or even relief—at that statement, but as it was, there was a veil that separated her from really feeling. “And CAM?” she asked. She doubted any drug could mask the pain she’d feel if Dimitri had taken CAM.

  “Ian found both CAM and the drone in the cave.”

  A tear spilled down her cheek, but her brain was too fuzzy to quite understand why. Happy or sad, she didn’t know.

  “If you have any idea where he’s gone, Ivy, you need to tell us. There are things about Dimitri you don’t know.”

  “He told me you were friends. That he trusts you.”

  Luke’s lips flattened. “I no longer trust him.”

  “Is it true he was the other man on the Osprey? He helped you that night?”

  He gave a sharp nod.

  “If you’d failed, he would have died right along with you and everyone in the Osprey. He risked himself just as much as you did, with one difference. He knew exactly what he was facing when he stepped on the ferry that night. You and Undine were clueless. For you, it was just a PR event. But he knew, and still he got on the boat.”

  Luke’s nostrils flared, and she knew she’d hit a nerve. She rubbed her eyes with her one good hand. The world was becoming clearer by the second.

  “He’s a spy. For Russia. And in case you haven’t noticed, our relationship isn’t as sweet as it was in the early post-Cold War era. Don’t fool yourself into thinking they’re our allies.”

  “I’m not. But Dimitri Veselov is—our ally, I mean.” She closed her eyes and asked herself if she could betray Dimitri’s secret to Luke. Would Luke use Sophia and Yulian in the same way Russia had? Dimitri had feared the US government would use them, but Luke wasn’t government—well, he was in the uniformed service for NOAA, but that wasn’t armed forces. Luke was here as a private citizen. Seeking an old friend, or settling a score?

  His attitude suggested the latter, but something in his expression suggested the former. Luke wanted to believe in and maybe even help Dimitri. She believed it in her gut.

  A knock on the door was followed by a man poking his head inside her small clinic room. When the man saw she was awake, he stepped into the room. “I’m sorry to disturb you so soon after surgery, Ms. MacLeod. I’m Assistant Special Agent in Charge Kaha’i Palea, from the Honolulu FBI Field Office. Curt Dominick asked me personally to handle this investigation, and I have a few questions for you.”

  There went the idea of telling Luke about Sophia. This man was government.

  She pressed the button to raise the head of her hospital bed so she was almost sitting up. “Of course, Agent Palea. I’ll do anything I can to help you track down and arrest the man who shot me—Zack Barrow.”

  “We’re just as interested in the man who abducted you, Dimitri Veselov.”

  “Dimitri didn’t abduct me.”

  The agent’s brow furrowed. “I was under the impression that you told Attorney General Curt Dominick in a text message conversation that you’d been abducted by Veselov.”

  She frowned. The anesthesia must still be clouding her brain. She should have seen that coming and tried a different tactic. She cleared her throat. “I thought he had, but not long after that conversation, it became clear that not only was I not his prisoner, but that he was protecting me. I’d be in Syria right now if not for Dimitri Veselov.”

  “You are aware, Ms. MacLeod, we don’t need your testimony to convict him on the theft of top secret military technology.”

  She shrugged. “I hear the Navy is getting it back. And he never actually touched the cases or equipment without my permission. CAM was always under my control.”

  “We’re on the same side, Ms. MacLeod.”

  “I’m not entirely sure of that, Agent Palea. You see, my country—the government I work for—sent me to Palau with top-secret equipment, intending to use me as a spy, without warning or assistance. That’s not feeling like the same side to me. So if you’re here hoping I’ll help you go after Dimitri, when he’s the one person who did protect me when my government failed, you’re going to be disappointed.”

  He sighed. “Regardless, I need to question you.” The agent—whose name, features, and accent indicated he was hapa, if not full Hawaiian—cast a sideways glance at Luke. “I’m afraid my questions will get personal.”

  This man was sent by Curt, which meant she could trust him, but in the back of her mind was the memory of FBI interrogations she’d suffered right after Patrick’s arrest. They hadn’t always played fair, and a few agents had twisted her words to make her sound like she’d confessed to something she’d known nothing about. Up until the night in the mangrove swamp, it had been one of the scariest experiences of her life.

  “Lt. Sevick stays,” she said firmly.

  Agent Palea cleared his throat. “Fine, then. I understand you had sexual relations with Veselov on the night you were attacked in the mangrove swamp. Did that relationship continue after you were made aware Veselov was a Russian spy?”

  Curt stroked Mara’s back as she leaned against him on the sofa. He had at least a half-dozen calls to make, but right now he needed to be a husband, and holding Mara was his number one priority.

  She’d been battling severe nausea from the moment Ivy disabled CAM’s tracking beacon, likely a combination of stress and morning sickness, but the result had been difficulty keeping food down and he’d been worried for her and their unborn child.

  She’d managed to eat and hold down a decent-sized meal after Luke called to say Ivy was back in Koror, but the news that she’d been shot had tempered their relief.

  “I can’t help but feel like it’s my fault, Curt. I was so excited we finally got the funding for the survey, I didn’t question why.”

  He kissed her temple. She’d been beating herself up for days, and no amount of talking could convince her she was blameless. It didn’t help that she was more than a little angry with him for telling Ivy to cooperate with the assassin.

  He blamed himself too.

  He’d fucked up, but from what Luke had told him, Veselov had protected Ivy. Zack Barrow had been the one who fired the shot.

  Without Veselov, Ivy could well be en route to Syria right now.

  His cell phone rang, vibrating against his chest where Mara pressed against him. She leaned back and pulled the phone from his breast pocket.

  “It can wait,” Curt said.

  She frowned at the screen. “It’s Fredrickson from the DIA. You’d better take it.”

  “I’ll call him back.”

  “What if they’ve called another damn meeting and left you out of the loop?”

  Mara was right. Fredrickson was
the only person within the DIA who kept Curt informed in a timely manner. He took the phone and swiped the screen to answer. “Rudy. What’s up?”

  “The briefing I just received on the situation in Palau is pretty ugly for Ivy MacLeod. The boys here know they fucked up, and now it sounds like they’re going to hang MacLeod out to dry. There’s even speculation she and Veselov were colluding from the start.”

  Curt’s head throbbed, and the look on Mara’s face as she took in his reaction to words she couldn’t hear made him worry for her health.

  “That’s bullshit, and everyone knows it.”

  “I wish it were that simple, but there is evidence she called Veselov twice prior to her departure for Palau.”

  Dimitri held the satellite phone in one hand and Ian Boyd’s business card in the other. He needed to know how Ivy was doing. One call. He might even get to speak with her.

  But every contact was a risk. Raptor might have technology to track his location through the phone.

  It was easier this way. It would hurt Ivy, but she was going to hurt no matter what.

  He shoved Boyd’s card back in his pocket and dialed the number he’d memorized months ago and which he’d been reporting in to on a weekly basis, a requirement of their bargain. The phone was answered on the first ring.

  The Russian on the other end of the line used a voice distorter as before. Dimitri didn’t know if the person was male or female, young or old. “You have acquired the AUUV?”

  “Not yet,” he said in Russian. “But I expect to find it soon.”

  “You are taking too long, Veselov. Your sister suffers while you waste time fucking the cartographer.”

  He tightened his jaw against issuing a denial. Nothing he could say would protect Ivy. The person was fishing for a response. He wouldn’t fall into that trap. “Send your man to collect the AUUV. Have him wait at the new resort in Koror. I will have it in two days.”

  “We wish to amend our arrangement.”

  “No fucking way. You will release Sophia and Yulian, or you won’t get the AUUV.”

  “We will still release your sister and nephew. That hasn’t changed.”

  “There is nothing else you can offer me that I want.”

  “Not even your own life? A chance to be with the cartographer?”

  Were they fishing, or did they know something? If they had an inside man in the FBI, CIA, or DIA, then everything Ivy said would reach his handler’s ears.

  “We’ll release you from your commitments to Mother Russia,” the person on the line continued, “if you kill Luke Sevick as you were ordered to do last fall.”

  “No. I won’t kill for you again.”

  “You don’t understand, Veselov, this isn’t up for negotiation. If you don’t kill Luke Sevick, Ivy MacLeod will die.”

  Chapter Thirty

  “You push too hard. He’ll never kill Sevick.”

  “I don’t want him to kill the SEAL.”

  “Then why issue the order?”

  “Because we can’t have him balking because of love at this point. Now he’ll be too afraid for MacLeod to step out of line. Make him choose between Sevick and MacLeod—his honor or his love—and he’ll be off his game during the handoff.”

  “He might not love the woman.”

  “This is the Hammer. He kills without remorse, but he has never used a woman for a mission in this way.”

  “Because he never needed to.”

  “He could have used Undine Gray. She was vulnerable when she had the panic attack, and he could have cemented his role as her dive partner—which is what he should have done. He didn’t. Be grateful I know how to push his buttons, because you could never take on the Hammer by yourself. If he realizes who you are, you don’t stand a chance. If I’m right, then he’s just fallen in love for the first time. He’s finally got a reason to live and won’t be taken easily. But with MacLeod’s life hanging in the balance, he’ll fall in line to save her.”

  He had to stay one step ahead of everyone and come up with a new plan for handing over the AUUV. A warning to Luke was in order, to protect both him and Ivy.

  Scenarios ran through his head as he paced the tiny cave. He followed each one to the logical conclusion, and no matter how he played it, someone died. Sometimes it was Luke. Sometimes Ivy. Usually it was Sophia and Yulian.

  He’d planned carefully. Sophia would video chat with him from a specific hotel in Taiwan. From there, she and Yulian would travel to the Philippines and then on to Jakarta, where he had stashed enough money for them to start a new life wherever they chose. Sophia knew her way around the dark web and had the language skills and tradecraft to obtain passports and whatever else they needed.

  But now he needed to control the whereabouts of Ivy and Luke while Sophia and Yulian were en route to safety—without revealing his own location. He’d enlist their help, except he was fairly certain Luke was honor bound to take Dimitri in custody, and he had Ian Boyd with him to make sure he followed through.

  If Dimitri were taken, Sophia and Yulian were dead. And Ivy was vulnerable.

  This was his every nightmare come true, why he didn’t get attached, refused to make friends. Refused to fall in love.

  “It took me days to make the poison tree map,” Ivy repeated. “We didn’t back up to the Navy database because Zack Barrow and his terrorist buddies knew how to track the signal. The information is gone, and it would take me the same amount of time to recreate it.” Not entirely true, but close enough.

  “Gone because Dimitri deleted it,” Ian said.

  She nodded. What could she say? The Raptor operative was pissed at Dimitri, and frankly, so was she. But she also understood why Dimitri had done it. Explaining to Ian and Luke served no purpose except to further alienate the two men who’d traveled halfway around the world to rescue her.

  Luke had sat right there in the room when she admitted to the FBI agent she’d had sex with Dimitri after she knew the truth about him.

  Luke and Ian didn’t trust her judgment when it came to Dimitri, and she couldn’t really blame them either. In their eyes, she was a pathetic fool who’d fallen for her captor.

  She needed their respect if she was going to be able to use them to help Dimitri.

  “Surely you remember something,” Luke said.

  She did, but she kept her face blank. Her acting skills were improving. She hoped. “The area was huge. There are lots of poison trees. I didn’t memorize it because we had the database.”

  She paced the hotel room. She’d been released from the hospital after twenty-four hours, and now here she was, back in the hotel where her ordeal began. Her arm throbbed and was in a sling. She’d get a hard cast tomorrow, but for now it was splinted and bandaged, and she was taking strong painkillers that couldn’t mask the fear and hurt she felt both for and because of Dimitri.

  “He’s searching for the AUUV right now. You can help us narrow down the area and find him,” Luke said. “We want to help him, Ivy.”

  So maybe her acting skills weren’t improving. “You want to detain him. That’s why you came to Palau, isn’t it?”

  “No,” Ian said. “Alec sent us to Palau to rescue you, but you refuse to leave.”

  She shrugged. No way was she leaving before the AUUV was found.

  “We’re going to take a boat out and search near the cave island with or without your information,” Ian said. “But that involves risk to us. Don’t send us in blind.”

  The guilt she’d been battling over lying settled in her belly. Ian was a good guy. He’d taken down Patrick. Cressida was a friend, and she’d be pissed that Ivy wasn’t doing all she could to help her boyfriend, who’d come all this way to rescue her. Then there was Luke Sevick. He’d been nothing but kind. This was a shitty situation all around.

  In keeping her silence, she was betraying her friends and her country. But to lead them to Dimitri…that was another betrayal.

  It was Russia’s lost AUUV, and Dimitri was returning it to t
hem. His actions weren’t actively against the US. Not here.

  But she doubted anyone else would see it that way.

  She cleared her throat. “Take me with you.”

  “No fucking way,” both men said in unison.

  She crossed her good arm over her bad and tried to hide her wince at the motion. “Way. Bring me and CAM, and I’ll use RON to find him. I’ll recreate the poison tree map.”

  “You’re injured,” Ian argued. “And it’s dangerous. Zack and his men are still out there. They still want CAM—and you.”

  “I thought you were in the personal protection business,” she said to Ian. “And my cousin is paying you to protect me.” She glanced down at her sling. “And I’m right-handed. I can still work the computer.”

  And fire a gun. Maybe.

  “Fine,” Luke said. She turned to face him, and from the set of his jaw and light in his eyes, she suspected she’d walked right into his plan. Ian was here to protect Ivy, but Luke… He was here for Dimitri, and the jury was out on whether or not he considered Dimitri a friend or foe.

  Ivy was to be his bait.

  She turned and marched into her private room in the large hotel suite. Her cousin was sparing no expense for her lodging. Alec had been so mad when Ivy explained to him why she refused to leave Palau. But he was family, and he trusted her. So he grudgingly agreed.

  She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the orchid on the pillow. Her gaze flew around the room. She lifted the bedcovers, but no one hid beneath. The closet and attached bath were also empty. She checked the lanai, surprised to find the French doors were unlocked. The lanai was empty too. Search complete, she finally collected the flower and note from the pillow.

  The orchid was the same peach color as the one he’d given her that first morning, and the note was in the same crisp handwriting.

  Ivy —

  My handlers know about us. About you. About how I feel. You are in danger. Luke Sevick too, because anyone I have affection for will always be used against me. You and Luke must leave Palau, now. Also, the security on your lanai sucks. Surely the CIA trains their agents better than this?