Chastity Flame (15 page)

Chastity moved silently to the door
and listened. Not a sound came. It could be nothing, she thought.
However, it was better to be prepared. "Yes?"

"Fax for you, fröken," a pleasant
voice called clearly from the hallway.

"All right," Chastity said, crouching
down as she flung the door open. A man stepped in, gun held high,
bringing it down quickly, but not before Chastity had kicked him in
the shin, bringing him down against the door with a grunt of pain.
She knocked the gun from his hand and rolled over on top of him,
pinning him to the ground with her knee as she tried to get his
arms under control as well. He bucked up against her, cursing a
blue streak.

Chastity tried to kick the door
closed, but his foot blocked it. She huffed from the exertion as he
grabbed for her throat, knocking his arm back but unable to get a
grip on it. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Keith peep from
the bathroom doorway, then retreat wide-eyed once more. Damn his
cowardice, she thought.

She had his arms pinned, although he
was still trying to get his knee worked free in order to unseat
her, when Chastity heard a noise behind her and thought, oh shit.
Twisting her head around she saw a tall figure framed in the
doorway. Without hesitation, she rolled off the first man and
grabbed the gun, pointing it at the new arrival, who continued
pointing his gun at the man on the floor.

Chastity blinked. "Damien?"

He stared at her, mouth open as he
trained the gun on her with surprise. "Helen?"

They both held perfectly still for a
long moment, but when the man on the floor moved, Damien swiveled
and shot him in the leg, the bark of the gun muted by its
silencer.

"Get inside," Chastity hissed. She
heard the elevator opening down the hall and voices drifting toward
them. Damien stepped inside and closed the door swiftly. For a time
the only sound was the muttered sounds of pain from the other op.
At last Chastity let the gun drop from Damien.

It was impossible to say what she was
feeling. She couldn't have said what it was that was churning
inside her. As they tied the other op to a chair with his own socks
and belt, she sneaked looks at Damien, who was doing the same with
her.

"Is it safe to come out?" Keith
whispered at last, deciding things had become quiet enough.
Chastity nodded. Anything for a distraction.

Damien folded his arms. "Monitor sent
me here. They were concerned about the potential breach. With good
reason," he added, glancing over at the hacker.

"Hey, I didn't really…" He lapsed into
silence. "Sorry. It was stupid. I get it." He held up his mobile.
"It's off. Completely."

"Great," Chastity said, still looking
at Damien.

"Yeah," Damien added, his eyes glued
to Chastity.

"Am I missing something?" Keith
asked.

Chastity laughed. "Someone
is."

"How was I to know?" Damien said
suddenly. The op tied to the chair watched the two of them as if
their conversation were a tennis match.

"I don't understand," Keith said,
looking from Chastity to Damien then back again. "Are you two mad
at each other?"

"Let's just say surprised and leave it
at that," Chastity said. Damien opened his mouth as if he were
going to say something, then closed it. "You want to take the
hacker to the next spot? I'll get a clean up for this one." She
jerked her thumb behind her at the hostage op.

Damien looked at her, his face
struggling to keep a neutral expression. "Alright then. You—come
on." He waved a hand at Keith, who suddenly looked
spooked.

"Do I have to go? Can't I stay with
you," he begged Chastity.

"No, you have to go. It will be fine,
trust me."

Damien tapped his foot, slipping the
gun into his coat pocket. "Let's move it." Keith stared at
Chastity, his eyes making a mute appeal.

"Go, it's alright. He will take good
care of you."

Keith reluctantly grabbed his bag and
walked over to Damien. They both glanced at Chastity, who was
beginning to feel irritated. Damien ran his hand through his hair,
his eyes boring into Chastity's. "Be seeing you."

She shrugged, feeling numb. "Six of
one, half dozen of the other." Damien nodded, Keith waved and then
they were out the door and walking down the hall as it closed
behind them. Chastity made herself walk to the bathroom, out of
sight of the prisoner before she gave in to the shaking that took
over her body. She sat on the edge of the tub until the shaking
stopped. The whole of the scene replayed through her head. Chastity
tried to remember if his face had betrayed any of what he
thought.

Surprise? Yes, there had been
surprise. Dismay, perhaps, too. Dismay that she was a spook like
him? Or dismay that his secret was up? Suddenly it was so much more
complicated. Don't think about it, Chastity thought. File it away,
think about it later. Yes, that's the only way. She refused to
think about the visions as well. Perhaps soon, she reflected, I can
think about all of this.

Chastity heard a noise in the other
room and started. If that op were working his way free! She hopped
up and stepped back into the room, only to find a pair of
interlopers freeing her prisoner. Chastity whipped out the pistol
and they met her on equal footing, pulling out their own revolvers.
She had no choice, but stood silently and seething as they took
their colleague and backed out of the room.

"Sven sends his greetings," one
laughed in slightly accented tones.

Then they were gone and Chastity was
left staring at the closed door, cursing her idiocy and
distraction. It was time to get out of Sweden. She picked up the
phone to call Monitor, feeling distinctly battered.

Why Damien? Why did he have to be one
of them?

On the plane back to London, she found
herself beginning to shore up her tattered emotions. It was just
good sex, after all, Chastity scolded herself. Why had she invested
so much more into it? Good sex was wonderful, but all the complex
emotions she had begun to invest into the relationship were simply
misplaced. Fatigue, that was it—she was tired, needing a break. A
little recharging somewhere on the Riviera or hiking through India
and she would be back in top form. All the strange eruptions from
memory had affected her physically. Her innate training and
discipline would marshal all her forces back into line. She would
be better than ever.

Looking around the cabin, she didn't
see any interesting prospects to liven up the flight. The sparsely
filled rows seemed to be occupied by families and elderly
passengers, none of whom looked robust enough for some fun. Upon
landing she was through passport control so quickly that she
spotted no one of interest worth pulling. Sighing, Chastity stepped
into a taxi and headed for home.

Exiting the minicab, she saw her
postman heading down the row, and for a moment considered taking
him up on his habitual flirting. However, when she saw his easy
grin and heard his friendly greeting, Chastity knew she didn't have
the heart to jeopardize the one consistent pleasantry in her
life.

"Back from the catwalks of Paris?" he
chirped, passing her a sheaf of menus and generic solicitations. "A
triumph, I'm sure, as always."

Chastity laughed as she took the
papers in hand, parking her bag just inside the door. "Ah, but I'd
give it all up for true love, you know."

Her postman sighed dramatically, a
hand to his chest. "There's still hope for me then, eh? I can go on
living then, my lovely. One day, one day for sure, I will earn your
love. I will make you a very happy ex-model. You can get fat. I
won't care. We'll eat ice cream and pizza."

Chastity laughed, closing the door on
his retreating steps. Some things would not change. There was a
comfort in that. It suddenly struck her that, despite all the
whirlwind of change that was her job, she liked many things to
remain predictable. Her flat, her postman, London—they should all
be waiting for her return exactly the way they were when she left.
Damien was a new wrinkle and one that was getting increasingly
complex. I don't need that, Chastity thought. What she needed was
to get Damien out of her system.

She had barely finished unpacking when
her mobile tweeted to indicate a message. Looking at the screen,
Chastity saw that she was being summoned to Greek Street. Although
she considered walking in the bright Spring light, there was a
mini-cab idling at the kerb when she walked outside, so she jumped
in. Riding along, her thoughts returned with irritating persistence
to Damien. She couldn't yet bring herself to think about how she
had felt seeing him pop in the door of that Swedish hotel room.
There was no way she would admit to the corny thrill of pleasure
she had felt upon seeing him, preferring to remember how it was
immediately replaced by six kinds of dismay.

Yes, six, she was certain.

As the cab pulled up at the door of
Basingstoke Developments Ltd., Chastity renewed her vow to shake
these feelings off and concentrate on work. Damien was now off
limits. She didn't have to think about all those uncomfortable
emotions she had been developing. It was over. There was no reason
to have to ever consider him again.

She nodded to all and sundry on the
walk to Monitor's office, feeling better now that she had made her
mind up. Chastity was glad to have shrugged off those disorienting
thoughts.

Naturally, it was a bit disconcerting
to find Damien seated before Monitor's desk. He looked up as she
came in, smiled and then frowned. Chastity attempted to conceal the
myriad emotions that churned through her body. She could do this,
she decided. It would all be forgotten in no time. Sitting down
next to him in the other chair, she willed herself to ignore his
perfect profile and squelched the urge to run her hand along the
curve of his cheek or to meet those brown eyes. Her mutinous
nipples, however, seemed to anticipate his touch and itched
suddenly.

"You've met your fellow operative,
4CB? This is 12ZF."

"How do you do?" Damien said coldly,
although his fingers were hot in her hand.

"I want you two to work together on
this Wesenlund business," Monitor said, her fingers forming a
steeple upon her desk. "I don't like the arrogant way he seems to
think he's untouchable. I'm not suggesting we start an
international incident or destabilize the very currency we're
trying to protect, but I want him closely watched and I want
information. Anything we can get."

"Understood," Chastity said, her voice
crisp as the linen in her jacket.

Monitor cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Something wrong?"

Chastity was silent. Monitor looked
from her to Damien and back again. "Was there any trouble with the
extraction?"

"None," Damien said, his voice even
and clear.

"You do know you’re both level 0NR? No
need for professional jealousy."

"Yes," Charity said, equally neutral
in her tone.

"Then let that be an end to it. We
don't have time right now for professional jealousies."

"Understood," the two said in unison,
which garnered another look from Monitor, but she said nothing
about it.

Reaching down, she pulled out a file
from her drawer. "This is the latest we have on Wesenlund. I want
you to get it down cold before you leave tonight."

"Where to?" Chastity asked.

"Helsinki," Monitor said, looking down
at the open folder. "He's holding some kind of conference event
there for Scandinavian and Baltic investors. You're Katrine and
Harald Edmundson and you run a small internet company. Try to stay
away from Wesenlund himself, of course, but see what you can
determine about how he's using this event to effect the kind of
change he would like to see."

"Have we got anything useful out of
the hacker?" Chastity asked.

Monitor sighed. "Well, we have got
some things that Kevin swears will be worthwhile, but they don't do
much to tell us about the ultimate aims of Wesenlund's scheme. At
least we can repair a lot of the security breaches that were made,
although the little beggar seems to have shared a lot of his
techniques with the general public of hackers."

"Shall we take the conference room?"
Damien asked as he reached for the folder Monitor was
closing.

"Take the blue room," she said,
tucking one of the stray strands of hair back into the disheveled
bun at the back of her neck. "We may need the grey room in a short
while for strategy."

Chapter Twelve

Chastity led the way as the two of
them headed out into the hallway and then to the small conference
room. Damien closed the door behind them, threw the folder on the
table and then grabbed Chastity by the arms, intending to kiss her
warmly. She moved violently away from him, turning her back and
striding around the table to put distance between them. "What the
hell are you playing at!"

"What?"

"You're joking, right?"

"I don't understand. I thought you
would be ecstatic."