In a Fix (31 page)

“Ciel? What are you doing here? Billy said he left you guarding a spot closer to the boat.”

Guarding? Yeah, right. I laughed out loud at that one. “Thanks for trying, Laura, but I know darn well Billy told you he sat me in the proverbial corner and tied me there with threats. He didn’t really think I’d stay, did he?”

She grinned. “He hoped, but I knew better.”

“Where are they?”

“Mark’s scouting for a likely candidate he can stand in for to get closer to Trey. We weren’t able to take him from the Viking’s impromptu prison tent—it was too heavily guarded, and besides, Per keeps hauling him out to play his sadistic little games.”

I shuddered. “That guy is such an asshole. Where’s Billy?”

“He should be up a tree on the other side of the camp, keeping an eye on things from there. If he’s not looking for you, that is,” she said with a tiny, disingenuous smile.

I flushed a bit, but tried to laugh it off. I didn’t have time to explain things to her right now. Not that I understood any of it myself. “Listen, Laura, I found out something important—don’t ask me how, I’ll explain it later.” Or not. “Nils—he’s the other guy in charge, along with Per—isn’t a neo-Viking. He’s with SÄPO. He’s undercover, like Trey.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, I know. Nils is a pal of mine.”

I stared at her. “You know him?”

“Of course. He helped me a lot with my Swedish.”

“Does Mark know? Does Billy?” Did every-fucking-body but me know?

“I don’t know about Billy, but Mark knows—why wouldn’t he? It’s why he didn’t call in the whole Agency to get you out after you were snatched—he knew Nils wouldn’t let anything too horrible happen to you.”

I remembered being jabbed with the needle on the plane while Nils held me down. “Huh. Well, that’s a matter of opinion.”

“Listen, Ciel. I know this whole experience has been hard on you, but if we’d had to go in with guns blazing, our whole operation would’ve been jeopardized. You understand, don’t you?” She sounded sympathetic, and probably was, but I detected the hint of a ruthless streak. Guess it went with the job description.

I sighed. “Yeah, I suppose.”

“I knew you would. You would’ve made a great agent,” she said, with either sincere or skillfully faked admiration. I wanted to believe it was real.

“Well, what do we do now?” I asked, determined not to think about anything that would distract me from the task at hand. Time enough to stew later.

“You could be a big help if you head in that direction”—she pointed—“about a hundred yards or so, shimmy up a sturdy-looking tree, and keep your field glasses aimed toward the camp. Call me if you see anything that strikes you as odd.”

“Rosie-girl,” I said, proud that I remembered her incognito name, “this whole situation strikes me as odd. But I’ll do my best.”

Chapter 28

The pine I chose wasn’t overly tall, but it was densely branched enough to provide good camouflage. I only fell on my ass twice before I managed to monkey my way up high enough to grab a branch. Once seated as securely as possible, I got out my binoculars and looked back to where I’d left Laura. She was hidden too well in the branches of her own tree for me to make her out, but I thought I saw a flash of light from one of her lenses.

I scanned the rest of the area and found I had a decent enough view of the camp. I could make out the shape of the biggest ship-grave, and a boatload (so to speak) of Vikings milling around it. I guessed they’d all start getting more organized when the time for the ceremony approached. Nils had said evening, but that was a pretty broad time frame in Sweden this time of year. Did he mean evening by the clock, which would be here soon enough, I reckoned, or did he mean evening by the setting sun, which would be much later?

I hoped it was the former, because my legs were going to cramp up if I had to sit still for long. Also, I was going to need a ladies room pretty soon. The urge to pee was only a small nudge in my bladder now, but I knew from experience how fast that could balloon into dire need.

Of course, once I started thinking about it, the need for relief snowballed. Crap. Guys had it so easy. In the first place, most of them had bladders like horses—they could hold it forever, and then pee buckets. Women—me, anyway—weren’t so fortunate.

I’d have crossed my legs if I could have without falling. I supposed if I got desperate enough I could climb back down and find a place to squat, but exposing my privates to whatever creepy-crawlies might inhabit the woodland floor was unappealing, and besides, it would take time away from my lookout duties.

There was one other option open to me, however, if I dared.

I lifted my binoculars and did as much of a circular sweep as I could without breaking my neck. No one near enough to worry about, except possibly Laura. Hugging the trunk, I inched around to the side of the tree opposite where she was posted, and adapted to the first small-enough male aura I thought of (Stanley, a code monkey friend of a friend, with no people skills whatsoever, who’d needed help landing a job—I got him through the interview process, and he’d been happily and solitarily writing computer programs ever since), unzipped my fly, and started emptying out. This, I thought with a sigh, was the biggest advantage to being male. You could urinate outside without getting your feet wet.

“Tell me you are
not
peeing on my head,” Billy’s appalled voice wafted up from below.

Aack!
I couldn’t believe it. When had he snuck up on me? My stupid luck strikes again.

If I’d been a girl caught peeing, I could’ve stopped on a dime. Guys do not have the same ability, at least not the one I’d picked. The stream continued for several seconds, in spite of my best effort to bring it to a halt. As soon as I shook off the last dribble, I adapted back to myself and hastily zipped up.

“What are you doing there? You’re
supposed
to be on the other side of the camp.” When cornered, you may as well attack first.

“What am I doing? Getting wet, that’s what. Now, get your ass down here—we need to talk.”

“About what?” I stalled.

“About why you’re not where you’re supposed to be, for one.”

Oh, that. “Can’t it wait? I’m kinda busy.”

“Now.” There was a world of threat in that one word. I sighed and started climbing down. If I didn’t, he’d just climb up after me. When I got there, he was pouring a bottle of drinking water over his hair and face, scrubbing vigorously.

“Uh, sorry about that. I didn’t know you were there. Honest.” I stifled my laughter, but not very effectively, so I also kept my distance.

“Jesus, cuz, if I’d known you were into water sports, I’d have worn my raincoat.” He sounded grumpy, but there was a hint of laughter beneath his words, so I knew he wasn’t really mad.

He stripped off his shirt and threw it on the ground. His pants had somehow escaped the shower, so he left them on, and after a quick rinse of his chest and arms, he shook off most of the water. “Give me your shirt.”

“What?” I squeaked.

“Come on, I need a shirt. You have a T-shirt on under it, don’t you? I saw Laura give you one. Besides, you have an extra thermal in your pack if you need it later. I didn’t get one of those. Silly me, not planning ahead for the odd rain of piss.”

I chewed the inside of my cheek. I really didn’t want to have to tell him about the spider, or for that matter, the pile of cow dung. It was too embarrassing. He already had enough to tease me about without adding more ammo to his arsenal. “Wouldn’t you rather have my thermal?”

“Nah. Too tight for me. The shirt you’re wearing looks baggy enough on you that it’ll work for me. Come on, give it.” He held out a hand, impatient.

“Just a second.” I took off the pack and rummaged through it for the thermal. “You know, I think this would fit you. A little snug, maybe, but that’s okay—it would show off your manly physique.”

“Ciel…” he said suspiciously, walking toward me.

“It’s your color, too. Tan is just the thing to set off your eyes. It’s all about the contrast. I learned that watching
What Not to Wear
.” I backed away, holding the shirt up between us. “It deepens them to midnight blue, really attractive.”

He followed, until he had me backed up against the tree. Looming over me, he hooked one finger into the front of my shirt, lifted it away from my chest, and peeked down. “Ciel, where’s your T-shirt?” he asked conversationally, but his eyes drilled into mine.

“I, um, got a little warm, so I took it off?”

“So it’s in your pack.”

“No. Because I, uh, lost it.”

“Ciel?”

He wasn’t stepping back, and neither was the tree. I swallowed again. “That’s my name.”

“Where did Nils take you when he escorted you from the camp earlier?”

“You saw that?”

“Yeah, cuz. I notice things. Like, your eyes are green again, and the makeup Laura put on your mouth has somehow been rubbed off. Had a little help with that part, did you?”

His voice was still nerve-rackingly even-keeled. It was making me edgy. When I get edgy, I get testy. “Well, if you saw a freaking Viking taking me away, then why in the hell didn’t you do something about it?”

“Nils isn’t a Viking. He’s with SÄPO. I knew he wouldn’t kill you, and my attention was otherwise occupied with trying to find a way to save Trey.”

“Wait a minute—you knew all along Nils wasn’t a Viking?”

He shrugged. “Not all along. Mark told me after he got here.”

“Did you know when you clobbered him on the beach?”

“Maybe.”

“Billy, how
could
you?”

His eyes narrowed. “He hit you. I didn’t like that.”

“But you were going to just leave him there, hurt, on the beach!”

“Look, Ciel, Nils is a professional. He’s undercover. I wouldn’t have been doing him any favor by taking him out of the game. Now stop avoiding my question. Where did he take you?”

“His uncle has a farm right across the road. Nils had the idea I might be safer there, away from Per.”

“Can’t fault his reasoning. A farm, huh? That would explain the aroma of”—he sniffed me rudely—“dung.”

“There were cows,” I said haughtily.

“And was there a handy haystack?” He pulled a piece of straw from the hair at my nape, and flicked it away disdainfully.

“None of your business.”

Speculation grew in his eyes. “Better watch yourself, cuz. I think you’re getting a little too caught up in … things.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, do you and Mark get together and compare scripts?” I pushed him away and stomped off a few paces. My back to him, I removed my shirt and tossed it over my shoulder at him, then pulled the thermal quickly over my head.

“Great,” he muttered. “Now I get to smell like piss
and
shit.”

“You washed off all the pee, and the shirt will air out soon. Get over it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back up the tree. I have a camp to watch.”

He caught my arm and held me back. There was something in his eyes I couldn’t quite read. “Tell me you didn’t sleep with him.”

What?
He thought I…? I flushed. With embarrassment at first, but anger quickly overcame that. What gave him the right to judge me?

“I fail to see how that is any concern of yours,” I said, my words clipped.

He swore. “For God’s sake, you’ve known him what? Two days? What are you trying to do, make up for lost time?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, you’ve only slept with two men in your whole life—that loser back in college, and the asshole lawyer your brother wound up firing. I’m assuming you must be feeling a little deprived if you’re jumping into the hayloft with the first Viking who kidnaps you.”

“What makes you think those are the only two? Maybe I’ve slept with every guy I ever went out with, like you do with your women,” I flung at him.

“You haven’t,” he said, mouth tight.

Okay, now I
wanted
him to think I had slept with Nils. “How can you be sure? Because I’m a girl? Sauce for the goose, Billy.”

“Remember when I told you I couldn’t decipher your diary? I lied.”

“Ha. If that were true, you’d know I never slept with the lawyer, he just spread rumors that I did.”

I clamped my mouth shut, upset that I’d given that away. It didn’t say much for my appeal that the loser back in college had been the only guy I’d ever had. Or, rather, halfway had. The boy had barely breached the ramparts before his ammunition was spent. It was downright embarrassing for both of us, and he’d never asked me out again. Still, I counted it.

Billy’s whole manner softened. He brushed a thumb over my hot cheek. “Don’t you see? I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

My anger left me in a rush. “I didn’t sleep with Nils. There was a spider. It fell down my neck. I had to take off both shirts to get it off me, and my T-shirt landed in a pile of…” I trailed off when I saw the stark relief in his eyes.

After a minute his dimples appeared. “A spider, huh? Bet you jumped a mile.”

“Tell me about it.” I shuddered again, just at the memory.

“So, was it a big spider?” His eyes laughed and his hand walked up my arm, fingers wiggling like little legs.

I jumped back and slapped it away. “See? That’s just why I didn’t want to tell you—I
knew
you’d do that. Now leave.”

“Aw, come on. I’m sorry.” He pulled me into a hug and stroked my back with a flat hand. No more spider fingers.

I looked up at him. “Billy … I have to have a life, too. I can’t just watch you guys from the sidelines forever.”

He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly while something warred in his eyes. Finally, he gave my hair a tug and said, his voice soft and serious, “Right. I understand. But when you get into the game, just remember I’m on the playing field, too.”

Chapter 29

Billy left without another word. I scurried back up my tree, and did
not
think about what I thought I’d read in his eyes.

Instead, I watched the stupid camp until my eyes blurred. Twice I saw Trey dragged from his tent and hauled before Per, who questioned him, slapped him, and sent him back. He must not have liked the answers. Nils was there with them both times; his face tightened when Per hit Trey, and once, when Per was about to use a fist instead of an open hand to strike, he held Per’s arm back.