Secrets (9 page)

After dinner,
they retreated to their rooms. Sonya checked her email and her text
messages. Nothing! Damn.

Hanging her
blazer on the doorknob and placing her shoes beside the bed, she
lay upon the bed fully clothed, pulled the bedspread around her and
closed her eyes, hoping for at least an hour or two of
downtime.

Sonya woke with
a start. The room was dark, and the clock read 10:30. The cell
buzzed again – a text message! Sonya fumbled to retrieve it, but
she was forced to light the bedside lamp to orient herself. The
message was from Bryan!

“M ok. Need 2 C
U 2nite. 2:30 @ Eiffel Twr. No 1 else. Brng camra. Tak Taxi”

Okay! He was
healthy enough to send a text. But, this wasn’t his usual text, and
he hadn’t signed it with the silly little symbols that he usually
did, so someone else had written it. It was, however, her only
lifeline.

What now?
Obviously, she would require assistance to leave this home. It was
guarded by Maurice, perhaps even by others outside. What had BB
called it? Ah yes, a safe house. But safe from whom? And there
wasn’t much time to waste.

Sonya slipped
on her shoes and jacket, said a quick prayer and silently unlocked
the bedroom door. A night light at the end of the hall provided
enough illumination to allow her to find the stairs. Closing the
door again, she pulled out the cell phone and gritting her teeth at
the expense, pulled up Google maps, waiting impatiently until it
pinpointed her location. Carefully writing her coordinates and the
surrounding streets, she exited the map. There was no point in
incurring the national debt. She could always reconnect once she
left.

They weren’t as
far away from downtown as she had imagined. The question now, was
how to get a taxi. She was definitely too far to walk. There were
two cars downstairs. Steve’s was a small one, it was late at night
and perhaps she could navigate that one to the
Eiffel
Tower.
It was likely her best option.

Opening the
door again, Sonya quietly closed it behind her and began to tiptoe
to the stairway. A hand gripped her arm. Inhaling a scream, she
turned to assess her assailant, ready to do battle. Instead, she
let out a deep breath. It was
Madame
Lalonde.

“Where you go?”
she asked in a whisper. “You have hear,
ne c’est pas
?” she
demanded.

“I’m just going
downstairs,” Sonya lied.

“And out of
door,”
Madame
Lalonde finished. “I smell lies very well,”
she stated.

Opening her
bedroom door and steering
Madame
Lalonde into her room,
Sonya closed the door and took a deep breath. “Yes, I did hear from
Bryan, a text message. I don’t think it was from him, to be honest,
but I have no choice but to go.”

“You can tell
the others,”
Madame
Lalonde suggested.

“I don’t know
who can be trusted,” Sonya admitted somewhat tearily.

“
Chérie
,”
Madame
Lalonde took in a deep breath and
began, “you must trust someone. You cannot go alone! The men that
take Lucien and Bryan, they are bad people. You are but a girl. If
you must go, I go too. He is my son.”

Tears stung
Sonya’s eyes as she studied the older woman standing in her room.
Her forehead was swollen, discoloured and held together with
steri-strips and her arm was in a sling. She most probably had
bruised ribs or worse and was in a great deal of pain. Yet, there
she stood, ready to do battle and to help her.

“
Madame
Lalonde,” Sonya began. “You are hurt! You must stay here. You can’t
come with me!”

“How do you
leave here?” the older lady demanded quietly. “You cannot walk. You
do not know Paris. Do you know where we are?” she asked.

Sonya just
shook her head. They were very good questions and she had no
answers.

“
Chérie
,”
Madame
Lalonde heaved a great sigh. “You
give me one half of one hour? I find some way to have car keys and
direct you to where we must go. I cannot drive, but you can. What
time we meet them?”

Reluctantly,
Sonya agreed. She did have to trust someone, and it might as well
be
Madame
Lalonde. She could always ditch her if the going
got tough.
Madame
Lalonde had been through enough physical
violence already.

“Okay. Only
thirty minutes and then I’m leaving, even if I have to walk. They
said 2:30 at the
Eiffel
Tower.”

“I be back in
twenty minute, maybe less. I go to my room to take medicine first.
I know where are auto keys. Be ready when I knock on door,
oui
?”

“
Oui!
”

“You are very
certain?”

“
Absuloment
I am certain! Why else do I tell you? She will
leave alone and you know what will happen. I must have car key and
you must let us go! 2:30 at
le Eiffel
. I trust you to make a
net for us.”
Madame
Lalonde hung up her cell phone and
crossed the bedroom to take her pain killers. Bed looked pretty
inviting at this juncture.

However, old
habits did die hard, and she had dealt with both pain and midnight
ops before. She changed into black pants, turtleneck and cardigan.
In a drawer of the bureau, she found a balaclava and stuck it
inside her sling, beside the gun already resident there. It could
come in handy, she presumed. On impulse, she reached into the
drawer and pulled out another balaclava. Sonya’s blonde hair would
glow like a beacon in the dark, which would put them all in
danger.

“That’s exactly
what the monitors recorded,” Maurice reported. “The only contact
points that were compromised are those two bedroom doors. “We
move?”

“Yes. Advise
the others, we move in fifteen minutes or less,” BB ordered,
already dressed in black, he stowed his handgun into its shoulder
holster and covered it with a lightweight windbreaker.

“I sent Steven
to back his car into the driveway. Those are the car keys that I
gave to Lise. I don’t want her to go, but she overruled me. If
Sonya insists on going, Lise insists that she will have protection
and experience on her side. It is difficult to argue with Lise once
her mind has been made up.”

Maurice shook
his head. “She is quite the woman, Lise,
non
?”

“Quite the
woman, indeed. But an injured one, nonetheless. I pity the men that
caught her by surprise if she spies them. No doubt she inflicted
some injuries of her own at the time that she was attacked, which
is likely why she was injured. Even injured, she will deal them
physical distress if she sees them again. It might be entertaining
to watch. Just because she is retired does not mean that she is not
effective,” BB smiled somewhat proudly.

“Oh, by the
way, I cannot stop Mike from joining our little party tonight. He
is insisting, so Steve is instructing him. He has sworn to follow
orders and stay out of the way. We cannot leave him here alone, he
will just try to follow and screw things up. It is best to keep him
close at hand. I shall get him and Sonya out of the way
soonest.”

“I had a call
from our Slovenian friend a few minutes ago. Apparently, there is a
shipment in the basement of the art department that we need to
check out, rumoured to be Crusaders. By the way, do not be
surprised if Igor shows up. We do owe him.”

Maurice’s
eyebrows shot up as he holstered his gun. “Why is he interest
enough to share information?”

“I suspect that
Steve asked for his assistance. Igor owes him and John Toth from
the Azores incident. Despite the fact that he really does not like
many people, Igor has readily admitted that he does like the Toths.
I am not certain if he knows anything about my relationship in the
mix, but Igor’s information can usually be relied upon. Ready?”
Maurice nodded. “Let us roll!”

A soft knock,
barely heard, caused Sonya to start. She opened the door
cautiously.
Madame
Lalonde was standing in the hallway, all
in black and looking rather chic for an injured woman. Using her
good arm, she beckoned Sonya to follow her.

Immediately,
they quietly descended the stairs. Madame Lalonde led the way to a
side door, sliding something plastic over a spot near the top of
the door, ushered them through, closed the door and pulled the
piece of plastic away. It was a credit card! Sonya’s brow furrowed,
but
Madame
Lalonde placed her fingers to her lips and
Sonya’s question went unasked.

Handing her car
keys,
Madame
Lalonde pointed to Steve’s car, sitting
innocently on the driveway. Sonya unlocked it, helped to ease
Madame
Lalonde into the passenger side and then took the
driver’s seat. It was a sweet little stick shift, and Sonya felt
right at home. The engine purred quietly when she started it,
shifted into reverse and backed out of the driveway. She didn’t
turn on the headlights until they were well clear of BB’s
house.

“She handles a
stick shift rather well,” Steve remarked to Mike, sitting behind
him on the motorcycle. Both were clad in black and wearing
windbreakers. When the women were far enough away, Steve booted up
the bike and slid away from the house, not following Sonya and
Lise, but taking a more direct path to the rendezvous. He had
operatives to deploy, and Lise was going to use a lengthier route
and perhaps get them lost a few times, just to delay their arrival
until all was in place.

Seconds later,
the garage door opened and the Mercedes emerged, taking yet another
route to the Tower. The Crusaders were on the move.

Madame
Lalonde directed Sonya as they made their way into central Paris
and instructed her to pull into an empty parking spot in the row of
parked cars along the side of the road within view of the
Tower.

“It is too
early,”
Madame
Lalonde stated. “If we must play the game the
way they direct, we control what we can control.”

Sonya’s jaw
almost dropped open. “You aren’t new to this are you?” she asked,
realizing that this was true. “Do you work for Steve?”

With a serene
smile,
Madame
Lalonde patted Sonya’s hand, still on the
stick shift. “I am retire. But, tonight, I work for Wizard, the
superior to Steven. These men have take my son and invade my home!”
Anger flashed in her bruised eyes. “There is no forgiveness for
them!
Jamais (Never)!
You can trust all in the house,” she
continued. “We will be surround and if there is danger, you will be
pull away.”

Sonya began to
protest, and
Madame
Lalonde raised her hand to stop her. “If
you do not agree, we leave. You have
pas de choix.
Simplement!
”

Oh wow, thought
Sonya. Obviously
Madame
Lalonde wasn’t nearly as calm about
the kidnapping as she had assumed. What had she gotten herself
into? What the hell had Bryan gotten them into? Surrounded? Steve
was involved? Who the hell was Wizard? Hadn’t Grégoire said that he
was a wizard? She couldn’t imagine that BB, Steve and Maurice were
aligned with Grégoire, by their reactions at dinner alone.

Madame
Lalonde touched her arm and pointed, then put her finger to her
lips. A motorcycle slid quietly by with two men aboard, Steve and
Mike! Following them was a Mercedes, which turned the corner and
disappeared.

Now that
Sonya’s eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness, she began to see
some detail. A dark figure walked quietly past the other parked
cars directly to their car and climbed in. “I’m to stay here in
this car,” Mike stated, “Word will be given when you can walk
across towards the tower.”

“How will we
know, it’s getting towards two o’clock,” Sonya exclaimed. “I can’t
be late!”

Madame Lalonde
pulled a cell out of her pocket. “The captors will wait for you,”
she declared confidently.

Sonya watched
as a dark clad figure approached their position and was joined by
someone with a familiar look. Steve! The figure beside him was that
of a woman, dressed in what looked to be a cat suit. Mimi! They
spoke for a few seconds. Steve bent to kiss her, and with a smile
and a wave, she pulled on a balaclava and disappeared into the
darkness. Steve pulled on a balaclava and disappeared in the
opposite direction.

Maurice
materialized, as did BB, who opened the car door on Sonya’s side
and handed something to her. “I take it that Lise explained our
stipulations to you?” he asked. Sonya nodded mutely.

“This is an
earpiece,” he explained, handing her a small electronic device.
Then, he handed her another small electronic device. “Put this into
your bra. It is a receiver. Should anything go wrong, we will know
where you are. If you are ordered to run, follow orders and get the
hell out immediately! Return here and hide. Understood? This is for
your protection.”

Sonya gulped
silently and nodded, taking the electronics. When she looked up
again, both Maurice and BB were gone. Silently, she slid the
receiver into her bra and put the earpiece into place.

“You will
slowly cross the street and stand just outside the circle of light
from the street lamp directly across from your present location,”
BB’s voice was quiet.

Taking in a
deep breath, Sonya received a heads up sign from Madame Lalonde and
with a nod to Mike, she quietly left the car and slowly made her
way across the street, hesitatingly stopping just outside the
bright circle of light thrown by the street lamp.

“Well done,
Sonya! Fear not, young lady, you shall be kept safe,” BB’s
reassuring voice was heard. “Do not look quickly, but you are being
approached to your left. We have allowed the contact to come to
you.”

As he spoke,
Sonya noticed a slight movement to her left and turned to find
Grégoire standing in front of her.