“Look,” I said. “I’m not Mark Antony and you’re sure as hell not Cleopatra, so why don’t we cut the bullshit and get to what’s really on your mind.”
As I said it, the waiter presented the wine to Kate. All I saw was that it was red. The waiter poured a quarter glass for her, then waited dutifully while she swirled the wine in her glass, smelled it, and lifted it to her lips. I had to admit, she made the whole process look more natural than pretentious. I checked myself because I was liking her again and I didn’t want to like her. I reminded myself of just how dangerous Kate really was. She seemed to like what she tasted because she nodded and the waiter filled her glass, followed by mine. Then he exited the way he had come.
“Little-known factoid: Cleopatra is widely believed to have killed her sister,” Kate said. “She ordered her death. Her sister’s skeleton was found at Ephesus, not far from Aphrodisias where the plane picked you up.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“She did it with Mark Antony. They worked together.”
“So she’s a murderer too. Good for Cleopatra. What’s your point?”
Kate smiled.
“My point is that you may not want to be a Mark Antony, but I’m certainly not above being a Cleopatra.”
The warm Mediterranean lapped at my feet. It was the only time I had ever sat at a dinner table actually standing in the water.
“And is that supposed to intrigue me?”
“Of course not,” Kate said. “That’s what the dinner and wine are for.”
I nodded and took a sip of my wine. It was good, if good meant that it was smooth and not too sweet. I liked it. I took another sip, swishing the wine around in my mouth. The heat of the day had subsided and we were fast approaching magic hour, the sun low to the sea in the west. If I hadn’t been sitting with a woman whose very sight unnerved me, the whole thing might have been relaxing.
“How did you get away from the CIA?” I said. “I delivered you all wrapped up in a pretty black bow. What did you do? Tie them up in it?”
“Nothing so risqué.”
“You must have done something.”
“All I can tell you is that the Dragons have their ways.”
I thought about it. “So you’re one of them now, are you? Left MI6 far behind? You’ve officially joined forces with the enemy?”
“Six would have left me to rot. I did what I needed to do.”
“Which was?”
“I didn’t dig my way through a six-foot-thick concrete bunker if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Tell you what? Why don’t we skip your disappearing act and move on to what you want with me?” I said.
“I want to tell you about your father.”
Once again, I felt my heart skip a beat. I didn’t want Kate to see the effect her words had on me. She knew that finding my father was of urgent personal interest, but no need to hand it to her on a silver platter.
“What about him?”
“Patience, Michael. I said I want to tell you about your father. And I do. But before I do that, I have a question for you.”
“I’d say shoot, but you might actually do it.”
“You don’t know me nearly as well as you think you do, Michael.”
“I know that you didn’t blow my cover, which means you intend to play me like a fiddle until you get what you want.”
“Cover? Please, Michael. The people I work for are a little more sophisticated than the Turkish Secret Police. The Dragons don’t know what you’ve done with Raptor, but I can assure you that from the moment you stepped on that boat, they knew you weren’t him. The loyal Michael Chase a traitor? Come on. No need to tell your secret police friend, though. Wouldn’t want to get you into hot water for fibbing.”
“What’s your question then?”
“I’d call it more of a request really. We want your cooperation.”
I found myself smiling on the inside. My cooperation. Of course they wanted it. They wanted a puppet on a stick. The waiter made his way back toward us, a dab of sweat on his forehead. He was carrying some kind of amuse-bouche. Amuse-bouch is French for amuse your mouth. The Dragons were amusing me all right. The dinner was over the top. It seemed that they were catering the food directly from the yacht itself via another launch. That explained why the waiter looked harried. He must have been running back and forth to the dock. My mind drifted back to the food. After we were done with the fancy stuff, I was hoping for a good rare steak. Something about having Kate around made me ravenous.
“My cooperation?” I said. “I don’t know a damn thing. What is it you want my cooperation with?”
The waiter set down the plate holding the amuse-bouches, bite-sized morsels in a flaky pastry shell. I plopped one into my mouth. I had no idea what it was, but it sure tasted good. A buttery seafood delight. The waiter walked off, the first bit of the fiery orange sun touching the sparkling Mediterranean.
Kate smiled. “We want your help finding the Tesla Device.”
“What, your people can’t find it on their own?”
“The Dragons don’t want it falling into the wrong hands.”
I laughed out loud. I couldn’t help myself.
“The wrong hands. Pray tell, whose hands are those?”
Kate stared me down.
“Your friend, Meryem's.”
Chapter 31
The chef didn’t bother with an appetizer. He went straight to the main course. The waiter delivered a steak, rare. A filet mignon to be precise. I’d known vegetarians and I’d known liars and it seemed that Kate was both. Evidently, the chef had prepared a mushroom risotto for her.
“You don’t like meat?”
“I’m taking a break,” she said.
“How did you know I would like it?”
“All-American boy. Meat. What’s not to like?”
The filet mignon was as tall as it was wide, a perfect little oval. I cut into it and took a bite. The moment the tender meat melted in my mouth, I realized I was famished. I scooped up a forkful of buttery mashed potatoes with chives, swallowing my food.
“So, let’s get to it,” I said. “You want my help and you don’t like Meryem. Why?”
I took another bite of the steak. The sun had almost disappeared into the sea, bathing the two of us in its warm glow. I could have fought the moment, but I went with it. Despite my feelings toward Kate, I wanted to listen to what she had to say.
“We don’t know whose interests Meryem represents.”
“She’s MIT.”
“Is she?” Kate asked. “According to my people she may not be what she seems at all. In fact, she could be a Kurdish terrorist. Her plan may well be to use the Device to initiate a coup. For all you know, her plan is to launch a terror attack on a city.”
I immediately thought back to Crust’s devastating simulation of a directed-energy weapon hitting New York City. I knew that it would do the same to any city, but the image of New York was burned into my mind; Buildings reduced to smoldering heaps, the entire population incinerated. It was a terrible, sobering thought, and the chatter to support the Device’s use was there. People whose business was to know such things believed it was a credible threat. But the part about Meryem did not ring true. And I called Kate on it.
“So let me get this straight. A terrorist, and by terrorist I mean you, is telling me that my contact is also a terrorist.”