"Look," Adele went on, "you've all been really nice to me, and I'm so grateful. But, well, there aren't very many women around here, are there? Bit heavy on the testosterone. I suppose I was hoping you and me could be… well, I had hoped we could be friends. You know?"
"You're thinking of staying a while, then," was all Mary could muster.
Adele smiled again. "Thinking about it, yeah, if you guys will have me. Sure beats being out there on the streets, being chased by murderers and rapists."
"Right."
"I hope it isn't going to be a problem or anything?"
"I hope not as well."
Adele frowned. "Forgive me for saying this, Mary, but you seem to have a… I don't know. Have I done something wrong? Something to you?"
Mary felt like saying, "Cut the crap, you know exactly what you've done. And it's what you're going to do when Robert gets back I'm interested in." But instead she said: "No, not exactly."
"Only I'm getting some really weird vibes from you."
Mary shook her head, this wasn't the time or the place. "No, everything's fine. Really."
"Ah, okay." Adele's smile widened, but seemed even less genuine. "Right, well I suppose I'd better go and get ready."
"Ready?"
"I'm having something to eat with Jack."
Now it was Mary's turn to frown. First this woman had been flirting openly with Robert, then she'd caught them having a little late night rendezvous (It was hardly that, Moo-Moo. Might've been completely innocent.) now she was making a play for Robert's best friend.
Don't do it, warned David. Seriously, keep your mouth shut.
She couldn't help herself. "What exactly is your game, Adele? What are you up to?"
The smile faded fast. "Excuse me?"
"I saw you with Robert the other night."
Adele looked horrified. "What?"
"Don't act all innocent," Mary said, pointing her finger. "I could see what was going on. What you were trying to do."
Adele stepped back. "There was nothing going on. Robert dropped a glass and I got some in my foot."
Mary pursued her, moving forward, still pointing. "You're after him. And now you're leading Jack up the garden path."
"You're insane."
"Am I?" Mary let the words settle and neither of them spoke for a second or two. Then Adele turned to leave, and Mary grabbed her wrist.
"Let go of me!" she spat.
"I've got my eye on you, Adele."
Adele grinned. "You'd be better off putting your energies into hanging onto your man. There's obviously something lacking in your relationship if you're this insecure. Maybe you don't know Robert as well as you think you do."
Mary was about to bring up her hand to slap the woman, when she heard someone shouting her name. It sounded urgent.
"Mary… Mary!" It was coming from behind, so she let Adele go and whirled around. One of Robert's men was racing down the corridor. "You have to come quickly — bring your medical stuff. Someone's been injured at The Britannia."
"Injured?" asked Mary.
"Stabbed. You have to come quick, Robert said-"
"Hold on, Robert?" Mary looked at him, then back at Adele, who was still smirking in spite of the news. "He's back? But-"
The man pleaded with her to come with him, saying that there wasn't time, so Mary did. But before she'd got out of earshot, she heard Adele reiterate: "No, maybe you don't really know him at all."
CHAPTER EIGHT
He felt like Jonah in the belly of the beast.
Tanek sat in one of the cargo bays, working away on his secret project. He'd been labouring on this since they set off across the Baltic. It was important that he got it right. The various parts were all laid out in front of him on the table, which at the moment was vibrating slightly. Tanek reached for one of the pieces of wood and his sandpaper, running the rough side across the face with a sweeping motion. Every curve, every inch would be lovingly crafted, just like the last one.
He recalled the man who'd taught him how to build this particular piece of weaponry — a man skilled in the ancient arts of combat and defence. His name had been Liao and he'd been good to Tanek, offered him a place to stay when he'd had none, a stranger in their land. Liao had been an expert in all kinds of weapons, though the modern ones didn't interest him as much as those from the past.
"You can learn much from studying history, my friend," he'd told Tanek in one of their late night drinking sessions. They were words that another man would echo years later. Both were dead now. The Frenchman, De Falaise, who Tanek followed without question, had been killed by The Hooded Man. Tanek had not been present at his execution, but he'd felt the man's passing.
Liao, who had looked so similar to The Tsar's twins he could have been their father, had died at Tanek's hands long before that. Once he'd learnt everything he could from the man, and it had been time to move on, Tanek had simply snapped his neck, leaving Liao for his wife and children to find. He'd had no qualms about doing it, the man had been of no more use to him. And to Tanek, a quick death was a merciful one — better that than to be tortured at his hands.
Oddly enough, he'd never foreseen a time when he would have done something like that to De Falaise. He felt The Frenchman would always have something to teach him, only disclosing his nuggets of genius tantalisingly slowly. Before they met, in that Turkish tavern when De Falaise had saved his life — something that didn't always guarantee the same in return from Tanek — he thought he knew everything about warfare, about killing. Listening to De Falaise, he realised he knew nothing at all. Not really. He also knew nothing about ambition. De Falaise's plans saw him one day stretching his hand out to rule the entire world.
With Tanek by his side.
So much for that plan. But The Tsar, oh The Tsar… Now he'd done what De Falaise had only dreamed about. Become the ruler of his country with a force under his command that made their army look like the bunch of disorganised yobs they'd been. Apart from some of the more seasoned veterans, like him, they'd been kids with toy guns and tanks. When it came right down to it they were no match for Hood's sheer deviousness. While De Falaise and his men had been up front about their business in Nottingham, their enemies had chosen to sneak in and attack.
However, it had worked. And one thing Tanek knew about De Falaise was that if something worked, you adopted it yourself. It was the tactic he'd been advised to use to get to The Tsar: hide in plain sight. If you want to reach the very heart of your opponent's camp, let them think they've captured you, let them escort you into the belly of the beast.
The tipping of the floor reminded Tanek that he was inside an altogether different belly now. Of a Zubr class military hovercraft to be precise: one of a fleet The Tsar had dispatched for this trek across the sea. Tanek finished sanding and placed the part down on the table, picking up a rectangular box. He began to sand this also.
Anyway, just like Hood, he'd been delivered unto his target. The only difference was that this time he'd come to talk, not kill. Luckily, his reputation preceded him.
"The giant Tanek, De Falaise's right hand man. I heard you were both dead," The Tsar said to him after they'd retreated to a more private place, his luxury suite at the Marriott Grand. And after Tanek had been offered use of the facilities, including a working shower — something he hadn't seen since well before the virus struck.
Tanek had sat in a plush chair, eyeing up the twins that flanked The Tsar, swords resting on their arms. But, more importantly, The Tsar's second: Bohuslav. He was potentially trouble. "De Falaise is. I was," he replied, his face stern.