The stream at the bottom of the slope behind her hadn’t changed course a degree through the shiny black rocks, either. The clear, cold waters were still teeming with rainbow trout, too, just as they’d always been.
And the incredible view of Katmai over on the mainland from atop this ridge near the water’s edge was identical to the one she remembered after that trek thirteen years ago, still untouched and unblemished.
It was as though time stood still in this place.
Skylar smiled nostalgically as she thought about Betty Malutin. The old Alutiiq woman had taken her in and mentored her after her father had died on the Bering Sea. A few months after her father had gone down in his crab boat in a terrible storm, Skylar had moved in with Betty when her mother had moved back to California, fed up with the solitary life on Kodiak without a husband and no serious prospects of finding another — not one she wanted, anyway. Betty had died in Skylar’s arms four years later, the victim of a heart attack.
She missed Betty so much. Betty had finished the warrior lessons her father had begun.
And Skylar hadn’t spoken to her birth mother in a decade. Bitch.
She still missed her father every day, even more than she missed Betty. But she didn’t blame the Bering Sea for tearing his ship apart during that raging storm so quickly that none of the five-man crew even had a chance to climb into their orange survival suits. When you went out on the Bering Sea, you knew what you were getting into — or you were stupid. Either way, whatever happened was on you. Those had been her father’s very words many times at the dinner table when he wasn’t on the hunt.
She turned away from the waves crashing on the rocks far below to stare into the dense forest. At a hundred miles long and averaging forty wide, Kodiak was the United States’ second largest island. In area, it was more than double the size of Long Island, which included the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.
She took a deep breath of crisp, clean air, filled with the pungent scent of spruce. Long Island’s population exceeded eight million, while Kodiak was home to just fifteen thousand — most of whom lived in the only major town on the island. It was lonely out here in the woods and the wilds, and she loved it.
There were thousands of bears, many more than humans living outside Kodiak’s lone town, and they were huge brown bears. Not the puny little black ones that terrified the population of the Lower Forty-Eight. The Kodiak subspecies was the largest and most ferocious of all grizzlies, as big as polar bears thanks to a steady diet of protein-rich salmon and rainbow trout that constantly ran the waters of this island. The inland grizzlies of the Alaskan mainland were still big, but not like the Kodiak strain.
She took another even deeper breath of crisp, clean air. God, she loved it out here so much. So much more than any of the other exotic destinations she’d slipped into lately — Afghanistan, North Korea, Iraq, and Venezuela. Those places had their allures, but none of them stacked up to Kodiak. Not even close.
The snap of the twig was faint but clear, and Skylar pressed her body to the closest tree.
As she listened intently, she glanced down at the two rainbow trout lying on the rock beside the tree. A few minutes ago she’d snagged three of the red-stripes from the stream at the bottom of the ridge with her bare hands. She’d eaten the first one raw, as it was still struggling, seconds after catching it as she stood knee-deep in the crystal clear water — including the eyes and eggs of the beautiful fish, which were the most nutritious parts. She’d needed energy after the long hike and paddle. But she was going to cook the other two in butter and with the spices she’d brought along in her pack. Despite her disdain for the civilized world, she still enjoyed bringing a tiny piece of civility to the wilds of Kodiak.
A second twig snapped, even more faintly than the first. It seemed she might be adding another source of protein to tonight’s menu.
CHAPTER 12
“Are we clear, Liam?” Gadanz asked as he lighted his fifth cigar of the day. “Do you understand the deal?”
Sterling tried to focus on the paper in his hands, but it was difficult. He’d spent the last two hours with the four young women, and he’d never been more physically satisfied, not even close. The experience would make the highlight reel of his life. In the end, perhaps it would be the highlight, he realized as he thought about all of them on him at the same time doing all those lewd, wonderful things. Four women at once, and they were all so beautiful, talented, and willing to please.
Still, the only one he cared enough about to risk his own safety for was Sophia. He’d asked her name at one point, as he was resting between interludes with his head in her lap. He’d kept her up close to him during the craziness, not allowing her to do all that the other women were doing. She seemed to understand that he hadn’t wanted her to participate because the orgy was sex just for sex’s sake, and he wanted their first time to be special, more intimate.
They would have that intimacy soon — if he could get her out of here. But, knowing Gadanz as well as he did, that wouldn’t be easy. As soon as he mentioned wanting to take her with him, Gadanz would recognize an opportunity to negotiate. And Gadanz was addicted to negotiating the way some men were addicted to gambling.
“We’re clear,” Sterling finally replied. The deal was even better than he’d originally figured. One more time he added up the numbers next to the names, just to be certain. It was a staggering bounty, and now that the figure was in black and white in front of him, it seemed even harder to believe. “Different amounts depending upon the individual assassinated.” Perhaps this was where Gadanz would negotiate on Sophia. Perhaps he would attempt to cut the gargantuan fee. “All in all, I could make three hundred million dollars.”
The kill list began with President Dorn and the vice president, then continued down through Dorn’s Cabinet, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court, and the intelligence agencies, all the way to Bill, Jack, and Troy Jensen. Republicans, Democrats, it didn’t discriminate, and Gadanz was absolutely right. When they were all dead, chaos would reign supreme in the United States of America.
“That’s if you get them all, Liam.”
“Oh, I’ll get them all.”
“I appreciate your confidence, Liam,” Gadanz muttered through the alcohol, which was beginning to impair his speech, “if not your sanity.”
“You’ll see,” Sterling retorted.
Gadanz took another long guzzle of scotch from the silver flask and then wiped his lips with the back of his wrist before sucking on the cigar. “Come on, Liam, how many of those people do you really think you can get?”
“Every damn one.”
“The president, the vice president, cabinet secretaries, heads of the CIA and the FBI, senior senators and congressmen, the Supreme Court. Be honest with me. And listen, you know once you kill the first one, all the rest will dive for cover. It will become incredibly difficult.”
Sterling shrugged. “That’s why you came to me. Because I’m the best.”
“You can’t possibly—”
“Obviously, I’ll need a team, which also means I’ll need a large down payment. The kind of people I work with on missions like this don’t like hearing about their check being in the mail. They’re more the cash-up-front types, if you know what I mean.” Sterling gestured around. “With all due respect to the army you keep around you, you don’t want to owe these people money.”