Mike answered the plea in her voice, as he pressed his lips against hers.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Virginia Beach, VA
Last July
Nikita Smirnov felt the cool beach air blow around her naked body, after round two this morning. She was standing on the balcony caressing a fresh new cup of steaming hot black coffee that she had made in the complimentary hotel coffee maker. It did not even cross her mind that early morning joggers may look up and see her exposed and lost in thought on the balcony. Last night did not go as expected.
The previous evening, she had gone to the bar with some of her girlfriends from work. The plan was to get drunk and crash at a friend’s house near the beach. Then she saw him. She knew what he was the second she laid eyes on him. She had been looking for him, it, for three years. As soon as she saw him, she had excused herself and called her contact in New York. When she asked for instructions, her contact said, “Honeypot. Don’t let him out of your sight until I arrive.”
Last night’s sex was amazing. She would have slept with him regardless of the mission. Now she had to keep him in sight until the Master arrived. The Nordic visitor seemed to be alone on vacation; it should not be hard to convince him to hang out with her. She knew how to keep him occupied until reinforcements arrived. She heard footsteps behind her.
“Are you trying to make history repeat itself?” Mike teased.
“I should probably try to finish one cup of coffee?” She giggled, twisting her index finger in her short hair.
“Well, don’t let me stop you. You will be needing your energy for later tonight.”
“Tonight?” she probed.
“It was one hell of a show last night,” Mike chuckled.
Mike picked up on the nervous tremor in her voice and mistook it for insecurity. “I had a fishing trip planned for afternoon, but I’ll be back on land tonight.”
Nikita could not risk losing this asset, and she was kind of hurt at the seeming lack of desire to stay with her. Pushing up on her toes, she crushed her lips to his. She pushed him toward the bed, “I don’t want you to miss your fishing trip,” she teased as he melted into the bed beneath her.
“This is kind of like fishing, only the payoff is much better,” Mike hinted.
A few hours later, they found themselves in a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant that advertised an all-day breakfast. A walk down Atlantic Ave led them to many different local shops and venders. The place was crawling with cops, like the city was preparing for a riot or something. They ended up in a beachfront bar listening to a local musician playing Caribbean music. They found a seat on a second story deck overlooking the boardwalk and the ocean.
“What would you like to drink?” Mike asked, “coffee, Vodka?”
“I’ll take a sex on the beach,” she replied with a seductive grin.
Mike laughed, “I think I can arrange for that.”
“No silly, that’s the name of the drink,” she touched his arm as she giggled.
I think I really like this guy. I hope the Master is not going to kill him, or worse.
The waitress came out wearing a light blue polo shirt with an embroidered emblem of a palm tree over her left breast. She had khaki shorts, tennis shoes and her light brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, “What can I get you two?”
“Why do they have so many cops all over the place?” Mike asked the waitress.
“Pst,” the waitress blew air through her lips and rolled her eyes. “The city is a bunch of totalitarian assholes. They just want to arrest locals, and even tourists sometimes, to raise revenues for the city.”
Mike frowned and said, “Well, that doesn’t sound very nice of them. I thought maybe they had received information that a riot was about to happen, or something.”
“Nothing like that. I promise you. I have worked on the beach for five years. It’s this way every summer. You don’t have anything to worry about as long as you don’t piss off a cop.”
“Wow, okay. I’ll make sure I don’t piss off any cops. Thanks for the advice. I’ll take a soda and she will have a . . .” Mike’s voice trailed off.
Mike glanced over at Nikita, looking for help. She smirked at him.
“Sex on the beach,” Mike finished the sentence.
The waitress looked offended. “Oh my!” she exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hand. She started laughing, “I’m just kidding. Of course, we have that.”
Mike and Nikita laughed at the waitress’s good humor. She then took their orders and disappeared back into the bar.
“I have had so much fun with you today,” Nikita said, shielding her eyes from the bright sun light.
“I’m here for the rest of the week,” Mike said.
“I know. I hope to spend most of it with you.” Nikita adjusted her chair to avoid the direct sunlight to her eyes.
“Don’t you have to work?” Mike asked.
“Maybe a little, but I have some time-off saved up.”
A strange sound blared from Nikita’s purse. She pulled out her cell phone and checked the screen, “I have to take this.”
“Of course,” Mike replied.
Nikita rushed off, down the stairwell and out onto the crowded boardwalk.
“This is Nikita. We are on an encrypted line,” she said into her seemingly normal cell phone. She glanced back at the two-story bar and grill to make sure Mike had not followed her.
“Do you still have the package?” asked the raspy voice that she knew to be Calidus Delusor.
“Yes, the package is under my control. What would you have me do with it?”
“How long do we have?”
“To do what? I have not been told what my objective is, only to keep the package in sight.”
“How long until the package is returned home?” asked Calidus.
“He will be here for another eight days. What is my mission?”
“You need to turn him,” Calidus Delusor said flatly.
“Turn him? Are you kidding me? I have not been trained on how to turn an asset. He may kill me, or have his men kill me,” she protested.
“He has men? How many? Are they professionals?”
“Yes, he doesn’t know, but I spotted them following us back to his hotel. They are keeping a distance, but they are constantly following us. I think there are two on his security detail. From what I can tell, they seem to be well trained.”
“You need to determine if he would be willing to defect. I need to know what he wants, so I can offer it to him.”
“If I fail?”
“Failure is not an option. If you fail as a spy, you will have to learn to how to be an assassin quickly,” Calidus warned.
The line went dead.
Shit. I’m not a spy. I’ve never flipped an asset. I take pictures of things and forward them to the bosses.
She had never met the Master, but she assumed he was some sort of alien, nothing like the handsome Mike Evans. She walked back to the bar and up the stairs. Mike was still sitting in the same seat where she had left him, staring into a tall glass filled with ice and cola.
“Everything okay?” Mike asked.
“Oh yeah, it was just work. They had misplaced a file,” she lied.
I hope the Master does not ask me to kill Mike. I don’t think I could do it.
“Do you have to go in?”
“No, they gave me the rest of the week off,” she lied again.
She pushed the cheap, plastic, outdoor chair over toward Mike, put her hand in his lap, and said, “Have you ever just wanted to escape? You know, get away from it all.”