The woman drew in a long breath, then released it. “I came only to meet you, Marina. Your appearance has both upset and delighted my — Roman. I will have to get his permission to take you from your room. But I will tell you this. I will visit him myself and see if there is anything I can do to make him more comfortable. And if you want him to remain alive, do not anger Roman. There is little chance that you might yet convince him to keep your … partner … alive.”
Roman planned to kill Gabe. “Then I’ll have to convince him. Tell me how.”
“Roman does not like Out-Worlders, and he will not take the chance that someone might discern our location, or interrupt his plans.”
“His plans. He hasn’t seen fit to divulge them to me, yet he indicated that I was somehow a part of it.”
“You are a part of it because you belong to us. We are committed to doing what is necessary to—”
The door behind Stegnora slid open.
Marina looked up, expecting to see Roman.
Instead, a tall man, very handsome and very angry, strode into the room. He was well over six feet by her judgment, and his close-cropped dark blond hair brushed forward to frame a high, Slavic forehead. Piercing green eyes scanned over her briefly then settled onto her companion.
“You have overstepped your bounds, Nora.” His words matched the harsh expression on his angular face. “If you have any common sense in that scientific, love-sopped mind of yours, get out of here now and do not come back.”
Nora scrambled to her feet, and shot a look at him that smacked of fear. Without another word, or even a glance at Marina, she hurried out of the room. The door swished closed behind her, and left Marina alone with a man that in any other circumstance, she’d be drooling over.
“And who are you? A long-lost brother of mine?” Marina pulled to her feet and, though he towered over her, she refused to be cowed.
He looked her over, head to toe, slowly and arrogantly, as though waiting for her to turn and show him all sides. “So you are the infamous Marina.”
“And you are?” She stood her ground, and gave him the same treatment, skating her gaze over his tanned face, broad chest, and well-formed legs hugged by pants tighter than any of the other Skaladeskas wore. He had a wide, sensual mouth that at this moment held the barest curve of an arrogant smile, and deeply-cut dimples that might have made another man look soft or feminine, but on this man merely made him more masculine.
“Rue Varden. And no, I am not your brother.”
“How do you get that door open?” she asked suddenly.
He turned to look behind him. Apparently he saw the ripped up rug, because he turned back and grinned sardonically. “Ah, I see you’ve been trying to find a way out of here. Well, a little hint for you: the only way to open the doors in these … visitor chambers is through a radio-controlled key. Like this.” He held out his hand, and the sleeve of his shirt slid back, revealing what looked like a wrist-watch. Slim, brushed metal of silver cupped his wrist, and the top sported a small screen and three buttons.
“I want one of those.”
He laughed and she had to tighten her fingers into her palm to keep from slapping him. “You are a bold one, aren’t you. Guess you can’t expect to get what you don’t ask for, hmm?”
“I see no reason that I should be a prisoner here, if I am, indeed, one of you.”
“That is something you will need to take up with Roman.” The gleam in his eyes told her it would be a fruitless endeavor.
“Well now that you’ve come to view the family’s latest freak, you can leave and give me some privacy.”
“Of course. I’m sure we’ll meet again, Marina.”
She watched as he pressed onto his arm, through the sleeve of his shirt where the radio key was, and the door slid open.
How was she going to get one of those?
“By the way.” He stopped in the entrance and pivoted to look back at her. “Your pleadings with Nora to care for your companion were for naught. Roman has placed the order for his execution tonight.”
And then he was gone, leaving Marina to charge after him in futility, slamming into the door as it closed.
37
This time, Colin had less than fifteen minutes warning before Helen snagged him for a meeting, on her way back to Chicago from a briefing in DC. She’d made a detour to his second office at the Pentagon, where he’d been for another tedious budget meeting.
“We received this today,” she told him without preamble, walking behind his desk as she dug in her briefcase. “We’ve got two days to figure this out, Colin. I hope your team’s made some progress.”
Pulling out a round, silver disk, she reached behind him and slipped it into the DVD drive on his computer, fumbled through a few buttons, and suddenly the screen opened up to show a man, vaguely recognizable to Colin, sitting casually in an armchair. He was holding something in his hands that was not completely visible on-screen.
“I am Roman,” the man said. And Colin stared. He’d thought never to see that man’s face again; yet he’d longed for the opportunity. There had been a time when he’d wanted to destroy it with his bare hands.
He still did.
“I am a representative of Gaia, the Earth on which we all live. The earth which we are all a part of. The decisions made by your people have damaged her beyond repair, and continue to eat away at her resources while the capitalists continue to consume more, dirty her more, and waste more.
“This is not acceptable to us, or to Gaia. This must stop. In an effort to persuade your government to take this warning seriously, we will be conducting Phase Two of our … public relations program on Friday, July 14, at noon.
“You have already been exposed to Phase One of our program in the areas of Allentown, Pennsylvania; Terre Haute, Indiana and Hays, Kansas. It was an elementary decision to turn our attention onto a company such as AvaChem that has no respect for our earth.
“Please be advised that Phase Two will be much more convincing and will have three big targets with more extensive damage. After we have executed our program, we will be in touch for discussions before Phase Three will be scheduled. Perhaps, depending upon our discussions and their results, there will be no need to move forward with Phase Three. But that will be up to you and your government.” The screen went blank.
The holy war had begun.
The man was mad; yet as brilliant and in control as ever.
Helen was speaking to him; he dragged himself out of the past and turned to face her as she spoke. “One of the networks received it this morning via email, and they passed it on to me,” she said.
“What was he holding? I couldn’t see.”
“I’ve got Tech working on a clip of the video to see if we can enlarge it. Far as I can tell, it’s a small metal object — but it could just as easily be a pen. So what does your officer have, Colin? He was due to report in four hours ago.”
“He hasn’t. I have been trying to raise him on his sat phone since you and I met yesterday, but I can’t get him. I did leave a voice mail to update him and Dr. Alexander on the status. He’ll contact me as soon as he can.”
“Let’s hope the delay is because they’re making progress and have found a way into the Skaladeska camp.”
“Gabe’s the best, and Dr. Alexander is no slouch.”
“Gabe?” She looked sharply at him.
“MacNeil.”
“Gabe MacNeil is your officer on this?”
“Yes. Is there a problem?” He didn’t have time for female sensibilities.