“Does he take charge in the bedroom?” Kjersti asked, a smile on her face. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right.” Anna knew she was only trying to loosen her up, relieve the tension. She smiled back and said, “No complaints.”
“I’ll bet. We’ll be at the Lillehammer airport in ten minutes. You said you spent some time there, right?”
“Yeah, during the Olympics. But that was years ago.”
“Well, we’re right over Mjosa Lake. At a hundred kilometers long, it’s the largest in Norway. Have you heard of the Mjosa Monster?”
She remembered the narrow lake that stretched along the rolling mountains for many kilometers between Hamar and Lillehammer, and had heard about the purported Loch Ness-like beast that locals had swore seeing for the past four hundred years. Somehow Kjersti had managed to take her mind off the case for a short while. She took in deep breaths and tried to relax, despite her angst over flying in a helicopter. Yet, at least this time she didn’t feel like throwing up. She hoped that bug had passed.
Moments later, Kjersti circled around the resort town of Lillehammer, before setting down the chopper at the tiny regional airport. Large SUVs waited for them and drove them to a large hotel in town, where they would wait for the SWAT unit.
Jake had circled the entire compound fence by the time he heard the helo swoop down around the town of Lillehammer. It sounded just like the chopper they had flown in Svalbard.
His recon mission had not found a chink in the little bastard’s armor. Jake was sure there was no way in without being discovered. He might have an advantage in the dark, assuming Petrova didn’t have huge flood lights that would blind him in his NVGs. No, maybe the day would be better. Petrova would assume a strike would come at night.
Moving back through the forest, Jake found his car and started back toward town. On the entire drive, he thought not of Petrova, but of his girlfriend Anna. He had felt sorry for how she had felt during the past few days. She had been miserable and he hadn’t been the most supportive. He could blame his coming down off the alcohol that had consumed him so thoroughly in the past few months, but he knew that wasn’t the only problem. Petrova had been like a nagging wart that wouldn’t go away. He had made Jake’s life during his last year in the Air Force a nightmare. He might have been a contributing factor of Jake leaving the service. And then when Jake had joined the CIA, the man had come up again on one of Jake’s first cases in Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall. They had come close to killing each other more than once. Yet, something had held them back. Was it respect? Was it some professional understanding? Who knows. Regardless of those times, that was the past. They were both private citizens now, and for some reason their paths were crossing again — either by some polar force or unknown desire.
He got back to his room and went right to bed. But he lay in the dark, his mind confused. Something close wasn’t quite right. Danger? Maybe.
Victor Petrova, Oberon now to his friends, sat back in his plush leather chair viewing a 50-inch LCD screen in the media room of his estate outside of Lillehammer. There had been no word of Jake Adams coming for him. He had also not heard from Colonel Reed, but he guessed the man had finally come to his senses, as expected, and was now back to working with the Agency. Did Jake Adams know the virus was not really a virus? Perhaps. If so, what would he do with all of his Alexandrite gems? Mister Do Good would probably turn the damn things over to his new friend, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order in Vienna. Or some other charity of the minute.
On the screen he watched Elvis shaking his hips on the beach with a bunch of women who today would be on Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig or some other diet plan. Chunky women. Nothing wrong with that. Made their tits bigger.
Victor switched screens to an array of cameras around the outside of the estate. Infrared images mostly of trees and some strategically placed open areas, including the stretch from the lake to the estate. Then he went through the cameras within the estate, where he saw his night shift security guard, who watched the same cameras, except for the one watching him, his feet up on the desk and his finger so far up his nose he appeared to be tickling his tiny brain. Joseph Stalin, it was hard to find good people in Scandinavia.
He clicked back to Elvis, who was now strumming his guitar, and finally switched off the DVD. Time to get to bed. Jake Adams would come within the next twenty-four hours, guaranteed. He was too predictable to not come. Victor expected nothing less.
Scooting down off the chair, he waddled to the adjoining bedroom, a huge grin on his face.
26
Anna and Kjersti had shared a hotel room, talking in the dark like sisters until they both finally slept out of complete exhaustion. With everything that had happened, it had been a long week for the both of them.
In the morning Anna woke first. Her stomach had suddenly lurched and forced her to run to the bathroom, where she threw up everything inside her. Twice. She thought the bug had returned, but guessed now that it could have been nerves. She used to throw up a few hours before each biathlon, forcing her to suck down water and an energy bar closer to the start of the competition to avoid dehydration.
Then Anna took a shower and was toweling down in front of a mirror when Kjersti came into the bathroom naked and sat down to pee.
“Hope you don’t mind,” Kjersti said. “I really have to go.”
Anna continued with the towel. “No problem.” She ran her hand across her belly. She must be getting her period, she thought. A little bloating. Either that or she needed to work out. It had been quite a while since she ran.
Kjersti flushed and came to the mirror next to Anna. Washed her hands. “You all right?”
“Suppose you heard me throw up again,” Anna said. “Nerves.”
“Yeah, that’s probably it.” Kjersti smiled and wiped her hands. “I’ll take a quick shower and we’ll go fill that belly of yours again.”
Anna watched Kjersti in the mirror as she got into the shower. No belly on her. Perfect body. She left her friend alone and went to get dressed. She wished she could call Jake and see what he was doing right now. She missed him. He was a stabilizing force for her, even though crazy things seemed to happen with him. Should she try to call him? Would he even answer? She got as far as putting on her panties and bra when the shower stopped.
Seconds later Kjersti came out, her body dry but toweling her hair still. “Remember what we talked about last night?”
They had talked about a lot of things. Anna shook her head.
Kjersti said, “I either need a man to screw me hard or I need to kill something. My God, I’m horny as hell.” She wiggled and sat on the end of her bed, the towel still working her hair.
Anna couldn’t keep her eyes off of the woman. If she ever had feelings for another woman, then it was now. But she didn’t go that way. She loved Jake and desired only what he had to give her.
Throwing the towel on the floor, Kjersti said, “I didn’t mean to suggest that we do something. I mean, you are beautiful and have the cutest body I’ve ever seen. But…”
“I wasn’t thinking that,” Anna lied. “I was just admiring your body. That doesn’t make me a lesbian does it?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Kjersti said, embarrassed now. “I’ve never done it with a woman. I mean…if I ever was going to do it with a woman, you would be my first choice. I’m rambling. I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to suggest we should do anything. I was just saying what I was thinking. I haven’t had a man in a while, and I could really use one right now.”