"We are similar in this way," Valentina said. "My mother was mostly gone when I was a child. Tell me more about him."
For the next half hour Selena talked with Valentina about what it had been like growing up in California before their father had been killed. Sometimes Valentina would ask a question but mostly she listened. After a while Selena stopped.
"My hands are numb," she said. "Please, can you at least free them? I can't do much tied to this chair."
"I will do this for you. But do not try anything foolish, sister. I don't want to hurt you."
The plastic ties binding Selena's wrists were pulled tight into the flesh. The hands were dead white. They wouldn't be of use for a while and by that time Valentina would be gone. She went over to the desk and rummaged through it for something to cut the ties. She found a scissors and cut through the plastic.
Selena brought her arms around front and began rubbing her hands against her legs trying to bring back the circulation.
"Who sent these men after you?" Valentina asked.
"I don't know. I heard them talking about how whoever hired them wanted a tape of me being murdered. They talked about how they'd get a bonus for making it especially painful."
"Someone doesn't like you very much."
Selena made a snorting sound. "I think that's obvious."
"Whoever it is will try again."
"Like you said, these things are part of what we do."
"I'm leaving now."
"How about untying me?"
"No, but I will call your new husband and let him know where you are."
"Do you know anything about the bomb that went off at my wedding?"
"There was a bomb? I didn't know that. Perhaps the same person who had these men bring you here."
Selena looked at this woman, the daughter of her father and a Russian spy, a skilled assassin. Her sister. She hadn't even known Valentina existed until a few months ago. It had been strange to see her standing there, stranger yet that they should meet for the first time like this, in a room stained with the blood of men who had been sent to kill her.
"Will I see you again?" Selena asked.
"Who knows?" Valentina paused. "I hope we never have to work against each other. When I learned about our father and about you I was very angry at you for having all the things that had been kept from me. But we are family. I couldn't keep the anger burning. I have no desire to hurt you but our countries are enemies, no? If I was assigned against you I would follow orders. You understand?"
Selena felt sudden sadness listening to her.
"I understand. I also hope we never confront each other."
"Good." Valentina went to the door and paused. "Goodbye, sister."
The door closed behind her.
CHAPTER 26
"Where did Selena get to? She should have been back by now."
Nick sat with Lamont and Ronnie in the Café Sacher Wein, the hotel's version of a Viennese coffeehouse. Red plush wallpaper, round marble top tables and red plush chairs gave it an old world feel, heightened by the smell of coffee and the sound of steam from the espresso machine. A waitress dressed in a white apron, white cap and a black skirted outfit that would have been familiar to patrons from an earlier time wheeled a pastry cart toward them.
"Nein, bitte." Nick waved her away.
"That chocolate cake sure looks good," Lamont said.
"That cake built this hotel," Ronnie said. "Sacher was a cook for an Austrian prince."
"A chef, not a cook," Nick said. "Forget the cake. Something's wrong. I can feel it."
His phone rang. The number was blocked. He looked at his friends and raised an eyebrow. No one had that number except Harker and the team.
"Yes."
"Your wife is about twenty minutes from you. She is unharmed but I am sure very uncomfortable. Here is where you will find her."
A woman's voice he didn't recognize. The caller spoke with a barely detectable Russian accent. "Who is this?"
"Selena will tell you. Listen carefully. I say this only once. You must hurry in case she is discovered. That would complicate things. You will see why when you get there."
Nick listened to directions to the southwest of the city.
"Goodbye."
"Wait," Nick said. The caller broke the connection.
"Who was it?" Ronnie asked.
"I don't know, a woman. She gave me directions to where Selena is. She said I should hurry. Let's go."
They got their car out of the parking garage. Ronnie turned on the GPS and entered the information Nick gave him. Twenty-five minutes after the call they were pulling up beside the office trailer.
There was a blood trail at the foot of the steps and drag marks in the gravel. Ronnie followed the tracks around the side of the trailer.
"Dead man back here," he said.
Nick went up the steps two at a time and opened the door. Selena looked up at him.
"Nick. God, I'm glad you're here. Get me out of this chair."
He went over to her, stepping over one of the bodies.
"Place looks like a slaughterhouse," Lamont said.
Ronnie wrinkled his nose at the stench. "Stinks like one."
Nick worked on untying the ropes binding Selena to the chair.
"What happened?"
"Valentina was here."
"Your sister? She did this?"
Nick finished untying her legs and Selena stood up. She took Nick's arm to steady herself.
"These men grabbed me and knocked me out with chloroform. When I woke up I was in this chair. Nick, they were going to kill me and take pictures while they did it. That horrible man was going to use that chainsaw to cut me apart."
She gestured at the mutilated body lying on the floor with the chainsaw buried in what was left of its face.
Nick put his arms around her and hugged her. For a moment she rested against him.
"Then Valentina came through the door," Selena said. "She killed these three. It was quite a display. There was another man outside but I don't know what happened to him."
Nick let her go. "We found his body outside."
"If she hadn't shown up, I'd be dead. She said she was going to call you and tell you where I was."
"She did. Otherwise we wouldn't have a clue," Nick said.
Selena headed for the bathroom at the end of the trailer. Lamont and Ronnie were staring down at the body of the big man.
"That chainsaw made a hell of a mess," Lamont said.
Ronnie looked at the scar where the saw had bitten into the floor. "Looks like the saw hit the floor and it kicked back at him. That's a logging saw with a lot of power. Heavy. It must have a three foot bar on it. Mean, if you lose control."
"Yeah, well he sure lost it. Might have improved his looks some."
Nick looked over at them.
"Check his pockets, him and his buddies. Maybe we can find out who sent them."
Selena came out of the toilet and walked over to Nick.
"I asked Valentina if she knew who set off the bomb at our wedding. She didn't know but she thought it might be the same person who sent these people after me."
"You believe her?"
"Yes. She had no reason to lie to me. If she'd wanted to hurt me she had an opportunity to do it."
"What was she doing here?"
"She saw me in the airport at Skopje and followed us. I think she may have been the one who killed Todorovski. What else would she be doing in Macedonia?"
"Makes sense," Nick said. "We know she's an SVR assassin."
"If she killed him it means the Russians are behind what's happening in the Balkans."
"Moscow must have decided Todorovski was too much of a threat to Mitreski's regime. I know they want to keep him in power but I don't know why they'd want to start a war with Albania."
"You think that's Moscow's plan? Mitreski could be trying to divert all that revolutionary energy."