“Do you know about their most recent operation?” I ask softly when Nora falls silent. “The one with all the hostages?”
I probably shouldn’t go there, but I still can’t get the nineteen dead people out of my mind.
Nora nods. “I do. I assume you do, too?”
“Peter wasn’t going to tell me, but this afternoon, I overheard them.” I swallow. “So yes, now I know.”
“Ah. I was wondering about—” She gestures at my eyes and smiles ruefully. “Never mind.”
I cock my head, marveling at how calm she looks, how unfazed by it all. “It doesn’t bother you?” I ask, unable to help myself. “You don’t find this sort of thing… horrifying?
She sighs, shifting the baby to the other shoulder. “I do. Of course I do. I’m not like Julian; I wasn’t born to this kind of life.”
“So how do you do it then? How do you let it slide?”
“To be honest,” she says softly, “I don’t know. All I know is that I love him… that I need him like the rainforest needs the sun. My world is darker with him in it, but it’s brighter too, richer in so many ways.”
I bite the inside of my cheek. I understand her so completely that it’s scary. “Do you ever wonder if it’s you… if something inside you is wrong and broken?” I ask as the baby starts to fuss. “If maybe normal women wouldn’t have… you know?”
She sighs again and shifts Lizzie back to her other shoulder. “It’s possible. I know Julian and I— Well, the way we are together is not for everyone, that’s for certain.” She’s about to say more, but Lizzie’s fussing is growing in volume, and Nora stands up instead, bouncing the baby to calm her down.
I rise to my feet as well. “May I hold her?”
Nora grins as the baby’s fussing escalates to screaming. “Right now? Are you sure?”
“I do need the practice,” I say wryly. “And your husband said you could use the help.”
“In that case, here you go. This bundle of joy is all yours.” She hands over the baby with exaggerated eagerness.
To my surprise, Lizzie immediately stops crying and stares up at me with big blue eyes.
“Why, you little traitor,” Nora says to her daughter with mock outrage. “See if you get breastfed tonight.”
I laugh, bouncing the baby in my arms, and as she gurgles, her tiny fist reaching for my hair, I feel more of the pressure in my chest easing, the dark clouds lifting long enough to let me glimpse a hint of light.
83
Henderson
Nowhere to be found.
The words rattle around my migraine-ridden brain, the letters twisting on the screen like snakes.
All my contacts are telling me my wife and children are nowhere to be found. It’s like they vanished into thin air.
My neck spasms in pain, the agony radiating down my left arm. I want to howl like an animal and down a pack of pills, but I can’t.
I need all my wits about me for this.
The odds are high that Sokolov already has them. What else could explain their disappearance? There are no records of them leaving Iceland, no plane tickets issued to anyone matching their description.
They must’ve been captured and abducted.
Soon, I will get a demand to turn myself over, along with some body parts from my children. Sokolov won’t spare them—not after what he’s done to the rest of our friends and family.
Not after what happened to his son in that shitty little village.
There’s only one thing left to do, one last desperate plan to try.
Picking up the phone, I dial the number on my desk.
“Operation Air Drop is a go,” I say when the man on the other end picks up. “Get the team ready. We strike next Saturday, in a week.”
84
Peter
I run again through Plan A with my team, Kent, and Esguerra. Then we go through Plans B, C, D, and E.
Unlike an assassination gig, we’re heading in more or less blind. The trap could be sprung from anywhere, take any form Henderson’s CIA-trained mind can conjure up. From snipers to MI5 to Interpol, we could be ambushed in a hundred different ways, and we have to be prepared for them all.
We also have to allow for the unlikely possibility that it is not a trap, and Bonnie Henderson really did reach out.
Which is why, despite my extreme reluctance to be apart from Sara for any length of time, I’m going to London with my team on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow.
I can’t imagine my ptichka will react well to this, but there’s no other choice. Kent and Esguerra are going too, to provide backup with their own teams.
We have to find Henderson and finish this.
There’s no other choice.
“How do you think Nora will feel about you going in person?” I ask Esguerra as we’re wrapping up.