Gregor stood in front of the large windows in Tuck’s sitting room, admiring the view of the garden.
“Sophia would love it here.” He murmured, his breath causing enough of a breeze to ruffle a few of Tulli’s soft curls.
She turned her body slightly, so she could look up at him, but he refused to let go of her, holding her snugly against his body, her back to his front.
“Why do you say that?” She smiled up at him.
“Look!” He pointed out at the garden. “Rabbits!”
Tulli followed the line of his arm, until she found what he was pointing at. Three young rabbits were making a mess of one of Tuck’s lawns.
“I thought it was just my house they seem to like. Good to know that Tuck has the same problem” He chuckled.
“Do you think he has to threaten his gardeners as well, to make sure they don’t harm the rabbits?” She asked innocently.
“How do you know about my gardeners?” He asked, wondering where she was getting her intel from.
“Marcy told me about them, that first morning when I brought you your coffee.” Tulli admitted. “Why? Do you think it ruins your macho image?”
Tulli turned again, and this time Gregor had to loosen his grip, so she could face him properly.
Gregor gazed down at her reddened lips, and wished their time together wasn’t about to be cut short.
“I think you must have the wrong man, lady.” He shook his head. “I’m not the sort of guy any woman describes as macho. Especially not while standing in the home of a former Marine and CIA operative.”
“But that’s where you’re wrong, Gregor. You don’t have to have worn a uniform or carried a badge or a gun to be macho.” Tulli disagreed. “Nor do they have to be packed with muscles and built like a WWE wrestler.”
“I’m so relieved to hear that.” Gregor grinned. “Some of those WWE women are fierce!”
Tulli shook her head.
“You can make fun, Gregor, but you’re just one of many men who have a very strange view of what women look for in a man.” She said sternly. “You don’t have to be ripped with muscles, or look like you bench three hundred pounds before breakfast.”
“Oh? So, what do you look for in a man?” Gregor was curious now, and a little intrigued.
“I want a man who’ll make me feel safe.” Tulli said quietly. “One who’ll listen to my opinions, and not ignore them. Someone who’ll eat my cooking, and appreciate the effort I put in, even when, on occasions, it doesn’t taste so good. I want someone who’ll tell me bad jokes, just because they know I need cheering up. I want someone who, when the memories get too much for me, won’t shush me and tell me everything is going to be alright. Because sometimes I just need to cry, and get it out of my system.”
Gregor stared into Tulli’s cloudy grey eyes, awash with emotion, and let her finish speaking.
“And I want someone who cares about rabbits because they matter to his daughter.” Tulli finished with a shy smile.
Gregor couldn’t help but smile back.
“Aah Tulli…” He sighed. “You had me at ‘make me feel safe’.”
He leaned forward and kissed the top of her head.
“Of course, it would have been nice if you’d said that you were looking for someone who was drop-dead gorgeous, and that’s why you were standing here with me… but hey, whatever!”
Tulli’s head shot up and she stared at him as though he might be serious for a second.
His wink probably shocked her as much as his statement.
“You did say you wanted bad jokes to cheer you up!” He pointed out. “Not bad enough?”
Tulli snorted a laugh and snuggled into his chest.
“You’re so not like the average Russian billionaire.” She chuckled into his shirt. “Not that I know any other Russian billionaires, but if I had to guess, I’d say none of them were like you.”
“I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.” Gregor frowned over her head.
Tulli leaned back and stared at him.
“Good. Very good.” She smiled. “And for the record, you’re totally drop-dead gorgeous, and sexy as hell, in my humble opinion. Does that make you feel better?”
Gregor leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her already slightly pink lips.
“That is so much better.” He admitted. “At least, it reassures me that I may actually be worthy of pursuing you.”
Tulli looked at him strangely, a deep red blush creeping up her cheeks.
“You do know that you have a very weird view of the world, don’t you?” She murmured. “I’m the one who’s a nobody with nothing, and you’re… well you’re you! And you’re worried you’re not worthy of me? That’s certifiably crazy!”
“Only in your opinion, my beautiful Ms Mazur.” He argued. “To me, it seems perfectly sane.”
Before Tulli could argue her case, there was a knock on the open door, and Gregor turned to see Tuck waiting to speak to them.
“Could you both spare us a minute in my office?” He smiled.
“Sure.” Gregor took Tulli’s hand and they followed Tuck down the hallway to where Hannah, Tuck’s personal assistant, Sacha, and another Stalwart wife whose name escaped him, were sitting around the desk.
“Take a seat, please.” Tuck pointed towards the large sofa. “Hannah, Sacha and Abbey have been trawling the internet, trying to track down Lucky Vega. I thought you’d like to hear what they’ve found so far.”
Hannah turned her chair around, so she was facing them.
“Hey guys.” She smiled. “So, what we’ve been doing is trying to get a match between people who were on the west coast last night, and on the east coast this morning. As you can imagine, those numbers are probably in the thousands, when you consider how many regular flights there are between the two coasts. However, the vast majority of the passengers could be ruled out quite quickly as being legitimate US citizens.”
She paused to make sure Gregor and Tulli were keeping up.
“When we finished our preliminary checks of those flights, we discovered we were down to around ninety passengers who could be of interest. Abbey worked on checking them against the ID’s they provided, and we narrowed down to single digits the number of people whose ID’s either didn’t match or were fake.” Hannah explained. “Unfortunately, none of them was Mrs Vega, or any of her known associates.”
“That’s not good news.” Gregor acknowledged.
“It’s extremely bad news, actually.” Tuck agreed. “Each and every one of those individuals could have been potential terrorists, so we’ve passed on their details to the agencies, so they can investigate further how these people managed to board those planes.”
“Anyway, we’ve been tracking other flights and individuals, including flights from private airfields, and we think we’ve identified half a dozen groups of people we can only describe as being ‘of interest’ at the moment.” Hannah explained. “Several of the groups are more than a dozen strong and include at least one female. Unfortunately, because they’re private flights, we can’t always get passenger details, and let’s face it, even if we could, it’s doubtful that Vega and her men would be listed under their own names. What we’re waiting for is someone to hit one of the systems we’re monitoring, either by using an ATM, or by simply paying for something like car hire or a hotel room with a credit card.”
“If they’re using an ATM or a credit card, how will that help?” Gregor asked. “If, as you say, they’re using false identities, it won’t flag up Luciana Vega, or her known associates, will it?”
“Most ATM’s have cameras built into them.” Abbey explained. “Hannah’s software can extract the images taken when a withdrawal is made. It can also look at any CCTV footage that’s connected to the internet, if a credit card that we’ve flagged is used on the east coast. It will then do an automatic comparison with images from when the card was last used on the west coast.”
Gregor stared at Abbey.
“How does that help us identify Lucky Vega without a genuine name?” He asked.
“That’s another feature of the software.” Hannah explained. “It links up to social media sites, and a whole bunch of other sites where you have to use photo ID to register, and then uses facial recognition software to identify people. It may not find our girl by her Twitter page, but it will rule out virtually everyone else.”
“So, you hope to track her down by process of elimination?” Tulli murmured. “That’s really smart.”
Hannah grinned.
“I like to think so.”
“Where did you get that kind of software from?” Gregor shook his head. “It sounds like something Nasa would develop.”
“Pfft! Nasa wishes they had someone like Hannah to develop their software for them!” Sacha scoffed. “They’re still in the dark ages compared to some of the things she can do. Do you know…?”
“No, I’m sure they don’t, and they don’t want to know!” Hannah jumped in. “Anyway, to get back on track, here… we’re narrowing down the number of groups by the hour, but the balance of probabilities is telling me that one of the groups we’re looking at is definitely our psycho-girl and her pals. So, we need to be on the alert. They could be on the ground already.”
“Gregor, are you sure you want to play this out from your home?” Tuck leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “You could use a decoy, and stay out of sight until this is all over. No risks, and you’d be able to follow the whole thing from a distance.”
“You mean have a lookalike stay at my house, pretending to be me?” Gregor asked, frowning. “No, thanks, Tuck. If this is going to happen, I’m not going to allow anyone else to act as a target for me. And anyway, as soon as I surfaced again, they would know they’d failed to kill me, and it would start all over again.”
“I hate to say it, but I think Gregor’s right.” Danny stood in the doorway with JT. “Better to draw the woman onto Gregor’s turf, where his team can call the shots, rather than leave it until who knows when, who knows where, when Vega has total control.”
Tuck sighed.
“I think I knew that was going to be your answer, but I had to ask.” He shrugged. “I spoke to Kris and Yuri earlier, and they confirmed that they’ve brought in a couple of dozen of your most competent security people, with enough weapons to start a cold war in your own back yard.”
“As long as they haven’t replaced all the wine in my cellar with vodka, I’ll be fine.” Gregor smiled. “Besides, I’m rather hoping they won’t start anything in my back yard. There are a number of rabbits in the garden, that my daughter is rather fond of.”
Tuck smiled.
“Who knew we had so much in common?” He mused. “So, put my mind at rest and tell me you’ve at least got a panic room installed in your house.”
“Not exactly a panic room, as such.” Gregor shook his head. “But the wine cellar I referred to is part of the original house that was built two hundred years ago. The whole of the ground floor and upper floors were built on top, and are less than twenty years old. The cellar has a hidden entrance, accessible from a doorway in the side of the fireplace in the den and is completely self-sustaining. It’s wired to a separate electricity supply, as well as having a back-up generator which can also supply a heating or cooling system and lighting. There are communications points, and even a kitchenette and toilet facilities. It also has special vents which bring fresh air in from some distance away.”
Tuck frowned.
“Those are some unusual features for a modern house.” He noted. “Was there a reason for the vents?”
“I believe the previous owner had a longstanding fear of fire.” Gregor explained. “The idea behind the cellar was that the house could burn down around their ears, and still he and his family would be fine. They’d just have to sit tight and wait to be dug out.”
“Ok, I can see how those features might prove useful.” Danny nodded. “But how impenetrable is the entrance, in the event it was found?”
“You wouldn’t find it by accident.” Gregor reassured him. “And apart from you guys, only a handful of people know where it is.”
“How many of you could it hold for any length of time?” JT asked.
“If the worst happened and we came under a severe, sustained attack, it’s plenty big enough to get my whole security team inside comfortably.” Gregor confirmed. “It’s more than half the size of the ground floor area.”
“What about food and water?” Tulli asked. “How much do you have stored?”
“I haven’t checked recently, but I’m guessing there would be plenty to last a few days.” Gregor squeezed her hand to reassure her. “Marcy uses it as an overflow pantry, and rotates the food, so what is down there is always fresh or at least in date. There will be bottled water as well as piped drinking water.”
Tuck looked at Danny, JT and then Hannah.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m all out of reasons why Gregor shouldn’t stay at his house.” He shrugged. “There aren’t many places so well-equipped.”
Gregor’s muscles relaxed for the first time since he’d entered the room.
These were experts at security, so if they thought his house would prove to be the best place to lock-down, then maybe whatever was to come wasn’t going to be as bad as he’d feared.
He glanced at his watch.
“I’m sorry to break up the party, but I have to be back at the house for a one o’clock international video-conference.”
“No, it’s probably for the best that you get back before Lucky and her boys show up. We don’t want them to catch us off-guard before you’re even inside.” Tuck agreed.
Gregor stood, and Tulli immediately followed, keeping hold of his hand as they walked out of the office.
“I wish we had a few more minutes to be alone.” He murmured, as it became obvious that there was going to be a group farewell at the door.
Tulli glanced up at him, her eyes as dark and cloudy as he’d ever seen them.
“It’ll only be for a day or two, I’m sure.” She tried to smile. “Once the psycho woman is eliminated, we can start again, and get to know each other properly.”
“No, no starting again.” Gregor wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “I love everything I’ve found out about you already, and I certainly don’t want to forget a single kiss. Let’s just say I can’t wait for chapter two to start.”
He watched a single tear fall from the corner of Tulli’s eye, but she didn’t crumple.
“That sounds really good.” She whispered as they reached the car. “I’m just going to miss you, and worry about you the whole time.”
“Oh, that reminds me…” Gregor felt around in his jacket pockets, until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a cell-phone which he handed to her. “It’s new, so not password protected yet, which means you can set your own. It has my number, Sophia’s number, and Kris and Yuri’s numbers programmed in. Add any more you can think of, and feel free to use it as much as you like, Ok?”
“Can I call you on it later?” She smiled shyly, clutching the phone like it was something precious.
“Why else do you think I got it for you?” He smiled. “My conference call should last no more than a few hours. Four o’clock at the latest. If you don’t call me later, I’ll be calling you to find out why you haven’t.”
He pulled a little pouch out of another pocket.
“Charger and earbuds.” He explained.
He turned and said goodbye to Tuck and the others, and then quickly murmured a goodbye to Tulli.
Unable to resist, he leaned in and placed a quick kiss on her soft lips.
The light it brought to her eyes almost made him want to go in for another kiss, but he knew time was running out.
He slipped out of her reach and into the car, Kris pulling away almost before he’d got his belt fastened. He watched from the rear window as the rest of the guys turned and headed back into the house, but Tulli stood still, staring at the car as it travelled further away.
Just as they were about to turn out onto the road, he thought he saw her lift her hand to wave one last time.
He waved back, but doubted that she could see him through the tinted glass.
If there was one thing he would make sure of, it was that he’d never put that look of sadness on her face again.
That was for damn certain!