Buch lesen: «Look-Alike»
Elle eased the safety off the H&K .45 and put her hand on the door. It was unlocked.
She raised the gun and swung into position just inside the door. The soft blue-white glow of a computer monitor filled the bedroom. Data streamed across the screen.
And the illumination fell across a figure lying in the middle of the floor. She knew exactly what the black dot in the center of the body’s forehead was.
Silently, a shadow separated itself from the darkness. She pulled the gun up and fired. A man cursed in surprise.
In the next handful of seconds, her feet were swept from under her as a weight fell on top of her, knocking out her breath. “Stop,” a deep voice said as she crashed a forearm into his nose and eye. “I didn’t kill him.”
She went still. “Then let me up.”
Cautiously, the man lifted his head and looked at her.
She gasped. “You!”
MILLS & BOON
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Dear Reader,
Ever since I wrote Double-Cross about twin sisters Samantha St. John and Elle Petrenko, I’ve been dying to get back to them and tell more of their story. I mean, come on: twin sisters who were separated for twenty-three years! Who wouldn’t want to know more?
I love suspense/romance novels that introduce me to new places, so I really wanted this one to move around. And it does! From the Red Light District in Amsterdam to Germany to Russia to the Greek Islands. I also love stories about sibling rivalry and misunderstanding and I knew I had to include the problems Sam and Elle would have just trying to figure out the pecking order. That’s one of those things that can take all your life if you come from a big family—like I do. And Elle’s dad seems to be a great dad to have if you’re a spy. One of the things I’ve discovered in my own life is that no matter how out-of-the-norm your life is (and there are parts I still can’t discuss!), your family life tends to be normal and weird at the same time.
I hope you enjoy Sam and Elle’s new story. Please stop by my Web page at www.meredithfletcher.com to say hello and tell me what you thought.
Happy reading!
Meredith Fletcher
Look-Alike
Meredith Fletcher
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Meredith Fletcher for her contribution to the ATHENA FORCE miniseries.
MEREDITH FLETCHER
doesn’t really call any place home. She blames her wanderlust on her navy father, who moved the family several times around the United States and other countries. The one constant she had was her books. The battered trunk of favorite novels followed her around the world when she was growing up and shared dorm space with her in college. These days, the trunk is stored, but sometimes comes with Meredith to visit A-frame houses high in the Colorado mountains, cottages in Maine, where she likes to visit lighthouses and work with fishing crews, and rental flats where she takes moments of “early retirement” for months at a stretch. Interested readers can reach her at MFletcher1216@aol.com.
To Drs. Donna and Brian Johnson, staunch supporters
of Athena Force and of my writing. And to my editor,
Natashya Wilson, who loves romance adventure as
much as I do and helped me straighten all the wrinkles.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
Prologue
Outside Suwan, Berzhaan
The Middle East
“Please! I beg you! Don’t kill me! I made a mistake! Just a mistake!”
Seated in the back of the luxury limousine, Vasilios Quinn listened to the man beg for his life. It was music to his ears. A return to days he hadn’t seen in many years.
Soundproof windows kept the man’s panicked cries from reaching the dark night outside the limousine. Less than five miles from Suwan, the capital city of Berzhaan, they were in desert highlands filled with hard stone ravines and shifting sandstorms.
It was the perfect place for an execution.
“I swear to you! It will never happen again! I will not allow myself to be so tempted!” Tears ran down the man’s quivering jowls. He was in his thirties yet covered in mounds of baby fat. He hadn’t known the hard life so many of his countrymen had suffered.
Berzhaan was part of the Middle East and had faced a precarious existence all its life. The current government, headed by Prime Minister Omar Razidae, suffered from internal strife. The United States was believed to support Berzhaan’s Kemeni guerrillas, who wanted control of the country. As a result, the native terrorist network—the Q’Rajn—attacked the government and the Kemenis alike to drive out the U.S., as well as American sympathizers. Death did a daily business in Berzhaan.
Quinn’s business was with the Q’Rajn. The man on the limousine floor had acted as go-between to the terrorists.
“I trusted you, Malik,” Quinn said.
Malik sobbed. “I swear, you can still trust me!”
“Unfortunately,” Quinn said, “trust is like virginity. Once given, it can’t be given again. You have to be careful whom you extend it to. I have been very careful. You—” he pointed the silenced Glock .45 at Malik’s nose “—are my first mistake in over twenty years.”
“I can fix it! I swear!” Malik clasped his hands in front of him. Held on his elbows and knees as he was, dressed in a robe and trembling, he was a poster child for subjugation.
Quinn had been at a soiree when his security team had called him to let him know they had Malik in custody. When he finished here, he intended to return to that soiree. His gray hair was carefully coiffed, and though he was a big man, his tuxedo fit him perfectly.
“You brought someone to our meeting,” Quinn said. “You knew I didn’t operate that way.”
“She won’t talk!” Malik said. “She’s just a girl! Young! She doesn’t know anything! I give you my word!”
Quinn almost laughed. The two bodyguards holding Malik grinned and shook their heads. Of course, they had already killed the girl and dumped her body.
Quinn’s cell phone rang. He wasn’t pleased at being interrupted. “Yes.”
“The breach in security may be more severe than we had believed.”
Quinn cursed and leaned back in the limousine. He’d thought dealing with Malik would be the end of it. “I thought you had a handle on this.”
“I still do.” The voice at the other end of the connection was calm and assured. The caller’s name was Arnaud Beck. He was a mercenary leader with international contacts, and Quinn had never met a more efficient killing machine. “Our competitors are working more quickly than we had imagined.”
The competitors were an intelligence team that Quinn hadn’t yet identified. His intelligence people had tracked them back to a nebulous agency that had ties to a Web site, www.AA.gov. The site appeared to be the home page of an all-girls school, but its advanced firewalls and security countermeasures had stymied every attempt Quinn’s people had made to crack it. Even the information brokers Quinn had access to had as much rumor as fact about the organization behind AA.gov. Maybe it was a cover for interagency information, or maybe—as a few reports indicated—it was an enforcement arm that stopped short of assassinations.
The most curious facet about AA.gov was the connection to the school just outside of the Glendale/Phoenix, Arizona, area in the United States. From circumspect investigation, Quinn had learned that the Athena Academy for the Advancement of Women had many ties to the United States government. Many of the school’s select graduates went on to important positions within federal and state agencies.
“They’ve already placed an agent in the field,” Beck went on. “I’ve sent you a file.”
Turning, Quinn pulled the back of the seat down beside him, revealing the computer. A small dish at the back of the limousine connected him to a satellite array.
He opened the e-mail feature and decrypted the message, then linked to the Web site where Beck had posted his progress. One long minute later, a digital image flickered onto the LCD screen.
The woman was young, perhaps midtwenties, and beautiful. Her white-blond hair fell to her shoulders. Ice blue eyes. In the picture, she looked like a tourist, dressed in light summerwear. For some reason that he didn’t understand, she looked hauntingly familiar.
“Who is she?” Quinn asked.
“She’s in Amsterdam now,” Beck replied, evasive. “She made contact with a man who sells me information on a regular basis. She asked him about Tuenis Meijer. Once she had Meijer’s address, she went there. But, of course, Meijer hasn’t returned yet or I would have him.”
“How do you know she was asking about Meijer?”
“The man who sold her the information called me and gave me her picture.”
“What have you done about her involvement?”
“I’ve got two men on her now. She’s currently at the railway station awaiting an arrival.”
“Not departing?” That would be too good, Quinn thought. Too easy. And too much to hope for.
“She hasn’t bought a ticket. I tracked her arrival into Amsterdam through computer records. Her passport says she’s Crystal Downing. From Newark, New Jersey.”
“She’s not?”
“Her name is Samantha St. John. She’s an Athena Academy graduate. She fits the profile for the AA.gov background we have access to. I got her picture and name from a school yearbook.”
Cursing, Quinn closed the computer and stored it behind the seat again.
He struggled to remain calm. For over twenty years, his secret had been safe. At least, relatively safe. There was one woman who knew more about him than she should, a woman who some said was only a myth, a black widow who seduced and killed her mate and any man she found useless once she was done with them. For the last twenty-plus years, she had been blackmailing him.
That blackmailer was believed to have one of the most sophisticated information networks in the world, with secrets that could cripple or topple major corporations and nations. Despite years of searching, Quinn had not been able to find his blackmailer or discern her identity. Now, if he moved quickly, he had a chance to find that woman and kill her. Perhaps, if he moved quickly enough, he might even hope to learn the secrets she knew. They were worth a lot of money. But he needed Meijer.
“My path may cross the competition’s,” Beck said.
“If she gets in your way, kill her.”
There was no hesitation. “Yes, sir.”
“And let me know as soon as it’s dealt with.” Quinn hung up the phone and put it back in his jacket.
“Sahib,” Malik whispered tremulously from the car. “Please?”
Ruthlessly, Quinn knotted his fist in the man’s hair and yanked him from the limousine. Ten feet from the car, Quinn put the silencer to Malik’s head and squeezed the trigger. The body dropped onto the shifting sand.
Quinn breathed in the cool, dry desert air, held it a moment, then let it out. Everything is controllable, he told himself. With enough money, enough blood, enough determination, everything is controllable.
He would spend all to protect himself.
Chapter 1
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Once you get to Amsterdam, Sam, your life will be in danger. You can’t trust anyone.
Remembering Allison Gracelyn’s last warning before she’d boarded the plane in Phoenix, Samantha St. John stood waiting in the lobby of Central Station, Amsterdam’s main railway station, and forced the tension and doubt away. You were warned about the danger, she chided herself. You didn’t tell your lover about it, but you told your sister.
Guilt stung her, but she didn’t give in to it. Riley McLane was her lover and had been a big part of her life for almost nineteen months now. But she wasn’t used to sharing everything in her life. There were parts she wasn’t ready to share—didn’t know how to share. Being alone was natural; being part of a couple wasn’t.
Riley was a CIA agent, as she was, but with a lot more fieldwork experience than she’d had. Normally she acted as support, specializing in languages and computers. Riley was definitely hands-on for retrievals and terminations.
Riley had a tendency to be overprotective and a control freak, which could be endearing, Sam had found. But for her current mission, she needed backup with no questions asked. Since she and her sister had been planning to get together for a while, Sam had elected to ask Elle to come with her.
Sam’s sister was an intelligence agent as well. Elle worked for the Russian government’s SVR, which was that country’s equivalent of the CIA. Although they’d known each other less than a year and a half, Sam knew Elle wouldn’t ask a lot of questions if Sam asked her not to. That was one of the things Sam truly appreciated about her sister.
And if things truly got dangerous on the assignment, it would be easier to disappear with Elle, who had been to Amsterdam several times before, than with Riley, who had only a passing acquaintance with the country. Sam told herself that was the real reason for her decision, but she knew she didn’t want to put Riley in harm’s way if she couldn’t tell him why she was doing it.
And she couldn’t tell him, because she didn’t know. Only Allison and Alexandra Forsythe’s request, and the Athena Academy bond between them, had moved her into action.
Dozens of other people waited for the train as well. Night lurked dark and mysterious outside the station windows, and the red glow of the red-light district in the distance held the promise of forbidden ecstasy. Music in several languages boomed from personal entertainment systems. Children and teenagers played video games while parents consulted travel brochures. Monitors broadcast information and news from around the world. The hustle and bustle of the station became an ocean of sight and sound that pressed against her senses.
Sam wore dark blue notch-tab capri pants and a white scoop neck sweater. She’d left her shoulder-length, white-blond hair loose, and dark sunglasses hid her ice-blue eyes even though it was dark outside. According to the tourist pamphlets, the area was rife with pickpockets and purse-snatchers. At five feet three inches tall and slender, she knew she’d be a target for predators. As a safeguard, she carried her ID, passport and cash in a pocket. She felt naked without a weapon.
And she was nervous.
You have every right to be nervous, she told herself. You’re meeting your sister in person for the fourth time in your whole life.
For all of her childhood that she could remember, Sam had been an orphan raised in foster homes. She’d learned to be quiet and self-contained. She wasn’t used to family. Most of the foster homes she’d been in preferred not to see their charges. She’d learned to spend incredible amounts of time surfing the Internet.
Ultimately, it had been her interest in computers that had saved her, though her salvation had taken a strange route. When she’d been nine years old, she’d hacked into a sensitive government site, not really knowing what she was getting into, just plugging away at a barrier that had stymied her young mind. Her success had triggered an armed invasion by federal forces.
But a judge’s decision and government intervention had brought her to the attention of the Athena Academy for the Advancement of Women. The seventh-through-twelfth-grade school was a special academy set up for the smartest, most promising young women to learn and explore their every potential.
While there, Sam had come to know the only family she’d ever felt part of. The Cassandras. Her orientation group had all been assigned at random, but their senior student leader, Lorraine “Rainy” Miller, had united them into a group of best friends. Even graduation hadn’t ended that relationship.
Rainy’s recent murder and the fallout from their investigation and eventual exposure of the killers had only drawn the Cassandras closer. Sam hadn’t needed anything outside that world.
Until she’d found out about Elle Petrenko.
Last year, Sam had been detained by the CIA and accused of being responsible for a double-cross in Berzhaan that had triggered a lot of adverse publicity for the United States. No one expected Sam to have an evil twin.
But Elle Petrenko was her twin, separated from Sam when they were barely toddlers when their parents, who had been Russian double agents for the British intelligence agency MI-6, were murdered. The events around those deaths and how Sam eventually was abandoned in America still hadn’t been explained.
Thankfully, Elle hadn’t been an evil twin. She’d merely been a Russian agent performing her own mission in Berzhaan. Neither Sam nor Elle had known the other existed, but once they’d met, each of them had felt as if a missing piece had been restored to them. Though their lives were worlds apart and filled with covert responsibilities, they made an effort to stay in touch by phone and e-mail and meet when they could.
So, for the fourth meeting, Sam thought glumly, it’s all, “Come to see me in Amsterdam and try not to die.” What kind of sister am I? She sighed, because she truly didn’t know the answer to that question at present.
She had mixed emotions. On one hand, she wanted to see Elle and they’d already made arrangements to be together this week, which had been hard to plan to begin with. Giving up the time wasn’t something Sam was willing to do. But neither was turning away from a request Allison and Alex had tendered, knowing full well Sam was planning on seeing Elle.
On the other hand, Sam knew how valuable Elle would be in Amsterdam, a place Sam had never been. Being a good agent was all about having resources in place in the field. So what are you? she asked herself. A sister, an agent or a rat?
“Hi.”
Startled, Sam turned to look at the speaker. He’d come up behind her quietly.
The man was tall, at least six foot three, with broad shoulders and lean hips. His shaved head gave him a look of menace, and a reddish soul patch made a point on his lower lip. Gray-green hazel eyes, like those of a big jungle cat, surveyed her impassively and held deep melancholy. The black biker leathers and heavy-metal concert T-shirt didn’t give much away. He could have been a dockworker or a Goth.
“Are you American?” The man spoke English flawlessly.
Because she felt contrary and because she didn’t want to let anyone know her business, Sam answered in French. “I don’t speak English. Do you speak French?” Languages and computers were her specialty at the CIA.
He switched to German, which she also understood. “No French. I speak German.”
Sam decided to cut the guy a break. He might even know more languages. She spoke in German. “Your German is very good.”
“I’m told my English is really good, too,” he said.
“I wouldn’t know,” Sam replied.
The man shrugged. “I’m amazed.”
Sam arched an eyebrow.
“You’re so gifted linguistically.”
“What makes you think that?”
Again the shrug, just a slight lift of the broad, leather-covered shoulders. “You speak French. You speak German.” He reached out slowly, without threat, and touched the pamphlet in her hand. “And you read English. Quite an accomplishment.”
Glancing down, Sam saw that she was indeed holding an English language pamphlet. “Busted.” She smiled, but she was wary at the same time. The man was very observant.
“I came over because you look like a tourist. This is a dangerous place for tourists.”
“You just volunteer to wait with strangers in the train station?”
He gave a slight nod. “It’s a hobby.”
“Maybe,” Sam said sweetly, “you should seek counseling.”
Perhaps he had a comeback for that, but Sam didn’t find out. At that moment the warning Klaxons went off, filling the station with noise and vibration. The crowd moved around her, getting ready for the train’s arrival.
In that moment, Sam got a clue as to what the man’s real interest was. Two men dressed in casual streetwear moved toward the platform. They had short, military-style haircuts and wore light jackets. An air of danger clung to both of them.
The big man, dressed in black, moved with them, shifting so that they stayed in his view.
The two men kept their distance.
Sam looked at the man in black. Are you hunting them? Or avoiding them? The situation intrigued her.
The train stopped with a grinding screech of brakes. Seconds later, the doors opened and the passengers began to debark in a press of moving bodies.
Sam stood on tiptoe to peer through the crowd.
Elle Petrenko stepped out from a middle car. She was carrying a baby and chatting amiably with a woman only a little older than her, who was carrying another toddler.
A baby? Sam was shocked. Elle hadn’t said anything about a baby. But then, there was a lot Sam didn’t know about her twin. Elle seemed outgoing and friendly, always willing to share her life, but Sam didn’t do that because of her upbringing. Naturally she assumed others held back things they didn’t want known as well. But a baby?
Three meetings in person over the last eighteen months, combined with several phone calls that were, no doubt, monitored by their respective intelligence agencies, and off-the-grid e-mails—none of it could complete a relationship that had a twenty-three-year gap.
Elle wore caramel-colored twill pants and a black, short-sleeved turtleneck that flattered her slender figure. Boots and a carry-on tote completed the ensemble. Unlike Sam, Elle wore her hair up.
After a brief conversation, Elle handed the baby to the young woman, who waved goodbye and managed to head out under a full head of steam with both kids. Sam released a breath, but a bit of wistfulness tugged at her heart. She was beginning to understand what it felt like to be a sister, but what would it be like to be an aunt? Just the sight of Elle holding that baby had started a whole kaleidoscope of possibilities tumbling through Sam’s head. She’d never really thought about family before. Now she was seeing generations of it ahead of her.
Glancing across the waiting area, Elle spotted Sam and walked over.
“Hello, sis,” Elle said, sounding totally American instead of Russian.
“Hi,” Sam replied.
Elle glanced up at the man beside Sam. “Who’s your friend?”
“You’re twins,” the big man observed.
Elle smiled but didn’t take her ice-blue eyes off the man in black. “He’s cute, but has he always been this slow?”
The man frowned at her.
“I don’t know,” Sam admitted. “I just found him.”
Looking a trifle uncomfortable, the man crossed his arms over his broad chest.
“He’s big,” Elle said, grinning slightly. Her blue eyes sparkled. “Can we afford to feed him?”
“He’s not staying,” Sam said. “Do you have bags?”
Elle patted the carry-on. “Just this one. I knew you said we’d be on the go tonight, so I made arrangements to have my bags delivered to my room.”
“Good.” Sam was already feeling antsy to be moving. She looked up at the big man. “Well, good luck finding another tourist to guard.”
He nodded.
Elle fixed him with the full force of her ice-blue eyes. “Do you have a name?”
“Joachim,” he said, then looked a little irritated.
Sam thought maybe it was because he’d answered before he could stop himself. Elle had that effect on men. Even though they were twins, Elle was able to do more with her looks and her personality than Sam was. She’s just more willing to take risks than I am, Sam thought for what must have been the thousandth time.
“I’m Elle.” She offered her hand.
Joachim took Elle’s hand and held it for a moment, then seemed reluctant to let go.
“Are you going to be in Amsterdam long?” Elle asked.
“A few days.”
“Maybe I’ll see you around.”
Sam didn’t think that was a good idea. Joachim was rousing her warning senses. Maybe it was the quiet way he moved, or the fact that he’d avoided the two suspicious-looking men who now seemed to have disappeared, or maybe even the fact that Elle was acting twitterpated over him, but Sam wanted him gone.
“Perhaps,” Joachim replied. He offered a small wave. “Have a safe trip.” Then he was in motion, walking away from them.
Elle watched him go.
Despite her misgivings, and feeling a little guilty because Riley was back home missing her, Sam also watched the big man walk away. The tight leather pants hugged his firm butt in ways that Sam could appreciate even though she was spoken for.
“Wow,” Elle said.
“Wow?” Sam grumbled.
“Definitely wow,” Elle replied. “He’s one of those guys.”
“What guys?”
“Those guys you hate to see go but you love to watch leave.”
Sam grimaced. During the last year of getting to know Elle, she’d found her sister was much more outspoken than she was. “Personally, I thought he was creepy. He appeared behind me, out of nowhere. He told me he thought I was a tourist and shouldn’t be alone.”
“Doesn’t sound creepy to me. Sounds like a nice guy.” Elle glanced at her meaningfully. “You’ve already got a nice guy. Maybe that’s why you’re invulnerable to Joachim’s mutant abilities.”
“Mutant abilities?”
“It’s from a children’s cartoon show,” Elle explained. “The X-Men.”
“In your country?”
“In yours.” Elle gave her a perplexed look. “You know, it surprises me sometimes how little you know about being a kid.”
I didn’t get to spend a lot of time being a kid, Sam thought.
“What mutant abilities does he have?” Sam asked.
“Irresistible charm and devastating looks. Definitely. Oh, and brooding menace.”
“I must be invulnerable.”
“You,” Elle countered, “have Riley.”
The crowd flowed steadily out of the building as the train powered up to depart again. Joachim and the two other men were nowhere in sight.
“What’s on the agenda?” Elle asked. “You said part of this little get-together was going to be a working vacation.”
“I’ve got to find someone.”
“We already found someone. You let him go.”
“Look,” Sam said, more shortly than she intended because she was tired and tense from meeting with Elle and dealing with Allison and Alex’s unexplained request, “if you hurry, you might be able to catch up to him.”
A calm look filled Elle’s face. She touched Sam’s arm. “Hey, just joking, Sam. I’ve been really looking forward to seeing you again. It’s been three months. I’m kind of jet-lagged from the trip. To make this happen, I’ve had to be up and running for the last thirty-seven hours. I’m not at my best.”
“I’m sorry,” Sam said. My sisterly skills could definitely use some improvement, she thought. During their time together, Elle was always the more relaxed one, more able to accept everything that happened. As a foster child, Sam had always fought to maintain security and familiarity. She didn’t like it when things changed.
“No biggie,” Elle said. “Buy me a mocha latte along the way and you’ll find I can be all about forgiveness.”
Sam smiled and shook her head. “Do you realize that sometimes you sound more American than I do?”
“I,” Elle replied, “take that as a compliment. I’ve worked hard to sound that way.” Leaning in, she whispered conspiratorially in a thick Russian accent that she had once assured Sam came from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Sam had gotten on the Internet to learn who those cartoon characters were. “Eet vas all included een my secret spy training, comrade.”
“Terrific,” Sam said. “Are you ready?”
“Yes. Why haven’t you already found the guy that you were sent here to find?”
Sam led the way out of the terminal. “It’s possible that I’ve been looking in the wrong places.”
“Where did you look?”
“At his house.”
“Hmm. That’s a good place to start. He wasn’t home?”
“No.”
“What about his place of work?”
“He’s a criminal,” Sam said. “He doesn’t keep regular hours or an office. He lives on a houseboat, so even his residence moves around a lot.”
“Makes it more difficult, but not impossible.”
Sam nodded. “This guy has pissed off a lot of the wrong people from what I’ve been able to find out. Someone may have killed him.”
“So instead of a person,” Elle said, “you could be looking for a boat anchor or fish chum.”
“Exactly,” Sam said. “I have to tell you, this could be dangerous.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Elle replied with a smile. “I’m a secret agent. I figured it out all on my own. C’mon. If I’m going to have to stay on my toes, we need to find me that mocha latte.”
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