Left For Dead (The Guarded Secrets Series Book 3) (9 page)

Chapter 15

I threw my bag onto the dusty floor of the hideaway. Demon and I each carried one bag, now propped against the legs of the table in the main room, so we could check the other rooms before getting comfortable. Demon made sure the windows were sealed, while I made sure no one else was in the house. Hopefully no one had been using our safe house for cover during the harsh winter. I didn’t feel like shooting anyone yet.

Similar to our house in Katya’s hometown of Gorod, it was supposed to be abandoned, so very few people looked twice at it. We could spend four days here and hopefully go unnoticed—though we couldn’t stay in Gorod again. I had made the executive decision to move one town over, close enough to get to Gorod, but not a town most people from Gorod would venture to. I wanted to avoid running into anyone who would recognize me from our last trip. It had only been a few days since spending almost a month in Gorod. My face would be fresh in the townspeople’s memories there, especially Nikolai’s. He and the other guards around Volodya had to be on edge. They knew Katya wouldn’t leave Natasha, so they must have spent this time preparing for her return. I just needed a little time to think away from anyone who would want to kill me.

Thankfully for us, the snow had vanished, allowing us an easy move in. We had been able to get Katya inside the safe house, along with our meager belongings, without being seen. For now we didn’t have to worry about covering footprints, only keeping the appearance that no one lived here. Meaning, don’t open the blinds, only leave when necessary, and make minimal noise in case someone could hear outside. Most importantly, we now had to stay out of sight in case someone here recognized Katya or me in case they had gone around neighboring towns asking about us.

I considered moving further from Gorod, but shot down the idea. If we went too far away, then it would be nearly impossible to get Natasha back before Volodya sent his men after me. While this town wasn’t the safest, it held the most promise in completing the mission effectively.

It didn’t take long to look through the apartment, there were only three rooms; a main room, a bathroom, and a bedroom. As I turned the final corner in the small apartment bedroom I took a breath of relief that I had found nothing out of the ordinary. It didn’t look like anyone had been here for years.
Perfect. Just as it’s supposed to be.
I holstered the gun Demon had given me for the search, I mostly used it as a scare tactic, since it would make too much noise if I shot someone, but if I had found someone it would have worked.

“You ready, Night Stripe?” Demon called, after securing the windows. “We need to figure out the next part of this plan before night falls.”

“I’m coming,” I replied as I rounded the corner back into the main room. I glanced around to see Katya had taken her perch on the small rocking chair, nose deep in a book. If I had to guess, it was in Russian; we didn’t have much time to read on the job here. Whatever books were here had been left behind from another assignment. She glanced up to meet my gaze, and I smiled before she looked back to her book. I tried not to be insulted by her ignoring me as I took notice that Demon had set up our bags closer to the bedroom so we could have room around the table to plan.

He had already set up a map, notebooks, pencils, and every other thing he determined necessary to make an effective plan. While I was in charge for this mission, Demon had experience. After working in this business for over a year, I appreciated any and all experience in a subject. It saved lives, and made missions run smoothly. So if I wanted this to go well, I needed his experience to guide me. Amateur mistakes wouldn’t impress Sharp Shooter, and it would most likely get someone killed.

I took another fleeting glance at Katya before I approached Demon to notice the downward turn of her features. As I looked closer, she didn’t seem to be reading the book in her hands. Her eyes were distant, just gazing at the page, but not reading the words on it. She took a deep breath, coming out more as a sigh before she looked at me again. Her eyelashes were wet, she had been crying. She let our eye contact linger a little bit before she gestured toward the window.

“I’m sorry, you can’t open the window, Katya.”

She nodded. “I understand. It was worth asking though.” Her voice became so quiet it was hard to hear her. I noticed that tears trickled down her cheeks, silently begging me to let her see her old life. I felt awful, especially as her frown deepened at my words. She was homesick, worried about her sister, and now we trapped her inside. I tried to brush it off by knowing she asked to come, but that didn’t make me feel any better about it.

Turning away from her, I approached Demon, who had a map of Volodya’s compound open in front of him, along with another map of Volodya’s house off to the side. I took a seat next to him, causing the wooden chair to let out an aching cry from my weight, and looked over the map with him. The compound was extensive, two floors, over fifty rooms per floor, and no telling how many guards or security cameras there were. The home was a little smaller, three floors, only about ten rooms per floor, but that didn’t mean there would be an easier extraction. The second floor had all the rooms connected by one hallway. I’d have to be careful or I’d be seen and captured.

“What are you thinking?” I asked, hoping Demon would be able to give some advice before forcing me to take over and show what I could do in a leadership role.

“I think these maps don’t tell us a lot,” he grumbled as he slid the map of Katya’s home closer to us. “You may have to go in and do some reconnaissance.”

“We have Katya right here, why do I need to do reconnaissance?” I asked in a low whisper, hoping Katya wouldn’t hear and think I was ill prepared to rescue her sister. I didn’t understand what I could learn from reconnaissance that Katya couldn’t tell me herself.

“You need to know how to get to Katya’s sister, and not by means of this map, but in person. You need to figure out the rooms or if you get stuck, you’re screwed. We need to know where the guards are, how many, how often they change shift, if they do at all. That could have all changed since we’ve had Katya. He may be expecting us and added other measures. There’s a lot we just don’t know, Night Stripe. We need to play this one carefully. We have four days here. We need to use them wisely.”

“I can help with that,” Katya chimed, getting up from her chair, judging from the loud knock that echoed around us as the chair hit the wall behind it.
So much for being quiet.
“Sorry,” she added when she saw Demon and I turn to glare at her. She came to the table and pulled the map of her house toward her. “This is the best place to find my sister. She rarely goes to the compound and when she does, she’s watched like a hawk. They leave her be while she’s at home since she rarely leaves her room, but at any time there are at least four guards patrolling near her.” Katya looked at the document thoroughly before she pointed to an unlabeled room on the third floor. “This is Natasha’s room,” she stated, pointing to the third level of the home in the second room from the staircase. “To get there, you’ll have to move past the other guards. There are twenty-four guards roaming the grounds and the rest of the house, but their patterns are predictable.”

The edge in Katya’s words rang of mischief, and I didn’t like it. I heard it before when she gave Sharp Shooter the ultimatum to come here, but I wouldn’t roll over as easily as he had. She wouldn’t be coming with me. If I could help it, she’d never leave this building until after the mission ended. “I don’t like where you’re going with this, Katya.”

“If you want to know how the guards work then you have to take me with you.” She didn’t hesitate while she made her command. I didn’t answer right away, but she must have seen the answer in my eyes because she quickly tried to explain why she should be allowed to come. “You’ll need me to convince my sister to come anyway. She’s not going to believe you on your own. She has to know that I’m actually a part of this or it’s all for nothing.”

“No,” Demon and I replied in unison. This had been the first thing we agreed on since saving Katya. Maybe he wasn’t as distracted by her pretty face as I thought. 

“Why not?” she questioned.

“I can think of a lot of reasons,” Demon said. “Let’s start with someone noticing you in town and calling your father. What’s keeping your sister alive then?”

I saw where Demon was heading with this, and joined in. “Natasha is being kept alive right now as bait. Face it, your father knows you helped your mother escape, and knows you’ll come back for Natasha. Once he has you, then you both die, and you went through all of this for nothing.” My words were cold, harsh, and probably cut her deep, but I didn’t care in this moment. She needed to realize she couldn’t come, not this time. I wouldn’t let her, even if I had to tie her down to the bed to keep her in one spot. She wouldn’t be leaving this apartment.

“But…”

“But nothing, Katya,” I interrupted. “We don’t have time to waste. We have four days, that’s it. If in four days I don’t have your sister, then that’s it. I’m taking you and saving your life. Do you want to slow me down so I can’t save Natasha?”

Katya shook her head, letting the sadness take over her eyes again. Once again I was struck by a pang of guilt and decided to handle this the only way I could—compromise.

“Look, you said that it’s best to get Natasha at home. I have to go in to do reconnaissance anyway. I’ll slip her a note from you so she knows you’re here for her. Write whatever you need so she believes it’s you. I don’t care what you put in it, just make sure she’s ready to leave when I show up the next time.”

Katya nodded her head excitedly. “I’ll write one right now.” She plucked a piece of paper from Demon’s notebook and the pen from the table. She took both and sat back down in the rocking chair, preparing to write a note to hopefully convince her sister I was on their side. If only she had just let it go this easily back at the agency. Then we wouldn’t need the extra risk and Demon could’ve come with me to help distract the guards if I needed the help.

“Remember, tomorrow we only have three days left. On the third day, you are getting on that plane if I have to drag you there myself. I’ll stay behind if I have to in order to get your sister, but no one else is getting left behind here. I won’t let it happen if you make that note believable so we can all get out of here alive.”

Chapter 16

Spit Fire drove me as close to Katya’s home as possible, which left me about fifty yards back and concealed behind other cars. I craned my head to look for the best possible entry, though it seemed to be a daunting task, and one that I’d be lucky to survive. The stone exterior seemed impassable, especially as I took notice of the guards patrolling the perimeter. Each of them held a weapon, most likely to ward off unwanted visitors like me. The house was on the outskirts of town, anyone coming this far out was obviously coming to see them. The grand staircase leading up to the house and the small porch on the second floor provided too much open area for them to spot me and shoot. It just meant more of a challenge, but I could do it.

“Thanks for bringing me, Spit Fire,” I said as I popped open the car door. 

“Don’t thank me,” she quipped, letting the annoyance slip through her words. “If you call me away from my mission ever again, I’m going to leave you. You should have had Demon drive you.”

“And let Katya sit in the safe house alone? She would have attracted too much attention or attempted to follow us. Do you want that?” I questioned. When her glare didn’t falter, I continued. “Or she could have come with us and we could have just ended the mission by driving around town. I’m sure there’s someone around here who’s a good enough shot to kill us in a moving car.”

Her eyes narrowed at me before turning her attention back to the road. “Just go and do your job. Don’t drag me into it again. I have my own mission to do. I can’t afford to be seen with you or Demon, or I fail. Which means Camden is free to tell more people about us. Now get out and let’s finish this. It’s too damn cold here.”

I didn’t say anything as I got out of the car and shut the door behind me. Spit Fire drove off a few seconds later, leaving me alone once again. I knew she would be upset that I had pulled her away from her mission. She had been on edge since we landed, most likely because she needed to track down who Camden talked to before going to Camden himself and getting rid of the problem. She didn’t want any surprises when she met with him, and if he didn’t tell her who he had discussed CIRA secrets with already then we’d be out of luck. Her only hope was to find someone willing to talk, then killing Camden to make sure we never had a security breach again.

I pushed those thoughts from my mind as I turned my attention to the mission at hand. It was impossible to ignore the unsettling feeling in my stomach as I began my slow approach to the house. The trees around the home had been cleared, so I’d have to watch from a safe distance to learn their movements. Katya had told me how to get in, but that didn’t mean I liked what I heard. As I glanced over the property I found the basement window that she said had a broken latch, noticeable by a crack going through the glass pane. Thankfully, it was out of sight of the two main cameras around the house. The third one had been taken out and not replaced as far as Katya knew. I just prayed Volodya hadn’t had the time to fix it since she’d been gone.

There wasn’t a lot of time between the guards, maybe a little under a minute, which meant I had to be quick. I moved through the tree line as quietly as possible, and fell to the ground behind a few untamed bushes surrounding the trees to lay low as the guards came around the side of the house again. I sank into the ground, hoping my movements hadn’t given me away. A shiver raced up my spine.

Spit Fire is right. It is too damn cold.

Lifting up from the ground slightly, I noticed neither guard looked in my direction. I guess the training really helped. They’d never know I was here if I kept this up. According to Katya, I had a good chance to get to her sister while her father was at the warehouse. Most of the guards went with him, or my friend Nikolai, when they weren’t at the house. They left very few behind to protect Natasha, so I shouldn’t have much of a problem unless Nikolai had stayed behind for some reason.

“I wonder if he remembers me,” I said to Demon while we were waiting for Spit Fire to pick me up. “I tend to leave an impression few forget.” I had nudged Demon in the side, much to his displeasure, and brought out his snarky side.

“I’m sure he remembers your version of Russian roulette just fine,” he quipped, letting a smile take over his features. He knew I meant how I looked that night, and decided to focus on Russian roulette instead. He always knew just what to say to ruin my fun. “I’m sure he’d love to repay you the favor if he ever got the chance.”

At the time, I didn’t even give him a reply, but as I looked at the extravagant house with guards detailed around the perimeter, I gave myself an encouraging response. “He won’t have the chance,” I whispered as the guards separated to walk to the other side of the house. I rose and took off in a sprint. My footsteps were light, barely audible even to me, but maybe that was because the blood was rushing in my ears. The adrenaline was taking over once again, a familiar rush that accompanied me on every mission. At times I knew the adrenaline kept me alive, but it also motivated me.

The rush kept me on high alert. I could hear the guards making their approach as I stopped in front of the window. The crack in the glass had been started by a split in the wooden frame. I was able to slip my slender fingers through the small gap between the wood caused by the break, to open the window. The guard’s footsteps were slowly approaching; I was running out of time. Lifting it up, I managed to squeeze under and slip through the opening just in time before the guard turned the corner. He never noticed I was there. 

Thankfully, there were boxes underneath my feet when I entered, and I took the time to close the window slowly so it wouldn’t make a sound. Once the window was shut I waited to see the guard’s feet pass by. He walked by, unknowing of my presence, and I hoped to keep it that way. Now I had to work my way up through three floors to get to Natasha’s bedroom. There had been no way to figure out the number of guards from the outside, just another reason that Demon and I had agreed it was best for me to do this run through. While Katya had provided valuable information, there wasn’t anything that compared to personal experience. After today, I’d be able to make the run easier; well—hopefully.

I did run-throughs a lot to make sure I could learn from mistakes, but I hadn’t done one in such a small building with very few hiding spots if something went wrong. Typically I was sent into warehouses, with enough room in the rafters to keep me out of sight unless they were intently searching for me. In a home, much less one I didn’t know, there wasn’t a lot of room for mistakes. I’d have to play it smart, take a page from Renegade and Demon instead of my usual approach, and follow Katya’s directions perfectly.

“Once in the basement, there’s nothing to worry about,” she had explained to me before I left this morning. “There’s one camera, at the top of the stairs, but if you stay close to the right hand side of the stairwell, then it won’t see you.”

“If it does?” I had questioned. “What do I do? Will I know I’ve been spotted?”

“I can practically guarantee you that you won’t be seen by that camera because it’s out of position. My mother and I would go into the basement while father remained home or if he left and the guards remained so we could plan her escape. There’s no microphones like there are in our rooms, so it’s the safest place to meet.” She said the information without emotion, as if it meant little her room had been bugged in case she had something to hide from her father. While she and her mother tried to escape, I didn’t understand what made him bug all the rooms. Frankly, I didn’t want to ask, either. It may give Demon the idea to bug my room at the agency in case I decided to disobey orders, and needed to be put under lock down again.

“What happens if I’m seen, though?” I repeated.

Katya swallowed nervously before turning to me to show how serious she was. “If they find out you’re there, you’ll hear them call out orders. There will be yelling, personnel racing toward you, trapping you wherever you are. Basically, you’ll be hunted down and killed. Then all of this would be for nothing.”

The information took a while to sink in, but when it did, all I could manage was a nod. It had been the only way to tell her I had heard her, but I couldn’t work out a verbal response. Her answer shocked me. Her words tightened around my neck, slowly cutting off my air as panic raced through me. It wasn’t any different than my other missions, but I’d be alone this time. I wouldn’t have someone to rely on to save me. It would be fully on me, with no one to blame if I got caught. I bet Renegade would relish in it.

I pushed those thoughts from my head, effectively loosening the noose that seemed to remain around my neck. I took a deep breath, returning myself to the present so I could focus on the mission at hand. The longer I remained in the home, the better the chance I ended up caught. I just had to start moving, and worry about being caught if, or when, it became a problem.

Taking off up the steps, I followed Katya’s instructions and stayed close to the right side of the staircase. I approached the camera to notice that it was still pushed to the side as Katya and her mother had left it. I made no efforts to touch it, or turn it off completely. I didn’t want to raise suspicion. Edging around the camera, I opened the door slightly, attempting to block the new incoming light from shining into the camera’s view while glancing into the next room.

As the building map had said, I popped into the kitchen, where, according to Katya, most of the staff would be. They weren’t paid to look out for anyone, or even prepared to fight. Once I made it around them I could head into the hall for the staircase up to the second floor, then head through the single hallway, with only one room I could duck into if I needed to hide, and then straight up to Natasha’s room. Once the note was handed off to her, I would repeat the whole process in reverse and head back to our hideout on foot. A pang of annoyance went through me. I didn’t like making this trip twice, I could just take her now and be done with it, but Demon decided it would be best. I pushed it aside; I couldn’t do anything about it now, especially as I took my first tentative steps into the kitchen.

The staff seemed busy preparing lunch, their backs to me as I slipped into the room and silently shut the door behind me. I could hear them conversing in Russian, but understood none of it. I chose to block it out as I made my way out of the room. Facing them, I backed up until I came around a corner. Concealed from their view, I crouched down and waited. A few took trips in and out of the room, allowing me to learn a general pattern for the guards on the first floor. The next time the door opened I slipped out behind the staff member.

They weren’t aware I was behind them. My footsteps were silent, my body low to the floor and tense in case I needed to move quickly. I mostly used the staff member to block me from view of the cameras.

The house was shaped like a square, all the hallways connected in a circle around the building. There were cameras mounted at the start of each hallway, able to see anyone who ventured through the halls.

Once I was at the stairs, I kept to the left side. Katya explained the camera would be right above my head once I came to the top of the stairs. Then Demon explained how to tamper with the camera to cause it to malfunction. To anyone who came to investigate, it would seem that it was an issue with the camera. If I did it right, then there wouldn’t be a reason to look for a culprit. If I didn’t, they’d know someone was in the house. I took a deep, calming breath before I came underneath the camera. If my assumptions were right, there were about six guards in the house and I had two minutes to disrupt the feed to this camera and make it to the third floor before someone either came to inspect it, or they came on their assigned route through the house.

My hands went to the camera to find the wires Demon told me to pull out. He explained if I pulled the two wires on the side and then partially reconnected them then the feed would disrupt, preventing a clear view and then in about five seconds the feed would go dead. It was an easy fix for whoever came, and would give me enough time to get out of sight.

I hadn’t believed him, but as I pulled two, of what I hoped were the right wires, and then partially reconnected them, Demon’s words echoed in my head. “It’s a normal problem with the model cameras Katya has explained. They’ll know how to fix them, and think the wires popped out of place again. I promise you’ll be fine.” 

I prayed he was right as I counted to six seconds just to be on the safe side and sprinted down the hall. I could barely hear my own footsteps. Thankfully training had paid off because now I could focus on the footsteps coming down the stairs.

That wasn’t two minutes. 

Panic raced through me. I had either mistimed the guards, or how fast someone would come by to look at the camera. I had two more rooms to go until the safe room Katya had pointed out for me, and about half a staircase left before the guard came face to face with me. I raced to the door as fast as I could, only to find it locked. I didn’t have time to pick a lock, plus it would be too loud. The guard would surely hear me.

My fingers raked through my hair as I tried to think. Panic, adrenaline, and fear surged through me, making it difficult to process what was about to happen. If I didn’t move I’d be caught and killed. I glanced up to the ceiling, my only hope, and noticed a drop ceiling in part of the hallway. There was still a chance the guard would see me, or someone else would when I tried to get down. It wasn’t much, but it was all I had at this point. My hands ducked into my pockets as the guard came down the last few steps. I slipped my sticky gloves on, which I had kept with me since the Sandtown mission, and scaled the wall quickly.