The Spy Who Came for Christmas (8 page)

^{Sudden movement dissolved the illusion. A figure lunged toward him, and Kagan was absolutely certain the shock from his wound had made him hallucinate--because the figure was a boy, maybe twelve years old, and the boy had a baseball bat. He was about to swing with it, and the intensity of the expression on his face was startling, even if Kagan saw it only for an instant.}

^{His vision doubled. His knees bent.}

^{Before the boy could strike him, he dropped. Sickened, feeling his eyes roll up and his mind drift, he did his best to topple onto his side, to keep the weight of his body from crushing the baby.}

^{Don't cry,
he silently pleaded.
Whatever you do, don't cry.}

^{But now the baby did cry. Jolted when Kagan landed, the infant wailed beneath the parka. Its cry went on and on, rising, pausing only when the baby took frantic breaths. Then it swelled again, a cry of helplessness and fear, of pain, hunger, and despair, of all the sorrow and desperation in the world.}

^{* * *}

^{"PAUL, YOU
shouldn't have risked calling. You're supposed to use the dead drop. Is this an emergency?"}

^{"I need you to bring me in. You told me it wouldn't last this long. Tonight. . . "}

^{"I can barely hear you."}

^{"Tonight, to prove I was part of the team, they forced me to . . . "}

^{"I still can't hear you. You need to get off the line. You're jeopardizing the mission."}

^{"If you don't bring me in, I'll walk away."}

^{"No. You'd make them suspicious. We'd never get another man in there. Give us time to think of a believable reason for you to disappear."}

^{"Soon. Think of it soon."}

^{"The quickest we can. Learn as much as possible. There are rumors about a shipment of plastic explosive being smuggled through the Jersey docks. That's Odessa territory. If Semtex is being smuggled in, the Russians are involved."}

^{"Just bring me home. For God's sake, bring me home."}

^*

^{Part Two}

^{The
Christmas
Rose}

^{KAGAN HEARD
a faint choir singing,
"Silent night, holy night
... "
It took him a dazed moment to realize that the soft music came from a radio or a CD player, but not in the room where he lay on his back on the floor.}

^{A woman loomed over him, as did the boy who had nearly struck him with the baseball bat. Kagan's eyes hurt from the glare of the overhead light. Orienting himself in a panic, he saw the gleam of stainless steel. A stove. A refrigerator.}

^{I'm in a kitchen,
he realized. He tried to raise himself, but his strength gave out, and he sank back onto what felt like a brick floor.}

^{"You're hurt," the woman said. "Don't try to move."}

^{"The baby," he murmured anxiously.}

^{Even dazed, he was alarmed by the sound of his voice. For almost a year, he'd spoken so much Russian that his English had an accent. He worried that it would be one more thing to unsettle the woman.}

^{"Here. I have him in my arms," she said.}

^{The baby remained wrapped in a small blue blanket. Ka- gan's vision cleared enough for him to see the woman holding the infant protectively against her chest.}

^{From his perspective on the floor, the ceiling light shone down through her long blond hair, giving her a halo. She was in her midthirties.
Thin, perhaps more than was healthy,
Kagan noted, desperation focusing his mind. His life depended on what he could learn about this woman in the next few minutes. She wore a red flared satin dress, as if for a party, although it hung askew on her shoulders, making him think she'd put it on hastily. And there was something wrong about her face, which she kept turned toward Kagan's left.}

^{She stared at the crimson stain on the left sleeve of his parka.}

^{"Why are you bleeding?" she asked. Her forehead creased with concern. "Why were you carrying the baby under your coat? Were you in an accident?"}

^{"Turn off the lights."}

^"What?"

^{Kagan strained to minimize his accent. "The lights. Please ..."}

^{"Do they hurt your eyes?"}

^{"Phone the police," Kagan managed to say.}

^{"Yes. You need an ambulance." Holding the baby, the woman continued to tilt her face to Kagan's left, self-conscious about something.}

^{What's wrong with her cheek?
Kagan wondered.}

^{"But I can't phone for help," she told him. "I'm sorry. The phones are broken."}

^{While Kagan worked to order his thoughts, melting snow dripped from his hair. He realized that the zipper on his parka had been pulled almost completely open. Sweat from his exertion soaked his clothes. Heat drifted up from the bricks, a sensation that made him think he was delirious until he remembered a bellhop telling him about the under-floor radiant heating--hot water through rubber tubes--that warmed the hotel where he was staying.}

^{"Broken?" He drew a breath. "The snow brought down the phone lines?"}

^{"No. Not the lines. The phones are . . ." The woman kept her face to the side and didn't finish the sentence.}

^{"Smashed," the boy said. Bitterness tightened his voice. He had a slight build, almost to the point of looking frail, but that hadn't stopped him from attacking Kagan with the baseball bat. He was around twelve years old, with glasses and tousled hair, blond like his mother's. Talking about the smashed phones made his cheeks red.}

^{The baseball bat,
Kagan abruptly realized.
Is he still holding it?
With relief, he saw that the boy had leaned the bat against a cupboard. Kagan didn't understand why the boy had attacked him, but there wasn't time for questions.}

^{Dizzy, he tried to sit up. He remembered the microphone he wore. The woman or the boy might say something that would tell Andrei where he was hiding. Under the pretense of rubbing a sore muscle, he reached beneath his parka and turned off the transmitter. It was the first time since he'd taken the child that his hands had been free to do so.}

^{To his left, he saw the small window over the kitchen sink.}

^{"Please." He worked to neutralize the accent he'd acquired, his voice sounding more American. "You've got to pull the curtain over that window. Turn off the lights."}

^{The baby squirmed in the woman's arms, kicking, crying again.}

^{"Do it," Kagan urged. "Turn off the lights."}

^{The woman and the boy stepped back, evidently worried that he might be delusional.}

^{'As weak as I am, you can see I'm no threat to you."}

^{"Threat?" The woman's eyes reacted to the word.}

^{"Men are chasing me."}

^{"What are you talking about?"}

^{"They want the baby. You've got to turn off the lights so they can't see us."}

^{"Some men are trying to kidnap this baby?" The woman's face registered shock. She held the infant closer, defending it now. The blue blanket was enveloped by the arms of her red dress.}

^{Slow down,
Kagan warned himself.
This is coming at her too fast. She needs time to adjust.}

^{He inhaled slowly, held his breath, then exhaled, each time counting to three as he would before a gunfight, working to calm himself.}

^{Making his voice gentle, he asked, "What's your name?"}

^{The woman looked surprised, unprepared for the change of tone. She hesitated, still keeping her face angled to the left. The baby whimpered in her arms, and its wizened face seemed to urge her to reply.}

^{"Meredith," she finally said.}

^{Thank God,
Kagan thought.
She gave me something.
He noticed a night-light next to the stove across from him.}

^{"If you're concerned about being in the dark with me, turn on that night-light. The glow won't attract attention from the street. It's the bright lights we need to worry about. Then I promise I'll explain why I'm injured, why I have the baby."}

^{Meredith didn't respond.}

^{"Listen to me." Kagan mustered the strength to keep talking. "I didn't intend to bring trouble to you. I planned to hide in the shed or the garage. Things didn't work out. I'm sorry I involved you, but that can't be changed now. Those men will do anything to get their hands on this baby You've got to help me stop them from thinking he's here. That's the only way you and your son will get out of this."}

^{If Meredith hadn't been holding the baby, Kagan was certain she'd have grabbed the boy and fled from the house. But the baby made all the difference, seeming to prevent her from moving.}

^{"You can see how helpless I am," Kagan said. "What's the harm if you close the curtains over the sink and use the night-light? It won't hurt you, but it might save the baby."}

^{Meredith kept hesitating, her strained features showing the confusion she felt.}

^{'And it might save you and your son," Kagan emphasized. "You've got a known situation in here. A baby who needs help. A man who's injured. But you have no idea of the trouble outside."}