Brett Battles - The Silenced

Orlando stepped out from the bushes near the pond, adding a ninth gun to the mix.

Quinn motioned for her to get Liz, then he pulled Palavin to his feet.

“You can’t kill me,” Palavin said. “I’m under the protection of MI6. If anything happens to me, they’ll hunt you down and make you pay.”

“Really? That’s what you’re counting on? Some tenuous, outdated relationship with British intelligence?” Quinn smiled, then leaned in close. “Who do you think gave me your phone number? MI6 is done with you.”

Palavin’s face turned red. “You won’t kill me and you know it.”

Behind him, Quinn could hear two sets of footsteps approaching on the wet driveway.

“You’re right. I won’t. I don’t need to.” He glanced over his shoulder. Petra and Mikhail were now standing behind him. “My friends here might have other ideas, though.”

Petra said something in Russian, and though Quinn wouldn’t have thought it was possible, Palavin went even paler.

“You can’t leave me with them,” the old man said.

“Is it Ghost? Or Mr. Ghost?” Quinn asked.

The old man could only stare at Quinn, his lip trembling.

“Well, Mr. Ghost. No one ever messes with my family or my friends and lives to talk about it.”

“I have people who are going to be looking for me.” Mercer said as he was being led toward the van, his shoulder patched up enough to stop the bleeding.

“We both know that’s not true,” Quinn said. “No one cares about you. And even if someone did, they’d never find you.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means you’re going on a trip.”

“What trip?”

Quinn turned to Petra.

“I’m very pleased to meet the man who killed my friend,” she said to Mercer.

“Now, wait a minute. Hold on. I was only doing-”

“Enough,” Petra told him. She motioned to Mikhail, and he slipped a gag over Mercer’s mouth. “You’ll be coming with us. We have a boat waiting that will take us home to Russia. It’s beautiful there, but you probably won’t be able to see much. We’ve already planned on one trial for your employer.” She nodded toward the van, where they had already loaded the Ghost. “It won’t be much trouble to have two. You can speak all you want then.”

Once he was loaded inside the van and the doors were shut, Mikhail held out his hand to Quinn. “I never thought this day would come,” he said. “Thank you.”

Quinn shook it and said, “Be safe.”

Petra was not interested in handshakes. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Quinn. “We would have never succeeded without you.”

“I hope this puts some of your demons to rest,” he said.

“Some,” she admitted as she let him go. “But it will never bring Andrei back. It will never bring any of them back.”

A few moments later, Petra, Mikhail, and a contingent of Nova’s men set off in the van for a boat moored at Ramsgate Harbour on the coast. From there it would be a nice, slow cruise to St. Petersburg.

Quinn and Orlando took Liz to a suite Orlando had prearranged at the Crowne Plaza. Quinn promised to take her to see Nate if she promised not to try and leave while he ran a final errand. Once she agreed, he and Orlando returned to the Silvain Hotel.

Annabel Taplin was standing by the window when they arrived.

After Quinn asked the guard Nova had provided to step outside, Annabel said, “What happened?”

“The Ghost is no longer your problem,” Quinn said.

“Good. That’s good,” she said, though she still looked uneasy. “Can I go now?”

“Soon enough.”

“What’s the problem?”

“No problem,” Quinn said. “I just want to make sure we’re in sync on a couple of things.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What things?”

“First, I have a colleague who is in critical condition at University College Hospital. You will have him transferred to a private facility as soon as he can be moved. There he is to be provided with unparalleled medical care. His own physician, his own nurses, anything and anyone he needs. The incident he was involved in will be covered up. I don’t care how, but neither he nor any of us are to be involved. Is that clear?”

She thought for a moment, then said, “I can do that.”

“You will do that,” Quinn said.

“Yes. I will do it.”

“Second, no matter what kind of internal mess our business with Palavin creates for you and MI6, absolutely none of it will blow back on me or my team. Not now. Not ever.”

“I don’t know-”

“These are the conditions of your release,” Quinn reminded her.

“It’ll take some work… but… but I’ll get it done. Can I go now?”

“Not until our Russian friends are out of the country. Consider it a precaution.” Quinn glanced at his watch. “Another two hours should do it. If you, at any point, feel the need to renege on our agreement, know this. Palavin is still alive. My friends have him, and, therefore, his entire story, including his close relationship with the British government through MI6. If even part of one of my conditions is not fulfilled, that story, with your name featuring prominently, will be front-page news around the world.”

She looked stunned.

“Do you understand?”

She nodded. “I understand.”

“Do you agree to the terms?”

“I agree.”

Annabel Taplin kept her word. Nate was moved late the next day to a secure private hospital. No questions were asked. The shooting was covered up as a drug deal gone bad, and soon forgotten.

Liz spent all her time by Nate’s side, holding his hand, reacting to every sign of movement whether real or imaginary, and even sleeping in the chair beside his bed. Because of this, Quinn kept his own visits to a minimum, spending more time in the visitors’ lounge or with the doctors than with his ailing apprentice.

The good news was that his mother was back home, and safe. He had spoken to her briefly and promised to visit soon.

“I trust you, sweetie,” she’d said. “If you say it was necessary, it was necessary. And if you don’t want to tell me, I don’t need to know.”

“I love you, Mom.”

The distressing news was that for three days Nate was touch and go. Finally, on the fourth day, he began to show signs of recovery. His lung was damaged, and that was something that might cause him problems later in his life. But the doctor emphasized Nate’s youth, saying there was a good chance he would have few lasting effects from the injury.

The scar, though, would always be there.

“You’re doing it again,” Orlando said.

“What?” Quinn asked.

They were alone in the waiting room.

“Blaming yourself.”

“I don’t want to talk about this right now,” he said.

“Then, what do you want to talk about?” she asked.

“Vacation.”

She gave him an odd look.

“I think we should go away. You, me, and Garrett. A nice long trip someplace warm.”

“Garrett’s in school,” she reminded him.

“There’s no way he can take a little time off?”

“That’s not how it works and you know it,” she said.

“We need to get away soon, or I’m going to go crazy.”

“You get another gig you can dive into and you’ll be fine.”

Quinn wasn’t so sure about that, but he said nothing. The future was not something particularly clear to him at the moment.

Orlando must have sensed something, because she said, “How about Christmas? He’ll have two weeks off then.”

A little over two months away. Not soon enough, but he knew there was little he could do about it. “Sure,” he said.

They sat in silence for several minutes.