Chapter I
Muri di vento
Notte e scesa
Padre e figlio sono
Insiem'
Walls of wind
Night has fallen
Father and son are
Together
Near Cardiff, Wales
Dr.Lewellyn helped Charlotte take a seat in her brand new office. The relentless Welsh fog was causing her particular grief this morning. It made her bullet scars throb with every move.
"I can give you something stronger for the pain," Lewellyn suggested, watching her wince as she sat down uncomfortably. Although Charlotte Devane had almost fully recovered from her wounds, Lewellyn had to admit her injuries had aged her this past year and she was a far cry from the once vital woman he had known.
"No," she replied, annoyed by the suggestion, "I'm meeting with the head of the Secret Intelligence Service in twenty minutes, the last thing I want is for them to think that my mind is clouded and drugged."
"I was only thinking of your well-being Ms.Devane," he replied tersely.
"You can leave now," she instructed. "I need to speak with Nigel before the meeting."
Charlotte watched as Lewellyn walked out of her office, closing the heavy mahogany wood door behind him. Lewellyn had been her personal physician for almost two decades and she knew she it was pointless to try and hide any weaknesses from him. Still, she hated to think that any one of her employees should feel an ounce of pity for her. Now that she was alone, she allowed herself to close her eyes for a momentary respite before picking up the phone to summon Nigel Hawthrop.
After the death of Justin Black, Charlotte needed a new right-hand man and, Nigel, one of her senior agents, had been the obvious choice. Physically, he was the exact opposite his handsome predecessor; Nigel was short, balding and wore an unflattering pair of wire-rimmed glasses. However, Charlotte knew he was just as skilled in various forms of martial arts as Justin had been. He was also surprisingly intelligent, and even though he wasn't blindly obedient as Justin had been, Nigel had a fierce and unquestionable loyalty to her organization. Charlotte knew Nigel would die for her without hesitation, and sadly enough, that wasn't something she could say for all of her agents.
Nigel entered her office and sat down in front of her desk. "How are you today, Ms. Devane?"
"Things are looking up Nigel and I'll be considerably better once I receive the expected funding from the SIS to train a new crop of agents."
"You've done a remarkable job in relocating Brynn Wydd and keeping us in business since your recovery."
After Alex's escape and the death of Justin Black, Charlotte had faced numerous inquiries into her agency's dealings. Even Prime Minister Blair had threatened to put her out of business if she didn't put an end to some of the more nefarious ends of her organization.
"Everyone shakes their heads disgustedly when they find out what really goes on behind the doors of my organization," she said to Nigel, "And yet when it comes to getting the job done, nobody does it better. They just have a hard time accepting that getting the job done requires dirtying ones hands."
Nigel nodded in agreement, while taking out a thick binder from his briefcase, "In terms of finances, Brynn Wydd is now operating more soundly than it ever has. As we speak, we have seven agents abroad, carrying out seven highly paid assassinations under contract from the governments of France, Germany, the US and Japan."
Charlotte smiled and for a moment she forgot the relentless pain in her chest. "Your news is music to my ears. It means I can finally concentrate on the one thing that has kept me alive these past five months."
Nigel looked at her, puzzled, "And what is that?"
Charlotte's eyes lit up at the thought, "Revenge. Revenge for the pain and humiliation I've had to endure every day since I was shot."
Wildwind Estate, Pine Valley, PA
That same day
Dimitri Marick sat on the sofa in the study of Wildwind, engrossed in an article on gold mining prospects in Borneo.
"Maybe I should try my luck with gold, what do you think, darling?" he asked Alex. Her head was on his lap. She too was reading something but now as he moved his newspaper aside to look at her, he noticed the book rested on her chest and she had fallen asleep.
He smiled as he closed her book and put it on the coffee table. He bent down to kiss her forehead. "Or maybe we'll just stick to diamonds," he whispered, careful not to wake her.
His attention drifted back to the article, but only momentarily, until Max came running through the doors of the study, interrupting his tranquility.
"Dad, what do you think? Am I going to need these?" his son asked, holding up a pair of rain boots.
Dimitri put a finger to his lips and pointed to Alex, "Shh…your mom's sleeping."
Max looked at her and then Dimitri, and then he repeated his question in a whisper, "Do you think I'm going to need these?"
Dimitri whispered back to him, smiling at his son's excitement "Definitely."
"And what about this?" he asked, a holding up a water gun in his other hand, forgetting to whisper this time.
Alex stirred in her sleep and Max looked at Dimitri apologetically. "Sorry!" he whispered.
"Hey, Max, what are you doing?" Alex asked him sleepily, as she woke up.
"He's getting ready for our camping and fishing trip," Dimitri explained and then turned to his son, "And no, I don't think you'll need a water gun."
Max plopped himself down next to Alex, "But what if there's bears?" he asked Dimitri.
Alex pulled her son towards her, trying in vain to stop him from fidgeting. "You're going camping? And how come I wasn't invited? You're spending so much time with your Dad these days, I'm going to get jealous."
Dimitri watched them both, trying to field their questions, "There won't be any bears where we're going, so I think it's safe to say you can leave your water gun here," he told Max. Then he glanced at Alex, "I thought you'd appreciate some time to yourself at PVH, so you can focus on that research you've been doing on behalf of the Andrassy Foundation."
She gave Max a knowing smile; "He just wants you all to himself, my little Count." She was joking, but Dimitri sensed that she knew that he wanted to spend every waking moment with his son, trying to make up for the last seven years.
"Camping is for boys," Max told her, grinning. He wore a baseball cap backwards, his thick dark hair sticking out underneath.
"Well now I'm almost tempted to come along just to prove you wrong."
"If there's bears you'll be scared," Max told her.
"Oh yeah? And what are you going to do when a bear comes? Water spray him to death?"
Max laughed, "No. I'll call Dad and he'll shoot him with a stun gun, or he'll take one of his swords and protect us."
Alex whispered in his ear, "You know what I think your father is going to do?"
Max shook his head, looking at her, his black eyes open wide, "No. What?"
"I think he's going to sit there, by the campfire, eating marshmallows and reading the Financial Times while the bear comes and carries you away to his den, just like this…"
Alex stood up and picked him up, throwing him over her shoulder and carrying him out of the study screaming in delight.
Dimitri laughed as he watched them. He heard Max's screams as they went up the staircase and he leaned back in the sofa, wondering if life could possibly get any better.
It had been more than five months since Max had arrived at Wildwind and since he had rescued Alex from the clutches of Justin Black, more dead than alive. He had believed for so long that Alex was gone that even now, when he woke up in the morning and saw her lying next to him, he often felt the need to touch her, to make sure he wasn't dreaming. 'I've been given a second chance and a beautiful son. I will never forget how lucky I am.'
Less than half an hour later, Alex came back to the study. "He's sleeping now, your little camping partner," she told him. She saw him reading a new stack of papers, "What's this?" she asked.
"It's a study of how the Marick Diamond Mine in Ekati has affected its surrounding environment," he told her. He pulled her towards him, enjoying the scent of her perfume and the softness of her hair against his face, as she sat down next to him.
"You look serious," she said, putting on her glasses to read along.
"For the most part it's good news," he told her. It was the truth. He was proud of his venture in Canada's Northwest Territories and sometimes the sheer magnitude of it still took his breath away. "Unemployment has gone down in three neighbouring districts, but there's a large native reservation about 85 miles south of the mine that hasn't had a permanent physician in over a year. We have three doctors on the mining grounds at Ekati and sometimes one of them flies south to look at the most severe cases. Recently, however, one of the reservation's ground water wells was contaminated and they've had a rash of related illnesses."
Alex glanced at the reports, "That's terrible. Doesn't the Canadian government ensure that all populated areas have the necessary medical facilities to serve its inhabitants?"
"Oh the facilities are there. Getting a doctor to work up there on a permanent basis is another thing all together. Tell me, don't you have a whole team of doctors at your disposal for the Andrassy Foundation at PVH? Do you think one of them would be willing to go up there for a couple of weeks, just until the ground water contamination is under control?"
"They're researchers, Dimitri. Most of them have never practiced medicine."
He raised his glasses and frowned, "I see. I hadn't thought of that."
She looked at him, an idea forming in her mind, "But I could go."
Dimitri wasn't sure he heard right. "Are you crazy? It's late Fall now. Winter will hit them any day and when it does it's fierce and brutal. Besides, I'm not letting you travel alone that far when we still don't know if the threat of Charlotte is truly gone."
"Dimitri," she said, giving him the same look of mildly annoyed disbelief she always had when she thought he was being overprotective. "If Charlotte were still alive she would have come after us a long time ago. And if it makes you feel any better I could take a guard along. As for the approaching winter… if these people, women and children included, can survive there during January and February, surely I could cope for a couple of weeks in late October?"
Dimitri now cursed himself for having brought up the subject. "It's a whole other life up there. I don't want to see you take any risks. Forget I mentioned it."
"Dimitri! I'm not a child that needs to be kept from harm! I know how to take care of myself," she protested.
He put the papers aside and pushed her into the sofa, leaning in to kiss her, "I know you do. You're tougher than anyone else I know, but your anemia and your injuries have made you weaker than you were seven years ago. That's a fact, regardless of whether you're willing to accept it or not. I'd die rather than see you hurt again." He brushed her long hair back and skillfully began to undo the zipper on her skirt.
"Alright. I'll just go for one week then." She returned his kiss with a playful one of her own before he had a chance to protest. And before he had a chance to answer, she began unbuttoning his shirt, drawing him close to her. "If you don't let me go, I'll come camping with you and Max," she told him, in between his hungry kisses.
"Is that a threat?" he asked. He got up, half dressed, to close the door of the study.
"Absolutely," she grinned.
"Fine. One week and two guards." It was the last thing he said before he let the warmth of the woman he loved envelop him.