Quaranteam

Chapter 44

When he moved into the master bedroom, Andy saw that most of the girls had already turned in for the night. Sarah, Emily, Fiona, Moira and Niko were already in bed asleep, but Aisling was still awake somewhere else in the house. He wasn't pleased by that, but at this point, his options were limited, so he needed to adapt as best he could.

He reached into the pile and tried his best to just shake Niko, and apparently he was successful because nobody else moved, even as he gestured silent for Niko to follow him out of the room. "Andy?" she whispered. "What's-"

"Get up. Get dressed," he whispered back. "Tell you away from the others."

She looked at him in surprise, but slowly worked to extract herself from the pile of bodies that had been warm and waiting for him to crawl into it. He didn't say anything, but he could tell the look on his face had Niko more than a little confused. But she moved to get up and pull on clothes, although partway Andy waved at her, pulling at his shirt as he mouthed the words 'dark colors' to her. She put the shirt she'd been about to tug on back in the dresser and grabbed a black shirt instead. Once she had it on, the two of them moved out and into the hallway, closing the door behind them.

"What's going on, Andy?"

"One sec, Niko," he told her. "We need to get Alexis up too, and I don't want to have to tell the story twice."

"Andy, what the hell is going on?"

"That's what I'm hoping we can find out."

The two of them walked down the hall and knocked on Alexis's door. Once the door opened, Andy saw Alexis standing there, with Jenny sitting on the bed, the two of them having been catching up, obviously.

"Hey Andy, what's up?" Lexi said to him.

"You up to doing some bodyguarding?" he said. "I know we had talked about letting you have a few days to get adjusted, but I think I may be about to do something... something truly

very

stupid, and I want to be as smart and safe about it as I possibly can."

"Let me get a gun," the Latina woman said, as if he'd asked her to change her shoes.

"What's going on, sir?" Jenny asked.

"Hopefully nothing," Andy said into the room. "But at this point, an overabundance of caution seemed warranted."

In the room, Alexis pulled a shoulder holster on and tucked a large caliber handgun into it, offering Jenny a comfortable smile. "Good," she said. "You're already starting to think like you need someone looking out for you. It'll make my job less difficult moving forward. Let's go draw up a battle plan. Niko, he tell you what's going on yet?"

She shook her head, looking over at him. "He said he wanted to wait until we were together so he could fill us both in at the same time, but I've never seen him like this before." The two of them started walking with Andy, as he headed downstairs into the main living room. "Andy, what the

fuck

is going on?"

"If we're lucky, we're about an hour away from you telling me I got you both worked up for nothing, but if we're not, you're going to be glad I was being extra careful. Sit, both of you." The two women sat on one couch and Andy sat down on the footstool opposite them. "About twenty minutes ago, I got a text message from a number I didn't recognize, and the person on the other end of the line claimed to be Gregor Vikovic."

"Did you call him?"

"Naturally. No answer."

"That doesn't mean anything," Niko said.

"Sure, but it went to voicemail and the voicemail box was full."

"Odd, maybe, but-"

"But nothing," Lexi said. "You said this Gregor guy was a businessman. You sure it was his voicemail box?"

"His voice on the outgoing message, so seems like yes."

"What did the text message say?"

"'Help me.''"

"Yeah, that's not ominous, in any way, shape and form," Niko said.

"I asked what he needed help with, but he never answered, and nobody answered the phone when I called it," Andy said. "Like I said, straight to voicemail."

"So what stupid thing are you thinking of doing?" Lexi asked him.

"I want to head over to Gregor's house, knock on the door and ask to speak to him."

"It's eleven o'clock at night, Andy," Niko said. "You're nuts."

"I agree, it's a terrible idea," Lexi said. "We don't know the terrain, we don't know the house, we don't know the people."

"And yet," Andy said with a slight smile, "one way or another, I'm going to do it. But I thought I'd offer you two ladies the chance to come along and protect me

while

I'm doing it, so I don't look like a complete idiot."

Lexi sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose with two fingers. "You're

sure

we can't talk you out of this?"

"Someone's asking me for help, Lexi," Andy sighed. "Does turning them down

sound

like something I'm likely to do?"

"Fuck," she grumbled. "No, no it doesn't. Alright. Shit. Okay. What we're going to do is this, then. Niko's driving, you're in the back seat, and I'm sitting next to you. You do not get out of the car unless we both tell you it's safe to get out of the car. That a fair enough compromise?"

"Guess we'll see when we get there," Andy said, standing up again. "You probably want to go and get yourself a weapon as well, Niko."

"Yeah, let me go and do that. Both of you stay here," she said, getting up and walking to the stairs. Niko had converted one of the spare bedrooms into a mini-armory, and installed a lock on the door so that only herself and Alexis could open it.

"Tell me about this Gregor guy. He was one of the people at the poker game, right?" Lexi asked him.

"Right," he said. "He brought Sarah over here after the game. She said that he seemed like a nice enough guy, but that he also could've been a Russian mobster or oligarch. His home had about a dozen women in it, and it's only a short drive away."

"You know much else about him?"

Andy clicked his tongue. "Not really, no. I tried doing a little bit of research on all the poker players after the game, but it's amazing how private rich people are."

"You don't say," Alexis said with a soft laugh. "Can I see the messages?"

"Sure," he said, unlocking his iPhone before tossing it over to her.

She glanced at the message, but there wasn't much information to be gleaned from the very short conversation. "All in caps, I see."

"After the 'What do you need help with?' message, I saw the three dots meaning he was typing a message back before that stopped and disappeared," Andy said. "That's why I prodded him again, and got no response."

"Would you say you and this Gregor guy are friends?"

Andy shrugged but shook his head. "Not really? I barely know the guy. I've only met him a handful of times. The most time I ever spent with him was the poker game, and after my performance there, I'm unlikely to be asked back, not that I'd have much interest in going anyway. Although, when Gregor brought Sarah over the next day, he did seem delighted that I'd put the screws to Covington."

"And we're back to this Covington prick," Alexis sighed. "Is he really enough of a bastard that he might have done something retaliatory against Gregor?"

"Covington's certainly capable of it. That asshole has less than zero scruples. You can ask Piper about that."

"Wouldn't Gregor see that coming?"

"Maybe," Andy agreed. "But he might have also thought he was impervious to whatever kind of blowback Covington might have planned for him. Then again, Gregor lost at poker in the same hand that Covington did, so I don't know why Covington would be all that mad at Gregor over that. Also, that was nearly a month ago. If he was going to do something, he'd have done it before now, wouldn't he?"

Alexis shrugged as Niko walked back in the room, pulling a leather jacket on to help conceal the shoulder holster she'd put on as well. "Revenge isn't something you rush into, Andy," Alexis said. "Back when I was with the CIA, we were much more concerned with sending the right message than sending it too quickly. Too much haste gets spies caught."

"Alright then, I guess let's head over to Gregor's house..."

"One more thing first," Niko said, tossing Andy a heavy jacket. "Put that on first."

"This is...?"

"A bulletproof jacket," she said. "Well, bulletproof for small arms fire, but it won't stop a good rifle or armor piercing rounds, so maybe try to stay out of the line of fire of those."

Andy wanted to object, but he knew the two women were just making his safety their highest priority. "Maybe I'll stay out of the line of fire of

all

bullets, if I can help it."

"Sure, and maybe ravens will fly out of my ass and carry you to safety," she chuckled. "Let's live in the real world here, baby. Sooner or later, somebody's going to take a shot at you. It's our job to make sure that doesn't succeed."

They headed down to the car, and climbed into it exactly how Alexis had dictated, with Niko driving and both herself and Andy in the back. The Tesla headed down the driveway and when they got to the gate, Niko pushed the button to make it open for the car, allowing them to leave their estate and head into New Eden proper.

Being that it was nearly midnight on a Thursday, the streets of New Eden were almost entirely empty, except for a garbage truck that was slowly making its way to pick up the refuse left by the curbside. The streetlights were powerful LEDs that flooded the area with more than enough light to keep the streets well lit, even beneath the heavy shade of trees that covered much of the area. That had been one of the things Andy had notice about a lot of New Eden - it was more forested than he'd expected it to be, dense like the woods on the Santa Cruz mountains without being quite as high up, so they didn't catch the cloud cover as fog nearly as often.

"You think he's going to be pissed you're showing up so late?" Niko asked him over her shoulder as the car neared the gate to the Vikovic estate.

"He was the one who sent

me

a message asking for help," Andy said. "So unless it was someone else using his phone, I doubt it."

The Tesla pulled up to the gate, and Niko rolled down her window to let her push the button on the callbox. Andy had expected a long wait, but the voice on the other end responded immediately. "Yes?" It was a woman's voice that Andy didn't recognize.

He was about to say something, but Niko spoke first. "Mister Andrew Rook, here to see Mister Gregor Vikovic," she said in her most terse voice.

"At this time of night?" the woman said.

"I got a text message from him just a little bit ago," Andy said, speaking up to make sure his voice carried enough to be heard properly. "He made it sound urgent."

The other end of the line was silent for a beat, too long for Andy's liking, but eventually it spoke again. "Let me go wake him," she said. "Wait there."

"They're not even going to invite us in," Niko sniffed, feigning insult.

"I mean, I wouldn't," Alexis said. "Not at this time of night. Not unexpectedly. Not without a good reason."

They waited a couple of minutes before the speaker crackled to life. "Andrew?" Gregor's voice said on the other side of it. He sounded unusual. Andy's first inclination was to write it off as the man had been woken up from sleep, but he decided that would be rushing to judgment. "Why are you here?"

"I got your message, Gregor," Andy said. "The one where you said you needed help?"

"I sent no such message..." Gregor grumbled. "Perhaps one of my children? I assure you, it was nothing. Give it no second thought."

"I called you back, Gregor, but it went to voicemail, to

your

voicemail, and it wouldn't let me leave a message," Andy replied. "It said your voicemail box was full."

There was a pause on the other end of the line for a few moments before the voice spoke again. "Ah yes. I gave that phone to my daughter, Sonya. She must have been playing a game or something. I will wake her up and scold her for this," Gregor said.

"And you're

sure

you are okay, Gregor?"

The voice on the other laughed, coughing a little when it did. "I am fine, Rook," the man said. "And unlike Covington, I know when to fold a bad hand. I find too much fun in the game of poker. Anyway, thank you for your concern, Andrew. Good night."

"Good night, Gregor," Andy said. "Roll up the window and get us out of here, Niko."

She pushed the button and the window rolled up, as she shifted the car into reverse, looking into the screen to watch the backup camera, as she moved the vehicle back far enough to allow her room to turn around, heading back down the way they came. "Back home then?" Niko asked him.

Andy shook his head. "Call Violet. Have her wake up Linda and Phil, and tell them we're on our way over to their place. We've got a serious problem on our hands."

"Should I just call Phil's place then?" Niko said, as if she was unsure what Andy was talking about.

Andy laughed a little bit at Niko's attempt to play dumb, sighing. "Okay, look Niko. I've suspected you're in league with Phil for a while now, and I figured you'd tell me in your own time, but I generally accepted that whatever you were doing, you were doing it for my own good, and that whatever secrets you were keeping, they were for a very good reason. Tonight, though, we just don't have time for it, and I'm going to need you on your absolute A game for the time being, and we can navigate where we stand after all of this."

Niko frowned a little bit, but nodded. "One question though - what gave it away? Was it me or Phil?"

"Lots of little things, but the big one's on both of you. When you two 'first met,'" he said, making air quotes with his fingers, "you called him Mister Marcos, not Doctor Marcos. What's worse, he didn't correct you. I've known Phil for over a decade now, Niko, and he doesn't let

any

of his coworkers or colleagues get away with calling him

Mister

Marcos without a

damn

good reason. I'm not mad, I promise you, but I need you at 100% right now, so we can worry about that later."

She nodded. "You

promise

you're not mad?"

"Niko, you're going to be my wife, you're pregnant with my kid and you could probably kill me with your sunglasses given half a chance," he said, grinning from ear to ear. "I'm truly not mad."

"Alright then," Niko said. She touched the button on the steering wheel and the car linked to her cellphone. "Call BigTits."

Alexis tapped his shoulder and Andy looked over at her, as the Latina woman mouthed 'Big Tits?' to him questioningly. Andy smiled and held his index finger to his lips in a hushing motion.

The phone rang only once before it was answered, a swaggery voice on the other end. "Neeks. 'Sup?"

"Get the boss and Achilles up, stat. We're inbound to your location."

"Here? Now? Why?"

"Odysseus has a code yellow concern."

The voice on the other end sighed. "You better not be playing around, Neeks. You know how they hate losing sleep."

"We're four minutes out," Niko said, as if to drive the point home.

"Right. Right. Got it. I'll meet you at the gate. McGuinness out."

"Who was that?" Alexis asked.

"Consider her your opposite over at my friend Phil's house," Andy said. "Phil's one of the doctors working on the inoculation serum project, and he's got two bodyguards, Linda Hayes, who's with him during the day time, and Violet 'BigTits' McGuinness, who's on nightwatch. Because of Phil's prominence working on the serum, they decided he needed to have someone awake and guarding him at all times."

Alexis chuckled softly, leaning her head to direct her next sentence at Niko. "Does she know you call her 'BigTits,' Niko?"

"Probably," Niko said. "It's not like she goes out of her way to hide them. What's got you so spooked, Andy?"

"Something Gregor said right before he told us to take off. Let's get over to Phil's and we can talk there."

The drive was short enough that Niko was patient not to ask him any more questions. Once they got to the gate of Phil's estate, they could see two women standing behind the gate, both Violet and Linda out, dressed in black slacks and black shirts, each of them clearly armed, Linda with an M4 and Violet with an MP5.

They let the car through the gate, but stopped it as soon as the gate closed behind it, Linda walking around the car, giving it an inspection before tapping the trunk, which Niko opened with the push of a button. After sweeping that, Linda moved around to the front of the vehicle and tapped the front trunk, which Niko also opened, revealing it to be empty except for a large blanket they'd used when sitting on the grass. Linda closed the frunk and then gestured for Violet to get in the back, pushing Andy into the middle, as Linda climbed in the front with Niko.

"Sorry about that, Andy," Linda said, pulling the door shut. "You're showing up late and unexpected, so we had to give you the full security sweep." She pointed towards the mansion, and Niko started the Tesla rolling forwards towards the house again.

"I get that, Linda," Andy said. "Is he up?"

"He will be once we get there," she told him. "He's hopping through a quick shower. He told me, 'If Andy's coming over this time of night, shit's breaking off somewhere.' That true?"

"Very much feels like it, but I'm not sure. Still, an abundance of caution isn't half cautious enough these days, right?"

"Good man," Linda replied. "We'll keep you boys alive a while longer if you keep this up. Who's the new girl?"

"Captain Linda Hayes, Master Sergeant Violet McGuinness, I know you both already know my fiancé Niko, but this is Alexis Coleman, formerly of the CIA and now my personal bodyguard. Lexi, meet Linda and Violet."

"Have you met Violet, Niko?" Linda said.

"Drop the act, boss," Niko chuckled. "Andy's wise."

Linda sighed. "You mad, Andy?"

"Not really," he said. "Just surprised you all kept it from me for so long."

"It started for your own good," Niko said. "Then I guess it just turned out to be a habit. Linda's my boss at the base. She's in charge of the detail of security forces assigned to members of the research team, so she's supposed to know everything."

"That means if you're mad about Niko's keeping secrets, Andy, you take it out me, and not your girl, got it?" Linda said, as the car pulled up in front of the house.

"Yes ma'am."

"Good. She's just doing her job," Linda said, opening her door, getting out of the car. "C'mon, let's move quickly. I don't like us being outside, even on our own property."

Violet got out, as did Lexi and Niko, with Andy getting out last, as the three women sort of semi-surrounded him, moving him into the house. Once they were inside of Phil's mansion, the protocol relaxed and Linda started leading them towards one of Phil's living rooms.

Phil's mansion wasn't as big as Andy's, but it was still more than decadent, two stories with a built in movie theater, an in-door basketball court, a giant backyard pool and more than plenty of space for Phil's household, which was nearly the size of Andy's.

Before they got to the living room, Niko grabbed Andy's hands and pulled him to face her, a look of nervousness on her face. "Tell me we're going to be okay, Andy, even with me having lied to you about my background at the base," she said, her eyes threatening to water up.

"Answer me one question, Niko," he said to her. "Are you in love with me now?"

Niko smiled, and a single tear dropped down one of her cheeks. "Fuck, Andy, I've been in love with you for a long, long time now," she said. "Within a couple of days, I knew you weren't just a job. You were the love of my life, and I would do absolutely anything to keep you safe. Yes, Andy, I fucking love the shit out of you, you goof."

He reached up and wiped the tear from her cheek with his thumb, smiling back at her. "Then everything else is just noise, Niko, because I love you too, okay? So stop worrying that this changes anything, because it doesn't. Like I said, I sort of figured it out long ago, and it didn't bother me then, and it doesn't bother me now."