The Black Sun Conspiracy

Chapter Fifty-One

Sam could not tell whether Nina was awake or not. Her breathing was deep and regular, as if she was asleep, but it was impossible to be sure. He did not want to speak in case she was sleeping and he woke her up, but at the same time he wanted desperately to talk. Though, conflictingly, he also wanted to preserve this moment of uncomplicated intimacy. The feeling of her body against his was comforting and sweet.

It had been sex with someone who wasn’t a stranger, someone he deeply cared about. Not that there were many people he cared that much about. ‘Not if we’re talking about people who aren’t family,’ he thought. ‘Or Paddy, who’s practically family. And I definitely wouldn’t want to be doing this with him.’

The mental image of him spooning Patrick Smith, recent acquisition of MI-6, after a moment of passion caught him off guard, and the laugh was out before he could prevent it. He burst into an unstoppable snort of mirth, his whole body convulsing as he tried to fight it. ‘Well, if Nina wasn’t awake,’ he thought, ‘she will be now.’

Sure enough, she turned over and looked at him as if he was mad. “Are you ok?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” said Sam. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. It’s just… oh, god, I can’t believe I’m telling you this. I was thinking about how there were none of my other friends that I’d have wanted to sleep with and suddenly I got an image in my head of lying here with Paddy and it just…” He dissolved once again into helpless laughter.

“I’d just been thinking that you’re probably the most normal man I’ve ever slept with,” Nina sighed. “But I take that back. The best I can say is that considering recent years, you’re the least alarmingly abnormal.”

“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” Sam grinned. She rolled her eyes and sat up.

“Come on,” she said, reaching for her underwear. “We’d better get dressed. We need to plan. Any idea how we’re going to get out of this place?”

“By playing along, I think. In the first instance, at least.” He pulled his shirt over his head and ruffled his fingers through his hair. “They don’t know that we know about the trip to Russia being a suicide mission. So if we agree to go, apparently out of growing loyalty, we should be able to get out of here. Then we’ll figure out a way to run and keep a low profile until we find a way to make contact with this other faction.”

“But they’re only going to send one of us, aren’t they? Presumably the other one stays here as a guarantee of some sort.” She crossed the room to retrieve the boot that she had kicked off a little harder than she had intended. “So what do we do? Whoever gets out tries to break the other one out?”

“It doesn’t sound so hopeful when you put it like that, does it?” Sam lit the last cigarette and took a draw before passing it over to Nina. “Still, we’ve got one thing on our side — Alexandr. After what happened to Axelle… he’ll help us. I think he’s had it with this lot. He’ll probably come with us if we ask, and he’s about as useful an ally as we could have right now. Chances are that he’s still in my room. I’ll head back along there now and ask him what’s happening.”

He jammed his feet into his boots and pulled on the laces, then went to climb out of the window. Just as he was about to step out, something occurred to him. “Nina… can I make a suggestion? I think it should be me that volunteers to go.”

“Why’s that?”

“At the risk of painting you as some kind of damsel in distress, I think you’ll be safer here. Renata seems to have it in for you, for whatever reason. If you’re out on some dangerous journey there’ll be plenty of chances for you to come to harm. If you’re here, at least you’ll have Purdue on your side.”

At the mention of Purdue’s name there was an awkward pause. Nina winced. “Perhaps,” she said. “I’m not quite sure how well-disposed he’s feeling towards me at the moment.”

“Did things get awkward?”

“A bit,” she nodded. “He told me he was in love with me.”

“And what did you say?”

“That I didn’t feel the same,” she said, looking slightly pained. “And… that I didn’t actually believe him. I’m not sure why I said that, because I do — or I believe that he thinks he’s in love with me, at least. It just pissed me off the way he said it, as if it was supposed to make everything alright. I think I hurt him more than I meant to.”

Sam stepped back down onto the bed and looked at her seriously. “Nina, this… what just happened between us… That wasn’t just because you and Purdue are fighting, was it? Because it if was then fair enough, I’ll understand, but if it wasn’t…” He groaned and pulled a face. “There’s no way to say this without sounding awkward, is there? It’s all right; I’m not making any grand declarations of undying love. I just want to know where I stand, that’s all.”

“There is no ‘me and Purdue’, as far as I’m concerned,” Nina said. “I turned him down, it’s done. Over. There’s no way to continue a casual relationship once you know that one person has that kind of feelings. But I wouldn’t want to hurt him or push this in his face. He doesn’t need to know that anything happened between us. I’m not saying we should deny it, just that I’m not exactly planning to run downstairs and share the news.”

Sam nodded. “That seems fair.” ‘And if it doesn’t tell me where I stand in so many words,’ he thought, ‘it gives me a pretty clear idea. Fling between friends it is.’ He felt a flicker of relief, strangely tinged with melancholy. ‘I’ve got other things to concentrate on, anyway,’ he told himself. ‘Like getting us out of here, and getting some kind of justice for Trish against Steven Lehmann if I can.’ “All right. I’d better go. I’ll offer to take the mission.”

“Wait!” Nina stopped him, catching his hand. “They might send you straight away. This could be goodbye, for a while at least.”

“Err, I suppose it could,” Sam stood awkwardly, halfway through the window. He had not considered that. “Well, I…” he trailed off, not sure what to say or do. ‘I was never much use at big goodbyes, he thought, and certainly not in situations as weird as this.’

Fortunately Nina took charge. She stepped up onto the bed, up on her toes to reach him. Her cool fingers crept up one side of his face and guided his head down to kiss her. Preoccupied with each other, they did not hear the sound of someone approaching along the corridor. They heard nothing at all until the sudden clunk of the lock sliding back.

They sprang apart, surprised. Nina jumped down from the bed, instinctively ready to fight, and Sam clung to the window frame to regain his balance.

Steven Lehmann stood in the doorway, an old-fashioned revolver in his hand. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’ve been asked to bring you two down to the meeting room… now that you’ve had time to get your clothes back on.” He eyed Nina up and down. “First me, then Purdue, then him… For a woman who made such a fuss about finding out that I was married, you really do put yourself about, Nina. It’s probably for the best that I didn’t marry you, no matter what Father thinks. At least my wife was capable of keeping her legs shut.”

Sam’s fist clenched instinctively, but Nina’s reaction was one of disgust rather than anger. “If you’d been capable of getting your wife’s legs open you wouldn’t have needed to fuck me in the first place, Steven.”

For a horrible moment Sam thought that Steven was going to raise his gun and shoot her on the spot. He did not. Instead he lashed out with his left, the back of his hand connecting hard with Nina’s cheek, dropping her to the floor. Sam heard a yell of rage that could only have come from himself and lunged forward, but Steven had him covered by the gun in a heartbeat. Sam stopped abruptly.

“I’m alright, Sam,” Nina gasped, gingerly touching the livid pink mark on her face. She glared up at Steven. “Just wondering how I could ever have walked away from such a charmer, that’s all.”

“Enough talking,” Steven snapped. “You’re wanted at once, and you’ve already kept everyone waiting long enough.” He gestured with the gun, ushering Sam and Nina out of the door. As they walked they exchanged a swift, weary glance, acknowledging that their secret had not lasted long.