City of the Lost

I

The shower was on when Iain returned to his room. Karin was back. He stowed his laptop beneath the dressing table then turned on the TV both to catch the latest news and to alert her to his presence. Yet she still looked startled to see him when she came out a few minutes later, a white hotel towel wrapped around her chest.

‘Sorry,’ he said.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘How dare you barge into your own room like that?’ She grabbed clean clothes and vanished again, re-emerging several minutes later. ‘God, I needed that,’ she said.

‘Tough day?’ he asked.

‘My Dutch consul guy is an angel,’ she said. ‘But the Americans are such pricks.’

Iain laughed. ‘Is that a general observation, or did something specific happen?’

She sighed. ‘I have this thing called an EB-1B visa. It’s a green card for researchers and academics and the like. But it was with my passport in my hotel safe. The thing is, Nathan arranged it for me before I could go to work for him. And now that he’s dead they’re saying they can’t issue me a new one, not unless I have another offer of work. I mean Jesus! You’d think they’d give me a little leeway. All my stuff’s over there. My apartment!’

‘Hell. What will you do?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘Hope, I guess. The police have already recovered a bunch of the hotel safes, apparently, and their contents have been fine. If they find mine, and my passport and green card are okay, then I can at least defer it for a while.’

‘I’ll keep my fingers crossed.’

‘You’d better. All my bank cards are in there too. If things don’t sort out soon, it may be a while before I can repay you.’

‘Yeah. My two hundred lira. It’s all I’ve been able to think of.’

‘I hate owing people things.’

‘So I guess you won’t want dinner tonight, then?’

‘I don’t hate it quite that much.’

‘Great,’ he said. ‘Then let’s get out of here.’

II

The storm was brutal, lashing the Grey Wolf camp with the kind of fury that made one believe in ancient gods, pinning Asena inside the main cabin. To make matters worse, Hakan just wouldn’t shut up. His family lived less than an hour away. He wanted to go see them. She told him no but he wouldn’t let it go. He droned on so long that he drove the others off, even through the deluge. He insisted she owed him for delivering the bomb. He swore blind that he wouldn’t give anything away. But there’d been something perilously close to remorse about Hakan ever since he’d learned the death toll, and she simply didn’t trust him. ‘Enough!’ she cried. ‘Enough!’ She made sure she had all the vehicle keys and retreated to her room.

It wasn’t yet time for the Lion to call, and he was rarely punctual anyway, but she set up all the same. To her surprise and pleasure, he came on early. But then she saw his expression and sensed trouble. ‘What is it?’ she asked.

‘You went to Daphne yourself, didn’t you?’ he said angrily. ‘I told you not to.’

‘I have to make the men respect me. They won’t respect me unless I prove myself.’ Then she frowned. ‘But how did you know?’

‘We received footage this evening. Of you and your friend outside the hotel.’

‘What? How?’

‘We don’t know that yet. We’re working on it.’

She thought back. ‘It can’t be too serious, can it? We used false plates. We never showed our faces.’

‘Your idiot friend did. Before he put on his helmet.’

‘Shit.’ She bit a knuckle. ‘Is he identifiable?’

‘You’ll be able to judge that better than me. I’ve just sent you the clearest shot.’

Asena checked her inbox, opened the attachment. Not perfect of Hakan, but close enough. If it got wide coverage, someone was bound to finger him. Then they’d tear his life apart. He was the one who’d known of this remote forest camp, because he’d hiked here as a child. He’d even put her in touch with the former owners. They’d therefore have to leave tonight. They couldn’t take Hakan with them, however, not if this picture got out. Yet nor could they leave him here. ‘How long have we got?’ she asked.

The Lion shrugged. ‘It will come out eventually. If not from us, then from whoever sent it in. For all we know, the media already has it.’

Her heart squeezed. She felt hatred. ‘Who did this to us?’

‘We’re working on that. And we’ll find out, I promise. But right now we have a larger question.’

Asena nodded. When you were plotting to overthrow a government, a certain flexibility of planning was essential. There were simply too many uncontrollable externalities, from the economy and popular opinion to unforeseen political and world events. All you could do was work to make conditions as favourable as possible, then strike hard with everything you had when the moment was right. And while they weren’t there yet, they were close. ‘We’re not calling it off,’ she said flatly. ‘Not after everything we’ve already done. And postponing will just give them more time to find us. I say we move it up.’

The Lion looked pleased. It was evidently his view too. ‘Put those stories out,’ he told her. ‘We’ll aim for Labour Day next month. And please make sure that your idiot friend can’t cause us any grief.’

‘Leave him to me.’ She touched his cheek upon her screen. ‘The Lion and the Wolf,’ she said.

‘The Lion and the Wolf.’

His box went black then vanished altogether. She stared at the picture of Hakan still on her screen. How to handle him? With so much blood already on her hands, she wanted, if possible, to let him live; yet it would be crazy to risk everything they’d worked so hard to—

A floorboard creaked behind her. She whirled around. Hakan himself was standing there, wearing his wheedling expression, evidently come for one last plea. But then he saw the photograph of himself upon her screen, and he must have realized the implications at once, for the blood drained from his face and his expression changed before her eyes to one of mortal terror.