No Survivors

47

Arriving with Alix at the Excelsior Hotel in Rome, Vermulen found a postcard waiting for him: a picture of a hill village in the South of France with the words Tourrettes-sur-Loup written over it in fancy script.

On the back there was a message. It read, I told you I’d find somewhere great! You MUST try this place: Bon Repos, Chemin du Dauphin. It needs work. For a good contractor try Kenny Wynter… A phone number followed and then a signature, Pavel.

“Novak again,” said Vermulen with a grin, when Alix asked him about it. “That man, he never stops trying to sell stuff.”

That had been two days ago. Now Alix was in the hotel steam room, letting the heat and humidity relax her muscles and sweat the toxins from her body.

There was one other woman in the room. She caught Alix’s eye.

“Just like home, enjoying a Turkish bath!”

The words were spoken in Russian.

Alix smiled. “Except in Moscow we wouldn’t have to wear bathing suits. We could be naked-so much more comfortable.”

“What do you expect? This is an American hotel.” The woman shook her head in mock sorrow. “Crazy people.”

“Careful,” said Alix. “My boyfriend is American.”

“Maybe he is an exception!”

The woman looked around, confirming that they were still alone. Then she spoke again, not so chatty anymore.

“So, your boyfriend, what has he been doing?”

“He had a meeting yesterday, with an Italian, he would not say who. But I know they met in a park, on the Aventine Hill. He said it had a magnificent view of St. Peter’s. Maybe there are cameras nearby that you can check. Also, he had a message from Novak. I do not know the significance, but it concerned a particular house, in France.”

She passed over the details. The woman did not seem impressed.

“This is not enough-a meeting, but you do not know who with; a house, but you do not know its significance. Moscow will expect more than this.”

“I’m sorry. I’m doing my best.”

“In any event, I have a message from the deputy director. She regrets to inform you that your friend in Geneva passed away. As a consequence, payments to the clinic have been stopped.”

Alix gasped. She looked wide-eyed at the other woman before bending over, her head in her hands, the sobs shallow at first, then convulsing her whole body.

The other woman made no attempt to comfort her.

“You must understand,” she said eventually, “this makes no difference to your mission. You are to continue as before. That is an order.”

She got up to go.

“Enjoy the rest of your bath.”

“What’s the matter?” asked Vermulen when Alix got back to their suite.

Now there was a good question. Alix was distraught, unable to hide the pain from her eyes. But when she asked herself why, the answer was more complicated than a simple matter of loss.

Of course, she was devastated by the news of Carver’s death. She thought of the man he had been, their time together, the time they might have had. For months she had clung to the hope that somehow he might recover, maybe not completely, but enough that they could have some kind of future together. Now that hope had been dashed forever, and the constant, dull ache of watching him eke out a half-life in the clinic was replaced by the absolute desolation of grief.

And yet, though she could barely admit it, even to herself, she felt another emotion: relief. The burden of responsibility Carver’s incapacity had created had weighed on her, and poisoned her feelings for him. Deep down, she resented him for deserting her, disappearing into his madness and leaving her to cope, forcing her to take the job with Vermulen. Then she’d felt guilty for harboring such terrible, unfair thoughts. And that had made her resent him even more.

Now he was gone, and the weight was lifted. She could remember Carver as the man he had been when they first met. And she could try to rebuild her life, free of the creature he had become. Somewhere on the edge of her consciousness, there was even a sense of excitement, the possibility of being free for something new.

“Oh, nothing, really,” she said. “I just met someone in the lobby, someone I knew from home. She told me about a friend of ours. He’d not been well for a long time and she just heard… he’s died.”

Vermulen had been sitting at a writing desk. Now he got to his feet and held out his arms. His eyes conveyed profound understanding, as though a question had been answered, a problem solved.

She went to him at last, and it wasn’t because she was doing her job, but because he was a living, breathing man and she needed the shelter of his arms. She laid her head on his chest and he stroked her hair as she cried. He lifted her head and dried the tears from her cheeks. They kissed, tentatively at first and then with rising intensity until, without another word, he took her arm and led her into the bedroom.