“What’s that?” she said, pointing to the pillow next to him. The French accent was fully part of her now.
“I was planning on sleeping in here. It’ll look more natural.”
“Even more natural in the bed. And I can personally guarantee it’ll be more comfortable than the sofa.”
He mentally reeled through a list of potential responses. Everything with her was a delicate balancing act. Finally, he affected a grin. “With Legion after you, I’d rather keep a little distance between us.”
She ran a hand through her wet hair but didn’t move from her position in the doorway. “You’re not going to let me have any fun at all, are you?”
CHAPTER 32
FRANSCHHOEK
SOUTH AFRICA THE words safe room had taken on a completely new meaning. Rapp was closed up in his, sitting with a cold beer in his hand and two more in a bucket of ice near his feet. He’d repurposed one of the security monitors as a television and was tuned into a mountain bike race. The audio didn’t work for some reason, but it didn’t matter. In fact, the quiet was welcome.
Outside the locked door lurked his increasingly chaotic world. That morning, he’d gone out to his gym and discovered that Bebe had rearranged all his tools by color. And based on the dull whine barely audible through the walls, she was now brandishing her new favorite weapon: his Shop-Vac.
More pronounced than the sound was the smell of a soufflé baking in the oven. When he’d gone to the kitchen for the beer, Sadie had accused him of clomping around like a drunken horse, speculating that it was going to cause a catastrophic failure in her dessert. He’d beat a hasty, light-footed retreat.
She was losing herself in the role more and more every day, making it impossible to know who he was talking to. Clues were visible only in her eyes, partially obscured by brown contacts. He seemed to be dealing with a hybrid now—a pendulum that swung in an ever-narrowing band.
Rapp glanced at his phone, noting the time. He was surprised at how much he was looking forward to his upcoming call. Not the most cheerful subject matter, but still a brush with some much-needed sanity. He was starting to feel like an orderly in an asylum. Or maybe he was just another inmate. Either way, the sensation was becoming more overwhelming with every passing day.
The encrypted line began to ring at precisely the agreed-upon time and he picked up.
“Go ahead.”
“How are you? Are things going okay?” Claudia said. The voice was disturbingly similar to Sadie’s.
“Everything’s good. You?”
“Fine. I’m getting a little break. Levi took Anna to patrol the grounds.”
Levi Mizrah was a former Israeli operator who Rapp had known for years. He was in charge of the compound’s security now that Coleman had relocated to his house in Greece.
“What about Irene? She’s gone, right?”
“Yes. To Europe to meet with some former colleagues. And I think Nick is on his way to Brussels to see her.”
“Why? Are they still going around about whether she’s going to take a job with him?”
“Is that a joke?” Claudia said, sounding a bit confused.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, at this point, I think it’s pretty clear that their interest in each other is more than just professional.”
He didn’t immediately respond. Kennedy had once been married, but he never thought of her in those terms. Since they’d known one another, her personal life had largely been swallowed by the Agency. Apparently, unemployed and with her son in college, she had time for other things. Why not a relationship? If anyone deserved a little happiness, it was her.
“Okay. I guess I missed that.”
“In your defense, at this point it just seems like another negotiation. All relationships are complicated, but this one—assuming anything comes of it—is a whole other level. The richest man in history and the former director of the CIA. That would be quite a union.”
The understatement of the century. “Where do we stand with Legion?”
“Irene’s tried to contact them but none of the email addresses they’re suspected of using in the past are active. We don’t anticipate them issuing another until…” Her voice faded for a moment. “Until this job’s done. She’s also talked with her contacts around the world and no one knows any more than the Agency. We’re still assuming that Legion was trained by a government but have no idea which one. Irene has good back channels in Russia and Syria, and she’s reasonably convinced they didn’t come from there. But that doesn’t help much.”