“Bash is correct,” Nick said, and even though he didn’t show by even the slightest flicker of emotion that he’d noticed Bash holding Sean’s hand, Bash knew Nick didn’t miss anything. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need, even if you don’t wish to join our organization. I’ll give you… I suppose ‘sanctuary’ might be the right term.”
Sean returned the pressure of Bash’s hand. “I need to call my sister,” he continued, his gaze troubled. “They had me speak to her once a week while I was being held so she wouldn’t become suspicious, but I could never figure out a way to tell her what had happened because they were listening. I didn’t want her to be put in danger either, so I let her believe everything was fine, that I was busy with the hospital. But now I need to make certain she knows the truth.”
“She also needs to take precautions,” Bash said, frowning in thought. He looked at Nick. “Do you think Faisal might try to lure her in the way he did Sean, to use her to get to him?”
“It’s possible, if he’s desperate enough.” Nick pulled out his phone again and rose to his feet. “Don’t worry, Sean. Call your sister. Tell her whatever you think she needs to know, but I suggest not mentioning Fortress or me. Let her know you are safe, and I’ll have a watch put on her home and business, just to make sure nothing happens to her. Don’t tell her about it, because she won’t even know they’re there.”
“Thank you,” Sean said gratefully. “I appreciate it.”
“It’s what we do.” Nick smiled, then bade them farewell and departed.
“It’ll be all right,” Bash said, squeezing Sean’s hand again. “We’ll make sure of it. I promise.” He could see Sean was tense and preoccupied, so he stood, tugging Sean to his feet. “Come on, let’s go back to my room. I’ll show you how to make an outgoing international call, then give you privacy to talk to your sister.”
Sean rose to his feet, managing a slight smile of his own. “Thank you. It seems like every time I have a problem lately, you’ve been there to step up and solve it.”
“As Nick said, it’s what we do,” Bash said, but he was glad to do something. It was little enough, and he wanted to do whatever he could to help keep Sean safe and happy.
He didn’t know what was going to happen in the future, but he knew one thing. He’d make sure Faisal never got his hands on Sean again — even if he had to kill someone to guarantee it.
13
“This is beautiful!”
Bash glanced away from the dirt track he was driving along — it couldn’t be called anything so generous as a road — and grinned.
“I thought you’d like it,” he said. He removed one hand from the steering wheel, grasping one of Sean’s and carrying it to his lips. “Nick’s compound is civilized, but there’s a lot of the island that looks the same way it did when Jason and the Argonauts were sailing these waters.”
Sean could believe it, and he squeezed Bash’s hand as he gazed out of the open-topped jeep, enchanted with the scenery. In the few days he’d been on the island, he’d seen most of the interior facilities, and he was growing familiar with the beaches within walking distance of the main compound. Bash had even taken him out on a sailboat, and they’d circumnavigated the entire island, then fished for sea bass in the sapphire waters.
But this was the first time Bash had taken him away from the compound to the uninhabited parts of the island. Ortechnicallyuninhabited, since Bash told him there were sensors all over the place to detect unauthorized intruders. Bash had even filed a travel plan with the main Fortress ops center to let them know where he planned to go and how long they would be gone. It was basic security, he told Sean, and it protected not only Fortress, but everyone who went off alone, since if they got injured and couldn’t call for help, someone would come to look for them.
On their left, a thick growth of scrubby greenery rose upward on the steep hillside, and to the right, a sharp cliff dropped off to a wide, dazzlingly white beach and the tranquil blue waters of the Aegean. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and though it was winter, the sun was warm on Sean’s face. After months of being stuck in a cell, he reveled in being outside, breathing in the fresh, salt-tinged air, enjoying freedom for the first time in far too long.
“Is that what you’re taking me to see? A trireme?” Sean asked, giving Bash a playful grin.
When Bash had suggested he’d like to take Sean to see his favorite place on the island, Sean hadn’t known what to expect. Nick’s island — which Bash had said was named Kryfónisí, or “Hidden Island” — was part of the Cyclades group, yet set apart from it, several kilometers from the much larger ring around Santorini on the edge of the Sea of Crete. The climate was as arid as the rest of the islands, but there was a large natural spring that furnished fresh water, so there were more trees than were typically found in the region.
“Not exactly,” Bash replied. He squeezed Sean’s hand before releasing it, needing both hands to steer the Jeep as the track suddenly veered sharply as it wound its way down toward the beach. “Hang on!”
Sean whooped and laughed as Bash took some curves rather recklessly, and he grabbed onto the overhead bar to keep himself from being flung out. He trusted Bash knew what he was doing, and that they weren’t going to crash, so he was free to enjoy the excitement of hurtling along as though it were a rollercoaster ride.
A few minutes later, it was over. They reached the hard-packed sand of the upper reaches of the beach, and Bash slowed their breakneck speed.
“That’s the way to Thera,” he told Sean, pointing off to a distant smudge to the northwest. “Santorini blew up thirty-six centuries ago, wiped out the Minoan civilization, and gave us the legends of Atlantis and the War of the Titans. Can you imagine what it would have been like, standing on this beach, watching your world end?”
“Would it have?” Sean asked, finding himself curious.
“For this island? Not completely,” Bash replied, gesturing toward the hills. “There was a tsunami that reached here from the explosion. It wasn’t high enough to devastate the whole island, though it probably killed any people who might have been around. Though we haven’t found any evidence of the Minoans having landed on this little rock. They were more interested in Crete off to the east.”
Glancing upward, Sean shuddered slightly, wondering how it would have felt to see the horizon explode into fire and smoke, then to watch the sea rise like an angry god to wash away all traces that man had ever walked these shores. “I take it you know the island well,” he said, to distract himself from the dark thought.
“Oh, yes. I’ve been crawling over it for almost twenty years now,” Bash said. “Don’t get too upset about old Thera, because it gave rise to the ancient Greeks. About a thousand years later, this area flowered into one of the greatest civilizations ever to exist. One that gave us medicine, and democracy, and the assurance that men loving other men wasn’t at all unnatural. Anyone who says my sexuality is just dandy is all right by me.”
That made Sean laugh. “Looking on the bright side, I see,” he teased. “And also for your own self-interest. I thought you were supposed to be a hero, Mr. Chase!”
Bash’s cheeks grew flushed beneath his tan, and he shrugged slightly. “I do what I do because I believe in it. Not to be a hero.”
“I know.” Sean smiled and rested his hand on Bash’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “But you’re special. You’re a hero, especially to me.”
