"James," she reached down to put a hand on his face. His skin was cold, but he smiled at her. "I'm going to take you back to the hotel. I can get you in that back way without anyone spotting us- you remember, how you took me to the beach that day? We'll get you medical help. I don't dare try to take you any farther than that." Maura cringed every time she had to force him into moving again. She knew the pain must be terrible - hers was barely endurable - but he didn't make a sound.
Maura was sweating. The wind off of the ocean and her wet scraps of clothing should have had the opposite effect, but her shaking legs were holding up James. The graceful, elegant Second in Command that she’d known was gone, leaving a bloody, shuddering man who’d fallen to his knees in the sand as she struggled to get him out of the boat. His flailing arm tried to reach around her waist and hit her ribs instead, causing the bones to make an ominous scraping movement. But they made it to the back entrance.
The part of the hotel not facing the ocean was utterly deserted, the overnight staff was clustered in front, watching the blaze with their shocked guests. Making their way up the service elevator to the brightly lit third floor of the luxury hotel seemed to take hours; staggering down the hall, leaving wet footprints and bits of soot and blood on the pristine marble floor. To Maura's shock, the door was unlocked. Propping James against the hall, she took the now-empty gun and held it up, slipping through. Hearing another gun cock in the living room, she ordered, "Don't make me shoot you!"
"MAC-" there was a painful cough. "MacLaren, is that you, lass?"
"O'Connell!" Maura gasped, "I knew it! I knew two bullets weren't enough to kill you! Oh, shit- wait!” She raced back out to retrieve James, who'd slid down the wall into a sitting position. Her heart clenched at the smear of crimson on the wall that followed him down. "Come on, sweetheart." She groaned silently as she helped him back up, "O'Connell is alive, but he's hurt, too. I'll get you both fixed up, all right? Just a little longer, please?"
Finally getting him onto a couch, Maura raced to turn on a couple of lamps and lock the door before seizing an armful of towels from the bathroom. Re-packing his wound, she looked over at O'Connell. "I saw that bastard shoot you! I told Holbrook- he was supposed to call someone here to help you-"
"No one came," O’Connell groaned, "so I'm guessing the little bastard ain’t on our side. I came to a bit ago, there was an explosion that sounded like it took out half of Algiers. Your work, Maura?"
She smiled proudly. "It took that ridiculously huge yacht out in a thousand tiny pieces, Do you have your cell phone?"
He grunted painfully, "My left pocket." Hurrying over to grab it, Maura looked for his wounds. One bullet was lodged in his left side, the other had passed cleanly through the meat of his shoulder. O'Connell had managed to rip down some towels from the bar just above him. "Bleeding's stopped," he answered to her anxious expression. "Just hurts like a motherfucker." She impulsively kissed the top of his head.
"We'll have you fixed in no time, you bloody indestructible ginger!" Looking over at James on the couch, her hands shaking as she realized there was a trail of blood staining the white couch. "James," she held his face in her hands, trying to ignore how cold his skin was. "James, sweetheart, you must listen to me. How do you contact President Maaziz?" It took him a moment, his pale face frowning with the effort but he managed to give her a phone number.
Hitting the Facetime button, Maura dialed. After several rings, the call went to voicemail. Angrily, she dialed the number again. Still no answer. This time, she left a message. "President Maaziz, this is James Pine's wife, Maura. If you'd like to get access to that REE bid fund before it disappears, I would respectfully suggest you pick up." There was a moment, then the phone rang again.
The expression on the face of the new Algerian president was not a friendly one, definitely not the Mr. Maaziz that Maura had gotten to know. "Is this a threat, Mrs. Pine?"
"Absolutely not, Mr. President. But we have common interests. I need a discreet medical staff to treat abdominal bullet wounds and you need your £2.6 billion pounds, correct? Until you formally accept the bid offers, the money doesn't enter the country's treasury, and your final£90 million pounds doesn't show up, either, does it? Please, Sir, I need your help."
There was silence as she stared at his fuzzy image. "Where is Mr. Pine?" Maaziz finally asked. Maura moved the screen to show James, lying still and pale on the couch. Turning the screen back to her, she stared pleadingly at him. Sitting back and folding his hands, Maaziz spoke. "One hundred and fifty million pounds."
Maura nearly dropped the phone. "I- I beg your pardon?"
"I will require an additional £150 million pounds in my personal account for such an investment in a foreign issue that does not directly involve Algeria." Maaziz looked at her shocked face impassively.
"You- you knew what they were going to do to James, didn't you? You used him to gain the office, and didn't warn him- you knew!”
"I have the responsibility to keep my negotiations with my country's important financial allies confidential, Mrs. Pine. But it seems that those particular clients have gone up in a ball of flame just moments ago, am I correct?" His dark face was still impassive, eyes no longer smiling behind his glasses.
"Yes," she gritted out. "But the financial interests of both the Saudis and the French remain seated. I'll be happy to release those to you now as a show of my good faith, just as soon as the medical team arrives here."
Maaziz leaned back. "You will release them now to prove you have the access codes, and then I will send the team. You have my word."
Maura kept a death grip on her emotions as her inner Morrighan was screaming for blood. "Watch your account. You will have half within five minutes. I'm sure you can have a team assembled by then that can be here at the hotel within fifteen?"
There was a pause, then the kindly smile was back. "Certainly. I shall stay on the line."
She broke three fingernails trying to get through the light switch cover before spotting a fork from room service. She opened the fixture, retrieving her thumb drives. Maura cursed her shaking hands as she jammed one of the platinum drives into her abandoned laptop and rapidly entered the transfer information, looking over at James and O'Connell. She actually jumped, startled when Maaziz's voice spoke from the phone. "Ah, three minutes, and here is the transfer. Good work."
"And our medical team?" Maura forced herself to sound calm.
"In just one moment, Mrs. Pine." His calm, indifferent voice nearly sent Morrighan shrieking to the surface, ready to claw his face to ribbons.
"Mr. President," she managed, "time really is of the essence here."
"My concerns lie with the additional fifty million pounds for my personal account. Now, how will you happen upon such a sum within the space of the next few hours?" Staring at his impassive face, Maura wondered how her judgment could have been so clouded.
Swallowing her hatred, she managed to speak calmly. "I have access to Mr. Pine's portion of the broker fee. It is all we have, but it will be enough."
Her flesh crawled when he smiled at her fondly, like an indulgent parent. "Very well. Your medical team should be knocking on the door at any moment. I've instructed them to ask for Mrs. Smith." Maura forced herself to thank him through numb lips, and true to his word, a knock sounded on the door in less than five minutes.
Maura and O'Connell stood guard over James as the doctor and his assistants worked quickly. If the sight of their drawn guns upset the medical team, they gave no sign. Maura's aim swung to the door as another two entered. Both were carrying wet rags smeared with blood and ash.
