“They have her.” The words came out flat, detached, as if someone else were speaking them. “They took her from the hotel. Otto is going after them alone.”
“Then we go, too.”
I set down the receiver and turned to face him. Behind us, Bisch had risen from his chair, his face unreadable.
“Manakin ordered us not to take active measures,” I said slowly. “If we do this—”
“I know.” Thomas’s jaw tightened.
“And you’re still okay with that?”
Thomas stared for a moment. I watched his face. Fear, anger, and determination all warred beneath the surface. Then something settled in his expression, and I saw the man I had fallen in love with years ago, the one who would walk into fire for the people he cared about, consequences be damned.
“Will, they have the Baroness. Observation isn’t going to cut it anymore.” He reached out and took my hand. “We knew this moment was coming. Whatever it takes, remember?”
He was right.
The time had come.
“Bisch.” I turned to face him. “You know Adlerhorst and the drainage channel Otto mentioned. Can you get us there?”
Bisch studied me for a long moment. Then he nodded once. “I can try.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“It is all I have.” He moved toward the door, his limp more pronounced than usual. “I will get the weapons. We leave in five minutes.”
He disappeared down the hallway, leaving Thomas and me alone.
“This is really happening,” Thomas said quietly. “We’re really doing this.”
“Yeah.”
“No going back.”
“No.”
He pulled me close, one hand on the back of my neck, his forehead pressed against mine. We stood there for a moment, breathing together, saying without words all the things that needed to be said. Then he stepped back, and something like a grin flickered across his face. It was sharp, reckless, utterly Thomas.
“Well,” he said, “there goes that career. Think the Baroness will hire us when this is all over? Or maybe I could go to culinary school, actually learn to cook. You’re pretty useless, but at least you’re pretty.”
Despite everything, despite the fear, the uncertainty, the knowledge that we might not survive the night, I smiled and shook my head.
“If we get her out alive, I’ll ask her, but no culinary school. You’re really a terrible cook.”
“Hey!” He jerked back, a sadistic grin curling his mouth. “You take that back!”
Bisch reappeared with a bag over his shoulder, heavy with weapons we weren’t authorized to carry for a mission we weren’t authorized to run in a country where we had no business being.
“The car is ready,” he said.
12
Thomas
The drive to Adlerhorst took four hours. Bisch drove in silence. Will sat beside me as I checked and rechecked the weapons Bisch had provided. He watched the darkness gathering outside the windows.
We had the layout we had observed during our reconnaissance, and we had three men, three guns, and the desperate knowledge that somewhere in that fortress, a woman we loved was being held by people who would kill her without hesitation.
