“Cancel him. You need your attention on the device and we don’t want any witnesses.”
“Who is this?” Helen asked.
“Hell?” De Clerq’s voice came back on.
“Didn’t you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“You didn’t hear another voice coming into our conversation, giving me instructions,” Helen stated.
“No.”
She frowned. “Is there an override feature with the devices we use to communicate? For example, if I want to talk to you alone.”
“Of course. We all can communicate privately or to different sectors.” There was a pause. “You’re saying you’ve just gotten instructions from someone else other than Command?”
She looked at the man sitting there. In all her years as an operative, she’d never killed in cold blood before. She had shot back in self-defense or in the middle of a shootout, but this was different.
“I can’t do it,” she said.
“Do what, Hell?”
“Someone told me to cancel the remaining hostile. I’ve never shot at an unarmed man on purpose.”
There was a pause. “I see,” De Clerq said. “The suggestion was a wise one. You’re looking at the enemy and given the chance, he’ll kill you.”
“I know that but I’d much prefer it if I kill him while he’s actually trying to kill me,” Helen said dryly. “Then I’d have a reason to take his head off. But for some stupid reason, I can’t pull the trigger when he has his arms up in the air and he’s smart enough to keep on doing it, too, since he told me he could speak English.”
“Then you do what you have to do. We don’t have much time. It’s your call but you’re going to be debriefed about it. Did the person talking to you say it’s an order?”
“No, he didn’t. And do you know who would give me orders besides you?”
“Since he spoke to you on private link, no, I don’t know.”
If De Clerq had a clue, he wasn’t sharing it. “Are you sure?” Helen pressed. “Make a guess.”
“Any member of the team could have suggested that, Hell,” De Clerq told her. She couldn’t tell from his quiet tone whether he was trying to be ambivalent or not. “And I agree with him. But it’s still your call. Time’s running. Get the key and get out of there ASAP.”
A man’s life was in her hands. She had never been put in this situation before and she didn’t like it. It was different when she was fighting for her life. This was—she looked straight into the eyes of the man in the chair—someone who was looking at her with fear and hope. A long time ago, when she was caught stealing food, she had been the one looking at her would-be killer with the same fear and hope; he had let her go. She couldn’t pull the trigger.
“Please don’t kill me,” he begged in accented English.
She approached the man. “If you want to live, put your hands very slowly behind your back,” she ordered, pulling out the thin rope from her side pouch. He did so obediently. Quickly stepping behind him, she looped his neck. He jerked in surprise. She tugged in warning before adding in German, “Just in case you think about surprising me while I’m securing you, this cord is made of a material that would cut through your skin.Verstehen Sie?”
He nodded to show that he understood her and sat very still. She quickly stretched the rope downward and looped both his hands together, then putting the weapon down within easy reach, she pulled, tied a knot, and relooped it around the back steel support of the chair. Then she did the same thing with his feet. She taped his mouth.
That done, she went back to the desk. She turned the laptop around so she could keep an eye on the man as well.
“I’m removing the key from the device, HQ. That will interrupt whatever program that’s running on the laptop,” she said.
“Download the information into the flashdrive then destroy the laptop, over,” De Clerq instructed.
“Done,” she said, after several minutes.
She took out a microdigital camera and panned the room as she recorded it. She wanted Hades to see how accurate they had both been. She headed for the door and gave the man a last glance.
“I’d rather not saywiedersehen,if you don’t mind,” she told him then exited.
