Page 89 of Dagger’s Shield

It started right up.

I took the road behind the hills, the one that dropped through the vines in hairpins. Maman had been right. I’d driven it before I had a license.

The train would leave in eleven minutes, and Dijon was still ten kilometers away. I prayed the whole way that I’d make it in time.

I left the Alpine where it stopped, in front of the station doors, and took off as fast as my feet would carry me. Somebody shouted about the car. I kept running.

The train to Paris left from platform three. It had all my life. When I came around the corner, the doors were still open and there, about to take a step up, stood Killian. His bag was over his shoulder, and he had one hand on the rail.

“Killian!” I screamed. “Wait!”

He turned and dropped his bag on the platform. By the time I reached him, his arms were open wide, and I ran straight into them.

“Please stay,” I said. “I love you. Don’t leave. Please don’t leave.”

He picked me up off my feet and spun me around. He kissed me, then kissed me again, and when he spoke, his mouth was still against mine.

“I love you, Maëlle. And, yes, I’ll stay.”

He set me down, reached inside his shirt, and removed the chain that held his mother’s ring. He unfastened the clasp, then slid the ring off and onto my finger. It was still warm from his chest, and it was back where it belonged.

“Will you marry me, Maëlle? For real?”

“Oui!” I yelped. “Oui, oui, oui!”

Behind us, the doors closed, and the train for Paris left without him.

22

DAGGER

The Alpine had collected an admirer in uniform by the time we came out of the station. I paid the fine and would have paid ten of them.

We left the rental in the car park for tomorrow, and Maëlle drove us to Valais, telling me these were the roads she’d taken to catch me, then driving them twice as fast.

“I want to run Valais,” she said when we rounded the first hairpin. “I’ve wanted it my whole life and never said it out loud until this week.” Her chin came up. “How do I do that and keep you? Your work is⁠—”

“Our work.”

She took her eyes off the road for exactly one second.

“I’ve had a plan for a week,” I said. “Praying you’d ask me to stay. Since you asked now, I’ll tell you what it is. The mission isn’t over, Maëlle. We still don’t know who Vasiliev answered to or who Géraud worked for. There’s someone above them. If there weren’t, Fontenay would’ve folded.”

“Okay—”

“I’m not finished. It makes no sense to work this from the other side of the world. It would be more logical to operate from a European command center. I’ve already talked to Blackjack and Beacon. Preacher and Cassidy are staying. You and I decide who else we need. I’m thinking we can start out in the cottage in Beaune⁠—”

“Not Beaune. Valais,” she said like she’d been thinking about it as much as I had.

“Where?”

“There’s more than one vault under the estate. The one past the west stairs has nothing in it. It has stone walls a meter thick, one door, and no signal in or out unless we build it ourselves.” She slowed when we reached the gate.

We scheduled the team videoconference in the solarium. Maëlle laid her ideas out in under two minutes, and nobody argued.

“It’s official,” Blackjack said. “The K19 Genesis Consortium European Command Center will be headquartered at Domaine Valais. Dagger and Givre, you’re in charge. Preacher and Cassidy—you’re team one.”

“The people above Géraud are still out there,” said Beacon. “Build it strong.”