May Contain Spies: A Spy Thriller (Meet Abby Banks Book 1) (17 page)

Then I kicked the stall open like a badass. The guards leapt out of their skin, whirling around and pointing their guns at me. I cocked an eyebrow at them as a smile crossed my lips.

“What are you planning on doing with those?” I asked, waving at their guns dismissively before passing between them as I headed toward the door.

Before they could respond, I glanced back at them over my shoulder, my face scrunched up in disdain. “What are you idiots waiting for? My mother is waiting for me,” I said and snapped my fingers at them. “Chop, chop,” I added for effect. I wasn’t sure what the looks on their faces were because they were both helmeted, but they began to move at once, jerking into action like wind-up toy soldiers.

A moment later, I was ushered into the main room for what felt like the zillionth time. This time it was bustling with people, all scurrying about like rats. Soldiers were randomly stationed all over, standing at perfect attention. Had all these people been cleared away every single time for me?

If that was true, why? It wouldn’t have mattered to me if she’d had a dozen people or just one… so maybe… maybe it was for Gabriella? Was she nervous about meeting me? Was that why she’d cleared away all but her most trusted minion every time we’d been in close quarters?

“Move it, you idiots,” Gabriella de la Mancha squealed, her voice high-pitched and angry despite its robotic cantor. “We have to get all the depots in place before the French get wind of what’s going on.” She spun, her chair whirling toward a screen, and as it did, so she spotted me. Her face went sort of slack as she took me in, standing there staring at her.

She shook her head once, her lips compressing in anger. “Why is she here?” Gabriella asked, her voice like a knife in the hearts of the soldiers who had brought me. “I gave you very specific instructions on what to do with my daughter once Donovan was dealt with.”

“Ma’am,” the first soldier said, raising one hand palm out. “She told us you were expecting her, and you asked us to comply with her requests provided they were not ridiculous. Coming to see you hardly seems ridiculous.”

I smirked inwardly because the soldier had just put my mom in her place, and as her face alternated between forced calm and blinding rage, I could tell she knew it too. Why had he done that? Didn’t evil overlords tend to kill subordinates who annoyed them? Wasn’t that like a thing?

“How dare you speak to my mother that way,” I snapped, spinning around and poking the soldier in the chest. “I should have you shot.”

“Abigail,” Gabriella said and her voice was half-strangled. “I appreciate your loyalty, but that isn’t how I do things.” She sighed. “Firstly, killing subordinates who annoy you leads to two very bad outcomes. The first is that no sane person will want to work for you. The second is that you tend to be blindsided because yes-men who fear for their lives tend to keep their mouths shut. It’s why the Death Star was manufactured with such a debilitating flaw.”

Had she really just made a
Star Wars
reference? That was the only thought that went through my head as she paused to take a breath. The breathing mechanism attached to her face shuddered, reminding me of a macabre Darth Vader. “Unfortunately,” she continued, “what Gregor said is true. I did ask them to comply with your orders and so here you are.”

She glanced around the room for a moment before beckoning me closer. I moved forward, slightly taken aback because this wasn’t going according to plan at all. I mean, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do, but still… this was off.

When I reached her, she took one of my hands in hers and led me toward one of the consoles. Huge multi-colored knobs littered its surface, but since there were no labels I couldn’t tell what any of them did.

“I want to show you something,” she said, pressing down on a huge green button. “I know you’re trying to be tough, hoping your secret agent will come save you, but unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen.”

The screen above us lit up to reveal a room. The bottom half of it was filled with water, and even from my vantage point, I could see shark fins circling. High above, Stephen was suspended from a thin cable.

“Stephen’s alive!” I said, and I was suddenly so happy it felt unreal. I hadn’t been sure if Donovan had killed him or not. Evidently, he hadn’t.

“For now,” Gabriella said, and as I watched, the cable began to unwind, lowering him toward the tank.

“Are you serious?” I asked, my eyes wide as I stared at the screen. “A shark tank?”

“Yes,” Gabriella purred. “He reminded me of a British secret agent I killed a few years back. I felt like it would be fitting to give him a similar ending.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, turning toward her, my heart pounding so hard in my chest that I could barely hear over it.

“I don’t normally,” she said, grinning at me. “Normally it is just a bullet to the head. But I felt like showing off for my daughter.” She shrugged.

“But why?” I screamed, tears starting to well in my eyes. Was she really going to kill Stephen via shark tank because she wanted me to watch? That seemed crazy… unless?

“Is this a test?” I squeaked, the words rushing past my lips in a jumbled mess.

Gabriella’s eyes glinted like the morning dew as her lips peeled back into a smile. “Yes, my daughter, it’s a test. Either you lower him into the tank or I nuke another city. If you pass, then we can get on with this whole taking over the world business… together.”

“You can’t be serious!” I cried, whirling away from the screen as Stephen jerked to a stop only a few feet from certain doom. I wasn’t sure I could watch if he started moving again.

“I am always serious. I always do what I say. There are two very big holes in the ground that speak to the truth of my words,” she replied, voice calm, and strangely, warm. “Now Abigail, press the blue button to lower him into the tank,” she added, steepling her hands in front of her like a cartoon villain.

“That’s not happening,” I said, my hands curling into fists. “I’m not going to kill Stephen!”

“It is happening, Abigail. His fate is already sealed. Even if you decide not to kill him, I will. He is already dead.” Gabriella smiled menacingly at me and icy toads hip hopped down my spine. “The only question is ‘will you let New York die too?’”

“No… please,” I said as tears filled my eyes and dripped down my cheeks like little rivers of betrayal. I tried to stop myself because, well, crying made it feel like I was agreeing with her, like he was already dead.

“Abigail, I…” She stopped speaking mid-sentence, her eyes going wide as she stared at the screen. “Guards!” she screamed, pointing at the screen as I whirled around.

The cable was still there… but Stephen wasn’t. Had he escaped? How was that even possible? It didn’t even matter. Someway, somehow, Stephen was free and that meant I didn’t have to kill him. Laughter spilled from my lips, filling the room as guards scrambled into the room on the screen.

“You forgot, Mom, James Bond always escapes,” I said, turning toward her and smiling.

“Whatever,” she said, dismissing me. “I’ve killed James Bond like fifty times.” She seized me by the wrist and her grip was surprisingly strong. “Roberto, take her back to her room. Stay with her until we’ve disposed of that agent. I don’t want her escaping again.”

“Understood,” Roberto growled, grabbing me by the hand and pulling me from the room.

The soft scrape of shoes on tile drifted toward me as Roberto led me to who knows where. I leaned in a little closer, my heart starting to pound as the footsteps grew louder.

The sound stopped, just shy of the corner, and I held my breath. My heart began to beat faster and faster in my chest, and I was almost worried I’d been heard or seen. Sweat dripped down the back of my neck as Roberto gripped my wrist harder.

“Who’s there?” Roberto called out, shoving me behind his massive body.

The sound of gunfire exploded in my ears, so loud that I was sure I’d gone deaf. In front of me, Roberto slumped forward, releasing me as he fell to his knees, gripping his stomach.

In front of him stood Stephen with a huge black gun pointed at me.

“Abby!” Stephen cried, dropping the gun and rushing toward me. I stared at Roberto as blood began to pool out of him. There was no way he was going to survive that, and to be honest, it made me a little sad. In the end, he had been nothing but nice to me.

“You shot him,” I murmured, staring up at Stephen, and I saw him for what he really was. He was a killer.

“I’m not the bad guy,” he said, trying to take my hand, but I pulled it away from him.

“Yes you are, Stephen. You just shot someone in cold blood. That makes you a bad guy,” I said, taking a step back from him. I mean, I’d known what he was ever since he’d gunned down the guard in the hallway earlier, but it hadn’t clicked until I’d watched him shoot Roberto.

“Abby…” his voice drifted off as he glanced around nervously. Then he shook his head. “Look, you need to come with me, right now. No matter what you think of me, I
am
trying to protect you. I will do that by any means necessary.”

I stared at him for what felt like ever before nodding minutely. “Okay,” I said. “In that case, Gabriella is just down that hallway. If we hurry, we can get her before she does something else crazy.”

“Abby, there’s no way we can get into that room. Now that I’ve found you, we need to escape.”

“No, Stephen. What we need to do is stop her. We’ll never be this close again,” I growled, taking a step down the hallway. “If you don’t do it, then give me your gun. I’ll sneak back in and take her out.”

Stephen grabbed me by the wrist. “No. That’s not going to happen. I won’t risk you, again.”

“There’s no other way!” I said, turning to face him. “She tried to make me kill you, Stephen. Tried to make me choose between you and New York.” I swallowed. “And I would have chosen New York…” I said. “I would have killed you.”

Something dark swam through his eyes as he stared at me. “Well, I’ll endeavor not to get betrayed by my team leader next time. Either way, I’m getting you out of here,” he said, before grabbing me by the wrist and trying to pull me down one of the corridors.

I didn’t let him. I dug my heels in and dropped my weight like a stubborn toddler. His eyes went wide and he stared at me. “Abby, we need to hurry—”

“Donovan was a traitor, sure, but he works for Gabriella… he killed,” I swallowed, tears filling my eyes and my voice shattered, “he killed my mom. She needs to pay for that”

Stephen looked at me like I’d just grown a second head. “Gabriella?”

“Yes,” I sobbed. “I need to stop her, Stephen. Don’t you understand?”

“Shh… It’s okay,” he said, reaching out and running his hand along my face. “I’m here now. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

“Okay,” I replied and elbowed him in the stomach. His eyes went wide and he slumped forward, the gun slipping from his grip and hitting the ground with a clang. I scooped it up and took off running down the corridor toward Gabriella.

Stephen caught me barely ten feet later, tackling me to the ground. My forehead smacked against the metal floor with a wet smack and stars shot passed my eyes. Stephen stood, dragging me to my feet and throwing me over his shoulder.

He was holding a small black box in front of my face that was about the size of a pack of playing cards. “Abby, do you know what this is?”

I tried to respond, but I couldn’t because the room was still spinning. “This is a detonator to compact thermos-fusion bomb. It will take out this entire structure once I set it off. I’ve already planted the bomb. It’s what I was doing before Donovan betrayed me. The only thing we need to do now is escape so I can set it off remotely.”

“And how will that stop her plan, Stephen?” I asked. “What if she escapes?”

“We’ll just have to make sure she doesn’t,” he smirked at me and I think he was trying to be charming. “Besides, this is her base of operations. Sure she has others, but they aren’t as robust as this one. Destroying this base will definitely put her plans on hold.”

Chapter 17

Stephen’s plan had seemed way, way better when I wasn’t crawling through a sewage duct. Which, let me just tell you, was totally gross. I was covered in brown and green slime that smelled so bad I’d nearly gagged when Stephen had opened the sewer access hatch.

“Don’t worry about it,” he’d said, and the words kept repeating themselves over and over in my mind, only his voice had gained a dopey quality about fifty repetitions ago because I was worried about it. I felt really stupid for trying to charge Gabriella guns blazing. That was aside from the blatantly obvious fact that I was not value added. With every movement I made through the sewer one fact was evident. Stephen could have stopped Gabriella without me.

I glanced ahead, the light from Stephen’s head lamp illuminating the tunnel as we trudged forward. My poor white scrubs were going to have to be burned. Of that, I was sure.

“See, it isn’t so bad,” Stephen called back over his shoulder, swinging his head toward me and blinding me with his headlamp. “The hatch is just a little farther.”

Stephen swung his head back toward the tunnel, his shoulders sagging a little. “I don’t know what you want me to do,” he murmured. His voice was so low that I barely heard him. It almost made me wonder if he expected a response or if it was one of those hypothetical statements.

“Get us out of here already,” I replied. I sucked in a breath, and felt my throat seize up. My stomach sloshed as the smell of rotting flesh filled my nose. “Ugh… I’m going to be sick.”

“Um… Abby, you should close your eyes,” Stephen said as he slowed his crawl.

“Why?” I asked. The longer this took, the longer I was going to be down here in ickville.

“Because up ahead is a dead body.” He pointed, but all I could see was the outline of his hand.

“Oh,” I replied and a chill filled my bones, echoing up my body in a series of tremors I couldn’t control. For a moment, I’d almost forgotten that we were in a secret base run by a madwoman who killed people. I was so focused on how useless I was, I’d been able to ignore the fact that people died at her hands. Like… like really died.