Page 83 of Poison Evidence

He should have tied Barrow up, but Ivy had been in bad shape and she was his number one priority. Now Dimitri had to crawl through the tunnel and hope Barrow was still unconscious. And he wouldn’t mind if the asshole was bleeding out.

He inched through the opening, moving as silently as possible. He paused before emerging and listened. Silence.

Gun at the ready, he exited the tunnel. A quick scan of the chamber showed…nothing.

Fuck.

A blood trail led down the steps. He followed it, scanning carefully, prepared for Barrow to pounce.

Nothing.

The former CIA agent was gone. The blood trail stopped at the pool. He must’ve swum out through the tunnel—knowing it was possible thanks to listening at the skylight.

It would be too much to hope the bastard got stuck in the narrow tunnel.

Once he was certain the cave was empty, Dimitri set to work, moving quickly in case Barrow decided to return. He woke the computer and pulled up the final map Ivy had created, the one with red areas marking seven potential hiding places for the AUUV. He copied the data onto a chart he’d grabbed from the chamber below. He had no intention of being here when Luke or Ian arrived, but he wouldn’t take CAM with him. He couldn’t betray Ivy in that way.

If the AUUV was in one of the other locations that Ivy hadn’t flagged as high probability, he was fucked. He deleted the last map layer and turned off CAM—now it would need Ivy’s fingerprint at startup—and descended the stairs to grab his escape kit.

He donned a wetsuit, then grabbed a dry bag filled with three days’ worth of supplies. There was another cave on a nearby island with supplies and a kayak at the ready. He was moving on to Plan C.

And once again, he was alone.

Ian found the tunnel entrance without much trouble. Veselov hadn’t bothered to erase his passage the last time. The opening was practically neon lit and just as Ivy had described.

He considered calling out to give Veselov warning that he was about to enter, but there was no way in hell the sonofabitch would be there. There might be someone in that cave, but it sure as hell wouldn’t be the Russian spy.

He hoped it would be the American one, and he had no intention of tipping Zack off that he was here. He crawled through the tunnel silently, gun at the ready.

Ivy would be waking from surgery soon, and would want to talk to Veselov. He didn’t envy Luke’s job of telling her that her new boyfriend had taken CAM and fled. Of the two of them, Ian knew her. She’d had dinner at his house and was friends with Cressida.

She was friends withhim.

He should have drawn that straw, but Zack Barrow was his first priority. Ivy would understand.

He emerged into the upper chamber—again, just as Ivy had described—and his eyes adjusted to the afternoon sun that beamed down from openings in the rock. First his gaze landed on the spatters of blood on the walls and limestone floor, then he took in CAM and the assembled drone in the corner.

Well. He’d been wrong on one count. Did that mean Veselov was still here?

“Hammer?” he said, his voice bouncing off the cavern walls.

No response.

No sign of Zack, but a blood trail led down the steps. He followed it to the lower chamber where it ended at the pool.

Shit.

He’d expected this, but his anger spiked nonetheless. Too bad Veselov hadn’t used the ball-peen on Zack.

Zack must’ve left in a hurry, or he’d have taken CAM. He probably escaped while Veselov carried Ivy to the floatplane—or Ian would be seeing signs of struggle, including a more dramatic blood trail.

The boat Ivy had told them about was still hidden in the vegetation near the beach, which meant Veselov had swum to his next destination. He couldn’t have gone very far.

Zack was a different story. He probably had a boat full of allies not far away. The question was, would he go after Ivy or Dimitri?

Ivy had said they’d zeroed in on possible locations for the AUUV. The assassin hadn’t given up, he’d simply moved on. Cold, when Ivy was in the hospital having surgery to repair a gunshot wound, and it was obvious she was infatuated with the Russian.

Which card would Zack play?

---