Page 38 of Denied Access
Or save.
Slowly, a plan began to shape. As always, it started with big pieces that rushed together as the concept of the operation crystallized. Was what he was considering risky?
Absolutely.
The best plans always were.
With quick, efficient motions, Rapp cinched the watertight lining closed and slipped the handbag over his shoulder. From the time he’d first detected the surveillance team this morning until he’d dragged his naked body from the surf, Rapp had been reacting to his unseen enemy.
That was about to change.
CHAPTER 18
MOSCOW, RUSSIA
SHEheard words, but they seemed to be coming from far away. As if the voice were echoing down a long drainage pipe. Kris groaned and tried to rub the grit from her eyes.
She couldn’t.
A tightness in her wrist brought her arm up short.
A metallic tightness.
Groaning again, Kris Henrik forced open her eyes.
“There you are! Would you like a glass of water? You must be terribly thirsty.”
Blinking away the blurriness, Kris tried to make sense of her surroundings. The single light bulb dangling from the ceiling didn’t do much to beat back the shadows. She could see bare concrete walls shrouded in darkness and a face sitting across the table from her.
A familiar face.
“Where—” Kris coughed. “Where am I?”
The man standing over her still resembled a grandfather, but his cold smile and hard eyes suggested otherwise.
The Russian reached for Kris, and she jerked away.
Or at least she tried to.
It was then that her woozy brain made sense of the tightness binding her wrist. She was manacled to the table.
“Please don’t struggle,” the Russian said. “You’ll only hurt yourself. The table is bolted to the floor, as is your chair. Believe me when I say there is absolutely nowhere you can go.”
“Why—”
Again, the hoarseness in her voice betrayed her. Kris tried to swallow, but her mouth was bone-dry and her throat felt like sandpaper.
“Here,” the man said, pushing a glass of water to within reach. “Take a drink. The drug we used to sedate you is wonderfully fast-acting, but I’m afraid that it isn’t without side effects. Waking up after suffering its effects has been termed the world’s worst hangover. The water will help. I promise.”
As if his words made her aware of the rest of her body, Kris realized her head was pounding in time with her heartbeat. A wave of nausea roiled her stomach and bile raced up her throat.
“Drink. Please.”
Kris couldn’t see what was in the glass, but decided she didn’t care. She’d been at their mercy while unconscious, and she was still just as helpless. If the Russian intelligence officer harbored malicious intentions, they certainly weren’t dependent on her ingesting whatever was in the cup. Bringing the glass to her lips, she took a sip.
Water.
Choking back the urge to sob, she finished the glass in two long swallows. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but the headache seemed to ease. Even better, her mouth and throat no longer felt like she’d been gargling with gravel. Setting the glass back on the table with shaking fingers, Kris cleared her throat and tried again.
