Page 97 of Fire and Ice

"They can't just finish this half-assed!" Jack said angrily.

"I'm with you on that, man."

"And Viktor?"

Derek clenched his jaw grimly. "No way Viktor is abandoning Maia. I can assure you of that."

Jack, at least, felt a degree of consolation in that.

***

"Wake up! Wake Up, Maia!"

The voice dragged her from the depths of unconsciousness into a dimly-lit room and the worried face of Rick Grayson.

"Rick?"

"Hi sweetie."

"Hi sweetie?" Maia muttered as she struggled to sit up. Her hands were bound behind her back and her feet were also tied together. "That's all you've got to say? We were worried about you! If you have asked me to back you up I would have ..."

"Whoa! Whoa!" Rick chuckled. "I didn't know you missed me that much."

"Glad you find that amusing," Maia retorted and winced at the ache on the back of her head. She looked at Rick: his face was bruised so they must have roughened him up a bit, but at least they didn't ...

"My fingers are all there," Rick said reading her mind.

"Any idea where we are?"

The room was small and dank with no furnishings but there was a toilet attached to the room. A lone incandescent bulb in the middle of the ceiling was the sole source of light. There were some basement windows near the top of the ceiling which gave them an idea as to what part of the structure they were in. Basement. Rick and Maia were sitting on the cold cement floor, not exactly the luxury-hotel treatment.

"No." Rick said, his face turning all serious. "But I know you guys got him running scared after blowing up his operation at Addison's. And I heard you got the bastard Colt too. Now he's working blind since Colt took care of most of his contacts. Some of his men had lost confidence in him and had scattered. He still has his chemist working in a lab somewhere in this place although I have a suspicion he is working under duress."

All of a sudden she remembered Lee. "Oh my God. Lee!"

"What happened?"

"They shot Lee Isaac. I'm not sure if he is okay."

"Is that how they caught you?"

"Yes, I broke protocol and left the hotel with Lee."

Rick snorted. "Bet Jack was thrilled with that."

"Shut up! This is not funny. Reznikov double-crossed me."

"You trusted him?"

"Not really. But I didn't have a choice."

She could worry about Lee later. For the moment, she needed to figure out how to use their current situation to her advantage. There is a silver lining in this after all. No more looking for Reznikov, she was exactly where he was. And he was on the run and desperate.

"So how many men do you think he has left?" Maia asked.

"I would say six mercenaries and two regular soldiers."

"How well armed are they?"

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