Secrets by Nancy Popovich Page A

booted up
the bike and slid away from the house, not following Sonya and
Lise, but taking a more direct path to the rendezvous. He had
operatives to deploy, and Lise was going to use a lengthier route
and perhaps get them lost a few times, just to delay their arrival
until all was in place.
    Seconds later,
the garage door opened and the Mercedes emerged, taking yet another
route to the Tower. The Crusaders were on the move.

CHAPTER 18
    Madame Lalonde directed Sonya as they made their way into central Paris
and instructed her to pull into an empty parking spot in the row of
parked cars along the side of the road within view of the
Tower.
    “It is too
early,” Madame Lalonde stated. “If we must play the game the
way they direct, we control what we can control.”
    Sonya’s jaw
almost dropped open. “You aren’t new to this are you?” she asked,
realizing that this was true. “Do you work for Steve?”
    With a serene
smile, Madame Lalonde patted Sonya’s hand, still on the
stick shift. “I am retire. But, tonight, I work for Wizard, the
superior to Steven. These men have take my son and invade my home!”
Anger flashed in her bruised eyes. “There is no forgiveness for
them! Jamais (Never)! You can trust all in the house,” she
continued. “We will be surround and if there is danger, you will be
pull away.”
    Sonya began to
protest, and Madame Lalonde raised her hand to stop her. “If
you do not agree, we leave. You have pas de choix.
Simplement! ”
    Oh wow, thought
Sonya. Obviously Madame Lalonde wasn’t nearly as calm about
the kidnapping as she had assumed. What had she gotten herself
into? What the hell had Bryan gotten them into? Surrounded? Steve
was involved? Who the hell was Wizard? Hadn’t Grégoire said that he
was a wizard? She couldn’t imagine that BB, Steve and Maurice were
aligned with Grégoire, by their reactions at dinner alone.
    Madame Lalonde touched her arm and pointed, then put her finger to her
lips. A motorcycle slid quietly by with two men aboard, Steve and
Mike! Following them was a Mercedes, which turned the corner and
disappeared.
    Now that
Sonya’s eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness, she began to see
some detail. A dark figure walked quietly past the other parked
cars directly to their car and climbed in. “I’m to stay here in
this car,” Mike stated, “Word will be given when you can walk
across towards the tower.”
    “How will we
know, it’s getting towards two o’clock,” Sonya exclaimed. “I can’t
be late!”
    Madame Lalonde
pulled a cell out of her pocket. “The captors will wait for you,”
she declared confidently.
    Sonya watched
as a dark clad figure approached their position and was joined by
someone with a familiar look. Steve! The figure beside him was that
of a woman, dressed in what looked to be a cat suit. Mimi! They
spoke for a few seconds. Steve bent to kiss her, and with a smile
and a wave, she pulled on a balaclava and disappeared into the
darkness. Steve pulled on a balaclava and disappeared in the
opposite direction.
    Maurice
materialized, as did BB, who opened the car door on Sonya’s side
and handed something to her. “I take it that Lise explained our
stipulations to you?” he asked. Sonya nodded mutely.
    “This is an
earpiece,” he explained, handing her a small electronic device.
Then, he handed her another small electronic device. “Put this into
your bra. It is a receiver. Should anything go wrong, we will know
where you are. If you are ordered to run, follow orders and get the
hell out immediately! Return here and hide. Understood? This is for
your protection.”
    Sonya gulped
silently and nodded, taking the electronics. When she looked up
again, both Maurice and BB were gone. Silently, she slid the
receiver into her bra and put the earpiece into place.
    “You will
slowly cross the street and stand just outside the circle of light
from the street lamp directly across from your present location,”
BB’s voice was