Merido's Daughter by LJ Maas 17 page

"You people think of everything." Casey joked lightly as she accepted her returned computer from a young girl from the computer department.

Jack leaned down and with an expression that was heartbreakingly serious he said, "Just remember, Casey, now you too are one of us people."

The next two weeks sped by at an alarming pace. Casey's work at the museum began demanding more and more time, while Tessa was deeply involved with Meridio's everyday matters. The young blonde was spending about every other day in Athens. Of course, Meridio was less than enthusiastic about his daughter being out from under his protection, which Tessa interpreted to mean out from under his control. So, the older man occasionally sent his Karê on errands to the mainland as a pretense to look out for the young woman. Tessa smiled when Meridio wasn't looking. Who was she to turn down a direct order? She had to wonder what the man was using for brains, but she rather enjoyed the fact that he was gullible enough to send the fox directly into the hen house...with his blessing no less.

From the computer in her home in Athens, in which Jack's boys installed all the necessary encryption software, Tessa would e-mail her lover when she arrived in town. Casey became very good at watching the world around her and, making sure there was no one following, she would make her way to Tessa's estate.

It was funny in an odd sort of way. Casey and Tessa talked about anything and everything during these times together, everything but the subject at hand. They both agreed it was almost like talking business in bed and neither seemed anxious to bring that part of their lives into their bedroom. So, they would wait until they were lunching or out for a drive to discuss particulars.

Late one afternoon Andreas Meridio caught Casey relaxing by doing laps in the large pool.

"Well, don't tell me I actually caught the eminent archaeologist at home." He joked.

"Very funny, Pappa." Casey felt the bile rise in her throat each time she had to use that term of endearment on her father, but Jack said not to change anything about herself or her habits. So she plastered a smile on her face, and acted like nothing was amiss.

"I wanted to tell you that we are going to do some entertaining for the weekend. Some business associates will be flying in and I thought I would have a party on Friday night. They'll be around a dozen in their party and they'll be staying in the guest rooms for the weekend."

Casey was dying to know who the business associates were. Could they be the arms sellers?

"Are they your Libyan associates?" Casey casually asked, walking from the pool and tying a towel around her hips.

"No, they're gentleman from Turkey." Meridio replied flatly.

Casey raised an eyebrow and didn't hide her surprise very well.

Meridio caught the expression and called her on it. "Don't tell me that a modern woman such as yourself harbors ill will toward our neighbors?"

"No, no, of course not. I guess I'm just a little surprised that you're so open to it." Casey responded.

Old World Greeks like her father had a habit; it seemed, of detesting Albanians and Turks. It was a feud as old as the Catholics and the Protestants. Few Greeks ever forgot that centuries ago the Turks, or the Ottoman's as they were known according to ancient history, captured Constantinopole, renamed it Istanbul, and made it the capital of the Ottoman empire. The Turkish military partially destroyed the Parthenon in the late 1600's, an unforgivable sin to historians. For 350 years, the Greeks lived under Turkish rule until their domination ended in the 1800's. Most of what is now modern day Turkey belonged at one time to Greece.

"These gentleman are different. We have been associates for a very long time and we have developed an excellent working relationship. I would like you to do me a favor, Máhtia Mou."

"You mean look pretty and charming at the party?" Casey asked, trying hard to disguise the contempt in her voice.

"Well, there is that, yes, but I was actually thinking of something else. I would like it if you would stay in the guesthouse with Tessa for the weekend. The guests here will be all men and I don't want anyone making free with my daughter. I'll speak to Tessa."

"Sure, I have no problem with that arrangement." Inside Casey was jumping up and down with joy. "Like your Turkish associates, Tessa and I have also developed a rather comfortable working relationship."

Casey smiled sweetly as her father reiterated his thanks and walked off. Inside she had a grin on her face that would have made the Cheshire Cat look like the Mona Lisa.

"Are you sure he said Turks?" Tessa questioned the small blonde for the third time.

"Okay, is it that you don't believe me or is there another reason that you keep asking me that?" Casey responded.

"Oh, I'm sorry, hon," Tessa replied, slightly distracted.

They were having a late lunch outside on the patio of a local tavérna on Mýkonos. Casey told her lover of the conversation with her father, but she hadn't yet told the dark-haired woman who her roommate for the weekend would be.

"What's the deal, Niko?"

"The deal, as you put it, is that I was unaware that your father did business with anyone from Turkey anymore." Tessa responded.

"Well, I know you're the Meridio Karê, but surely my father doesn't tell you everything that goes on in his dealings?" Casey asked.

"No, but up to this point I didn't know that. Frankly, I didn't think your father was that smart. You see a good mángas never tells those underneath them everything that goes on in their business. Even when I ran my own racket, I never told any one person everything. Meridio's just a little smarter than I thought."

"You said anymore," Casey paused as the waitress brought their food out and placed it on the table, then resumed her conversation. "Did he do business with the Turks at one time?"

"Yea," Tessa replied, trying to remember the details. "About two years ago we stopped getting any kind of sales from one of our major clients in Turkey. Rumors went around and I happened to catch a few of them. I told Meridio, but at the time we both blew them off."

"What kind of rumors?"

"That our friends in Turkey had decided to move up in the world. They supposedly had connections and were going to start selling, and not just handguns either...big ticket items like--"

"Nuclear weapons." Casey finished softly.

Tessa touched the tip of her index finger to her nose. "Correct. I reported it to Jack, but at the time everyone just laughed. The Turks just didn't have the money, power, or contacts to pull it off. Most folks in the business just thought they were pissing in the wind. Funny thing about that, though. If the rumors were false, then who do the Turks buy from?"

"You think they could be father's suppliers instead of buyers?"

"It could go one of two ways. Giving Meridio the complete benefit of the doubt and providing what he told you is true, then perhaps two years ago the Turks found a new supplier and that connection has dried up. So, now they have to buy from us again."

"Now tell me the scenario you really believe." Casey arched an eyebrow at the dark-haired woman.

"That the Turks did start selling and they became Meridio's big connection, only Meridio, being the smart man I'm suddenly discovering him to be, keeps it to himself. He does business as usual with the small dealers, I've got a name for every one of them, but he does an extremely private business with the Turks. He makes millions of U.S. dollars reselling things like Titan missiles. He becomes wealthier and wealthier by giving third world countries the capability of creating their own nuclear holocausts."

"Do you actually keep books with sales receipts and the like?" Casey asked, somewhat amazed.

"Business is business, whether it's legal or not. The more anal and paranoid you are the better your silent partners like you. Everything that comes in and goes out gets marked in the books. That's why I know we haven't done business with the Turks. It's beginning to look like your father is keeping a second set of books even from me."

"I still don't get the concept of keeping books in the first place. I mean, what if you're caught? Isn't it just fodder for the prosecuting attorneys?"

"When you deal with business people you have to keep business records. Your father doesn't come up with the cash to buy a weapon the size of an American fighter jet all by himself; he has silent partners that put up the capital. If those guys feel like you're cheating them, you damn well better have books to show them you're not."

"So, you're saying he's got invoices somewhere that you haven't seen?" Casey asked for confirmation of her theory.

Tessa leaned forward and there was a gleam in her eye. "I think this is it, Casey. I feel it. I think the men that are coming to Mýkonos for the weekend are the final piece in the puzzle."

"So, if we can find some of those invoices, anything that confirms all this, we turn it over to Jack and it's enough?" Casey asked.

"Yes, but that's not going to be as easy as it sounds. Meridio must have a place in his office I don't know about. Damn, can you believe we find this out now? We just had a whole week without him here when we could have looked through the place."

"Are you sure it's his office? They could be anywhere in his private rooms upstairs." Casey commented.

"No, he'd have them somewhere close to where he does business during the day."

"The safe is the obvious choice."

"Too obvious. I'm in there almost every single day. I know every inch of that safe and I've never seen anything out of the ordinary."

"Niko, couldn't we just wait until my father goes out of town again?" Casey wondered.

"Casey, if the Turks really are the ones and we can get proof while they're still in this country, then Jack can have InterPol arrest them and they'll have them here. That way they won't have to go through the whole extradition process. I don't have to tell you that the Turkish government is about as likely to turn them over to the Greeks as we would be if the positions were reversed."

"So, we have to find a way to search father's office before the weekend is over."

"Correction. We have to find a way for you to search his office." Tessa replied. "Look," Tessa began in explanation. "If I get caught rummaging through any place that exceeds my authority as Karê, I'm made immediately. If you get caught looking in one of your father's desk drawers you can bat your eyes and say you were looking for a pencil and the chances are good he'll believe you."

Casey nodded silently, agreeing with her lover.

"We'll have to figure out a way to slip you away from the party tomorrow night and into his office."

"Where to I start looking first?"

"Let me think." Tessa responded, trying to visualize the office in her head.

"Oh, I got it!" Casey said excitedly. "I bet he keeps them in a hollowed out book on the bookshelf."

Tessa didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She settled for a loving smile.

"Casey, this isn't an Agatha Christie novel."

"Well, I don't know. I just figured it works for Jessica Fletcher."

"Who is Jessica Fletcher?" Tessa asked.

"Don't you ever watch television?" Casey answered. "You know, Murder She Wrote...Angela Lansbury?"

Tessa couldn't help the grin. Here they were in a most serious and complex situation and her lover was drawing on expertise from fictional crime solvers.

"Yea, I know who the character is. I always remember thinking the last place on earth I wanted to be was that little town she lived in."

"Why?"

"Did you ever notice how people had a habit of dying there?"

Both women released a burst of nervous laughter and it helped ease the tension of the moment.

"Okay, once you get into the room go for the desk drawers and the small file cabinet just to the right of the safe. They should at least be good places to start. Casey?" Tessa queried the young woman.

Casey looked at Tessa expectantly. "Yes?"

"I want you to remember to be very careful. Please remember this is not James Bond stuff. It's serious and people have been killed within the Meridio organization for less. If you're caught doing anything just keep denying until your blue in the face. Okay?"

"Niko, do you think my father would have me killed if he found out what I was doing?" Casey asked softly.

Tessa leaned her elbows on the table and bent her body toward the small blonde seated across the table from her. "You've heard the saying blood is thicker than water? You've disproved that theory by choosing me over your father, realizing what I intend to do. I just don't want to find out what Meridio will do in the position of having to choose you or the money."

Casey looked down at her hands, finally looking up again at Tessa. "Niko, how do you know so much about what my father will do?"

"Because I was him, Casey." Tessa didn't even have to think about it before she answered. "I was just as heartless and every bit as cruel."

Tessa waited as the young woman across from her lowered her eyes once again. The Karê waited for her lover to say it. Tessa dropped her own gaze into her lap. Go ahead and say it Casey. If I was just like your father then why does he deserve to die and I don't?

The dark-haired woman was almost afraid to raise her eyes; afraid of the judgment she would find in her lover's gaze. Tessa willed her eyes to meet Casey's, but what she saw nearly stopped her heart from beating. There was that smile, that wonderfully bright smile.

"I'm still hungry...let's have dessert." Casey stated matter of factly.

Tessa couldn't help but smile, mostly at the irony of the whole situation, her whole life for that matter. The smile creased into a small frown, as the Karê thought about her own past. I've killed men in cold blood before; did any of them ever leave a wife and children behind? What makes me so different from him? Am I any better?

Tessa watched as her lover's smile turned brighter, the smile she flashed only for Tessa. The dark-haired woman's frown disappeared as she took in the young blonde. What are you doing to me, Casey? For twenty years I've had only one thing to keep me focused. Now, you walk in and suddenly nothing else is as important.

"Come on, let's go." Tessa smiled, rising and throwing a generous amount of bills on the table.

"Hey," Casey complained, "what about my dessert?"

Tessa put on a seductive grin and leaned down toward the small blonde.

"Let's go home...I've got something you can have for dessert."

Tessa walked away without looking back, assured her young lover would be following closely behind. Casey jumped from her seat and was close on the taller woman's heels, a smile filled with anticipation on her face.

"Don't you look nice." Casey remarked looking at her lover's reflection through the mirror.

Tessa stood behind the small blonde and ran a brush through her hair as Casey finished up her make-up. The taller woman wore a cream colored suit and a deep burgundy silk blouse.

"Admit it, Karê," Casey teased, walking in to the bedroom of the guesthouse to get into her own clothes. "You're just wearing such dressy slacks so you can wear heels. You love intimidating the hell out of those men by towering over them."

"Hey," Tessa called from the bathroom, smirking into the mirror. "I use what I got."

"Is that what you're wearing tonight?" Tessa asked dumbfounded as she walked into the bedroom.

Casey stood there indicating the taller woman should zip up the back of the short black dress. The neckline plunged a little more than Casey was used to, but she figured if she could keep their eyes there, she would have a better chance at getting what she needed.

"No, I thought I'd go bowling in this and wear jeans to the party, what kind of a question is that? Doesn't it look good?"

"No, it looks great...too great. Now I'm going to have to spend all night worrying about you and keeping guys from hitting on you." Tessa replied with a crestfallen look.

Casey chuckled and turned her back. Tessa slowly zipped the dress and slipped her arms around the young woman's waist.

"Just remember, I better not see you using any of what you've got tonight." Tessa whispered in a husky voice. "At least until we get back here."

"Only for you," Casey turned in the embrace and lightly kissed the woman's lips.

"You remembered to e-mail Jack, right?" Tessa asked as an afterthought as they were heading out the door.

"I did it as soon as I woke up this morning. He knows what we know." Casey replied.

"Which isn't a whole heck of a lot," Tessa responded, holding the door open for the smaller woman. "Shall we?"

The evening went by quickly. The Turkish men were a great deal more cordial to Tessa than their Libyan counterparts. The men who seemed to be the leaders seemed quite interested in the Meridio Karê. Tessa suspected they were looking to hire her based upon her reputation and she wouldn't be surprised if an offer came before they packed up at the close of the weekend.

So, Tessa did something she rarely did. She took center stage and entertained as well as informed. She not only talked about being a woman in this business, but also told of her experiences when she ran the docks in Athens. Within two hours she was plying them with oúzo and challenging a few of them to a drinking game.

Casey caught Tessa's eye just before the small blonde slipped from the party. She already made up a story in case her father caught her. Just say you wanted a few minutes of silence...you were looking for something to write with that's why the drawer is open. Casey said it over and over to herself so it would sound natural and not forced. She silently entered her father's office, never even seeing the figure that shadowed her.

"Okay...you're Jessica Fletcher," Casey whispered aloud.

Tessa told her not to be gone more than ten minutes at a time and she'd been in here for fifteen already. Unable to find anything that even looked like it had a Turkish name printed on it, she stood in the center of the room and looked around. Her father's bookshelves were in perfect order, nothing out of place. Perhaps that was why the large, leather bound copy of Chaucer's, The Canterbury Tales seemed so out of place with its spine pulled out about an inch further than the other books. Casey pulled the large tome from its resting place and opened it up. The blonde smiled brightly. Unh huh...this will teach her to laugh at me.

She opened the volume and there, resting inside a hollowed out cavern of pages were three packets of yellow slips. Quickly leafing through them, she recognized one of the names as a man she'd been introduced to earlier this evening. Jackpot! She thought to herself. She carefully removed the rubber bands. Tessa told her if she found anything not to take the first or the last one, take some from the middle. That way they wouldn't be missed for a little while. She quickly took two slips from the middle of each bundle. Folding them over carefully, she lifted her dress and tucked them into the waistband of her panties. Smoothing the dress back down and carefully replacing the book exactly as she had found it, Casey turned just in time to see the door to the office opening.

The small blonde could feel the heat in her face and she was sure whoever was there could hear the furious pounding of her heart. She willed her breathing a little slower and nearly cried in relief when she recognized one of the young Turkish men from the party.

"I though perhaps we could share a dance." He spoke haltingly in Greek.

"Of course," Casey smiled nervously. "Why don't we just go back to the party and I'd be happy to."

Casey noticed the man's bloodshot eyes and could smell his breath. She knew he'd had more than his share of drink already. Casey started to walk past the young man, but he put his arm up against the door.

"I was thinking of a private dance." He slurred.

"Tessa, where is my daughter?" Meridio questioned the Karê.

That's just what I'd like to know!

"I honestly don't know, Mr. Meridio." Tessa answered, leading Meridio from the dining room out into the hall to talk. "She said she was going to the powder room."

"I'm depending on you to keep an eye out for her, Tessa" Meridio was beginning to get as exasperated edge to his voice.

"I know, I--"

Casey walked out of her father's office, not seeing the tall woman or her father down the hall.

"Look, no means no, okay?" The small blonde said forcefully to the young man who made a move for her anyway.

That's when Casey saw her father and Tessa staring at the blonde. Tessa's eyes darted back and forth as if looking for a way to get them out of this.

"Kiss me." Casey whispered to the delighted Turk and he didn't have to be asked twice. With his back to the onlookers, he slipped an arm around the young woman's waist and pulled her in for a kiss.

Casey pushed the man away with a powerful shove, drawing back her hand; she slapped him hard across the face. The stunned young man reeled back from the force of the small woman's blow and began cursing in Turkish. He grabbed Casey's arm, but neglected to see the dark-haired woman who was suddenly towering over him.

Tessa had no idea if Casey planned it or not, but she was down the hallway in half a dozen strides. She struck a forceful blow to the man's wrist and he howled in pain, releasing the small blonde's arm. By the time he looked up, Tessa had her arm cocked back. The dark-haired woman's fist connected and the young man stood there, teetering back and forth and looking in amazement at the Karê's fist, which was drawing back for another blow. He stared at her like she'd hit him with a bar of lead instead of her fist. That's when his legs got the message and crumpled underneath him, as he fell into an unconscious heap on the floor.

"Cassandra, are you allright?" Meridio rushed up and pulled his daughter into his protective embrace.

"Yes, Pappa, I'm so sorry, I hope I didn't ruin your party." Casey answered. The small blonde added a tremor to her voice and conjured up a few crocodile tears to go along with her act as the terrified heroine.

"Miss Meridio, I'm so sorry. I should never have allowed you to go off to the powder room alone." Tessa apologized for Meridio's benefit, also explaining to Casey where her father thought she was.

"Thank you for coming to me rescue. He'd been following me around and I thought if I slipped into your office," Casey looked at her father, "that he would leave me alone. I didn't realize he'd try to force himself on me." Casey was playing the helpless woman to the hilt.

"Forgive me, Máhtia Mou," Meridio apologized to his daughter. "I should never have asked you to come to the party this evening. There are some men who just don't know how to behave in front of ladies. Are you feeling allright now?"

"As a matter of fact I am feeling a little shaky after all that." Casey lied. "Would it ruin your evening too much, Pappa, if I just called it an evening and went to bed?"

Tessa was biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing out loud. Had the situation not been so deadly serious it would have been comical.

"Of course not, Máhtia Mou. Tessa will go with you. Tessa, I want to see you by Cassandra's side every minute of the day and night for the rest of the weekend. I do not want a repeat of what happened tonight."

"You can count on me, Mr. Meridio. I won't let her out of my sight." Tessa replied.

This time it was Casey's turn to bite her lip and fight off the smile that threatened.

"You are truly gifted." Tessa exclaimed once they were inside the guesthouse.

"I got them, Niko." Casey looked up at her lover.

"Are you kidding me? From the desk?"

"From a hollowed out book." Casey answered smugly.

"Oh, quit fooling--really?" Tessa was stunned. She slipped her arms around the woman. "I swear, I will never make fun of your American television shows again."

Casey kissed the tall woman and broke away, lifting up her dress slightly to retrieve the invoice slips. Tessa scanned them quickly.

"This one," Tessa said holding up one of the slips, "he's the bald guy you met tonight." The Karê commented.

"I thought that was his name." The young woman replied.

"Okay, first things first. Get on your computer and e-mail Jack. Tell him what we've got and ask him how long we stick around now."

Tessa turned and walked into the kitchen. She pulled out a plastic baggy and placed the slips inside of it. After searching the room with her eyes for a moment, she opened a flour canister and tucked the package inside, covering the plastic bag with flour.

Casey typed the message to Jack, but was suspiciously quiet all of a sudden. It had all happened so fast and now their question was, how long do we stick around? It became a rather anticlimactic moment for the young woman realizing that now her life as Cassandra Meridio, at least the life she enjoyed in Greece, was over. The burden that Casey didn't want to look at yet still weighed heavily on her. If this is it, when will Tessa do it? Should she ask or just hope that her lover had begun to see past her vow.

As the two women lay on the bed together, waiting for sleep to claim them, each became surrounded in the same thought, only looking at it from a different perspective.

When will she do it?

Will I still do it?

It was after four a.m., but that didn't seem to matter much to Jack. He remembered those missions in the jungles of Guatemala where he'd stayed awake for a week, barely sleeping ten minutes a day. He was just dozing off tonight when he got the call that Casey had e-mailed. The small blonde said they found the proof, handwritten invoices, which implicated the Turks, who just happened to be spending the weekend at the Meridio estate. The Center was thrown into high gear with the news.

"Oh, she's good." Jack muttered to himself. They couldn't have possibly timed it any better. Now they could grab the Turks in this country and tell the consulate in Turkey to go to hell.

"We got a little bit of a problem here, boss."

Jack turned to look at the computer whiz kid the Bureau sent him. The kid was an agent, but how he got through the Academy was a mystery. He had Bill Gates, computer nerd written all over him. What pissed Jack off the most was the kid continued to call him boss after he told the kid he would break his kneecaps if he did it again.

"What the hell do you mean, a problem?" Jack asked.

"Well, the cameras we nixed at the Greek's place...they're in the know again." The whiz kid replied.

"What the hell is he saying in English?" Armstrong asked the young woman next to him. She was Korean, but at least he could understand her.

"The cameras in the Meridio estate. The dark-haired woman said no one ever looked at the cameras or the tapes, they were only running in case of a break in and then they'd run it back. So, we disabled them. We had one of our guys go in for a phone repair and slip a little magnet inside the taping mechanism of all the cameras."

"I know all this...get to the we're in trouble part." Jack growled impatiently.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 685