The Russian Cage Read online

  Caroline beckoned to me, so I stepped closer, still with Felicia, who wasn’t about to miss this. Captain McMurtry looked at me with a lot of calculation. “Tell Miss Rose what you have learned,” Caroline said.

  “I called the jail. Eli Savarov is a prisoner there,” McMurtry said. “The charge is murder.”

  If they expected me to faint or something, they were disappointed. Didn’t matter to me if Eli had been charged with torturing bunnies. “I can go and see him?” I said. “I have permission?” I looked at the tsarina, trying like hell to look humble and worried. The worried part wasn’t hard.

  “Yes, of course,” Caroline said, pleased to be asked. “You shall go now, and Captain McMurtry shall go with you. I see your little sister’s class has left to return to the school. Perhaps you had better drop her off along the way?”

  Felicia was unhappy at being discarded, as she saw it, but what could I do? This was the tsarina telling us what she wanted. And I was far from sure Felicia should go into the jail, anyway. I would rather not have Captain McMurtry with me, but it might save me from being killed or imprisoned myself, having a royalty-approved escort.

  “Of course,” McMurtry said. “Miss Rose, are you ready?”

  “I am,” I said, and that was the most I’d ever understated anything. “Your Imperial Highness, I am real grateful.”

  “Then we are even,” Caroline said, with a smile, pleased with her turn of phrase. “That’s how Americans put it, am I correct?”

  “Yes, Your Imperial Highness, you are quite correct,” said one of the ladies. Suck-up.

  I thought of trying a curtsy, decided I would look like a fool, and bowed like the captain. And we left.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  When we came out of the front door of the residence, or palace, or whatever they called it, a car pulled around immediately. Felicia tugged on my hand and shook her head. She did not want us to get in that car.

  “That car’s got a low tire,” I said. “Captain McMurtry, don’t you think we should take the next one?”

  I looked up at him. He was a tall man. He was looking down at me with a doubtful face.

  He could look all he liked. I was beginning to understand my half sister was the best ally I could have at my side.

  “If you think so,” McMurtry said, giving the tire, which was perfectly all right, a quick glance. I didn’t care if he thought he was humoring me, as long as I got my way. Felicia’s way.

  McMurtry made a go on gesture, and the driver, a squat white-haired man, glared at him and waved his own hand at the passenger doors, indicating we should get in.

  I bent down. “No,” I said clearly. “Nyet.” I’d learned that from Eli.

  The driver actually spat, which was a mistake if he’d still hoped to get us in the car somehow. McMurtry became as determined as I was. He said a few words in slow Russian to the driver, who had no choice but to pull forward without us. McMurtry beckoned to the next car in the rank, which obediently swung into place.

  I waited a second to see if Felicia was going to nix this one, too, but she opened the front door and climbed in, leaving me and McMurtry to take the back seat. This driver was also Russian, and Felicia had a cheerful conversation with him. I had no idea what they were chattering about. McMurtry told the driver where we were going, and off we went.

  When we came to the civilian parking area, I asked the driver to stop for a minute. We were close to Felix’s car, and he was looking at us doubtfully. He rolled his window down.

  “One second,” I said to McMurtry, and beckoned Felicia to come with me.

  “You sending me with him?” she said.

  I nodded. “Thanks for all your help in there. And you sang great, too.”

  Felicia grinned. “Tell Eli I said hello, and give him this.” She reached in her pocket to get a turquoise nugget. It was polished and gleaming. She held it so no one could see it but us two.

  “What does it do?” I was a little worried. No, a lot worried.

  “It will blow up.” She was pleased as punch.

  “You made it yourself?”

  “I had supervision,” she said haughtily.

  I had a lot I wanted to say, but I bit it off. She’d been so great at the palace. I wasn’t going to hop all over her now. “Thanks, sis,” I said. We hugged briefly.

  While Felicia went around to scramble into Felix’s car, I bent down to talk to him. “We’re going to the jail to see Eli!” I said. “Captain McMurtry tells me Eli’s been charged with murder. I don’t know who he’s supposed to have killed. Felicia can tell you everything before you drop her off at school. Why don’t you come to the jail afterward? Just in case.”

  “You have succeeded better than I ever imagined,” Felix had the decency to say. Really surprised me.

  “I couldn’t have done it without Felicia.”

  “Death to the enemy!” Felicia said, with her big grin. I hoped none of the guards could hear her.

  “You’re not eleven years old,” I said with certainty, the idea coming out of my mouth before I could even think about it. “How old are you, really?”

  My sister just smiled. “Captain’s waiting,” she said.

  I had to put Felicia on the back burner. I got back into the court car. Eli. He was what I had to think about right now.

  “How long you worked at the palace?” I said when we were under way. I didn’t want to fuss and fidget all the way to the jail.

  “Four years now. My full name is Ford McMurtry, and I was formerly of the US Navy. Now I’m aide to the tsarina and a member of the Holy Russian Army.” He shook his head. “Incredible. You?”

  “Lizbeth Rose,” I said, though I was sure he knew my full name. “I’m from Segundo Mexia in Texoma.”

  “You’re a gunnie.”

  “Yes. I work on protection crews.”

  “I should take you out to the range,” Captain McMurtry said, and there was a little sliver of amusement in his voice. I didn’t like that, but I swallowed it. After all, I was on my way to see Eli.

  “That would be great,” I said. “My guns are in the hotel safe.”

  “What do you carry? I’ve got a Colt M1911. It’s accurate and reliable.”

  We talked guns all the way to the jail. It was the best conversation I’d had since I’d gotten on the train.

  We were close to the spot where I’d stood to try to contact Eli by sending him brain waves or thoughts or whatever I’d been doing. Longing. That was what I’d been sending him. If someone had asked me to predict how I’d feel at this moment, I would have said I’d be too excited to hide it.

  Instead, I was having the shivery feeling that meant trouble was coming. A lot of thoughts about what that trouble might be jostled around in my head. Eli might refuse to see me, he might be dead, they might have tortured him, they might lock me up somewhere else…

  I was hard put to control my breathing as we got out of the car. The driver had pulled right into the curb and placed some kind of government card on the dashboard. We crossed the sidewalk. We walked under the archway. I watched my feet cross the paved court to the check-in desk, which was enclosed by glass reinforced with bars. There was a circle cutout that you could talk through. There was a metal disk that the clerk could slide across the circle when there was no one waiting with a question.

  I took it all in, clenching my hands at my sides so they wouldn’t shake.

  The uniformed cop on duty, an overweight fellow who must have been retirement age, looked Captain McMurtry and me over. He had no opinion of us at all. Slowly, he slid aside the metal disk, having decided that we weren’t going to shoot him outright.

  Captain McMurtry said, “This lady is authorized to visit one of the grigoris. Eli Savarov.” He held out some kind of business card. “I’m aide to Her Imperial Highness, and I’m here on her behalf.”

  The policeman looked doubtful. He tapped his name, sewed on his shirt. “Sergeant Seth Rogers,” he said. “Well, Captain. Not many visitors ge
t cleared to go down there. Or want to. Those’re dangerous people. If they’re really people at all! Devils or demons, more likely.” Rogers looked like he’d bitten into a lemon.

  “Whatever your opinion, Her Imperial Highness has given this lady and me permission to see Savarov.” McMurtry wasn’t giving an inch.

  Rogers grimaced and pulled a ring of keys from one of the hooks on the wall behind him. He pushed a button on the wall, and I heard a bell ring somewhere else in the building. After at least five minutes, a woman came down the passage behind the counter, in no big hurry at all. She, too, was uniformed and stout. She was not armed.

  “You rang?” she said, smiling at Rogers in a flirty way.

  “These people are from the palace,” the policeman said. “Here to see one of your prisoners.”

  I leaned forward a bit to read her name tag. It read HUBBLE. She had bleached her hair and mashed herself into a really tight undergarment.

  “That don’t happen often,” Hubble said. She turned her attention to us. “Well, come on, you two. You got to sign some papers before I take you down there.”

  “Sign what kind of papers?” Captain McMurtry sounded both skeptical and bored.

  Hubble didn’t seem intimidated. “Saying we don’t take responsibility if anything happens to you down there. It’s at your own risk.” Hubble seemed to enjoy the idea of something happening to us.

  “You go down there?” I said. I didn’t want any more of this delay.

  “Every damn day.”

  “You look okay to me.” Except like she never took a step if she could get someone to carry her.

  “Sorry, honey, I don’t swing that way.”

  If she meant to insult me, she had the wrong woman. We’re poor in Texoma, but we don’t care who goes to bed with whom. At least, most of us don’t. I felt Captain McMurtry stiffen beside me as if he expected me to explode into action, but I gave Hubble a bland face. She waited for another moment, still hoping for a reaction, and then she presented us with a clipboard. We signed. McMurtry read the document. I didn’t.

  Hubble didn’t search either of us. I found this shocking. Not only was McMurtry openly carrying a sidearm, but I had a knife or two hidden on me. I’d tucked ’em here and there while Veronika was out of the room. I hadn’t been searched at the palace, which wasn’t such a shock since I was an invited guest. But I was about to enter a jail, where any weapon would be a prize. Even the turquoise tucked behind my belt.

  There must be rules about patting down visitors. Had to be. What a loafer Hubble was! Even if she believed McMurtry was beyond suspicion (right!) because he was a Russian Army officer, I should have been given the once-over.

  I dared not meet McMurtry’s eyes, lest he read my thoughts and search me himself.

  We walked behind Hubble until she came to a door. Ambled, more her speed. She carried the keys given her by the reception cop. They swung from her finger, making an irritating jangle. When she unlocked the metal door and swung it open, I saw that it led downstairs.

  Looked to me like this part of the jail had been added on or adapted after the original jail had been built. It was specially for the housing of grigoris. I don’t know why they thought grigoris would be easier to take care of if they were underground. (Earth grigoris probably loved the location.) I was right behind Hubble, and she didn’t move fast enough to suit me. I wanted to shove her so bad it made my hands itch. It wasn’t that I wanted her to die, it was that I wanted her out of my way.

  There wasn’t a jailer at the foot of the stairs.

  If Hubble’s lack of reaction was any judge, that was the normal state of affairs.

  McMurtry said, “Where is the officer on duty?”

  “We tried keeping people down here, but they went crazy.” Hubble shrugged. “So we just come down when we have to, like now.”

  “You didn’t get another grigori to guard them?” I was truly shocked.

  “What, hire one of them?”

  If I hadn’t been about to see Eli, I would have turned around and gone right back up those stairs, and I would have done it in a hurry. This place was not safe. We reached the bottom, and I gave McMurtry an urgent look so he’d be alert. I was preaching to the choir. His eyes were wide, and his shoulders were tense.

  The cells were all painted beige. The walls to the side were solid. The doors were solid until waist height, then they were barred all the way up to the ceiling. The bars had not been painted.

  The floor was bare concrete. There was a drain in the middle of the passageway between the cells, which was six feet wide. The inmates couldn’t touch, even if they were tall and held their arms out as far as they could extend. There were narrow benches down the middle, for visitors.

  The first cell to our right held a woman. She was broad and brown-haired, and her teeth were bared in a corpse smile.

  “Step away from the bars, Svetlana,” Hubble ordered.

  Svetlana Ustinova moved back about an inch. Hubble seemed to consider that enough. What an idiot.

  The first cell to the left was empty. The second cell to the left held a huge man who must be John Brightwood. He had a crazy tangle of blond hair and a reddish beard. He started laughing when he saw me. I didn’t know why, and I didn’t care.

  The third cell to the right held another woman, must be Jane Parvin. She was tiny, with dark hair and a meek expression. Didn’t fool me for a second.

  “Dear Louise Hubble,” she called, with one of those English accents that make you sound rich, “please bring me a canteen of water.”

  “Water time in an hour,” Hubble said.

  The last cell to the left held Eli. He was standing back from the bars, waiting. When he saw me, he was stunned. It took him a second to be sure it was me—the dress and so forth. Then he was at the bars, his hands extended through them. Before Hubble could stop me, I was holding his hands in mine. We didn’t have to say anything.

  “Ain’t this touching?” Hubble, of course.

  I ignored her. Here was Eli. We were holding hands.

  I felt like I had grabbed an electric wire. I buzzed and crackled with life.

  “How did you know?” Eli said finally.

  “I got a letter,” I said. I left out Felicia. Hubble was standing right beside me, and I couldn’t give her anything to report. “I came directly.”

  “Is Peter all right? He came once and then not again.”

  “They won’t let him back in. They won’t tell your mom why you’re in here. The tsarina didn’t know. She got Captain McMurtry, here, to call the jail and find out the charge. Then Captain McMurtry and I came here to verify you’re a prisoner.”

  “No one knew? How is that possible?” Eli’s hands tightened still further on mine. I didn’t care.

  “Who is this little bit of fluff, Prince Ilya?” The voice was sarcastic and English.

  McMurtry was just close enough. Before he realized it, I unsnapped his holster, pulled out his gun, and pointed it at John Brightwood. “I’m the fluff that’s going to shoot your dick off,” I said.

  Svetlana Ustinova laughed. “And what would John be without his dick?” she said.

  “Brightwood,” Eli said, in a level voice. “This is Lizbeth Rose.”

  The English grigori actually stopped laughing. “This little gal? She’s the one killed Marty and Varvara?”

  McMurtry was tolerating the situation. But that wasn’t going to last long. He’d realize I’d taken the only firearm in this area.

  “Tell me,” I said to Eli. “We can end this now.” I’d shoot McMurtry first, because he was capable. Then Hubble, to shut her up. Get the keys from Hubble. Unlock Eli’s door. Maybe the others’ doors, too, to confuse the issue.

  “I’m going to regret this, but no, Lizbeth.”

  I thought he was wrong, but this was his country. I returned the gun to McMurtry, who snapped it into his holster. While McMurtry’s eyes were on his gun, I slipped the turquoise from behind my belt and into my hand. My other hand we
nt right in front of Hubble’s face, and I snapped my fingers. Hubble had been mouthing off, but she glared at my fingers and ignored everything else, which had been my goal.

  “Pretty sure about the regret, Eli,” I said. “We could be out of here.” I took his hand again and pressed Felicia’s turquoise into his palm.

  “Where would we go?” Eli’s eyes were sad, and the blood was wrung out of my heart with his desperation. He let go of my hand, his fingers closing over the smooth turquoise. For the first time, I took in what he was wearing: sort of pajamas, to my eyes, a loose top and pants with no belt or suspenders, no socks, just some kind of slippers on his feet. “We have to make the best of this.”

  “I understand.” I didn’t, not really; but it was time to leave, no matter how much I wanted to stay with him. “What shall I tell the tsarina?”

  “Tell her I have been imprisoned here for weeks without being charged with a crime,” Eli said. “The jailers keep telling me we’ll all be going before a tribunal of our peers, but that hasn’t happened yet, and no one seems to know when it will.”

  “Were you brought in the same time as Eli?” I asked John Brightwood.

  “Two days before,” Brightwood said. “Jane and Svetlana the day after me.”

  “Tell the tsarina we are loyal,” Svetlana called.

  “Tell her we cannot protect her if we are in jail!” This from Jane Parvin.

  Captain McMurtry wanted to wrap this up. He told them, “We’ve heard everything you’ve said, and we’ll tell the tsarina and the tsar.”

  “You’ve been charged with murder,” I told Eli, at the moment a silence had fallen.

  “The murder of… who?” Eli said, finally.

  “I got no idea. I’ll try to find out.”

  “All right!” Hubble shouted, her authority finally seeping back into her. “You four shut your damn mouths. The tsarina don’t care about you.”

  I turned on the woman. “She does care. She sent me here to see what was happening. And I will tell her.” If she chose to take that as a threat, so be it.

  Eli slid the amulet into his pocket while everyone else was looking at me. His hand was open when I glanced back at him. I had done everything I could do.