Panthera Spelaea

Art’s office was jam-packed with people as I entered. It got quiet as I looked around at the people and the monitors around the room full of information on stocks and finances. “Ah, John,” Art said as he waved me over to the conference table. “How is Svetlana doing?”

“Much better, thank you,” I said as I sat down at the spot he indicated. “Thanks to you and your crew. If it had not been for the helicopter evacuation and the abilities of your medical staff, I would have lost her. We couldn’t wait for an ambulance to show up.”

“It was much too close, but now that she has your healing abilities, she will be fine,” Duncan said. “What does not kill her can be restored to peak condition. Thank you, by the way.”

“For what?”

“Your warning gave us time to take cover before the team after us was ready to attack. We killed one and captured the other. Zach has him below decks, and he is singing like a canary.” Zach was the leader of the Security Department on the ship.

“How did they find us?”

“Cellphones,” Art replied. “Todd had an accomplice who worked in our computer group onboard. She was the one who prepared the phones we gave you, and they were tracking out teams as we sent them out. She also was shunting our real-time communications and intelligence to Mikhail’s people.”

“Why?”

“Money. She was promised ten million dollars and a new identity in exchange for information that would allow Mikhail to obtain a Switcher. We didn’t catch it right away because Todd was dating her younger sister back in England. The pair convinced her to betray our family for that. It is my family and my responsibility.”

“He’s a billionaire. Ten million is pocket change for him if it gains Mikhail his immortality,” Edward said. “It’s a new time. Never before has it been so easy to change sides.”

“Or so lucrative,” Art said with a sigh. “She told Zach that ten million dollars now was better than a lifetime of employment in the family business. It’s enough to make me rethink everything.”

“And yet these are the first two in over five centuries to turn on you,” I said. “Anyone can be vulnerable if they dangle enough money or threaten what they hold dear. Despite the intelligence feed, Mikhail is not in a good position. We kicked the shit out of his mercenary force and took out two teams he sent to capture us. We know who he is, and we’ll go on offense.”

Art nodded in agreement. “Mikhail is heading back to Russia as we speak; he didn’t stick around after his people failed.” He tossed a photograph across the table to me. “Recognize this guy?”

It was a telephoto lens shot of four people leaving a helicopter. I recognized Mikhail Abrahmov and the man to his left. “This guy had the rifle.”

“Abrahmov’s second son. The Italian authorities are scraping him off the rocks right now. The others we captured or killed were part of his corporate security team. Mikhail isn’t going to give up, and it’s personal with you. You and your mates killed his boy.”

Good. “Too bad Mikhail took off. My Lion wants his blood on my teeth.”

“As does my Bear,” Art said. “For now, we’ll have to satisfy our need for revenge using economic means.” He had all of the Karpen Investments department heads around the table, and all of them had been busy. How? Merchant banks called in his loans, forcing his company to use their liquid assets to keep operating. Bond companies downgraded his stocks, citing new information about shady investments and Russian government investigations. Investigations based on information supplied by ‘whistleblowers’ had already resulted in raids. Suppliers changed hands, the new companies breaking existing contracts and refusing to renegotiate. We’d known about Mikhail for less than a day, and we’d turned his company upside down.

I listened to the updates, impressed by the scale, but ultimately knew it wouldn’t matter. “All of that was good and would make Mikhail’s life more difficult, but it wouldn’t stop him. He was dying, and this was his ‘Hail Mary’ pass to cheat death. If it costs him every last ruble he has, he’ll keep trying. We have to kill him to stop him.”

“Agreed,” Duncan said. “None of us are safe while he is alive.”

Edward nodded his assent. “We need direct action.”

Art shook his head. “Mikhail isn’t stupid. He took his shot and missed, and he knows we are coming after him. He’s going to hunker down somewhere, protected by all the mercenaries he can hire, and pick his spot.”

“Then we need to lure him out,” Duncan said.

Art looked at him. “How? We can’t risk exposing one of us to his people. If he gets lucky, he wins. I refuse to use one of us as bait.”

I let out a smile as the idea hit me. “You’re right, Art. Mikhail won’t come out unless he thinks he can kill a Switcher. Still, we don’t have to walk around as bait. We have to make Mikhail BELIEVE we are going to be somewhere and vulnerable. We bait the trap and wait for him to show up.”

“And how do we do that?”

I grinned and tapped the table. “We have almost everything we need here on this yacht. It’s time we used it.”

“Used what?”

“Our traitor. We use her to feed Mikhail the information we WANT him to believe.”

There were smiles around the table. “I like it,” Duncan said. “Where?”

“I have people all over Europe, not just on this ship,” Art said. “We pick a spot and get our people dug in and hidden before Mikhail can move anyone in.”

“Not Italy,” I said immediately. After the close calls with the law, I didn’t want the ship anywhere near their territorial waters. “Someplace with plenty of open land and few people. It has to be accessible by boat.”

“Greece could work. There are thousands of islands in the Aegean,” the Captain said. “Most are rocky, but up in Croatia, they have more trees.”

Art nodded. “Svetac Island would be ideal; we’ve used it to let my Bear out before. It’s got a rugged landscape with plenty of trees and shrubs, no good landing areas for boats and helicopters, and it’s fifty kilometers from the mainland. Best of all, it’s privately owned, and he’s a friend of mine.”

After looking at some maps and talking it over, we had an agreement on a plan. Art told the Captain to proceed to the Croatian coastline. During the two-day transit, Art and his people would get people into place and transmit false information through the tap into the ship’s computer systems. Art’s people would request a boat and two security personnel to protect me on the island while I learned to hunt in lion form. Meanwhile, the Elements would transit up the Adriatic to Sibenik, Croatia.

Now, all we needed was a lion.