A Price Above Rubies

Chapter Twenty Eight

"I'm here," Hilal calls out in the empty warehouse. Except for a few mangled and moldy boxes against the walls, the place doesn't seem like it's been in operation for a very long time. 

Leon stays in front of her, constantly pulling her along with him as he moves around with him. 

A moving target is always harder to hit, her father explained to her once, a very long time ago. 

A door in the floor opens and Colonel Stavros climbs up, long rifle pointed straight at them. "Drop your gun, Lieutenant Akis… No, Papadopoulos, isn't that right?" 

Leon doesn't confirm his words but lays his gun on the ground. Hilal tries to look past him searching down the long ladder into darkness, trying to spot her sister. 

"Where is she?" Hilal shouts at him while Leon holds her back. 

"A deal is a deal of course, come on down." 

The colonel keeps his gun trained on him as Leon climbs down first, followed by Hilal.

"Bastard," she hears Leon whisper and it makes her dread what he's looking at. 

Her heart drops into her stomach when she finally sees her sister. 

Yildiz is tied to a chair, her face bruised, lip cut and oozing blood. "Hilal!" she chokes out in a way that makes Hilal think she tried to scream for help for a long time. "You need to leave-"

"You bastard!" Hilal hisses to the colonel. "Untie her right now!"

"Hilal, please! Listen to me. You need to go," Yildiz cries desperately. 

"Nobody is going anywhere," Colonel Stavros snapped. "Not when I finally have you here to make you pay. It took a while but I got this bitch to tell me who you really were, Nurse Kostas, indeed." 

"I'm sorry," Yildiz says, lowering and shaking her head. "I'm so sorry." 

"No," Hilal assures her, tears filling her eyes for her sister. She tries to move towards Yildiz but the colonel stops her by cocking his gun. 

"Uh uh. You stay right there."

Hilal glares at him but focuses back on Yildiz. "You have nothing to apologize for,Yildiz. Nothing at all, my sister." 

"How very sweet," Colonel Stavros drawled with disgust. "Now you don't look very good, lieutenant. Not very good at all," he said looking at Leon. 

Hilal looks at Leon more closely and feels her worry increase. He's getting worse. His face is flushed and his eyes seem a little bright but unfocused. A fever, she thinks when she touches his clammy skin. He blinks and shakes his head, his eyes more alert and focused now. 

"I'm fine. And it's Captain now."

"Ah, nice to see how treason is rewarded," Colonel Stavros says bitterly. "Now, I was cheated out of getting my vengeance against your father for killing my nephew. Imagine my good fortune upon learning his son lived here in Greece." 

He walks towards Yildiz and stroks her bruised cheek, making Hilal take an angry step towards him but Leon stops her. 

"I know his brother had betrayed his regiment and deserted and on top of that married a Turkish whore. I knew if I could grab one brother, the other would follow. You didn't disappoint." 

Hilal feels Leon stiffen next to her but he doesn't rise to the bait. 

"You're going to let her go. Now," Leon says softly.