Turning Tables

Chapter 17

Rose

We did take our sweet time before we were ready to start up the laptop and begin the bureaucracy part of the job, also I was kind of curious what Sydney had sent me.

So I think I would do that first. I had sent a text to Hans informing him we wanted to talk to him at his earliest convenience and were now waiting for a response. And seeing as we were pretty spent in the bedroom department -understandably after three rounds- we opted for loading the video Sydney had sent us.

Dimitri was seated against the headboard with me snuggled against his chest. His arms were wrapped around me and the laptop was on my lap. He had put on some trainers and I was wearing my panties and pajama top. The theory was that if we had some clothes on we wouldn't be as tempted and could actually get some work done.

Of course that was in theory. In practice Dimitri was stroking my leg as I was waiting for the computer to show the home screen.

"Stop it." I said as I slapped his hand away. "We actually have work to do."

He pouted a little bit. Actually pouted! "I think I am beginning to like this role reversal less and less."

I slapped him playfully on his chest as the computer made the tell tale jingle that it was done booting up.

I logged on into my account where Sydney had sent the video and downloaded it. I then clicked it for it to open. And again and again and again. "Easy Roza, guardian issued computer, remember? it isn't as fast."

Of course I ended up with four instances of the video open. I closed three and finally hit the play button.

It seemed to be a video of an Alchemist compound, security video's by the look of it. I recognized the stylized lily on the cheeks of most people on the tape. It took a few minutes for the tape to show our assailant, Sydney had indicated the exact time he came into frame in her email but seeing as it was only a few minutes in we waited it out, so we could see maybe something else on the tape that might be of interest.

That was four minutes and thirty two seconds of my life I wouldn't get back. Alchemists had a very boring job. But right on the indicated time our Moroi stepped into the frame. Not only did I clearly recognize the man's face, his tell tale arm was a dead give away. This was our attacker. I wondered what he was doing at the Alchemists site?

I wondered what information this would even give us, when another person followed him into the frame. This one I knew and recognized. Just like the other Moroi she had a very distinctive mark that couldn't belong to anyone else.

Natasha Ozera was behind him.

"Tasha?" Dimitri whispered. Obviously being as confused about it as I was.

I saw there was an attachment to the email. I opened it up and it held information about the man. "Apparently he is a bodyguard, a hired help." I said as I scanned the document.

"Maybe Tasha just used him once and somebody else hired him to attack Lissa?"

I wanted to believe him, but... "When Lissa got attacked they were all questioned. Tasha said she had never seen him."

Dimitri's gaze darkened. We were both starting to understand Tasha wasn't innocent in this.

"I wouldn't want to tell Hans I knew him either. Maybe she was just protecting herself. It doesn't mean..."

No it didn't. It was circumstantial evidence at best. But the pieces were starting to come together. "When she learned that Tatiana was running a trial for Moroi to learn to use magic offensively, she looked... I don't know, guilty. Like she had misjudged her."