Seated on top of my bed in the bedroom I continued to scroll through the international headlines until an incoming call from Skype. Clicking on the 'answer' button the call popped up, showing James sitting in front of his laptop on the other side of the call. Putting up a hand to signal him to wait I grabbed my wireless earbuds and plugged it in.
"White Wolf." I said.
"God Save the Queen." James replied. After that we shared a smile and waved at each other.
"I'm glad that you called."
"Considering what happened... I might have been lucky, but I'm in danger."
"The chief told me. How's your parents?" before he could reply his bedroom door opened and a recognizable figure entered the room.
"Mom!" James called out while I held back the urge to laugh. "I'm talking here."
"Is that Isabella?" the figure asked. "My God, it's been years since I last saw you."
"Hello Aunty." I said, waving at the screen. "It's been years."
"I am so sorry about your mother's passing." she said, setting down a tray of jam cookies and tea. "Alice has always been a dear friend of mine."
"I'm still adjusting aunty, even though it's been years."
"I'm leaving the chat, giving you both time to catch up." James said, leaving his room.
"Don't mind his antics Isabella." she said, shaking her head.
"Hey, we've been friends for four years." I say. "It's fine."
"You looked really stressed out, being the second most important in the world and country."
"You know me aunty." I say. "I'm already familiar with this kind of life."
"You have a husband for you to lean on for one."
"How's uncle?"
"Oh he's fine. He was considering retirement."
"I remember him saying that he's really committed to his job."
"People often grow old, and tend to retire." she said and I laughed. "I hear that your Norwegian is improving."
"James can be more of a bully when it comes to speaking Norwegian."
"Oh." she said. "I'll reprimand him for you."
"Wait, no." I said with a laugh.
"It's been nice talking to you again Lady Isabella."
"Still using that title? I'm not British you know."
"Most of the British high society doesn't think that way. Since that you received an honorary knighthood for saving the Queen."
"Okay, okay, Lady Isabella it is." I smiled. James re-entered the room two minutes later.
"Having fun talking to my mother?" he asked. "Let's get down to business shall we?"
"Right, regarding the problem of our 'friend'."
"Bloody hell for that man to bomb that apartment."
"MI6 has files on Sean Adamson no?"
"We do." he replied.
"The voices you recorded on the recording pen is garbled. No thanks to the voice scrambler."
"I didn't see the device, they must have concealed it within their belongings." he said. "How skillful of them."
"But I can confirm that Sean Adamson is the guy that poisoned Sergei Volodin." I replied. "I don't recognize that old man."
"We don't have much of a dossier on him, he calls himself Mikhail."
"Mikhail? Just like that?" I asked. "No known name?"
"No Isa, not even the name Mikhail is real."
"Great." I said in disappointment.
"Just hope that it's a start."
"Hardly one James. Aliases tend to lead people sideways."
"So what do you think of this Mikhail?"
"Judging from the dossier he's more of a ghost. But judging from his looks and guessing his age, he might be an old communist."
"He hired the hitman, for one, to poison Volodin."
"Fifteen million dollars is quite the bounty."
"Where is he now?"
"Volodin's still in Maryland, I'm not going to tell you where he is, if I know."
"I'm guessing ICU. Novichok is well... you know how dangerous the nerve agent is. That's all the info I have Isa, sorry."
"No problem. Take care of yourself out there." I said, ending the call. Setting my laptop back on the study table I exited the bedroom and entered the study after I heard noises.
"This is Greek but it doesn't match the modern greek spellings or phonetics." Tim said.
"You stumbled upon my ancestor's journals." I interrupted the silence. "It's Ancient Greek."
"Ancient Greek? Journal?"
"Sorry, I left out the fact that through my grandmother I'm a direct descendant of King Leonidas." I explained. "If that cleared up a bit."
"The warrior king that led the 300 Spartans?"
"The battle of Thermopylae, yes."
"I anticipated your reaction." Richard joined the conversation.
"Your girlfriend is multiracial Bruce?" Jason piped in as Bruce is reading a book written in Korean.
"My father's American while my mother is part South Korean, part Greek." I explained. "I would love to answer your questions, if you have, but I need to rest early."
"There's rooms here if you boys decided to stay for the night." Bruce said, closing back the book.
YOU ARE READING
Russian Roulette
Mistero / Thriller"This is a crossroad Isabella." he said. "There will be no return if you were captured." "Can I even turn back?" I asked.
