Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

or…” She paused to study his averted face. “You deliberately wounded him rather than kill him, didn’t you?”
    He muttered a Russian curse under his breath. “I don’t look at things that way. I wasn’t after him. He wasn’t my job. It wasn’t personal and it wasn’t business. We got in each other’s way.” He shrugged. “It happens. I hurt him, though. If he really had the same ability to use magic as you and your sisters, would I have been able to do that?”
    “If he had my talent, or Libby’s. In my opinion, Hannah would be the most difficult to harm, unless someone surprised her, came at her unexpectedly.”
    “Why not Elle?”
    “Hannah’s powers are very concentrated in one or two areas. Elle carries all elements so she’s not quite as strong. And Hannah uses her gifts daily and she works at strengthening them. She’d make a powerful adversary. Libby uses hers as well, but I’m not certain with her gift she would be capable of harming someone.”
    “You think Prakenskii is like Elle?”

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    “He exhibited signs of tremendous control with several talents, not just one. I can do several things, all of us can, but we’re not great at all of them.”
    “I don’t suppose I should venture the hypothesis that he’s male and maybe stronger because of that.”
    “Not if you want to live through the next few minutes.”
    “That’s what I thought.” He flashed a small grin at her. “The idea wouldn’t enter my mind.”
    “Good thing.” She caught his arm as he went to make a turn off the highway onto another road, following the sleeper car. “Wait! Don’t take that road. Keep going. There aren’t any houses for rent down that road. It makes a loop back to the highway. Just drive to the bluff up there”—she pointed—“and park. We should be able to see if they continue south or turn back on us and go back north.”
    Without hesitation, Aleksandr did as she said. He had hung back far enough that he was certain on the main highway, even with the small amount of traffic, the driver wouldn’t be able to spot him. He turned off the lights. “Were any of the men with Nikitin familiar to you? Could any of them be the men who killed Danilov?”
    Abigail frowned. “No. And I injured one of the men with my punch stick. If I didn’t break a bone, I gave him a whopping bruise and he’ll be limping for a few days. It has a very powerful blow. Just punching a shark with your fist isn’t all that effective, so I use a small trigger device and it really packs a wallop. If you see someone limping, check him out.”
    Aleksandr tapped his fingers on the dashboard. “What are we looking for? We know someone is bringing in artifacts and art from Russia via freighter and dropping them off to a fishing boat off this coast.
    There’s a good chance the items are being smuggled through Warner’s gallery. Either he’s aware of it or he’s not, but it’s a great route. He ships items to the city all the time and it would be a very slim chance that someone would open one of his crates.”
    “And if they did, would they even know what they were looking at? He ships art and sculptures all the time,” Abigail said. “I wouldn’t know the difference.”
    “He’s one of the owners of the fishing boat we suspect is being used. But so is Ned Fanner. I recognized his name the minute you said it.”
    She smiled. “You’ve always had the best memory for details. I meet people and can’t remember their name five minutes later. How do you do that?”
    He shrugged. “Partly training, but I always have had a talent for names and places. I can read text and not forget it. It’s a tremendous asset when I’m given so much data to cross-check.” He leaned forward to peer out the window. “There it is. See the headlights? One is just a little bit off. He’s going south.”
    “Wait just a minute. The highway has switchbacks and twists and turns, and we’ll be above him. We’ll catch glimpses of him on the turns.”
    He nodded his agreement and waited until the car had gone around a sweeping turn before pulling out onto the highway after it. “It would be useful to know if Chad Kingman works in shipping.”

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    “Jonas would know. And Inez Nelson. She knows everything. If you go into her grocery store and just hang around a few minutes and