Look at the sky, see a dying star
White lies, it’s a man on fire
Making love with the devil hurts
Times are changing
A thin line, the whole truth
The far right, the left view
Breaking all those promises made
Times are changing
– Walk on Water, Thirty Seconds on Mars

---

Monday, January 8, 2018

Istanbul, Turkey: Airport

“Sir? Sir?”

Valentin glanced up from the laptop in his lap, blinking at the flight attendant calling his name from behind the desk. “What?”

“You’ll be able to board your flight in five minutes.”

He grunted, then closed down his work, stowed the laptop in his carry-on, then tugged his cell phone from a pocket in the bag. More missed calls from Nina, but—

Valentin glanced at the clock against the wall depicting the time zones around the world — including New York City. It was just before eight in the morning here, which meant it was one in the morning back home and safe to make a call.

He dialed Nina’s number, smiling when it connected to voicemail. “Darling, I’m so sorry we missed each other again. This time difference is throwing me off. I’m boarding a plane now, which means I’ll be seeing you sometime this afternoon your time. I miss you.”

He was ready to go back to Port Charles, to continue working on breaking through the encryption on the files — and then, when Klein followed with Stefan later this week, they could begin discussing the next step.

Everything was falling into place. All he needed was a little bit more patience.

He gathered his carry on and boarded the flight.

Kiremit House: Kitchen

Luke slid through the back door, having returned to the house through the back gardens winding up and down the block. He stopped, a bit surprised to see his son and Britt sitting around the table, with laptops, paperwork, coffee and the remains of breakfast. “Uh, hey.”

“Morning.” Lucky leaned back to look at him. “How’d it go last night?”

“Uh, good. I think. Depends on your definition, really. The Dark Prince up yet?”

“No, but he should be down any minute. You find something new at the lab?” Lucky pushed aside the papers they’d been shuffling through. “We could use a distraction.”

“Only because you’re hellbent on using the Siberia lead,” Britt muttered, rising to pour another cup of coffee. “I told you, it’s not enough—”

“Maybe not on its own, but we can pad it out. Make it more interesting.” Lucky dismissed her, looked back at his dad. “You want me to go get Nikolas?”

“Uh—”

“No need. I’m here.” Nikolas appeared in the doorway of the small kitchen, stifling a yawn. He took a mug down from the cabinet, then handed it to Britt. “Black.”

She scowled, but filled the cup and handed it back, a bit roughly. Nikolas winced when he was singed by liquid sloshing out of the sides. “Hey—”

“Don’t like the service, find another barista.” She sat back at the table. “What can you put with the Siberia lead that might make them bite?” she demanded of Lucky.

“I don’t know, but—”

“Table that for now,” Luke said, filling up his own mug. “We’ve got something else on the radar. Let’s start with the small news. They’re packing up the lab to head back to the States. I guess Valentin wants what’s going on to be closer to home.”

“Well, that makes our lives harder. We can’t just relocate to the States. I mean, you and me, yeah,” Lucky said. “But—”

“Why are they packing up now?” Britt cut in. “What’s changed?”

“I think it might be related to second thing I found last night.” Luke hesitated, unsure really how to drop this particular bombshell. “I’m pretty sure I know what made Valentin drop everything and run to Turkey. Before this lab, Klein was in Russia, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah. We tracked him briefly in Port Charles, but then he dropped off the radar. What did you find, Dad? Stop with the dramatics.”

“Nikolas.” His tone was unusually somber when he addressed his wife’s son. “They’ve got Stefan.”

Nikolas’s face paled beneath his golden skin tone. “Stefan. They’ve—you mean—”

“I don’t know much yet. But it’s him. He was asleep in a hospital bed. Whether it’s the same coma as the others or something else — but yeah. Heartbeat and everything.”

Nikolas exhaled slowly, and Lucky got up, offering his chair. Nikolas took it gratefully, setting down the coffee. “My uncle is alive.”

“Looks like it.” Luke folded his arms. “Helena probably snagged his body after it all went down and put him in one of those deep sleeps like she did for Stavros.”

“Or he faked his death. Again. Wouldn’t be the first time,” Nikolas said.

“Runs in the family.” Lucky leaned against the kitchen counter, sipped his coffee, unaffected when Nikolas glared at him. “What? We were all thinking it.”

“My money is on Helena putting him on ice in case he was needed, and just leaving him there. The way they did Jason. She held on to both brothers until she had a use for them. I don’t know what Valentin wants with him, how long he’s been there—none of it. All I know is he’s in that lab and he’s probably why it’s being moved at the end of the week. Valentin can’t afford to wait much longer for whatever he wants, and his absence back home is sending up red flags. So he’s moving Stefan closer to him.”

“My uncle is alive,” Nikolas said, again, more to himself. “We have to get him out of there. We have to—”

“We could,” Luke said slowly. “Or we could turn it over to the brothers Morgan. They could arrange for his rescue, and he could go home. He’d think you were dead, but they’d be able to use the full force of the WSB — you know they’re not going to pass up questioning an actual Cassadine brother. It might be which Robert and Anna need to get back into see Maddox.”

“No. No.” Nikolas’s head snapped up. “I can’t do that. Uncle could know things that we need—”

“Which we’d still get if we turned him over to the WSB,” Lucky said. “Right now, they’re cooperating with us, Nikolas. We have access to everything. But Dad said they were getting antsy on the last call. We’ve been here a week, and they think we’ve found nothing.”

“And if we’d started with their list, not ours, we’d have found Valentin—and Stefan—days ago,” Luke pointed out. “It might be better for everyone if we treat this like the break you were looking for. Hell, we could come clean and maybe get a break. You might take a hit—”

“I can’t come forward.” Nikolas rose, his eyes fierce. “I told you what I need to come out. We don’t have enough to keep Valentin in check. We agreed until we could get to the truth of the will and prove it’s a forgery, I’m not safe. And neither is Spencer. He’ll go back to eradicating anyone who stands in his way. He needed that will because everyone knows he forced me to sign over everything to save Ava’s life. To save my own. And he killed me anyway. No. Everyone at home stays safe as long as I stay dead.”

“Fine. But there’s no reason we still can’t turn this over to Jason and Drew now,” Lucky said. “They can get Stefan out and we’ll get everything we need—”

“But I won’t—” Nikolas bit off whatever he was about to say. “No. I said no. He’s my uncle. This is my family, and I’m telling you no. We’ll get him out ourselves, and he’ll be able to tell us how to fix this. He was alive when my grandfather wrote his will.” Nikolas raked his eyes over the three of them. “That’s how it is. If you don’t like it, there’s the door—”

“And if Stefan doesn’t have the answers?” Luke challenged. “How long are we going to do this?”

“Until we can get rid of Valentin. That’s never changed, Luke. You want out, no one’s tying you down.”

“I can’t walk out,” Luke retorted. “Because the only way out for me is to tell Laura what I know, and I sure as hell can’t do that until Valentin isn’t a threat anymore. Fine. I’ll put together a plan to get Stefan out. But you—” He stabbed a finger at Nikolas. “You better start thinking about an exit strategy, because if your damned uncle doesn’t know where the bodies are buried, we’re out of options.”

Kiremit House: Lucky’s Bedroom

Lucky half-listened to Britt’s complaints about the Siberia story as he booted his laptop and reached for his phone. He frowned at the notification screen showing a missed phone call from Jason along with a voice mail.

Jason had never initiated contact before. “Be quiet—” he ordered Britt, who snapped her mouth shut and glared at him. He pressed play.

Drew and I are flying out tomorrow sometime to Istanbul. He speaks Turkish, so we’ll take some addresses on Spinelli’s list. We’ll be able to get through it faster. We’ll call when we land.

“Tomorrow?” Britt echoed. “When did he leave that message?”

“Just a little while ago, I left my phone up here—” Lucky frowned, calculating. “It was probably around midnight in Port Charles, so tomorrow for him would be today. Monday. Damn it.”

“Well, we can’t be that surprised. Your dad said they were getting restless.” Britt folded her legs on his bed. “What happens now?”

Damned good question. “They’re looking at the addresses,” Lucky said slowly. “They’ll start with the Maslak lab. It’s the first one on the list.”

“You could split the list—”

“Jason doesn’t trust me. For personal reasons,” Lucky added, “and he really doesn’t trust my dad. There’s no way Spinelli hasn’t told them why Maslak is on the list. They’re not going to believe us if they say we cleared it.” He grimaced. “They find that lab, how long before they figure out what’s going on in there? Or that we knew?”

He headed for their shared folder, tapping a few keys. There was a reason Jason and Drew were coming now, Lucky thought. There had to be something he was missing. Had he let something slip in the last list of thoughts he’d sent to Spinelli?

“I was surprised your dad wanted to turn things over to them,” Britt said after silence lingered for a moment. “I thought he was really all in on this.”

Damn it. Lucky grimaced as he noticed a string of code that he’d missed before. He exhaled slowly, scrubbed a hand over his face. He’d have to dig in and see just how much Spinelli already knew.

“Lucky?”

He tuned back into Britt, frowned, then nodded. “Dad and I wanted to come out with this back in October when Jason first showed up. But Nikolas vetoed it. He made some good points back then,” Lucky admitted. “Jason had just returned, and he’d been attacked in New York, so people were still looking for him stateside. It made sense to sit back and let things settle. See where the danger was. We didn’t know about Jason. Dad and I.” He looked at her, and Britt sighed.

“I did, but I never knew Nikolas was keeping that from you. He made it sound like you were in on everything, Lucky. And you and I didn’t know each other, did we? So why would I doubt Nikolas.”

“No reason to.” He tapped a few more keys, looked more closely at the coding Spinelli had hidden in the file transfers. How close was the hacker to the truth?

“But your dad still wants to come clean,” Britt continued. “And I think you do, too. I guess maybe I don’t really understand why you’re both listening to Nikolas. Or why Nikolas doesn’t see this as a reason to change what we’re doing. To tell someone the truth.”

“Dad wants to make sure Lu and Mom are safe. Nikolas has access to all the Cassadine records, the properties — Dad and I could work for years and never get near most of that.” He exhaled a slight breath of relief. Spinelli only knew a little bit — but Lucky had done a decent job of hiding the network. They could work with this.

He turned his attention back to Britt. “Dad decided after what happened to Lu, to Jake, it’s his life’s mission to keep the Cassadines out of power. Nikolas is the key to that, or at least right now he is.”

“And that’s why you’re still keeping the secrets? Access to Cassadine resources?”

And to prove Nikolas had been involved with all of it so everyone back at home would stop thinking he was some kind of damn misunderstood hero. “Yeah.” Lucky sat up, then twisted in the chair to look at her. “We all have our reasons. You want your life back, don’t you? Isn’t that your goal?”

“That, and to try to make up for what my parents did. Helena and Victor didn’t act alone in those experiments. Maybe they gave the orders, but they couldn’t have done it without my parents.”  Britt bit her lip. “So what do we do about Jason and Drew?”

“We have to come up with a cover story that distracts Jason and Drew while they’re here,” Lucky said after a long moment. “Nikolas isn’t wrong — if Stefan shows up to take the inheritance from Valentin, then we’re back to where we started. Valentin needs to be neutralized or eliminated.”

“Then why not just do it? What’s stopping any of us from arranging an accident? Morality?” Britt demanded. “If getting rid of Valentin makes it over—”

“Helena was dead for over a year before Jake was triggered into almost releasing that toxin. What if we kill Valentin, and there’s something else waiting? We don’t know what they put into Jason or Drew’s head. Or Jake’s. Patient Four is still out there—” Lucky shook his head. “I don’t like any of it, but if Valentin’s goal was position and money, as long as he has that — we have the upper hand.”

“Okay, I get that.” Britt sighed. “So what do we do with the brothers?”

Good question. Thanks to Spinelli, the brothers knew more than Lucky had anticipated. And he couldn’t afford to lose what little trust existed. So how did he make that work for him?

He looked over at Britt, wondering just how much he could trust her. If he told her about Spinelli—

“We need to tell them about Maslak. That Dad found Valentin.”

Britt’s eyes widened. “Whoa—what?”

“That’s why they’re coming here.” Lucky tapped a few keys. “Spinelli tossed a surprise into the batch of files I downloaded on Saturday. A virus.”

“Oh, God—” Her face drained of color. “We’re screwed—”

“He can see any device that’s had access to the folder. Which means he knows you’re here,” Lucky added. “With us.”

“This is so bad—”

“It’s not. I can make this work for us. They don’t know where we are,” Lucky added. “My network is still hidden, and I’ll add an extra layer to keep it protected. Spinelli’s good, but I’m better—”

“Since when?” she demanded. “I’ve never heard of you being a hacker—”

“I came up with computers. It used to be my specialty, but—” Lucky grimaced. “Life got away from me. I dipped back in after I left Port Charles and now, I can go toe to toe with Spinelli. Like I said, he doesn’t know where we are yet. But he’s got access to our devices. All our electronics. Including Dad’s phone.”

Britt bit her lip. “His GPS?”

“They have to suspect we found something at Maslak. Dad never went anywhere else on the list. They’re showing up right after we find Valentin. They know you’re here. The only thing they can’t know about is Nikolas.”

“We should tell your dad and Nikolas. You’ll have to put more security on the phones—” Britt headed for the door, but Lucky reached it first, holding it shut, trapping her against the door. “Lucky—”

“No. No. We’re going to make this work for us. I’m done playing their games. Lying for them. We’ll tell Jason and Drew about Maslak. That we found Valentin. That it’s being moved back to Port Charles. That’s going to send them right back home, which is all I promised my dad I’d do.”

Britt licked her lips, searched his eyes. “But what if they find out about Stefan? What if they find out about Nikolas?”

“Then Nikolas is going to have to deal with that. You and me? We’re the ones meeting with Jason and Drew. We’re the ones that have to sell this story. Nikolas will be sticking close to the house, and Dad will be planning the rescue mission.”

“But—”

“I told Nikolas I would do it his way for as long as it made sense. Dad might think this is still a good idea, but—” Lucky shook his head. “I’m lying to my family. Hurting them. I don’t know if there’s any way to fix what I broke, but I can’t keep doing this. Can you?”

He stepped back from the door, went to the dresser. He sorted through his wallet, pulled out a photo, then showed it to her.

“This is the last time I was with my boys. Really with them. And it’s not even all of them.”

She studied the photo of Lucky, sitting on the edge of a stone bridge over a river, a toddler clutched in one arm, a young boy grinning at his side. Lucky’s hand was extended out, holding the camera. “Is that Dublin?”

“The last time Aiden and Cam came over for a few weeks in the summer. Aiden’s two, Cam was ten. And Jake was supposed to be dead. By the time the next summer rolled around, the Stavros and Helena had kidnapped my sister and nearly killed her. I started hunting Helena then. I canceled that summer, thinking it would be just once. But it wasn’t. I made a choice, Britt, that I can’t ever take back.”

She handed him the photo. “So we tell them about Maslak. About Valentin. But not Stefan or Nikolas. We’re still lying.”

“I’m not ready yet for them to know about Nikolas.” Not until Lucky had what he needed to prove just how deep his brother’s betrayal had run. “But if they find it out on their own, good for them. I’m not interested in throwing more road blocks in their way.”

“So we’re going to lie to your dad and Nikolas about what we’re telling Jason and Drew?” Britt asked dubiously. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

“Has my father or Nikolas done a damn thing to your trust or your loyalty?” Lucky challenged.

“Not lately no.” She looked down at her hands. “But it’s hard. I made him a promise, Lucky. If I do this, he’ll believe every bad thing he ever thought about me.”

“He promised you, too. How long are you supposed to wait until you can go home?” He leaned forward, waited for her to look up. “How long am I supposed to wait?”

She was quiet for longer than he expected. Almost long enough to make Lucky worry that he’d miscalculated. But then she took a deep breath. Nodded. “If it leads back to all of this being out in the open, if I do this, and Nikolas goes after me for the charges—”

“He’ll be too busy cleaning up his own mess to worry about you. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Okay. Okay.” She forced a smile. “Let’s do it.”

Somewhere over the European continent

Plane: Main Cabin

It was difficult to practice patience when everything hinged on breaking into these damn files. Any sense of peace had disappeared as the jet flew over the Swiss Alps.

Valentin hunched over the laptop in his lap, cursing his mother and whatever encryption was protecting the files contained within. How was he supposed to carry on his plan and life in Port Charles if he couldn’t get through the block on his mother’s files?

He needed to be home. He needed to repair the damage he’d done with his hasty trip to Port Charles. He had to make it up to Nina and Charlotte and take his place once again as a member of the Port Charles business community. Well-respected after his daring exploits at the Nurse’s Ball. And none of that would be possible unless he succeeded at extracting Stefan’s memories.

He’d been doing so well until that damned patient had escaped from Russia—if Jason Morgan were still lying comatose in St. Petersburg, none of this would be happening.

He tapped in another set of keystrokes and, so used to failure, simply stared for a long moment with stunned amazement as a folder opened, revealing its contents.

Valentin’s lips curved into a smile. Finally. He’d broken into the deepest of his mother’s files and located the protocol required to extract and implant memories. He’d put Klein to work extracting what he needed from Stefan so that the bastard could be disposed of properly—

He’d find someone to take on his mother’s memories so that Valentin could finally locate his Holy Grail — the true Cassadine heir.

Then he’d choke the life out of them.

The universe had smiled upon him, and Valentin Cassadine was finally going to get what he’d been promised. What he deserved.

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