There had been no gunfight, no ambush from the Russians, no planted bomb ready to tear down the apartment that Angela Grainger had been holed up in. No path of resistance at all.
Perhaps Lena’s parting words as Logan had left her bleeding to death on the warehouse floor had been merely a red herring, one last attempt at deceit.
Or perhaps the final assault was still to come.
Either way, Logan and Grainger had escaped from the apartment in Khoroshyovo-Mnyovniki entirely unimpeded. But both knew their ordeal was anything but over. The CIA, the Russian FSB, even the JIA, to which Logan had been loyal for so many years, would be after them.
They had already fled some two hundred miles from Moscow, quickly escaping the city and heading south, passing through largely forested terrain. Their only plan thus far had been to travel as far and fast as they could – increase the distance between themselves and whoever was now following them. The further they went from the starting point, the wider the arc of where they could be. Although it wasn’t like Logan to run from his problems, right now he wasn’t sure what else he could do. His immediate priority had simply been to get Grainger to safety.
They were travelling in a clapped-out saloon car that had been parked in the frozen apartment grounds and had taken Logan only seconds to hot-wire. Luckily it’d had an almost full fuel tank and in the five hours since their departure from the apartment block, they hadn’t yet needed to stop.
Logan had barely spoken to Grainger during the journey. There was an unease between them; neither was sure how to treat the other after what had happened in America, a whole year before, when Grainger had shot Logan and gone on the run. The longer the silence in the car dragged out, the harder it became for Logan to think of the right thing to say. So he did what he’d always done best: kept his mouth shut. He’d learned a long time ago that silence was better than bullshit.
Despite the awkwardness in the car, standing in the doorway of the apartment, looking at the woman he’d once held so close to him, had been a poignant moment. A brief one, though.
His words to her had been simple: ‘It’s not safe here. We have to go.’
Without saying a single word in response, she’d grabbed her coat and shut the door, leaving behind what little of value lay in the apartment, which Logan guessed had been as much a prison as a home. Then they’d been on their way. She hadn’t asked any questions. He hadn’t volunteered any answers. It was as though she’d fully understood the perilous situation she’d been in, that she hadn’t really expected the Russians to hide her from the Americans, keep her safe, for good.
‘Are you going to tell me what’s happening?’ Grainger said eventually.
‘What do you think is happening?’ Logan responded after a few seconds of trying, and failing, to find words to answer the question.
He looked over at her. There had been something close to disgust in his voice. He wasn’t sure whether that was with herself or the Russians who had pretended to be her saviours but then played their hand and dealt Grainger straight back to the people she had run from: the Americans. The CIA.
She looked down and he couldn’t help but feel bad for having used such a harsh tone of voice.
‘A deal was struck,’ Logan said. ‘The CIA found out where you were. They want you dead. The Russians were happy to give you up.’
She didn’t respond. He thought he saw a tear escape her eye, but it was difficult to tell in the near-darkness of the car.
‘Why did you come for me?’ she asked.
‘What else could I have done?’
‘I knew something would happen eventually. They took me in but I meant nothing to the Russians. I knew I’d just become a bargaining chip for them.’
She wiped her face with her hands.
‘When I saw you standing there,’ she said, ‘outside the door, I thought for a moment it was you who’d been sent. I thought it was you who was going to kill me.’
As much as Logan still wanted to hate her, his heart went out to her. He’d been through his own hell plenty of times, when it felt like he’d been abandoned by the world. He could well imagine the torment she must have gone through over the past year – alone in a foreign country, no one to turn to, not even able to trust the very people who had been claiming to provide her safe haven. And she was right to have felt that way. The Russians had never taken her in for her benefit.
‘If you thought I was going to kill you, why did you just stand there? You didn’t try to hide from me, or attack me.’
‘Because I know I deserve it. And really, it’s inevitable. They’re never going to stop looking for me.’
After what she’d done, it was hard to argue with that. And yet he wasn’t going to let them kill her. Not the Americans, not the Russians, not anyone.
He just couldn’t.
‘I’ll protect you,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘Because I was part of their dirty deal too. The FSB, the CIA, even my own people were in on it. And right now, you’re just about the only person in the world who doesn’t want me dead.’