Four years ago
Janine kicks out as Neva falls forward into a roll and then leaps to her feet. The kick misses its mark, much to the annoyance of Neva’s protégé, and so Janine tries another tactic. She throws herself forward making a direct attack. Neva anticipates the move and once again ducks away, shy of the blow. They continue to fight, Neva always blocking or avoiding until she delivers a hard push to Janine’s chest. Janine falls back, hitting the judo mat.
Neva holds out her hand and Janine takes it, knowing the sparring is at an end for the day. Janine is frustrated though. Neva always bests her and she can’t imagine how she will ever have the same skill that her mentor patiently tries to give her.
They are in Janine’s apartment, paid for by the retainer that Neva gives her. The sitting room is large, and, with the furniture pushed back into the corners, makes for a perfect sparring location.
‘How do you always know my moves?’ Janine asks.
‘You move a fraction of a second too soon each time. It gives you away,’ Neva says.
‘I’m never going to match you,’ Janine says.
‘You’re already better than most,’ Neva says. ‘But you’re still too emotional. You have to quell the adrenaline. It makes you jumpy.’
Neva tells Janine how she might learn to still her emotions. ‘It is a natural surge that was designed by nature to encourage flight when threatened, but to be an effective assassin you have to learn to control these impulses and use them to your advantage. When you master this, you’ll be fully in control.’
She prompts Janine on breathing exercises and meditation. All of which she’s studied with her over and over again. But Neva never loses her patience or reprimands her for not remembering, she merely reminds her about it again: she is as perfect as a mentor as she is as an assassin.
Janine has been training with her now for almost two years. She is physically strong, and an exceptional fighter. She has excellent sniper skills and Janine sometimes works a hit of this sort for Neva, freeing her up to do what she wants instead. Not that Janine ever knows what that is. It is peculiar, and she often questions how much Neva needs her, despite the fact that she insists she does. Even so, they aren’t friends. It is an odd relationship, far from equal. Janine is aware of how much that is true. She is being groomed for some purpose that only Neva understands.
Janine has asked on occasion, but she feels guilty afterwards and frustrated when Neva won’t explain herself. A frustration that sometimes turns to anger. She doesn’t feel used, just uninformed. And because she knows that Neva works for some very powerful and very dangerous people, Janine prefers to know what she’s letting herself in for.
‘I have a job for you,’ Neva says now.
‘Sniper?’ Janine asks.
‘No. Something up close and personal,’ Neva says.
Neva lets the blade in her holster slip down into her hand, and she passes it to Janine.
‘I want you to pick up a man, take him back to his hotel room, and kill him,’ Neva says.
‘You think I’m ready?’ Janine says.
‘I know you are,’ Neva says.
She holds out a brown A4-size envelope and Janine takes it. She opens the top and slides out the job file. A photograph greets her. It is the general. She hasn’t thought of him for a long time. She tries not to think about the man that put a hit on her.
‘You were asked to kill him?’ Janine says. Her eyes are wide as she stares at the photograph.
‘No. I’m employing you to.’
‘Why?’ she asks.
Neva blinks. ‘Because I think you need it to consolidate your training.’
Janine nods.
‘He’s in Switzerland. A hotel not far from here. He’s brought with him a young female FSB operative, who has no doubt been coerced into sleeping with him,’ Neva explains.
‘You’re an avenging angel,’ says Janine.
‘I’m death: I don’t care about revenge,’ Neva says.
Janine observes the coldness of Neva’s answer and understands what this is all about. Janine needs to free herself from her old life in order to fully embrace her new one.
Neva doesn’t confirm this. She rarely explains her motivations, something that Janine has learned to accept.
Janine’s hand trembles as she pushes the paper and photograph back into the envelope.
‘When shall I do it?’ she asks.
‘The girl flies back to Moscow today. He’ll be alone tonight,’ Janine says.
‘What if he recognizes me?’
Neva’s smile is cold. ‘He won’t.’
When she arrived earlier, Neva left a holdall in the corner of the room. She goes there now and opens it. Inside she has everything she needs to create Janine’s disguise. But Janine is already different. She has her hair dyed strawberry blonde, just like Neva’s. They could be sisters, but all of this is to ensure that Janine can be her at a minute’s notice.
‘Shower, and change into this,’ she says.
She holds out a little black dress. Short, sexy and not something that Janine would usually wear. She takes it and goes into the bathroom.
When she’s dressed, Janine comes back into her sitting room. The judo mat has been moved and a chair is placed in the centre. Neva is holding a black wig, cut into a bob with a fringe. Janine sits down. Neva pulls a hair net over Janine’s hair then puts the wig over it. She secures it with hair clips. After this she makes Janine get up. She uses a tan makeup, and bright-red lipstick. She spends a lot of time around her eyes. When she’s finished, she holds up a mirror and Janine can see the sexy smoky look. Neva has created a personality that suggests availability.
Janine doesn’t recognize herself. She doesn’t look anything like the girl she’d once been when she worked in the Kremlin. No, this is a sophisticated and confident woman. One that will appeal to men, not the women whom Janine prefers.
‘You know what to do,’ Neva says, fixing the wrist holster under the deliberately long sleeve of the dress.
‘Should I take a gun as well?’ she says.
‘No. There’s nowhere to hide it from him. And remember who he is. He may notice, even if we tried to.’
Janine nods.
She is nervous as she leaves her apartment. A rush of adrenaline curls up, stifling her as she steps into a taxi and makes her way to the hotel in question. She pushes it down as Neva has taught her, but it hides behind her calm exterior, picking at the edges like acid burning through flesh. By the time she reaches the hotel, Janine is trembling.
She pauses outside the building pulling her equilibrium back together. She runs the mantra that Neva has taught her through her mind. I am death.
Why am I like this? she wonders, for she has always done what Neva needed without question. And she’s never been in such a state of nerves before a kill – normally there is a dizzying excitement.
It’s him.
Once she identifies the source of her terror – fear of the general’s power and anxiety that she will be recognized – she begins to regain control.
He tried to have her executed, and for that, Neva has given her an opportunity to take him out. To exact revenge – despite her declaration that she doesn’t care about it. Janine explores the feeling of seeing the general die, of spilling his blood up close. Will this free her as Neva says?
When the rush of nerves recedes, it’s replaced with a cold excitement. Janine goes inside the building.
The general has chosen an exclusive five-star hotel and therefore the reception is, of course, palatial. Marble tiles gleam on both floor and walls. The reception desk sparkles with polished brass fittings. There’s a traditional, yet contemporary amalgamation of styles in the furniture, with plush green leather chaise lounges positioned around the walls and equally luxurious four-seater sofas placed at intervals in the centre of the space. To the right, Janine sees the cocktail lounge and she walks across and into the space, taking a seat by the bar.
As instructed, she buys herself a drink. She orders a strawberry daiquiri.
The bar area glitters. Expensive spirits line the mirror-backed shelves. Janine studies the cocktail bar through the glass. Behind her sits lavish furnishing and several luscious private booth areas. The place screams intimacy and would appeal to those with money who might not wish to be observed.
What business could a Russian general have here? she wonders as she casually glances around.
It’s not long before the general arrives. It takes her a moment to recognize him because he is not in uniform.
Seeing him again brings a surge of anger and disgust. She watches him in the reflection of the mirror behind the bar.
There is a problem: the girl has not left and she joins him at one of the booths.
While the general orders drinks from a cocktail waitress in a short black skirt and white blouse, Janine is taken with how young the girl he’s brought is. She can’t be more than 18. Perhaps she’s even younger.
Janine is sickened by the way he mauls her. The young girl doesn’t appear to be enjoying it either. She wonders what he has over her to make her share his bed.
Feeling she will not get the opportunity she wished for, Janine decides to abandon the hit. She gets up from the barstool and starts to leave.
That’s when she sees Neva, sitting at the back of the room in another booth with a young man.
Janine feels peculiar seeing Neva like this. She tells herself that this is not real, even as her mentor allows the man with her to run his hand over her bare thigh. Neva must have contrived the situation to watch over her. She has never thought of Neva in a sexual light before. Seeing her with this man gives Janine an emotion she hadn’t realized she had for Neva. She feels… envy. Neva is allowing the contact but has never shown her any such affection at all. No. Janine is a commodity to Neva – nothing more.
She meets Neva’s eyes over the shoulder of the man but she can gather nothing from her expression. Then Neva whispers something in the man’s ear. He gets out of the booth and goes away. Janine approaches. She sits down with Neva.
‘You said the girl would be gone,’ she says.
‘She will be. Watch.’
A few minutes later another man enters the bar. He walks up to the general and the girl. With a look of relief, the girl stands and scurries away with the other man.
‘Don’t let him be lonely,’ Neva says.
Then she stands and leaves the booth, walking out of the bar.