10

She sat in the dark, smoke-stale room with the curtains pulled shut. A flashing motel vacancy sign bled through the thin drapes. The only other light in the room was a tiny red dot from the fire alarm mounted above the door.

A fire could only improve this dump, she thought darkly.

She longed for the luxury and comfort of Ray’s Ontario penthouse. She longed for Ray.

She felt so very tired.

And so very defeated after this morning’s debacle.

Her mole in the CIA had called three hours ago. Not only was Eva Salinas Brown alive, but Taggart and Cooper had escaped the booby trap with only minor injuries.

Fail, fail, fail.

She sat on a bed covered in a gaudy floral-print bedspread that smelled as if it hadn’t been laundered in this decade. Her phone sat on the bedside table; it should ring again very soon. She was more than twelve hours overdue in making her after-action report to the Russians. But she’d needed time to think. To season the shooting debacle into something palatable that the Russians would swallow. Something she could turn to her advantage.

Repetition always helped her think, so she’d cleaned the Ruger while running damage-control scenarios through her mind. She disassembled, oiled, and reassembled it over and over again, until she was satisfied the gun was spotless—and she was content with the new version of her story.

I do so love that OCD quality of yours, my dear.

Ray’s voice was as clear as if he were beside her, and a tear escaped and trickled down her face.

“Why did you have to leave me?” she asked the dark, empty room. “Why did you have to go? You were the only one to ever see me as a person. I need you to help me finish this.”

You’re very strong, dear heart. What you’ve suffered—­­at the hands of your parents, at the hands of others who should have protected you—has made you strong. You’ve always had to be. You can do this without me.

Another tear had her pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes. “I don’t want to be strong anymore. I want to be with you.”

The Ruger was loaded. She’d practiced placing the end of the barrel in her mouth to see if she could reach the trigger—and she could.

But Ray had stopped her. Not yet, love. You have much work to do. You have debts to collect. And when this job is finished, not only will you have exacted our revenge, but you will also have the means to live like a queen for the rest of your life. I want that for you, darling. There’s time enough to come to me. I’ll always be waiting.

She didn’t want to wait. He’d been the only thing in her life worth living for. But she owed him to finish what he had started.

She startled when her phone rang, then settled herself with a deep breath.

“BLOCKED NUMBER” showed on the screen. The Russian. Again. She couldn’t ignore his calls any longer.

She answered using the code name he would recognize. “Anya.”

“Vadar. Where have you been?” he demanded in a high, nasal tone.

“Lying low,” she said. “Getting as far away from the target as possible.”

“Your report was due hours ago.”

“As I said, I’ve been a little busy.” He wouldn’t like it, but what could he do about it?

“Report,” he demanded after a pissed-off silence.

“The report is, there was a slight change of plans. A decision on my part that your employer will appreciate.”

Another brief silence followed. She could feel the anger hum through the connection. “You will explain this decision; then my employer can make that determination himself.”

“You’re certain no one can intercept our call?”

She’d picked up the high-tech phone from a post office box in Toronto a month ago. The key to that box had been mailed to a post office box in New York City. The Russians loved their cloak-and-dagger, particularly former KGB and Spetsnaz, Soviet special forces agents who ran the mafia, while Putin and his minions turned a blind eye in exchange for a cut of the profits.

She, however, wasn’t as confident of their technical ability as they were.

“The communication is secure. We have been over this before. Be careful what you say next, or I may think you are attempting to avoid this conversation. Now, did you or did you not eliminate the targets?”

“Better than that.” Her voice expressed supreme confidence. “One is out of the picture. The other three—”

“Stop right there. You were not able to deliver?” His nasal tone escalated to high-pitched disapproval.

“It wasn’t a question of inability. I made a strategic decision.”

“You were not employed to strategize. You were employed to destroy that team.” The venom in his voice sent a chill down her back, and her conviction wavered.

You can do this. Ray’s voice rallied her strength.

“You’re forgetting, Vadar. I handed your people this opportunity. If not for me, all of their plans would still be lost.”

She let him think about that. Let him remember that because of her, they also had another shot at the Eagle Claw project.

Two years ago, when she’d escaped undetected from the Idaho compound after Brown and his team had blown it and Ray up, she’d made her way to Ray’s secret residence in Ontario. There she’d slowly recovered. And grieved. Then, three months ago, while going through Ray’s encrypted computer files, she’d discovered that his operation in Idaho had involved much more than gun running and drugs.

He’d had a deal in the works with the Russian mafia for the theft of revolutionary aviation technology the Americans were developing. A technology the Russians would have developed themselves, if not for Mike Brown and his team. Not only had they destroyed the Idaho compound that was to have been the Russians’ staging area to breach the secret facility and steal back the Eagle Claw technology, but Brown’s team had also recently facilitated the escape of the Russian scientist who’d created the technology. Dr. Adolph Corbet was now spearheading the Russians’ project for the Americans.

The Russians wanted their scientist and their technology back. And because Mike Brown and his One-Eyed Jacks were a festering wound in their side, they wanted them eliminated. That’s where she came in.

“Explain this new strategy.”

“Oh, I will. But first, let me remind you of something else. I am the one who facilitated what you could not. I established contact with Dr. Corbet. I ensured that he was informed that the wife and children he thought were tucked safely away in Budapest were once again secured by Mother Russia’s loving hand. I maintain communication with him and remind him that his family lives only if he continues to provide updates on the progress of Eagle Claw.”

“Noted,” Vadar said in a somewhat calmer but no less irritated voice.

“All right. I chose not to eliminate the entire One-Eyed Jacks team for one simple reason. The loss to the U.S. covert defense machine would be too massive if I’d taken them all out. A loss on that scale would engage the might of the Department of Defense. They’d consider it an act of war, perhaps the first of many acts to come. And they would put all of their resources on it—do you understand? They’d double and triple security on soft and hard targets here in the States, as well as abroad. And that includes the compound where Corbet, at this very moment, is working on the Eagle Claw technology.”

When he said nothing, she knew she had him considering the wisdom of her “plan.”

“It would take little time for the Department of Defense to put two and two together and point the finger of blame directly at your organization. Instead, with only one casualty, they are searching for a sniper acting alone, a gunman with an ax to grind, or a random act of violence.”

After a long silence, he said, “Continue.”

“They have circled the wagons, so to speak, intent on protecting their own and on finding the person—not the Russian mafia—who dared attack them. My decision has avoided an all-out nationwide state of readiness against an enemy attack.

“Because of my decision,” she continued, “your team is now free to breach the air base and recover your Eagle Claw technology and your scientist. Occupied with searching for the lone gunman, they’ll never see it coming.”

And she was now free to pick off the One-Eyed Jacks at will. Free to savor the thrill of the hunter terrorizing the hunted.

“I will relay your report to my superiors,” Vadar said at long last.

“You do that. And while you’re at it, share this bit of information my source gave me today. If they want to breach that air base, they need to do it very soon.”

Along with the disappointing news of Taggart and Cooper’s survival, her mole had the one piece of good news that would turn the Russians’ focus away from her.

“Dr. Corbet reported today that the technology is mere steps away from completion,” she said. “He cannot stall or withhold the information from the U.S. government much longer. The window of opportunity has grown very short; the project will be complete within a matter of days.”

“How many days?”

“If you don’t strike within the next five days, the Eagle Claw technology will forever be out of Russia’s reach.”