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KRUGER HAD PLENTY OF time to think about what he was going to say. He had spent the last two days doing surveillance to confirm Khang’s statements. His worst fears had been confirmed.
He sat quietly in the living room chair of the one-bedroom apartment. He had turned it to face the door as he waited for its tenant to arrive. No one knew where he was, and as far as he was concerned, no one ever would. The go-bag next to him had enough money, fake passports, and IDs to keep him off the grid for years. He had no plans of ever going back.
Kruger adjusted his grip on the suppressed Glock 21 SF in his lap as he heard footsteps outside the door. He didn’t need to look at his watch to know that his target was right on time as he heard the key enter the door lock.
The door opened and a tall, slender silhouette appeared in the doorway. Kruger said nothing as the light came on and the door closed.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to stop following me and come to say hello.”
“Hello, Natasha,” Kruger replied. “Or are you going by Scorpion again?”
Natasha ignored him as she walked into the small kitchen. She opened the cabinet, pulling out two glasses and a bottle of vodka before she approached Kruger.
“You won’t need that,” Natasha said, nodding to the gun in Kruger’s lap.
She sat down on the sofa next to Kruger and placed the glasses on the coffee table. She poured vodka into each glass and then took the one nearest to her.
“To us,” she said, as she held up her glass. “And what might have been.”
Kruger remained still as he stared at her, trying to figure out how the woman he thought he knew so well could have betrayed him so deeply.
“I understand most of what you did, but why did you kill Cowboy?” Kruger asked.
Natasha downed the vodka and then slammed the glass on the coffee table. “I didn’t.”
“Khang said you did.”
“Khang is a low-level imbecile. He needed to believe that I killed Cowboy. But the truth is Cowboy killed Cowboy.”
“You gave him a choice?”
Natasha nodded. “The friendly tactics the Chinese were planning never would have worked on Cowboy. They would have had to resort to their more brutal ways. I knew that. Cowboy knew that. Khang was the only one who didn’t know it. So, I gave Cowboy a choice. One bullet to use as he saw fit.”
“We could have saved him!” Kruger shouted angrily. “His body was still warm when we found him!”
Natasha laughed as she poured herself another drink. “We both know they would have moved him as soon as you landed. Why do you think I had Khang drive me to the airport? I had to protect you, sweetheart.”
“Protect me from what?”
“Yourself. I know you, Freddie.”
“I thought I knew you, and yet here we are.”
“Yes, here we are,” she said.
“Was it ever real? Or were you just doing your job?”
“Both,” Natasha said as she leaned forward and gently put her hand on Kruger’s knee. “I cared very deeply for you and I looked forward to our child together. That’s why I intervened when I found out about your friend. I didn’t want him to suffer.”
“But you wanted me to believe you died?”
“I wanted to prevent this very meeting, my love,” Natasha said before taking a sip of vodka. “I did not know the Chinese would capture your friend. That was never part of the plan.”
“What was your plan?”
“It’s complicated.”
“I trusted you!”
“I’m a spy, love. You knew that.”
“I watched you die.”
“You watched a North Korean political dissident in a wig and very convincing mask die.”
“What about Viktor and Anatoly? You kill them too?”
“Da,” Natasha replied coldly. “It had to be done.”
“It had to be done? How? How did any of this have to be done?”
“The Chinese wanted Choe Il-Sung removed. War is a threat to the Chinese economy.”
“So why didn’t they do it themselves?”
“Do you remember Colonel Deng Jinping?”
“Yes,” Kruger replied flatly. Jinping had been behind the kidnapping and attempted assassination of then-President Madeline Clifton on Midway Island. Capturing, interrogating, and killing him had been one of Kruger’s first missions with Odin.
“The confession you coerced from him caused great embarrassment within the Politburo.”
“I didn’t coerce anything.”
“Well, true, not directly. But Rage is dead. And you’re the new head of Odin. It matters not to the Chinese. Jinping was very well-connected within the Politburo and the Chinese government. They wanted retribution for the embarrassment.”
“The embarrassment was their shoddy operation.”
“In either case, killing a Bratva boss had the same effect. When you killed Suvarova, the Bratva that still had connections in the FSB wanted revenge. They tasked me to infiltrate your operation. But I fell in love with you, so things became complicated.”
“Did you really love me?”
“Da.”
“What do the Chinese have to do with that?”
“Suvarova intended to sell the computer that he stole – Helios – to the Chinese. When you destroyed it and killed him, the Politburo and the Bratva wanted to know everything they could about your operation. ‘Odin’ was merely something whispered in passing. A ghost. No one believed it to be real.”
“So, your whole goal was to gain intel?”
“When you and your team killed Kuznetsov in New York, the Bratva only grew stronger. They paid off more people. More attention was brought to Odin. That was when they told me to arrange the operation. We needed to see how the operation worked first hand. That is why the mission to kill Il-Sung happened. We found out that one of the American assets within the North Korean nuclear program was defecting and intercepted the thumb drive he had before the CIA could retrieve it. We replaced it with information about Il-Sung. I knew the mission was too risky for normal channels. It was a convenient way to kill two birds with one stone, as you say.”
“But it failed.”
“It failed because the Chinese warned the North Koreans of an assassination plot so he sent a body double instead. They wanted to see what you would do if the mission failed. They wanted to know how you would follow through.”
“How did they know we would?”
“I told them you would. I know you, Freddie. I knew that if we let it leak that Il-Sung was visiting the site, you would personally see to it that he died. You wouldn’t be able to help yourself. And it would also be a perfect opportunity for you to see me die. Because I knew you would take revenge. You are too predictable.”
“You killed your own agents for that?”
“The North Koreans needed blood and I gave it to them. Viktor and Anatoly have been trying to rid the FSB of Bratva influence for many years now. It wasn’t my call.”
“I can’t believe how much of a heartless bitch you are,” Kruger said, shifting his hand over the Glock in his lap. “I should have known better.”
“Yes, you should,” Natasha replied. “But that is the problem with love. It is such a weak emotion. It clouds our judgement. Makes us crazy. I nearly turned against them after we lost the baby. I could almost see us living a real life together. Almost.”
“It’s not too late,” Kruger said, slightly shocked by his own words.
“It was always too late, love,” Natasha said. “I grew up on the streets of Moscow. This is how I survive. It is the only way for a woman like me. You shouldn’t have been so naïve.”
Kruger picked up the weapon and pointed it at Natasha. “I thought this was going to be a hard decision.”
“Harder than you know,” Natasha said with a nod.
Before Kruger could squeeze the trigger, he heard a crack and the sound of glass breaking. He felt the round hit him in the chest, causing him to drop the gun as he pulled the trigger, missing Natasha and hitting the wall behind her.
Natasha stood and picked the handgun off the ground as Kruger doubled over onto the floor.
“I’m sorry my love,” she said as she nodded in the direction of the sniper and then looked down at him. “I wish we could have had that life together.”