Page 185 of Assassin

“The KGB gives him free reign to pick the most beautiful, deadly women in the ranks to be his. He picked one for his wife, and the other five as his assassins. They go with him EVERYWHERE.”

“And they never leave his side?” she asked.

She was honest.

“It’s rare. The only time I know of that happening is when he sent his favorite one ahead, the one he was to marry, and she came into the US alone. He trusted her the most.”

Yowza.

That didn’t bode well for them.

“Do you think he’s here?” she asked.

She nodded and shared what she could.

“That’s Kira Sokolov, or it used to be. Now, she’s known as Two. He doesn’t want them to feel human. They are machines made to do his bidding. He took their names. He took their dignity, and he broke them so he could build them back up.”

They all listened.

Maura understood that. In the Marines, during bootcamp, the drill sergeants did the same thing. They broke you to build you back into a team or fighting machine.

She stared at the other one.

“That’s Polina Alekseev. She was given the name Three.”

Maura was not happy.

“He likely traveled with five women when he came here, and if you killed two of them, the other three are still around.”

Jagger made her stop.

“If you had to bet everything on this, would you say he’s one hundred percent here?”

She nodded.

“You’ve missed him. He’s definitely here, and now, harder to stop.”

Well, shit.

That wasn’t good.

How the hell had they missed him?

Chapter Fifteen

Area Fifty-Two

Same Time

Thursday

Evening

None of them were happy to hear that. Their plan hinged on being able to get to him the second he left the jet when he landed. Now, it was going to be a million times more difficult to find him in the US.

It was a big place.

If spooked, the man would go under, and they’d never find him. They’d be at his mercy. While NOLA didn’t have anything he could use now that they were shutting it down, it would only be a matter of time for him to go to another city.

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