Page 61 of Wired Strong

She left the chopper and headed for her “bug-out bag” stashed in a storage locker at the main terminal of the Bangkok Airport.

She had always hated that silly phrase, but was grateful that Bangkok was one of the cities where she kept one. New credit cards, a pile of cash, new identities, recently updated with her new face and photo. A hassle, for sure, but she had just completed the task through an intermediary when she’d returned to the compound.

In the women’s room stall, sorting through her new passports, Pim Wat longed for Pali Island in the Philippines. How she wanted to walk the beaches of her beautiful island, how she longed to rest in the fabulous bed where she and the Master had spent so many happy hours while she was recovering from her ordeal in Guantánamo.

But would Number One anticipate that?Yes. He would send men to look for her there.

She needed to go somewhere faraway and new, where she could set up everything she would need to make sure that both Connor and Sophie paid the ultimate price.

Today was a good day to begin the rest of her life.

And though she would always miss the Master, she was better off without the crippling effect of her love for him. Now there was nothing to restrain her vengeance.

Chapter Forty-Four

Connor

Connor must have passedout but he had no awareness of that until he felt someone shaking him by the shoulder. “Master! Master!”

He lay beside someone who wasn’t moving. He turned his head away, his nostrils filled with that awful smell.Something terrible awaited him when he opened his eyes, and he couldn’t bear to see it.

“I’ve barred the door. You must get up. We have to make this look like something else.”

Connor kept his eyes stubbornly closed. He refused to know what his mind was trying to tell him. “Do what you must.”

Dimly, from somewhere he had been suppressing it, pain signals pulsed at him.

He had been in a fight. And he had killed the Master.

Connor rolled to his side and retched.

Once again, he felt the hand upon his shoulder. He recognized the voice—someone who cared about him. Someone who wanted good things for him.Someone trying to help. “Master. I have an idea.”

“Don’t call me that.” Connor felt wrung out, a husk, as if he had died too—but his sluggish mind suddenly activated. “Where is Pim Wat? She went into the bedroom!”

As Nine hurried to look into the bedroom, Connor realized what he had been waiting for:Pim Wat’s blade in his back.

He had been waiting for her to finish him off. He had longed for that. But she’d drunk the poison. Hopefully, it had killed her.

How could he live with having killed the Master? And the way he had—no control, no finesse, no humanity.Just rage.

There was no atonement for a thing like this.

And yet he must provide proof of his deed to the Department of Justice. He took a photo of the body with his phone, and sent it to Sophie in their secret chat room.

Nine’s voice came from above. “Pim Wat’s gone.”

“I saw her leave and go in there. I thought she would come to the Master’s aid.” Connor said. The blood he was covered with was beginning to stiffen on his clothing, on his hands. “Do what you must,” he said.

“Pim Wat did this—shekilled the Master. You interrupted them as she was stabbing him. You tried to save him, and got blood on yourself in the process.”

Each word fell into Connor’s mind like a separate, meaningless stone dropping into a pond. He could make no sense of it. “That’s not what happened.”

“Yes, it is. You’re in shock.” Nine wiped Connor’s hands, his face. He straightened Connor’s robe, muttering over his bruises and cut knuckles.

“No one will believe I didn’t do this,” Connor said.

“They will. You loved the Master. You never expected Pim Wat to turn on him like she did.” Nine dabbed Connor’s face gently with a wet cloth. Blood must have made it all the way up to his eyes. Connor turned away, retching again, but nothing came up.

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