Page 14 of Secret Weapon

6

EMMY

My jaw might have dropped, but Ana didn’t see it because all her attention was on Nine.

“Dasha, we’re not here to hurt you,” she murmured.“And we don’t know anything about a dog.”

Nine didn’t relax, but she did stop struggling quite so violently.

“Bullshit.Hesent you.”

“He?You mean the general?”

“Who else?”

“Zacharov is dead.Nobody sent us.”

“Dead?”For the first time, uncertainty crept into Nine’s eyes.“Men like Zacharov don’t die.They just take a vacation in hell and come back even stronger.”

“We killed him.”

“You?You?”Nine’s expression hardened again.“Now I know you’re lying.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake… “She’s not lying.We put two bullets through his head, one each.”

“I don’t know whoyouare, butshewouldn’t kill her own father.”

“Well, she did.But I’m curious as to how you found out he was her father when it wasn’t common knowledge?”

Even Ana herself hadn’t realised, not until seconds before Zacharov’s death when he’d revealed all in an attempt to save his sorry arse.Nine didn’t answer, just gave me a hate-filled glare, and possibly there was a hint of petulance on her part too.If she didn’t want to talk, I couldn’t make her.Literally couldn’t.I’d been well-schooled in the art of torture, but a woman like Nine would merely grit her teeth and deal with it, and besides, Ana seemed fond of her, fuck only knew why.

And right now, my nose hurt like a mother, so I wasn’t about to stand around chatting.

I poked Dasha with my foot.“I take it you didn’t scream a few minutes ago?”

Silence, as expected.

“Ana, can you cope here while I check out that noise we heard?”

“I’m okay.”

She wasn’t, but we could have that discussion later.

“Good.I’ll have a quick scout, then I’ll round up the others and we can get out of here.”

I’d briefly considered whether Nine might have done something to hurt Hallie or Bradley before she stepped out for a stroll, but I’d come to the conclusion that they were fine.Her shock at seeing Ana had been genuine, and no way would she have created a scene on Main Street when she was trying to keep a low profile.

“What about Dasha?”Ana asked.“We can’t just leave her like this.”

“We’ll chuck a knife somewhere before we vamoose.”I nodded into the distance.“By the time she’s wriggled over to it and freed herself, we’ll be in the air.Bradley’s gonna be heartbroken when I tell him he can’t mail-order the giant pink yarn.”

Giving Nine his address didn’t strike me as a great idea.The last thing I wanted was a Russian super-assassin appearing on his doorstep.Or climbing in through a window.Or swimming up from the sewer like an oversized rat.

I prodded the bitch again.“Smile—in an hour, this’ll all be over and you can go back to your embroidery.”

“It’s cross-stitch,” she growled.

“Whatever.We’ll even let you keep your toys.And if you get the chance, take a gander at a satellite photo—the Russians wrote off the Base 13 incident as a munitions mishap, but if you look real close, you’ll see one of the holes is where Zacharov’s office used to be.Two years ago, we left his smoking remains at the bottom of that crater.”I held up her utility belt and admired it for a moment.“No skin off my nose if you don’t believe us, but living with this level of paranoia isn’t healthy.You should learn to relax.Maybe wear clothes with a waistline again.”

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