Page 19 of Secret Weapon

“How’s she doing?”

“Pulse and breathing are steady,” Nine confirmed.

Ana had the thigh wound packed with a clotting agent, and the blood wasn’t flowing so freely now.“The bleeding’s no worse, and the rest… This was methodical.They bound her hands and feet and worked her over.See?”

She lifted the girl’s sweater to reveal a row of cigarette burns, and I did see.

“Not a lover’s tiff, more of a torture session?”

“Da.”

Which left three big questions—who was this woman, and what did she know?And more importantly, how much had she told her assailant?

“Do you recognise her?”I asked Nine.

“Hard to say, but nothing about her looks familiar.A lot of people pass through this town.”

We’d stabilised the girl as far as possible in the field.Nine squeezed the ventilation bag, Ana monitored the bleeding, and I made a loop out of paracord to hang the IV bag from a handy branch.

“It wasn’t a robbery,” Ana said.“She’s still wearing jewellery, and that watch wasn’t cheap.”

I took a quick inventory, and Ana was right.The girl wore an entry-level Rolex, plus stud earrings that were either diamonds or good fakes.Her necklace was beaded—something Nine might have made in her Darla persona—but she had what looked like a vintage emerald on her middle finger.

Meanwhile, Ana was patting down her pockets.

“No driver’s licence, but she has a credit card in the name of Leona Curran and a key card for the Peninsula.Dasha, have you heard the name before?”

Nine shook her head.“I don’t spend much time at the Peninsula.”

The girl’s pockets yielded nothing else, and all we could do was wait.Thankfully, a siren soon sounded in the distance.

“Cavalry’s here.Darya, do you have to modify your story?We’ll go with whatever you need.”

“I’ll say I opened the store’s rear door out of curiosity and heard the scream, same as you.And of course I’ll get a lecture on the dangers of running into the forest alone because that’s a man’s job.”She rolled her eyes.“But I’ve grown used to playing dumb.And you should say you fitted the LMA.I know nothing about field medicine, and I’m just squeezing the bag the way you told me to.Does that cover it?”

Ana reached out to tug down Nine’s sleeve where the edge of a bandage was showing.“That covers it.”

I heard voices, and Hallie soon appeared, leading a pair of medics and a dark-haired guy in a deputy’s uniform.No Bradley, thank fuck.We didn’t need a running commentary on bruises in shades of plum, sangria, and chartreuse, or analysis of the deputy’s well-muscled thighs, which were admittedly quite nice.

“The deputy is Luca Mendez,” Nine murmured.“New to the job, but smart.Former Army Ranger.”

“Noted.”

As the group got closer, Nine sort of…shrank into herself.The prickly aura disappeared, and grim determination was replaced by relieved desperation.She even conjured up a tear.Ana had been absolutely right—Darya Volkova was a chameleon.

At least the medics had gotten the message about the spinal board.The guy carrying it hooked a toe under a tree root and stumbled as he jogged towards us, and I tried not to smile.If he went arse over tit, that would only make my cover story more plausible.

Luca reached us first.“What happened?”

I figured I should do the talking.“Your guess is as good as mine.We found her like this.”

“How long ago?”the first of the medics asked.Taller, older, more confident.He was the team leader.

“Nineteen minutes.She’s been beaten by the look of it, plus she’s got one deep knife wound and a number of shallower ones.We packed the deeper one with Celox…” I handed over the packaging in case they weren’t familiar with that particular haemostatic.“And we’ve loosened the tourniquet we initially applied.Her airway was swelling, hence the LMA, and the collar’s just a precaution.Over to you.”I straightened and stepped back, giving them room to work, and the junior guy took over from Nine.“Let us know if you need a hand.”

“Initial reports suggest a cougar might have been involved?”Luca said.

“This was no cougar.”

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