Page 94 of Secret Weapon

“I’ll keep your secrets, Dasha.They’re yours to share, not mine.”

Where to start… “I wanted to quit for a long time, but it wasn’t the kind of job where you could hand in a resignation letter.”

“As I said, I saw what Zacharov put Ana through when she tried to leave.”

“Da, so I knew that when I went, I’d have to burn every bridge and then vanish.But it wasn’t so easy.Before, I told you that one of my colleagues died, but he was more than that to me.We were…involved.”

“Involved?As in romantically?”

“I suppose.What little romance was possible in a situation like ours.We cared for each other, but we had to keep that aspect of our relationship secret.The general wouldn’t have approved.He didn’t tolerate distractions.But Rad and I used to work together often, so with care, we managed to keep things quiet for two years.”

“How did he feel about quitting?”

“The same as me, but slightly more risk-averse.He said Zacharov would send the dream team of Ana and Vik after us.”

“You really believed Ana would kill you?”

“Zacharov had a way of fucking with your head, of making you think the worst.And Vik already took out Artem when he tried to leave, so yes, I believed it.But with Rad, I could cope.We held each other up.”

“So what went wrong?”

“Everything.”I pushed the plate away, the French toast half-eaten.My appetite had vanished.“Everything.That final job… We were sent to the US to eliminate three high-value targets.Two businessmen, one politician.They had security in place, of course they did, but we were used to that.And it should have been a simple undertaking, especially when we realised they’d all be in the same place.One of the businessmen owned a pad in the countryside, the American version of a dacha, and they planned to meet there to discuss their latest attempts at bribery and corruption or whatever it is those assholes do.A little plastic explosive, and boom… Problem solved.”

“I think I saw that on TV—the place in Vermont?”

“If anyone asks, I’ll deny everything.”

Besides, I’d only killed one person that night—I hesitated to call him a man—and I’d framed someone else for the job.

“I know you have no reason to trust me right now, but I’m not going to tell anyone.You think I haven’t kept Emmy’s secrets over the years?Bet she has more skeletons in her closet than you do.”

I wouldn’t be so sure, but let Alex assume that if he wanted to.

“So maybe it was Vermont.The geography isn’t important, but history was.It’s hard to keep your humanity in the job I did, but I always tried.So did Rad, but Pavel had lost his entirely, and he was on the team with us that night.”I shuddered, not out of fear but because by the end, Pavel had repulsed me.“He was Team Zacharov all the way.Pizdets, I need a drink.”

Hell, I needed to drown myself in horilka.These days, it was the only thing that took the pain away.

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