Page 1 of Lethal Salvation

Prologue

“What do you mean, they won’t help him?”

Nadia, known as Duchess to all who met her, faced down her boss, hands on her hips and her temper simmering just below the surface.

Frank Beasley looked up at her from his desk and sighed as he ran his hand through his barely existent hair. “Like I said, Hadi can claim asylum, but the British Government won’t finance his relocation to the UK.”

Rolling her lips between her teeth, she tried to control the fury that bubbled. Showing emotion was something she’d worked hard on in her role at MI6. Being half Italian, she’d inherited her mother’s temper and looks, and her father’s love of languages. It was the love of language that had gotten her this job but now it was her Italian ancestry that was screaming to the forefront. “So, let me get this straight. Hadi risks his life for the UK government and people, and now we’re just going to abandon him and his family? This is bullshit, Frank.”

“Listen, Duchess, I don’t disagree but my hands are tied.”

“Bullshit. You’ve done shadier shit than this and pulled harder strings. You just don’t want to.”

Frank eyed her, his normally passive emotionless face going hard. “Watch yourself, Duchess. You’re already on thin ice after that last job.”

“Oh, you mean the one where I rescued a pregnant mother from being raped by one of those assholes on the base?”

“You put him in the hospital for five weeks.”

“Asshole is lucky that’s all I did.”

“He was a fucking ally.”

“Not to me and not to women. He was scum and you know it.”

“I’m not doing this with you, Duchess. They said no, end of story.”

“No.”

Frank leaned back in his chair as she looked down at him, wondering how the hell he ever got this job and then realising it was because he was a yes man. Something she’d never be, could never be. It was standing there she came to the realisation that after six years at MI6 perhaps her time was coming to an end. She loved the work and her people, but the red tape and politics weren’t for her.

She’d thought she could help people and use her gift of languages at the same time and, for a time, she had, but now she was seeing more and more that for every person she helped, there were ten more that they couldn’t. All because of bureaucracy and keeping the peace so some little dickhead in Whitehall or the Pentagon didn’t get their knickers in a twist.

“No?”

“Yes, Frank.” She leaned forward. “No. If you won’t help him, I will.”

His face went an interesting shade of red, one of her favourite colours usually as he stood to face her, trying to use his height to intimidate her. It wouldn’t work. She might be of average height and build but she was trained by the best of the best. A bonus of working so close with the UK special forces was that she got to train with them and learn from the most skilled operators in the world.

“If you go against me on this, Duchess, I’ll fire your ass.”

She could see the bluff beneath the bluster and wondered again how he could possibly have gotten to this position before she remembered that he might be a weasel, but he was a cunning one too.

“Fine. I quit.”

She could see the tiny capillaries in his cheeks almost burst from anger and she wanted to laugh.

“You don’t just quit MI6, Duchess.”

“Watch me.”

Duchess spun on her heel and walked to the door, before turning around and dropping the calm façade, letting him see the operative who’d taken down four gunmen singlehandedly while nursing a knife wound in her side. “A word to the wise, Frank. You go up against me and you’ll regret it.”

He huffed and rolled his eyes, but the slight intake of air gave away his unease.

“What could you possibly do to me, Duchess?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe make sure the powers that be know that you were the reason that asset was captured by the Russians, or maybe how that intel you sent to Red Team wasn’t checked as you assured them it was and that was why they lost a good man.”