AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, what? No to getting Orlov called off?”
“No, to who you want to use to negotiate with them.”
“I’m not following.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Gunner.”
“Shiver, I’m not. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“She’s hands off.”
Gunner’s mind raced. Who did Shiver think Gunner was suggesting?
“Not that you could find her.”
Gunner decided to see if he could push Shiv into telling him who she was. “Who says she’s hands off?”
“I do.”
“Give me something more here, Shiv. Why?”
“Because I said so.”
There is only one reason that Shiver wouldn’t tell him who he was talking about, and that’s because it was personal.
“There’s gotta be someone else, Shiv. Help me out here.”
“If I find out you’ve pursued this, I’ll hunt you down and cut the skin from your body inch-by-inch.”
“Jesus, Whittaker. Enough.”
* * *
Gunner hung up, unsure of his next move. Shiv was so caught up in whoever it was he was protecting, the conversation wasn’t going anywhere.
“Hey, man,” said Razor. “I was just about to call you.”
“Yeah? What for?”
“You first.”
“I just had the strangest conversation with Shiv. We were talking about trying to get UR to give up on Raketa, and he suddenly goes off on how the answer was no to the person I wanted to use to negotiate with them.”
“Ah, you played the Kuznetsov card.”
“I didn’t. And I wish to hell you hadn’t given me the name.”
“Then why’d you call me?”
Razor had a point. He did call to see if his friend had any insight. “You’re right. But now that I know she’s hands off, I need another name. Got one?”
“Not right off the top of my head, but I’ll think on it.”
“Who’s Kuznetsov to Shiv, anyway?”
“You don’t want to go there, my friend.”
“Understood. Now, why were you going to call me?”
