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“Congratulations, Sasha. You will have your revenge. I get his body though. After you’re done with it, of course.”
Alessandro smiled like a wolf grinning at the moon in the middle of a dark forest and keyed the code into the cage’s lock. “Agreed.”
My phone rang. An unlisted number. I took the call.
“I’ll be brief,” Arkan said on the other end. “Release Trofim Smirnov, and your sisters will survive the day.”
I went right back to my Tremaine voice. “What a coincidence. I’ve just finalized the contract spelling out what happens to your corpse. So good of you to call after it was done.”
Konstantin slipped out of the cage, moving in complete silence. Alessandro grabbed the manila folder, scribbled something on the back of it, and held it up.
Provoke.
Yes, yes, I know.
No matter how many operatives we took out, as long as Arkan remained at his base in Canada, he was unreachable. Going into Canada to get him required cooperation between the two governments and an international warrant. Linus had tried, but nobody wanted to tell Canada the real reason we were going after Arkan. The moment news of the stolen serum reached the Canadian government, there would be a diplomatic explosion of international proportions. The United States couldn’t afford to lose face. Without the serum, our reasoning for arresting Arkan was thin, and Canada wasn’t wild about letting a team of dangerous combat Primes across their borders to apprehend one of their citizens.
We had to make Arkan come to us.
“This is your last chance to save your family,” Arkan said. I knew what he sounded like from videos but hearing him over the phone sent shivers down my spine. He had a voice that cut across your senses like a knife.
“You seem to be under the impression that you hold a trump card in these negotiations,” I said.
Konstantin grabbed the folder and the pen, wrote something on it, and held it up. Get him out of Canada.
Thank you, Prince Obvious, I would’ve never thought of that.
I kept going. “You are mistaken, Mr. Orlov. You are not even invited to the table. We have reached an agreement with Mr. Smirnov. He’s proving exceedingly useful. We have secured the cooperation of the federal government. Your threats are hollow.”
Konstantin started writing something else. Alessandro grabbed the folder and tried to pull it away from him. They struggled over it in a silent tug-of-war.
“The FBI won’t help you. The Wardens won’t help you. After my people walk away from the burning ruin of your home, they may show up to recover the bodies.” He was hammering each word in like nails into my imaginary coffin.
Alessandro grabbed the middle of the folder and ripped it in half. The prince and my fiancé frantically scribbled on their chunks.
“You’re driven by patriotism. You think what you’re doing is noble because you’re still a naïve, arrogant child. Your country will use you and throw you away when you no longer serve a purpose.”
I needed to convince him that the only way he could win would be by showing up himself. We had seriously thinned his ranks over the past year. He was suffering a heavy personnel shortage. I’d hit him on that.
“Your reward will be a row of headstones. You’re fond of Sagredo. Think of what it would be like to never hear his voice again. How will you fill that ragged hole where your mother used to be?”
Alessandro and Konstantin jerked their folder up at the same time like judges raising their scorecards at a figure skating competition. Alessandro had written 5 Primes left, and Konstantin’s paper said Lost 1/3 of his operatives.
I reached over, plucked the two halves of the folder from their fingers, and threw them over my shoulder.
“That was a splendid speech,” I said into the phone. “Mr. Orlov, we both know why you’re wasting your air and my time. You’re down to five Primes, Malchenko, Sanders, Krause, Buller, and Xavier, who, as we both know, is a potential liability. Your roster of Significants suffered heavy losses. Even if you field everyone at the same time and Sanders brings his sons, I still have no problem countering you. Since you and I started this little dance, you haven’t won a single skirmish, and that was before I had access to Smirnov. When all of your agents are gone and you have no one left to hide behind, killing you will be easy like swatting a fly.”
Konstantin and Alessandro stared at me.
“Let me be blunt: I’m not doing this because I’m trying to keep my country safe. I could ignore that you murdered my fiancé’s father. I could even ignore your little serum scheme, but you had the audacity to send killers into my new home. You’ve made yourself into an obstacle. I will remove you from my path, the way I would remove a pile of crap a stray dog left on my lawn, and then I will live happily ever after, content that nobody will remember your name.”
