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I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Those are wishes that anyone would want for their family, Star.”
Her jaw clenched, then she repeated, “You won’t steal her away?”
“No. I have no intention of causing her misery or to tear a family apart if that family is worthy of her. Not when I won’t be here for her forever. But for the time I have remaining, I’d like her to know that she was not forgotten by her blood.”
“Fine.”
When she blindly shoved the phone at me, I accepted it, only to hear Kuznetsov say, “I will have Edgar arrange for your transportation to London.”
While I knew it wasn’t an offer made out of kindness but one of necessity to keep track of our whereabouts, I merely said, “Fine.”
“You should probably know that we intend to spill blood,Grandfather,” she mocked. “If your guards believe they’re the good guys like you do, I’d send men who have dubious morals along with us.”
Kuznetsov’s sigh carried down the line, but he didn’t reply, simply cut the call.
I stared at her, wondering if she knew she antagonized him much as a teenager would with an authority figure.
Did she register that that came from an inherent feeling of safety?
A belief that Kuznetsovwouldn’tactually hurt her?
“What are you looking at, Conor?” she sniped, glowering at me.
I shot her a smile. “You’re beautiful when you’re angry.”
My smile morphed into a grin when she let out a shriek of outrage then stormed over to the bathroom. The door slammed only after she flipped me the bird. Once inside, another growl made itself known to me, and I left her alone, knowing that would take her mind off things for a short while.
Retreating to my computer, I stared at the programs I had running. Right now, I wasn’t dealing with content, but contacts. Messages were being crawled through and email addresses were being collected.
As I stared at my secondary laptop that was still flexing its muscles as it waded through a decade of rejected insurance claims, I pursed my lips. We were no closer to uncovering the truth, but it was definitely uncanny that something had cropped up—
My cell rang again.
“Yes?”
“Your plane will be ready in an hour.”
Fucking flying. I mean, I knew we couldn’twalkto the UK, but Jesus H. Christ, this sucked.
“Thank you.” I nearly choked on the lie as I wasnotgrateful, but then something popped into my head. Good timing seeing as I needed the distraction. “Kuznetsov, have you heard of Operation: Jorgmundgander?”
“Yes, of course. I’m surprised you have.”
“Ran across it during our investigation,” I said smoothly. “Are they Montagues or Capulets? Montagues being Brothers and—”
“Capulets being Sparrows, yes, yes,” was his impatient retort. “I understood the analogy. They are neither. It’s an interesting division. Neutral, allegedly. But Brothers are among the ranks as, I assume, are Sparrows.”
“How does it work?” I asked.
“The nature of the division is to prevent calamity. It was introduced during the Cold War by NATO who acted as intermediaries between the US and the USSR. High-risk, skilled operatives who were arrested by the opposition were funneled into one of three specialized prison units in the UK.
“Now, it operates only for NATO powers. Prisoners have the chance to reduce their sentences for time served while inside.”
“Was it just for field agents?”
“No.”
I thought about Eoghan and the role he played in this fuckfest. “Do they just use criminals?”
