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“People like me can’t have friends.”
“Yeah, you said. It’s...solitary.”
She looked away.
“What about other spies? Your own side? Are they friends?”
Her head jerked round and she looked at me in shock, like I’d slipped a knife through a gap in her armor. She suddenly looked smaller, more fragile.
I leaned forward and gave her a questioning look. What? She had a friend? Or she used to?
She gave a little shake of her head and put her hand out for the coffee tin.
I sighed and passed it to her. And figured I might as well try to get an answer on something that had been bothering me from the start, “Why’d you kill the stockbroker?”
She dipped her head, saying nothing.
What am I doing, I wondered. I’d never cared before why a prisoner did it. Was I hoping it’d be self defense? Some other reason that made it okay, that made her...good? What happened to ‘I just bring ‘em in?’ But I needed to know. I made my voice as gentle as I could. “Tanya?”
She looked at me. Bit her lip.
I leaned closer.
She sprang at me, knocking me flat on my back, and grabbed the handgun from my belt.
20
COLTON
The world flipped and all I could see was sky. Even as I fell backwards, my stomach was sinking. I’d fallen for her tricks again, let my guard slip because I thought she was sad and vulnerable. I was a fucking idiot.
I hit the ground with Tanya on top of me. All of the air oofed out of me and by the time I reached for her, she was already kneeling, out of reach. My handgun was in her bound hands and she was working the safety. I winced, waiting for the shot.
She brought the gun up and fired twice at something behind me. I twisted around awkwardly on the ground, craning my neck, and saw a guy in military gear fall to the ground at the edge of the clearing. Oh Jesus. Had the rest of the team shown up and she’d just killed one of them? I checked his face: no one I recognized. Then there was a rattle of gunfire from the trees and bullets hissed over my head. Tanya ducked and fired again.
“Who the fuck are these guys? What’s going on?” I panted.
“They’re here for me.” She got awkwardly to her feet, her bound ankles making it difficult. She glanced down at me for a second. “Trust me, if you want to live. Get my back.”
I looked at the dead guy. She’d saved my life.
I scrambled to my feet, grabbed my shotgun and pressed my back against hers. Shadows were moving through the trees. “Two my side,” I called. My shotgun boomed and I cut down one guy as he ran towards us.
“Left!” Tanya said urgently, and turned that way, firing again. I kept watching my way, ducking as another guy fired from the trees. He tried to creep around to the side but I tracked him through the trees and fired. He went down and then it was quiet.
“Okay,” I demanded. “Start talking, who were—”
A voice cut through the stillness. It wasn’t loud, but it had an authority that came with age: it carried. His English was good, each word polished smooth but hard and cold, like wood that’s been left outside for years. His accent was strong and I couldn’t place it: it reminded me of Russian but it wasn’t Russian. It was like a strand of rusted barbed wire cinched painfully tight around those polished-wood words, snagging and scraping them. He spoke slowly and as the wire caught and scratched on the syllables, it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “Why are you hunting me?” he asked.
Tanya went instantly rigid, a deer who’s heard a wolf. Even her breathing stopped. I twisted around to look and saw her turning pale. My stomach flipped: it was the first time I’d ever seen her scared.
I strained my eyes, looking into the mist, but I couldn’t see a damn thing. Where is he? I couldn’t home in on his voice because of the sound of the river echoing off the trees.
Tanya’s throat bobbed as she swallowed. She took two quick breaths and then managed to yell, “For what you did to Lev!” Her voice was shaky with anger and fear, almost a sob.
I stared at her, worried. What’s going on? But it was like she’d forgotten I was even there.
The voice came again, indifferent and faintly mocking. “I don’t even remember a ‘Lev’.”
Tanya’s lips pulled back over her teeth and she screamed in wordless rage. She snapped the handgun up and fired into the trees, again and again, even keeping going for a couple of clicks after the magazine ran empty. Her arm fell to her side and she stared into the darkness, panting.
