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I put my hand on Colton’s, where it covered my breast, and squeezed his arm around me tighter. Fuck that. “We have to figure a way out of this,” I said out loud. “And warn your people about the terrorist attack. It’s happening tomorrow!”
“No one’ll believe us,” said Colton, his breath hot on the back of my neck. “Even if we go to someone we trust, like Calahan in the FBI, word’ll be sent up the chain and the CIA will arrive, screaming national security, and pick us up.”
“What about the government? Could we go straight to a senator?”
Colton gave a bitter laugh. “Normally, yeah. Kian, the guy who runs our team, is dating the President’s daughter. But I already tried him, his phone’s off because he’s off on a trip with the President: how’s that for irony?”
I bit my lip and lay there staring at the dark motel room for a while. Then my spine went rigid. “I can call Moscow!” I spun to look at Colton. “I can call my old boss, in the GRU. He can get a message from our foreign ambassador directly to your government!”
Colton frowned at me. “I thought the GRU gave you up to the CIA?”
“They didn’t have a choice, then.” I said, shrugging. “They thought I’d killed an American. They had to disavow me to protect Russia. This is different. If they can help stop a terrorist attack on America, think of the political leverage that will give them! Spies are pragmatists, they’ll do it.”
Colton stared at me, horrified at my casualness. I wondered what it must be like, to have such unswerving loyalty to your country, and to expect it to be loyal in return.
I called Moscow and, after some cursing and a few threats, was finally put through to my old boss, Rurik Bobrinsky. I laid everything out for him while he listened silently. When I was done, I heard a bottle cap unscrewing and him knocking back a shot. “You have done well,” he told me in Russian. “I’m leaving now. I’ll be there in the morning.”
“You’re coming here?!”
Rurik’s voice was like iron. “If I’m there, it might help to keep you safe. We’ll brief the foreign ambassador together. It’s going to be alright, Tanya.”
I felt myself relax. For the first time since this whole thing started, I felt like we weren’t alone. “Thank you.”
At just after six the next morning, Colton and I were waiting at a remote airfield in northern Ohio. The sun was still coming up and the early morning mist still curled around our ankles. I was pressed up against Colton as we watched the sky: it’s funny, I’d spent plenty of time waiting in places like this but I’d never realized how lonely it was, doing it on my own. I pressed against him a little tighter.
“There,” said Colton, pointing. A dot had appeared in the sky and we watched as it grew into a plane and came in to land. Rurik must have really pulled some strings to get here so fast. It was an indication of how seriously he was taking this thing.
A few moments later, a private jet was taxiing to a stop in front of us. I let out a sigh of relief as Rurik opened the door and climbed out. It had been two years since I’d seen him, but his camel overcoat and the way he walked with his shoulders up high hadn’t changed. Even at sixty-four, there was still some black in his silver hair. “Hang back while I talk to him,” I told Colton over the sound of the engines, which were still spinning down.
Colton moved back. Rurik embraced me warmly and then led me a little way from the plane so we could talk more easily. “We have looked into your story,” he told me as we walked. “Maravic. The Bainbridge family. It all checks out.”
I went shaky with relief. It was so good to be believed!
“Who else knows?” asked Rurik.
“Just the three of us,” I told him, nodding towards Colton. “How soon can we brief the foreign ambassador?”
Rurik stopped and turned to face me. “Our government has decided to take…a different course.”
I felt ice slowly spread across my chest as I realized what he meant. “No,” I said, my voice tiny. “No, Rurik, we have to tell them!”
“The thinking is, if someone wants to cripple the American economy, let them. We can bet against the dollar, too. We’ll make trillions.” I started to argue, but he put a hand on my shoulder. “Tanya, you can come back to Russia, back to the GRU, your absence forgiven. There’ll even be a promotion. A medal, if you want one.”
I stared at him. He’d been kind to me, during my training and I’d always thought of him like an uncle. He wasn’t a bad man. But he was still going to do what was better for his country, even if it meant Americans dying. I thought of my own words to Colton, the night before. Spies are pragmatists.
