“You have no idea what happens to us.” She’s moving closer to me like we can share this moment.
It’s a dangerous thing for her to think, and I need to end it now. I grin at her, making her stop. “Once again, you have this notion that I care.”
Hurt flickers across her beautiful face. She looks up in Michail’s direction, and color enters her cheeks. She’s not just naïve sexually, but there is such an innocence about how the world works in her eyes that it makes me care when I really shouldn’t.
She grows silent for a moment. “Can I go to my room?”
I don’t want her to be alone, but I also don’t want to be around her much longer. She’s forcing me to see her as more than a means to an end. An end that will come, and then what?
“Yes, go ahead.”
She leaves, and I watch her until she disappears into her room. I wait a beat more before I turn to Michail. “How long was Sacha here?”
“Five minutes max.”
“Did he ask any questions?” I enter the kitchen area and pour myself out a drink. The vodka doesn’t help the unsettling feeling that’s coursing through me. It’s one thing to give me a target. I would watch them, learn their movements, and remove them when least expected. That’s what I did. It could take me hours, days, or even weeks, but I never got impatient. This situation was making me unsettled.
“Yeah, he wanted to know if Evie was here.”
I nod. Of course, he did. He must be afraid that she saw something. I reopen the roster and go through the names. Of course, he isn’t on it. He had a part in all this, and I want to know exactly what it was. I have two more drinks before I return to the couch and go through the remaining files. The loading inventory is mundane and, once again, a fabrication of what the ship was really transporting.
I had no idea how much of the roster was true, apart from the fact there were ten security men dead. They were the only ones that I could say with certainty were on the ship that day. The rest I had to disqualify. As for the autopsy, Evie had seen the darts, she had said they were drugged, and I believed her. Each one had a prick mark on their necks.
I lay the fabricated files down beside me and finish my drink.
Pavel is quick to find out Sacha’s home address and forwards it on to me. That’s where Sacha is now. He left my home and went straight to his own, which is perfect for me.
Leaving Evie makes me feel uneasy, but Michail won’t disappoint me again, and I’ve left him personally responsible for her. He knows if anything happens, I’ll have his head for it.
I don’t take the limo but my own personal vehicle. She hums to life, and I love the feel of the Astin Martin as I pull out of the underground car parking. I only use her for jobs, and she brings back a feeling I always have of contentment, and also, it’s a reminder of the purpose I have.
Going to Sacha’s will allow me to flex old muscles that feel abandoned.
I arrive at the address that Pavel gave me. The house is like cubes stacked on top of each other. It’s all glass and steel. To some, it would be stylish. To me, it looks more like a cold box.
I get out of my car that I’ve parked on the opposite side of the road. Most gates have cameras on them, and I don’t want Sacha to know it’s me. Keeping my head down, I jog across the road. The moment I reach the gate, I take my gun out. The overhead cameras have been shot out, the glass cracked, and no lights are blinking.
The gates are still sealed, but I scale the low wall easily and land in the front garden. I see three more cameras all shot out.
Fuck.
Moving to the partially open front door, I push it fully open with my foot and wait a moment. There’s no sound, and I enter with my gun raised. The inside is as cold as the outside. Gray slates under my feet meet gray walls that I move alongside. There’s no furniture to obstruct my movements. I round the corner and come face to face with Sacha. He’s in a large armchair, his throat sliced from ear to ear. His white shirt is coated in a river of red. Whoever did this is most likely gone, but I do a sweep of the house to make sure I’m alone.
I am.
I check Sacha’s pockets for his phone, but it’s already gone. He has no wallet on him either. I check the side of his face for a red lump like I had seen on the other security men, but there isn’t one there. They didn’t have to drug him to kill him. The fact his throat is slit tells me the same people who are keeping him silent are the ones that attacked the ship. Movement out the back window catches my attention. The back lawn is scattered with trees, but among them, I see a flash of black. I withdraw my gun and move slowly to the back sliding door. The beauty of new homes means everything is soundless. The sliding door opens seamlessly, and I step out onto the manicured lawn. The black silhouette still hasn’t moved any further away. Four trees separate us, and I move quickly until I am at the opposite side of the tree he leans against.
“Target is down, but I think the Handler has arrived. Copy.” His words are
