AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now they had a frontal view of the Spaniard as they walked toward the office. A full tactical balaclava that covered his head and face except for the eyes. The video was too grainy to see fine details, but Vadisk would have bet money that it wasn’t some knit ski mask, but the kind of head covering and face mask he’d had in the army, with specialty fabric and a panel of breathable cloth over the mouth.
“Are we going to be able to hear them?” Vadisk asked, hating that he hadn’t thought to ask before now, when it was too late to do anything.
“We tested it out, and I could hear Dahlia talking if I pressed my ear to the door crack,” Montana said quickly. “Okay shhh, here they come.”
Dahlia and Vadisk raced to the door. She dropped to her knees, while he braced his palms and leaned in above her, both of them with their ears against the narrow space through which a thin band of daylight shone.
Vadisk could still see the monitor, and he watched as Sinaver opened the door and led the Spaniard into the office.
ChapterSeventeen
Dahlia forced herself to exhale slowly as she closed her eyes, blocking out visual input as she focused on auditory.
“Drink?” Sinaver asked.
“No, but thank you.” The Spaniard’s tone was calm, almost relaxed.
“Did you travel far?”
There was a beat of silence. “We’re not friends, Abduramanov. You hired me one time, and now we exchange information. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
Hired? Hired him to do what?
The Spaniard spoke Russian almost fluently, but sometimes the grammar was a little off. Like someone who’d learned the language but didn’t speak it enough, or spend enough time around native speakers to polish those final rough edges away.
“I want to know more.” Sinaver had lost the polite host tone. “I want a list.”
“That’s unfortunate because you’re never going to get it.”
Another tense silence. Dahlia opened her eyes, scanning the monitors. Sadly, there wasn’t a camera in the office.
“That’s what I want,” Sinaver said coldly. “In exchange for the Ukrainian and the American.”
“TheAmerican? Only one?” The Spaniard laughed softly. “You’ve done something stupid, haven’t you?”
“They were trying to escape by boat. We had to blow up the boat to stop them.”
“You arrested them, but they escaped, found a boat, and were about to leave?” The Spaniard’s tone dripped with contempt.
“No.” It sounded like Sinaver’s teeth were gritted. “They’d already run when we went to arrest them.”
Wood creaked, and Dahlia pictured the Spaniard leaning forward.
“How did they know?”
“What?”
“How did they know to run?”
Dahlia tipped her face up, eyes wide in question. Vadisk was looking down at her. He grimaced, shaking his head slightly. She looked to Montana, who had no idea that the Spaniard had just started a line of inquiry that might lead them to figure out that Sinaver’s phone was being mirrored.
Dahlia gingerly took her phone out of the passport bag still strapped around her stomach and typed out a summary of what the Spaniard had just asked.
Montana slid over to her—literally sliding his feet across the floor rather than picking them up and risking the sound of footsteps—and read her message. His lips moved in a silent curse, and then he was frantically tapping his phone.
“There are two likely options. First, they’re listening. Have they ever been in this building?”
Dahlia squeezed her eyes closed. She knew he didn’t mean,“Hey, they might be here right now literally listening to us talk,”but her heart was beating so hard and fast in fear and anxiety, she felt slightly ill.
