“Hey, Raze. What do you know about Topor Evasov?”

“Not a lot more than you do. He was thought to have been executed by Azerbaijan’s military as part of that mass wave of arrests made last year.”

“That’s right, he’s Armenian. A double agent.”

“There’s a theory that he secretly ran everything in Azerbaijan for Petrov when he was living as Conor McNamara. Couldn’t have done it alone, though.”

“What else?”

“Late forties. Cut his chops in the Armenian National Security Service.”

“So Petrov turned him?”

“Yeah, probably.”

Gunner knew Razor almost better than he knew himself. Something was on his friend’s mind, and whatever it was, Razor was piecing it together on the fly.

“Tell me again what the mystery caller said.”

Gunner reiterated every word.

“That last part…‘I can no longer protect you.’”

“It’s odd,” said Gunner. “That’s what made Raketa think it was Petrov. While she was at his compound, he told her she was there for her protection.”

“I can no longer protect you.”

“What are you getting at, Raze?”

“But he was able to protect her when the chip was still implanted.”

Gunner was usually able to be patient when Razor was thinking out loud. Not this time. “Get to the point.”

When Razor opened his laptop, Gunner sat down.

“Where’s Raketa?” Razor asked, but he didn’t answer. He knew his friend was too lost in what he was doing to hear his answer anyway.

Earlier, when he and Raketa had come back inside, she’d asked if he’d mind if she talked to Ava alone for a few minutes. He’d wanted to ask why since she’d just told him she didn’t want to, but he’d let it go and went in search of Razor.

“I had a feeling…”

“Jesus,” Gunner growled. “What? Get to the damn point!”

“Ivashov, Evasov.”

“Both common Eastern European names.”

“Not so much.”

“Raze, I love ya like a brother, but if you don’t get to the point, I’ll…”

Razor looked up at him.

“Never mind. I’m not in a position to make threats, even if I’m not serious.”

“Take it easy on yourself, Gunner. You’ve never seen my bat-shit crazy.”

“If I haven’t, has anybody?”

Razor shrugged. “No, but…”

“I changed my mind, if you don’t tell me where you’re going with this in the next ten seconds, I’ll rip your face off.”

“Svetlana Ivashov is Armenian.”

“But Petrov isn’t?”

“Nope. Azerbaijani all the way.”

“He had to know his wife’s nationality before he married her.”

“We need some inside intel on this. Too bad Pimm…sorry, man.”

“What are you getting at?” Gunner asked, his voice low.

“Who else have we got that’s far enough inside?”

“Grigor Bedrossian.”

“Shiv.” Gunner stood and greeted the man who’d just joined them. “How’s Pimm?”

“I’ll be fine, you stupid fucking asshole.”

Shiv stepped aside, and Pimm walked toward Gunner and reached out his hand.

“You armed?”

“Shake my hand, ya wanker.”

Gunner did. “I’m sorry.”

“Forgiven.”

“Why?”

“Gunner, thank the man for accepting your bloody apology,” said Shiv. “We have an op to finish.”

“What do you want to know about Bedrossian?” Pimm asked.

“Nothing,” answered Razor. “I want to track Svetlana Ivashov’s whereabouts for the last twenty years.”

“Bedrossian would be the man.”

“Is your cover blown?” asked Gunner.

“What cover? He knew I was MI6. So was he, actually. At one point anyway. When his uncle became president, he immediately appointed Grigor as ambassador to the UK. Now that the pres needs more help from you Yanks, he sent him to DC.”

“Get me everything you can on Svetlana and Topor Evasov,” Razor said to Pimm.

“Svetlana’s brother?”

“What?” gasped Gunner and Razor simultaneously.

“I’m beginning to think we don’t work together on jack shit,” Gunner shot at Shiv.

“He’s actually her step-brother. Different fathers,” added Pimm.

Gunner peeked his head out of the room they were in but didn’t see Raketa. “Excuse me, gentlemen,” he said before leaving to search for her.

He found her sitting outside, looking up at the sky. “Hey, Rocket Girl.”

“Hi,” she answered, nuzzling into him when he sat next to her.

“How’d your chat with Ava go?”

“It was fine. You were right.”

“She didn’t ask questions.”

“None at all.”

“Good.”

“What have you been doing?”

Gunner told her that he’d asked Razor what he knew about Topor Evasov. “What about you? What’s his background?”

“I don’t know much of anything.”

“He’s your step-uncle.”

Raketa raised her head and then turned to look at him. “Explain.”

Gunner reiterated the conversation he and Razor had had with Shiv and Pimm.

“Wow,” she said, looking up at the sky again and shaking her head. “He hates me so much.”

“Maybe he doesn’t.”

“You should’ve seen him.”

“Who else saw him?”

“What do you mean?”

“Surveillance, right?”

Raketa nodded.

“How do you think it would’ve gone down if Petrov thought Topor’s behavior to you was too…familiar? Did he ever hurt you?”

“Not really. He used to get rough and drag me by my arm, but nothing worse than that.”

They both heard the front door open, and Shiv came outside.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but we need to wrap things up so you can leave.”

“Come on,” he said to Raketa, taking her hand in his.

The K19 team had reassembled in the main room of Doc and Merrigan’s house. All eyes were on Gunner and Shiv when they came inside.

“The meeting with UR has been accelerated,” Doc told them.

“Meaning what?” asked Gunner.

“It’s going down in about thirty minutes.”

“How?”

“They’re coming here,” Doc answered.

“Have you lost your mind?” Gunner was incredulous that Doc would allow UR anywhere near his compound, let alone his wife and baby.

“They aren’t coming to the house. You, Shiv, and McTiernan are meeting them at San Ysidro Ranch. We’ve made arrangements for a cottage. You’ll have plenty of cover.”

“Why the change?” asked Shiv.

“There’s new intel on Petrov’s twenty.”

Gunner’s head was about to explode. “Where is he, Doc?”

“On the move. It appears he’s heading south.”

“Where’d the intel come from?”

“Ambassador Bedrossian,” answered Pimm.

Gunner nodded and then looked at Raketa. She had no visible reaction to anything that had been said, and that was her training kicking in. It occurred to Gunner that the only times she had a visceral reaction, was when they were alone.

“Are you ready?” Gunner asked McTiernan.

“Yes.”

The answer was simple, and Gunner didn’t need more than that.

“Who’s staying, who’s going?” he asked Doc, who rattled off each of the teams. Half of the K19 team would stay put with Raketa, Doc, Merrigan, and Quinn along with Ava, her sister, and mother. The rest were going with Gunner and Shiv.

“When this deal is done, we’re leaving Doc and Merrigan alone for a long while,” Gunner told the group.

“Roger that,” said Razor.

For the most part, Razor kept his facial reactions to a minimum, but he had two tells. One, when he was lying. That one his wife had recognized early on. The second was when he was stressed. Tonight his anxiety level was through the roof, and Gunner understood why. In fact, he’d guess Doc and Shiv were equally stressed. To them, this was personal; to the rest, it was a mission.

There was a mental routine Raketa implemented when the stress of whatever situation she was in threatened to undermine her focus.

Regardless of whether she stayed here or went with the team meeting with United Russia, she was in grave danger. Until the deal was made—if it was made—UR could mount a full-bore attack and kill not just her, but anyone around her. She knew this from experience.

Gunner was at an equal level of risk. There was no question that United Russia knew exactly how important he was to her, and would use that as a means to punish her for what she’d done when she left their employ.

“Come with me,” Merrigan said, leading her upstairs. “I think I have a good idea of your mental state presently, and I’d like to offer some perspective.”

Raketa nodded while she waited for Merrigan to close the door to the room they were in.

“If anyone from K19, MI6, or the agency weren’t completely confident that this deal was viable, this meeting wouldn’t be taking place.”

“I understand.”

“If United Russia didn’t see what’s in it for them, it wouldn’t be taking place either, and they certainly wouldn’t have agreed to move it up forty-eight hours.”

Unless they were planning an annihilation. Raketa recognized that their doing so would mean the equivalent of World War III. Taking out that number of operatives with connections to both the CIA and MI6 would spell political and financial ruin for UR. Even China wouldn’t step in to help them if they put themselves in that position.

Without money and support from the members of the United Nations Security Council, UR would be ripe for a coup. It didn’t matter how many friends their current leader had inside his homeland; no world power could continue as such without allies.

“I can see you’re lost in thought, adding to my list of considerations.”

Raketa nodded. “It’s logical they would not jeopardize the Russian Federation’s position in the UN or among its members.”

“Exactly,” said Merrigan. “You also know that UR’s enemies within the federation are many.”

Raketa nodded a second time. The United States was also often a hotbed of political turmoil, but here, differences were settled by way of elections. There was no shortage of hatred between political parties, but in the nation’s almost two-hundred-and-fifty-year history, there’d never been a governmental overthrow, and the odds of one ever happening were astronomically low.

“In other words, they aren’t bloody stupid,” said Merrigan.

Raketa heard a knock at the door.

“Come in,” said Merrigan.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but we’re heading out,” said Gunner, his eyes focused solely on Raketa’s.

“I’ll give you a minute,” said Merrigan, closing the door behind her.

“I love you, Zary,” he said, cupping her cheek with his palm.

“I love you, Gunner. Be careful,” she whispered.

“Always.”

Raketa clung to him in a way she’d never done with anyone in her life.

“This is a big piece of the puzzle, Raketa, and to be honest, as much as I initially questioned Doc’s decision, I know now that I wouldn’t have accepted not being a part of this meeting. I wouldn’t have trusted anyone else to make sure it got done. I know Shiv feels the same way.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“I don’t want your thanks. It’s you and me from here on out. We’re together, and we’re going to stay that way for the rest of our very long lives. I’d say we’re a team, but we’re so much more than that.”

When Gunner said they were so much more than a team, Raketa almost confessed her plan and begged him to let her come with him. Knowing he’d refuse and then ask one of the K19 partners to keep an eye on her, she stayed silent.

She’d studied the security setup of Doc’s compound, including how vehicles were able to leave through the gate without a code being entered.

Earlier, she’d watched Razor set his car key on the counter, near his laptop, before going upstairs to check on Ava. It hadn’t taken much to slip it into her pocket. If he’d noticed it was gone, she’d have simply slipped it back out somewhere else where it would be easy for him to find it. He hadn’t noticed, though.

No one commented when she said she was going outside for a few minutes, and evidently, no one noticed Razor’s car start up or pull out of the gate.

According to her GPS, the ranch where Doc had said the meeting was taking place was only a few miles away. She’d have to hide the car, figure out a place where she could surveil what cottage they were meeting in, and then wait to make her move.

Raketa didn’t plan to act unless it became warranted and Gunner was in danger.

She parked behind a storage building and was creeping through the heavy growth of trees and bushes when she saw several cars, including one that she recognized as belonging to K19.

Before she could take another step, she saw something else that turned her blood to ice.

Petrov was also getting out of a different vehicle, one that had been parked farther away, with her mother held firmly in his grasp.

Someone must’ve tipped him off about the meeting, and he planned to use her mother as either a shield or a bargaining chip. Had they been discussing the change in the location prior to Doc removing the tracking device from her body? She didn’t think so, which meant he had to have someone on the inside, reporting to him. Maybe Gunner’s instincts about Pimm had been right after all.

She could follow, maybe even kill Petrov before he had a chance to act, but that meant her shot had to be dead-on. It had been years since she’d executed a nighttime kill without the assistance of an NVD.