Page 87 of Sinner's Sacrifice

“Are you wired, or monitored, or tracked in any way?”

He opened his mouth, but hesitated, before saying, “My phone is tracked.”

“No recording devices of any kind?” she asked again.

He shook his head. “Yvgeny was adamant about not allowing those, and since the Bureau wanted someone inside the Breznik corporation, they accepted that stipulation.”

“Is it possible someone slipped something into your clothes?”

Brian frowned at her. “What? No. At least, I don’t think so.”

“That’s very secret agent,” Sam commented.

“Yeah, well, what we’re about to witness is as secret as shit gets.”

“What are we going to see?” Brian asked.

Nika thought about that. “You ever watch one of those period movies, with sword fights that someone sped up a tiny bit so it would look cool, superhero-ish, and impossible all at the same time?”

“Yeah.”

“Kind of like that.”

Sam looked at the screen again. Yvgeny, Baz, his mother, and her henchmen were standing in a rough semi-circle facing the elevator.

There was a lot of noise coming from the elevator shaft, banging, clanging, and shouting.

Looks like they found a shortcut.

Suddenly, a blade thrust between the elevator doors. It was angled to help pry open the doors. Hands pulled the doors apart.

Baz, who was standing in the middle of the group, pulled a handgun out of his waistband and pulled the trigger three times.

The hands disappeared.

“What did you do that for?” Yvgeny asked.

“Hard to hold a blade or shoot with holey hands,” Baz answered. “Besides, after watching Nika disable the assholes from South America, I’ve noticed that shooting people generally stops annoying chit-chat.”

“Heaven forbid anyone annoying you,” Yvgeny said with a shake of his head.

The elevator doors were suddenly thrust apart, and several people sprinted into Yvgeny’s apartment. They were all carrying bladed weapons, swords, knives, and a few oddly curved things Sam had never seen before.

It was the entire well-dressed group. That made the two groups almost even. Then, the fight was too chaotic to keep track of how many there were.

Some of the people were moving too fast. It was like watching a video in fast forward.

“So, this is in real time?” Brian asked.

“Yup,” Nika said. She sounded tired or resigned.

“How do they move so fast? Is the security feed intermittent?”

Nika opened her mouth to respond, but the clap of gunshots startled them and several of the combatants. Baz stood over two bodies, blood pooling around their heads. A happy grin on his face.

Chapter Twelve

Sam had thought Yvgeny was a little eccentric, but Baz took the top prize in the crazy competition.