Page 25 of One Last Stand
“Might have been helpful.” She didn’t bother to tame the sarcasm.
Ziggy didn’t bite. “I know he was a mark, but I also know you had feelings for him. And we needed him dead.”
“Why is that always your go-to? Can’t people simply . . . disappear?”
“Only to be found again? The people they left behind kidnapped, tortured, and killed?”
To put a fine point on it.Ouch. London’s voice lowered. “Tomas had no one but me.”
Ziggy’s too. “Listen. We tried. We put him into our own WITSEC program. The Petrovs still found him.”
Of course they did. They had tentacles and covert operatives around the world. Even in the US government. “And now what—Tomas wants the money so he can disappear?”
Ziggy sighed. “I don’t know. But even if he has the bio card, he doesn’t have the seed phrase, right?”
London nodded, pointed to her head. “Twenty-two random words, in specific order.”
“Okay then. Get the key. Find Tomas. End this.”
She stilled. “Ziggy?—”
“You want him coming after you again?”
“I have a rule?—”
“Your rule nearly got you killed! And let a rogue CIA agent run free to terrorize America. You know how much damage Alan Martin has done to your country? He betrayed your country, helped the Petrovs nearly murder your president—twice—sent a plague of smallpox into your nation, and most recently, tried to start a war between Russia and America!” Ziggy took a breath, but barely, her voice cutting low. “If you had killed him that day on the mountain?—”
“I didn’t know.”
“You should have known. You read the situation?—”
“It’s done. And I nearly died that day.” Never mind that, yes, she’d panicked seeing her CIA contact dead.
Maybe she wasn’t cut out to be a Swan. It wasn’t the first time she’d had that thought.
“You had the chance to kill him, and you walked away.”
“With the money—that counts for something. I cut off their funds.”
“Yeah, well, it looks like they haven’t forgotten. And maybe they’re using Tomas to get to you.”
“Tomas wouldn’t betray me.”
“You’re so naïve. Everyone betrays everyone.” From inside the mansion, in the massive office, Ziggy shook her head.
Not everyone. “Shep wouldn’t.”
“He lied to you about why he brought you here.”
“He told me the truth. It just took . . . time.”
“And this is your problem, London. You trust too easily.”
She drew in a breath. “It’s better than believing everyone is trying to kill you.”
“Really?” Ziggy leaned into the screen. “You’re alive becauseIbelieve that.”
Right.