“This is all wrong,” I said.
“I think Sasha’s telling the truth about the stolen artwork,” Tess whispered.
I nodded. “I do too.”
“Why send me here to exploit a connection that never existed?” Tess asked.
“And why not bring you back when Andy Larkin was scrapped from the mission? Why send me in after under false pretenses?” I asked.
“The only good intel we have, we’ve found onour own and everything we’ve been told by management has been wrong.”
“Why did Leslie tell me the fires were set on Zivon’s orders?” I muttered, half under my breath, trying to figure out how the hell we got here.
“Leslie? Who’s she?” Tess asked.
“And what about the money trail from Katia to Zivon Pertakov that Booker found? All that money that was sent to her to start the fires,” I continued to mutter. “That money came from Zivon. He even told her about the insurance scam.”
“Who’s Booker?” Tess asked.
“But Leslie…he said…”
“Leslie’s ahe? Tess asked.”
“Yeah, he’s my handler,” I said.
“Wait a minute. You’re talking about Frank Graves aren’t you? Graves is your handler,” Tess said excitedly.
“Yes, how did you know?”
“Forrester told me about Graves’s whole unisex codename schtick, but that’s not what’s important. What’s important is that I saw Frank Graves with Deputy Director Forrester at least three times before I left for Russia.”
“What’s odd about that?” I asked.
“Because Forrester hates Graves. I’m not sure why, but apparently there’s bad blood between them that goes back decades.”
“Maybe they made up.” I shrugged. “Went to couple’s counseling. Who knows?”
“Or maybe Frank Graves extended an olive branch by way of intel regarding stolen art beingsmuggled out of Russia. Giving Forrester one last shot at his old nemesis,” Tess said.
“So, he sends you here on the grounds of recovering wartime plunder, only…”
“Only it’s not true. Graves fed Forrester false intel. There’s no pipeline and Frank Graves knew it. Meaning I was sent here under false pretenses to fail.”
“Only youdidn’tfail, your mission was bearing fruit enough to seem like progress to Deputy Director Forrester, which was the last thing Graves wanted. But why?”
“Maybe Graves wants to embarrass Forrester. Put a black mark on Forrester’s career before he retires next year.”
“Botched missions happen all the time,” I said. “Every department has a filing cabinet full of cases worked on bad intelligence. You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, everyone knows that. But a dead officer. A young, beautiful, female officer. That would leave a mark.”
“What about you? If Graves wanted my mission to fail, why send you in to assist?”
“Because the only thing worse than one dead officer is two. I think Graves sent me here to die alongside you.”
“What?”
“I think I can prove my theory. Come on.”
We rejoined the others.
