“Four years deep with no extraction window will do that.” I hold her gaze. “But I’m the one here offering you a way out. So let’s focus on that.”
“He used you. That much was obvious. And you let him.”
“He thought he was using me. There’s a difference.” I pause. “Same way Corluka thought he was using you.”
She doesn’t react, but I catch a flicker of recognition.
I go on, quieter now. “You kept pretending you were doing favors. Running errands. But I watched the way you stood when his people gave you orders. I watched how fast you learned which ones you were allowed to ignore. You played dumb until you didn’t need to anymore.”
Tatiana straightens, stepping forward again. “And you think that makes us the same?”
“No. I think it means you know exactly what I’m asking you to do.”
She studies me for a moment, then glances away.
“I’ve been in deeper than this,” she mutters.
“You’ve also lasted longer than anyone else who stood that close to the head of the snake. That buys you one shot. This is it.”
There’s another beat of silence. Wind cuts through the broken shelter, catches the ends of her scarf, her dark hair striping across her face. She lets it pass before speaking again.
“I was told my new handler would meet me in LA.”
“They’ll be briefed.”
“I asked who it was. They wouldn’t say.”
I hesitate, then answer truthfully. “He’s a junior agent out of Langley. CIA wants him in place before the end of the week.”
She laughs. Dry. “So they want to assign me some desk-fed rookie who’s never seen a kill house?”
“Not my call.”
“I’ll eat him alive.”
“I know.”
She eyes me again, harder this time. “Then why are you here and not him?”
It’s a fair question, but she already knows the answer. Instead I answer the question she won’t ask.
“I’m going to tell them after the fact that I’m taking you.”
Her eyes narrow. “That isn’t what they want, is it?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“I’m not a fan of lies.”
“This isn’t a lie.”
“You just said?—”
“I said I’m not your handler. Yet.”
Her mouth presses into a thin line. For a moment I think she’s going to walk away.
Then, slowly, she exhales and says, “You’ll catch heat for this.”
