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“So you’ll torture him to find out what?” I ask.

“Where he has the files.”

Right. The files. That’s the whole reason I’m here. “What if they’re in some Swiss bank we need him to access?”

“We kill him.” He shrugs no problem. “The bank won’t give out the files without him there. That problem dies with him.”

“But what if Mi6 has a workaround? Someone who looks like him? We should send him to find and destroy it first,” I say.

Yorgos considers this for a moment. “You’re very thorough.”

I nod. Yes, that’s it. I’m thorough.

“But no, I don’t think it’s an issue. As long as we get everything on the cloud. Will he be honest if your life is on the line?”

“People lie when they’re tortured. You know that,” I say.

He nods that is true. “But I’m very persuasive.”

My stomach turns. I’m sure he is. I’m sure I don’t like it either. “And then what?”

“Then, we’re done. I go back to Athens. You take another job. Find some new lover. He probably won’t be as skilled as your fed, but, hey, at least you won’t have to kill him.”

Right. That’s.

Uh.

My chest gets heavy, but I push it aside. Try to focus on strategy.

The words don’t come out.

So I take a deep breath and I find my voice. “What if Matteo doesn’t do what you expect? What if he guesses your ransom note is a ruse and comes at this sideways?”

“Is he that smart?” he asks.

I don’t know the answer most likely to lead him astray. I say, “yes,” anyway.

He taps his chin. “I think it’s fine. I keep access with me. As long as no one gets their hands on my laptop, we’re clear.”

I swallow hard. This might be a set up. He might want me to break free and hand that laptop to Matteo.

Or he might be this over-confident.

Maybe my first instinct was right. Maybe he is smug.

“It’s here?” I ask.

“And very incriminating,” he says. “But don’t worry. He won’t get his hands on it.”

“But what if he does,” I say. “What if, we give him a laptop with fake information. Wouldn’t that be a better use of him?”

He laughs. “Yes, of course. Then you wouldn’t have to kill him. And he could keep making you come every night.”

That’s not going to happen.

But neither is his plan. I need to explain it to him.

That’s it.