"You should have gone to Conner."
"Probably. I might have saved him and kept the plates from Pavski. Since I'm such a self-serving bastard, that choice amazed me later." He looked her in the eye. "But I didn't do it, and there's no going back."
She could feel the tears sting her eyes. "No, there's no going back."
"But we can move forward. Revenge is sweet. Take it from someone who knows."
Her lips twisted. "And you know that emotion very well, don't you? How many people have you killed, Kirov?"
"Not as many as Pavski."
"That's no answer."
"That's all you'll get from me." He threw some money on the table. "Let's get back to the sub. I want our search over before Pavski figures out how to bypass Bradworth's men to get to me."
"You believe he's watching us?"
"Of course. Bradworth and Pavski both. You're the magnet that draws all of us. Pavski evidently found the plates to be incomplete and thinks that wonderful memory of yours may give him something else to work with. Bradworth and I need you to draw him out in the open."
"Then why do you think Pavski wants to get to you as well as me?"
"Because I stand in the way." He stood up. "I've stood in his way for a long time, but I've never let him get this close before. When I decided to come to you, I put myself in the spotlight instead of in the shadows. It makes me more vulnerable."
She rose to her feet. "Then why did you do it?"
"Because you're more valuable to me right now than anonymity." He smiled. "Choices, again."
"Well, this particular choice may have been a bust. We're not finding anything on the Silent Thunder."
"We'll give it the rest of the night. Then we move on." He headed for the door of the café. "If one door closes, then you open another." He glanced at her. "If you choose to go along with me. It's up to you."
"You're damn right it is." She paused. "And what door do you plan on opening?"
"I have a few contacts who might help us locate Pavski. But we'll have to lose Bradworth. If you consider him a safety net, that's too bad. My friends aren't fond of the CIA."
She thought about it. "My experiences with Bradworth haven't been very reassuring. But if we're being watched by him as well as Pavski, how do you intend to do that? It's a very small town."
He smiled as he opened the door for her. "Then we'll just have to go to a bigger town, won't we? Will you have breakfast with me tomorrow morning?"
"What?"
"I've done a little research about the town since the Silent Thunder arrived here. I think you'll find a little restaurant called Mrs. Finley's Kitchen very interesting."
You lost her?" Bradworth said between his teeth into the phone. "How in the hell did you lose her?"
Agent Teague stammered. "It was the restaurant. That Mrs. Finley's kitchen. I didn't know-I didn't read the back of the menu until later."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"I stationed Willis at the back entrance and I watched the front. I thought that would be enough, but it-"
"How did they get away, dammit?"
"The restaurant has a secret underground exit that lets out in a shed about half a block away. It's been there since the Revolutionary War days."
Bradworth couldn't believe what he was hearing. "A secret exit."
"Not so secret, actually. There's a whole write-up about it on the back of the menu. I talked to the manager, and she says Ms. Bryson and Kirov went in back and asked to walk through it."
"How long has it been since they flew the coop?"
"Forty minutes. We're in the car now, scouting the area."
Forty minutes. Kirov would have a plan and an escape route, and forty minutes was more than enough time for him to implement it.
"Shit!"
NEW YORK CITY
4:48 P.M.
What makes you think this friend of yours can help us?" Hannah asked Kirov as they walked down East 51st Street, past Lexington Avenue, and into a charming neighborhood of brownstones and small boutiques.
"Eugenia Voltar was one of the youngest and sharpest agents in the KGB's history." Kirov gaze was on the address on one of the buildings they were passing. "If anyone can help us, she can."
"KGB?"
He nodded. "However, she was never popular with the higher-ups there because she possessed the dangerous trait of speaking her mind. She was pushed out in the general downsizing, when the KGB became the FSB, and she eventually ended up here."
"She's a spy?"
"Not anymore. In the last few years, she's become quite wealthy by helping Western corporations move into Russia. She knows just which palms to grease to make anything happen." He cast a sideways glance at Hannah. "There was an arms trader I'd spent years searching for, and I finally found him with Eugenia's help."
"And what did you do when you found him?"
He didn't answer.
She hadn't really expected a reply. Kirov disclosed only what he chose to reveal about his life. In the past days she had found that sometimes he was surprisingly open, and at others he was completely uncommunicative. Just enough information to pique her curiosity and interest. Oh, yes, she couldn't deny the interest. He was a totally fascinating man, and every minute with him was a challenge. Yet she also was beginning to feel a strange sense of comfort and security when she was with him.
"Ah. Here we are." Kirov stopped. "318 East 51st Street. Nice place, don't you think?"
It was a converted brownstone with a fresh brick façade, red canopy, and a brass plaque that read CONNECTIONS INTERNATIONAL.
"Terrible name," Kirov said, as they climbed the short flight of stairs and rang the doorbell. "I told Eugenia she should have used more imagination. It sounds like a dating service."
A youthful female voice came from the speaker box. "Yes?"
Kirov looked up at a security camera and winked.
Laughter pealed from the speaker box. "Kirov, you devil. I knew you couldn't stay away. You're powerless to resist me, you know." The voice was an intriguing mixture of Russian and British accents.
"So you keep telling me, Eugenia. Are you going to buzz me in, or am I going to stand out here like a panhandler?"
"I'm still deciding. I'm offended that, after all these months, you finally choose to visit me with such a pretty young woman at your side. Tsk, tsk. Very bad form, Kirov."
"You know I only have eyes for you, my dear."
"Ah, that's the charming liar I know and love."
The door buzzed. Kirov opened it and held it open for Hannah as they entered the foyer.
Before they'd even closed the door behind them, a petite young woman flew down a flight of stairs and threw her arms around Kirov. "I can't believe it! I thought you were dead, or worse, married and living in the suburbs!" She drew back and checked his left hand. "You're not, are you?"
Kirov smiled and kissed her cheek. "You know me better than that." He motioned to Hannah. "Eugenia, this is-"
Before Kirov could finish the sentence, Eugenia threw her arms around Hannah as if they were long-lost friends. "So nice to meet you! You are-?"
"Hannah Bryson."
"Hannah!" Eugenia gave her another squeeze and frowned as she felt Hannah instinctively pull back. "Too much? Kirov keeps telling me I'm too demonstrative, but life's too short to curl up inside yourself like a snail. And any friend of Kirov's and all that… You are a friend?"
Hannah smiled. Eugenia's high spirits were contagious. Although Kirov indicated the woman had worked for the KGB more than a decade before, she couldn't be older than her late twenties or early thirties. She was a pretty, fair-skinned woman with shoulder-length brown hair and bright, lively dark eyes.