She sat on the edge of the bed while Gunner took the chair.
“It’s time for us to talk, Rocket Girl. What’s the connection between you and Petrov?” he asked.
Raketa shook her head. “There is no connection.”
“Bullshit. Try again and tell me the truth this time.”
She shook her head again. The less she said, the harder it would be for him to pick up on her lies.
“Why did he take you to Azerbaijan?”
“I don’t know.”
Gunner rested his arms on his legs and leaned in closer to her. She waited for him to ask another question, but he didn’t. He just stared at her.
They could sit right where they were for the rest of the flight, but no matter what he said or did, there’d be no way she’d divulge her connection to Petrov, to him or anyone else.
“Who’s the other person being held captive at the compound?”
Raketa did her best not to react to the question she had anticipated. “I don’t know.”
“What did Petrov want from you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You need to understand something, devochka moya. This is going to go one of two ways. Eit
her you start telling me the truth, or once this plane lands, you’re on your own.”
When she looked away, trying to hide the tears that threatened with his use of the haunting endearment, he stood and walked out.
4
Gunner sat in the seat across from Shiver and opened the window shade. There was nothing to see given what they were flying over was a desolate as Death Valley.
“Anything?” Shiv asked.
Gunner shook his head.
“Once we land, we’ll do a proper interrogation.”
He looked into Shiv’s eyes and saw amusement. “You’re an asshole.”
“And you just told me everything I need to know. How long has it been going on?”
“There isn’t anything going on.”
“Don’t lie to me, you bloody bastard.”
“You wanna tell me you never kept another MI6 agent warm on a particularly long and lonely op?”
Shiv grinned. “You know I have, and so does Doc.”
Gunner shook his head. “Fatale was above your pay grade.”
“Fair point, well made. Although it wasn’t for lack of trying on my part.”
Merrigan “Fatale” Shaw was a former MI6, now married to Kade “Doc” Butler, and the managing partner of K19. The woman had been one of the best in the business, but semi-retired after she and Doc got married. Now they had a baby boy, and her husband behaved like she was the first woman in the history of the universe to give birth.