City of a Thousand Spies by Kathryn Guare

Author:Kathryn Guare [Guare, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kiltumper Close Press

Chapter Seventeen

FOR A MINUTE, HE’D lost her. Conor knew that’s how he would always remember it, like a person remembers the moment of death after being revived. Not as a narrow escape, or as something that almost or could have happened, but as something that did. She didn’t stay lost—unbelievably, miraculously—but it didn’t change the essential truth of the event. For a minute—a minute that lasted years—he’d felt her absence, complete and indelible. He would cut off his own arm to avoid feeling anything like it ever again.

Sitting next to Kate on the steps again, Conor began to recover an awareness of his surroundings. He heard the rumble of traffic and watched a tram roll to a stop in front of the church. It released a bundle of humanity and sucked in another before trundling down the street. The world was turning again—or at least he noticed it again—and he realized Kate was speaking to him.

“Why don’t you want to tell Frank?”

He fingered the edge of the step next to his knee, advancing the erosion of its cement repair work. “Because I know what he’ll do.”

“Call off the operation?”

“Not only that. Our first mission here was to help with a defection. I made a mess of it, but Sonia is really the one responsible for its failure. She burned her bridges with Frank when she exposed Ghorbani. If he thought he couldn’t trust her for this operation either, I’ve no doubt he’d return the favor by burning her.”

Kate looked confused. “You said MI6 couldn’t afford to have the Czechs know about her.”

“He wouldn’t give her to the police. Frank will blow her cover with the New Přemyslids and let them take care of her.”

“Would he really do that?” Her question came after a long, shocked silence and Conor didn’t answer. The truth was, his greater fear was that Frank would expect him to take care of Sonia. “So, you’re going to let her go through with it,” Kate said.

“I can’t do that either. She can’t be trusted.”

“What other choice do you have?”

Continuing to rub at the crumbling stone, he avoided her eyes. “To do it myself. It’s only a matter of making a big enough noise, which I can do as well as she can. Her network colleagues won’t know it wasn’t her making it, so the operation works the way it should. She gets her cover, and everyone stays safe.”

Conor waited for the objections, which weren’t long in coming, but he could tell Kate was trying to remain dispassionate.

“You’d need a weapon. You can’t risk bringing the Walther in through the front door, so it would have to be hers. Even if she’s innocent I doubt she’ll want to just turn the whole operation over to you.”

“There are some loose ends, but I’ll work them out.” He brushed his dusty fingers against his jeans and finally looked at her. “Unless you can think of something else?”

He asked in all sincerity and Kate took it that way, but after some reflection she gave it up.

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