Omega Rules--An Evan Ryder Novel by Eric Van Lustbader

Author:Eric Van Lustbader
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

21

MOSCOW

Kata was undeterred. She could scent the change in the air, subtle as it was. “I also killed the original Kata Romanovna,” she said.

“Stop.” Kusnetsov waved away her argument. “Borya was one of my FSB directors.”

“He was a traitor. He attacked Alyosha Ivanovna and then me. Kata Romanovna was worth ten of that prick Arsenyev.”

The minister rolled his eyes. “What you’re asking is impossible.”

“And when you asked me for the impossible—that I rid you of Dima Nikolaevich, my former boss, because he was also a traitor—what did I do? I obliged you. I fed him to your favorite sharks. Or had that incident slipped your mind?”

He stared at her, spitefully silent.

“Who knows how much damage Arsenyev has already done to your FSB?” she went on. “Who knows what secrets he’s been spilling about our operations? Who knows how many of our networks have been compromised?” She shook her head. “Now that Arsenyev is dead I’m the only one who can find out.”

The minister made a dismissive sound. It turned his face ugly, feral. “And how would you do that? You’ve already said that interrogation won’t work. Neither will killing them to make an example of them.”

Her eyes were lit like lamps. “There is a way.”

He smirked. “I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

“Not here I won’t.”

His face darkened. “I don’t need you. I don’t need any woman.”

“I’m not any woman,” Kata said. “That’s your problem. You need me and you know it.”

“Bitch,” he spat.

She nodded. “Thank you.”

She watched his face turn even darker. Then he turned away from her, kicked the chair through the doorway, and followed it out. The door clanged shut behind him, the echo rolling around the cell like thunder.

Eight hours she waited. He made her wait eight hours, thinking that in the darkness—for the light never came on—suspended in time, she would wonder and fear for her fate. But he was wrong. For the first time since she had been incarcerated Kata breathed freely, feeling a great weight lifted off her chest. She spent those eight hours in meditation, which, due to her impulsiveness, her inner rage, was more difficult for her than for others. This made her descent into the meditative space all the more rewarding. Not that she was aware of that until afterward when the door opened, for she had emptied her mind of all needs, all want, all anxiety, all cares, all anger. All thought. In the brilliance of nothingness she floated, free at last.

The door opened, spilling a lozenge of light into her cell and she surfaced, smiling inwardly at what she had accomplished.

There was no guard. Kusnetsov, standing in the corridor light a few steps from the doorway, gazed into her cell, but said not a word. Kata rose. She kept her eyes on the minister. She was very calm.

He did not move until she stepped out into the corridor. His nose wrinkled as she came close. “You stink,” he said.

She stared back. “Let me sniff your armpits.”

Without another word he went to the cell to her left where a guard stood waiting.

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