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She didn’t reply.

“It’s Logan,” he said. “He has something to say to you. He’s staying in one of my guest houses, but he’s not a guest. Not tonight, in any case.”

Anna put down the glass carefully.

“I didn’t know he’d made it.”

“No. I’ve been keeping it away from you while you recover. But as I told you, he’s one of the best I ever had.”

“What does he want?”

“That, you’ll have to ask him,” Burt said. “But you don’t have to see him at all.”

But she knew she had to see Logan, to settle the matter once and for all. She followed Burt out into the darkness, and he pointed at a light in a cabin beyond the paddock at the back of the house.

“Follow the lights along the path,” Burt said. “They’ll take you there.” He turned to go inside and left her on the path.

Anna walked up the winding path and entered the small cabin without knocking. Logan was standing at the far end of the room, texting on his phone. He looked up in surprise.

“You’ve got some nerve, Logan,” she said. “I could feed you to the rats.”

He put the phone down and walked to the centre of the room, where he stopped.

“Will you listen?” he said. “Will you sit down and listen. Just for a minute.”

She hesitated. Then she moved towards the fireplace and took a chair away from the light.

Logan sat down opposite her, underneath the arc of a lamp so strong it whited out his features. He was the interrogated now.

“You don’t need to tell me why you sold pictures of me and my son to the Russians and everyone else,” she said. “The reason’s clear. It’s the same reason that another man, a Russian, killed Finn. For money, prestige, power. How does it feel to win it that way, Logan?”

“It feels shit,” he said.

“That’s it? You want my forgiveness?”

“Yes. That’s what I most want in the world.”

Anna remained silent and looked at Logan. It was easy to forgive someone for whom you’d lost respect, she thought. It meant nothing.

“So what happened?” she said. “In Russia? I didn’t expect to see you again.”

Logan got up out of his chair and went to the table where he’d been standing when she arrived. He picked up something and returned. Hovering on the edge of the light from the lamp, he threw it gently at her feet.

She saw it was an identity card, on what looked like a gold chain. She picked it up and saw the photo, the name. It was the man Burt had told her about, the member of Russia’s parliament and Finn’s killer.

“He’s dead? You got him?”

“Yes.”

“And this?” She put the card down on the floor again. “Is this a gift for me? Like something the cat brought in.”

“It’s just the evidence. I wanted you to know Finn’s killer is dead.”

“It’s what they do in Russia, Logan. The KGB kills Putin’s enemies on his birthday. It’s not a great tradition.”

“It’s all I had,” he said.

“Well, I don’t need it,” she said, and stood up. “It’s sad, isn’t it. When Finn goes out to get redemption, he dies. When you go, you come back. But it’s true what Burt says about you, Logan. You are very good. I’m impressed by that, at least.”

“I want you, Anna,” he said, looking up at her from the chair. “I want to start again. You’re the only woman I’ve ever wanted.”

She looked at him, her face softened, but it was no good.

“Thank you.”

“Is there a chance? Any chance for us?”

“I’m sorry, Logan,” she said. “Maybe in some other life. Just like all the others.”

She stayed on the porch until she saw the taillights of his car disappear across the flat mesa to the south.

Acknowledgments

There are many individuals I have to thank for providing me with insight into the rise of America’s private intelligence companies since the 1990s. They work both in national intelligence agencies and in the private companies themselves. I am grateful for their help and for the insight they have given me into the unintended consequences of private intelligence replacing national intelligence agencies.

ALSO BY ALEX DRYDEN

Red to Black

About the author

ALEX DRYDEN is a writer and journalist with many years of experience in security matters. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, Dryden watched the statues of Lenin fall across the former Soviet Union. Since then he has charted the false dawn of democracy in Russia as the country morphed into the world’s most powerful secret state. Dryden’s knowledge of the secret world in this new and growing East-West conflict has informed both Red to Black and Moscow Sting.

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Copyright

MOSCOW STING. Copyright © 2010 by Alex Dryden. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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ISBN: 978-0-06-196684-2

ePub Edition © 2010

ISBN: 9780062005410e

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