my job,” Grant said. Grabbing Kelly’s arm, he slammed out of the command center.
“Get medical treatment and some rest,” Jackson said. “Lieutenant,” he said, and Fast Lane nodded.
“Do what he says.”
Fast Lane walked over to the Colonel and they left the room.
Chry touched 2-Stroke’s arm. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s get you bandaged up.”
As soon as they were outside the command post, he pushed her into an alcove. “Why don’t you stop pretending you don’t know what’s going on here and spill.”
Her chin lifted. “I don’t think Kelly Sparks is who she says she is.”
“Fuck,” 2-Stroke said.
As the needle headed for Anna’s arm, she tried to relax and remember all the training they taught her to resist torture. Give just enough information to keep her interrogators thinking they could get more out of her. She went to open her mouth just as Mi Ling’s cell phone rang.
She answered as the skinny lab rat paused.
When he went to slide the needle in, Mi Ling held up her hand. She spoke in rapid Chinese, but the heavy sigh was universal.
“I have to go. Don’t touch her until I get back. I want to be here when you break her.” She looked up at Anna. “This isn’t personal, Anna.”
She walked over to one of her lackeys and said something to him, then with her black heels clicking, she left the warehouse.
The lab rat went over to a sofa and sat down and pulled up porn on a laptop and started to watch. The other guy stood guard, but after a few minutes he sauntered over to the couch and joined in.
Eventually, the two perverts fell asleep. The guy Mi Ling had talked to was wide awake, but he was working diligently on a laptop. At least he had aspirations.
Anna flexed her muscles. On anyone else they might be overstretched and sore, but Anna did a lot of yoga with special attention to her shoulders. Spies were often immobilized this way, and it always paid to be prepared. She closed her eyes and breathed out a soft breath, then pulled her knees up to her chest and bent her forearms. Carefully, she pressed upwards until she was in a handstand. Bending her knees again, she flipped backwards and jerked her wrists up, lifting the cuffs from the hook.
She landed softly on the soles of her feet, cold against the concrete. She crouched for a moment, looking to the two men on the sofa. They were still asleep, and Mi Ling’s confidant continued to be engrossed in whatever was on his screen. She bet he was the brains behind the clues. She moved over to him, keeping part of her attention on the two sleeping beauties. When she was close enough. She wrapped the chains around his neck and said, “Key?”
He grabbed the chains with his hands, but there was nothing he could do. He looked involuntarily over at the gun on the bench. The key was next to the weapon.
“Thanks.” She pulled tighter, and he began to gag. “Where did Mi Ling go?”
He refused to answer, and she tightened the chains. “Tell me and you live to fight another day.”
“The embassy,” he croaked, and she jerked up on the chains, breaking his windpipe. He slumped forward. She reached for the key and unlocked her cuffs. Grabbing up the laptop and the gun, she turned and put two bullets in each head of the guys on the couch.
Dressed and in a pilfered car, she pulled up outside the embassy. Mi Ling was coming out, walking to her car.
Anna slipped out and started to follow her. As soon as Mi Ling got to an alleyway, Anna rushed forward and grabbed the back of her head, then smashed her face into the stone wall.
Bending down, she searched and found the iPad and whispered, “Nothing personal.”
After ditching the pilfered car, she retrieved her vehicle. She’d gotten away clean and recovered the last iPad. Breathing a sigh of relief, she settled back and smiled.
Back at the safe house, she punched in the code Mouse had given her. As she came down the stairs, Mouse rushed into the living quarters. “We were starting to get worried.” He took in the bruises on her face, her chaffed and scraped wrists, and said, “Problem?”
“Not anything I couldn’t handle,” she said with a wan smile. “Dodger?”
“He’s in the shower.”
She turned and looked toward his door and realized that there was nothing she wanted more than to experience…him. She would have no regrets when