‘She’s not doing anything to you.’ Safa’s voice.
‘She might have to.’ Emily’s voice, full of emotion, quavering. Miri listens, knowing exactly what Emily is feeling because she orchestrated it. Emily thinks of herself as a highly trained agent, but has simply been exposed to a level of manipulation she has never experienced before. ‘Listen, I’m an agent . . . If Miri has to do it, then . . .’
‘No,’ Safa snaps.
‘I can’t just stay here forever, Safa,’ Emily says. ‘And if I go back, then Mother will kill me . . .’
‘Can’t just execute someone because . . .’
‘You would have done it,’ Emily says.
‘I didn’t know you!’ Safa’s voice. ‘I’m telling you right now I won’t let her . . .’
‘If Miri says it’s the right thing, then it’s the right thing,’ Emily fires back. ‘She must know why Mother ordered me to be killed. Tonight must have been a test or . . . I don’t know! I just . . .’
‘Oh my god, what the fuck?’ Safa says, her voice rising with disbelief.
‘No.’ Ben’s voice, calm and assured. ‘It’s not that. Stop panicking. It’s fine.’
‘You know something.’ Safa’s voice. ‘Ben, what? What’s happening?’
‘It’s fine. Just go with Miri. You’ll be fine.’
Miri smiles again. Who polices the police? She likes Ben.
‘WHAT?’ Safa shouts. Miri chuckles.
‘I said it’s fine. Emily, you must have worked it out by now.’
‘Worked what out?’ Safa shouts again. ‘What? Ben, for fuck’s sake . . .’
‘Oh my god! Seriously? She’s outside with us when we attack the house. That’s why her side were told to kill her. They saw her. They saw her outside. It’s bloody obvious. She comes with us when we help the us in the house.’
Silence. Miri laughs softly at the vision in her head of the others’ faces.
Time to move. She pulls the earpiece out and strides from her rooms up the corridor to the heavy metal door and pauses to listen to the voices inside.
‘Oh my god,’ Ben calls out. ‘I just said she won’t kill you.’
‘I would,’ Emily says honestly. ‘You might be wrong, and in this situation I would execute . . . And if she sends me back, then I’m dead anyway because Mother will . . .’
‘What?’ Ben asks in disbelief.
Miri tuts softly. This is why the woman is still a Two.
‘Tango Two,’ she calls out, opening the door.
‘Coming now,’ Emily says quickly.
‘Are you going to kill her?’ Safa asks, glaring.
‘Oh my days,’ Ben groans.
Miri stays as Miri is. Expressionless. Revealing nothing. Reading everything. Seeing all. ‘Has the agent cultivated you?’ Miri asks as bland and flat as ever, and all the more striking for it.
‘No, I haven’t,’ Emily insists.
‘That,’ Miri says quietly to Safa, ‘is what cultivating is.’
‘MIRI,’ Safa shouts, her face flushed with anger.
‘Yes, I cultivated them,’ Emily says coldly. She smiles humourlessly and sighs. ‘Fuck it. Well done, Miri. We going then?’
‘Dear god,’ Ben groans again, slumping down in a chair. ‘I give up.’
‘My advice,’ Emily says to Miri, ‘from one agent to another . . . get professionals. These three amateurs aren’t capable or competent.’
‘Emily,’ Safa says, ‘stop it . . .’
‘With me,’ Miri says simply, pushing through the doors.
‘You three need to toughen up,’ Emily says, turning back at the doors to look at them. ‘I would have killed you all within a week . . .’
‘It’s been over a week,’ Ben mutters. ‘It’s been over three weeks . . .’
‘I would rather you killed me here, Miri. I don’t want to . . .’
‘Shut up.’
Emily blanches at the harsh rebuke, the sting showing in her cheeks. She tries to rally to keep going, but that same energy from Miri gets to her. Blagging or bluffing Miri just isn’t right. She follows the older woman into the portal room with her heart jack-hammering and her mouth growing dry.
‘I just want to say . . .’ Emily swallows to try and speak normally with composure and dignity as Miri arches an eyebrow, shakes her head and lifts the tablet. ‘I want to say thank you for the decency of . . . and the . . . I mean, the kindness you have bestowed and . . .’
‘Can you move silently?’
‘Pardon?’
Miri looks up at her as the blue light blinks out. ‘I said, can you move silently?’
‘Yes, but . . .’
‘You will not make a sound. You will not speak. You will watch and we will talk after. Am I clear?’
‘What?’
‘Am I clear?’
‘Yes, but . . . Listen, Mother will kill me if I go back, so . . . I mean, it’s nice here and . . .’
Miri jabs at the tablet. The blue light comes back on. Bathing the room once again.
‘Move silently. Follow me,’ Miri says, placing the tablet down before going through the portal.
Emily blinks again, feeling as if she’s always several steps behind when speaking to Miri. She looks at the tablet, then at the light, and with her mind spinning, she walks through and sees Miri standing in the darkness with her finger pressed to her mouth, indicating silence. The stench of rotten, damp air hits instantly with an immediate impression of being underground. An absence of light. She looks round to bare concrete walls that drip and ooze gunk. The only light is from the portal bathing the corridor in an eerie glow.
Miri twitches her head for Emily to follow. The older woman moves off down the corridor, placing her feet carefully to avoid stepping on any of the debris left strewn about. Emily moves in the same way, lifting to place her feet with each step thought in advance to avoid scuffing or noise.
The corridor is long and the light from the portal fades the further they go, plunging them into deep shadow. Miri uses a small pocket torch to light the ground. Shining so they can both see where to tread. They reach a corner and move round to an old metal staircase. Miri goes carefully. Emily the same. Descending the cold metal stairs. Emily catches sight of Russian letters and symbols. An old Soviet installation. She wonders if the execution will be done here, but then realises she is not now expecting to be killed. She would have been shot the second she stepped through, and Miri is exposing her weapon side to Emily as they move.
At the bottom of the stairs, Miri again pauses to press her fingers to her mouth. Emily nods. Miri reaches out with a warm, dry hand and gently takes Emily’s wrist. The torch goes off, and as the darkness hits, so Emily detects the essence of light coming from round the corner. A voice too. A male voice calling out angrily. Miri guides her on, moving from the stairwell into a wider space. Up ahead, Emily sees the bright, glowing lights coming from one of the cells and someone sitting outside on a chair. A man inside the cell talking.
They go slowly, drawing closer. Emily strains to see. To understand. Her eyes trying to take everything in at once. The realisation comes sudden and unexpected.