‘I had a good time last night.’
The Red Cobra stopped. She turned round, expertly keeping the anger that was bubbling inside off her face. Logan stopped too and stared at her.
‘You didn’t say goodbye,’ she said.
‘You were sleeping. You looked peaceful.’
‘Sleeping? I was unconscious. That’s pretty lame, you know. Having to drug women to get them to have sex with you.’
‘I didn’t drug you. You were pissed. Maybe you should stay off those martinis next time.’
‘Next time?’
‘Figure of speech.’
‘Oh, for a moment I thought maybe you were a decent human being and wanted to get to know me.’
‘I hadn’t ruled it out. I had a good time.’
‘Yeah. Sure you did.’
‘So what now?’
‘I’m not sure what you want me to say.’
‘We had to move Gazinsky. It wasn’t deemed safe for him here anymore.’
The Red Cobra strode away down the street again. She walked through a crossing that was on red without once looking. A car screeched to a halt and the angry driver blasted on his horn. The Red Cobra didn’t react.
With Logan keeping pace next to her, she headed along the wide pavement alongside the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which stood as a permanent reminder of Berlin’s war-torn past, the scarred shell of its bell tower jutting into the sky like a jagged tooth.
‘You got the better of me,’ she said. ‘You win. Let’s all go home.’
‘I know that’s not what you really think.’
‘Why are you even bothering with this charade?’
‘Because I like you.’
‘Like me. That’s coming from you? I don’t think you’re capable of such a feeling.’
Though she realised, she was hardly one to talk. Perhaps she shared more with Logan than she wanted to believe at that moment.
‘Depends how you define like,’ he said. ‘And exactly what it is about you that I like.’
‘My breasts?’
‘They’re not bad. Nice actually. But I was talking more on a professional level.’
‘I’m flattered.’
‘This way.’ Logan pointed to his left to one of the entrances to the sprawling Tiergarten.
‘Why?’ the Red Cobra asked, her suspicious mind questioning what he was up to.
Logan stopped and held his hands up. ‘It’s not a trap. Just thought it’d be better to talk somewhere quiet rather than roam the streets.’
‘No.’ She carried on walking. ‘I prefer the streets. Easier to get lost in.’
‘Fair enough.’ He picked up his pace again. ‘You’re being set up with this job. You must know that?’
‘Being set up for what?’
‘The man you think you’re working for. He’s with the Russians. SVR. They’re setting you up. You take out Gazinsky, then they’re going to kill you. Hang you out to dry publicly too.’
She took a few moments longer than she probably should have to digest his words. She had to admit part of her was sucked in. It wasn’t like she fully trusted her current employer. In her line of work that simply wasn’t possible. Her father had instilled that in her for years.
So perhaps it would come down to whom she trusted the most. But who was that? The man who was offering her two million dollars to kill Gazinsky? Or Carl Logan?
‘If that’s true,’ she said. ‘If they’re setting me up, I’ll handle it.’
‘It is true. What I said yesterday, I meant it.’
‘Which bit.’
‘That we can work together. You’ll be paid. But you need to stop what you’re doing here. Leave Gazinsky to us.’
‘They’ll kill me.’
‘They’re going to try to do that whatever you choose.’
‘How do you know they set me up?’
‘I know a lot about you, Anna.’
‘Why do you think that’s my name?’
‘Would you prefer me to call you something else? Red Cobra perhaps?’
Her face remained passive even though inside Logan’s words sent a shiver right through her.
‘You can call me whatever you want,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t mean you know me.’
‘Think what you like. I’ve told you this already: I won’t let you kill Gazinsky. Or McCabe. If you come after either of them, or me, I will kill you. I won’t hesitate even for a second.’
‘And if you try to stop me, I’ll kill you. We can both talk macho bullshit, you know.’
The Red Cobra stopped walking and took a seat on a metal bench. They were near to a busy crossroads filled with cars and bikes. Throngs of people were scurrying around just yards away. If she needed to make a quick exit from the conversation, she felt she could easily lose herself in the crowds – it was certainly a far safer place than the middle of an expansive park.
Logan sat next to her. ‘Fair enough. But do you really want to risk everything for a lowlife like Gazinsky?’
‘You are?’
‘No. There’s more at stake than just him. The man we’re after is the man you’re working for. Potanin.’
The Red Cobra remained silent. Logan certainly knew far more about her than she knew of him. She had to admit that worried her. Her choices of next step were becoming fewer by the second. One of those options was killing Logan there, in the street. Not a bad option in many respects, she mused. At least it would give her a chance to get away and regroup.
But what then? She’d only create more problems for herself, add unneeded enemies to the list. And she was intrigued as to why Logan was speaking to her like this. Did he really not see her as a threat?
‘Potanin? Never heard the name,’ she said.
‘That’s a lie. You’ve heard the name. Whether or not you actually knew that was who you were working for is a different question. I’m not an idiot. I know how these things work. Clients, brokers, middlemen, drop boxes.’
‘I said I’ve never heard of him before.’
‘So it’s a him now?’
‘An assumption.’
‘No. A lie. Let me ask you this. Do you trust Potanin?’
‘I don’t trust anyone.’
‘A good mantra to live by. But you can stop pretending now. I found your messages to him.’
She looked over at Logan and caught the glimmer of a smile. It pissed her off.
‘Last night,’ he said. ‘You were asleep. I was bored.’
‘My computer?’ she said, thoughts crashing through her mind. ‘I don’t think so. I checked it this morning.’
‘Checked what? Did you know you can download an entire hard drive without even having to turn a computer on? It’s called imaging. You make a replica. Easy if you know how.’
‘I’m not dumb. I know how it works.’
‘Good. Then you’ll also know we can piece together deleted data, as long as it’s not already been overwritten on the drive.’