Too late.
Ryker thrust his hand upward. The blade tore through Giorgi’s chest. His eyes opened so wide they looked like they might pop. Giorgi crumpled as Ryker pulled out the knife. The mob boss’s limp body slid off the end of the blade.
The old man was dead before he hit the dirt.
Ryker didn’t hesitate for a second. He spun round again and came eye to eye with the Red Cobra. She was on her feet. Her face streamed blood, much like Ryker’s. The two of them together were battered and bruised almost beyond recognition. But both were still in the fight, running on adrenaline and pure survival instinct.
‘You killed him,’ she spat. Her voice bubbled from the blood in her mouth, her words mumbled because of the bruising that was already covering her face. ‘He was mine.’
‘I saved you.’
‘I didn’t need saving.’
Movement from behind the Red Cobra. Sergei.
Ryker hadn't forgotten the Vor was still in the fight. Sergei sprung upright and lurched for the Red Cobra. Ryker threw back his arm and hurled the knife. It somersaulted through the air. The Red Cobra pulled her head to one side – just an inch – as the knife hurtled past.
Sergei wasn’t quick enough. Or maybe he was too focused on his target. He was almost within reach of the Red Cobra when the tip of the blade made contact. There was a thudding noise as the fast-moving object sunk into his eye. The momentum of his body carried him forward. The Vor went down in a heap on the ground, right by the Red Cobra’s feet, the knife wedged deep in his face.
He wouldn’t be getting up again this time, that was for sure.
‘You don’t need my help?’ Ryker said. ‘You sure about that?’
Ryker stayed put as the Red Cobra – eyes not once leaving Ryker’s gaze – kneeled down and pulled the knife from Sergei’s head. There was a squelching sound as she tugged the metal free. A thick mess of blood, brain, and intraocular fluid seeped out of the hole. The Red Cobra straightened up.
‘So what now?’ Ryker said.
‘You want to kill me, don't you?’
Ryker couldn’t be sure whether or not she was posing a challenge. Winter’s words once again rushed through his head. The JIA commander certainly wanted the Red Cobra dead.
‘I heard you talking. To Giorgi. In there,’ she said, indicating over her shoulder.
‘You were watching?’
‘Until I saw the right moment to save you, yes.’
‘The right moment?’ Ryker held up his bandaged hand. ‘Perhaps that could have been before they got the bloody drill.’
The Red Cobra just about managed to laugh. ‘Sorry about that... But I don’t think you’ve yet thanked me.’
‘Thank you.’
‘So you don’t want to kill me now?’
‘I will if I have to.’
‘You don’t have to. I don’t want to hurt you, Carl.’
‘I’m not Carl. Carl Logan is dead.’
‘So I heard. Yet here you are.’
‘Looking for you, Anna.’
‘Didn’t you hear? Anna Abayev is dead too.’
‘Except she isn’t. She’s standing right in front of me.’
‘No,’ the Red Cobra said. ‘Anna really is dead.’
Ryker’s mind whirred. ‘But you’re–’
‘Catalina. Anna’s sister.’
‘But you are–’
‘The Red Cobra. Yes. I’ve always been her. The Red Cobra was never Anna.’
Ryker’s head was now a confused mess but as the Red Cobra continued, the final pieces of the jigsaw fell quickly into place.
‘I was three years older than Anna. When she was sent to Winter’s retreat, I stayed with my father, to watch and learn from him. I was so much more like him than Anna. I always had been. Anna was... different. So sweet, innocent and naive. He had to find a way to break through to her. To show her the path to take.’
‘Anna killed your father?’
‘Yes. She did. After killing those people at Winter’s retreat–’
‘Giorgi’s son.’
‘Alex Meskhi. Then she tracked down me and my father to Romania and she killed him too. He deserved it. No, more than that. He wanted it.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it was time for us to take over his work.’
‘But everyone believed Anna to be you – the Red Cobra.’
‘There was nothing I could do about that. The murders at Winter’s Retreat were well known. Everyone knew it was Anna. Her time there had changed her, but not in the way our father expected. She never wanted to become like us. She just wanted a new life.’
‘So she became Kim Walker, and you became the Red Cobra.’
‘Yes,’ the Red Cobra said. Ryker could see the pain in her eyes.
But he didn’t dwell on the revelation. Ryker had spotted his chance to take her down for good. The Red Cobra, Catalina, was too busy thinking, talking. She’d let her guard down, for a split second.
Ryker lunged forward. She moved back into a defensive crouch, ready to counter. Ryker saw it coming. He swivelled, avoiding her arcing blade, and tumbled into her. They plummeted to the ground.
Ryker’s good hand gripped the Red Cobra’s wrist, keeping her knife at bay. He reached out with his injured hand and flinched in agony as he grabbed her other wrist, pinning her down. A shot of pain coursed through his whole body, making him feel faint.
The position Ryker found himself in was reminiscent of the one he’d been in on that cliff top in Germany. Of the position Sergei had been in moments earlier too. But Ryker was battered, injured. He simply didn’t have it in him to control the Red Cobra like he wanted.
And he knew she knew it.
Catalina sprung her counter-attack. In an instant she’d released herself from Ryker’s weak grip and slid out from underneath. They spun round and she was on top, the tip of her knife just an inch from Ryker’s one open eye. He tensed and strained and held firm with his good hand as best he could.
‘It’s over, Catalina!’ Ryker said through gritted teeth as he fought to keep the knife from penetrating his head.
‘No! I told you before. They all have to die.’
‘Eva? Patrick? Why? What did they do to you?’
‘They were the reason Anna was killed!’
‘No!’ Ryker said. ‘It was Kozlov. Sergei. Giorgi. They’re the ones.’
Ryker was about to add and they’re dead. But were they all?
‘Kozlov. Where is he?’ he said instead.
Catalina smiled. Or grimaced. Ryker wasn’t sure. He knew what the gesture meant. Kozlov was dead all right. It was no loss to the world. But Walker and Eva? Ryker believed they were worth saving. As much as he disliked them, they didn’t deserve to die.
‘You’ve had your revenge,’ Ryker said. ‘It’s over. No more.’