Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
“Need you to answer a couple of questions for me,” Master stated calmly. “You had a nice setup. Hiding in plain sight. Must have been paid a great deal of money to sit in prison though. Fuckin’ hate these places.”
Ludis was calm. He lit a cigarette and leaned a hip against the long table where the guards had been sitting. “You’re the one we’ve heard rumors about all our lives. You slip in and out of prisons, no matter how high the security. You assassinate your target right under the noses of the guards, and no one ever figures out who you are or how you do it. You’ve been at it for years. Makes sense that you’re Russian. One of us.”
Master nodded. Ludis was thinking hard, speculating, trying to figure out how he was going to kill Master and get out of the situation alive. That wasn’t happening.
“The four of you were sent out by your little mistress to wipe out a man’s family in Sea Haven. Viktor Prakenskii’s family. She wanted all of them dead.”
Ludis’ face went very still. Master walked over to Boris and slammed his boot into his ribs, deliberately crushing them, right over his left lung. Ludis straightened, but when Master turned toward him, he put his hands up and once again rested his hip on the table.
“We couldn’t get near them. We were lucky to get out of there with our lives. Our intel wasn’t good. You taking over the job?”
Master shrugged. “Did she pull you back or did you make the call?”
“I made the call. We don’t take suicide missions. She was pissed as hell.”
“Her name.”
Ludis shook his head. “I can’t tell you that. You know the code.”
Master turned and stomped Boris’ left lung. Boris gurgled, and little red bubbles appeared around his mouth.
“What the fuck?” Ludis shouted, losing his feigned cool.
“Isn’t that what you had in mind for me?” Master asked.
Ludis settled with obvious effort. “I still have it in mind.”
“Her name. I’ve got all night, remember. The guards arranged to have the room so you could take your time with me.”
Ludis swore in Russian.
Master delivered another kick, this time to Boris’ groin, smashing through his balls and crushing his penis. “You know when he’s gone, I’m going to have to start on you. You aren’t giving me much choice.”
“She goes by Helena now. She wasn’t Helena when she was a child, but that’s what she calls herself now.”
“Helena what? Where is she?” Master asked patiently.
“Helena Smirnov. No one ever knows where she is. When she wants to see you, she comes to you.”
“How many teams does she run?”
“Ours and at least one other. She has access to more, but we were hers exclusively, and so is the other team. She does all the recruiting.”
“For the Russian and his Ghost assassins.”
“If you know everything already, why the fuck did you come here to kill everyone?” Ludis demanded.
Master could see the man was working himself up to make his play. Ludis shifted to the balls of his feet, and then sudden comprehension slid into his eyes. He swore again in his native language.
“You’re one of them. From the fourth school. Sorbacov’s killers. You’re one of them. No one has ever seen one of you. No one believed any of you actually survived, but you’re one of them, aren’t you? I was just making shit up when I implied you were the chameleon; no one ever believed there was such a person. But there is. You’re from that school. You are the chameleon.”
Master didn’t react. Didn’t blink. Just stared at him with a blank expression.
“Damn you, at least give me that much. You’re going to kill me. You killed my team.”
“You didn’t recognize the name? Viktor Prakenskii? Think about that name. Where have you heard it before?”
Ludis shook his head. “She wouldn’t. Not after him. I never connected the name with him. Not once, because he had to be dead. He was a legend. Not real. Not real, like you’re not real. And she wouldn’t send us after him.”
“She sent you after him,” Master confirmed. “Viktor sent me after you. And she’s going to die for what she did. He’ll wipe out every one of the Ghosts if they come after his family. No one fucks with him.” Master shrugged again, watching Ludis carefully.
Master rarely talked. He saw no point in conversation once he was through with them, once he was going to kill his opponents, but it was possible Ludis would give him more information simply because he was shaken or angry. Master had come to this prison to get as much information as possible and to kill the assassination team sent after Czar’s family. No one tried to kill the president of Torpedo Ink’s family and got away with it. No one. Master wouldn’t have considered going back to prison for any other reason than this one.