Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
He sighed, shaking his head, obviously knowing that fine didn’t always mean fine. “Ain’t got time for this shit,” he muttered to himself.
“Excuse me?” She narrowed her eyes and met his gaze. “If two of you didn’t want me with you, you should have left me at fight. I don’t have time for your shit either,” she snapped.
“You and Venus need to work this the fuck out before we get boots on the ground. At least, if you want your Katya out alive. It’s going to take everything we’ve got to do this, and it’s off the books so we can’t use anyone from ExFil in Poland. This is just the three of us. There is no help if we get caught. We’re completely on our own. If I can’t trust the two of you to have each other’s backs --” Before he could finish, Millie interrupted him.
“You can’t leave me. Not and get Katya out. You’ll never fit in the maze -- not even turning sideways -- and the walls are reinforced. You can’t just shove them down.”
“No. But know that I’ll do it myself -- without either of you -- before I take you into a place like that where I can’t control the situation. It’s dangerous for everyone involved and puts ExFil at risk since both Venus and I work there.”
“She’s my sister, Shadow.” Millie was pissed, but she could understand his point. “I may have issues with her, but I will defend her to death.”
“Good. Now. There are some things you and I need to go over.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. If you’re the only one able to get through the maze, then you’re the one who’s going to have to get the trackers out of Katya. That means I need to teach you how to incise the area and remove the foreign body, then sew her up. You’ll have to do it twice, and both trackers need to be intact.”
“That’s going to hurt. She’s just kid. Not sure that’s best idea.”
“It’s the only idea. I’ll give you some Lidocaine to numb the area you’re cutting on and stitching. But we’ve got a limited amount of time to practice this.”
“Practice?” Millie hoped she looked as incredulous as she felt. “How am I supposed to practice?”
“On me, sugar. You’re going to make some incisions on my body and practice sewing them up.”
“You’re out of your fucking mind!”
Turns out, he wasn’t. Millie not only practiced on him but Venus, too. If she slipped and cut Venus where she wasn’t numb, well, it couldn’t have hurt that much. It was just a small nick. Mostly. When she got to Poland, the doc who gave them the supplies had her demonstrate on him, only he’d implanted three small chips in his own body to be as realistic as possible. And Shadow and Venus thought she was crazy? She had nothing on these people.
“Fucking crazy,” she muttered as she packed up the rest of the shit they thought she’d need. It had to fit tightly against her body inside her clothing, so it didn’t get caught on the corners of the maze. Fuck, she hoped she hadn’t gained much weight since leaving here or she was going to be in a real pickle. All in all, she had a couple of scalpels, two small bottles of numbing medicine, two needles each of three different sizes with different purposes. Two packs of sutures, and a tool to grab onto the tiny chip planted inside her sister. Giovanni had sent them pictures of something similar, so she’d have a good idea of the scale of the thing she was looking for. They’d also given her a phone with an app programmed to find the implants.
“It’s another three hours to this compound,” Shadow said. “We’ve got four hours before dark, so I suggest you both get some rest.” He addressed both Millie and Venus. Millie was going on close to thirty hours without sleep so she knew she needed it, but this close to Belarus and her own personal nightmares, she knew it would be damned near impossible. And the thoughts of facing that fucking maze again… Yeah. She knew the second Shadow had shown her where in the house they were keeping Katya she’d have to go inside, but it didn’t make it any easier. Sure, she hadn’t told anyone how hard this was going to be. Hadn’t even admitted it to herself. But now, she was feeling it. Yeah. Sleeping was probably not going to happen until she got back to the States. Who the fuck knew how long that was going to be?
Chapter Three
Shadow lay on his bunk in the large, military-style tent, arms behind his head, listening to the woman three cots over. The place slept twenty, but had been given to his team until they left. Venus had passed out within the first fifteen minutes of their claiming bunks. Woman could sleep anywhere. Her sister, on the other hand…