I know Francia can hear it through the speaker. She’s watching me carefully, but I keep my pakhan mask on and up even as I want nothing more than to rip it off and howl in rage. I’d smash Francia’s fragile skull against the wall if I thought it would help. But whoever she’s working for would kill Cora regardless. Francia has planned for that contingency. She is crazy enough that she’s willing to die before this mission fails.
I’m not willing to let Cora suffer the same fate.
So I bite my tongue and listen to her scream.
When she stops, she’s panting. Another voice comes over the line. A sneering voice I recognize all too well. “How is that for proof of life?” Mikhail Sokolov asks.
This “proof of life” just secured Mikhail’s painful death. If it’s the last thing I ever do, I’ll make him
