Evgeni shook her off, eyes still on Paul as the man cursed in French and Russian, hand over his bleeding nose. Probably waiting for—and hoping for—a retaliation, though he wasn’t likely to get it from Paul. “He could only know that if he had someone following Zivon.”

Usually she could follow his train of thought fairly well. Not so now. “And?”

Evgeni finally took a deep breath and eased up. “He would have spotted a tail in half a second. Now he’ll be on the alert. And no doubt will figure out who it is, that he has socialist connections, and put together that it’s the party.”

Paul dabbed at his nose. “You worry too much.”

If he said anything else so stupid, Nadya would have to punch him too. “You do not know this man. You do not know all our purposes. Why do you assume this is anything less than life or death? And if so grave, why do you go off without our input and authorize something that could endanger the entire mission?”

A bit of fight finally sparked in Paul’s eyes. “Perhaps because I don’t know your mission!”

“It’s simple. And we need to stay focused on it.” She held Paul’s gaze just long enough to convey her opinion of his methods. And then looked to Evgeni. “We find the names of the Germans trying to start a mutiny, and we kill them before they can. We keep this war going in Europe as long as we can, to keep the Westerners out of Russia longer. On this we can all agree. Right?”

Evgeni nodded.

Paul lowered his bloodstained hands. “That’s what this is about? What does his brother have to do with it?”

A beat of silence. Then Evgeni sighed. “Because if he has my passport—which I believe he does—then he has the names.”

And he had knowledge of it even before that, so he was likely to piece together what he had. Nadya wetted a towel and handed it to Paul. Perhaps they should have told him sooner, rather than just expecting his blind help. But they hadn’t been given permission to read anyone else in on the mission.

A mission that he could have seriously hindered now because of his ignorance. She motioned to the bag he’d dropped when Evgeni punched him. “You have more photographs in there?”

Paul nodded and, with a wary glance at Evgeni, reached for the bag. “Are you going to tell me why these are necessary? Or just let me guess about that too?”