“Don’t reduce me to a simple caricature,” she said. “I miss who you were, Drajan. The Wolf. Dark prince of the technologie vampiri. A force alone.”

He looked at her.

“I am the same.”

“No,” she said. “Not since the Russians.”

“Their money is good. Should I refuse it?”

She shrugged. “Profit was the icing before. It never drove you.”

“And you think I’ve become their tool?”

“The term is state actor,” she said. “Koschei’s plan is madness. Yet you work toward it day and night.”

Drajan extended his hand. Touched her arm lightly with the tips of three fingers.

“Stay,” he said. “You told me you were happy. I remember. That night, out on the breakwater.”

Quintessa shook her head again.

“I said I was not unhappy. But that was months ago,” she said. “You’re right about one thing. This place is drab and gray and lonely. And you’re rarely with me these days.”

Another silence. Longer than the first. Drajan’s fingers stayed on her arm. He noticed she did not draw it away.

“That night...you asked about a name.”

“Yes.”

“Kali.”

“Yes. You spoke it in your sleep.”

He nodded. “She is someone from long ago.”

“You were lovers?”

“Yes. At the University of Madrid. And for a time after we graduated. And then it ended.”

“Why?”

Silence. A smile ticked at the corner of her lips. It was without humor.

“You sleep with me and think of her.”

He shook his head.

“Not in the way you believe. She was with the Americans in Bucharest. The ones who shot me. And killed Emil.”

Her gaze locked on his.

“The woman outside Club Energie? Who left your bodyguard shattered on the sidewalk?”

Drajan nodded. “You know Matei. You saw what she did to him. He’s three times her weight and a trained operative.” He paused. “Matei told me he’d seen her at Castle Graguscu.”

“With the Americans again.”

“Yes.”

“He’s certain?”

“Yes. She tried to run him over on a motorcycle. And nearly did.”

Quintessa looked at him. “Drajan, Drajan. What did you do to provoke such wrath from a woman?”

“It isn’t relevant.”

“I’m capable of deciding that for myself.”

He looked at her for a long moment. Then shrugged.

“She is a code writer,” he said. “I incorporated her scripts into the Hekate malware.”

Her eyes widened. “You stole them from her. And she knows.”

“She knows.”

“And wants to punish you.”

He nodded.

“Make no mistake, Kali will lead my pursuers to me. She won’t be stopped.”

Understanding spread across her face.

“You’re setting a trap here,” she said. “Is that it?”

“I won’t hide for the rest of my life,” he said. “It needs to end.”

“And you’ll start the whole world on fire to bait them?”

“And kill her, yes. Whatever it takes. The world can burn.”