The German police arrived and slapped cuffs on us. But we had the nuke, now, and that was the hard evidence we’d needed. The authorities started looking into Becker and, gradually, the mood changed. The charges against us were dropped one by one. We still had a lot of questions to answer, but the Germans started feeding us coffee and treating us as guests, not prisoners.

Then a guy from the US Embassy arrived and started yelling at us. He got right up in Kian’s face, screaming that he was a loose cannon. Kian looked completely nonplussed, as if it wasn’t the first time he’d been called that. But the embassy guy raged on, telling Kian he’d nearly started an international incident, that if he had his way, we’d all be in jail—

Then Roberta from the CIA burst through the door and pinned the embassy guy with a look. “Don’t be a dick, Maurice,” she told him in a withering voice. And Maurice slunk away with his tail between his legs.

Roberta looked around at us. “The State Department’s pissed that you did all this on foreign soil but don’t worry, I’ll smooth things over. You’re heroes, even if you may have bent a few laws. Just cooperate with the Germans.” We heard footsteps in the hallway and she turned towards the door. “There’s someone I’ve got to debrief…”

Vasiliy Malakov walked in, surrounded by lawyers. He was in good spirits, telling everyone who’d listen about how he’d helped to save the world. When he saw Roberta, he nodded politely. “Miss Geiss.”

Roberta’s voice was cool and calm. “Mr. Malakov.”

And then, just for a fraction of a second, Vasiliy gave her this look. An I want to bend you over the nearest table look. And Roberta lifted her chin just a fraction of an inch as if to say, well why don’t you, then?

Then it was gone, so fast that I wondered if I’d imagined it. “I’ll handle your debriefing myself, Mr. Malakov,” Roberta told him. “Is there a quiet interview room we could use?”

The German police led the two of them away and I stood there stunned. I was remembering what Arianna had said, about Vasiliy’s American girlfriend.

* * *

The police had a doctor take a look at our injuries. Danny had broken two toes when he dropped the nuke on it, but they’d heal. And my toenail would grow back, given a year or so.