“I’ll pick up where Tatyana left off.”

“She had a real connection with him, Igor. She and the American had a … thing.”

“I know what they had.”

“I hardly think you’re going to have quite the same appeal to him.”

“I know how to trap him. If she’s still out there, I can pretend to be her. I know everything about her. I can draw him in, make it look like she’s still trying to make contact.”

“Spector is already dead, Igor.”

“What?”

“All of Roth’s assets are dead.”

“How is that possible?”

“You don’t know as much as you think you know.”

“Sir.”

“Don’t play coy with me, Igor. I knew the instant you accessed the database. You’ve been on it all night, brushing up on the answers, getting ready for this call like it’s some sort of school exam.”

“Direktor, sir. Please let me explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain.”

“Sir, please. I have kompromat on everyone. Thousands of Americans. The NSA. The CIA. Whoever you want.”

“You’re referring to your collection of sex tapes?”

“They’re valuable, sir. Let me prove it.”

“How?”

“Roth. I can get you Roth.”

“I think that maybe you read too many secrets, Igor.”

“I know you want Roth, sir,” Igor said. He was begging, pleading for his life. He was desperate and they both knew it. He’d accessed the Dead Hand’s database. That meant either he prove his worth on this call, or he was a dead man.

“I’m begging you, sir. Let me go after Roth for you.”

“Roth’s on the ropes,” Davidov said. “I’ve hacked his network. His assets are dead.”

“Let me finish him off for you.”

“I don’t need you to finish him off for me. The American president is shutting down the Special Operations Group as we speak. Roth is done. A week from now, he won’t even have a Secret Service detail.”

“Sir,” Igor said. This was it. His last ditch attempt. It was all or nothing. “I see the big picture.”

“Oh, bully for you, Igor?”

“I know what you’re doing, sir. I’m not just another yes man like Timokhin. I’m more valuable than him.”

“You think so?” Davidov said.

Igor could hear the sneer in his voice.

“This pathogen in Yekaterinburg. I understand why you’re letting it out.”

“Letting it out?”

“Yes, sir.”

“We’re not letting it out. We’re doing everything in our power to contain it.”

Igor was reaching. He was acting on a hunch. The database had said nothing about the outbreak and Igor was sure Davidov himself wasn’t totally sure what was going on up there. But it was a problem, and Igor was going to solve it for him.

“You want the Americans to know about this leak.”

“That leak has killed over a thousand people, Igor.”

“Casualties of war, sir.”