Tatyana pulled the car out of its spot and slowly rolled down the street after Igor and his wife, maintaining a distance of about a hundred yards. When they reached the park, and there were less people around, she put her foot down and caught up to them.

She rolled down the window and called out. “Hey.”

Igor and his wife peered into the car. When they saw Tatyana, her gun pointed at them, their expressions turned to shock.

“You,” Igor gasped.

“Didn’t think you’d see me again, did you?”

He didn’t know what to say.

“Mrs. Aralov,” Tatyana said.

Igor’s wife looked like she was about to drop dead.

“Let me ask you something very important, Mrs. Aralov,” Tatyana said. “Do you love your husband?”

Igor looked at his wife, who was unable to speak.

“Mrs. Aralov, I’m asking if you love him enough to die with him?”

She shook her head. “No,” she said. “No I don’t.”

Igor’s face dropped.

“Then go home,” Tatyana said. “Go home and stay there.”

The wife didn’t need to be told twice. She turned and walked briskly back toward the apartment.

Tatyana turned her attention to Igor.

“Get in,” she said, beckoning him with the gun.

Igor shook his head.

“I’m not going to ask again,” Tatyana said.

Igor looked at her. “I know,” he said.

“Well?”

“Just do it,” he said. “If you’re going to kill me, kill me here.”

Tatyana shrugged. She glanced up and down the street, then looked back at Igor, that horrible face, she couldn’t believe what she’d let him do to her.

“Remember that day in your office?” she said.

He said nothing, but she knew he remembered.

“This is for that day,” she said, pulling the trigger.

His head flew back and his feet left the ground as his frail body took the bullet. He landed on his back, three feet from where he’d been standing.

Some pedestrians across the street saw what happened and screamed. Tatyana let them run.

She got out of the car.

She still had a cigarette in her mouth and she threw it onto Igor’s chest then stepped on it, crushing it under the Dior shoe Igor’s expense account had paid for.

She reached down and picked up his metal case. She placed it on the hood of the car and clicked open the two latches that secured it. Inside, it was padded with a protective foam lining. In the center of the lining was a cutout segment, securing a small titanium case.

She recognized it instantly.

It was identical to the one Sofia had given her at the institute in Yekaterinburg.

She shut the case and got back into the car. Before pulling away, she took one final look at Igor’s corpse.