She tried to pull away, more as a warning than a true attempt to escape, but he tightened his grip further still. Her next moves flowed by instinct. She stamped hard on the instep of his right foot and blinded him with a stiletto-like finger to each eye. As his grip relaxed, she pivoted and raised a knee into his groin. Then she pivoted again and delivered a vicious elbow to the temple that dropped him to the ground. She was preparing to do permanent damage to his exposed throat but stopped when she heard laughter on the path behind her. She placed her hands on her knees and fought hard for breath in the frigid air. Her mouth tasted of blood. She imagined it was the blood of her dreams.

“Why did you do that?”

“I wanted to make sure you were ready to go back into the field.”

“I’m always ready.”

“You made that quite obvious.” Alexei Rozanov shook his head slowly. “That poor devil will never need to bother with a condom again. I suppose he’s lucky in a way.”

They were in the back of Rozanov’s SVR car, which was stuck in traffic along Kosygina Street. Apparently, there was an accident somewhere ahead. There usually was.

“Who was he?” Katerina asked.

“The young man you nearly killed?”

She nodded.

“He’s a recent graduate of the Red Banner Institute. Until today, I had high hopes for him.”

“What were you planning to use him for?”

“Muscle work,” said Rozanov without a trace of irony.

The car crept forward at a walking pace. Rozanov withdrew his packet of Dunhills from the breast pocket of his overcoat and extracted one thoughtfully.

“When you return to your apartment,” he said after a moment, “you’ll find a suitcase waiting in the entrance hall, along with a passport and your travel documents. You leave first thing in the morning.”

“For where?”

“You’ll spend one night in Warsaw to establish your identity. Then you’ll make your way across Europe to Rotterdam. We’ve booked a room for you at a hotel near the ferry terminal. A car will be waiting for you on the other side.”

“What kind of car?”

“A Renault. The key will be concealed in the usual place. The weapons will be hidden in the back. We got you a Skorpion.” Rozanov smiled. “You always liked the Skorpion, didn’t you, Katerina?”

“What about Quinn?” she asked.

“He’ll meet you at your hotel.” Rozanov paused, then added, “I wouldn’t expect him to be in a good mood.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The president has decided to withhold payment of Quinn’s money until he completes the second phase of the operation.”

“Why would the president do something like that?”