Suddenly, Tesla knew. For all her bravado, Charley had never witnessed anything like this—the interrogation and torture of another human being. A woman, no less. Despite Harold’s willingness to let Charley play around the periphery of the Volunteers, he had never brought her into the violence of its world. Charley Middleton had hacked computers, done research. Her reality was virtual. Her hands were clean.

But her own past was clouded with violence. The brutal murder of her mother by her father’s enemies. The betrayal and death of her husband. The loss of her baby.

Another thought flashed through Tesla’s head. Yesterday, in a café, Charley let her guard down long enough to talk about her mother’s death and what she said after. I know you and Harry were lovers and I used to hate you for that but I don’t now. I admire you, Nora.

And second flash of memory. The threat she had made to Ian Barrett-Bone yesterday in the taxi as Charley listened: I’ll kill you for the sheer pleasure of it.

Charley’s sobs filled Tesla’s ears. She glanced back at Jana, whose dark eyes glittered with hatred.

“Poor little Charlotte,” Jana said, her voice almost maternal. “Death is around you. Mother, husband. Your baby cut from your—”

Tesla spun and smacked Jana hard, sending the woman into a spasm of coughing and spitting blood.

A soft thud. From the corner of her eyes, Tesla saw Charley slump to the carpet.

One second of diversion but it was enough. Jana brought her bound wrists up in a quick jerk, catching Tesla under the jaw and sending her reeling backwards. The letter opener went flying.

A second blow hit Tesla in her wounded shoulder. White knives of pain sliced through her body. For a second, the room swirled gray-going-black and she felt herself drop down to her knees.

Jana was just a blur, flailing and pulling against the electrical cord on her ankles.

Tesla fought back the waves of pain and nausea, one thought in her head. Gun . . . get the gun.

Tesla threw herself toward Charley’s body. The dark barrel of the gun was just visible beneath the blue of Charley’s running suit. Tesla grabbed the Hawlen, jerked to a kneeling position and leveled it, finger curled on the trigger.

She blinked the room back into focus.

Nothing. Just a flash of black boots and white trench coat disappearing behind the open door of the hotel room.

Jana stumbled down the stairs but when she hit the hotel lobby, she froze. A large man in a green windbreaker and ball cap was standing at the desk. His face was red and he was banging the bell on the desk.

“Hello? Hey, anybody here?”