There is no going back now.
“Good luck, brother,” he says to me.
I wonder if he’s growing sentimental like I am. I see the flicker of something in his eyes, but in the next moment, it’s gone.
I clap him on the shoulder once more, then I join Lev and the soldiers outside.
“Lev,” I call, “you’re in this vehicle with me.”
Lev joins me in my jeep and we pull out, armed with the location in the valley that Yulian gave me.
I wait five minutes before I lean forward and speak into the comms system that links all twelve of the vehicles in our convoy.
“Men, pull to the side of the road.”
Lev looks at me, confused. “What are you doing?”
“We’re waiting.”
Lev looks around as though he’s expecting someone to jump out from between the trees. “Waiting for what?”
“For Marina.”
Lev frowns. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither did I,” I say. “But my gut has been trying to warn me for the last couple of days. I didn’t listen because it was all too fucking unbelievable. But I realized I needed to trust my instincts.”
Lev glances at the men sitting in the backseat behind us. Then he pulls up the partition so we’re more or less alone.
“What aren’t you telling me, Anton?”
“I know her plan,” I say.
“How?”
“I know her,” I say simply. “I just never allow myself to get in her fucked-up headspace. But in order to catch her, that’s exactly what I needed to do.”
“So you don’t have any real proof of this plan,” Lev surmises. “This is all instinct?”
“My instincts haven’t failed me yet.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” he grumbles.
“Not for me.”
I open up the comms system again. “Fredrich, Henri? I want you two to take your teams ahead to the house. Keep me informed once you’ve neutralized the threat.”
“You’re sending Fredrich and Henri up there?” Lev asks.
“Yes.”
“That’s only ten men.”
“It’ll be enough,” I tell him.
“You’re underestimating her.”
“Trust me, I’m not.”