She saw it was an identity card, on what looked like a gold chain. She picked it up and saw the photo, the name. It was the man Burt had told her about, the member of Russia’s parliament and Finn’s killer.
“He’s dead? You got him?”
“Yes.”
“And this?” She put the card down on the floor again. “Is this a gift for me? Like something the cat brought in.”
“It’s just the evidence. I wanted you to know Finn’s killer is dead.”
“It’s what they do in Russia, Logan. The KGB kills Putin’s enemies on his birthday. It’s not a great tradition.”
“It’s all I had,” he said.
“Well, I don’t need it,” she said, and stood up. “It’s sad, isn’t it. When Finn goes out to get redemption, he dies. When you go, you come back. But it’s true what Burt says about you, Logan. You are very good. I’m impressed by that, at least.”
“I want you, Anna,” he said, looking up at her from the chair. “I want to start again. You’re the only woman I’ve ever wanted.”
She looked at him, her face softened, but it was no good.
“Thank you.”
“Is there a chance? Any chance for us?”
“I’m sorry, Logan,” she said. “Maybe in some other life. Just like all the others.”
She stayed on the porch until she saw the taillights of his car disappear across the flat mesa to the south.
Acknowledgments
There are many individuals I have to thank for providing me with insight into the rise of America’s private intelligence companies since the 1990s. They work both in national intelligence agencies and in the private companies themselves. I am grateful for their help and for the insight they have given me into the unintended consequences of private intelligence replacing national intelligence agencies.
ALSO BY ALEX DRYDEN
Red to Black
About the author
ALEX DRYDEN is a writer and journalist with many years of experience in security matters. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, Dryden watched the statues of Lenin fall across the former Soviet Union. Since then he has charted the false dawn of democracy in Russia as the country morphed into the world’s most powerful secret state. Dryden’s knowledge of the secret world in this new and growing East-West conflict has informed both Red to Black and Moscow Sting.
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Copyright
MOSCOW STING. Copyright © 2010 by Alex Dryden. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-0-06-196684-2
EPub Edition © 2010 ISBN: 9780062005410
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