Page 60 of Blazing Embers

Tara had never had a miscarriage, and the doctor who had allegedly tended to her miscarriage was none other than Doctor Fresh Face, who had popped up in Russia right when Tara needed more lies to deceive me with.

A disgruntled Doctor Ivonovich then discovered who Tara was when he attempted to look up her medical records under her Russian name. I'm still unsure how that happened, or howhe managed to get it to the RMSAD, or how the Dragunov High Council obtained it. At first I thought it might be the bitch Medusa. But it wasn't her, and she'd already known the truth about Tara's miscarriage and that she'd never had a hysterectomy, I have found out recently.

I had to initially take four trial-by-fire tests to become the Dragunov and receive my keys to the Dragunov kingdom. The third one was inserted when the High Council discovered Tara's deception, and the original third test was bumped to the fourth one. This test was urgent, they'd agreed. Tara was the closest person to me. She needed to be tested and prove she was worthy of being my queen. And to find out what she had done with the baby she'd carried for Irina and Gavriil.

I was about to tell them the truth when my phone buzzed, and luckily, I looked at it just in time to see it was from Medusa.

Do not tell them the truth about the baby. No one can know. They must believe it's Gavriil's and Irina's. That Doctor Ivanovich is a liar, as you signed consent for the hysterectomy. Consider this the real third test. I am, after all, the only one out of those fools in front of you who can judge you.

Something in my gut told me to go along with her. So I left them all believing that the baby we now knew Tara had was Gavriil and my younger sister Irina's child. And that Doctor Ivanovich was a liar. I had signed the consent as Tara's husband for the hysterectomy.

In order to divert their attention from Tara, I went one step further and told them I knew about the baby. I decided to keep quiet and go along with Tara's version of the story to protect the child. It is all that is left of my little sister, and the enemy that had killed Irina and Gavriil was still out there.

So no, I told them, Tara didn't lie. We both did to protect the child. But it's not a lie about my wife never being able to have children. That still weighs heavily upon us, and I'm appalled that they would bring it up and turn it into some sick test.

The council seemed appeased, and the following message I received from Medusa was:Well done, you've passed round three. Let's see how well you do on round four. And know, this is going to be a tough one. We've seen how you handle betrayal from a friend and a trusted source. The next betrayal cuts a lot deeper.

I had wondered how the betrayal I just stood up and lied about could get any worse. Well, it turns out, a lot worse. I got back to my house in Dragunov Village to find Tara gone. Nowhere to be seen. A couple of hours later, after I nearly ripped the village apart looking for her and who helped her, I found the traitor. And that bitch Medusa was right. It cut deep. The one person in my family I thought I could trust the most, I found out that my sister, Nadia, had helped Tara escape.

Nadia is now confined to Dragunov Village. And she will never see her lover again. Oh, I still intend to help the woman get out of the RMSAD and away from her horrid father and brutal brother, but Nadia will never be with her again. No. Nadia will be the one to get me the Dragunov-Mirochin heir. There is still one Mirochin brother left, and he's single, so... That'll go ahead; otherwise, I'll sever the alliance with the Mirochins. With Gavriil and Irina dead, the alliance is on shaky ground, as there is nothing to cement it.

And Nadia, I will ensure that she never regains her medical license. Harsh? Maybe. But she’s the one person I never thought would break my trust. And now I’m thinking Nadia has alwayscleverly worked both sides of opposing teams to get what she wanted.

Medusa also admitted to helping Nadia get Tara out of Russia. But only two months ago, when she phoned to let me know that Clyde had gone rogue. He and The Lost Subjects, which is what the surviving Jewel Initiative subjects have started calling themselves, have gone dark. Medusa had called Clyde to get him to bring Tara back to me, but he’d refused and told her they had other plans. Clyde realized that Medusa no longer had Tara’s best interests at heart. Until all threats to Tara were eliminated or neutralized, no one would ever find her or her baby.

I no longer believe Medusa is the Black Widow, because she is part of the Dragunov High Council, and I’m sure the Black Widow is not, as I doubt my grandfather would like an assassin like that on the council. Medusa has admittedly lost control of her very dangerous and, now, thanks to the likes of Nikolas Vasilikis and Sam Winters, highly trained, genetically enhanced black ops team that is very protective of Tara.

I, in all my wisdom, wanted to keep my wife’s punishment solely to myself, and not wanting to draw the high council's attention to the fact that Tara was still missing, I made it out that her leaving that night was all a misunderstanding. I had to fake a picture of Konstantin finding Tara and bringing her over the Georgian border, which served more than one purpose as it turned out. It showed the high council that I did have Tara back in my life. But as the RMSAD was now very interested in finding its heir, I have her hidden in a safe house.

More anger and frustration surge through me. Where the fuck is Tara? Jesus! The last time I had confirmation that she’d been seen was about four weeks ago. I've sent my younger brothers, twins Stepan and Kiriil, to America to find her, the puzzle boxwith the photo of Anya Novikov-Morozov, and any information about who could have adopted the baby Tara had.

They had caught up with her in New York, where they found her in a phone booth of all things. Fuck I didnt even know those things still existed. My idiot brother Kiriil had accidentally shot Clyde. I knew I should’ve insisted they had more weapons training when they were young.

Stepan had gone to help Clyde, not wanting to hurt anyone. But the beast Clyde is managed to still best my two brothers with a gunshot wound that to anyone else would’ve been fucking fatal. Tara had gotten Clyde to a hospital, and he’d told her to move. Get to safe house number five, Stepan had heard him say.

They had tried to stop Tara, but she got one of her red-hot anger surges and plowed through them like they were nothing more than corn in a field. Still, they had managed to rush after her, chasing her into an alley. An alley with nowhere to go. No exit doors. No maintenance holes. No ladders to climb. They had sent me a picture of the alley. I had gone over and over it. There was no escape. That alley was flanked by three solid brick walls, with no openings in any of them. So she’d either stepped through some fucking rift in time into another dimension or grown wings and flown out there.

She wouldn’t even have had time to scale a wall somehow, as my brothers were no more than two to three minutes behind her. But when they rounded the corner. She was gone. Houdini would have been jealous of that disappearing act.

Stepan and Kiriil are still in America, although I’m getting worried as I haven't heard from them in weeks, except for a few short, curt messages about still looking. I found another lead. I have sent two of my other men to find out what the fuckis going on with them. They were supposed to be looking for that goddamn puzzle box. Now that I know the truth about the picture—why the General lost his shit when it disappeared—I understand.

That photo wasn’t just some sentimental relic. It was a map. Hidden in the layers. Just like one of my great-great-grandmothers, is cryptography masked as art! And that map is fucking vital as it leads me to the fabled Dragunov Vault or the belly of the Dragon as our people fondly called it.

Now that I know exactly what's in there besides the vast treasure, I need that photo back. Its bad enough I don't know who took the fucking box, where the key to the vault is that was in the box, or how it landed up in Tara's hands. That’s a mystery for another day. Right now, I have too many of those on my hands and an organization to crumble.

I look at the flash disk in my hand.

The RMSAD is in a full-blown panic. Someone breached their air-gapped servers. Downloaded classified shit that should’ve been impossible to reach. But I know who did it. A smile curves my lips as I hold up the flash drive, then I slip it into an envelope, seal it, and press the intercom on my desk. Having full access to their facility has its perks.

Seconds later, Viktor steps in. The man resembles Clark Kent in a high-end suit, complete with dark-rimmed glasses. Tall, composed, and totally out of place in this office—but that’s the point. Nobody suspects the glasses-wearing assistant is a Dragunov-trained operative.

“Get this to General Morozov,” I say, handing him the envelope. “Personally. I want confirmation when it’s in his hands.”

“Of course, boss.” Viktor steps forward, but there’s hesitation. He’s holding something in his hand—an envelope.

I narrow my eyes. “What is it?”

“You ordered Ilya to follow Sabrina Craft and Oleksi Mirochin while they were in Moscow.”

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