Page 71 of The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold
“You like that?” He pointed to the ring like it was a key piece of intel—the final step in Operation Make Alex Make Sense, and he wasn’t going to quit until he’d cracked it.
Alex looked back down at the ring. It seemed like something made for a different world—a different time. And, not for the first time, Alex wondered what it might have been like to be a different girl.
One who got to pick first. One who didn’t have to worry that the world was going to wake up one day and realize that everything—literally everything—was entirely her fault.
There was static in her ear and Merritt’s voice had gone silent, so it felt like Alex was alone with the soft light and the stillness and the man who, for once, wasn’t staring at her like she didn’t belong there. For once, Alex felt like she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
“I love this kind of stuff,” Alex admitted guiltily. “I love that something could be more than... Never mind.”
But he was suddenly closer—warmer. “Go on.”
“I love that things can be... more.”
Alex could be the prettiest girl at MITandthe number one student in the college of engineering. She could be Michael Kingsley’s nemesisandthe best person to have his back on this mission. Alex could be Zoe’s best friendandthe reason her sister had almost died.
“A toothbrush isn’t just a toothbrush when it’s also a hand grenade?” he tried, and Alex could feel her face turning red, but the look King gave her was kind and indulgent and— “Try it on.”
Now Alex knew she was hearing things. Maybe she’d been hit on the head and was currently in a medically induced coma. There was no way that Michael Kingsley of the Photographic Memory Kingsleys was telling her, “Go ahead.”
“Oh no!” Alex pulled back. It was like she’d been burned.
“Go ahead,” he said again, but Alex knew better. It was some kind of trap. He was a snake with an apple, trying to get her kicked out of the garden for good. She couldn’t trust him. But there was something in his eyes as he opened the case and pulled out the ring. “My grandfather used to have a whole closet full of things like this. I think they’re in the Spy Museum now. But when I was a kid...”
There was an insult in there somewhere. He was calling Alex a child, maybe. He was saying she wasn’t smart enough or experienced enough—or maybe just jaded enough—to be there.
So Alex pulled on her cover—her shield. She retreated into her mission, and she stopped thinking like a girl who was enamored with a shiny ring and started thinking like a badass spy who needed to be spying, badassily. “We’ve got to—”
A burst of static filled her ear, and Alex flinched as Merritt’s voice screamed, cutting in and out, the words fractured but clear, saying, “Now!” and “Out!” And then... “Kozlov.”
Alex looked at King, terror on his face. The comms units in their ears were state-of-the-art; they’d come a long way from the gadgets and gizmos on the shelves in front of them, but nothing was perfect.
“Say again,” King asked.
“You have company!” Merritt sounded scared. And if Merritt was scared...
Light flashed across the windows. A helicopter was making its descent. Kozlov and Irina must have decided to come home early. Which meant...
“Merritt!” Alex snapped. “Tell us what we’re looking for so we can get out of here!”
“I don’t...” The voice sounded small and frail and then, suddenly, harder than stone. “Burn it down.”
They didn’t hear her correctly. Right? They didn’t hear—
“Burn it all down.”
King was shaking his head. “Do you seriously want us—”
“To destroy everything in that building, Michael? Yes. That’s exactly what I want you to do. If we can’t find it...” There was a beat, a moment of staticky sadness as King and Alex looked at each other like they were finally on the same side. They had the same questions and the same fears. And the same orders.
“But...” Alex started.
“They’ll never know you were there. Now go. Burn it to the ground.”
So that’s exactly what they did.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Present Day
