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She said it to Bryn, and her gaze was fixed on the barely visible blood beneath the grass and lance at Joe, and kneas on high alert, too
"Not my blood," she said, and s Joe, help et Patrick in the truck, will you?"
Joe didn’t hesitate He dragged Pat up, and Bryn took his feet--not that Joe couldn’t do it all by hiet away froether, they carried hi hiot in as well Brick took the driver’s seat, and Bryn backed up toward the passenger side
"A ain, insistently "You’ve been hit, or you stripped a corpse that was shot There is no other explanation for--"
Brick calun out froht at the two Russians, and said, "And ere all getting along so well Guess detente never lasts, right? Leave the girl alone, unless you want to hear the bad things that happened to her while she was being held naked in a warehouse until we rescued her Yeah, she stripped a corpse Killed him her own damn self You wouldn’t?"
His flat delivery, and the forbidding look in his eyes, reinforced the threat of the shotgun, and although the Russians didn’t raise their hands in surrender, they didn’t give them any un to Joe, who stepped in and took the back passenger seat behind hi the aim steady on the other two
"Thanks for the hospitality, folks," he said "Let’s do lunch sometime, eh? Vodka and borscht on me"
Brick backed the truck out in one smooth, fast motion, and led the convoy out of the farm, back on the service road This tirids of dirt roads all the way back to the freeway
Joe rolled up theand said, "Nice gun Can I keep it?"
"Hell no," Brick said, and held his hand up "Faet your own"
"I had soin’ train"
"Sounds like the start of a pretty good country song" Brick grinned, and handed the shotgun back to him "You can keep it warm for me"
"Careful, that’s how I married my wife"
The banter eased some of the coiled tension in Bryn’s stomach, but she wasn’t sure they were out of the woods--or the tall corn--quite yet "How did you know about this place, Brick?"
"Did some work for those folks a while back We were friendly As friendly as people like us get, anyway They’re all right A little tense, but ain’t we all just now"
"They’re Russian spies," Riley said "They ought to be tense, operating on American soil"
"They’ll pull up stakes and be in the wind by the time you report ’em," Brick said "Which is too bad, because they had a nice setup out here in the big nowhere Not like they were hiding nukes or anything"
"Then what are they doing?"
"Providing a way station," he said "Food, clothing, shelter, medical assistance, communication, that sort of stuff You know The CIA has similar places all over Europe, and in Russia, too Part of the gaame"
"Your mistake It is, and it never ends, and it never has a winner You score points, you lose points, players and sides coame itself never stops Hasn’t since the first nations in the world started talking instead of fighting Spycraft’s the world’s second oldest profession Has a lot in co it for your country"
Bryn wasn’t sure whether that was depressing or inspiring, but she wasup now--and fro when he opened his eyes, was also fighting back some extreme disorientation and nausea
"Patrick?" She took his hand and held it, and after a blank few seconds, he turned his head to look at her "Patrick, how’s the head?"
"I think I’d like to have your nanites right now," he said, and tried for a smile but didn’t quite make it "What the hell happened?"
"IED in the car on the side of the road, we rolled, you hit your head, full-on firefight We even got hit by a train," Bryn said "Sorry you missed it It was pretty epic Also, there were Russian spies"