The russian woman, p.34
The Russian Woman,
p.34
The quarry had been abandoned around the time of the Civil War. It wasn't that big. A few acres, deep, filled halfway with still, dark water. He walked over to a flat rock and sat down.
He gazed out at the black surface of the water. It felt watchful, as if it were waiting for him to do something.
Thorne didn't know how to handle what he was feeling. Anya's death had torn something inside him, left him suspended between grief and anger. He felt as if part of him had died with her.
Davidson's smug face came to mind, his easy dismissal of Anya as a traitor. If he had gotten his way, they would never have learned of the attack. Davidson and everyone else would now be dead. Why were idiots like him in charge of things?
Working at Langley was like living inside a story by Lewis Carroll. Sometimes he felt like he'd slipped through a dark mirror into an alternate universe, where everything was suspicious and nothing was as it seemed. After a while, it became difficult to remember that sometimes things were exactly what they appeared to be.
If Anya had lived, they might have made a life together. Now he'd never know what would have happened. Never know if the feeling between them would have lasted. All he had was the memory of it. The memory of that first, electric touch of her hand, the way her eyes had widened in surprise. A feeling of connection that was right.
He thought about Jenna, how different she was from Anya. Last night, he'd watched her walk out and felt unable to speak, unable to stop her. He hadn't known what to say to her.
Before he'd met Anya, he'd thought he was in love with Jenna. He did love her, but it wasn't the same. He'd never felt about Jenna the way he did about Anya. Anya had awakened something more. It didn't make sense, but that didn't change the feeling.
Thorne was under no illusions about who he was. The rules of his personal world were more important to him than the rules imposed by people like Davidson. When Davidson had insisted on calling Anya a traitor, he'd wanted to hit him. If Jenna hadn't stopped him, he would have done it.
All because Davidson had questioned Anya's motives. He'd overreacted, but Davidson had dishonored her. He'd negated her sacrifice. It was important to stand up for her.
Thorne couldn't get her out of his mind. He couldn't remember much about the dream that had startled him awake, but he knew Anya had been in it. He remembered the way she'd looked at him as he set her down in that grassy clearing in Estonia.
He remembered what she'd said as she was dying.
"I...love you. You...we might have..."
Something splashed in the water below. When he looked, all he could see were ripples vanishing on the surface.
Acknowledgments
My wife, Gayle.
Neil Jackson, for another great cover.
You, the reader. Thank you.
Other books by Alex Lukeman...
The Project Series:
White Jade
The Lance
The Seventh Pillar
Black Harvest
The Tesla Secret
The Nostradamus File
The Ajax Protocol
The Eye of Shiva
Black Rose
The Solomon Scroll
The Russian Deception
The Atlantis Stone
The Cup
High Alert
Solomon's Gold
Phoenix
The Last Option
The Black Templar
The Sword
The Lair of Anubis
End Game
City of Gold
About the Author
Alex Lukeman writes action/adventure thrillers. He's a former Marine and psychotherapist and is the author of the award-winning books The Tesla Secret and High Alert. He likes riding old, fast motorcycles and playing guitar, usually not at the same time. He lives in Northern Arizona.
*****
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Did you love The Russian Woman? Then you should read High Alert by Alex Lukeman!
When an American missile submarine is sunk in the Sea of Japan, it's the opening move in a madman's devious plan to plunge the world into war. A day later, the Chinese ambassador to Washington is assassinated. Meanwhile, the unstable leader of North Korea prepares to attack America with a terrible weapon.
The U.S. President calls in the Project, a deep black ops unit that goes places and does things others can't or won't do. They've had tough assignments before: but this time they're up against an unknown enemy, a man bent on vengeance against all of humanity. He won't rest until the world is turned into a radioactive hell… and when it comes to the Project, it's personal.
Can the Project team find him before he unleashes nuclear Armageddon?
Alex Lukeman, The Russian Woman
