“Nope.” Emily swiped the air with conviction. “It’s New York slice, or nothing at all.”
Maggie shrugged and went in for another bite. The base was so thin that it dangled in front of her in a flopping mess and she had to maneuver her mouth down and around to catch it.
Emily giggled as she witnessed the spectacle. “Tourists. You’re eating it all wrong.”
Maggie put the slice down and sipped on some soda, kicking her boots off. “All right, smarty pants, show me the mystical ways of eating pizza.”
“You fold it like this,” Emily instructed, taking a new slice for herself and folding it so both sides of the crust touched, creating a sturdier hold. “That way, the topping doesn’t splat on the sidewalk.” Emily laughed and pointed to Maggie’s lap where a big glob of cheese had landed on her trousers. “Or on your jeans.”
Maggie collected the cheese and ate it, sticking her tongue out at Emily. “Okay, I’ll give you that, but deep dish is still better.”
Emily sniggered and tuned back into her cartoons playing on Ashton’s flat screen.
“What is this rubbish,” Maggie asked, forgoing a napkin and licking her fingers.
“It’s not rubbish,” Emily said, eyes glued to a chubby little boy and his superhero sausage dog. “It’s Tommy and Sir Barksalot.”
“Cartoons have gone right downhill since I was young,” Maggie said, enjoying their little back and forth. Maggie wasn’t much of a people person, but she liked Emily more than most adults she’d come across.
“Maybe,” Emily countered, not missing a beat, “but at least we have color TVs now.”
“I’m not that old,” Maggie scoffed, taking another bite of folded pizza.
As she watched Emily laugh along to the cartoons, Maggie’s mind turned to her pregnancy. Would she have a daughter? Would she be brave and resilient like Emily? She might even look a little like Emily, with her dark skin like Leon’s and those big, beautiful eyes that didn’t miss much.
The idea that a new life was forming inside her was surreal. A life that would grow into a child with their own personality, thoughts, and feelings. Would they be kind like Leon? Always considering how others are doing? Would they be resourceful and able to look after themselves like she, Maggie, was? Or would they be completely different, and grow up to be an artist or a scientist? She certainly hoped so. The further away they were from her and Leon’s type of work, the better.
There was an entire realm of possibilities inside of her. Possibilities that could change Maggie’s life forever.
“So, Emily,” Maggie said, interrupting her show as the superhero sausage dog saved the day, “what are you going to be when you grow up?”
“Hmm,” Emily said, brow creased in thought.
“A baseball player?” Maggie suggested, topping Emily’s glass up with soda. “I’m sure a team would be glad to have you with a swing like that.”
Emily took a gulp of her soft drink and swirled the glass like she was sipping on an aged Bordeaux. “I like sports, but I don’t think I’d want to play professionally.”
“What about a lawyer, like your mom?” Maggie asked, certain Emily’s mother held her wine glass in the same way.
“I don’t think so,” Emily said, scrunching her nose. “She’s super stressed all the time and she thinks her boss is an assho— I mean, he’s a jerk. I think I’d like to be an entrepreneur. That way, I’d get to be the boss, and no one can tell me what to do.”
Maggie leaned over and held her glass to Emily. “I like your style.”
“I like yours, too, Jane Bond,” Emily said, clinking her glass with Maggie’s. “You’re kinda a badass.”
The doorbell rang a while later. Maggie wiped the pizza grease off on her already dirty clothes and whipped out the baton to full length.
Creeping to the front door and ready to attack, Maggie checked the peephole. She sighed in relief when she saw Danielle standing impatiently with a detail of armed men. The cavalry had arrived.
Maggie swung open the door and her allies ducked inside. They wore white jumpsuits, scattered in blobs of paint to masquerade as decorators, and carried cans of paint and a set of ladders.
“Thanks for coming,” Maggie said, closing the door behind them before any of the neighbors got too nosey at the host of people in the hallway.
“We have a van waiting in the underground garage to transport the witness,” Danielle said.
“Maggie?” Emily called, coming to see who had arrived.
Emily stopped dead and eyed Danielle. The pizza box dropped from her hands and the entire apartment filled with her screams.
Chapter 11
Maggie ran to Emily and held her by the arms.
“Emily, what is it? What’s wrong?”
Emily stabbed a finger at Danielle. “It was her. She was the one who killed that guy.”
Maggie straightened and stepped between Danielle and Emily. Her mind raced to catch up, to figure out what was happening.
“It was her,” Emily cried again. “She’s with the British government, I heard her tell my mom at the party. She said she worked here in New York.”
Danielle’s crew lunged forward, shoving Maggie out of the way. Before she could retaliate, one of them snuck behind Emily and jabbed a needle into her neck.
Emily blinked a few times, her face a map of confusion, before she slumped forward. Maggie lunged and caught her before she fell, holding the unconscious little girl in her arms.
“What was in that?” Maggie demanded.
“Relax,” said Danielle. “It’s a sedative.”
Maggie lay Emily down on the floor and sprung to her feet. In two strides, she grabbed Danielle by the shoulders and pinned her to the nearest wall so hard the framed picture hanging there fell to the wooden floor. “Why the fuck are you drugging her?”
Danielle’s men reached for their concealed weapons.
“It’s okay, boys,” Danielle assured, before turning back to Maggie. “She was hysterical. We can’t exactly take her down to the van kicking and screaming.”
Hysterical. There was that word again.
Maggie released her hold of Danielle and backed away. “Is what she said true? Were you the one she saw kill the UN official?”
“Yes,” Danielle admitted, straightening her suit, the only one of the detail not wearing an overall.
It started to sink in then, Maggie filling in the missing pieces she was kept from knowing. “Which UN official?”
“Dimitri Udinov.”
“The Russian ambassador?” Maggie said, everything rearranging and falling into place. “You tricked me. You made me believe the Russian’s killed a British official, but it was the other way around.”
Danielle frowned. “I don’t remember telling you anything of the sort. We refrained from telling you the full story in case you were compromised, as you yourself pointed out in our first meeting.”
Danielle and Jonathan Cole had told the truth in that Emily was indeed a witness. What they failed to mention was that she was a witness to a British operation.
Maggie inched closer to Emily, her chest rising and falling in a chemically induced slumber. “Why did our government want Udinov dead?”
“He was spotted in multiple meetings with former KGB affiliates,” Danielle said. “Our intelligence on the inside reported they were planning to assassinate select world leaders at the next UN summit, including the Prime Minister.”
“And the Americans were in on this, too?” Maggie guessed. They had to be to allow the operation to take place on their turf.
“The President was one of their proposed targets, too,” Danielle confirmed. “We had their backing in taking Undinov out.”
Maggie counted six men in Danielle’s detail. “And the Russian’s were holding Emily as proof against us?”
Us. The affiliation tasted like ash in her mouth.
Danielle’s lips thinned. “They got to the girl before I could. We have reason to believe that w
as their intention. Thanks to you, now they won’t be able to.”
Aleksandar had grabbed Emily like she said, but it wasn’t to kill her. It was to protect her. Protect her from the very people Maggie worked for.
Thinking back on it, the Russian’s had opportunities to shoot Emily dead. In Central Park, on the Subway. Even during the chase through the streets, one of them could have leaned out the SUV and pulled the trigger. Maggie hadn’t considered it at the time, too busy trying to escape the Russian’s clutches and stay alive, but there it was. They didn’t take the shot because they wanted Emily alive.
Seven sets of eyes stayed on her, and Maggie considered her odds at taking them all out. “Why kill Udinov if you had proof of his plans?” she asked Danielle, trying to understand. “You could have outed him publicly.”
“It was a matter of national security that he be eliminated.”
Maggie laughed, but it was bitter and burning with rage. “You mean, you didn’t have sufficient evidence to prove his plans?” Or at least, no proof the British government could use. Not if they attained it through illegal means.
“His plot was a legitimate threat,” Danielle said, voice sharpening. “Now it isn’t.”
Maggie couldn’t bring herself to care about any of it. All she cared about was why they were here. “Where are you taking Emily?”
Danielle raised her chin. “The situation must be contained.”
“Contained?” Maggie closed her eyes. She already knew what it meant.
“We can’t afford any loose ends.”
“Her name is Emily Wallace,” Maggie said through gritted teeth. “She’s twelve years old.”
“A pity,” Danielle said, loftily, “but collateral damage is unavoidable sometimes.”
Maggie balled her fists so hard her knuckles cracked. “It would have been entirely avoidable had you done your job right. What kind of assassin gets caught by a child?”
Danielle crossed her arms. “I regret what happened, believe me I do. But our hands are tied.”
Maggie’s mind raced for a solution. For anything that could save Emily. “There must be another way. A way that doesn’t involve killing a little girl.”
Danielle waved a hand at Emily sprawled on the floor. “You heard her. I was a guest at the party representing the consulate, and she witnessed me killing Udinov. She knows too much.” Danielle stated, her words hard and unyielding. “The decision has already been made.”
With Emily able to connect Danielle to Britain, it linked the government directly to the murder of Udinov. Emily was a risk they couldn’t afford, no matter how deplorable it was to eliminate her.
“You’re just going to kill an innocent child?” Maggie searched each of her colleagues faces, making sure to stare each of them in the eye.
She was met with blank stares.
“Why not have me do it back at the consulate?” Maggie asked, her blood boiling. The tremor from before was back, but it wasn’t fear for herself or the life growing inside her this time. “Why have me break Emily out and keep her alive if you’re just going to kill her anyway?”
“We need to question her,” Danielle said. “Find out what the Russian’s already knew and what they gleaned from her before you arrived.”
Bile rose in Maggie’s throat. “Interrogation first, then death.”
“It will be quick and humane,” assured Danielle, like a vet telling a bereaved owner their pet was going to be put down. “A doctor will administer a lethal injection tonight. It will feel like she’s falling asleep.”
“You can’t do this,” Maggie yelled, stepping forwards.
“Stand down,” Danielle ordered, like she could ever be Maggie’s superior.
In a wave of fury, Maggie made to swing for Danielle, but her men grabbed Maggie back.
Danielle clicked her fingers and one of the men hoisted Emily’s small frame over one shoulder. She stopped at the foot of the door and turned back to Maggie. “You did well, agent. The Consul-General expects an in-person report tomorrow morning before you leave. We’ll take things from here.”
And just like that, Danielle and the man carrying Emily left the apartment, followed by the rest of her team.
Maggie fell to her knees as the door slammed closed.
Chapter 12
Maggie brought up the final bites of pizza and spat out a mouthful of bile that burned her throat on the way up.
Emily.
Getting up, Maggie rinsed out her mouth and splashed her clammy face with water. Her mind swam, trying to come to terms with what just happened. Right now, unconscious and alone, Emily would be in the back of Danielle’s van, being transported to a secure location.
Maggie’s nails dug into her palms as she bit back tears.
Unknowingly or not, she had delivered Emily to her death.
She told Emily she would get her back to her parents. She promised her she would keep her safe.
Her fingers itched to wreck the place. To smash, and tear, and break anything in sight. Maggie paced the apartment, her thoughts racing and working overtime. She completed the mission given to her, just as she always did. Did what was asked of her, even with the odds stacked against her. Even when it seemed impossible.
Maggie had done plenty of things for Queen and country she wasn’t proud of. Things that kept her awake at night, and haunted her dreams. Things she could never take back. Things that took their toll on her. A toll she gladly paid to do what must be done. To do what others could not.
The one thing that kept her going, that allowed her to do those things, was the knowledge that it was all for the greater good. Until now, she’d never felt like the enemy.
But what could she have done? Fought Danielle? Stopped them from taking Emily?
It wasn’t Danielle she would be defying. It wasn’t her boss Jonathan Cole, or the entire consulate. Maggie would be defying her country.
She was guilty of a whole list of crimes, but treason wasn’t one of them.
Maggie slumped down on the couch and ran a hand through her hair. The cushions were still warm from where Emily had sat eating pizza, the noise of cartoons playing in the background. The weight of it all bore down on her like a ton of bricks. Maggie had taken many lives over the years, but never a child’s. Most of the people she took out had done despicable things. They deserved what came to them.
Not Emily.
Not a twelve-year-old girl who stumbled into the wrong place and the wrong time.
A set of tears slipped from her eyes and tracked down her face. Maggie wiped them away with an angry fist. She didn’t get to sit around and cry or feel sorry for herself. Not after what she just let happen. Not now, knowing what was going to happen to Emily before the night was over. Maggie may not be the one administering the lethal injection, but she might as well be. Emily wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near Danielle and her crew had it not been for her.
Maggie worried at her nail, a habit she had got rid of back in training as a teenager. The whole situation was messed up.
Jonathan Cole and Danielle hadn’t been exaggerating when they told Maggie her operation was of the highest priority for the sake of national security.
If the Russian’s had managed to use Emily as they wanted to, to make her testify what she saw and help prove that it was Britain, there would have been no telling the extent of the damage caused.
Relations between Russia and the UK and US were already tense. It was a delicate balance and even the slightest thing could tip the scale, never mind murder. If something like the assassination of a Russian official during a United Nations party got out all hell would break loose.
It would rip open Pandora’s box, and the threat of war would be very, very real.
What Maggie’s government did was an act of war, even if they had valid reasons. The covert intelligence Danielle and her team gathered about Dimitri Udinov’s plans wouldn’t change anything. For all Maggie knew, they had done their fair share of illegal and questionable t
hings to obtain it. Not to mention the fact that the Russian’s may have been in on it anyway. Udinov might simply have been the one executing the orders from higher up the political chain.
With their plans to eliminate the Prime Minister and the President ruined, they could still have set things off. If the Russian’s used Emily as a tool, they could very well prove there was sufficient cause to declare war. Even if there wasn’t, that didn’t mean it still wouldn’t happen. International relations between the countries were cordial at best. On the surface, there was the pretense of peace, but underneath was a whole different story. There was no love lost between the nations, and each went to great lengths to spy on the other. Maggie of all people knew that.
She also knew enough to know the UK and US wouldn’t back down to any threats the Russian’s made. Sure, they may try to resolve it. To work things out in a non-violent manner. But if that didn’t work?
The testimony of a twelve-year-old girl could very well result in world war three. It was far too big a risk.
Not that it made things easier. Not that it made Maggie feel any better.
Intellectually and strategically, Emily Wallace couldn’t be allowed to live.
But morally? Emotionally?
Maggie got up and paced the apartment again.
Nothing she could say would change the minds of her superiors. Bishop wasn’t even privy to the mission. The Director General would know, of course, but she had Bishop send Maggie to New York to help in the first place.
Even Danielle was following orders given to her by Jonathan Cole, which would have been passed down to him from higher up, too. Something as classified as this would run all the way up the food chain. This was top level stuff, and there was no way any of them would discuss a change of plan with her.
Maggie stopped in the middle of the room and bit her lip as the idea crossed her mind.
No, she couldn’t.
Her heart thumped in her chest.
The Witness Page 7