Red Dawn Rising (Red Returning Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF Page B

her. He brushed a hand over his neatly clipped gray hair, then crossed his arms and studied Sonya for a moment. She was handsome, but not feminine. Her large, soft green eyes had a radiating effect, as if something hypnotic stirred behind them. She’d been the force to reckon with in his Kremlin office many years ago. Now in her fifties, she was his most loyal soldier, committed to the cause, bristling with expectancy of how high it would take her into the resurrected Soviet Socialist Republic of Russia. Take all of them. And the time was near.
    He smiled at his longtime compatriot. “I am glad you made such inquiries.” He paused to think. “Let me take care of it. Perhaps Hans needs to draw closer to the action, to feel more personally invested in it. He is still a valuable member of our network.”
    She looked doubtful. “Are you confident he is in full charge of the inauguration?”
    “I am. Everything is in place to my satisfaction.”
    “January 20 is less than a week away,” she persisted. “You can understand the security net I have watched fall over the Capitol and Mall. You are certain Hans’s Secret Service agent is completely under our control?”
    “Everything is in motion, Sonya. Do not worry.”
    She rose steadily from her chair and reached for her handbag on the floor. “I leave for Washington in the morning. I have much to—”
    The doorbell rang. Sonya looked sharply at Ivan.
    He strode casually to the door and lifted the cover over the peephole. A young man he’d never seen before stood on the other side. Ivan watched him look nervously around the hallway before turning back to the door. “Who is there?” Ivan asked bluntly.
    “Uh, I’m looking for a friend and not sure if I have the right floor. Could you help me?”
    Ivan paused. “What is your friend’s name?”
    “Last name’s Hamilton, I think.”
    Ivan knew none of his neighbors. This was one of six residences he kept throughout the world. He was about to dismiss this lost person when a sudden instinct halted him. Something wasn’t right.
    Against Sonya’s low-issued warnings coming from behind him, Ivan suddenly flung open the door and confronted the visitor head-on. The young man was clearly startled. “You think you know this so-called friend’s name?” Ivan’s old KGB interrogative edge surfaced. He noted the awkward stance of this man who stood a head taller and probably twenty pounds heavier. “You are not even sure whom you are looking for?”
    The young man stammered a reply. “I’m, uh … uh … sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to disturb you.” But before he turned to go, he seemed to make a deliberate attempt to look past Ivan into the apartment. “My apologies, ma’am.” Then he excused himself and walked toward the elevator, never looking back.
    Even before Ivan closed the door, he motioned with his hand behind him, a clear directive for Sonya to follow the man into the street.

    She threw on her coat, grabbed her bag again, and the moment the young man disappeared into the elevator, Sonya stepped quickly down the stairs. The man had already exited the building when she emerged from the stairwell. She pushed open the front door and, from behind one of the tall potted cedar trees flanking the entrance to the building, she watched him almost sprint toward a small car parked at the end of the block. He didn’t leave immediately, and Sonya was about to head that way, but the car finally pulled from the curb and approached. As it drew almost even with her position, she stepped boldly from behind the cedar to peer into its front seat, noting what she believed to be a female in the passenger seat, her face partially concealed by the hood of her coat and a misty film on the window.
    As the car passed, Sonya memorized the license plate number, then recorded it on a pad from her bag. She looked back at the retreating car and smirked. “I’ve got you!”

Chapter 7
    T hat was no mistress,” Jordan reported when he