The Blood Code Read Online Free PDF Page A

angry. Didn’t want to care about him, period. But he’d stitched up her wound, saved her from the police. Don’t trust until verified rang in her brain, but it was hard not to trust such a decent guy. “What did I do to make him so angry?”
    Truman leaned a shoulder against the wall. “Let’s see. Might have been talking when he told you not to, or—over a phone line—threatening to destroy the Russian president. Or maybe it was when you threatened to give Queen and country your top secret information instead of him.”
    “It wasn’t an idle threat. If the CIA won’t make good on their promises to my grandmother, then I’ll give the information to someone who will.”
    Truman stuck one hand in his pocket, ever so casual. “What’s up with your nan?”
    Anya plopped down, ignoring the pain in her side and mentally searching for some way to still save the day. She gotten his attention with the key, but she couldn’t tell him everything. Not yet. And the secret about her true identity and her past was already out.
    The only card she had left to play was the truth about Grams. “Ivanov kidnapped her from a hotel in Geneva two days ago. She was visiting a friend there. I came home from work to a cryptic message on my voice mail instructing to me to come to Moscow if I ever wanted to see her again. This all has to do, I think, with Ivanov’s obsession with royalty. If I refuse to attend the nuclear summit by his side, or refuse to go along with whatever charade he’s playing, he’ll kill her.”
    “And what happens if you do go along with it?”
    She wasn’t sure. All she could do was hope for the best. “He’ll let her go.”
    “I’m sorry.” Truman grew appropriately solemn. “I’m sure there’s a lot more to this story, but how exactly did you expect the CIA to help?”
    In the beginning, Anya had been looking through a microscope, examining her grandmother’s kidnapping from every angle and trying to figure out a way to get her safely back to America. After the initial meeting at the Kremlin with President Ivanov her perspective had changed. He’d paraded Anya around like a trophy, showed her the new lab he’d built for genetics, and made it clear he had some kind of plan for her. A plan for the next generation of Russians. Her microscope had morphed into a telescope.
    While Ivanov had avoided answering her endless questions, she’d kept her eyes and ears open. She’d overheard him talking with his prime minister behind closed doors. Heard him acknowledge his plans for the future of Russia. That’s when her focus had broadened. The rescue Anya had been planning could no longer be only about saving her grandmother. Now the safety and well-being of millions of people depended on her. Ivanov not only planned to build an arsenal of superior weapons to use against the world, but a race of superior Russians as well.
    Still, it was the thought of her grandmother dying that made Anya sick to her stomach. Her grandmother was all she had left. The two of them had been on their own for so long…
    Blinking back tears, she picked at a lint ball on the blanket. “She knows Solomon. Told me I could trust him if I ever had problems with the Russian government. As soon as she was kidnapped, I contacted him, and he told me to follow Ivanov’s orders, and get in touch with him when I figured out where Ivanov had stashed Grams. But I can’t find her. I’d hoped I could handle this on my own, but unfortunately, I have no idea how to take on a Russian president and get Grams back in one piece.”
    Without warning, Ryan burst through the door. All business as usual but with a slight strain in his voice. “Cops.”
    Truman straightened, his earlier casualness gone. “Ah, yes. We expected them to return.” He motioned at Anya in the blanket. “Where do you want her?”
    “Bunker.” In one swift movement, Ryan shucked his sweater and tossed it to Anya. “Put this on. Follow Truman. Stay quiet.”
    Ryan’s