Cliff Ryder - Black Widow

"Who are you?" he asked in a soft, nonthreatening voice.

"I am Roza."

"That is a fine name."

She bowed her head. Upon closer inspection, Taburova doubted she was sixteen years old. In some ways, she was still a child. Dirt streaked the dark tangles of hair that hung below her headscarf. Sadness and defiance gleamed in her dark eyes. She was thin, but she had a figure.

"My mother's name was Roza," Taburova lied. "She was a fine, brave woman."

Roza nodded.

"Why do you wish to kill the Russians, Roza?"

"My husband was a soldier. He died fighting the Russians in March."

"You loved him?" Taburova was only mildly curious. Some families sold their girls as early as they could to rid themselves of daughters.

"I did." Pride hardened Roza's eyes. "He was a very fine man. A good man to me."

"Did he have no family for you to take shelter with?"

"No. His father and brother died in the same battle. Only his mother and I were left."

"She would not take you in?"

Roza pointed her chin at the dead woman. "She is there. She had no place to go, either."

Taburova stared at the young girl and knew the eyes of all the other women were on them. "Were you a good wife to your husband?"

"Yes."

"And you say you loved him."

"I will always love him."

"Then I will give you a way to honor his memory and once more be with him. Do you want that?"

Roza answered without hesitation. "Yes."

"Then come." Taburova turned to look at the other women. "If you want vengeance for everything that has been taken from you, if you want to strike back at our enemies, come with me."

None of them said anything, but they were all aware of the dead woman at their feet.

Taburova turned and headed down the hill to where Bislan waited. Roza stepped in behind him. He glanced at his men. "Shoot any of these women too cowardly to follow Roza."

"Yes, sir." The soldiers readied their weapons.

Taburova stole a glance to the side where he spotted the squat shadows left by the noonday sun. A row of shadows followed him out of the mountains.

London

"It appears I've made a mistake," Samantha said softly. She wore an earwig that connected her to Kate Cochran in New York through a heavily encrypted line.

"CardinalSin might not have been the best choice," Kate agreed. She was also logged on to the website, but Samantha didn't know what name she was using.

"Given the arena in which I'm to play," Samantha said, "I thought the name fitting."

Almost as soon as Samantha logged in to the chat room, a dozen invitations to go to a private area had popped up on the screen. She didn't know how she was supposed to tell which one was Ajza Manaev.

More invitations hammered the screen with text blocks.

The digital clock at the bottom of the monitor clicked over to ten o'clock.

Samantha scanned the names. All of them were offensive and suggestive. None looked like it belonged to Ajza Manaev.

C'mon, Samantha thought angrily. She couldn't believe she'd made the situation harder than it had to be. Some of the people who'd extended invitations became irritated and lashed out at her for ignoring them.

"Do you see her?" Samantha asked.

"No," Kate replied.

"Did anyone log on at ten?"

" Seventeen new names at ten. More are jumping in now."

"This is ridiculous," Samantha lamented.

"She's counting on the volume of users working for her," Kate said.

"Currently they're working against her. I'm not going to be able to tell when she tries to contact me because of all the other invitations."

"Then you're going to have to contact her," Kate said.

"That's bloody unlikely." Samantha swore in disgust. "I don't know who she is."

"You don't know what her name is in this chat room," Kate stated quietly. "But you know who she is. Give her a way to let you know who she is."

Samantha's fingers flew across the keyboard. She typed a general message — If you want to talk to me, tell me your brother's name.

* * *

Ajza stared at the entry by CardinalSin. As soon as she'd seen the name in the chat room, she'd known her contact would experience problems getting to her. She hadn't expected that.

The invitation quickly scrolled up. A dozen chat-room users quickly submitted names, either their own or whatever came to mind. One even offered to allow CardinalSin to name him or her whatever he or she wished.

Indecision twisted Ajza's stomach for a moment. She made herself breathe.

She typed in Ilyas and waited.

* * *

"I have her," Samantha told Kate.

"I see her," Kate said. "We're starting the trace at this end, but I don't expect she'll be on long enough for us to secure it."

Samantha silently agreed. She typed rapidly trying to entice the young woman into meeting with her.

* * *

Ajza refused the request for a meeting. She glanced at the time. Trevor would be working his magic by now. If everything went right, he'd know where the contact was coming from. However, he'd told her she could only spend minutes in the chat room before they were exposed. She was nearing that limit.

I thought maybe you'd be interested to know how your brother died.

Stunned, Ajza watched as the statement scrolled up toward the top of the chat box. Other users chimed in and started asking questions, wondering if their dialogue was some kind of role play and whether they could get in on it.

Ajza's prepaid cell phone vibrated. She knew it was Trevor because he was the only one she'd given the number to after she'd bought the phone in Leicester. However, given everything the mysterious people tracking her seemed to know, it was possible she wouldn't know the person on the other end of the call.

She scooped it up and answered it.

"Get out of there," Trevor said.

"What if they know how Ilyas died?" She knew Trevor was tracking the chat-room conversation.

"It could be a trick. They know you, Ajza. They know which buttons to push."

Ajza didn't say anything.

"You're exposed." Trevor strained to keep his voice calm. "I can't keep you safe if you don't follow my advice."

Was it about safety anymore? Ajza thought of the gaping hole Ilyas's death had left in her family. It was a wound that wouldn't heal. Could she pass up this opportunity? Even if it was bait in a trap?

"Ajza," Trevor pleaded.

She ignored him and typed rapidly. Where do you want to meet?

"You've got to get out of there," Trevor said. "For all you know, they could be right outside the door."

Paranoid, Ajza glanced at the door. At that moment it opened and two young men wearing T-shirts entered. She watched them.

"Ajza."

"Have you tracked the connection at the other end?" she asked.

"I've tracked it back to the United States."

That surprised Ajza. She hadn't expected the trail to go there.

"They've also got a big-time nasty computer system," Trevor said. "It's negating nearly everything I can throw at it, and I'm throwing the lot. I've tangled with very few sites as intricate as this."

"Government or corporate?" Ajza asked.

"I honestly couldn't say, love. But these bloody well sure aren't people you just muck about with for no reason."

"I've got a reason."

"Ajza," Trevor said. "I don't want to lose you, too."

"You won't." Ajza's eyes tracked the conversations, looking for further dialogue from CardinalSin.

A moment later CardinalSin wrote, Why don't you pick the place?

Ajza thought quickly, then typed, Jubilee Gardens. Near the memorial.

* * *

I'll be there.

How will I know you?

I'll know you. We'll talk about your brother.