Page 126 of The Spy
As it turned out, Jennings Tate wasn't lying. Gennifer Goode was in Corsica.
We took the whole team ready to do damage. Twenty agents to a little island nation.
We tried the house. She wasn't there. When we did locate her, she was in the last place I thought I'd find her. A cliffside cemetery.
It seemed that Tate had been wrong about one thing; Gennifer Goode's mother was already dead. On the island, Gennifer apparently enjoyed all her freedom. She didn't even think to watch out for us. It wasn't until she passed Saff kneeling at a gravesite that she hesitated.
She glanced around and started walking faster in the opposite direction.
In our coms, Saff said, "I've been made."
Gennifer ran. She was so busy looking behind her, she did not look in front of her. That was how she bumped directly into me.
Her reflexes were good though. She was quickly back on her feet and swinging.
I ducked her swing and managed to hit her once. Her head snapped back, and blood sputtered from her nose. She coughed and then screamed, "You fucking hit me."
"Now, to be fair, you tried to hit me first. You were just bad at it."
"Well, not all of us came from the gutter."
"I'm not from the gutter. I don't know what you heard."
"I know all about your past. Your sister has been telling me everything."
"Where the fuck is she?"
She laughed and put her hands up. "I'm not telling you. You will have to kill me first."
"Aw, Gennifer. Are we not going to be best friends after all?"
"You're beneath me.”
I laughed. "Wow, what a different song you're singing now. Can I ask you though, what was with all the kumbaya before? You seemed really hell-bent and determined on us being besties. Did you find out my actual bestie is cooler than you?"
"I don't want to be your friend. I needed information on Gabe. I never could quite discern if you two were fucking or not."
"Well, what did you come up with?"
"For some reason he was fascinated with you. Obsessed. I have no idea why. You’re basic. Average."
"If that's what you need to tell yourself. And just out of curiosity, why did you want me on this mission?"
"You were convenient. No attachments. And Gabe recruited you himself. I tried to get to his sister, but then she married Lachlan King, which affords her a series of protections. You are unprotected, so you made a nice easy target. Sorry, it's not personal."
"Oh, neither is this." And I hit her again. She tried to catch my hand and missed. She ended up with my knee in her gut. She keeled over, huffing and puffing.
"Why me? Why my sister?"
"You were always special to him, so I wanted to fuck with your life. Why you when he could have had me? After everything Rogues did to my family, he had the nerve to reject me? He was so hard to get to. You were always his partner, but I couldn't find any evidence of him fucking you. And honestly, he didn't show his hand until I put you undercover, but then he was just beside himself."
"Him being beside himself that one of his agents is on a bad mission is not a sign of anything, you daft cow."
"But it was an indication that he was likely involved, so that made it easy to fuck with him. Because you wouldn't tell him. It's your fatal flaw. You go at everything yourself. Your sister told me all about you when I visited her in Cape Town."
I frowned. "Kira wouldn't tell you anything."
"I do know tradecraft. I am MI5, after all."
