Redemption Read Online Free

he leafed through the pages with the mild interest of a man studying a novel he has already read. It took Drake a moment or two to realise it was his own personnel dossier.
    ‘Let’s see … You joined the Parachute Regiment in ninety-seven before moving on to the SAS two years later. You did two tours in Afghanistan, the second with Fourteenth Special Operations Group as part of Operation Hydra,’ he noted with a flicker of interest.
    Drake felt himself tense up. There were only a handful of people in the world who even knew about Operation Hydra, and it seemed Cain was one of them. With director-level security clearance, it was only natural that he would have been briefed on it, but still his casual revelation caught Drake off guard. Just hearing the name spoken out loud was enough to elicit a chill of recognition.
    ‘You received two citations for bravery and a promotion to sergeant before you left,’ Cain went on. ‘You’ve been with the Agency four years now, and you have the highest success rate of any case officer in the past ten years. I’d call that a pretty decent record, Ryan.’
    Drake said nothing. There was more to his military record than Cain had mentioned, but the man had tactfully left it unsaid. It seemed he was out to mount a charm offensive instead.
    ‘Which is just as well, because we need someone with your talents.’ Cain set his dossier aside and slid a single photograph across the table to Drake. ‘Take a look.’
    Turning the photo around, he leaned in closer to study it. Drake’s eyes opened wide when he saw the face staring back at him.
    It was a woman. She was Caucasian, with a pale complexion and blue eyes. Her hair was light blonde, cut short and styled in a simple side parting that left a strand falling across her face. She wore no make-up.
    She didn’t need it.
    She was beautiful; strikingly beautiful in fact. Her mouth was full and rounded, her cheekbones high, her nose narrow and finely chiselled. Her straight, clean jaw-line tapered down to a firm, well-defined chin. The shape, symmetry and arrangement of her features combined in elegant harmony to create a face that was almost captivating in its perfection.
    Her age was difficult to tell, but there was something about her face that had lost the softer curves of youth and assumed the more definite lines of maturity.
    But what he noticed most of all were her eyes. Icy blue and vividly intense, they held his gaze and wouldn’t let go. Even in a photograph they seemed to stare right through him. Never in his life had he seen eyes like those.
    ‘This is the most recent picture we have,’ Cain explained. ‘It was taken about six years ago.’
    ‘Who is she?’ Drake asked, still staring at the picture.
    ‘Her true identity is highly classified, even for someone with your clearance. What I
can
tell you is that she’s a former paramilitary operative, working under the code name
Maras
. She worked black ops from the mid-eighties onward, then four years ago she went rogue and disappeared. In short, she’s a relic of the bad old days. But unfortunately, we need her.’
    Drake frowned. That wasn’t exactly a detailed biography. ‘Why?’
    ‘Times change,’ Cain said with a dismissive shrug. ‘Even relics can have their uses. We need you to find her and bring her in for debriefing. Now, the good news is that we know where she is. But that’s also the bad news.’
    With that, he reached into his folder and slid another picture Drake’s way.
    It was an overhead, probably taken from a surveillance satellite. The image quality wasn’t great, but it was sufficient to depict some kind of fortified facility surrounded by snow-covered wasteland. The building was a simple, uncompromising square enclosed by a high perimeter wall, with defensive towers at each corner and a large open space in the centre.
    It looked like a castle or fortress, and a formidable one at that.
    ‘Say hello to Khatyrgan Prison.’
    ‘I’ve never heard of