Redemption Read Online Free Page A

it,’ Drake admitted.
    Cain cocked an eyebrow. ‘Then you should consider yourself lucky. Most people who end up there don’t come back to tell any stories. It was built to house some of Russia’s most dangerous criminals – murderers, crime lords, terrorists, enemies of the state … You name it, there’s probably some guy there doing time for it.’
    That stopped him in his tracks. ‘Russia?’
    Cain nodded. ‘Siberia, to be exact. The Sakha Republic. It’s at least a hundred miles from anything resembling civilisation.’
    Drake was starting to get an uneasy feeling. Cain was suggesting they try to stage some kind of jailbreak in a sovereign country with the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.
    He looked up. ‘You’re serious about this, aren’t you?’
    Cain’s gaze didn’t waver for a second. ‘I’m afraid so.’
    ‘Can’t we cut a deal with the Russians?’
    By this, he meant bribery. A few million dollars went a long way in Russia these days, and it wasn’t as if the CIA was short of cash.
    Cain shook his head. ‘Not an option. She’s too valuable to them. And if we open negotiations, we’ll lose our window. Besides, we’re working to a tight schedule. Our only viable option in this case is direct intervention. It has to be done quickly, quietly and, most important of all, anonymously. The Russians get one sniff that the Agency was behind this, and we’re all in the shit.’
    It also meant that if the Shepherd team involved was caught or captured, they could expect no outside support.
    Now Drake was starting to understand why they wanted him on board. He was British, with no immediate connection to the CIA. He was an ideal choice for a job like this.
    Drake leaned back in his chair, taking several moments to digest everything he’d heard. He felt as if he’d just landed in some cheap spy novel.
    ‘So let me get this right,’ he said at last. ‘You want me to take a team deep into Russian sovereign territory, infiltrate a high-security prison, find and recover a prisoner whose name I don’t even know, then somehow escape with her and make it back to US soil without anyone finding out who was behind it?’
    ‘That’s about the size of it,’ Cain confirmed. ‘And time’s ticking, Ryan. We have three days. If we don’t have her back on US soil by then, it’s over.’
    Three days to plan and execute what might well be the most difficult and dangerous operation of his entire career.
    ‘That’s … quite an ambitious timetable.’
    To his surprise, Cain laughed. ‘I’m not the Pope, son. You can speak freely here. In fact, that’s exactly why we brought you in. I want an honest, no-bullshit assessment from you. Can it be done?’
    Drake said nothing. The problem with honest answers was that once given, they were impossible to retract. He’d been on his share of operations that were slapped together at the last minute, and they rarely left him with pleasant memories. And this was one job where there could be no margin for error.
    He glanced down at the photograph of the prison again, hesitating a moment before delivering his answer. ‘It’s possible.’
    Cain’s eyes lit up. ‘So you’ll do it?’
    ‘I didn’t say that, sir,’ Drake amended. ‘I said it’s possible in theory. But theories have a tendency to fall apart when you’re halfway around the world on a covert mission into hostile territory. And if this goes wrong, none of us will make it back alive.’
    ‘Risk is part of the job,’ Cain reminded him. ‘If you can’t handle that, it wouldn’t be hard to find someone who can.’
    The change that had come over the older man was startling. Without altering his posture or moving a muscle, his entire bearing had changed. He wasn’t the smiling, affable movie star who had welcomed Drake into the room a few minutes earlier. Now he was cold, ruthless , businesslike. He was a king on this particular chessboard, and he had no time for pawns like Drake unless