4
Tatyana breathed in the cool air. It was so much fresher here. Only February and the taste of spring was already on the air. Kyiv would still be wrapped in winter into April. DC also didn’t have the heavy air pollution of Ukraine’s capital. Instead, here the air tasted as if winter had never quite happened and crocuses were already nodding bright flowers above green grass.
Her choice to walk into DC’s core, despite the embassy lying over two miles out, bothered Lieutenant Tibbets—he tried three times to direct her to one of the pair of black SUVs parked at the curb. She didn’t care. Besides, his dog appeared to enjoy it as he took the lead, sniffing right and left as he went. Between the dog’s aggressive attitude and the Belgian FN P90 submachine gun dangling across Carlton’s chest, th
