Read Tsar Wars: Agents of ISIS, Book 1 for Free Online

this.” He held up his artificial left hand. “But you’ll
never find a more loyal, more devoted, more patriotic group of
people than our company. Any secrets your father and I have between
us is safe with them. I stake my life on that.”
    He grinned. “Besides, if I didn’t tell them
they’d invent stories even more lurid. That would only have made
the situation worse.”
    Lady Hasina didn’t seem entirely convinced,
but her expression remained neutral. Apparently she had a lot of
practice at that.
    “Be that as it may,” she said, “I didn’t come
here to discuss past assignments. My father needs you now, and I
still don’t know what these two have to do with it.”
    “Your father wants the young agents Mikkel
and I were twenty years ago,” Avram said with a sigh. “I’ve tried
to keep myself in shape and I’m pretty good for a man my age, but
….” He let his voice trail off as he patted his stomach, then
continued, “Mikkel’s in better shape than I am, but he’s not up to
this, either. This is a young person’s game. You need young people
to play it.”
    Judah was getting excited. After listening to
all his father’s stories, after reading all the Ilya Uzi books over
and over, was there a chance he’d be offered a secret mission of
his own? His heart started racing. He looked over at Eva, but she
was keeping her face as neutral as Lady Hasina’s.
    The dvoryanka pulled a small device out of
her pocket. “I’ll have to discuss this with my father,” she
said.
    Judah’s eyes went wide. “Is that a Q-line?
I’ve heard about them, but never seen one. I guess knyazya can
afford things like that.”
    “Particularly knyazya who used to be
Commissar of the Imperial Special Information Service,” Eva said
dryly. “Why didn’t your father come himself? We’d have given him
the best seats.”
    “His movements are always watched,” Hasina
explained. “Even though I’m known as his personal assistant, I have
a lot more freedom.” She turned to Avram. “Is there someplace
secure around here?”
    “You can use my office,” the older man said.
“Nobody bugs a road manager’s office on the random chance a spy
might wander in and say something secret. I’d say the entire
backstage was pretty secure, but there might just be an
entertainment reporter hanging about, looking for a story.”
    He rose and gestured for Eva to do the same.
“The kinder and I will leave you alone until you need us.”
He shooed Judah and Eva out before him, then closed the door to
leave the dvoryanka her privacy.
    Judah looked around to make sure no one else
was within earshot. “What’s the story? Do they need people for a
secret mission?”
    “ Nu , if they did, would you be
interested?”
    “You bet!” Judah said enthusiastically.
    “Even if it meant leaving the Ville?”
    Judah hesitated just a fraction of a second.
“If the security of the Empire’s at stake,” he said, “that might be
more important than the show. If you and Mama could do it—”
    The older man turned to his niece. He knew
his son’s interest in the subject—how he’d always hung on every
word of Avram’s and Mikkel’s stories about protecting the Empire,
how he devoured spy novels and quoted them at length. But Eva was a
question mark. While Judah’d lost his mother on that one terrible
mission, she’d lost both her parents and had been
inconsolable for months. Then, without warning, she’d broken out of
the depression and become the exuberant extrovert she was today. He
wondered how much of her wild, almost reckless, behavior was in
reaction to that traumatic event.
    “And you, Eveleh?” he asked her. “How would
you feel about it?”
    “Has the knyaz been put back in charge of
ISIS?” she asked, avoiding a direct answer.
    “She didn’t say, but I don’t think so.”
    “Then how can he hand out top-secret
assignments?”
    “Nkosi’s a patriot,” Avram said gently. “He
doesn’t need an official title to care