The Woman In His War

the ones who shout. They are th

to Viktor Savino the

e pace he set. When he spoke people leaned in. When he paused, people waited. When he laughed, the room found something to laugh at too. Not from sycophancy but

he most important thing to un

themselves with someone who could make their lives considerably easier. He cared about the people around this table the way a man cares about the instruments in

velopment: the permits, the timeline, the particular councilman who was

" Viktor said, when

. Give him the subcommittee seat. He'll find his objections co

n nodded

d against his

onversation had found its own momentum, he excused himself with the ease of a man who has som

ward the edge

the m

ttempted contact three times.

ed its pleasant noise. Glassware, conversation and the low comfortable register

d one l

ut why

t with the same warmth and precision he had left it with, because Viktor Savino did not allow the contents of one message to alter the quality of his presence i

hecked h

so practiced it barely regist

oticed anyway. "Some

ed his eyes completely. "I'm simply making sure

with laughter befo

across his phone scre

warmth farewell that made people felt that the conversation had concluded rathe

man of few words and absolute discretion who had been with

or closed. The city m

his secu

por

esponsive." A pause. It was the

re, two blocks from the foundation building. The te

nothing fo

green to red. His driver stopped smoothly. The c

on event," Vi

ir. Th

as there

s s

ended t

ne Serena in Viktor Savino's world and there had only ever been one. He pressed call and held the p

r

mes. Fi

cem

rena Savino. Plea

t leave a

lled

he city slid past. Viktor sat completely still with the phone pre

mail

red the

f two years ago at the foundation's summer opening. She was laughing at something off camera with her hai

otograph of her. He ha

d mea

foundation build

the agreed destination for the evening. Simply changed course wit

r sat

ard of comportment he held himself to. What he felt instead was something he had not felt in a considerable number of years. It was a feeling of sligh

incapacitated. His dau

r once in his hand and

made a great many decisions over the course of his career and not all of them

no longer in a position

o

ut because it arrived with a specific quality of weight that the others did not carry. A name from a decision he had made quickly and clea

e had called

rre

graph of Serena on his pho

sed call one

. Once.

d ring some

Se

had been waiting for this call. Someone who had known it would come. Someone wh

sixty two years by being the first man to speak

Then the voice on the o

o, Vi

ne wen

ered the p

dark, its entrance empty, three black vehicles pulled away from the c

is hand rested against his leg, perfectly still

alculation had ju