Someone was stroking my hair and saying my name. My real name.

“Nika…Nika…Veronika, it’s time to wake up…Nika…”

I opened my eyes and found Hans cradling my head in his lap. He smiled when I looked at him. “There you are!”

I started to sit up, and he put a hand on the middle of my chest. “Wait, please, liebchen. Let me tell you some things before you go berserk again, ja?”

I blinked, then said, “I’m listening.”

Hans sighed, “You really are very difficult, do you know that? Nika, as I promised, I want to work with you to find my sister’s killer, and I brought someone to help, who you just tried to attack. So, just lie here and be quiet while I explain a few things, okay?”

I stirred restlessly, then nodded, “Okay, talk.”

He shook his head. “The man I was about to introduce you to is Victor Reinhard. He is an old friend of mine, and I asked him to help me in the search for Miriam’s killers. We were friends as kids and went to school together. Now he handles, um, sensitive issues where discretion is required.

“Nika, he has access to resources we can only dream about. Will you at least talk to him?”

I thought about it and finally decided I really didn’t have much choice. My cover was blown – Hans and this person who was from the German government, I guess, now knew I was still alive. That would make it significantly harder for me to disappear again.

But if I listened, I could get a better grasp of the situation, and then decide if I wanted to disappear to continue my hunt – or whether I could actually work with Hans and his…friend. I nodded.

“Good.” Hans helped me up. “Why don’t you go clean yourself up, and I’ll get Victor.”

He opened the door of the adjoining suite and called to Victor. I went into the toilet and took some time cleaning up and calming myself. Before I went back into the room, I looked in the mirror and promised Miriam – again – to find her killer, no matter what. Then I opened the door and went back to meet Hans’ friend.

Hans and Reinhard were seated in chairs on each side of the sofa with a coffee table between them. Hans waved at the sofa, and I seated myself. This partly blocked me in, making it marginally harder for me to escape if that was what I decided to do.

Victor spoke first. “So, Hans, this is der Geist, the Ghost we’ve been chasing.”

Hans nodded. “As you know, I’ve been trying to find out who killed my sister. And all along the way, I kept finding signs that someone else was looking as well. I kept wondering who would do that. And the obvious answer, as I told you, was: Nika, Miriam’s wife.”

Victor picked up the narrative, looking at me. “But Nika was dead – wasn’t she? Yet, neither of us could shake the idea that it was Nika, so we started calling this person the Ghost … Nika’s ghost.

“Then the police in Amsterdam started getting occasional pieces of information about a gang working out of the strip club in Brussels, and some of the information related to Miriam’s death. When the gang was busted by the police, an enormous data dump was delivered to several police forces, which then found its way to us, with all kinds of details, many of them relating to Miriam. It drove the police wild because it was far more information than they had ever been able to collect on this bunch – and it was handed to them anonymously.

“So, we connected the dots – Miriam’s death, computer hacking, and strip clubs. It made perfect sense for it to be Nika. Except Nika was dead. Maybe.

“Then, whoever did the data dump vanished. Even, um, our people couldn’t trace who did it, yet I’m told they are pretty good at that sort of thing.” Victor looked hard at me.

I felt smug but tried to keep my face neutral. It wouldn’t help my case if I admitted to stealing data, even if it was from a criminal gang.

“We – or rather the police – interviewed your friend, Gregor, but he wasn’t very helpful. Of course, given his background, he had no reason to trust the police, so we chalked it up to that. But it was one more data point that tallied with the Ghost being Nika. So, we kept a watch on Gregor. We saw nothing, but we kept watch.”

Hans smiled and picked up the narrative. “Then you contacted me and told me you weren’t dead and wanted to join forces with me to search for Miriam’s killers. I knew I couldn’t keep it from Victor…

“Victor has access to, shall we say, unusual resources. There is no way I could be hunting hard for Miriam’s killers, calling on him to help with that and to confirm your death one day, then tell him never mind the next. He would never have believed me. So I decided to take him into my confidence about you.”

He stopped and looked at me. I continued trying to keep my face neutral, but he knew me too well. “If I had asked you to meet with Victor, Nika, you would have vanished again. I know you.”

I said nothing because he was right.

Victor turned to me, “So, Frau Wolf you are not dead. And I very much suspect you have information that we don’t about your wife’s murder.”

I shifted in my seat, tucking my legs up underneath me. It looked like a casual, relaxed position, but in truth, it would make it easier for me to spring over the table if I decided to escape. Then I looked Victor in the eye and said, “Are you going to arrest me?”

Victor smiled slightly, leaned back, and said, “Let’s leave that question aside for a moment. Why don’t you tell me what you know? I assure you, Frau Wolf, we will use whatever information you have to help track down your wife’s killers.”

I thought for a moment, then shrugged, and proceeded to tell Hans and Victor everything I had done and learned, except I left out the names of people who had been helpful along the way. That I refused to reveal.

Victor and Hans, but mostly Victor, interrupted with questions from time to time, but otherwise allowed me to complete my narrative before saying anything.

When I finished, I sighed, wiped my face, and stood up. “Where are you going to take me? Can I at least call Gregor, my father, and say goodbye? I don’t want him to worry.”

“Sit down, Frau Wolf. We may be able to come to an agreement that would, um, obviate the need for you to go to prison. Besides, I am not the police. I do not arrest people – although I can arrange for that if that is what you decide. There is a police inspector in the next room. Shall we call him? Or will you listen to another possibility?”

I sat down, puzzled. “What other possibility?”

Victor steepled his fingers. “Frau Wolf…”

“Call me Nika.”

Victor smiled, “Nika, then. Arresting you would be a terrible waste of talent.”

I gaped at him.

He chuckled. “Nika – I came here not because Hans asked me to, or even to help you catch your wife’s killers, although we will do that, perhaps together. No, I came here to evaluate you, and, if I thought appropriate, to recruit you.”

I wasn’t quite sure what to say and suspected that it was a trap to lull me into being passive. “Why would you want to recruit me? And for what? And why would I even consider accepting?”

He leaned back and his face got serious. “Nika…,” he paused as if thinking. “Nika, you can do things that other people in our…organization…cannot. To start, you are officially thought to be dead. You can cross the line between legal and illegal acts and go after people and objectives in ways that would get us fired…or jailed. You have demonstrated your ability to successfully penetrate seemingly impenetrable organizations and discover things that no one else has been able to uncover. You are a Ghost, yes, but you are also a Jägerin, a Huntress.

“Only now I’d like you to do your hunting for us. Or rather, for me. The rest of my organization doesn’t need to know about our…arrangement. As far as they will know, you will still be dead.

“And as your first assignment, we will finish what you started – taking down the organization that killed your wife. So, what do you say? Do you want to go to jail…or continue your hunt?”

He was talking fucking crazy talk, but I liked the sound of it. I thought about it for a moment, then said, “I have two questions.”

He nodded.

“Do I have to fuck you?”

He laughed, and nodded to Hans, “Hans said you would ask me that. No, I’m married to my work. You don’t have to fuck me.”

I smirked and stood up. “So, second question: when do I start?”

Victor and Hans both stood up, and Victor held out his hand. I took it.

“Right now.

“When you get back to Frankfurt, you will be contacted.  Keep your current job and your current relationships. Yes, we know about all of that now – once Hans told us you were in Frankfurt we had a pretty good idea of where to start looking. Until you’re contacted, stay safe, and be smart … but don’t forget, you’re on a leash now. Understand?”

Nodding, I realized that from then on, I would be leading a double life. The one in the light, the public life that everyone saw; and the real one in the shadows where I would continue my hunt.

I shook Victor’s hand formally, and said, “Ja, ich verstehe vollkommen. Du bist die Hand, ich bin das Messer.”

“Yes, I understand completely…

“You are the Hand, I am the Knife.”