I, Spy? (Sophie Green Mysteries, No. 1) (Sophie Green Mystery)

inside was coming outside and I heard Alexa’s voice say, “…Hope the little bugger hasn’t got himself shot. He’s a bit too cute to—”
    And then she stopped, because she saw me, and she reached for a gun and so did Wright, and I aimed mine. And for a few seconds we all aimed at each other, hardly breathing.
    “How theatrical,” Alexa said. “You do see the dilemma, don’t you, Sophie? I always thought you were quite bright, contrary to appearances.”
    I looked between them. Dilemma? My whole freaking life was a dilemma. I was kneeling there with two people aiming guns at me. And I only had one gun. Which I didn’t know how to use.
    “I can only shoot one of you,” I said.
    “Leaving the other to kill you. Unless we both shoot you at the same time.” She glanced at Wright, who nodded eagerly.
    “Making the body count one-four-seven,” I said. If they thought Maria was still alive, they might shoot her again. “A whole planeful of people. All those children. Do you have something against schools, Lex?”
    She laughed. “I was a goddess at school.”
    “When did you get the wheelchair?”
    She cocked her head. “When I was discharged from the SAS because I’d never walk again. When they never checked properly. Clearly, their diagnosis was wrong.”
    “But you never told anyone?”
    “I never needed to. People never correct a disabled person. People never check their work. People never suggest they might be wrong, because that would be politically incorrect.”
    Jesus. So that was why One had never checked her files? Because he was afraid of upsetting her?
    Or because he was crap with computers? Talk about a tin-pot operation.
    “I checked your work,” I said boldly. I was still crouched by Maria and my legs were starting to cramp. “I found the deleted files. You killed Chris Mansfield.”
    “Wrong place, wrong time,” she shrugged. “I hear he went down there to screw his girlfriend. Speaking of which, how are you getting on with Luke?”
    “He’s not my girlfriend.”
    She laughed. “You’re funny. I always liked that about you. Shame—” she slid back something on her gun, and I panicked, because I didn’t know if I’d have to do the same, “—I’m going to have to kill you.”
    “Luke will know,” I said quickly, my voice rising. “He’ll find me and Maria. He’ll match up the bullets. He’ll know you killed One—”
    “Sven killed One,” Alexa dismissed.
    “And I killed Sven,” I said clearly, gladly.
    Wright raised his gun. “You—” He fired a shot, and then all was chaos. Wright’s bullet pinged off the hut behind me. I raised my gun to shoot him but there was another shot, someone had got there first. Wright slumped face down in the mud and Alexa, her gun still trained on me, flicked her head over to the direction the bullet had come from.
    Then, so fast I hardly saw her move, she’d swung the gun around and shot the shooter. Macbeth. I saw him fall to the ground. He made a heavy thud.
    Really panicking now, I pushed myself upright, tears in my eyes, and shot at Alexa. But a cramp made me stumble and I fired off-target, missing her body but hitting her hands.
    Her gun fell to the floor and she clutched at her right hand.
    “You fucking bitch,” she cried. “What was that for?”
    I stared at her.
    “Oh. Right. Oh, come on, he was expendable anyway. Like you. Not a proper agent.”
    Bitch .
    “You’d be surprised how fast I’m learning,” I said.
    “I tried to put you off. I thought you would quit easier.”
    “The fingers?”
    “They were gross.” Alexa managed a smile, although I could see tears on her face. “Weren’t they gross?”
    “Some of them were mouldy,” I said.
    “You see? A normal person would be put off by mouldy fingers.”
    “A normal person wouldn’t get hired by a government special operation.”
    “Oh, he only hired you because he wanted to shag you.”
    My finger tightened on the trigger. “Were you Wright’s partner?”
    She dropped to her knees, still cradling her bleeding hand. “Why do you care?”
    “You had all those people killed!”
    “Oh, that. Had to bring down share prices somehow.”
    “Why? He’s been skimming. He’s loaded!”
    “He’s been skimming?” Alexa shot Wright’s body a contemptuous look. “Stupid fuck. He never spent a cent, did you know that? He was such a cheapskate, all the time.”
    “He wanted the airline cheap?”
    “Wanted to get everything cheap. First Ace, then