"Are you sure you can do this?" Natasha Romanoff asked through her earpiece as she gathered the scattered travel-sized toiletries from the motel sink. "Isn't this an act of betrayal, V? Can the agents at the information processing center hear our conversation?"
"Don't call me that, Agent Romanoff. And this sort of cheap attempt at sowing discord is beneath you—save it for when the FBI is wiretapping you." Victoria Hand's tone was as stern as ever. "You know what I intend to do. No bullet and no phone call comes free. All I can assure you is that the CIA found you not because we leaked intelligence, but because you have always been a high-priority target of facial-recognition searches. Do you even know how large a bounty the Department of Homeland Security has put on you?"
"I can't hand my sisters over to you." Natasha Romanoff turned on the faucet, using the rushing water to interfere with the other end of the call. Cold droplets splashed against her neck, raising goosebumps across her skin. She knew it would have limited effect. After all, Victoria Hand's technicians could not only determine her precise location from the surrounding sounds during a conversation; nearby signal towers were also ideal tools for tracking her. Besides, Victoria Hand had let her leave the Sky Sword Space Station so easily because she was confident she could track her—there was a rumor in the Yugoslav Federation that Victoria Hand knew what a restaurant customer wanted to eat before they even ordered. Natasha Romanoff did not believe the behavioral-pattern assessment system she knew of was incapable of such a thing.
The water gradually warmed, condensing a thin layer of mist on the mirror above the sink.
"They didn't have conditions as good as those at City of Immortals