Purgatory of the Innocents

On her unintentional final mission for MI6, Evelyn Cameron found herself trapped - legs broken; half-conscious; bleeding out; probably dying, in an abandoned dive bar, held hostage by a drug-addled maniac with a loaded gun; and no remaining way to send out a panic signal after she began to figure out that her first had been ignored. Until fellow agent Ramona Scordecchia-Barker intercedes...

Evelyn owed her life to that woman whom she met so briefly. But once all of that was said and done, they saw nothing of each other again.

Fast forward a year or two. Having settled in badly to her brand-new Hong Kong-based desk job, Evy finds herself once again in a situation of life-or-death...just not quite in the same way. Her captive best friend has just been signed over to a terrorist network to do as they wish with her, completely against Evelyn's will, in exchange for the return of five agents said network had in their custody. Evy had thought nothing of it, until the names of the released, tortured agents - of whom a mere three were still alive, and none of whom had any desirable quality of life remaining - were placed on her desk. Among them, Ramona Scordecchia-Barker...