by David Archer
“Yeah, I get it. You first?”
Noah nodded, then moved off to the left, angling slightly to the west, to position himself to see any activity south of the house. He paused, but when he could sense no one ahead of him, he signaled Moose to make his next move.
Moose ran a crooked path to his next position, and after a moment he signaled Noah to go ahead. Noah rose to his feet and ran quietly past Moose, then dropped to the ground and froze. Twenty yards ahead of him, a third man stood leaning against a tree, his back to Noah.
Noah could see the man's left shoulder and hip, but he didn’t have a clear shot. He glanced over his shoulder at Moose, but the big man’s view of the target was no better. Noah rose silently to his feet again, letting the Uzi hang from the shoulder as he extended the pistol ahead of himself, and walked carefully and quietly toward the security guard.
He had gotten within ten feet of the man when a slight crunch under his feet caused the fellow to turn and look in his direction. Noah squeezed his trigger once, and the man's eyes and nose seemed to blow out the back of his head. He dropped like a stone where he stood, and probably hadn't even had time to realize that he was about to die.
Still standing, Noah looked around and knew that there was no one else in the woods but himself and Moose. He signaled Moose to join him, and began moving toward the house.
The limo was still in the driveway, and the driver was standing beside it. There was unfortunately no way that they could get to the door without being seen by the driver, so Noah pointed at the man and nodded to Moose. A few seconds later, the driver fell prone beside the car, his brain splattered across its windshield.
They burst forward, running straight to the back door of the house, where Noah paused to try the knob. To his surprise, it turned easily, and he yanked the door open and rushed inside with Moose right behind him. The kitchen and living room seemed to be one big common area, and Noah saw several people gathered there. Selah Habib, Jeremy Pendergrast and another man were gathered together in the center of the room, while a woman pointed a camera at them, but two other men were holding MP5s, which they began to raise toward the intruders. Noah fired twice, and both of their heads disintegrated. The girl began to scream, and the woman with the camera simply froze, staring at Noah and Moose with her eyes wide and her mouth open.
“What the hell is this?” Pendergrast demanded, being sure not to show any recognition of the invaders. “Do you have any idea who…”
Noah turned his pistol toward Pendergrast and fired once. The bullet cut a groove along the left side of the man's head and he fell without another word, his eyes rolling back into his head as he lost consciousness. The woman holding the camera finally screamed as Noah grabbed her hair and shoved her into a chair, and the remaining young man simply stood beside Selah, looking calmly and coldly into Noah's eyes as she, whimpering, tried to hide behind him.
“We've come for the girl,” Noah said to him. “You don't have to die, but it's your call.”
“Vasily?” Selah said. “Don't let them take me, I want to stay with you!”
Vasily continued to stare into Noah's eyes, but he spoke over his shoulder to Selah. “I have no choice, my dear,” he said with a distinct Russian accent. “If I try to resist or keep you, he will simply kill me, and take you anyway.” He turned his face back toward Noah. “You work for her father?”
Noah smiled coldly. “You wouldn't even want to know who I work for,” he said. “Just take it as a given that most people don't survive a meeting with me. You can be the exception, and all you have to do is sit down and be quiet.”
Vasily smiled back. “I won't resist you,” he said. “I will tell you this, however—this will not be the last time we meet.”
“For your sake, Vasily, you better hope it is. Next time, you might not have the option of living through it.”
The young man winked at him. “I suppose we shall have to see how things turn out, then, won't we? Perhaps I shall surprise you.”
“Not a good idea,” Noah said. “I'm not fond of surprises. Now sit, and be very quiet.”
Vasily moved to the side and sat on the sofa, while Selah began to cry. He looked at her. “Compose yourself,” he said. “I have no doubt these men are simply taking you back to your father, and that you'll be safe. We shall have to make—other arrangements, so that we can be together again. Go with them quietly, and just wait for me. I will be in touch soon.”
Moose stepped forward and grabbed Selah by the arm, dragging her toward the back door. Noah kept Vasily covered, walking backward as he did so, and waited until Moose had taken the girl outside before he stopped and looked at the Russian boy again.
“Sometimes, I change my mind at the last minute.” He squeezed the trigger, and a third eye appeared in the center of Vasily's forehead. The woman who had been taking the pictures began to scream once more, and Noah put a bullet into the back of the chair, just missing her, as he turned and sprinted out the back.
The Land Rover slid to a stop at the end of the driveway, and Moose shoved the girl into the back seat, then got in beside her. Noah ran and jumped into the front passenger seat, and Sarah shoved the big car into gear and dumped the clutch. Gravel flew as the car leaped forward, and she maneuvered her way through various streets of the town, making her back to the highway.
“Did anyone get a look at the car?” Sarah asked.
Noah shook his head. “The only one who could have would have been too scared to try. I think we're in the clear, for at least the next twenty minutes or so. Let's get on the highway and head back to Moscow, and I doubt anyone will bother us.”
“Vasily will come for me,” Selah said. “He will come for me, and he is a man who knows how to handle criminals like you!”
“Oh, shut up, bitch,” Sarah said. “Just shut up!”
“Selah, did you know that the Russians are claiming they kidnapped you?” Noah asked. “Did you know that they claimed they were holding you against your will, and threatened to kill you and chop you up if your father did not do what they want him to do?”
Selah stared at him. “That is a lie,” she said. “Vasily and I are going to be married, and there is nothing my father can do to stop it. He is telling you lies to make you come and find me, but Vasily will come for me again.”
Noah shrugged. “That might be a little difficult,” he said, and then he leaned his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes. “Wake me up when we get close to Moscow, okay?”
“Sure,” Sarah said, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. She watched him for a second, then turned her eyes back to the road.
The drive was uneventful, but Sarah decided to take a slightly different route back to the airport, anyway. The path took her through part of Moscow, and she was amazed at just how much greenery she saw. It seemed that almost every block of the city had its own small piece of forest, despite the urban sprawl that threatened to displace it all. Even areas of the city that were obviously commercial or industrial seemed to be almost overgrown with trees. Many of the signs were in both Russian and English, and she saw some pointing toward the Kremlin, Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square.
Noah was awake, and pointed at the signs indicating those landmarks. “Wish we had time,” he said. “Architecture always fascinates me.”
Sarah smiled. “Maybe you can bring me back on vacation, someday.”
“Like any of us are gonna live long enough to have a vacation,” Moose mumbled. “I'm half surprised we're still alive, right now.”
Selah, who had been leaning against the window on her side, said, “You won't be for long, not when Vasily finds you.”
Noah turned in his seat to look at her. “So, you're not the little innocent you're hoping to make us believe you are.”
The girl looked at him, trying to look confused. “What? I only know that Vasily can get very, very angry. He will not be happy by the time he finds you.”
“No, that's not what you said a minut
e ago. You implied that you knew Vasily would kill us if he caught us, so that tells me that you know exactly what kind of man he was. Since you knew that, then I have to figure you knew exactly how you were being used to pressure your father into this political mess, right?”
“I know nothing about that, as I told you. I don't know if Vasily would truly kill you or not, but I know that he will be angry enough to do so.”
“I seriously doubt it,” Noah said. “It's pretty hard to be angry when your brains are blown out.”
Sarah gasped and looked at Noah, and Selah stared at him in shock.
“You are lying,” Selah said. “You would not dare to kill him, you would not dare to risk…”
“You listen to me, little girl; my orders were to find you, bring you back and kill everyone responsible for you being taken. At this point, Vasily is the only one I can find that could be held responsible, so putting a bullet through his head just sort of made me feel good. He's dead, bank on it. What I want to know is what it is you think I wouldn't dare risk.”
“You are a liar!” Selah screamed at him. “Vasily is alive, he's alive, I know it! If you had killed him, you would never get out of here alive! No one would ever willingly anger Nicolaich Andropov!”
Noah cocked his head at her. “And who is Nicolaich Andropov? What makes you think I'd be afraid of him?”
Some part of Selah seemed to be reaching the point of believing that Vasily was dead, because she leaned back against her seat and let her eyes close, her head resting against the window as tears streamed down her cheeks. “He is a director of SVR,” she said slowly, “a man who decides who lives and who dies, and he is Vasily's father. If you have killed Vasily, then you have ordered your own deaths. It will not matter who you are, or who you work for. He will never stop until he has seen you dead. Nicolaich will never stop.”
Selah ran down, and Noah turned to face forward again. They were nearing the airport, so he took out his phone and called Larry Carson.
“Larry, it's Alexander Colson. We got our package, you got the plane all warmed up?”
“Great guns, am I glad to hear from you! We've got SVR crawling all over this airport, and from what I understand, every other airport is just as busy! Word is, they're looking for a group of five men, possibly Israeli, who killed several people down in Kubinka and made off with some sort of political asset. Since I know you were headed for Kubinka, I just can't help wondering if this mess might be connected to you.”
“I'd say it's pretty much a certainty,” Noah said. “What's this going to do to us getting on the plane?”
“Well, you're not Israelis, but you're not Russians, either. The SVR has roadblocks set up at every entrance and exit to this airport; they're checking everybody coming in or out. If they recognize your package, or get suspicious because you don't speak the local lingo, there is a pretty good chance they're never going to let you get near that plane.”
“Is there any kind of back way in, that will get us close to the plane?”
“I don't know of any,” Larry said. “How far out are you?”
Noah glanced over at Sarah and repeated the question. “About three minutes, we're on the E105,” she said.
“About three minutes on the E105. Any suggestions?”
“Yeah, turn around and go back towards Moscow, just past the loop. Go to the parking lot of the Nescafe Imax theater, and I'll have someone meet you there. He'll take all the weapons from you, and give you something to help keep that package quiet. Stuff it into the compartment under the back seat, and then my buddy there will give you some things to prove you've just been cruising around Moscow for the last couple of hours. We've already modified some flight records to make it appear that you were just here on a layover, on the way to Hong Kong, and he will also give you tickets that would get you on the next flight.”
“Wait a minute, what happened to the Gulfstream?” Noah asked.
“I've still got it waiting, but we have to get you inside the airport safely. The SVR has checkpoints set up on all the roads leading in and out, but once you get inside the grounds, here, then we can divert you over to the diplomatic gate. Just come all the way up to the terminal, as if you're dropping someone off, and I'll be waiting for you.”
Noah ended the call, then told Sarah to turn the Land Rover around. He punched the Nescafe IMAX theater into his phone's GPS and handed it to her. “That's where we have to go,” he said. “Larry's got somebody waiting there for us.”
The pretty blonde shook her head, but took the next opportunity to turn the car around and began following the phone's spoken directions. Eight minutes later, she pulled up into the parking lot and stopped. Another car whipped in beside them only a few seconds later, and a young man jumped out of it as Noah stepped out of the Rover.
“Mister Colson? I'm Harold Frank, I work with Larry Carson at the embassy. I've got some things for you, and I understand you have some things for me.”
Moose shoved Selah off the seat and lifted it up, then began passing the guns out to Noah, who loaded them into the trunk of Harold's car. The girl didn't protest, and almost seemed to be catatonic, until Moose tried to push her down into the storage compartment. Then she objected, but Harold leaned in through the open door. In his hand, he held a hypodermic syringe, the needle of which he jabbed into the girl's thigh. She squealed, and tried to kick at him, but only a few seconds later she suddenly relaxed and seemed to drift off into a deep sleep. Moose arranged her in the storage compartment as comfortably as he could, then put the seat down over her and sat on it again.
“Larry said he thought that might come in handy, so I brought it along,” Harold said. “I've also got some other things for you.” He handed Noah some paperwork, which included three tickets on a connecting flight to Hong Kong, a rental agreement on the Land Rover, a large stack of tourist brochures from popular tourist attractions in the city, a digital camera that was chock full of photos of many Russian buildings, bags from a Russian carryout restaurant and three large cups from Starbucks that still had residual latte in the bottoms. “Make sure whoever stops you sees all the trash, and be sure to be enthusiastic about all the things you saw while you were here. Apparently the witnesses to what happened are confused about how many people were involved, but they both seem to agree that they were Israelis. That's who the roadblocks are looking for, so they probably won't even look you over very hard.” He nodded toward the back seat. “She's going to be out cold for about thirty minutes, which should be plenty of time to get you past the checkpoints. Still, you don't want to waste moments, so you better get going. Best of luck!”
Harold got back into his car and drove away quickly, while Noah slid back into the passenger seat of the Land Rover. “You heard the man, let's get moving. We need to be catching up with Larry before she wakes up.”
NINE
They fell into line for the checkpoint, which was luckily not very long. Only a few moments later, it was their turn as two gruff Russian agents shoved their faces in through the front windows. One of them spoke in Russian, but Noah shook his head.
“Sorry, we don't speak Russian, just English. What's going on?”
The agent rolled his eyes. “We are looking for some criminals who may be trying to get out of the country,” he said. “Please show me your passports and identifications.”
All three of them handed over their passports and ID, and Noah made a point of showing the agent their connecting flight tickets. “Is this going to take very long, sir?” Noah asked. “Were supposed to go back through security pretty soon, our next flight leaves in about an hour.”
The two Russian agents glanced through the passports and at the tickets, and then looked around the interior of the vehicle. There were food bags on the front seat between Noah and Sarah, and another in the floorboard of the backseat. Sarah had a stack of brochures on the seat beside her leg, and there were coffee cups in the cup holders.
The agents passed the paperwork back to Noah, an
d stepped back as they waved the Land Rover through. Both of them looked somewhat disgusted at the “American tourists,” but they said nothing. Sarah drove forward, and a moment later they spotted Larry standing in front of the terminal.
Larry slid into the back seat beside Moose as they stopped for him, and gave Sarah directions toward the diplomatic gate. “I was starting to worry,” he said. “I take it everything went all right at the checkpoint?”
Moose shrugged and grinned. “I got the impression that the guys looking us over don't care for tourists, but other than that it went fine.”
Larry smiled. “That's pretty normal, for those guys.” He patted the seat. “And your package is safe in here?”
“Yep,” Moose said. “Your buddy's sleepy juice helped a lot.”
“Good, good. Okay, turn in through that gate up there on the left, then follow the yellow line on the tarmac. That's the plane, right over there.” He pointed at a Gulfstream that was waiting beside a large hangar. “Pull in between the plane and the hangar building, and we should be able to get the girl out and onto the plane without anyone seeing.”
Sarah parked where she was told to, and Moose waited until Larry slid out, then lifted up the seat. He reached in and grabbed Selah by her shoulders, pulled her up and out and tossed her over his own shoulder, then walked straight up the stairs into the plane. Sarah and Noah grabbed the carry-on bags from the back of the Land Rover, and followed a moment later.
Larry waved as Noah stepped inside the plane, then slid into the driver's seat of the Land Rover and drove away. A man in a copilot's uniform closed the door and then walked into the cockpit area, as a young woman dressed as a flight attendant did her best to ignore the fact that one of her passengers had obviously been drugged.
Moose had parked himself in the seat beside Selah's, while Sarah and Noah took another pair, facing backward toward them. The flight attendant checked to see that they were all buckled into their seat belts, then stepped into the cockpit for a moment. A few seconds later, she came back out and took her own seat, as the engines started up.