by Mike Ward
Stockholm, July 1994
Anatoly Kazikov looked at the young woman who had just been shown into his office. He wondered if she knew that at most she probably had only a few hours to live. She shouldn’t even be here. She should not be in his office and she should not have gotten this far. Kazikov was going to be nice, he intended to pump her for information and when he had that information he was going to have her killed. If she was just a fool who had talked her way into his office on a whim then her death would be simple and uncomplicated. If she was in any way a police plant or associated with the Stockholm police in any way then she would die a most horrible death. Two of his men stood guard outside the door. Kazikov had decided to see her on his own, firstly he didn’t think she was dangerous and secondly, in the unlikely event she was dangerous then his GRU training would easily allow him to get the better of her. Kazikov was wrong on the first count. The woman sitting patiently in front of him was dangerous, in fact in a world where time did not exist he would have been sitting opposite the most dangerous woman in the world. However, it would be another five to seven years before she reached her full potential. On the second count Kazikov was correct, his GRU training would allow him to take this woman if she chose to attack him but that was only because he was highly trained and had been first in most of his classes. It was time to start the questioning. He planned to start slowly and gently and once she began to contradict herself he would go in hard.
“Tell me why you are sitting in front of me?” he said in Swedish.
She surprised him by replying to him in fluent Russian. “I represent a business opportunity. You can make a lot of money out of me. You should listen very carefully and pay attention to everything I say.”
Kazikov sat back in his seat. This woman was certainly confident and assured. No doubt about that and yet she couldn’t be more than twenty-two years old. She had short blonde hair but Kazikov was certain she was wearing a wig. There were two ways he could deal with this, he could belittle this woman or he could assume she was here for a legitimate reason. Kazikov was highly intelligent and he did not have much of an ego. Therefore, he did not feel insulted by the way the young woman was talking to him. He was about to reply but the woman spoke first.
“I am well aware that should you so choose I will not leave this room alive. You may have already made this decision or you may make it as we talk but I would ask one thing.”
Kazikov kept his face impassive. She was exactly right in what she said. The chances of her leaving his office alive were limited. “What is the one thing you ask?” he said.
“I would ask that you listen to what I have to say. At the end of that you may decide to kill me or you may want to employ me. All I ask is that you listen to what I say.”
“Okay,” Kazikov said. “You have the floor. Tell me why you are here and I will listen to what you have to say.”
“Since the fall of communism the Russian mafia has proliferated throughout western Europe. Crime syndicates from other communist countries have entered western cities too but the Russian mafia is by far the most well organized and the most dangerous.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Your business is a blend between legitimate and non-legitimate. I am guessing an 80 / 20 split.”
She was close, the split was nearer 70 / 30. His non-legitimate interests helped keep his legitimate business afloat and contributed money for expansion. He had paid cash for his warehouse which was something he could never have done if his business had been solely legitimate. Unless she had something useful to give him she had just signed her own death warrant of course. The police probably suspected he was Russian mafia but they could not prove it. “Who gave you this information,” Kazikov said.
“I’m not going to tell you. Let’s just say I became his girlfriend and I tricked the information out of him. I did it because I was looking for someone like you although I did not know you existed before I began looking.”
Okay she was beginning to intrigue him. “What do you mean by that statement?”
“I mean that I was looking for a Russian in Stockholm who could connect me to the Russian mafia in Europe.”
“You are playing a very dangerous game and probably a very stupid one. Why the hell do you want to be connected to the Russian mafia in Europe?”
“I have noticed through reading the newspapers that the Russian mafia is responsible for quite a lot of deaths in Europe, especially in Italy. It is obvious from the way that most of the victims died that the Russian mafia is using professional executioners. However, it is also obvious that the Russian mafia has no female executioners.”
Instantly she had Kazikov’s attention. He saw where this was going and he also saw the potential in it. He saw now why she was here and he also saw why she needed him. She needed a Russian mafia connection. “So you want to kill men for the Russian mafia. How do you propose to do that?” Again she surprised him.
“Let’s do some role play.”
“What?”
“Let’s pretend you have just been targeted by the Russian mafia in Milan and I have been selected to execute you.”
“Go on,” Kazikov said.
“The price is $2,000. For that you get sex in any position you want and I also stay the night.”
“Okay, I see how that would get you into my house. Now what.”
“You spend the night with your hooker. Twenty minutes after you fall asleep I garrote you.”
“I’m a big man. As soon as you put the rope around my neck I will punch you or throw you off.”
“No you won’t because I will have my knee in your lower back and the garrote around your neck. Even a small woman can kill you if she gets in that position.”
She was right. Get your knee at the base of a man’s back and a garrote around their neck and they are screwed. Unless you make a mistake they will never throw you off. “Is that the only way you can execute a target or are you more versatile?” he said.
“I am a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and I have studied other eastern martial arts. I know how to kill a man that way too. If necessary, I can also pick up a stool and bash a man’s head in with that too.”
“Why do you want to do this?”
“I work in a menial job and I live in a small and crappy apartment. I do not want to wait ten years before I earn enough for a halfway decent apartment and I do not want to have to marry a man just to have a better standard of living.”
“Both good reasons but I do not exactly have women swarming to me asking to be professional executioners. What makes you different?”
“I have killed three men. All three have wronged me in some way. The thrill I got from killing them was exquisite.”
Something in her eyes gave Kazikov pause. “Do you believe you are fully sane?” he said.
“How many of us are really fully sane?” she said. “And yet many of us are able to function in normal society. To answer your question if I were ever to be locked in a mental home and then assessed they might never let me out again but I am able to function as a normal member of society. Is that a problem for you?”
It was not. Kazikov had already ascertained that this woman was a little different. She was obviously intelligent, he could tell that from her speech. The question was whether she was a weapon he could shape and use or was she just an idiot who had walked in off the street. A part of Kazikov’s mind was already tending towards the former option. His plans to kill her had already been shelved, for the moment at least but he might still have to kill her. “If I send you out to kill someone in another country how do I know you won’t panic at the wrong moment?”
“You are far more formidable than most of the men I will kill. I am wary of you and I know that I could die a horrible death at your hands but you do not scare me. I doubt that is the case with any other people who have been in danger from you.”
She was right with that comment. Kazikov had killed plenty of people in hi
s days in the GRU. He had never tortured anyone, that was not his style but if his bosses in Moscow had told him to eliminate someone he had followed orders. “What if I call my men in now and have you killed right now. Will you be so brave then?” he said.
She called his bluff. “Call your men in if you wish. I just ask one thing before they kill me?”
There was no fear in her eyes. This woman was cool as ice. “What do you ask before we kill you?”
“I ask that you put your face near mine so I can spit in your eye.” She looked him right in the eye as she said that.
Kazikov almost lost it at that point. He was within a hairsbreadth of calling his men in. His emotions said kill her but his mind took over. He slapped her once in the face. The slap was hard. Kazikov watched her reactions in astonishment. She had seen the slap coming and had begun pulling her face back and then changed her mind. Instead she put her face back in the path of his hand and took the blow on her cheek and then rolled with it. Although the sound of his slap echoed around the room he was not sure how much he had really hurt her. What did astonish him was how fast her reactions had been. He was still thinking about that when she slapped him. He didn’t even see the slap coming it was so fast. With a roar he leapt to his feet and turned the desk over. She was already on her feet dodging back. His desk missed her by inches. The door behind her burst open and his men shot into the room. One of them drew his gun. Kazikov silenced him with a look. He came round the desk and squared off against Lisa Molin. What happened next astonished both his men. For a start they had assumed Kazikov although still fit was slightly out of shape. They saw that he was not by the way he charged the girl. At the last minute they realized his charge was a feint and then he aimed a rain of blows at the girl. Some of them hit her but she blocked most of them and then she went on the attack herself. Kazikov was backed right up against the wall by the attack that was directed at him. All of a sudden he was fighting for his life. She broke through his defenses and a disabling blow came right at him that would have broken his cheekbone and quite possibly put bone fragments into his right eye. She pulled back at the last moment. Kazikov jerked back and was already on the attack only realizing that she had pulled back as his mind reviewed the situation. Then she was coming at him again and again. He blocked a rain of blows and only managed a few in return. She punched him in the liver but the blow stopped right as she connected. Kazikov knew that if she had not pulled back he would be lying on the floor in agony now. She attacked him again but she made a mistake and this time it was Kazikov’s turn to aim a disabling blow and then pull back at the last moment. She looked at him and smiled and then she stepped back and bowed. Kazikov bowed back automatically but his mind was in turmoil. If this girl had wished it he could have been lying on the floor dead or disabled right now but she had done it in such a way that his men did not even realize.
Kazikov smiled at her. “I am going to lock you in a secure room for twelve hours with food water and toilet facilities and then I am going to make some calls. If there is interest in what you have to offer then we will work out the details.”
The girl looked him in the eye. “And if there is no interest?” she said.
“Then you know what will happen,” he said.
She nodded but there was defiance in her eyes. She allowed them to lead her to a soundproofed room in the warehouse. The room was hidden and would not be noticed by anyone casually inspecting the warehouse. She was provided with food and water. The room contained bathroom facilities in one corner.
In his office Kazikov began to make phone calls to his contacts in the Russian mafia around Europe. He made eight calls over a period of three hours. He was astonished at the interest shown. It appeared that some of his colleagues had a list of very wary targets that they were having trouble getting to. At the end of that period he had one definite booking for the girl’s services and three more provisional bookings. Two other mafia bosses showed interest but wanted to see how the girl did on the first two or three hits.
When Kazikov and his men went down to the hidden room and opened it they found it was in darkness. The light bulb had been unscrewed. Kazikov signaled his men to pull back. He spoke into the darkness. “I have work for you but if you kill one of my men then I will kill you. Step out now.”
“If this is a trap you will all die.”
“You will have to take my word on that,” Kazikov said.
“If you are lying you will die first.”
The light bulb was screwed back in and Kazikov walked into the room. The bed and chair had been dismantled, broken down and turned into crude weapons. He looked at the girl in front of him and held out his hand. She took it. “You owe me for a bed and a chair,” he said. “I’ll take it out of your first pay check.”
For a moment she looked at him like she wanted to kill him and then Kazikov smiled and she hesitated a moment and then smiled back. Her smile lit up the room and it was at that moment Kazikov realized how dangerous she would be as a hired executioner.
End of excerpt from The Banker With a Face Full of Evil by Mike Ward – if you enjoyed this excerpt you can download the book from your favorite ebook retailer