Trial by Fire

by Trial by Fire (retail) (epub)

  Stevie shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Not like I had someplace better to be. Anyway, how you feeling now?’

  ‘Like shit,’ Keira said honestly. Her head was pounding, her muscles aching, yet oddly she felt better than before. At least she no longer felt a bone-aching cold inside.

  ‘I’d call that an improvement.’ Stevie held out a plastic bottle of water, liberated from a convenience store last week. ‘Here, drink.’

  Keira drained the whole lot in moments, along with a second. By the time she was finished, she was already starting to feel better.

  With a start she then remembered the pin-prick in her arm during her illness, and looked down at the discarded medicine box on the floor, along with a batch of disposable hypodermic needles.

  She glanced at her friend again. ‘Where did you get that stuff?’

  Stevie glanced away. ‘Got some people who hooked me up. No big deal.’

  Keira knew her well enough to tell when she was lying. Something had happened that night she went out; something she didn’t want to talk about. And that realisation stirred a sense of fear and apprehension in her.

  ‘Bullshit. What did you do, Stevie?’

  But before she could question her friend further, the building echoed with the resounding crash of a door being battered open, followed by running footsteps and raised voices.

  ‘Chicago PD! Don’t move!’

  * * *

  Frost gasped in shock as freezing water was thrown over her, soaking her clothes, bringing her mind violently back into awareness. The cloth hood placed over her head now stuck cloyingly to her face, sucking in closer every time she inhaled. She shook her head from side to side, trying to rid herself of it, but it wouldn’t budge.

  Then mercifully it was yanked off her head, allowing bright electric light to flood in. She blinked and flinched away from it, struggling to focus on her surroundings. It was a wasted effort. Illumination came courtesy of a pair of portable work lights focussed directly on her, leaving anything beyond their arc of light bathed in darkness. The only thing she could see was a simple wooden chair placed directly opposite her.

  Presumably she was still in the factory as she didn’t remember being moved far, though it was hard to tell in the dazed state she had been left in after the stun grenade went off. She remembered the sudden explosion of light, the feeling of falling, the distant impression of an impact. Spots of light still lingered in her eyes; a reminder of the incandescent flash that had temporarily blinded her, allowing her enemies to close in and apprehend her.

  Her jacket and webbing were gone, leaving her in just a T-shirt and trousers, her hands bound tight to the chair she was sitting on. In mounting panic, she strained against the bonds, twisting and yanking her hands in a vain effort to break free. The knots only seemed to grow tighter through her exertions, cutting into her wrists.

  She had failed, she knew now. Failed to escape, failed to follow orders, failed to rescue Drake and Mason. In her haste to get to them, she had walked right into the same trap that had ensnared them.

  She started at the metallic clang of a door opening behind her, rusty hinges creaking, and felt her pulse accelerate as boots paced toward her across the dirty floor.

  Frost’s heart sank the moment that the new arrival sauntered into view. As she saw the distinctive narrow face, the sharp features and the dark hair with its widow’s peak, she began to understand the full magnitude of their folly tonight.

  ‘Flashback,’ she said, practically spitting the name in disgust.

  He chuckled at that. ‘No need for formalities now. We are all friends here. You may call me Yuri.’

  It had all been a ruse, she realised now. Flashback had never been captured or compromised by their enemies. He had been working against the Agency the whole time.

  ‘Where’s my team?’ she demanded, fully aware that she was in no position to make demands of this man.

  Flashback settled himself down on the chair opposite so that he could look at her. ‘If I told you they were alive, would you believe me?’

  ‘Not without proof,’ she fired back, using defiance to mask her grief at the loss of her companions. Regardless of her personal feelings toward them, they were still her team, and now they were gone. And she was alone.

  His grin broadened, so out of place on such a stern face. ‘Smart girl. And brave. You killed two of my men tonight.’

  She managed to force a fierce, defiant smile in return. ‘I’d have killed a lot more if you hadn’t ambushed me like pussies.’

  ‘Ha!’ he cried, both impressed and amused. ‘If I had more like you in my group, this operation would have gone far more smoothly.’

  ‘What about Kourisov? Where is he?’ she asked, wondering if the man’s apparent ally would make an appearance as well.

  But Flashback merely shook his head. ‘You may be smart, but still you act stupid. Kourisov died two years ago; drank himself into his grave. Your people have been chasing a ghost.’

  Frost couldn’t believe how comprehensively this man had deceived them. He had set himself up as an informer against a man who no longer existed, keeping the Agency occupied on a fruitless hunt while he went about his own insidious work.

  ‘So you’re the one smuggling weapons into Ukraine?’

  Flashback exhaled slowly. A teacher having to contend with a particularly slow student. ‘I have no interest in weapons smuggling, there are far easier ways to bring a country to its knees.’

  He stood up then, circled around her and picked up the portable work light that was facing her, turning it away so that its beam illuminated their surroundings properly for the first time.

  Frost let out an involuntary gasp of shock as she took in the rows of ancient control panels, the grimy old dials and gauges that had lain inactive for twenty years. Unlike the decaying city they had passed through, this place was old, dry and preserved as some dusty museum exhibit. Frost knew immediately where they were. She thought of that massive steel and concrete sarcophagus encompassing the ruined reactor building number four, and knew that she was now inside it.

  Blank terror rose up within her like a wave, and instinctively she tried to fight free of her restraints again, desperate to flee this place. Desperate to escape the radioactive tomb in which she had been imprisoned.

  ‘This is where it all began,’ Flashback remarked thoughtfully, running his hand lightly across the nearest control panel. ‘I sometimes wonder what was going through those men’s minds in the moments after the explosion, whether they truly understood the disaster they had created.’

  ‘Why are we here?’ she asked, her voice wavering. She could almost imagine the panicked operators frantically working those consoles, fighting to control the reactor that was no longer obeying their commands.

  Flashback turned back toward her. ‘The Chernobyl disaster helped break the Soviet Union apart 20 years ago. A second disaster just might bring it back together again.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘As we speak, my men are planting demolition charges at key structural points around the shell that covers this place. When they detonate, the sarcophagus will collapse, destroying the remains of the reactor building beneath. The fallout released in the collapse will be even worse than the first accident. The Ukrainian government will be unable to contain it.’

  Frost felt like she was about to throw up. What he was proposing could kill and injure thousands, if not tens of thousands of people. It could irradiate half of Europe.

  ‘You’re fucking insane.’

  ‘Insane?’ he repeated, amused. ‘No, I am a patriot. When the puppet regime in Kiev falls, the Ukrainian people will turn to Russia for aid. And we will be there waiting to help them. We will reunite our two countries, and soon others will follow. We will right the injustices that broke our Union apart.’

  ‘Why the hell would they turn to Russia?’ Frost asked, hoping to appeal to his common sense if not his humanity. ‘Use your head. It’ll just pus
h them closer to the West.’

  ‘No, girl. It won’t. Not when they realise the West was responsible for the disaster.’

  She could feel the bile rising in her throat as it began to dawn on her that they had kept her alive for a reason. They had allowed Frost and her team to make it this far so they could ambush them, could take them prisoner. They wanted scapegoats.

  Seeing her expression of horror, Flashback guessed she’d figured out what he wanted from her.

  ‘Here is my offer. You will go on record, identifying yourself as a CIA operative sent into this country to sabotage the sarcophagus, creating a disaster that would force Ukraine to accept American aid. Do this, and you will live. I’ll see to it that you are handed over to the Russian authorities. There will be a trial, and prison time of course, but we can make it comfortable for you. And eventually you will be returned to your homeland once the international situation has calmed down.’

  Once you’ve annexed an entire country, you mean, Frost thought to herself. She saw well enough what they would use her for; the international power play she’d be complicit in. It wouldn’t matter that her ‘confession’ had been extracted under pain of death. People would believe what they wanted to believe, and Russian state-controlled media would make sure they saw only what they needed to see.

  ‘And if I refuse?’

  ‘If you refuse…’ He glanced around. ‘Well, I am sure they explained to you the effects of radiation on the human body before you came here. It really is quite a terrible way to go. The men working in this room the night of the accident took weeks to die, lying on their hospital beds like living skeletons, burned and rotting from the inside.’

  She knew what he was threatening her with. He wasn’t going to kill her, because he didn’t need to. All he had to do was leave her here when the bombs went off, and the radioactive fallout would do the rest. But as he’d just said, such a death would be neither quick nor painless. She’d always told herself she could handle being killed in the line of duty if it came down to it, but could she really endure days or weeks of suffering before the end finally came? Did she really have to?

  Plenty of prisoners had broken under torture or duress in the past, given their captors enough to satisfy them. Why could she not do the same? There was no shame in it. It wasn’t as if some pussy civilian on the street was going to judge her for her actions, when they knew what she’d faced.

  Sensing that she was wavering, Flashback took a step closer, reached out and gently moved a loose lock of hair back from her face. ‘A pretty young woman like you, with her whole life still to live…’ he said, his voice frighteningly soft and persuasive now. ‘It would be a shame to end your days like that. Why throw away your future for a country that doesn’t give a shit about you? What will you gain by dying for them?’

  She could feel her eyes stinging as she turned her face downward, and for the first time was glad of the freezing water that had been thrown over her. At least now this bastard couldn’t see the tears forming.

  ‘I am offering you a way out,’ Flashback carried on in that same gentle, persuasive tone. A reasonable man trying to show mercy to one who didn’t deserve it. ‘You have been brave, you have done your duty, but there is nothing left except living or dying. Give me what I want, and one day this will all be nothing but a memory. That is not so bad, is it?’

  She looked up at him then, saw his expression of understanding, of acceptance. He wasn’t gloating or exulting in his triumph, because the matter was a foregone conclusion. He knew she was going to give him what he wanted, so that she could live. Even if countless others died.

  She drew back her head and spat at him with every ounce of venom and hatred she could muster.

  ‘I’m dead, no matter what I do,’ she snarled, falling back on anger as she’d done so many times before. It was her shield, her armour. ‘So go fuck yourself, asshole. Because I’m not giving you shit.’

  She saw a fleeting look of disappointment on his face mingled with something else. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought it might be respect.

  ‘I have to say, you are brave, little girl. Not very smart, but brave. A shame – we could have used people like you.’ He shook his head. ‘Still, I respect courage. Maybe you deserve a quick death after all.’

  Frost forced a laugh, hard and brittle. ‘The less I have to listen to your bullshit, the better.’

  Stepping back, he folded his arms and looked at her for a second or two, before finally giving a curt nod.

  Frost heard more footsteps on the floor behind her, and took a final breath as the hood was thrown back over her head and darkness enveloped her world once more.

  Chapter 16

  Stevie reacted almost instantly.

  ‘Go! Go!’ the older girl yelled, hauling Keira to her feet and sprinting for the door, shoving it open and charging out into the service alleyway outside.

  Left with no option but to follow, Keira stumbled after her, struggling to make her tired and aching muscles obey her commands. Adrenaline and sheer terror were going some way toward aiding her efforts.

  ‘How did they find us?’ she asked breathlessly as they turned a corner, their boots splashing through freezing puddles.

  ‘Doesn’t matter now,’ Stevie replied, her voice pained and heavy. She was supposed to be leading, but already her pace was slowing. ‘Just keep moving!’

  Up ahead, their way was blocked by a high chain-link fence. Keira went first. Already light and slender at the best of times, she’d lost weight during her illness, allowing Stevie to boost her up and over the fence.

  She landed awkwardly on the other side, managing to scramble to her feet.

  ‘Come on, hurry!’ she called out, knowing Stevie possessed the kind of agility and upper body strength that would make a circus acrobat jealous. A fence like this presented little obstacle for her.

  To her shock, however, her friend didn’t try to leap and clamber over the fence. Instead she swayed unsteadily on her feet, before her legs gave way beneath her and she collapsed to the ground.

  ‘Stevie! Stevie, get up!’

  The older girl looked over at her with a pained, saddened expression.

  ‘What’s wrong? Come on, you can do this! Jump over!’

  Stevie’s coat had fallen open when she fell, allowing Keira to see the bloodstained bandage wrapped around her right side. She let out a gasp of shock and grief as the pieces fell into place, she realised why Stevie had been so tired and pained when Keira awoke. Somehow her friend had taken that injury stealing the medicine for her, and had done her best to patch herself up while fighting to save Keira’s life.

  ‘Stevie, please get up!’ she implored her.

  With great effort, the young woman rose to her feet and staggered over to the fence, clutching at it for support. Keira pressed in close, her face just inches from her friend’s.

  ‘You’ve got to jump,’ she begged. ‘You have to get over this. You can do it, I know you can.’

  Stevie shook her head. ‘It’s okay, Keira,’ she said, her voice heavy and rasping. ‘It’s okay. I’m gonna stay here a while.’

  ‘No! You fucking bitch, you’re not leaving me!’ Keira yelled, hammering at the fence in her frustration. She didn’t even notice the tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘Please.’

  Reaching up, the girl touched her hand through the chain links, wrapping her fingers around Keira’s. ‘I never told you why I let you in that night,’ she whispered. ‘It was me. I was the fish, I was the one who’d just run away. I was scared and alone, and I needed someone. I lied to you, Keira. I’m sorry.’

  ‘I don’t care,’ Keira managed to say. ‘I don’t care about any of it.’

  Shouts were echoing from around the corner. Men’s voices, loud and booming. Police closing in on their target. They had only seconds left.

  ‘Do me a favour,’ Stevie said, staring right into Keira’s eyes. ‘Be better than this, better than me. Don’t waste your chance. Promise me.’r />
  ‘Stevie…’

  ‘Promise!’ she pleaded.

  Choking back a sob, Keira nodded. ‘I promise.’

  Satisfied, Stevie managed a faint but heartfelt smile. ‘You’ll be okay. I know you will.’

  Before Keira could reply, the young woman had let go of her hand, turned away and retreated back down the alley, rounding the corner where police officers were already closing in. She could hear their voices shouting at her to put her hands up and get down on the ground.

  It was the last time Keira would ever see her.

  * * *

  Noise.

  Noise and jolting movement.

  The smell of petrol and old leather and cigarette smoke. The feel of rough carpet against her cheek. The pressure of plastic cuffs biting into the flesh of her wrists.

  With her head covered by a thick, soaking-wet fabric hood, she was unable to see and struggled to process any information beyond simple physical sensations.

  Frost was lying in the rear passenger footwell of a vehicle; almost certainly one of the 4x4s she had encountered earlier in the night. It seemed like a lifetime ago now.

  She raised her head up to look around, and was promptly rewarded with a boot pressed firmly into her shoulder that drove her down against the floor again.

  ‘You stay down,’ a gruff voice warned.

  Another man mumbled something in Russian under his breath, followed by an amused chuckle from his companion. There were at least two of them in the vehicle, their feet resting on her prone body as if she were a piece of hastily stowed luggage. At least it was warm in here – the heaters were going full blast, surrounding her with blissfully hot air.

  With a final shuddering lurch, the 4x4 halted. The rough growl of the engine ceased a moment later. One of her captors grunted, opened his door and jumped out. Cold air rushed in straightaway, and she could feel dry powdery snow pelting her exposed skin.