Slingshot

by Matthew Dunn

  As well as being a showman, Talisman was a pompous ass.

  He was already thirty minutes into the meeting, sitting cross-legged in a chair facing her, occasionally glancing at his manicured fingernails or checking that his bow tie was horizontal.

  She moved to the sea-facing side of the cabin and gestured to a bench containing a half bottle of vodka and two tumblers, while trying not to yawn as Talisman was telling her that he’d discovered a fine restaurant in Moscow where all the staff were only permitted to speak in French.

  Something caught her eye as she casually looked out of the window while unscrewing the bottle.

  Movement in the sea.

  Men.

  Seven of them expertly emerged from the sea in scuba gear, dumping some of their equipment on the thin beach, and moved silently on foot toward the log cabins while keeping their SIG Sauer handguns at eye level.

  Spinning around, she barked, “Shut up! We’re compromised!”

  Talisman’s face went ashen. “What?”

  “Compromised! We’ve got seconds!”

  Talisman jumped to his feet and looked around, confusion all over his face. He walked quickly to Ellie, glanced out the window, grabbed Ellie’s arms, and spoke fast and loud. “Listen to me! Trust no one. There’s a mole in the CIA. Works for the Russians. And he’s sitting at the very top!”

  Will’s heart and brain were racing as he spoke into his throat mic. “I’m looking at a man who’s supposed to be dead.”

  “Who is he?”

  “High-ranking SVR officer. Code name Antaeus. I killed him three years ago.”

  “Means nothing to me.”

  Will kept the crosshairs of his scope on Antaeus’s head, placed his finger on the trigger, and made ready to put a bullet into the brain of a man who’d consistently outwitted the West’s attempts to counter his actions; a man Will had spent years hunting, an individual who’d thwarted every attempt to neutralize him, a brilliant spymaster who was one of the Russia’s most influential and powerful men. Until Will had finally managed to track him down three years ago and detonated a bomb under the car that Antaeus was driving in a Moscow suburb.

  Will pulled back on the trigger.

  Then stopped as he heard the unmistakable sound of pistol fire near the log cabins.

  Antaeus smiled as he watched his Russian team approach the log cabins. He removed a small rectangular box from his jacket and withdrew from it a cheroot cigar, which he lit with a gold Zippo lighter. The doctors had told him that he mustn’t smoke anymore, and for the most part he followed their instructions. But there were moments when a smoke made complete sense. Doctors didn’t understand that; spies did, and now was one such moment. He inhaled the rich tobacco and blew out a long stream of smoke, the volume of which was accentuated by the icy air. As he did so, four of his men kicked in the doors to the two smaller buildings and entered; the remaining three operatives forced entry into the larger cabin.

  Then he heard two shots.

  Though he’d permitted his men to shoot to wound their targets if necessary, the SVR spymaster wondered if the CIA officer had made the shots the moment she’d seen men burst into the cabin, or whether her Russian agent had done so. Still, if two of his men were now dead, it wouldn’t change anything. His other men would easily overpower the American woman and her asset. They’d dispose of their colleagues’ bodies in the sea, but even if they were later discovered, that wouldn’t matter, as Antaeus had instructed his men to use CIA SOG equipment and carry documentation showing they were residents of Virginia.

  He tapped ash from his cigar, raised an old telescope to his good eye, and waited.

  Will pointed his sniper rifle at the cabins and the ground around them. Two shots had been fired, but there were no signs of any assailants. He knew there could be only one possible explanation: men had assaulted the cabins from the one blind spot he had—the sea. Had he been complacent? He had considered the possibility that an assault on the meeting could take place from the coast, though had decided that at this time of year it would be done so with boats that would be easily visible to him from his position on the mountainside. Plus, he thought that no one in their right mind would swim in the icy waters to the coastline where the cabins sat. And yet, he of all people knew that Special Forces could operate in Arctic waters all year round. Yes, he had been complacent.

  As a result, he’d probably failed a routine assignment that he’d believed was beneath someone of his capabilities. “Shots have been fired. Don’t know what’s going on. But I’ll make sure Antaeus and his men don’t leave here.”

  “Negative.” The analyst sounded unsettled.

  “What?”

  “Repeat, negative. You have no authority to proceed.”

  Will couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I can do what I like.”

  The analyst sounded on the verge of panic. “I’ve checked our system. Don’t know what it means but the instructions are clear. It says, Antaeus must not be touched. Further inquiries require Project Ferryman clearance. My search on the system must have been flagged, because I just had a call from the duty officer asking me what’s going on. I told him. He told me to pull the plug. You’re under orders to withdraw.”

  “No way.”

  “Your orders are clear. Get out of there.”

  “No fucking way!”

  “I . . .” The analyst was breathing fast. “I . . . the DO told me it would be a breach of category one Agency protocols if you proceed. Please . . .”

  Men emerged from the smaller cabins and a moment later the rest of them came out of the larger building. Two of them were dragging Talisman, and it looked as though he’d been injured. The others were gripping Ellie’s arms and walking her to a clearing in front of the cabins. They stopped. The Russian was forced onto his knees and winced in pain as one of the men yanked his hair back to lift his head. Ellie was pushed to the ground next to her asset, and a man placed a boot on her back to keep her still. The men looked toward the distance. Will urgently swung his rifle toward Antaeus’s position. He was still there, calmly smoking his cigar.

  What was happening?

  Antaeus was motionless for a moment. Then he lifted his stick high in the air.

  Of course.

  Antaeus had told his men that the he needed to be sure the Russian was the man he was after.

  If he was, he’d give them a signal to proceed.

  By lifting his stick.

  “It’s an execution!” Will swung his weapon back at the man holding a pistol against the Russian. But he was too late. Two bullets were fired into the back of Talisman’s head. His killer released his grip on the dead spy and let him slump face first toward the ground.

  “Our asset’s dead.” Will gripped his gun tightly as he saw the man who was pinning Ellie to the ground lean forward, yank up her head, and look in the direction of Antaeus.

  Will darted a look at Antaeus.

  The spymaster was raising his stick.

  Will trained his gun back on the man who was now lifting his gun toward Ellie’s head.

  “You’re under orders to withdraw. If you don’t, you’ll be—”

  “Enough!” Will pulled his trigger, and his bullet sliced through the Russian operative’s eye and exited through the back of his head.

  The remaining six operatives immediately sprang into action, five of them dashing for cover while one of them coolly remained still and raised his gun to complete Antaeus’s orders to kill the CIA woman. Will’s chest shot made that man flip backward. When he was on the ground, a second round smashed through his skull.

  Ellie was crawling forward, staying low to give Will sight of her captors. But she was still an easy target for them. Will got onto one knee, fired five rounds at the areas of cover the Russians were using to remain hidden from his sniper rifle, ran fifty yards farther along the mountainside, got onto his knee again, and looked through his scope. The different angle put three of the men in his sightline. He took a deep
breath, half exhaled, held his breath, and fired three shots in three seconds. Each bullet hit its target; the three men were dead.

  He ran again, desperately hoping that the remaining two operatives could no longer see Ellie, then stopped and examined the area around the cabins. It was no good. The men were staying out of sight, and Will knew why: they stood no chance while Will was out of the limited range of their handguns; their best hope lay in forcing him to come nearer to them, to a distance where close-quarter pistols would be far more effective than a rifle.

  Ellie was still inching away from the clearing in front of the cabins. No doubt she was waiting for the moment one or both of the men broke cover and shot her in the back. Will had to get to her, and fast, but while the men were still hiding there was one thing he had to do first. Kill Antaeus.

  He pointed his gun at the area where Antaeus had been sitting.

  The spymaster was no longer there.

  Will urgently scoured the distant mountainside for signs of the Russian.

  Nothing.

  He silently cursed.

  After fixing a fresh magazine into his rifle, he ran down the escarpment toward the buildings, leaping over clumps of heath that were renowned for twisting or breaking hikers’ ankles, hearing the gentle whoosh of the sea grow louder as it eased back and forth over the seaweed-strewn coastline’s pebble-and-sand beach, the rich and salty air causing his nose to sting and his lungs to feel that they had acid inside them as he sucked in the brutal air to fuel his exertions.

  The cabins were now five hundred yards away, still too distant for the men to pose any threat to him. He slowed down as the incline lessened and he was confronted by round white rocks as high as his waist, haphazardly scattered on the heath as if dropped there from the heavens by playful child gods. Moving at a walking pace between them, he removed the weapon’s scope and raised his rifle to eye level, using the fore and rear sights to try to spot the men.

  Nothing.

  Then he sensed movement to his right, and he flinched, crouched, twisted, and readied his gun. But it was only a white-tailed eagle, launching itself off the ground with a small writhing rodent in its beak. As the bird rose higher, it was able to glide with only the occasional flap of its majestic wings. Will recalled watching a similar bird of prey circling high above him in a remote part of Russia, while he was putting a brave, dead colleague’s entrails back into his body.

  He wondered why that memory had come to him now, of all times.

  Was he about to die?

  Maybe. On this routine operation. One that he’d believed was beneath him. What an idiot he’d been.

  The CIA analyst spoke again, something about him having to surrender to CIA custody because he’d disobeyed orders, but her words barely registered. He turned off his radio and moved beyond the boulders onto flatter land.

  He felt each step was drawing him closer to death.

  He could see Ellie clearly now with his naked eye. She’d stopped crawling and was staring at Will with a calm expression. Most people in a similar situation would have bolted from the scene in fear. And they’d have been killed in doing so. But Ellie was very different; she knew exactly what she was doing.

  Remain motionless.

  Put her faith in Will.

  Only attempt to escape if Will failed.

  Will was two hundred yards away from the cabins. Though it would take a very lucky shot to hit him at this distance, his breathing was fast, and his temples throbbed.

  And as he moved farther forward, he kept asking himself, Are you sure you paid that council tax bill? Really sure? Because if you haven’t, you’ll be summoned to court and will be fined a hefty sum that will preclude you buying anything by Hans Dagobert Bruger. He didn’t know why this thought was in his head, but did know that thinking about it was far preferable to thinking about getting to within range of two men who’d kill him without hesitation or remorse.

  One hundred yards.

  Kill range for an expert shot holding a handgun.

  God, was he facing such men? He was. Antaeus only surrounded himself with excellence, so the two men before him were no doubt expert operatives.

  He walked toward Ellie, his gun moving left and right to cover the two areas beyond her where he thought the operatives were hiding—small grass-covered mounds that were fifteen yards in front of the largest timber cabin, places where at any moment two men could break cover and put bullets in his heart and brain. He’d never thought he would die in a beautiful place. Instead, he’d always believed it would be in a dingy hotel room, a war zone, or a Third World gutter.

  He made a decision. If he died here, his soul would stay nearby, drifting along the rugged coastline and fantasizing about casting a line into one of the rivers as the Atlantic salmon made their run. It was a lonely place, yet stunning. He would be at peace here.

  When he reached Ellie, he crouched beside her while keeping his gun fixed on the mounds. Her drawn face was covered in grime, though her eyes were glistening and focused. He made ready to move on, but she grabbed his arm and yanked down on his jacket.

  She whispered, “Got a spare handgun?”

  Will shook his head.

  To his surprise, Ellie smiled, winked, and said, “Then there’s a lot resting on you being able to do your job.” Her expression turned resolute. “Good luck.”

  Will moved toward the cabins.

  The Russian SVR operative glanced at his colleague twenty yards to his left and nodded to indicate that he was ready. He didn’t need to make the gesture, as both men had served together in numerous Special Forces and intelligence combat situations to the extent that they could read each other’s thoughts in situations like this. They could operate anywhere—land, sea, air, rural, urban—but excelled in the places that could break an otherwise tough man. Though rugged and cold, this place was a walk in the park compared to the weeks-long training exercises and operations they’d done in Siberia and the Arctic Circle.

  And it would be a pleasure and a mere formality to deal with the man coming toward them. Though the Russian knew snipers could be useful, he felt nothing but contempt for them. Killing a man from a distance was an easy thing to do; it was not until you’d experienced putting your hands around a man’s throat and watching his eyes nearly pop out, or wrenching a knife upward in his belly while smelling his breath as you held the back of his head close to yours, or seeing a flash of fear in his eyes as you walked quickly toward him and made two shots into his chest, that you really understood what it took to extinguish a human life. Snipers rarely got their hands dirty. They didn’t understand close-quarter combat.

  The Russian and his colleague did.

  He heard footsteps.

  Now the footsteps were faster, the noise of them growing louder.

  The sniper was coming for them.

  The Russian raised three fingers to his colleague, then two, then one.

  They broke cover from behind the mounds, their pistols raised toward the encroaching sniper.

  But he wasn’t there.

  The Russian stopped and held his handgun before him, twitching it left and right to search for the sniper. Where had he gone? Movement from near the cabins to his left. He changed stance, pointing his gun in that direction, and for half a second saw his colleague being dragged backward while still upright, his feet desperately trying to keep up with the rest of his body because a big hand was on his throat, and another had two fingers in his colleague’s nostrils. The rest of the sniper was obscured. His colleague was being used as a shield. The Russian had no clear shot before they disappeared into the largest cabin.

  That’s where the sniper had run to, and where he’d emerged from to attack their flank when they broke cover.

  The Russian operative dashed to the buildings, entered the cabin, and saw his colleague on the ground, his neck at an odd angle and clearly broken.

  He felt an almighty punch to his chest.

  Another punch struck him on the jaw.

/>   A hand slapped him in the throat.

  A knee smashed into his ribs. His hand was grabbed, twisted so that his arm muscles were in a lock and were weak, and he was forced to the floor and held there in a viselike grip. He knew what was coming next.

  Will Cochrane’s boot slammed with brutal force into his throat and held him there as his legs thrashed and his life was crushed out of his body.

  Before he died, the Russian’s last thought was that he’d totally underestimated his assailant.

  THREE

  Standing in the same spot where Will Cochrane had momentarily crouched beside her, Ellie Hallowes watched the tall officer emerge from the cabin holding one of the Russians’ pistols.

  He stopped and stared at the five men who’d died outside of the buildings. Ellie thought he looked haunted by what he’d done. That surprised her, because she’d met enough paramilitary men to know that they were totally focused while doing a job and acted like overexcited kids when the job was done. This man was clearly different.

  He tucked the pistol under his belt, knelt beside Talisman, rummaged through the dead spy’s pockets, and removed his wallet and ID documentation, which he secreted in his jacket. She frowned as she watched him take off her asset’s overcoat. It was the same one that Talisman always wore when he met Ellie during the winter months—knee-length, expensive, Royal Navy blue, hand-tailored in Savile Row by an émigré called Štìpán. Will held it by the shoulder pads, moved to her side, and put the coat on her.

  He lowered his head.

  “What happened in there?” she asked.

  Will looked up, but didn’t answer. His greenish blue eyes were bloodshot but nevertheless shinning and alert. He was, she decided, a handsome man.

  She lit a cigarette and stuck it in the corner of her mouth. “I’ll recommend that you get a commendation.” Her cell phone rang. The number was withheld, though she knew it was the Agency calling because only it had this number. As she raised it to her ear, she thought she saw the tiniest smile on Will’s face.