She kept her back to him and said, ‘Gustav or Marius?’
She waited.
‘Both.’ It was Gustav’s voice.
She turned her head and looked over her right shoulder. Gustav and Marius were standing behind the counter, both pointing their pistols at her. She turned to face them, keeping her hands by her sides, and her pistol pointing at the floor.
They held their arms outstretched and their guns trained on her.
‘Where is your boyfriend?’ Gustav asked.
‘Don’t you know?’ Natasha answered.
‘I wouldn’t be asking if I did. I left the basement while my men were spraying bullets at both of you. I didn’t expect either of you to make it out of there alive.’
Natasha saw an opportunity to deceive them. If they thought Mason was dead they wouldn’t worry about anyone creeping up on them. ‘Well, one of us did.’
Gustav nodded. ‘Shame about your boyfriend. He had balls of steel the way he confronted me and my men.’
‘All we wanted was the girls. As you know by now, Katerina is my sister.’
Gustav smirked. ‘And she’s just as beautiful as you. My offer still stands. Join me and your sister goes free.’
He was lying. Toying with her. She just sensed it.
Her best chance was to remain strong in Gustav’s eyes. ‘Are you serious? After everything that’s happened, you expect me to join you?’
‘It’s your best option.’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Move that gun an inch towards us and we’ll blow you away.’
She knew she couldn’t out shoot them and doubted she would get a chance to fire even one shot before they shot her dead. So she needed to play for time. Mason should have reached Gustav’s office by now and would soon be heading this way. She had to keep their attention.
She laughed.
‘What’s funny?’
‘If you hadn’t planned on killing my sister I might well have been tempted to join you.’
Gustav sniggered. ‘Do you expect me to believe that? I was right when I said you were looking for more. I just didn’t know it was your sister. You are a good actor, I’ll give you that.’
‘Maybe it wasn’t all acting. Think back to when we were alone in your office, just before we were interrupted by one of your men. Don’t you remember what I was about to do?’
Gustav studied her for a moment. ‘Were you really going to go through with it?’
‘My mouth was open. What do you think I was going to do?’
Marius looked sideways at Gustav. ‘Is she saying what I think she’s saying?’
Gustav gave Marius a quick glance and nodded. Then he looked back at Natasha. ‘For all I know you were going to bite it off.’
Natasha grinned. ‘Tempting as it may have been, I was not going to do that.’
Gustav glanced at Marius who was almost salivating, no doubt as he pictured the scene in his mind. Then he looked back at Natasha. ‘Prove it.’
Natasha’s stomach flipped over and her heart missed a beat. She knew exactly what Gustav meant but she played dumb, wasting precious more seconds. ‘How?’
‘Blow Marius.’
She glanced behind her at the girls then turned back to Gustav. ‘Let the girls go and I will.’
Gustav shook his head. ‘The kids stay where they are. If they don’t already know the facts of life they soon will.’
Natasha gritted her teeth and glanced past Gustav to the door from the corridor. Where the hell are you, Mason?
Gustav stared at Natasha. ‘Time’s up. Make a decision and make it fast.’
Natasha paused a moment. Another few seconds passed by. ‘Put the girls in another room and I’ll do anything you want. If not, you may as well shoot me right now.’
She was gambling. She could see the excitement on Marius’s face and guessed he would be happy to grant her request. And she guessed that Gustav wouldn’t forgo the chance to humiliate her by killing her before she satisfied them. After all, they thought Mason was dead, so what harm could it do to lock the girls in another room. Then they could take their time with her.
Gustav studied her, clearly trying to decide what to do.
More seconds ticked by.
He nodded. ‘Okay. You can have it your way on one condition, and it is not negotiable.’
‘What condition?’
‘You drop the gun and kick it over here.’
In keeping with her plan to waste time, allowing Mason to reach them, she hesitated before answering.
Gustav had allowed his gun to drift down slightly but her hesitation must have frustrated him. He raised it up and aimed it at her head.
She had squeezed every possible second from the situation and was almost certainly seconds away from death if she didn’t agree.
She nodded, then dropped her pistol onto the floor and using her right foot, she kicked it through the gap in the counter and towards the men.
Gustav looked at Marius. ‘Pick it up, then take the girls to my office.’
Marius frowned. ‘But what about …?’
Gustav interrupted him. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get your turn. But you didn’t think I was going second, did you?’
Marius seemed to relax now that he realised he wouldn’t miss out. ‘No problem, Boss.’ He shoved his gun into his waistband, scooped up the pistol, and beckoned the girls over to him. ‘All right, kids, follow me.’
Natasha turned around and gave both girls a reassuring smile. ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.’ She turned back to Gustav. ‘One more thing.’
‘What now?’
‘I need your word that they won’t be touched.’
Marius answered. ‘I’m not into kids. I just transport them and sell them.’
Gustav looked at Natasha. ‘Good enough?’
She didn’t believe Marius but had no choice. She just had to hope that Mason would get there soon and deal with Gustav.
She nodded, then felt Katerina nudge her in the small of her back. She turned slightly and Katerina pushed something into the palm of her hand and wrapped Natasha’s fingers around the object. It was tubular and had a plasticky feel to it. She manipulated it up and down in her hand until she identified the object by touch. It was a syringe with a needle attached. Katerina must have brought it with her from the operating theatre. It had to be the syringe containing the paralysing drug they were intending to inject into Katerina before the surgery.
She looked down at her sister.
Katerina looked up at her and winked, then she took Jessica’s hand and walked over to Marius. He led them out of the reception into the corridor and away, leaving Natasha alone with Gustav.
Gustav watched them leave then beckoned Natasha to him.
She had one more request. ‘I will, but believe it or not, guns make me nervous. Please, put yours down.’
Gustav narrowed his eyes as he studied her.
‘Please, Gustav. I’m unarmed. You are twice my size. What are you afraid of?’
Gustav hesitated a moment, then reached up and placed his pistol on the highest shelf of an open bookcase near him. He walked through the opening in the counter, stood in the middle of the foyer, and pointed to the floor in front of him. ‘Now, let us resume where we left off in my office.’
43
MASON
Four minutes earlier...
Mason made his way down the long corridor, around two corners, and along to Gustav’s office making sure to proceed with caution past any open door on the way. With Gustav and Marius still on the loose he could not afford to take any chances.
He pressed his ear against Gustav’s office door and listened. No sound. So he pushed down on the handle and slammed his shoulder against the door. As it sprang open he brought the Beretta up and scanned the room for targets.
There were none. But on a shelf in a corner of the office he recognised Derek’s black leather holdall. He walked over and checked inside. The bundles of fifty pou
nd notes were inside just as they were when he had handed the bag over to Gustav.
He took the holdall and left the office. Then he began the long walk back to the reception to link up with Natasha. If she had drawn a blank they would need to start at one end of the huge H shaped building and work their way through every floor.
When he reached the first corner on his way back he stopped and checked around it. All clear. But as he neared the next corner, and the corridor that led to the reception, he heard footsteps approaching. He took a quick glance around then pulled back. Marius was escorting Katerina and Jessica towards his position. They were about twenty metres away.
He ducked into the first doorway on his left, dropped the holdall on the floor, and took up a position just behind the door frame. He pushed the Beretta down his waistband and waited. He couldn’t risk the girls being hit by stray bullets so engaging Marius with firearms was not an option. He would have to revert to his old tactics of brute force.
Jessica passed his open door first, followed by Katerina. As Marius drew level, Mason sprang out, planted his feet in a strong wide stance, and drove his knuckles into Marius’s temple. In any unarmed situation he would have assessed the effectiveness of his strike before continuing with his assault. But his target was armed and dangerous and there was too much at stake to play fair. So he followed up his first punch with three more, knocking Marius into the wall, then down to the floor.
Mason could hit with the force of a sledge hammer and few men could withstand four well aimed punches to the head from him, and Marius was not one of them.
After picking up Marius’s pistol and finding another in his waistband, Mason turned to the bewildered girls. Before he could speak, Katerina beat him to it.
‘Mister, my sister is in trouble. A man is pointing a gun at her in the main reception.’
Jessica stepped up next to Katerina. ‘You need to hurry, I think he is going to do bad things to her.’
Mason removed the magazines from the two Beretta pistols he had taken from Marius and stuffed them into his back pocket. They would fit the Beretta he was carrying. Then he opened the nearest door, ran over to a window, and threw out the two empty guns. He returned to the corridor. ‘Okay, girls, I want you to wait for me around that corner.’
The girls nodded and Katerina asked, ‘What are you going to do?’
Mason pointed at Marius. ‘I need to deal with him first.’
Katerina looked down at Marius who was still motionless on the floor. ‘Okay, but please hurry.’
As the girls walked away he grabbed Marius by the back of his collar and dragged him into the nearest room and closed the door.
Over the last few weeks he had got used to making tough decisions that went against the oath he took when he joined the police force to protect life and property. It was no excuse to say he was no longer a cop, but he couldn’t leave this guy to escape and continue with his evil trade. Hugo had done the right thing in the end but it was highly unlikely Marius would follow Hugo’s example.
So he stood over Marius, aimed the Beretta, and put two bullets through his heart. The body twitched twice then lay still.
Mason retrieved the holdall and joined the girls in the main corridor. They stared at him with open mouths. If they knew what he had just done they didn’t let on. Katerina just said, ‘Okay, now you need to hurry. It’s down there.’ She pointed along the corridor to the end where the main reception was and where Natasha was being held by Gustav.
Mason took off at a steady and determined pace, gritting his teeth at the thought of Natasha being alone with Gustav.
44
NATASHA
Two minutes earlier…
As she walked over and knelt down in front of Gustav, Natasha held the syringe upside down in her right hand, the needle resting against the inside of her forearm.
He loosened his belt and unfastened the button on his trousers. As he reached for his zip Natasha said, ‘Wait, you are too tall. Sit on the chair. It will be easier for me.’
Without argument, he crossed the foyer to the chairs, then sat down and pulled down his zip.
While his back was turned, she took the opportunity to tuck the syringe into the back pocket of her jeans with the needle sticking upwards. Then she knelt down in front of him and slowly pulled down his trousers all the way to his ankles. It would give her valuable seconds after she made her move. She looked him in the eye and smirked as she wrapped her fingers over the waistband of his boxer shorts, pausing and allowing more seconds to pass. But where was Mason?
After Marius had left with Katerina and Jessica she had expected to hear gun shots as Mason took him out. After all, Marius was taking the girls to Gustav’s office and Mason should be on his way back from there. They should come face to face but she expected Mason to be moving with more caution than Marius and therefore more likely to take him by surprise.
When she had led Gustav to believe she would give him what he wanted she had just been playing for time. Waiting for Mason to arrive and save the day. But now she found herself kneeling between Gustav’s legs and for the third time in two days she was expected to provide an intimate service for a human trafficking criminal.
An image of the dead boss man in the apartment in Arad with his fatal head injury flashed through her mind. This would be cleaner. Just a small puncture wound until she got to the gun on the high shelf. Then two holes in his chest. Probably not much blood because he would die fast, and when the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing.
She pulled down his boxer shorts all the way to his ankles. Same reason. But he would not only be hampered, he would feel vulnerable with his manhood exposed. She changed her position. Shifting up from her knees onto the balls of her feet, still crouching, but ready to spring into action. ‘Just tell me how you like it.’
He relaxed back, closed his eyes and nodded. ‘Go to work, I’ll let you know if you are doing it wrong.’
As she ran her left hand up the inside of his thigh she moved her right to her back pocket, carefully pulled out the syringe, and manipulated it around until she was holding it like a dagger, her thumb poised over the end of the plunger.
Her finger tips reached his groin and the base of his erection and that was as far as she was prepared to go. ‘Why are you so scared of needles?’
He kept his eyes closed, grunted a half laugh, and said, ‘I’ve had nightmares about them.’
A quick glance over her shoulder to confirm Mason was still nowhere in sight, then she said, ‘You know nightmares usually come true, don’t you?’
He grunted again.
Then two gun shots echoed down the corridor to the reception. They sounded far away but had to be inside the building and had to be from Mason.
Gustav jerked up in his chair and opened his eyes.
She sprang up, plunged the needle into the side of his neck, rammed the plunger fully home, and ran for the pistol.
Gustav let out a blood curdling scream, probably more out of shock than pain. One second he was relaxed, eyes shut, expecting to feel Natasha’s wet mouth around his erection, the next he had heard two gunshots and had been harpooned with a syringe.
Still seated, with his trousers and shorts around his ankles, he pulled out the syringe from his neck and stared at it. ‘What the fuck have you done?’
The top shelf was just out of her reach, even if she jumped. She scanned the room. There was nothing on her side of the counter to stand on. She would have to go back for one of the chairs. She walked back towards him. ‘You think you can treat girls as disposable objects and get away with it?’
‘We had a deal.’ He looked down at his groin as if he wasn’t ready to give up on the sexual service he was expecting.
‘I don’t make deals with the devil.’
His face changed as it finally dawned on him what was happening. He grabbed his boxer shorts and pulled them up then staggered back, steadying himself on the chair. Maybe the drugs were starting to work.
Natasha remained a few strides away from him and waited.
He regained his stance and pulled up his trousers. Now she couldn’t wait any longer. She ran at him pushing him backwards over the chair. He landed on his back and she straddled across his chest and delivered several punches into his face.
Each one probably hurt her more than they hurt him but she continued until he pushed her off. She got to her feet but as she turned to run a hand gripped her ankle. She grabbed a chair intending to strike him with it but he tugged her leg from under her and she thudded to the floor landing on her back. The fall winded her. She couldn’t move, couldn’t fight, and couldn’t escape his hands that wrapped around her throat.
With his full weight on top of her he tightened his grip around her neck. She couldn’t breathe. Her eyes watered so bad she couldn’t see his face but she was grateful for that. She didn’t want to die staring at this monster.
Everything went black. She couldn’t see, hear, or feel anything now. She was slipping into unconsciousness. She had only seconds left. Her last thoughts were for Katerina. If those gunshots meant Mason had killed Marius and saved the girls, then as strange as it seemed, she was ready to die. Because that’s all that mattered. Katerina would go home to their parents and grandmother. They would be devastated to have lost their eldest daughter but they would have their youngest back… safe.
She was falling through space. Just endless emptiness, and it was the blackest of blacks. She stopped resisting. The fear had gone. A strange calmness caressed her whole being. She had accomplished what she had set out to do. She had found Katerina and helped Mason rescue her from a cruel and ruthless industry. And she had been lucky. What price would she have got for a twenty-two-year old taking on a huge trafficking organisation, beating the odds, and winning. Her only regret was not seeing Gustav die first. She had promised herself this during the first meeting with him in his office.
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