by Mel LeBrun
Michael was ticked off, but didn't want to waste time arguing. “Call me if you see her.” He shoved the binoculars at Josh and left.
Josh had the same great view of the floor and crates. He panned around the outside of the building making sure he could see the guards. He looked back through the broken window and almost couldn't believe what he saw. A man was pinning Jessica up against the crates, his hand on her throat and his face very close to hers. Suddenly, Josh felt like running in like a crazy cowboy to rescue her. He dialed Michael on his phone.
JESSICA WAS pulled from her cell into the warehouse. Still feeling the effects of the drug, she didn't resist much. She saw her laptop set up on a table. She also noticed the guards were different.
“What's going on?” she asked, even though she already knew the answer.
Dmitri stepped towards her. His expression and demeanor were intense, threatening even. He seemed like a different man than the one who just talked to her in her cell.
He pulled a flash drive from his pocket and showed it to her. Noticing the subtle changes in her expression when she saw it, he knew immediately it wasn't the real one. Still, he held it up. “Decrypt this and you will be set free.” His eyes were fixed on her.
She swallowed and looked around at the other guards and then back at Dmitri. His gaze never wandered from her. She looked into his eyes and he stared right back. She remembered what he said about not agreeing too readily.
“No. I don't believe you and I won't help you.”
“Do it, or you will die.”
He seemed so serious and believable she started to wonder if she dreamed the conversation they had earlier. She searched his face for some hint, some give away that he was on her side. There was none. It was as if he had never talked to her.
“I won't help you,” she repeated. Her confidence was waning and it could be heard in her voice.
Dmitri placed the flash drive on the table and then suddenly came at her, slamming her up against some nearby crates. His hand moved to her throat and squeezed. She was filled with terror. He moved his head close to hers and whispered into her ear.
“Agree and say you need to rest first.”
He squeezed her neck harder and she couldn't breath. She clutched his wrist in vain, trying to pull it away from her neck. She kicked and struggled to break free. She started to feel lightheaded. He released her and she dropped to her knees coughing and gasping for air.
He stood over her. “What will it be, Miss Nickoli?”
She was on her knees using one hand on the floor to hold herself up while she held her neck with the other still coughing and trying to breathe. When she regained control of her breathing, she glared up at him with intense hatred in her eyes.
“I need to rest,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Will you do it?”
She looked away without answering.
He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head up.
“Will you do it?” he shouted.
“Yes!” she cried. “Yes, I'll do it.”
He released her and looked to one of the guards.
“Take her back to the room!” he ordered in Russian.
The guard grabbed her arm and forced her up. Angrily, she tried to shake off his grip but he only squeezed harder. He pushed her into the room and shut the door. She rubbed her neck and looked back at the door. Dmitri was a ruthless man, she told herself. She shouldn't fool herself into thinking anything else.
She sat on the edge of the bed trying to relax. A very loud explosion and the sound of shouting and gunfire ruined any hope of that happening. She backed away from the door in fear.
Suddenly, her door was flung open, and Dmitri rushed inside, shutting it behind him. He grabbed her and pushed her against the wall next to the door.
“Get down,” he ordered.
“What's going on?” she asked trembling.
He looked at her.
“Your boyfriend has arrived.”
It was almost too good to believe. Michael had found her. She wanted to let him know where she was.
She started to shout, “Michael I'm in here!”
Dmitri pushed her against the wall, covering her mouth with his hand. “Be quiet!” he growled. “My men are under strict orders to kill you before letting you be rescued. I told them I would do it. Now shut up, you're supposed to be dead.”
He released her and took a step back. He was extremely anxious and breathing heavy. He swallowed and looked at the door and then back at Jessica. “Stay down and be quiet.”
He pulled the gun from his waistband and moved against the wall between Jessica and the door.
Jessica didn't know what to think. “Why are you doing this?”
He didn't answer. There was silence for a minute, one more gunshot, then silence again.
“I think it's over,” he said quietly.
He walked to the middle of the room and got down on his knees. He emptied the clip from his gun and set them both on the floor in front of him. He crossed his ankles and put his hands behind his head. He looked one more time at Jessica and then down at the floor and waited. Jessica just looked at him confused.
JOSH SET up on the hill with the silenced sniper rifle. He took out two of the men guarding the perimeter while Michael took out the third who was on the other side of the building. Leaving the sniper rifle on the hill, Josh met up with Martin and Michael at the door. Martin had the assault rifle while Josh and Michael were using handguns.
Martin opened the door as Josh tossed in a flashbang. Michael took the lead, picking off two guys right away. The other two took cover behind some crates and fired back. Martin and Josh kept them distracted while Michael flanked one of them. The last guy lost his cool. He began firing wildly until his gun ran out of ammo. Michael quickly ran to him and put a bullet in his shoulder before he could reload. He dropped the gun, screaming in pain. Michael kicked it away.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
The man looked at him and started laughing. Michael punched him.
“Where is she?” His tone even more forceful than before.
A disturbing grin crossed the man's face as he pointed to the door on the other side of the room. Michael feared he was too late. He ordered Josh to guard the man then sprinted to the door.
He nodded at Martin, who swung the door open while he held his gun aimed inside. He saw a man in a position of surrender but not Jessica.
“Don't move!” he shouted in Russian.
Keeping his gun trained on the man, he slowly stepped inside. He spotted a woman curled up in the corner. Her face was swollen, cut and badly bruised. He recognized it was Jessica from her hair and clothes.
“Jessica?”
Michael was horrified by her appearance. He knew from experience that captives often were treated badly, but he wasn't prepared for the reality of seeing her like that.
“Michael!”
She ran to him.
He put one arm around her while he kept his eyes and gun trained on the man on the floor.
“Get behind me,” he said as he pushed her behind him and out of the room.
Dmitri slowly raised his head and looked up at Michael. He was smiling. Michael looked shocked and bewildered after seeing the man's face.
“It's been a long time Michael,” Dmitri said to him.
Michael lowered his gun.
“Dmitri?”
“You know him?!” Jessica was more shocked than Michael.
“What are you doing here?” Michael asked, in a stupor.
“It is a long story. May I get up now?”
“Michael, you know this man?” Jessica thought she was going to lose her mind. “He shot me up with heroin!”
“What?!” Michael turned to Dmitri for an explanation.
“It wasn't heroin.”
“Bull! I saw you make it!” Jessica shot back, becoming more agitated.
“I switched the syringe. It wasn't heroin.”
&nbs
p; “What was it?” Michael asked.
“Diazepam.”
“What? What is that?” Jessica asked getting more worked up by the second.
Michael relaxed and turned to her. “Valium.”
She looked at Dmitri. “You shot me up with Valium?”
He shrugged. “I couldn't have you telling Vlad where the drive was. I also wasn't sure if he wanted to torture you. You can't torture someone who's unconscious,” he explained.
“And today?”
“The same. Vlad expected me to keep shooting you up with heroin and with the men around, I had to make it look real.”
Jessica was trying to wrap her head around that.
“Who are you?”
“He's like me only he works for the Russian government,” Michael answered. He put his gun in his back waistband, then held out a hand to Dmitri helping him to his feet.
“What are you doing here? And what the hell happened to her face?”
He gestured towards Jessica.
Dmitri looked at her and frowned.
“One of those animals tried to rape me,” she said angrily as tears fell from her eyes.
Michael pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. She buried her face in his chest and started to sob. He stroked her hair and looked at Dmitri.
“What happened?”
“While I was out getting the Diazepam, one of Vlad's men tried to rape her. When I came back she was half naked on top of him punching him and screaming. I threw him out, but he had beat her pretty badly. She may have a mild concussion.”
Michael closed his eyes and gently squeezed her. He looked back up at Dmitri.
“What's going on? What are you doing here?”
“Are they all dead?” Dmitri asked.
“All but one. My partner is watching him.”
Dmitri nodded and bent down to pick up his gun and clip. Michael stepped aside as he reloaded the gun and walked out of the room. He spotted Josh standing over the only survivor and walked to him.
“I'll watch the front,” Martin offered, then headed for the door to keep a lookout.
Josh had seen Michael put away his gun and knew he trusted whoever this was walking towards him. He stood next to him, looking down at the man on the floor.
The man looked up at Dmitri with wide eyes.
“Dmitri? What is going on?”
Michael turned Jessica's head away. “Don't look.”
“Nothing that you need to be concerned with, comrade.”
Dmitri aimed the gun at his chest and put two bullets in his heart.
Jessica jumped at the sound of the gunshots. Dmitri walked back to Michael with Josh following behind.
“You know I had Vlad send extra men to guard the drive?” Dmitri said.
“Why did you do that?” Josh asked, feeling perturbed.
“I knew Vlad was after an American soldier, but I didn't know who until earlier today when he mentioned your name. When he said you gave him the drive, I knew it must be a trick. You would never do something so stupid. I had a feeling you would be following it, so when he said he was sending it to me, I asked him to send some extra men.”
“You wanted us to kill them,” Josh realized.
Dmitri looked around.
“You did as well as I expected.”
“When are you going to answer my question?” Michael returned focus back to his original question.
Dmitri smiled. He looked down and took a few steps as he started to speak.
“Five years ago, Russian and US intelligence worked on a joint operation targeting illegal drugs, weapons and human trafficking by the Russian mafia that I'm now a part of. We had names, places, shipping routes. Everything.” He looked back at Michael. “There were only a few people in the Russian government who even knew of the operation. We know that Milovich owns some of our own people, we just don't know who. So the mission was kept highly classified. Not even the men who were going to be on the ground knew what they were doing. We were to strike everywhere at once. It would have crippled their organization, maybe even dismantled it.”
He looked down again and sighed.
“The day came and across Russia and the US, members of law enforcement and the military swooped in on our targets. Warehouses, homes, apartments, abandoned buildings, trucks in route.” He paused and looked up at Michael.
“It was all gone. The buildings were empty or filled with normal merchandise, the trucks weren't carrying anything even remotely illegal. The brothels, weapon stores, drugs. Disappeared. We had nothing. It was a disgrace. Our intel was good. Someone tipped them off to our operation. After a six-month investigation, it was determined that the leak could not have come from our side. We began to suspect someone in the CIA was working for the Russian mafia. We tried to address our concerns with the director of your CIA, but he was quite arrogant. He insisted the leak was on our side. That effectively killed our relations with the CIA. Our people didn't trust their people and they didn't trust ours. We decided to do something about it. Someone had to pay.
Three months it took them to build my background and I spent eight months in prison cementing my cover. I met some of Vlad's men inside prison. It took me two years working through the ranks before I even met Vlad, and then another year to work my way up to where I am now.”
“So what's your objective?” Michael asked.
“My main objective is to find out who at the CIA is helping Vlad. My secondary objective is gathering intel on his operations.”
“What's the story with the flash drive?”
“I learned of the flash drive three months ago, the same time Vlad learned of it. The existence of it made Vlad very nervous. And so, it became a high priority.”
“How did he learn about it and what happened to Alex?”
Jessica had been wanting to hear the answer to that question but couldn't work up the courage to ask. She was glad Michael did.
Dmitri looked down and took a deep breath.
“Alex was working for Vlad, helping him gather dirt on officials and members of law enforcement in order to blackmail them. From what I gathered, he was hacking into email accounts and computers looking for anything they wouldn't want made public.”
“No.” Jessica shook her head in disbelief.
“Alex wouldn't do that.”
Dmitri looked her straight in the eyes.
“He did. But if it makes you feel any better, I don't believe he wanted to. Alex made the mistake of accepting a job from Vlad eight months ago. After that, they owned him. He either had to do what Vlad wanted or risk him and his family being tortured and killed. His mother was very sick, which I think is why he accepted the job in the first place. He needed the money to care for her. His sister is widowed with a baby on the way.
Somehow, he came across the information on that flash drive. He thought it was his ticket out. He sent it to someone he trusted for safekeeping. To Jessica.”
He motioned towards her. “Some time after that, he sent a message to someone he thought he could trust in the CIA. He wanted to exchange the information on the drive for the safety of him and his family.” Dmitri took another deep breath.
“Unfortunately, the man Alex tried to contact no longer worked for the CIA. The message ended up being forwarded instead to Vlad's inside man. A stroke of bad luck.”
“He's dead?” Michael asked.
Dmitri nodded.
Jessica wiped some tears away.
“How did he die?”
Dmitri glanced at her and then gave Michael a look. It told him Alex didn't die well and it probably wasn't something Jessica should hear.
Michael turned to her. “It doesn't matter.”
He held one arm around her while he motioned to Josh with the other.
“I'm going to leave you with Josh for a minute while I talk to Dmitri,” Michael said softly as he tried to pry himself from her grip. She reluctantly submitted and traded Michael's arms for Josh's.
Michael
and Dmitri stepped out of hearing range.
“What happened?” Michael asked.
Dmitri looked over at Jessica and took a deep breath.
“I was one of the first to know about the drive after Vlad. He called me to meet with him and told me that myself and a few of his other top men were tasked with finding Alex and retrieving the drive. I immediately contacted my superiors. They took Alex's family into protective custody and began searching for him. He went into hiding after sending the message to the CIA. We're still not sure why. Maybe he realized the message didn't get to who he intended. Maybe he was just being cautious. We don't really know. Unfortunately, Vlad's men found him first. There wasn't much I could do for him at that point.”
“They tortured him to find out where the drive went?” Michael asked even though he already knew the answer.
Dmitri nodded. “Vlad is quite fond of using heroin withdrawals to get people to do what he wants. Alex held out as long as he could, but eventually he broke and told Vlad where he sent the drive. Then they killed him.”
“When did he send the warning message to Jessica?” Michael asked.
“What warning message?”
“She got an encrypted email warning her that she was in danger. She got it too late, but he had tried to warn her.”
“I have no idea when he sent that. We didn't even know about it.”
Michael frowned. That mystery would probably remain unsolved.
“Who did he try to contact?”
“A man named Alonso ...”
“ ... Gomez.” Michael finished his sentence.
Dmitri raised his eyebrows.
“Yes. How did you know?”
Michael released an unhappy sigh. “From the flash drive.” He went on to give Dmitri a brief rundown of the information on the drive and the emails to and about Alonso Gomez.
“He was probably the only one who we could trust who might actually believe us.” Michael ran his hand down his face and sighed again. “What happened to him?”
“Terminated. On grounds of insubordination.”
Now it was Michael's turn to be surprised.
“He's not dead?”
“No. He was let go a little over six months ago.”
The wheels started spinning in Michael's head. Even though Alonso didn't work for the CIA any more, he still may be able to help them.