The Soul Stealer

by Alex Archer

  “Shame,” Mischa said. “That’s no way to experience Russia. You should take your time. There is a great deal to see.”

  Annja spread her arms. “Supposedly there’s a tunnel that runs from the hotel to the underground laboratory at the church. But I had no idea where to look. Sorry.”

  “The fresh air does us all good,” Mischa said. “After all, we never can tell when it might be our last, eh?”

  Annja glanced at him. Was he implying she might be killed and she should relish this moment? She closed her eyes for a split second and saw the sword ready to draw out. Seeing it gave her a bit of comfort.

  What did Mischa want with Dzerchenko, anyway? Why not just storm the laboratory and kill him? That way, Mischa and his men could take over the village and plunder its natural resources. While Annja might normally frown on that activity, she wanted nothing more than to get Bob to safety and see Dzerchenko’s operation stopped.

  They reached the church. Mischa looked at Annja. “Now, let me ask you something very important.”

  “Yes?”

  “You haven’t led us into a trap, have you? This man Dzerchenko isn’t waiting up there ready to ambush us, is he?”

  Annja shook her head. “The last thing he knew, I was on my way out of this village. I was supposed to get a car or truck and drive back to Magadan. Once there, I’d get help and alert the police about what happened here.”

  Mischa’s eyes never left her. “Anything else?”

  “When we were headed back, I was supposed to call his cell phone and let him know. That way, he’d be able to get ready.”

  “Ready?”

  Annja sighed. “The deal was I’d blame everything on Tupolov. Dzerchenko would play the unwitting dupe, the humble country priest.”

  “I see.”

  Annja looked at him. “That’s the truth. I’ve been nothing but honest with you. All I want is to get my friend out of here,” she said.

  “What happened to him?”

  “During the fight in the cave with your men, he took a bullet. I watched him die, but this guy Dzerchenko apparently brought him back to life.”

  Mischa’s eyes widened. “Is that so?”

  “Yeah.”

  “All right.” He nodded at his men, and they fanned out on either side of the church. Two of them crested the steps and waited on either side of the front doors. Annja watched them move in perfect choreography as they swung low and entered the church, each man taking a side.

  After a few seconds, they reemerged and waved Mischa and the others in.

  “Impressive,” Annja said.

  Mischa nodded. “I never settle for mediocre talent. I want my men to be the very best. I’ve had them all trained to a fine edge and I believe it shows.”

  “It certainly seems to.”

  They walked into the church. Mischa leaned closer to Annja. “You lead the way. My men will back you up. If any shooting starts, I advise you to hug the ground and let us handle things. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Annja said.

  Annja walked down the center aisle. Somewhere beneath her, Dzerchenko waited with Bob. The key, she thought, would be getting Bob away from Dzerchenko as fast as possible. Once Dzerchenko heard them coming down, he would suspect a trap and might kill Bob out of spite.

  She reached the kitchen door and pushed through it. The air seemed still. Annja couldn’t tell if Dzerchenko had even been up top since she’d left.

  He’s probably waiting for my phone call, she thought.

  One of Mischa’s men tapped her on the shoulder. Annja turned and he gestured that he should go first at the door leading down. He held a compact Kalashnikov submachine gun in his hands and he looked very able to use it.

  Annja leaned out of his way and he approached the door. He set the gun down and ran his fingers all over the lip of the door, peered underneath and generally tried to examine the door structure as much as possible.

  Booby traps. Annja hadn’t even thought that Dzerchenko might try something like that. She’d made the mistake of assuming he wouldn’t do that.

  Mischa’s man came away from the door with a low whistle. In his hands, Annja spotted a monofilament wire and a palm-size grenade. Not only had Dzerchenko booby-trapped the door, but he’d also done so with enough explosive to kill everyone nearby.

  Mischa stepped forward and examined the booby trap without saying a word. He nodded to his man, who pocketed the grenade. Mischa glanced at Annja and waggled his eyebrows. It seemed that Dzerchenko was a bit more careful than Annja had given him credit for being. She cursed her mistake. She should have known better from Gregor’s cautions.

  Another one of Mischa’s men moved to the door. He cracked the door and Annja felt a warm breeze waft into the room. Mischa’s man edged his way into the darkness, and Annja strained her ears to catch any sound that he might make.

  He was completely silent.

  These guys are good, she decided. Mischa certainly wasn’t lying about the talent pool he hired from.

  The man reemerged about four minutes later and nodded at Mischa. Their hands seemed to carry on a silent conversation, almost like sign language, but a different dialect entirely.

  When it was over, Mischa nodded at his other men and they all vanished down the black rabbit hole. Then Mischa nodded to Annja and pointed.

  Time to go down.

  Annja went first and Mischa floated along behind her. She noticed that his footsteps were as light and quiet as those of his men, despite his bulky size. Annja figured him for military at some point in his life. He seemed far too disciplined to not have had any such experience.

  Annja’s boots gripped the stairs. From below, she could see the dim outline of Mischa’s men as they descended. They were nicely spaced, on alternating sides. Annja could barely make out the barrels of their submachine guns nosing their way through the darkness, ready for any sign of trouble.

  Remarkably, Annja felt safer then than at any other point during the trip thus far. There was something strangely comforting about the presence of Mischa and his men. And while Annja knew that they could just as easily shoot her dead as anyone else, she was happy not to be alone for this battle.

  Dzerchenko wouldn’t be able to spring any nasty surprises on them. The numbers simply weren’t in his favor.

  Annja reached the bottom of the staircase. Mischa came up behind her and she could feel his body heat. His voice tickled the hairs on her neck as he whispered into her ear. “Now where do we go?”

  Annja could make out the tunnel she’d traveled down on her way out a few hours before. She pointed in the dim light and instantly, Mischa’s men headed down the tunnel, still with their guns ready to fire.

  “Come along,” Mischa said quietly.

  Annja glanced down and saw the silhouette of a small pistol in Mischa’s hand. Something about that made her smile. Mischa wasn’t taking any chances with Dzerchenko.

  Or maybe he just doesn’t trust me, Annja thought. Smart guy.

  But she really didn’t have a plan to escape. She merely hoped to get to Bob and get them both out of there. Mischa could talk to Dzerchenko, and they could work out a deal where they ruled the world for all Annja cared. As long as she and Bob got out of there, that was what mattered the most.

  Annja kept walking and could see more light coming from somewhere up ahead. We’re getting close, she thought. Her heart started beating faster. She closed her eyes for a second and saw the sword still ready for her.

  She almost smirked at the thought of the expressions on the faces of Mischa and his men when they saw the sword an instant before it cut them down.

  But Annja would only kill them if she absolutely had to. There had been enough horrors already.

  If she could get away without killing any more people, Annja would definitely be happier for it.

  The light grew stronger as she continued down the tunnel. Funny how many details of this I missed in my rush to get out of here earlier, she thought. The tunnel had sm
ooth walls, and small, dim lights spaced every fifteen feet. The lights did little more than keep the tunnel from being in absolute darkness. And the majority of the light came from the door ahead of them.

  Annja turned a corner and saw the brilliant yellow light flooding the tunnel. Mischa’s men had stopped just short of where it got bright, waiting for their boss to show up.

  Mischa glanced ahead and then nodded at them. They slunk closer to the door, trying to squeeze into the walls of the tunnel on either side, rather than allow themselves to be framed in the bright light. They stacked on either side of the door.

  Mischa held up his hand and they froze.

  Annja stopped, as well, although she didn’t know why. Maybe Mischa had such dominant spirit that her body simply responded to it.

  He whispered in her ear again, “Is that it?”

  Annja nodded. “He’ll be in there with my friend.”

  “You will go in first,” Mischa said.

  Annja turned and looked at him. “Me?”

  He smiled. “Better you than us. When he sees you, he’ll let his guard down and then we’ll rush him so we can have a nice chat.”

  Annja shook her head. “He’ll wonder why I didn’t call.”

  “Tell him your phone is broken—I don’t care.”

  “He’ll wonder how I happened to get past his grenade booby trap.”

  Mischa smiled and his teeth seemed to glow in the dim light. “Tell him you were an army brat and your dad worked in explosive ordnance disposal.” He frowned. “Look, it doesn’t matter. Just walk in and let him see you.”

  Annja sighed. “Fine.”

  She turned and faced the open doorway. Beyond it, Bob waited for her. She only hoped Dzerchenko wasn’t standing over him with a scalpel. Knowing Dzerchenko, I’ll be lucky if he hasn’t turned Bob into one of those creatures, she thought.

  Annja held her breath and walked forward. She could feel the eyes of Mischa’s men on her as she moved closer. Their guns looked terribly lethal close up, and Annja felt a shiver run down her spine as she moved past them.

  So much death in such a tiny little thing, she thought.

  The light hurt her eyes as she got closer. She could feel Mischa somewhere behind her. He’d move in with her, but at a distance. Annja expected that his men would move as soon as she said anything to Dzerchenko.

  She took a moment to check that she could still draw her sword. With her eyes closed, she could see it hovering in her mind’s eye.

  She exhaled. I’m ready.

  She opened her eyes and walked forward. Ten more steps and she’d be through the door. She kept blinking her eyes, trying to acclimate them as fast as possible to the sudden illumination.

  Two of Mischa’s men nodded at her as if she were a part of some special-operations team ready to storm a building. One of them actually winked at her.

  She walked through the doorway.

  The lighting was intense and Annja brought her hands up to her eyes, shielding them somewhat from the harsh glare.

  “Dzerchenko?”

  Her voice sounded louder than she’d wanted it to.

  “Dzerchenko?”

  She felt movement around her and knew that Mischa’s men had come rushing in.

  She blinked again and her vision finally cleared. Around her, she could see the laboratory. Most of the equipment had vanished. Only a few large units remained, humming away in the corner.

  Mischa stepped up beside Annja. “It would appear that we have ourselves a small problem.”

  Annja nodded.

  Dzerchenko was gone.

  And so was Bob.

  39

  “Where are they?”

  Annja shook her head. “I don’t know. This is where I left them.” She turned and looked in the holding room she and Bob had been held in. “He’s gone.”

  “Your friend?”

  “Yes.”

  Mischa pulled at his lip. “I’m not going to insult you by suggesting you lied to me and my men. You seem much too intelligent for such juvenile antics.”

  “Thank you,” Annja said.

  “However, the fact remains that we have a problem. If neither Dzerchenko nor your friend are around, then they must be somewhere. We need to find out where they went.”

  “I’ll gladly help you.”

  Mischa waved over one of his men. Annja recognized him as the one who had disarmed the booby trap. Mischa spoke to him in low mutters for a moment. The man responded and Mischa nodded.

  He looked back at Annja. “My man here says that it’s possible the booby trap was positioned from the outside rather than down here underground.”

  “Which means what?” Annja asked.

  “Which means that Dzerchenko could have set it as he exited the door. We were supposed to be killed by it. It wasn’t a precaution at all.”

  Annja sighed. Dzerchenko had tricked her and she’d fallen for it. And now Bob was once again in harm’s way. “When I find that guy—”

  Mischa grinned. “When we find him. We’re together on this, Annja. I hope you realize that.”

  “You’re not going to kill me after this?” she asked.

  Mischa shrugged. “I don’t see any need to. You just want to get home. I don’t imagine what we do interests you that much, now does it?”

  “Get me and my friend on a plane and you can have at it as far as I’m concerned.”

  “You really are quite smart.” Mischa chuckled.

  “Too bad you won’t stay around for some sightseeing. I’d very much love to get to know you better.”

  “Some other time,” Annja said.

  Mischa nodded. “So, where would he go?”

  Annja looked around the laboratory. Dzerchenko could have made his way back down the other tunnel to the caves and gotten into the mountains. But would he? Annja doubted it. With Bob in critical condition, he had to stay close to civilization if he wanted to keep him from dying. And like it or not, Annja had to admit that Dzerchenko was probably looking to turn Bob into another experiment. He’d keep him alive.

  “They’ve got to be in town somewhere.”

  Mischa nodded. “That’s what I would think, too.”

  Annja looked at him. “When did you and your men get here?”

  “Last night. We arrived at the inn very early this morning.”

  Annja smirked. “We probably missed each other by a few minutes. I went out looking for Gregor last night after he disappeared.”

  “Gregor?”

  “Another man we were traveling with.”

  “What became of him?”

  Annja paused. “Dzerchenko made him into something awful. I faced him in combat.”

  “And you killed him?”

  “Yes.”

  Mischa looked impressed. “You really are something else, aren’t you, Annja Creed?”

  Yes, I am, she thought. But what I am, I have no idea. She shrugged. “I did what was necessary to ensure my survival.”

  Mischa looked at her. “So, we’re going back to the village, then.”

  “Yes.”

  Mischa’s men cleared out of the laboratory. They returned along the tunnel to the steps and climbed back up into the kitchen. Mischa’s bomb man went to the door again, checking to make sure they hadn’t been lured into the cellar to kill them. He pronounced it clear, and they got back into the kitchen without event.

  Instantly, Mischa put his finger to his lips.

  Voices. Annja could hear them clearly. But something about the tone of them seemed odd. She glanced at Mischa. “What is that?”

  Mischa listened and then seemed surprised. “Praying?”

  He waved two of his men to the kitchen door. Both of them framed it and then slid the door open a tiny crack.

  The volume of the voices grew louder with the door open a speck. Mischa’s men returned and one of them whispered into his ear. Mischa nodded and looked at Annja.

  “The church is full of worshipers.”

  “Mas
s?”

  “That’s right.”

  Annja shook her head. This was bizarre. “Who is the priest leading the service?”

  Mischa shrugged. “They say he’s fairly nondescript. Slightly stooped over. Nothing remarkable about him.”

  Dzerchenko. It had to be him. Who else would be leading a church service in this village? “I think that’s our guy.”

  “The priest?”

  “I told you that was his disguise.”

  Mischa looked a bit uncomfortable. “Yes, but, well, he’s a priest.”

  Annja cocked an eyebrow. “Has that ever stopped you before?”

  “Well, I don’t know. I’ve never had to deal with the church in this way before.”

  “It’s not the church,” Annja said. “He’s an imposter trying to hide among his flock. It’s not like he’s a real priest.”

  Mischa didn’t look convinced, but he glanced at Annja and nodded. “All right. I need a moment to figure out how we’re going to pull this off.”

  He huddled up with his men and while he did so, Annja crept to the door and peeked out. All of the pews were filled with people. Annja saw villagers she’d never seen before. She saw men and women only, no children.

  Their heads were bowed in prayer as Dzerchenko led them with his arms raised toward heaven.

  The only place you’re going is straight to hell, Annja thought.

  She scanned the crowd but couldn’t see Bob anywhere. Maybe he’s in the office near the front of the church, she thought.

  Dzerchenko’s flock seemed serious about their worship. Their low monotone voices hummed through the church, making Annja’s head buzz a little bit. Dzerchenko’s voice was easily distinguishable from all the others since it carried them along.

  Mischa’s hand rested on Annja’s shoulder. “We have a plan.”

  Annja let the door slide shut again and turned back to Mischa. “Okay, I’m listening.”

  Mischa thumbed over his shoulder. “Two of my men will exit here by that window. They’ll proceed around to the front of the church and at the countdown, they’ll come in and post at either of the far corners.”

  “Got it.”