by P. W. Child
“He was well-liked,” Purdue’s voice was as soft as a kiss. Sam, straining to hear from the other side of the table, thought at first that he was trying to reassure her. Then he caught the actual words rather than just the tone. “They are mostly men of his generation, Mirela. They will see this as an attack on them.”
Nina knelt beside Professor Lehmann’s body, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. She laid a hand on his back, as if she were trying to make him feel better. Sam wanted to go to her and take her away from the dreadful sight, but Steven got there first. “On your feet, Nina,” he said, gesturing with the revolver. “There’s no sense in crying over him. It was long overdue. He’s been nothing but a burden for years now, and if he was going to keep putting the Order in danger…”
“That’s his gun,” Nina said numbly. She remembered Professor Lehmann showing it to her years ago, his old service revolver that he had kept ever since Peenemunde. He had kept it in excellent working order, polished and perfect, as a constant reminder to himself of what he had once been. She rose slowly. “Something to blow his brains out with next time the wrong people came to power, that’s what he used to say, isn’t it?” A sudden hysterical laugh escaped her lips. “Never a truer fucking word, right Steven? You killed your father with his own gun!”
Her hand shot out and walloped Steven squarely across the side of the head. Then she was on him, pounding him with her fists, knocking him to the floor, slapping, punching, screaming, battering. “You’ll never be a fraction of the man he was!” she shrieked. “You’ve lived your whole life in the fear that you’ll never live up to your father – and you won’t, you can’t! He was an incredible man and look at you! Overgrown fucking man child who thinks he can run with the big boys! They’re using you, Steven, using you and laughing at you behind your back just like they always have. Everyone has! It wasn’t even your idea to kill him. You had to wait for her to say you could. He must have been so fucking ashamed of you!”
“Nina. Nina, come on. Sssshh.” With a gentle hand on her shoulder, Sam stemmed the tide of recriminations that flowed from Nina’s mouth. Reluctantly she stopped hitting Steven and allowed herself to be helped up. As she got to her feet her ankle gave out. She grabbed at Sam to steady her, and only then did she see that Steven must have dropped Professor Lehmann’s revolver when he fell, because it was in Sam’s hand now. And it was pointed straight at Renata.
In a split second Alexandr was up and approaching Sam and Purdue pushed in front of Renata. “Don’t do it, Sam,” he urged. “This is not the way. Put the gun down.”
“Sam, he’s right,” Nina clung to Sam’s free arm. ‘If you try it, we’re dead,’ she thought. ‘There’s no way you know how to fire that thing properly. I doubt it fires straight. You’re more likely to hit Purdue than to hit her, or to miss altogether and drop the gun.’
“Sam.” Alexandr marched straight up to him, as nonchalant as if Sam had been holding a water pistol instead of a loaded revolver. “You will not shoot her, Sam. Come on, my old friend, who are you trying to fool? You may be many things, but a killer you are not.” He held out his hand authoritatively. “Give me the gun. I will ensure that it never finds its way back into Steven’s hands.”
Wrong-footed, Sam hesitated. ‘What did I think I was going to do?’ he asked himself. ‘I don’t have much of a plan here. I was just going to demand that they let us go and that was about it. I just saw the gun and went for it.’ He could feel Nina’s fingers buried in his sleeve, trying to pull him back into sense. ‘I’m only going to get us both into more trouble here,’ he thought. ‘Any second now Renata will call her guards, or Steven will attack. Either I have to shoot now or I have to drop the gun.’ His finger was on the trigger, ready to squeeze. His arm was a little unsteady. He doubted his ability to make a straight shot. ‘If I were going to do it I’d have done it already… wouldn’t I?’
His finger came off the trigger. His arm dropped. He held out the gun to Alexandr, who examined it with pleasure. “A beautiful weapon,” he said. “Professor Lehmann took great care of it. A Nagant M1895, if I am not mistaken, designed here in Belgium and manufactured in my homeland.” He turned the gun over in his hand, running a finger over it cylinder. “Revolvers were never popular among the Nazis, or so I am told. An error of judgment on their part, for these guns are among the most durable and reliable that I have ever known… I always admired the Order for recognizing that there are times when what a man wants is a sidearm that can be repaired with a hammer blow! It seems a pity for such a fine weapon to fall into the hands of a son so unworthy as to kill his own father with it.”
In one fluid movement Alexandr raised the gun, took aim and fired. Both Sam and Nina felt the air move as the bullet passed and found its mark in Steven’s stomach. He collapsed at once, shrieking and writhing in pain.
“What in the blazes of hell do you think you are doing?” Renata screamed. “You had no right, no authority – put that gun down! You may consider yourself cast out! You are renegade, you are finished. Guards!”
Casually, Alexandr laid the gun down on the table in front of him. “You have no guards,” he said. “Not a single one. This is the beginning of the coup, Renata. Your time as head of the Order is almost up. Your guards have turned against you, and the Council has forsworn you. The only thing that remains is for you to name your successor before you are deposed – or you can make history by relinquishing the right. If it were me, I know which I would choose! But you are not me, and perhaps you will choose one last moment of control.”
Chapter F ifty-Four
Renata sat shattered, trying to mask her confusion but not quite succeeding. “I… I can’t be deposed that easily,” she insisted, hanging on to her authority as a drowning man might grasp at a rope. “I can’t, there are procedures…”
‘Is he telling the truth?’ Sam wondered. ‘Is this a ruse, or have we genuinely been part of some kind of plot to bring Renata down? It wouldn’t surprise me, but what’s Alexandr’s role in all of this? I thought he was more of a free agent, I wouldn’t have imagined him being caught up in the politics of something like this.’
“If you think I am lying, let us wait and see whether your guards answer your call,” Alexandr shrugged. “Should they not have come running when they heard the second gunshot? Or if they had been watching the screens, they would have burst through the door the moment Sam here acquired the gun. They did neither of these things because they are no longer under your orders. The members of the Council are on their way here. They are on their way to bring you down.”
Her lip curled derisively, but Sam could see that her hands were shaking. “Even if that were true, why would you know? You are nobody.”
“I make myself useful to whoever pays me the most. My task was to make sure that your guards were paid off at the right moment, and to bring you to the place of their choosing. So you must come with me now. All of you.”
Renata threw back her chair and made a dash for the door, but Purdue was on her at once. He caught her by the wrist and yanked her towards him, pulling her arm up her back. He caught her other arm as she tried to lash out at him and pushed her face down onto the long table, hissing curses at him. Ever practical, Alexandr pushed past Sam and Nina to reach Steven Lehmann and strip him of his belt, which he used to fasten Renata’s hands behind her back. Steven gave a weak yell of pain as he was moved.
“So much for all your promises of loyalty!” Renata spat at Purdue. “No honor among thieves after all!”
Purdue pulled her to her feet with Alexandr’s help, keeping a tight hold on the belt. “Mirela, what could I do? Even if I had known… if the Council has made its decision, there is nothing that I or anyone else can do to oppose them. Go to them. Talk to them.”
“I don’t appear to have much choice.” She kicked out at Alexandr, but it was half-hearted. She knew that she could not escape. Alexandr stepped out of the room, going to summon a car from the fleet in the garage hidden deep in the
bowels of the building.
At last Nina noticed that her hands were still tightly wrapped around Sam’s arm. She relaxed her grip. Her fingers were numb. As she shook them out to get the circulation going again, she looked down at Steven. Under normal circumstances she would have rushed to help him, even despite their past relationship and his recent violence towards her. But this time… “Sam,” she said softly, “I think this choice has to be yours.”
The crumpled, bleeding man who lay at Sam’s feet would have been a sight to inspire pity, had he been any other man. Sam thought of Steven’s easy bullying of Nina. It was easy to imagine the delight he would have taken in killing Trish. The names he would have called her as her death was planned, the vile speculations about her, the reduction of a brave and talented woman to something less than human. ‘Did you crow about it afterwards’? Sam wondered, watching Steven being consumed by his pain. ‘Of course you did. I bet you thought you were such a big man, shooting an unarmed woman. If you were anyone else I’d be calling you an ambulance right now. But you’re not. You’re the bastard who killed Trish. You’re the reason…’ He could not complete the thought. The gun was back in his hand before he even realized it.
“Sam!” Nina stepped in front of him as he moved towards Steven, blocking his way. She touched his face lightly, scanning it as if trying to read his thoughts. “I’m not going to tell you not to do it, Sam. Just… do what she would have wanted you to do?” She let go, stepped back, and vanished at once from Sam’s reasoning.
Steven’s wound was grave, but it was bleeding slowly. If left unattended for a long enough time he would certainly bleed to death. It would be painful, and it would not be quick. Sam was no great judge of gunshot wounds, but it looked serious enough to kill the man even if someone were to get him medical help. The most merciful thing to do, Sam knew, would be to give him a swift end. A bullet in his head would be a kindness. It could spare him hours of suffering.
‘And if he had spared Trish the bullet in her head,’ Sam reasoned, ‘she would still be alive, I wouldn’t be here, and he might not have got himself shot in the first place. Would she want me to help him?’ He remembered how soft-hearted Trish could be, to the point where it caused her to struggle with some of the decisions her work required. Even as she had prepared to bring down Charles Whitsun, Sam had heard her express sympathy for him – not so much for the man he had become, but for the strictly brought-up child he had been and the potential he might have had if his father had not chosen his path for him from the moment he was born. Trish would have tried to save him. Sam was certain of that. If she could not, she would have put him out of his misery.
But there were some things Sam could not bring himself to do. Not even for Trish. Carefully he laid the gun down within Steven’s reach. It might pain him a little to stretch for it, but at least mercy would be within his grasp. “The choice is yours, pal,” he muttered as he bent down. “Best you’re getting from me.”
He straightened up. Alexandr had returned and was helping Purdue to maneuver Renata out of the room. Sam took Nina’s outstretched hand and followed, leaving Steven Lehmann to decide his own fate.
Chapter F ifty-Five
The car that was waiting outside was a sleek black Lexus Saloon. Alexandr had left it idling, the keys in the ignition, while he came back to help with Renata. Sam could hardly believe that such a beautiful and expensive car could be left unattended with the keys readily available, yet still be there when they returned. ‘This is a strange place,’ he thought again, looking around at the pristine street.
Alexandr and Purdue pushed Renata into the back seat, and Purdue climbed in after her while Alexandr moved round to take the driver’s seat. Nina glanced at Sam, then pushed him towards the front passenger seat while she took the back, sitting on the opposite side of Renata from Purdue.
“Where are we taking her?” Sam asked, buckling his seatbelt. “Are we going to have to keep her long before the Council members get here?”
“The Council is actually based in Bruges, Sam,” said Purdue. “All Members who are appointed to the Council are obliged to take up residence here. Why else do you think Bruges is so extremely well preserved? That is the result of centuries of being under the direct influence of the Black Sun.”
“And they provide some kind of counter-balance for whoever is Renata? Or Renatus?” Nina asked.
“Correct.” Purdue did not look Nina in the eye as he answered her. He looked resolutely out of the window, watching the streets as they flashed by. “Collectively, and provided they act unanimously, the Council is the only entity that can gainsay the reigning head of the Order. They will already be aware that we are on our way. By the time we reach their meeting place, they should already be assembled. They meet in a secret chamber in the depths of the Town Hall, where they have met ever since the late 14th century. Mirela will be joining a long line of Renati to have fought to retain office there – and possibly to have been stripped of it.”
Sam recognized the street that they were on, Eekhoutstraat. They were a few minutes at most from the Town Hall, in all its Gothic beauty. He wondered what would happen to him and Nina if Renata were removed from office. ‘Presumably we’ll be at the mercy of whoever takes her place,’ he thought. ‘There might be some hope in that. Maybe it’ll be someone who doesn’t think we’re all that significant and lets us go – or if they can’t, we can at least hope that it’ll be someone who doesn’t share her penchant for weird little tests.’
The car took a sudden, unexpected right turn. Jerked out of his thoughts, Sam looked round for a street sign. Rozenhoedkaai. ‘Where does this go?’ he wondered. ‘Is there some other way of getting there? A back entrance?’
“Alexandr, this is not the right way,” Purdue said, a note of confusion in his voice.
“Purdue, my old friend, it is the right way.” The Russian laughed and accelerated, speeding along beside the canal and past the fish market.
“But you’re taking us out of town.”
“That is correct! I am afraid that the Council will have to wait! I have another paymaster to serve now. We are going east, my friends – all the way to Mönkh Saridag!”
“What?” Renata, who had been sitting silent and unusually reserved, burst into an angry tirade. Damning Alexandr for a traitor, she demanded that he stop the car and surrender himself to the Council. She made promises she could not fulfil about the leniency that he would be shown if he did and the retribution that awaited him if he did not. Her hands still fastened behind her back, she bucked and writhed in the back seat until Purdue and Nina both had a difficult task to restrain her, even with the help of the seatbelt. Exasperated, Nina broke into the car cleaning kit under the front seat, found a couple of clean chamois leathers. She shoved one into Renata’s mouth, stopping the flow of fury at once, then quickly tied the other around her head to fasten the gag in place.
“Alexandr, are you serious?” Sam asked. “You’re really planning to take us all to Russia?”
“Mongolia, strictly speaking,” Alexandr replied with a chuckle. “And yes, I am. I’m sorry, Sam, I wish I could have consulted with you before taking this step, but it is the only way for you and Nina to be safe. And for me, though I think you are more concerned with being safe than I am. Our chances of being accepted by the dissident at Mönkh Saridag are much higher if we have something good to offer them, and we will be able to offer them the greatest hostage anyone has ever offered – the head of the Order of the Black Sun herself!”
“They won’t care that she’s the about-to-be-deposed head?” Nina asked.
“That makes it even better!” cried Alexandr “She cannot be replaced until they can depose her! And they cannot depose her as long as they cannot find her! So the upper echelons of the Order grind to a halt, and who knows what we can do in the time that gives us? Perhaps we will even persuade Mirela here to abandon the Order and join us – can you not see it, what a coup that would be?”
He would ha
ve said more, but as they crossed the boundaries of the Old Town and sped along the N9 into the city’s modern suburbs, a black SUV appeared on their tail. It drove close, practically riding their bumper. The windows were tinted, rendering its driver invisible.
Even though she was gagged, Renata was more than capable of expressing her feelings about the situation. She may not have been able to speak, but the look of malevolent joy in her eyes was enough to tell the others that they were in trouble. ‘It must be the car’, Sam thought, ‘they’ll be tracking the car. Even if they’ve turned on her, Renata must be too valuable for them to risk losing – either that or they think she’s trying to make her getaway before they take her title.’
Alexandr pushed a little harder on the pedal, coaxing the car further and further beyond the speed limit. The SUV matched them mile for mile, keeping pace but finding no opportunity to overtake.
“We are safe enough as long as we are in the suburbs,” said Alexandr, “but as soon as we are out of the city entirely, that will change.”
“There’s no way we can double back? Lose them in the city?” Sam asked.
Purdue spoke up from the back seat. “They know the city better than we do, and there will be more of them waiting there. If we turn back, we must be prepared to give them Renata and surrender ourselves.”
“That is one thing I shall not do,” said Alexandr, and pounded on the accelerator. They cleared the city completely, the miles vanishing beneath their wheels, field and motorway flashing past. The car swung precariously onto a slip road, careering up a minor road to join a larger motorway. Trucks, cars and coaches scattered before them, swerving out of the way of the two madly speeding vehicles, but no matter how last-second Alexandr’s twists and turns were, the pursuer never lost them. Every so often they would achieve a bit of distance and see a different car behind them, a normal car, but it never lasted for more than a minute before the black SUV appeared in the rear view mirror once again.