They stood there for a moment that seemed suspended in time. Whatever caused that sound was not good. To prove her instincts right, small fissures in the rock walls surrounding them appeared. These grew to larger splits that grew into gaps.
Pebbles fell from overhead as the entire chamber shook.
* * *
Aunush readjusted her binoculars. What she was seeing could not be what she was seeing. Yet no matter how she fiddled with the focus, the Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat listed. First to the right, then to the left.
The church always seemed something out of Candyland only on some form of hallucinogenics, to Aunush. Now the structure swayed and rocked. Then the forwardmost church turret broke off from the rest of the building.
Down in Red Square, the sheeplike revelers clapped. The morons. Not until the bright blue and white tower cracked off did the crowd scream in unison, scattering like cockroaches when the light was turned on. Like a quartered onion, the remaining towers broke off one by one, revealing the heart of the church, the shrine to St. Mary. Blues and golds glistened from the firelight.
Alright. Perhaps this was a tad too public.
Nannan stood beside her, his mouth slack, his jaw dropped so far that only his flabby neck stopped it from dislocating.
Besides leaving them vulnerable to scrutiny, Aunush cared little for the destruction of the church. The Disciples’ pedigree went back far farther than a sixteenth-century church built to commemorate a tyrant’s petty war victories.
No, the problem was, given the fact the church was laid open like a dissection, yet showed only one body, where were the infidels?
* * *
As larger and larger chunks of ceiling fell onto their heads, Brandt used his arm to sweep the tablet fragments into his pocket. “Harvish, another exit?”
“Sarge,” the point man replied, “it’s a dead end.”
It couldn’t be a dead end. Ivan the Fucking Terrible was about as paranoid as it got. He wouldn’t leave himself without an exit plan.
“Here,” Rebecca called out. “It’s a false wall.”
She was right. The wall looked continuous, except it wasn’t. A piece of the wall stood a good two feet out from the rest of the wall. A passage led out behind it.
“Let’s go,” Brandt said, urging Harvish and the women to hurry forward as the ceiling behind them first sagged and then collapsed. The rest of the chamber caved in as he shimmied through the narrow passage into a wider tunnel.
Harvish’s flashlight’s beam bobbed in front of them as they followed the slanted tunnel. Each step carrying them farther and farther away from the imploding church. The rumble followed them, coursing around them like a soundtrack of destruction. Silt drifted down, but the tunnel held.
Then the natural hand-hewn passage ended abruptly, dumping them into a much more modern tunnel.
“What the fuck?”
Since no one answered him, Brandt looked to their options. This smoother tunnel led off into three different directions. But to where?
“This must be the labyrinth Ivan built to hide the library,” Rebecca commented. She turned to Bunny. “Any idea which way leads up?”
The younger woman just shook her head, still hugging her midriff.
“Harvish? Any ideas?” Brandt asked.
“They all seem the same, Sarge.”
Gritting his teeth, Brandt missed Svengurd all over again. The tall Swede had an almost sixth sense for an escape path.
“There’s three,” Rebecca stated.
Brandt tried to be patient, but come on. “Yes?”
“In Christianity, three is the most sacred number. It represents not just the trinity but the three aspects of God.”
“Great, does that help us decide which one to take?” Brandt asked as the tunnel trembled behind them. He couldn’t rule out a complete cave-in.
“There’s Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.”
Bunny spoke up, “Or Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotence, but I don’t think it is either of those Christian concepts.”
“Of course,” Rebecca murmured. “The Russian Orthodox are much more married to the Jewish traditions, so to them, three would present Unity, Discord, and Harmony.”
“And?” Brandt pressed.
The women looked to one another, but it was Rebecca who spoke. “Harmony is considered good ‘doubled.’”
“Then right it is,” Brandt said, getting them moving again as the tunnel behind them groaned. He urged them to pick up the pace. He had no idea where this tunnel might lead, but it couldn’t possibly be worse than what lay behind them.
Could it?
With their luck he was not going to answer that question.
CHAPTER 13
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Underground Moscow
10:42 p.m. GMT
Harvish set quite the pace as Rebecca struggled to keep up. Bunny charged ahead, exhibiting another perk of her youth. Brandt was hard on Rebecca’s heels. Literally. Like his urgency could get her legs to move any faster.
Worse, the tunnel sloped upward. No, it slanted upward. Her quads screamed at each step. Yet Rebecca kept up the pace as every few moments the tunnel would quake from the death throes of the cathedral, reminding them they wouldn’t be safe until above ground.
“Door ahead,” Harvish shouted, pointing his light toward the exit.
Catching up, Rebecca put her hands on her knees, bending over and trying to catch her breath as the men talked.
“Any idea where we are?” Brandt asked.
Harvish shrugged. “Best I can tell is near street level northwest-ish of the church.”
Rebecca knew Brandt was going to frown at the northwest-ish even before the sergeant’s lips turned down. Svengurd never would have put an “-ish” on anything.
“As long as the damn thing doesn’t open into the river,” Brandt said. “We should be good.”
Crap. Rebecca had forgotten the Moscow River was just east of the cathedral.
“Or the Kremlin,” Bunny added, clearly more familiar with the area than any of them.
“That too,” Brandt grunted, nodding for Harvish to open the door.
Rebecca was braced for anything except the sight before her. Bright lights made the row upon row of shops seem almost as stark as daylight. Shoppers were scurrying about, most rushing to the southern shops to look out the windows to the fiery cathedral. The huge vaulted glass ceiling above them glowed ruddy from the nearby fire.
“GUM,” Bunny explained. “We’re in the department store.”
And just as clearly as Rebecca had not expected to find tourists—she was far more used to stumbling out of dark tunnels to land in front of an assassin’s weapon—the shoppers were just as shocked at a group of four people barging in with guns.
“Ruzyah!” a woman screamed, pointing at them.
Rebecca could only imagine that stood for gun or weirdos or more likely terrorists. Whatever it meant, others turned and pointed. The screams exponentially increased.
Then Brandt stepped out in front of the foursome and shouted, “Federal’naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii!”
Bunny whispered, “Federal Security Service.” When Rebecca frowned, the younger woman added, “The new KGB.”
Ah, now it made sense.
The sergeant indicated down the tunnel. “Oni prikhodyat!”
“They are coming,” Bunny translated.
Brandt then charged toward the growing crowd. “Poluchit’ bezopasnosti!”
Rebecca didn’t need an interpreter for that one. The throng broke, turning and surging toward the exit. The sergeant had scared the crap out of them, not necessarily without reason. Whoever attacked them at the cathedral could easily turn their attentions to the shopping mall.
“Weapons away,” Brandt ordered as they traveled in the crowd’s wake.
Attention might be off of them as they brought up the rear o
f the stampeding crowd, but how long could they trust that the actual authorities didn’t show up? Their ruse certainly couldn’t hold up to any kind of scrutiny.
Brandt grabbed her arm, urging Rebecca ahead. “We’re going to blend in until we’re out the north exit, then melt into the chaos.”
Which would have been a great plan except Harvish screamed, grabbing his arm. Blood seeped through his fingers. He’d been shot.
So Brandt hadn’t been lying after all.
They were here.
* * *
Brandt shoved Rebecca into the nearest shop and then yanked Bunny in behind her. To his credit, Harvish kept it together and backed into the shop. A crystal vase shattered beside him. Brandt urged them farther back into the maze of glass cases. A display of tiny crystal figurines exploded, sending glass shrapnel everywhere. Perhaps Swarovski’s wasn’t the best place to hole up from a sniper.
Finally though they drew deep enough into the store to avoid the sniper fire.
Anger brewed in Brandt’s belly. How the fuck had they found them so quickly? And why the hell wasn’t Talli providing cover? There had to be muzzle flashes. Brandt risked a quick glance down the large central courtyard of the shopping mall, but got chased back by a bullet whizzing past his hairline. Waning screams indicated that the crowd had headed east, leaving absolutely no cover between the store and the closest exit.
That long, glass-domed central aisle way was now nothing more than a shooting gallery. But if they stayed hunkered down here, either the enemy would find a window to take them out one by one or the actual FSS would show up. Either way. Lights out.
Sirens wailed, gaining speed as they approached Red Square.
He turned to find Rebecca dressing Harvish’s wound. It was just a through and through of the upper arm. The point man should be ready to go in a few seconds. Where exactly they were going was still in question.
Brandt grabbed a feather duster from the top of one of the cases and stuck it out into the view of the sniper. A bullet ripped through the duster, sending plumage flying. The angle of that shot was fairly steep. Given that the large glass ceiling of the shopping mall was intact, the fuckers were somewhere on the second floor.
They were in the building.
Which was the first good news they had. If they had been outside the mall, there would have been no way to provide cover fire. But if they were shooting from the second floor, the fuckers could be shot at. From what Brandt remembered of the crowd’s dispersal rate, the nearest exit was a good thirty yards down the shooting gallery. Cover fire wasn’t going to get them that far.
“Harvish, you are going to run catty-corner to the shop across the way while I provide cover, then you’ll provide cover for us.”
The point man nodded, pulling away from Rebecca as she finished tying the bandage on his arm. He flexed it, testing it. “You know it, Sarge.”
“Looks like they’re shooting from the upper level to the east.”
“Got it,” Harvish answered, pulling out both his guns. “On my mark.”
Counting down by bobbing his head, when he got to three, Harvish fired into the mall before hauling ass out there. Brandt was on his six, firing up and over the point man as he sped across the kill zone. Chunks of tile flew up as the sniper’s bullet hit the floor, ghosting Harvish’s footsteps.
Once Harvish crashed into the store’s door and found safety inside, Brandt lunged backward, barely missing a bullet to the shoulder. That fucking sniper was good. Able to realign with incredible accuracy. And his instincts? It was like he was fucking reading Brandt’s mind.
Which just meant Brandt had to up his game. Again.
He turned to the women. “Our turn.”
* * *
Bunny physically blanched next to Rebecca. She knew exactly how the younger woman felt. Rebecca had learned though that it didn’t help to let your blood pressure drop and your extremities go numb. Best to just suck it up.
Grabbing Bunny’s hand, Rebecca nodded to Brandt. Where he led, she would make sure they followed.
Brandt counted down with his fingers for Harvish, who on three sprayed bullets down the mall’s long central hallway. Crouched, Brandt rushed forward, firing as well. Rebecca tugged on Bunny, keeping her close, but as they were about to step into the empty aisle, Brandt urged her forward toward the next store on their side. As the sound of gunfire rattled around in her brain, Rebecca made it to the door and hustled Bunny through it.
She looked back to find strafe marks across the tile floor moving in the opposite direction as Brandt rushed in after them. They fled to the back of the store. Rebecca tripped over a display of high heels, tumbling into a rack of stilettos. She landed next to the checkout counter that proudly proclaimed, “Prada.”
Not how she wanted to be introduced to the brand.
“But we’re on the wrong side,” Bunny exclaimed.
Rebecca indicated toward the wide aisle, at the chinks in the tile. “If we’d followed Harvish, that would have been us.”
The realization that they would have been cut down a quarter of the way across the passage darkened Bunny’s face. Tears sprang but the younger woman didn’t cry. They were alive, and that was going to have to be good enough.
Even though Brandt was married to another woman, Rebecca could almost kiss him on the lips. The sergeant had outmaneuvered the sniper, buying them precious seconds.
“What’s next?” she asked.
Brandt didn’t answer. Instead he frowned as sirens wailed outside.
Maybe she’d better wait on that kiss.
* * *
Brandt could see hope dim in Rebecca’s eyes. But what did he have to offer her to make her feel like he had any kind of plan to be hopeful in? He’d cheated the sniper this time. The guy wouldn’t be so easily fooled next time. They had at least three more shops to get past and cross the divide to the exit. Then pray the politsiya were not right outside the door.
They were pinned. Which is why he had left two goddamned men on the outside. Where the fuck were they?
As if his prayers were answered, a loud sound approached. The rotors of a helicopter. Taking a chance that the sniper was equally distracted, Brandt inched from his hiding place and looked through the glass ceiling. There was a helicopter alright, but a brand spanking new Russian KA-52—the white, blue, and red striped flag painted on the fuselage confirmed his fear. So much for prayer.
The cutting-edge helicopter was double-rotored. However, it wasn’t the classic side-by-side blades. Instead, these two rotors were stacked on top of one another. Plus the muscle machine had two mounted machine guns forward and had missile capabilities to boot.
If a KA-52 was here, the Russians meant business.
But maybe that was a good thing. The advanced helicopter hovered over the east end of the mall. Perhaps that would give them the cover they needed to cross—
A bullet zinging past Brandt’s ear kind of put a crimp in that idea.
Damn it, if only—
The helicopter lowered over the domed glass ceiling. The sound shaking the building. Or was it the wheels of the chopper? Yep, the helicopter was basically bouncing off the steel-reinforced roof. What was the pilot playing at?
Then the helicopter pulled up and away. Maybe the chopper was here only for surveillance. Then it tilted nearly vertical, firing on the ceiling. Glass exploded inward as shattered steel rained down.
Jaw dropped, Brandt watched the helicopter plunge into the opening, flying into the mall. Only then did Brandt realize that his prayers really were answered as a very familiar dark face smiled broadly from the pilot’s seat.
Lopez.
Then the corporal spun the chopper around, shattering store windows with the helo’s tail. Even if Brandt hadn’t recognized Lopez, he’d have known it was him. No one else was this incredibly stupid.
Then those machine guns turned on the sniper’s nest, firing over a hundred rounds a second.
Strike the stupid part. Lopez des
erved a fucking medal.
* * *
Aunush dove to the back of the Louis Vuitton store as a hail of bullets burst from the craft. That was not the Russians. She rolled onto her back, firing as rapidly as her handgun would allow. Aunush would love to believe it was one of her shots that cracked the helicopter’s windshield, but she knew it to be her sniper’s. His gun was not best suited for fighting off a chopper, but he still had saved their lives once again.
The helicopter jerked to the right, getting out of their direct line of sight. It would be back though, and Aunush had no intention of still being here.
Without hesitation, she shot out the scalloped window at the back of the store. Not having any line, she grabbed hanger after hanger of wool pants, and tied them cuff to cuff. Behind her, the sniper had moved to a more forward position in the store. Leaning out from cover long enough to get a few shots off, then ducking behind the large mannequin display.
Securing perhaps the most expensive length of rope, Aunush let out a whistle.
The sniper backed slowly, still taking his random shots to keep the enemy off balance until he stood shoulder to shoulder with her. He couldn’t stop firing. Not if they had any hope of making it out the window without several dozen bullet holes in them. And she liked her figure just the way it was. Rapidly she tied a pant leg around his waist, then lashed herself to him.
He did not even look down as she snugged the fabric. Aunush climbed onto the ledge. Balancing there, she guided the sniper up, as he fired all the while. The helicopter rose up despite the cover fire and turned straight toward the store.
Aunush pushed off the ledge. She and the sniper tumbled backward into the night. Her only hope was that the clothes were as well constructed as the price indicated.
* * *
Rebecca’s thighs complained as they mounted the steps up to the second floor of the mall to rendezvous with Lopez and his crazy looking helicopter. The thing looked more like a fighter jet only without the wings.
The group charged out of the stairwell only to find guns pointed at them. Harvish aimed as he skidded to a stop. Had it really been too much to ask that they just made it to their chopper and out of this damned shopping mall without being shot at?
The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection Page 69