Change of Heart by Jack Allen

by Unknown

  She glanced at the glass door at the end of the hall, then at Mironov’s office door. No, it was too risky. She didn’t know who else was in the office and they might be armed. She doubted she could kill both of them before one of them killed her. Better to escape now and figure out how to deal with Mironov later.

  One of them spoke the word Amerikanski and she strained her ears to listen. Mironov spoke next. She crawled closer to the door on her hands and knees.

  “As soon as I hear from Baretsky ...” Baretsky! Valeria was shocked. Her mouth fell open.

  “ ... that McGowan has contacted Kurchenko, I will have my men ready to meet him. They will not be merciful.” They laughed and she heard the clink of glasses.

  Valeria slumped backward to the far wall, feeling like she’d been punched in the stomach. Baretsky was Mironov’s spy. She couldn’t believe it. And Joshua was coming here to meet Yuri and Change of Heart

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  Nikita. How had he found out about them? And Baretsky was going to betray him to Mironov. Her head shook. This wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be happening. She had to get to Yuri so he could warn his brother about Baretsky before he got them all killed.

  She went to the glass door. To her relief it wasn’t locked and there were no alarms when she pushed it open.

  The air outside was cool and fresh. It was also very dark. She had to stop to get her bearings. Which way did she go to get out of there? She heard a couple of trains nearby. To her right was a large, open space of blackness. To her left, she could make out the high walls of the building she just left.

  The trains might be a clue to where she was. Mironov said they were close to Moscow. Maybe she was near the train yards on the south side of the city. If that was so, she could lose herself among the trains and get away. She went to the left.

  Her shoes crunched on the gravel, no matter how softly she tried to walk. She stayed close to the wall and watched for guards who might be patrolling. A movement to her right alerted her.

  There was one now.

  She could see him under one of the overhead lights. He was a young guy, wore a simple uniform with a cap, carried a machine gun over his shoulder, and was smoking a cigarette. Valeria froze against the wall, willing herself to be one of the bricks. The guard looked around, flicked the cigarette away, and walked off along the building in the opposite direction.

  Valeria breathed a sigh of relief. If he had seen her, she would be dead. She would have tried to kill him with the bulky pistol that barely fit her small hand and he would have filled her with lead.

  She went around the corner and ran right into a man in a uniform. She bounced backward a step. In the darkness, she was sure Baretsky had found her and was going to kill her. She felt a panic and wanted to scream, but fought it down. Remembering the pistol, she raised it in both hands to shoot the man in the face, but one of his hands pulled her wrist to the side before she 284

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  could shoot, and his other hand clamped over her mouth. Her eyes were wide with fear and she stared up at the face she could not see.

  “Take it easy,” a voice said in English. “You don’t want to kill me. Yuri would be pretty upset if I didn’t get you out of here.” It was Joshua, she realized. She was so overcome with relief she burst into tears.

  Josh pulled Valeria to his chest and put his arm around her. She sobbed into the uniform jacket. He looked down at the Makarov he took from her hands, wondering, How the hell did she get that?

  “It’s ok,” he whispered, stroking her back.

  She gave him a hell of a shock. He was watching that guard, ready to drop him where he stood. Josh was thankful he hadn’t seen his outline pressed against the wall. When the kid flicked the cigarette and turned away, Josh let down his guard, then Valeria came around the corner like a race car and ran right into him.

  For a brief instant he was looking down the cavernous barrel of the Makarov. He recognized who she was, but to her, he was one of Mironov’s men in a uniform.

  Valeria started talking rapidly in English between her sobs.

  Josh heard something about Baretsky and Mironov and Yuri, but couldn’t follow it. She started crying again and he hugged her to his chest.

  “We have to warn Yuri about Baretsky,” she said.

  “Don’t worry about him. He’s dead.”

  “Dead?”

  Josh nodded, forgetting she couldn’t see him in the darkness.

  “Nikita killed him.”

  “Then we can get out of here,” she said.

  Josh hesitated. “Not yet.”

  She looked up at him with horror in her eyes. “Why not?”

  “There’s one more thing I have to do.” She searched his eyes. “What?”

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  Josh did not anticipate doing this to her. He sort of planned to get her after he got the Doctor. Now she would just have to wait a little longer to be reunited with Yuri.

  “I’ve got to see a doctor,” Josh said, as he put the Makarov back in her hand. He looked at the buildings around them, trying to remember the rough layout Kurchenko had sketched. “I think it’s over this way.”

  He led her across the short open space between the buildings, in the direction the patrolling guard went, staying out of the light as much as they could. Josh stopped at the corner of the next building and tried the door. It clicked open.

  “Let’s go,” he whispered.

  They ducked inside and he shut the door. They were in a warehouse. It was a huge, open space with a high ceiling, and quiet as a tomb. The scuffing sounds of their shoes echoed off the walls. Josh made Valeria stand still and he listened, fearful their entrance was heard. They were in luck. There were no voices or shouts of warning. The building was deserted.

  A few of the lights in the ceiling were on, casting a dim, eerie orange glow over the interior. Across the warehouse, built against the far wall, was a row of offices, which appeared short and stubby against the high wall.

  Each office was constructed alike. The facing wall contained a single solid door and a large picture window that looked out on the warehouse floor. One of the offices was occupied. Light spilled out over the warehouse floor from the picture window.

  That would be where the Doctor was. Josh just hoped he was alone.

  He pointed at the office with the barrel of his Smith & Wesson. He had attached a long silencer to the end. Valeria looked at the office, then at Josh. She seemed to understand, although she didn’t appear too happy about it.

  They were crouched behind a stack of crates. Josh had his hand on one. He glanced at it, then looked closer. Something about it looked familiar. Painted on the side of each crate in Russian were the words “Machine Parts”. There were twenty four of 286

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  them on a single pallet. He looked down the row. There were a dozen pallets, each stacked with about twenty four crates, all identical to the crates he and Jerry had destroyed in Al Hadithah.

  “Oh my God,” Josh muttered.

  “What?” Valeria said.

  Josh shook his head. “Nothing.”

  He didn’t want her to see his dismay. The thought of all this undetectable plastic explosive being used all over the world and the amount of killing it could do made him angry. He had to figure out a way to destroy it.

  The open area across the warehouse floor between where they stood and the office door seemed like a mile. If anyone spotted them while they were crossing it, they would be stuck out in the open with nowhere to hide. He took Valeria’s hand and hurried across the floor to the offices. They stopped with their backs against the wall.

  Josh was jittery. This unusual quietness unnerved him. Did Mironov have a trap waiting for him? If so, he’d have to know Josh was coming here. Certainly Mironov would have sprung it on him long before this. There were at least a dozen places where they could have trapped him. Which must have meant Mironov didn’t know he was already there. He must have b
een waiting for some word from Baretsky, and it never came.

  Josh creeped to the door of the occupied office. Peering around the edge of the window, he saw a man sitting at a desk with his back to the door. He was middle aged and balding, and wore a white lab coat over a cheap blue suit. Josh turned the knob. The door opened and he went in, keeping Valeria behind him. The office was a lab. On the desk where the man was working was an American computer. In the middle of the room was a counter with test tubes and vials of chemicals.

  “You’re early,” the man at the desk said in broken Russian without turning around. “I’ll have those formulas for you in a few minutes.”

  Josh was sure it was the one he was looking for. Walt’s description was of a middle aged, balding man. He turned in his Change of Heart

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  chair and Josh recognized Dr. Otto Jones from the photo Walt had shown him, although this man had less hair and looked much more weary. Josh was sure a little time under Mironov could do worse things to a man.

  “Ah, I was expecting someone else,” Jones said. Josh realized the uniform made the Doctor, too, think he was one of Mironov’s men. “What can I do for you, captain is it?” Jones said, looking at the insignia on the jacket’s lapel.

  Josh raised his gun. “You can come with me, Dr. Jones,” he said in English.

  Jones’ expression changed from curiosity to shock. The color drained from his face.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  Beads of sweat appeared on his bald head and his hands gripped the arms of the chair. Josh took off the hat. His face was set in stone. He felt nothing but contempt for this man, who had been the cost of so many lives for Josh to get this far.

  “Josh McGowan, U.S. Naval Intelligence. You’re under arrest.”

  Jones harumphed and grinned. “I was wondering when you boys would get around to something like this. But I have to tell you, I was expecting the CIA not ... what was it you said?”

  “Naval Intelligence,” Josh said, feeling bewildered.

  It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Jones was supposed to be intimidated by him. Didn’t he know how furious he was with him?

  “That’s right. You’ll forgive me if I don’t recognize your authority,” Jones said, and turned back to his computer.

  Josh clenched his fists. His face turned red. His blood was boiling.

  “Maybe you don’t understand,” he shouted, and spun the chair around. Jones finally looked frightened, to Josh’s satisfaction. “You’re making explosives out there for terrorists to kill hundreds of innocent people.”

  He pointed to the crates in the warehouse. Jones’ eyes followed the direction of his arm.

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  “How is that different from what you’re doing?” Jones said.

  Josh sputtered, too flustered and furious to speak. Before he could, Jones shrugged.

  “Besides, none of it’s any good,” he said. “It’s all unstable.

  All of it.” He made an all encompassing sweeping motion with his arm. “After a few months or so it becomes more dangerous to those who make the bombs than those who are the bomber’s targets.”

  “Then why did you sell it to the Iraqis?” Jones shrugged again. “What do I care? These Communists need cash right away to keep themselves afloat and the Iraqis were paying, sight unseen. They’ll probably use it all up before it destabilizes, anyway.”

  “No, they won’t. I destroyed it.”

  Jones looked surprised. “Well. Good for you.” Josh grabbed Jones by his jacket and lifted him out of the chair.

  “You’re coming with me,” he said.

  Valeria stepped forward. “You’re bringing him with us?” she demanded, her eyes wide with astonishment.

  Jones looked at her like she’d materialized out of nowhere.

  “Yes. He’ll stand trial for selling secrets.”

  “You can’t do that.”

  “Why not?” Josh was confused.

  Why didn’t she want him to stand trial?

  “He’ll get us killed before we can get out of here.” Josh hesitated, feeling stupid for missing her point. “Not if we-”

  Valeria raised the Makarov and fired two shots into Jones’

  body. Josh felt him shudder as each bullet hit, then he slumped in his arms. Josh stared at Valeria with his mouth open, disbeliev-ing.

  “Why did you do that?” he said.

  She aimed the gun at him. He could see her hands trembling.

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  “Because you were going to let him get us killed.” Her voice was cold.

  “If I thought that I would have killed him myself.”

  “You should have thought that.”

  Josh hesitated, staring hard at Valeria. He began to wonder who this person was that he worked so hard to keep alive.

  “Maybe you should kill me, too,” he said. “You don’t want me to slow you down.”

  “Maybe I should.” They glared at each other, then Valeria lowered the pistol. “Promise me one thing.” She released the hammer and tucked the pistol into her belt.

  “What?”

  “When this is done, you let me and Yuri walk away, no questions.”

  Josh nodded. “All right.”

  He glanced down at the body at his feet. He felt nothing for the Doctor. He was actually glad he was dead. He would have killed him himself if he didn’t have orders to bring him back.

  Walt wouldn’t be too happy about this, of course, but then, he was rarely happy about anything Josh did. He’d just have to deal with that when he got to it.

  Josh turned to the desk. The computer was still running. He remembered that Jones had mentioned something about formulas.

  It looked like he was working on those chemical formulas on the computer. Josh set his gun down and sat at the desk.

  “Can we get out of here?” Valeria said.

  “Just a minute. I have to do something.” Josh’s mind was working. Jones said the explosive was unstable. If that was so, he wouldn’t have to worry about the hundreds of crates in the warehouse. But if Jones was working on improving it, he might have been close to perfecting it. All his work would be on the computer, where someone else could get it and have a chance to complete his work. Josh had to erase it. What was the best way to do that? He desperately tried to remember his computer experience. He could reformat the 290

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  hard drive, that would be permanent. But he wasn’t sure how to do that. The image on the monitor screen was unfamiliar. The computer seemed to be running some sort of operating system Josh wasn’t familiar with. He could simply put a bullet through the hard drive. That would be more permanent yet.

  Valeria decided she had to get out on her own. She had managed to get through her life this far on her own. She would figure out how to get through the rest of it, if she could make it last long enough. Quietly, she slipped out the door. Josh never turned to check on her. She crossed the warehouse floor back the way they came, opened the door and stepped out. A bright light shined at her and she stopped, shielding her eyes with her hand.

  “You weren’t going anywhere, were you?” Mironov said.

  She heard his voice coming from the direction of the light, then heard footsteps crunching in the gravel. He stepped in front of the truck’s headlights.

  Valeria lowered her hand, feeling defiant. “You can go to hell.”

  “That would do no good for either of us.” He stepped toward her. She saw he had a gun in his hand.

  She should run. Josh said Mironov needed her alive. Would he shoot her in the back to stop her? It was worth the risk.

  Valeria took a step backward and was grabbed from behind.

  She tried to scream, but a powerful hand clamped over her mouth.

  She struggled. The arms lifted her off the ground and carried her toward the truck.

  “I can’t let you run away now,” Mironov said as she was carried past h
im. “Tomorrow is your big day. Tomorrow we go to the Kremlin.”

  Josh hit the return key to begin the re-partition of the hard drive, and all the information on it was wiped away like a wet towel on a chalkboard. Now all he had to do was see if Jones had anything backed up on disks.

  “That takes care of that,” he said. There was no answer.

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  “Valeria?” he said, looking around. “Val?” She was gone.

  “Oh, man,” he muttered, and ran out of the office.

  The warehouse was silent. Would she hide in here? He was pretty sure she wouldn’t.

  As he went to the door he tried to figure out why she would bolt. She was in a lot of danger. Did she think she was safer on her own? He considered that idea as he pushed the warehouse door open and went out. Maybe she was. Maybe he should let her go.

  A burst of gunfire kicked up the gravel at his feet. Josh dove to his left and rolled, scolding himself for being distracted. He was in a crouch with his back against the wall of the warehouse, in the open with no cover in sight.

  Mironov was standing beside the open door of a truck. Valeria was in the backseat and someone else was driving. Beside Mironov were four soldiers with Kalashnikovs leveled at him.

  Beneath their uniform jackets they wore white shirts with thin horizontal blue stripes. Spetznaz, elite soldiers.

  “Not today, McGowan,” Mironov said in English. “Today you lose. Tomorrow I win.”

  He thumped his chest with his fist. Josh hesitated a second.

  He wanted to say something. His last words should be memorable, but he could think of nothing. So he ran off around the corner of the building.

  Mironov looked at his soldiers. They looked back at him.

  “What are you waiting for? Go get him,” he shouted.

  Shots from behind Josh rattled off the metal wall of the warehouse. Josh ducked his head and ran around the next corner.

  They would be fanning out to surround him. He had nowhere to run. The fence had him trapped and they would keep him penned in until they could cut him down. He had to come up with a way to get outside the fence, but how? They would be waiting for him at the front gate, unless he could divert their attention. And what could he do to make that happen?