The Lost Power: VanOps, Book 1

by Avanti Centrae

  “You’re right that the idiots have this information on the internet. There’s one system in Northern California, one in Greenland, and one in England. All air force locations.”

  Ivan shook his head.

  Pyotr pantomimed cat claws. “Their other early warning systems are not upgraded, easy for a cyber-squad to take out, so if we take out those three, America will only have three blind mice to protect all its electronics from our war cats.”

  AJ was glued to the bed with horror. America under Russian rule was a terrifying thought. His parents had left Ukraine to escape Russian influence. His arms trembled.

  Pyotr drank off the contents of his tiny glass in one swallow and slammed it on the table with a thud. “I’m going out to find a woman. Your baby over there better be awake when I get back. We have a trip to make.”

  AJ resolved to make Maddy proud and do what he could to stay alive and stop this plot. He understood that these men were attempting to take over his new home, as they had his old country.

  He didn’t like it. Didn’t like it one bit.

  CHAPTER 50

  Vilnius, Lithuania, July 14, 10:15 a.m.:

  The day they planned to find firearms dawned bright and clear, but by the time Maddy, Bear, and Will set off toward the more notorious sections of Vilnius, thick gray clouds were blowing in and stacking up in the east. Sweat from the humidity and the tension dripped down her lower back.

  From their hotel, they took a bus out toward the southern suburbs. It was a quiet ride and Maddy had a moment to feel irritated about the day’s objective as she watched the town go by. How was this going to get them any closer to the next clue?

  The bus transported them from one world to another in a matter of fifteen minutes, with a train track as the delineation point between cultures. It was uncanny how one side of the train tracks held clean, middle-class streets and the other side had trash in the gutters and tired houses with security bars on the windows.

  When the bus deposited them on a gritty commercial street lined with bars, litter, and barely dressed women lounging in doorways, she guessed they were in the right neighborhood. Her sense of apprehension grew.

  Yesterday, buying guns had seemed a poor idea. Today, in the grim light of day, it seemed even worse.

  Maddy looked up one side of the street and down the other. “Bear, do you know where we’re headed?”

  With his quarterstaff, he pointed toward a petrol station, walked that way, and the twins followed a few steps behind him. “I have a rough idea, yes.”

  Maddy turned to Will. “I had another bad dream last night.”

  “I never like to hear those words come out of your mouth,” Will replied.

  “I know, especially after the last one, eh?”

  They walked by a group of several loud, dirty-faced, beer-can-carrying men, one of whom overtly eyed her up and down. Maddy glared at him and was tempted to give him the finger.

  Will turned and watched the lewd men walk on. “But my morbid sense of curiosity won’t allow me to ignore it completely, so do tell.”

  “The good news is it wasn’t about today’s foolish mission.”

  “That’s good. What was it about then?”

  “Oddly enough, it was about AJ,” Maddy replied.

  Bear turned left down a side street and they followed.

  Will scratched his beard. “Really? I haven’t thought about him in a while.”

  “Me neither, we’ve been caught up in other things.”

  “That’s true. Was he in distress? God forbid, dead?”

  “It was more like trouble. I had an image of him riding a butterfly, like a magic carpet, and then he got yanked off it.”

  Bear took a right. They trailed him. Maddy felt like a duckling following its mother.

  “Sounds rather generic,” Will said.

  “It was, but the troubling part is that our blond Russian man was the one who plucked him off the butterfly.”

  “Oh.”

  “I wish we could call and check in,” Maddy said.

  “That would be nice. Hey, what about buying one of those prepaid cell phones here but not using it until we’re somewhere else, maybe en route to our next destination, and making it a super-fast call? Think that would be safe?”

  Maddy liked the idea and patted Will on the back. “Should be. Even if they trace it back here, we’ll be gone.”

  Will tapped his arm scabbard. “Okay, let’s buy a couple. I also want to buy a few more knives.”

  Before she had a chance to respond, Bear motioned them to slow down. He stopped a young man in his early twenties and attempted a conversation in halting Russian.

  He said something that sounded like “arujee,” which she guessed was gun or weapon, and she’d heard pozhaluista enough times to know it meant “please.”

  She wasn’t sure politeness was valued by hoodlums and in this case, it didn’t matter, as Bear struck out. The young man shook vigorously in the universal sign of no, and walked on.

  Dark clouds blew in and covered the sun. A cool wind danced down the street. Maddy took a sweater from her backpack and put it on. Bear kept walking, deeper into the neighborhood, deeper into darkness.

  Maddy’s sense of foreboding grew with every step.

  CHAPTER 51

  10:40 a.m.:

  Bear tried to act like he knew what he was doing, but he had never purchased illegal firearms before. He was modeling his behavior on bad movies, pulp fiction, and raw instinct. With Maddy and Will along for the ride, he hoped it would be enough and he wouldn’t get them all into hot water. Or killed.

  The first man he’d spoken to had pretended to not understand him. Bear knew his Russian was lousy, but from his time in Afghanistan he was sure of how to pronounce a few words and guns was one of them. Buy was another. He’d seen the glint of recognition in the man’s eyes, but for whatever reason, that one had decided to pass on making a few extra dollars.

  As had his second target.

  Bear was nothing though, if not stubborn, and by the time the rain started to sprinkle from the sky, making the Vilnius neighborhood smell decent instead of rancid, the third guy he asked accepted the equivalent of twenty dollars before he led them several blocks deeper into the warren of dirty houses.

  A short walk later and they turned into a long, narrow, dead-end alley. Bear didn’t like the looks of it and said so, in his halting mix of Russian and English.

  His guide had wavy, sand-colored hair, dark-blue, bloodshot eyes, a long angular face, a scrawny goatee and mustache, and a long, narrow nose that had either been broken or was naturally graced with a bump. Too slim for a boxer, maybe he’d just seen the wrong end of a fight or two. The guy wore a tan-colored hoodie, jeans, and black sneakers and reminded Bear of the druggie kids he had known in high school. When he replied to Bear that the necessary house was at the end of the alley and that this was the only route to weapons he knew of, his right eye twitched.

  Bear didn’t trust the guy as far as he could throw him but figured he could throw him if worse came to worst. So, they followed the tan hoodie down the alley and into a small gray house with a tin roof tucked in between several similar shacks. His guide knocked four times in quick succession. The door opened to reveal a robust, middle-aged, dark-haired woman who, Bear guessed, weighed in at over three hundred pounds. She held a cigarette in her hand.

  “Vy gavareeteh pa ru-sky?”

  Bear recognized the “do you speak Russian” phrase. “Net. Vy gavareeteh pa anglisky?” No, he replied, you speak English?

  She laughed. “Da, you do speak some Russian. I speak some English. You come in, we talk.”

  Next, she ushered him and the twins inside and shut the door. The guide stayed outside in the light rain.

  They stood in a modest kitchen that had room for a rugged farmhouse table with four fifties-style metal chairs, an old gas stove, a dirty, white, cracked kitchen sink with a faucet dripping rusty water, a type of refrigerator that Bear had nev
er seen before, and cluttered Formica countertops. It smelled of cigarette smoke, burnt coffee, and old sneakers. Bear tried to not wrinkle his nose. How hard is it to make coffee?

  She took a drag of her smoke. “You sit. You have tea, yes?”

  They agreed to tea, although Bear decided to not drink much. It could be drugged. At least she hadn’t offered the burnt coffee.

  The kitchen seemed too small for the woman, or the woman too large for the kitchen. She struggled around the chairs but managed to get out four cups, saucers, and tea. The water on the stove was already hot.

  Eventually, she fell into her chair and knocked the ash off her cigarette. The chair groaned. “You American. In this neighborhood. Not up to good things. What you want?”

  “We have some bad men chasing us. Not our fault. We want protection.”

  Her eyes told him she didn’t follow, so Bear added, “Protection...guns.” He made the universal sign for a gun with his thumb and finger.

  She got that and laughed again, a hearty smoker’s laugh. “Ah, bang bang. Americans, you always want guns.” Pausing, she looked them over. They were dressed as summer college backpackers. “Guns expensive.”

  Bear was prepared for this and had asked Maddy to give him two of her smaller diamonds. He took one out of his pocket, polished it with his shirt, and put it on the table. “We want six pistols, two each, with ammo and a backpack.” Just in case she didn’t get it, he put out five fingers and a thumb.

  Quickly, she reached out to pick up the diamond and held it to the hanging bulb that acted as kitchen table light. Her eyebrows went up. She put it back on the table, pushed the chair out, walked over to a drawer, and returned with a jeweler’s loupe.

  Again, she raised it to the light. “Is real but is small.” She pushed it back to him. “I show you what you get for small diamond.”

  She walked out of the kitchen, trailing smoke.

  Maddy took a sip of her tea. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  Bear motioned to her tea, shook his head, and moved his forefinger across his throat. “Don’t drink too much of that.”

  Realization of the danger dawned in her eyes and she put it down. “Good point.”

  Their hostess walked back in, carrying several old Springfield Taurus pistols that Bear hadn’t realized were still in circulation. She handed one to Bear, who took a quick look at it and handed it back. His heart pounded.

  He hoped this bluff would pan out. “Too old. Probably not work. Sig Sauer or Glock.”

  The woman looked at him and tilted her head. “I have four Glock. But cost two diamond.”

  Bear wished for some good ole-fashioned sweet tea to help with his nerves. “Let me see.”

  Turning, she left and returned, faster this time. She handed him a black Glock. At least it looked newer. “I bring you one. You like, you give me diamonds. I give you three more, with ammo and backpack.”

  Bear picked it up. A G25. He’d heard about these. Introduced in the mid-nineties in Germany. It felt good in his hand. Solid. He unclipped the magazine. Empty. He popped it back in and then gave her back the jewel. “Here is the one diamond. You bring three more like this, with a spare magazine each, along with a backpack to carry and I give you other diamond.”

  She grinned. “Deal.”

  For some reason, her smile reminded Bear of a wolf playing with a rabbit.

  Within minutes, they had completed the trade. Two diamonds for a backpack, four guns, empty magazines, and five boxes of ammunition. Bear started to load up one of the weapons.

  The woman shook her head and hissed. “No! You load outside.”

  Bear considered ignoring her, but the look in her eye and the petite gun that unexpectedly appeared in her hand cemented his decision to go along with her request.

  All the unloaded weapons ended up in the backpack. Bear toted it like a grocery bag as they walked out the door. A silent sigh of relief escaped his lips as they walked into the empty alley. Their guide had disappeared.

  Bear hadn’t liked that woman, but he had pulled it off! He gave Will a thumbs-up, which Will reciprocated.

  They were two houses back down the alley when movement caught his eye. Four masked men jumped from the low-roofed houses and landed in the middle of the backstreet, blocking their way to the alley exit. Bad odds!

  CHAPTER 52

  10:55 a.m.:

  As Maddy, Will, and Bear walked back down the Vilnius alley after completing the arms deal, two things happened at once.

  Bear yelled, “Look out!”

  Simultaneously, Maddy noticed four masked thugs, thirty feet away, brandishing weapons. Headed their way.

  One man carried a small bat, another, a knife. Two appeared unarmed. But one of those was already making a menacing beeline toward her.

  Most of their valuables were in the hotel safe. These men either wanted the weapons, blood, or both. Her pulse raced--either the Russians had brought in reinforcements or they’d been betrayed by their “guide.”

  The thug with the bully stick rushed Will, moving fast. Will gracefully sidestepped the guy. That worked, cool. Will reached for a knife and threw it at his attacker, who was five feet away and turning back fast. The blade whistled by the brute’s head and landed in a heap of garbage at the end of the alley. Will swore.

  In front of her, two men circled Bear, one with a knife and one without. Bear tossed the backpack behind him and whirled his staff like a baton, causing the muscles in his broad shoulders to flex with the effort. The thief’s knife glistened in the light rain.

  Movement caught her eye. The baton-wielding mugger swung around and came at Will again. Will was able to use his attacker’s momentum to grab the thug’s wrist and twist, but the man was stronger than Will and broke his grip, then punched him in the stomach. Will doubled over in pain. The brute wasted no time thumping Will on the head.

  Like a tall, collapsing building, Will passed out and crumpled to the wet street.

  It was clear to Maddy that she’d had a bad feeling about this outing for a reason. Now she felt angry but engaged, lit like a torch. Her unarmed attacker and the brute that had just dropped Will headed toward her. The original attacker got to her first, but came in too fast, and she tripped him. On his stomach, he skidded on the wet street and hit his head on a wall. That left her open to the thug with the bat, who swiped her right arm as he moved toward her. A grunt from Bear distracted her, allowing the attacker to get his arms around her from behind.

  With her arms pinned against her body and her back up against his chest, she struggled in his grip. He stank--a potent mixture of body odor and alcohol.

  Maddy thrashed and writhed, but she was restrained too closely. Her martial arts moves didn’t work. Perhaps he was trained as well. And he was strong! Part of her wondered if this group had anything to do with the people that Will thought were following them, or if the Russians sent them. As she tried to get free, she could hear Bear and an assailant trading punches. Something clattered down the street. That knife? Bear’s staff? She worried for him, knowing it was two against one.

  Resorting to schoolyard moves, she scraped her boot along the front of her attacker’s shin. A rewarding grunt of pain followed. His grip on her arms loosened, and she sensed a movement like he had slumped toward her a bit, which prompted her to elbow up at him. He was short and she connected with his face. An eye, a nose? She didn’t know, but he yelped and backed off. Maddy turned and kicked him in the solar plexus. That dropped him. A final vital point strike to the temple rendered him unconscious and she said a silent thanks to her sensei for teaching the controversial atemi, or striking moves. At least she didn’t have to kill the man.

  She turned to see Bear in action. Although he had lost his staff, he looked like he knew what he was doing. There was one motionless man on the ground nearby. Bear connected a sound punch into the neck of another. The punch looked bone-crunchingly painful and caused the hoodlum to gasp and fall to his knees. Neither assailant was still
holding a knife. With those two down, Bear paused to look at her and catch his breath. She was glad he was on her team.

  Then, before she could yell a warning, the formerly motionless, decked-out mugger who had been on the ground behind Bear, got up and bowled into him from a crouch. The slippery street proved Bear’s undoing. He lost purchase, and the hood managed to knock Bear’s legs out from under him. Bear went down on his shoulder with a hard thud. The successful mugger grabbed the backpack with the guns and took off down the alley at a dead sprint.

  CHAPTER 53

  3:15 p.m.:

  Inside their suite of rooms at a hotel in Vilnius, Maddy had Will resting on the couch with an ice bag on the right side of his head. She and Bear had been watching her brother for several hours and she felt concerned.

  Will opened one eye. “Where are we?”

  “Vilnius. In the hotel room,” Maddy replied.

  “Maddy?”

  “Yes, it’s me, Will.”

  “Wow, my head hurts.” Will gingerly moved the ice bag. “It’s like there’s a big bass drum in there.”

  “It probably does hurt. You got whacked upside your head.”

  “I did? What happened?”

  Maddy exchanged a worried look with Bear. “We were in an alley, do you remember?”

  “An alley...oh--right. Merda! We were buying guns. Guess that didn’t work out, huh?”

  “No, not so well.”

  “Cops are after me and we’re on a doomed quest to find something...what are we looking for?”

  “Something our ancestor Ramiro hid a long, long time ago. We think they’re superconductive obelisks inside a châsse but aren’t sure.”

  “Superconductors. Oh no. I remember now. Russians are trying to kill us.”