But not Polina, no, not Polina, for her short life would end in a matter of days, and in a place where she would likely never be found.
Pavel was taking her to a remote section of wilderness southeast of Barnaul. Unfortunately for Pavel, that area was not as sparsely populated as it usually was, and he would soon cross paths with a man who was even deadlier than himself, an assassin named Tanner.
3
No Worries, Mate
“Tannnnnerrrr, come out, come out, wherever you are. Oh, wait, you’re right over there, cowering behind that airplane engine like a regular pussy.”
Brian chuckled, as his mates laughed along.
“What an asshole,” Sara said, but Tanner was glad that the man liked to talk. It gave him the time he needed to prepare.
“Me and the boys here all heard what a rip snorter of a hard ass you are. Some bullshit about how you killed a Mexican cartel leader. And oh, yeah, now there’s a rumor floating around that you whacked that arsehole Maurice Scallato. Bullshit I say, we got you easy. What did you do, Tanner, hire a PR firm to make that shit up? Now listen, mate, send out the woman. There’s no reason she should die too… at least, not right away.”
Sara spoke low enough so that only Tanner could hear her.
“Matthews wants me alive so he can torture me. I had him beaten so he would give up the money he’d stolen from Conrad Burke.”
Tanner slung an M16 across his back. It was loaded with a High-Capacity magazine that held 60 rounds. He then caressed Sara’s cheek as he spoke to her, and noted that her skin was as cold as the ice they were squatting on.
“Talk to this idiot while I get in position.”
Sara looked him over.
“I’m worried about you.”
“I’ll be fine. Besides, it’s the only way we’ll get out of this.”
“Hey Tanner! Smith described that sheila of yours. I’ve got to say, she sounds hot, yes sir, I crack a fat just thinking about her.”
“Brian,” Sara said.
“The sheila speaks! What is it, luv?”
“The man who hired you, do you know his real name?”
“He said it was Smith and that’s good enough for me. Now luv, are you ready to come on out from behind there? We’ll warm you up, oh yes we will.”
“If you touch me, I’ll kill you.”
“Ha, Smith said you were a tough bitch. He also wants to torture you. Me and me mates having a go at you might qualify as torture. There have been times when we’ve left a woman worse for wear.”
“You’re a pig, Brian.”
The huge Aussie shivered and rolled his massive shoulders, as the cold began to penetrate his thick hide.
“Tanner, come on now, let’s finish this. And I’ve got to say, I was hoping you’d be more of a challenge.”
Tanner’s voice came from behind Brian.
“No worries, mate.”
The big man spun around just as Tanner opened fire.
Brian caught the first rounds from the M16 across his stomach. Tanner moved the rifle right to left in an ascending path, which blew the head off the last of the men, while leaving the others with multiple torso wounds.
Firing the weapon accurately took more effort and control than normal, because Tanner was shivering.
He was almost naked, but was wearing a pair of boxers along with his socks. He had entered the near-freezing water by the plane wreckage to swim under the lake ice and emerge out of the aperture the plane had made upon first impact.
While climbing out of the water, Tanner had been vulnerable. It had taken precious seconds for him to make it to his feet and shake the rifle free of water.
Sara had kept Brian occupied by talking to him, and was overjoyed when she heard Tanner’s voice.
She had simply dipped her hand in the water when he told her his plan, and felt her fingers go numb. As tough as he was, Sara had been afraid that Tanner would succumb to the cold before he could resurface.
She stepped from behind the plane’s engine. The other four men were lying atop the ice, while Brian was on his knees.
When the Aussie attempted to reach for his rifle, he was struck from behind with shots fired by Sara, who then finished off one of the other men who was screaming in agony.
Meanwhile, Tanner had turned and let loose three rounds at the helicopter. His goal had been to scare the pilot into giving up.
Instead, the pilot, who had been looking on aghast at the turn of events, became animated. The chopper rose into the sky and flew away.
Sara went to Tanner with his clothes under her arm, including fresh underwear. She also carried the bag that contained their weapons. After setting the clothes atop the bag to keep them dry, she wiped away the water on Tanner’s skin.
“Let me dry you off first with this T-shirt, and oh, how cold you must be. The water on your skin is turning to ice.”
Tanner’s teeth chattered as his body convulsed, then, he spoke with difficulty.
“Help me… with the rifle first… it’s stuck to my hands.”
Sara winced as she held the M16 and watched Tanner rip his hands free of the cold metal. She had no doubt that he’d left some skin behind on the gun.
“Plane, Yaromir… he had a thermos of something.”
“Yes! I remember, I’ll get it,” Sara said.
Sara returned to the plane and realized for the first time that she was limping. Adrenaline had anesthetized her from the pain of her knee injury, but it was making itself known. She moaned with sadness as she looked at Yaromir’s ravaged body, while also removing the thermos from the floor of the plane.
The blue plastic thermos was dented, but intact, and she could hear liquid sloshing around inside it.
Tanner was putting on his boots over fresh socks by the time she returned. Sara gave him some of what looked like soup from the lid of the thermos. As soon as the warm liquid entered him, the shivering ceased.
“Ah, that’s good,” Tanner said. “It’s kharcho, it’s a soup made with lamb and rice.”
Sara took a sip, then made a face of surprise.
“It’s tangy, but the warmth feels lovely going down.”
A soft moan came from their right. It was Brian, who still clung to life.
Tanner walked over, grabbed the man by his blond hair, and slid him across the ice, and toward the hole he had climbed out of minutes earlier.
“It’s time for you to return down under,” Tanner said.
Brian made a gurgling sound that might have been a protest, but it had no sway with Tanner. He shoved the big man head first into the water.
Afterwards, they finished the soup and got busy gathering up supplies. This included taking a set of boots off one of the dead men, and exchanging the frozen M16 for Brian’s AK-47. After that, they sent Brian’s fellow mercs into the water to join him.
The boots were for Sara, who put them on over three sets of thick socks, since the stylish shoes she had been wearing were no good for the rugged terrain they faced.
Their cell phones were useless, as there were no relay towers nearby, and as they gazed around, they saw only nature looking back at them.
Tanner pointed a gloved hand northward.
“We’ll head back towards Barnaul. We should get a cell signal long before we reach it.”
“How far do you think it is?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s certainly not close. Damn me for not paying more attention.”
“We’ll be fine. The threat is over.”
“No, this won’t be over until Matthews or whoever hired Brian is dead. If it was Matthews, he must have spotted us in Barnaul and thought we were there looking for him. That assumption will cost him his life.”
Tanner and Sara headed north across the frozen lake and toward a forest of pines. They were unaware that a snowstorm had shifted direction and was heading their way, and equally oblivious to the fact that Brian and his friends were only the beginning of the threats they would face.
4
What Do You Mean They’re Dead?
The helicopter pilot who had flown Brian and the other men to what would be their doom, relayed their fate to Dan Matthews, who he knew by the name of Smith.
They were standing inside a large airplane hangar on a private airfield, which the pilot owned, along with two partners.
The pilot was named Fedor. Fedor was a good looking devil with a rakish smile. His sense of adventure had often gotten him into trouble, both in and out of bed. Fedor’s current love interest was a sexy blond named Liliya. Liliya had walked out on her husband to be with Fedor, who she found exciting.
Liliya’s ex-husband was named Nikolai. Nikolai was Fedor’s partner in the airfield, he was also a pilot and mechanic.
Liliya pointed at the bullet marks in the helicopter’s windshield.
“You were fired at?”
“After Tanner killed the Australians he turned his gun on me. I got the hell out of there. Smith, you might want to leave Barnaul and head somewhere else.”
Dan Matthews looked disgusted by the turn of events. He had spent a good chunk of the remaining money he had hiring the Australian mercenaries. It was money he’d come by after breaking into the home of an old friend and robbing him.
The friend had been a hoarder of gold coins, who foolishly kept them in velvet-lined drawers in his basement rec room.
Matthews had left the house while carrying away over twenty pounds of gold, just seconds before the police arrived. Most of that money went to purchasing a new identity and leaving America. Then, just when he felt safe, he spotted Sara Blake with Tanner, as they came out of a hotel.
At first, Matthews didn’t know who Tanner was. He had seen a sketch of the man, had talked to him on the phone, but had never met him in person. He asked a bartender in the hotel’s lounge if he knew the man’s name.
The bartender was a stocky man with a trim beard and ready smile. He told Matthews that he wasn’t allowed to discuss the hotel’s guests with anyone.
Matthews slid enough Russian rubles across the bar to loosen the man’s tongue and the bartender leaned forward and whispered.
“He’s checked in under the name Thomas Myers.”
Matthews searched his memory for anyone he’d known with that name and came up blank. Perhaps Sara Blake wasn’t after him, but was simply in Russia as a tourist.
“Thanks, is there anything else you can tell me about the man or the woman?”
The bartender grinned.
“I can tell you I wish she were my woman.”
Matthews had frowned at that. Sara Blake was beautiful and he had fantasized about her himself on occasion, that is, before she had him beaten to a pulp. Since then, all he felt toward the woman was hatred.
Matthews turned away from the bar, but the bartender called him back.
“Mister.”
“What?”
“The lady, she calls the man by another name.”
“What, like a nickname?”
“I don’t think so. It’s a proper surname.”
Matthews leaned over the bar again.
“What is it?”
The bartender’s grin was huge.
“I’m sorry, but as I said before, I’m not allowed to—”
Matthews tossed more money at the man before he could finish his act.
“Tell me the other name before I lose my temper.”
The bartender had scooped up the money and laughed. He was several inches taller than Matthews, had more muscle, and was years younger.
“You couldn’t beat me up on the best day of your life.”
“No, but I can hire men to come here and break you into pieces. Do you understand me?”
The bartender’s face lost its humorous expression and he spoke in a monotone.
“Thomas Myers, the lady calls him by the name of Tanner.”
“Tanner? Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
The fact that Sara and Tanner were a couple hadn’t surprised Matthews, since Sara Blake was the one who had recommended the Burke Corporation hire the hit man.
How Blake and Tanner had tracked him down he couldn’t imagine, and there was no way that he could leave them alive. If Tanner was involved, it meant his life was at stake. As far as Matthews knew, it was kill or be killed.
Matthews feared Tanner more than he dreaded going back to prison. They wouldn’t kill him in prison, but Tanner would see him dead, unless Matthews acted to prevent that from happening.
Matthews left the hotel and took a cab toward the outskirts of town. There was a topless bar there where he knew he could find muscle to hire. That muscle had been Brian and his men.
“Fedor,” Matthews said. “If I got more men would you be willing to fly them to where Tanner is?”
“First, you tell me the truth. Who is Tanner?”
“He’s just a man I owe for causing me trouble.”
“No, I heard the mercenaries talking in my helicopter. My English isn’t great, but I know that they made Tanner sound like a big deal.”
Matthews was about to lie, but then figured it was useless.
“Tanner is a hit man, and apparently one hard bastard to kill. Although, many have tried.”
A gleam entered Fedor’s eyes.
“So, killing this man would make one famous?”
“To those in the know, yes.”
“Hmm, like the old-time gunslingers in your country, if you kill the fastest gun in the west, you become the fastest gun in the west.”
“Something like that, yeah, so will you fly for me again?”
“Da, the same price as before. But, not in this chopper. I nearly froze to death with the door off, and I need to replace the windshield.”
“Fly whatever you want. I’ll be back soon. I think I know where I can get help.”
Matthews left the hanger and Liliya wrapped her arms around Fedor’s neck. She had to reach up to do so, as she was nearly a foot shorter than her lover.
“I’ll come too,” Liliya said, “I’d love to get a look at this man, Tanner. He sounds like he’s something else.”
“What’s this about Tanner?” said a voice from the doorway. The voice belonged to Nikolai, Liliya’s ex-husband. Nikolai was a tall man with curly dark hair who wore a perpetual look of worry.
Nikolai saw Liliya more often than when they were married, because she spent most of her time hanging around Fedor. Liliya didn’t know a thing about aviation, but she was a partner in the business, having been awarded half of Nikolai’s fifty-percent interest during their divorce.
“That man, Tanner, he nearly shot Fedor out of the sky,” Liliya said.
Nikolai’s hands flew to his head as he gripped handfuls of hair.
“Fedor, you idiot! I told you not to get involved with Smith and those damn Australians. What did they do, did they kill Tanner?”
“They weren’t man enough, Nikolai,” Liliya said. “But Fedor is, and he will hunt down Tanner and kill him.”
Nikolai moved his head back and forth rapidly, as if to shake loose the words he’d just heard.
“That’s insane. Do you realize who Tanner is? They say he’s the best killer in the world.”
Liliya laughed, as she pantomimed holding an assault rifle.
“He was better than the Australians, that’s for sure. Fedor said he cut them all down with a machine gun while naked.”
“Naked?” Nikolai said. “Whatever, go after him, Fedor. Maybe Tanner will give you what you deserve.”
Liliya hugged Fedor.
“I’m going with him. I want to see him kill Tanner.”
“No! Liliya, are you crazy? What if Tanner turns his gun on you?”
“Fedor will protect me.”
“Fedor? Fedor is nothing but a punk.”
Liliya laughed, then winked.
“He’s more of a man then you’ll ever be, Nikolai, and in more ways than one.”
Nikolai glared at Liliya, but there was no hate in his ey
es. Even knowing that she had only married him because he had money hadn’t killed his love for her. However, there was hate in Nikolai, and it was directed toward Fedor.
“Tell Liliya she can’t go. It will be too dangerous for her.”
“Liliya can do what she wants. I don’t own her.”
“It’s not about owning her, you idiot, it’s about keeping her safe.”
Fedor smiled, but there was no humor in his eyes.
“Do you remember the fight we had, Nikolai, or do I need to kick your ass again?”
Nikolai let out a huff, then spun on his heels and left the hanger.
“Fedor?”
“Yes, Liliya?”
“We need to find a new partner.”
Fedor laughed.
“I like the way you think.”
The airfield bordered a piece of land where a strip club was located.
The dancing was a cover for the prostitution that went on behind the scenes. The club attracted the worst of the city’s residents, while offering up some of its hottest women. Liliya had worked there for a time, until Nikolai fell in love with the stripper and married her.
The bar’s founder was a man named Ivan Dumonovsky. Dumonovsky had been a shrewd man, who, as a young boy, had lived through the hell that was the Siege of Leningrad. As a man, Ivan used his wits and fists to gain his wealth. Ivan passed away weeks earlier, and now his two sons owned the business.
They were Gleb and Aleksandr, the Dumonovsky brothers. Gleb and Aleksandr were not shrewd, couldn’t fight worth a damn, and in a battle of wits, they’d be unarmed combatants.
They were in their forties, and both were large, but doughy-looking, and their brown eyes were as dull as their brains. Both men wore beards. Aleksandr had a mustache, but Gleb had always been unable to grow more than peach fuzz on his upper lip.
Gleb’s scraggly beard blended in with a pair of wide and bushy sideburns that were attached to a mop of unruly brown hair. The sideburns only brought attention to his ears, which were large. Gleb’s ears stuck out like a pair of stubby wings on a fat bird. And with his prominent eyebrow ridge, tiny nose, fleshy lips, and big teeth, he looked like a huge chimp.
White Hell (A Tanner Novel Book 17) Page 2