White Hell (A Tanner Novel Book 17)

by Remington Kane

  “So what?” Gleb asked.

  Fedor laughed.

  “Don’t you see? When Tanner looks up and sees this plane, he’ll come running while thinking he’s saved. His guard will be down.”

  “Why?” Aleksandr said.

  Liliya was seated by a soft drink machine and doing her nails. Fedor looked over at Liliya and saw her roll her eyes.

  She had warned Fedor that the brothers had half a brain between them, and that he’d have to speak to them like he was talking to children, and dim-witted children at that.

  “That big red cross, it’s the international symbol of humanitarian aid, like medical doctors and rescue workers. Tanner will think we’re there to rescue him, get it?”

  “Oh,” Gleb said. “But we’ll really be there to kill him, right?”

  “Riiiight,” Fedor said, as he wondered who tied Gleb’s shoes every morning.

  Aleksandr called to Liliya.

  “You should come back and dance sometime. We miss you.”

  “I bet it’s not my dancing you miss.”

  Gleb stared at her.

  “I liked seeing you naked.”

  Liliya smiled.

  “All men do, but I’m a businesswoman now, and only Fedor gets to see me naked.”

  “That’s not fair,” Aleksandr said. “But the new girls are hot too.”

  Fedor stepped in front of the brothers and blocked their view of Liliya.

  “Get your men ready. We’ll be leaving soon.”

  “How many men can you fit in that thing?” Gleb asked.

  “You and your brother bring ten men along.”

  Gleb giggled.

  “We got a surprise for Tanner, hand grenades, three of them, our father kept them in the safe.”

  Fedor smiled.

  “Hand grenades. That should do the trick.”

  “What trick?” Aleksandr asked.

  Fedor held up his hands and wiggled his fingers.

  “Remember, bring back this many men, and no more than that. We’ll leave as soon as I fuel up the plane.”

  Gleb peeked around Fedor to smile at Liliya. He looked like a happy gibbon.

  “See you later, Liliya.”

  “Bye bye, Gleb.”

  The two brothers left and Fedor shook his head in wonder.

  “They are dolts.”

  “Yeah, but they’re rich dolts, so stay friendly with them.”

  “That Gleb leers at you. Just how friendly were you with him when you worked at their club?”

  “I let him touch me sometimes, but when I worked there, it was his father I had to keep happy. I’m so glad that old bastard is dead.”

  “Is that why you married Nikolai, to get away from the old man?”

  “Yeah, and was Nikolai ever boring, but then I met you, and you’re never boring.”

  Fedor took Liliya by the arm and pulled her into the office. The small room contained two scarred wooden desks, along with chairs made of knotty pine. There were also a pair of metal filing cabinets and an old black leather sofa with a jagged tear in one arm. A corner bookcase held aviation repair manuals, several old instruments, and an empty beer can that Fedor had placed on a shelf weeks ago.

  In the center of the room was a round braided rug that was multi-hued, but filthy, since it had never been vacuumed. Above the rug was a ceiling fan that hadn’t worked in years.

  After he shut and locked the office door, Fedor sat on the sofa and smiled up at Liliya.

  “Do what you do best.”

  Liliya checked to make sure her nail polish had dried, then, she lowered herself to the floor between Fedor’s knees.

  Tanner and Sara were still half a mile away when they heard the plane’s engine.

  Given the cold temperature, Pavel had never shut it off. However, when the pitch changed, Tanner understood that they had arrived too late. That became evident as the airplane moved off across the lake’s surface, then lifted into the air.

  Sara sighed in frustration.

  “I hope the pilot comes back.”

  “He might,” Tanner said. “The other two men are still there by the fire, but I want to get a look inside that pit first. Whoever is in there can give us some answers.”

  After a quick search of the area south of the tent, Tanner located the covered pit. The men had done an excellent job of camouflaging the pit’s entrance. If he had not known the general area where it was located, Tanner doubted he would have stumbled upon it. As for the rope ladder, it was hanging from a tree limb and made to look like vines.

  The cover over the pit was locked down by a tree branch passed through two loops of rope. A crude lock, but effective.

  Tanner handed Sara the AK-47 while he gripped the edge of the square covering with both hands and lifted it up.

  To Tanner’s surprise, the lid had hydraulic support arms which helped to raise the weight and keep it from falling backwards.

  With the lid open, Tanner stared down inside the pit and saw a pair of large green eyes looking up at him. It was a girl all right, a pretty thing with blond pigtails.

  Along with the fear in her eyes, Tanner saw a look of hope.

  7

  To The Rescue

  Polina stood up from the mattress when she heard the lid of the pit moving. She then squinted as the dull light of a cloudy sky poured in from above.

  There was a man up there, a handsome man with unusual eyes. Polina blinked at the man, but said nothing, while thinking he might be another of the men who had imprisoned her.

  When he disappeared, she nearly cried out for him to come back, but then he was there again and tossing down the rope ladder.

  “Can you climb?” he asked in Russian.

  “Maybe, but I’m dizzy. That other man gave me something, a drug I think.”

  The man spoke English to someone that Polina couldn’t see, then came down inside the pit in a flash. His speed reminded her of the man who had abducted her. She wondered what made them both so graceful.

  “Are you one of them?” Polina asked.

  Tanner cut the rope on her wrist. It had been tight, as Polina had been struggling to free herself.

  “We’re here to get you out. I’m Tanner, and there’s a woman up top named Sara.”

  Polina smiled.

  “My grandmother sent you.”

  “No. Our plane crashed miles from here and we saw your plane land.”

  “Oh, but you will help me?”

  “We need to get out of this pit before one of the men show up. Put your arms around my neck and lock your legs around my waist.”

  Polina did as she was told, then marveled at how fast they went up. He was not a huge man like her late chauffeur, Stas, but this man Tanner was strong. It was as if her weight made no difference to him at all.

  Once they were up top, Polina saw the woman the man had spoken of. She was beautiful. When the woman smiled, followed by a sound of sympathy concerning her bruised chin, Polina knew that they wouldn’t hurt her.

  “What’s your name?” the man asked.

  “I am Polina Nabokov and those men kidnapped me from Novosibirsk.”

  “You’re safe now, and like I said before, I’m Tanner and this is Sara. We’re Americans. Do you speak English?”

  “I do,” Polina said in Russian, then, she giggled and spoke English. “I speak English well, thank you.”

  “Stay here with Sara, Polina. I’ll go deal with those men and see if we can bring that pilot back here.”

  “Tanner, that pilot, he is a dangerous man.”

  “I understand, but I can handle myself. Don’t worry, kid, Sara and I will make sure you get back home.”

  Polina grinned and hugged Tanner while laying her head atop his chest. After releasing him, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips.

  “My hero.”

  Sara laughed, while Tanner raised an eyebrow.

  “What did you say your last name was, Nabokov?”

  Polina nodded.


  “Like the writer?” Sara asked.

  “What writer?” Polina said.

  “Never mind,” Tanner said. “And here, take my jacket, Polina. You’ll freeze to death wearing only that uniform.”

  Polina put on the jacket, then blushed as she thanked Tanner.

  “Be careful,” Sara said.

  “Careful, but quick, I’ll be right back.”

  Tanner moved off through the trees with the rifle leading the way. When he was out of sight, Polina spoke to Sara.

  “He is very cute.”

  “Yes, and he’s my boyfriend.”

  “What is he, a soldier?”

  “Tanner, well… he’s self-employed.”

  Polina snuggled inside the warmth of Tanner’s jacket and sighed.

  “My hero.”

  The two Turks were crouched by the fire and heating tea in a pan.

  Tanner came across a large snowmobile at the rear of the tent. If it was in working condition, he could ride out of the area with Sara and Polina, since there was snow on the ground.

  Tanner spoke many languages, but Turkish wasn’t one of them, and so he had no idea what the men were saying. They, however, had no trouble understanding his meaning, as Tanner approached them with the AK-47 held at the ready.

  The men appeared to be startled as they stood and looked around to see if Tanner were alone.

  The taller of the Turks right hand twitched, but he stopped himself from reaching for his gun, a Makarov pistol with a rubber grip. His shorter companion didn’t display the same good sense, and as his hand closed around his weapon, Tanner shot him twice in the chest.

  The tall Turk put his hands up and pleaded with Tanner in Russian.

  “Don’t shoot me!”

  “Toss your gun over here… slowly.”

  The Turk complied, as his partner lay by the fire and moaned.

  “The pilot that flew off, what’s his name?”

  The tall Turk glared at Tanner.

  “I will tell you nothing.”

  Tanner fired two more bullets into the man he’d shot. The moaning stopped.

  A string of what Tanner assumed were Turkish curses issued forth from the other man, and then he gazed at Tanner with a look of defiance.

  “Kill me too, but I will not talk.”

  Tanner cocked his head. There was something more going on here than a simple kidnapping.

  “How much was the ransom for the girl?”

  The man spat on the ground in indignation. When he spoke, his voice was filled with a tone of righteous anger.

  “Money? This was not about money. Not everything is about money. Some of us have principles and vision.”

  “And some of us kidnap little girls and throw them down inside pits, but why that little girl?”

  “I’ll only say this. It concerns politics.”

  Tanner sighed.

  “Oh, so you’re another damned terrorist.”

  “And what are you, you who kill with such ease?”

  “I’m not a man that hurts children.”

  “The sacrifice of that child will save the lives of many children. Her grandmother is a member of the Russian Federation Council. If she follows our orders, the world will be a better place.”

  “So you say, but that won’t happen. Polina is going back to her family and you’ll have no leverage over her grandmother.”

  The Turk swiveled his head.

  “How did you get here? It certainly wasn’t by plane or snowmobile. We would have heard it.”

  “The only plane I care about is yours. When is it coming back?”

  “It will not return for many days. There is a snowstorm on the way.”

  Tanner shook his head once.

  “He’ll be back. Polina’s grandmother will want Proof of Life. My guess is he’ll return here tomorrow with a current newspaper and film her holding it. That will assure the family that she’s still living.”

  The Turk looked sullen, and Tanner knew he had guessed right.

  “What’s your name?” Tanner said.

  The Turk stood straight and proud.

  “I am Ahmet Demirr. I am not a terrorist, but a freedom fighter.”

  “More like a martyr,” Tanner said, then he blasted a bullet through Ahmet’s heart.

  Nikolai was about to board an ancient Cessna that he planned to jam ten men aboard, although the plane was rated to hold only seven.

  To beat Fedor to the crash site where the Australians died, Nikolai hoped to leave first, since he had an idea of where to look after having spoken to Matthews.

  Except for his cousin, an ex-soldier named Volya, the men Nikolai was ferrying to the site were a bunch of lowlifes, but they were lowlifes with weapons. Hard to kill or not, once Tanner faced off against ten guns, plus the weapons of Fedor’s men, the hit man would die.

  Nikolai took a deep breath, then released it slowly, as he readied himself for what lay ahead.

  The thought of killing depressed him. He had killed before, while in the army and fighting in The Second Chechen War. But, he had practically been a boy then and had a lust for adventure.

  The reality of war curbed his appetite for violence, but there was nothing he wouldn’t do if it meant he might win back Liliya’s heart.

  He had to reach Tanner first, had to be the man who killed him. Then, he would be someone exciting. The man who killed Tanner would be respected, perhaps feared, and Liliya couldn’t possibly think him boring then.

  Nikolai checked his weapon as he prepared to climb into the cockpit. The weapon was a Serbu Super Shorty. The small shotgun held three rounds. If he couldn’t kill Tanner with that, the man was indestructible.

  “Nikolai?”

  It was Liliya. She was dressed in boots and wearing Fedor’s flight jacket. On her petite frame, the jacket hung like a coat.

  “Hello Liliya. Please tell me that you’ve decided to stay here.”

  Liliya came close to him, and as always, Nikolai was struck by how beautiful she was.

  “It’s you I’m worried about, Nikolai. Why are you going after Tanner?”

  Nikolai shrugged.

  “To keep you safe. If I kill the man, then he’ll have no chance to harm you.”

  “Why would Tanner want to kill me?”

  “I mean accidentally, or maybe even on purpose. Who knows how a man like that thinks. He makes his living by dealing death.”

  “You’re really worried about me?”

  “Of course I am. You know that I love you.”

  Liliya paced for a few moments, paused, looked at Nikolai, then paced again.

  Nikolai watched her, while wondering what was going through her mind.

  After more pacing and silent looks, Liliya walked over and took Nikolai by the hand.

  “Come with me to the office.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to be alone with you, that’s why.”

  A silly grin spread across Nikolai’s face. Once they were in the office, Liliya shut the door and locked it. She sat on the sofa and gazed up at him.

  “Get naked, Nikolai, then show me how much you love me.”

  Nikolai shed his thermal coveralls and the clothes beneath them in record time. As he did so, Liliya had unzipped her jacket. She was slowly, teasingly raising the hem of the thick sweater beneath it, revealing her flat stomach and the lower portion of her bra.

  After Nikolai removed his socks, Liliya scooped up Nikolai’s clothes, deftly unlocked the door, and ran from the office. She was laughing like a child.

  “Liliya?”

  “You’re a fool, Nikolai. I was just buying time for Fedor to get ready. Hear that roar? That’s the sound of Fedor’s plane.”

  “Damn it, Liliya! Give me my clothes back.”

  “I’ll leave them on the tarmac. The wind shouldn’t scatter them too much. Bye bye, Nikolai… lover boy.”

  Liliya’s laughter cut as deep as her callousness, and it made Nikolai furious.

  Nikolai marched outside
naked and gathered up his clothes. That is, most of his clothes. The wind had taken one of his socks to places unknown.

  After boarding his plane and starting the engine, he was subjected to being the brunt of his passengers’ jokes. With his engine still warming, Nikolai watched Fedor take off.

  Any reticence he had over killing was gone. He would kill Tanner, oh yes, he damn sure would. And, if the son of a bitch so much as looked at him sideways, he would put down Fedor as well.

  A minute after Fedor’s plane disappeared into the gray clouds overhead, Nikolai was racing down the runway. He was mad enough to kill, and had every intention of doing so.

  8

  Lolita

  After dealing with the two Turks, Tanner dragged their bodies over to the edge of the lake.

  The men had a hatchet, and Tanner used it to chop a hole in the ice. To his surprise, the ice wasn’t as thick as the ice had been at the lake where he’d taken his swim. He realized why as he recalled the sheer wall of rock that had bordered one side of the first lake.

  That barrier kept the lake in shadow hours longer than the lake he was currently at, still, the ice was many inches thick and could hold an aircraft or a hoard of ice-skaters.

  Before disposing of the bodies, Tanner had searched both men and found the keys to the snowmobile, a compass, and spare ammo for their Makarov pistols.

  One of the guns was a lost cause, since it hadn’t been cared for, and Tanner tossed it into the lake along with its owner.

  The other gun, the one that had belonged to the proud and dedicated Ahmet Demirr, was in fine condition. Tanner decided to wear it on his hip.

  Tanner discovered treasure inside the tent. There was bottled water and juice, a few sticks of beef jerky, Russian MRE’s, and the blocks of soapstone that Pavel had heated. The hunks of stone warmed the tent well. Tanner decided that they would pack one away for their trip north, just in case the snowmobile died and placed them back on foot. There was also extra clothing in the tent. Several sweatshirts and sweatpants, and a black hoodie that looked worn, but warm.

  The trip would be considerably shorter now that they had the snowmobile. However, before taking the time to investigate the vehicle, Tanner went back to the pit to get Sara and Polina.