He’d decided to rent a snowmobile but was told they were all taken. When the gray haired clerk asked him why he was going out in the middle of a storm, Durand told him it was to look for a friend who might be hurt. Durand’s Russian was excellent, as he had worked in the country many years earlier.
“I believe my friend went down in that missing plane,” Durand said.
“You’re talking about Yaromir’s plane? I heard about that. He went down with a young couple, are they your friends?”
“Yes, and I think people have been looking in the wrong area for them. I think the plane may have gone down south of here.”
“Have you ridden a snowmobile before?”
“I know how they work.”
“The storm will only get worse. No one should be out there in the wilderness alone.”
“I would normally agree, but I’m willing to risk it.”
The clerk thought that over, then, he made a hand gesture that told Durand to wait for a second. When the clerk picked up the landline phone, Durand wondered who the man was calling.
After a conversation that Durand couldn’t quite hear, the clerk hung up and smiled at him.
“My friend Sasha will take you out to look, but it won’t be cheap.”
“Does she know the area well?”
“She’s a native. You couldn’t get her lost if you tried.”
“Excellent, and I’ll be glad to pay. But tell me, what sort of plane does she have?”
“Oh, I never said she had a plane.”
“A snowmobile?”
The clerk smiled.
“You’re getting closer.”
“A dog sled?”
Sasha Anovso-Roberts grinned at Durand. She was a Russian Eskimo in her twenties, a Yupik, and her long dark hair framed a pretty face. Durand stood outside her kennel and watched the excited dogs yelp and play together. The snow had increased, and the world was becoming a showcase of white.
“Dogs are the best way to get around, Mr. Durand, and pardon the pun, but these puppies can move up to twelve miles an hour.”
“You’ve spent time in the United States, haven’t you?”
“Yes sir, I went to school at San Diego State, fell in love with an American geologist, and when his company transferred him, I wound up right back here in Barnaul. Fate can be funny that way.”
“And cruel as well, which is why I need to find my friend.”
“I thought we were looking for two people, three actually, counting old man Yaromir.”
“Yes, three, but I’m most concerned about the young woman. Her name is Sara.”
“Say the word. I’ll saddle up the dogs and we’ll be on our way.”
Durand looked at the sled with trepidation. As he considered things, a girl walked over to hand Sasha a cloth bag. The girl was the niece of Sasha’s husband. Her name was Brenda. She was sixteen, white, and had strawberry blond hair. Durand exchanged smiles with her, then pointed at the sled as he spoke to Sasha.
“How will I stay on that thing?”
Sasha grinned.
“You’ll be sitting while I stand behind you and steer. It’s fun, you’ll see.”
“Yes, let’s do it. This storm will only get worse.”
“That price I gave you, that’s paid up front.”
“Of course, but tell me, what will we do if we find them?”
“I’ll bring back anyone who’s injured, and leave the others with supplies and an emergency beacon. When the storm breaks overnight, they’ll send out a larger rescue team, or maybe a chopper.”
“You’ve done this sort of thing before?”
“Twice, both were small plane crashes out in the wild.”
“Any survivors?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Durand, but no, there weren’t. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be this time.”
“Sara’s alive, and the man she’s with… it would take a lot to kill him.”
“He sounds like quite the man.”
Durand frowned.
“He’s like no one you’ve ever met.”
13
Someone Kidnapped My Kidnap Victim
After heading east, before realizing they needed to travel north, Matthews’ ragtag group trudged along a crude path that wound through the forest.
Liliya complained about her feet hurting and how hungry she was, but of the seven of them, she was the only one who had eaten since the debacle on the lake. Nikolai had given her the protein bar he had in his jacket pocket.
Nikolai’s cousin, Volya, never liked Liliya. She had offered to sleep with him once during her marriage to Nikolai, and Volya thought of her as a whore.
When Liliya announced that she had to take a break from the trek to urinate, two of the men decided to go as well. Volya and the biker named Boz walked into the trees on the right, while Liliya wandered off into the trees on the left.
Volya had grown up in Barnaul, while Boz had been raised in Warsaw, Poland. They had both grown up in cities, and so neither of them took much notice of the animal tracks marring the mounting snow.
Volya was wearing a long, black wool scarf. After unzipping, he saw that the scarf hung in the way. He removed it and stuffed it in his pocket. It had been making his beard itch and, anyway, he felt sufficiently warmed by all the walking he was doing.
Behind Volya, Boz was talking about how he would handle Tanner the next time he saw him. When Volya let out a wild scream of fright. Boz jerked around to look at him, and sprayed urine as he did so.
A large wolf had Volya pinned to the ground. The wolf’s growling was ferocious, as was its attack. It snarled as it tore chunks of flesh from Volya’s face and neck.
Boz ran away while zipping up his fly and looking over his shoulder. He covered twenty yards before he tripped over a tree root that was hidden beneath the snow. When Boz made it to his feet again, he ran smack into the hulking Gleb, bounced off, and fell onto his butt.
“What’s going on?” Nikolai said. “Where’s Volya?”
Boz pointed frantically as he rose again, but his words couldn’t be understood because he was speaking his native Polish.
Nikolai took him by the shoulders.
“In Russian, man, speak in Russian. Is it Tanner? Is he back?”
“No, Nikolai, it was a wolf, that huge wolf that survived the shooting this morning. Volya… oh man, Volya is dead, chewed up.”
Nikolai released Boz’s shoulders only to take him by the arm.
“Show me where.”
“What if the wolf is still there?”
“I’ll shoot it.”
“Shoot it?” Boz murmured, then wondered why the thought had never occurred to him. But, he knew why. He’d been so scared that all he could think about was running for safety.
Boz led the way and Nikolai let out a moan when he spotted the body. Volya’s throat was ripped open and half his face was missing, while bloody paw prints led off into the brush atop the snow.
With a scream of anguish, Nikolai held the short Serbu shotgun at shoulder level, then aimed downward in the direction of the paw prints. When he had expended all three rounds, he leaned against a tree and cried.
“No, Volya, no.”
There was silence for several seconds, but Gleb broke it with a question.
“Where is Liliya? She must have heard all the noise.”
Nikolai’s grief evaporated, to be replaced by worry.
He and the others called for Liliya, but only the soft sound of falling snow answered their cries.
Tanner, Sara, and Polina, stopped walking when they heard Nikolai shooting.
“That sounded close,” Sara said. “No more than a mile.”
Tanner loosened the straps on the backpack, removed it, and handed it to Polina. Sara’s knee was getting worse, and the less weight she had to put on it, the better.
“I’m going to scout ahead and check that out. I want you two to get behind those large trees on the left there and wait for me to come back.”
>
“I want to go with you,” Polina said.
“No. You stay with Sara and do what she says. If someone approaches, you won’t be hard to find in the snow, so there’s no point in hiding, but the trees offer some cover.”
“Can I have a gun?” Polina asked.
“Have you ever shot a gun?”
“When I was younger, Stas let me hold his empty gun. I remember it was heavy.”
“I don’t think giving you a gun is a good idea, Polina. You need training first.”
Polina’s shoulders slumped.
“Can I at least have a knife?”
Tanner reached inside the backpack and removed a Ka-Bar knife in a sheath. Polina’s eyes glittered at the sharpness of the weapon.
“You’ll wear that on your belt, but don’t use it unless you need to. It’s very sharp and dangerous.”
“Thank you, Tanner, for not treating me like a baby. And I use knives often in Girl Scouts.”
Tanner kissed Sara.
“I’ll be back, and you’ll hear me whistle first.”
“Be careful,” Sara said.
Tanner moved off into the trees on the left and was soon out of sight.
Polina appeared worried as she gazed in the direction Tanner had traveled.
“What if he doesn’t come back?”
“That’s not possible,” Sara said.
Polina kept staring, then she smiled.
“Da, he will be back. He is Tanner.”
“Exactly,” Sara said.
Liliya wanted to shout to the others as they called to her, but if she did, she was sure the man holding the knife to her throat would kill her.
Pavel had grabbed her from behind and kept her mouth covered so she wouldn’t cry out. He thought he had been abducting Polina for the second time, and was surprised when he spun Liliya around and saw he had a woman, and not a girl.
On the other hand, Liliya was certain she had been grabbed from behind by Tanner, and was equally shocked to see Pavel.
“Who are you?” Pavel asked in a whisper.
Liliya answered him in kind, by breathlessly saying her name.
“You were on one of the planes?”
“We came here to find a man. His name is Tanner.”
“Who is he?”
“A hit man. They say he killed Maurice Scallato.”
“Scallato?” Pavel said, but then he remembered the recent story about the assassin who murdered his own family in Sicily.
He also recalled that Maurice Scallato was considered to have been one of the most dangerous men alive. If this Tanner killed Scallato, he would be formidable.
“I have friends looking for me. Hear them?”
“Who are they?”
“My boyfriend and my ex-husband, oh, and his cousin and a man named Smith. There’s also Gleb and Aleksandr, and they have money, they can pay you.”
“Pay me for what?”
“For me. Let me go and they’ll pay you.”
“Have you seen a girl? She’s about your size.”
“Tanner has her, and there’s a woman too.”
“Tanner has the girl, then tell me what she looks like.”
“Like you said, she’s my size. Oh, and her hair is in pigtails. I think she’s a little old for pigtails, but she is cute.”
“And this Tanner, what does he look like?”
“His eyes, they’re so intense, I’ve never seen eyes like that. Maybe that’s what happens when you kill a lot of people, maybe it shows in the eyes.”
“But, is he tall, short, thin, fat?”
“He, he’s built like you, but taller. He’s trim, but muscular. Even bundled up like he was, I could tell he was in shape… but those eyes. You’ll know him when you see him.”
Pavel put the knife away and unslung the shotgun he had.
“And you say your name is Liliya?”
“Yes.”
“Call your friends over here, Liliya, but then don’t move. If you attempt to run away I will kill you.”
“Please don’t hurt me. I just want to get home.”
“Do as I say and that might happen.”
Pavel backed away from her and Liliya called for Fedor. It was Nikolai who answered, and Liliya called out again.
“I’m over here!”
Once Pavel knew what direction they would approach from, he hid and waited for their arrival. He had no plans to kill them… yet.
They were going to help him find Polina.
Tanner heard Liliya’s voice. She was close, and didn’t sound injured, more like fearful of something, or someone.
After seeing footprints leading off into the trees, he followed them and came across Volya’s body.
The lone wolf that survived the massacre was out for revenge, but Tanner knew the beast would attack any human he saw, given a chance.
He thought about going back to warn Sara about the wolf, but realized it wouldn’t matter. Sara would be ready for anything that came her way, man or beast.
Before leaving, Tanner checked Volya’s pockets for useful items. They still had two of the Russian MRE’s and sticks of beef jerky, but food was too precious to leave behind. When he found the black scarf in Volya’s pocket, he took it to give to Polina.
Moving away from Volya’s body, Tanner followed in the footprints made by Matthews and the others. Only a tracker would know that he hadn’t been just another member of the group, and it paid to make as few fresh tracks as possible.
At the rate the snow was falling, all the shoe and boot prints would be covered up quickly. As they headed out that morning, Tanner had assumed that they would be making better time, but the ground was uneven, the mounting snow was blinding, and Sara’s knee was only getting worse.
When he returned to Sara and Polina, Tanner decided he would need to find shelter, but first, he had to reassess their situation.
Something had changed, he could feel it.
Perhaps it was the wolf, but Polina’s abductor may have come back, found her missing, and gone looking for her.
Given the size of Matthews’ group, the man must have spotted them first.
After hearing voices ahead, including one he didn’t recognize, Tanner slowed his pace, lowered himself into a crouch, and moved forward with stealth, like the assassin he was.
14
Lone Wolf
Nikolai pushed Fedor aside so that he could reach Liliya first.
She was frightened, that was obvious, but of what?
“Did the wolf attack you, Liliya?” Nikolai asked.
“What wolf? One of those damn wolves is around?”
Nikolai hung his head.
“The thing killed Volya.”
“Volya’s dead? But no, never mind that, we have another problem.”
“Tanner?” Fedor asked.
Liliya pointed to the last spot where she’d seen Pavel and everyone turned to look. As they did so, Pavel came up behind Nikolai and placed a knife to his throat.
“If anyone points their weapon at me I will kill this man,” Pavel said.
Fedor looked amused.
“Go ahead, slit his throat and see if anyone cares.”
Pavel realized his error, shoved Nikolai to the ground and grabbed Liliya. The amusement left Fedor’s face and he pleaded with Pavel.
“Leave her alone.”
“I don’t want to harm her. I only want to get your attention.”
“Who are you?” Matthews asked.
Pavel was going to make up a phony name, but decided it didn’t matter. He would kill all of them, or the fools would die in the storm. Anyway, as Valentina had pointed out the previous evening, Pavel was a common name.
“I am Pavel, and I want you to help me kill Tanner. The child with him belongs to me.”
Nikolai stood, then spoke as he wiped snow off his clothes.
“What do you mean the girl belongs to you? Is she your daughter?”
“We became separated yesterday. Tanner must have found
her.”
“So she is your daughter?”
Pavel ignored Nikolai and looked at the others as he spoke.
“We must work together to kill Tanner.”
“Tanner is gone,” Fedor said. “He rode out of here yesterday on a snowmobile.”
“Not true,” Pavel said. “I found that machine hidden in the woods. Tanner is still on foot, and he must be close. Work with me and we can kill him.”
“He could still be ahead of us,” Matthews said.
Pavel shook his head.
“Have you seen any other footprints in the snow? No, because he must be traveling behind you. If we work as one, we’ll trap him.”
“Let Liliya go and we’ll listen to your plan,” Nikolai said.
Pavel released her and Liliya went to Fedor.
“My plan is simple,” Pavel said. “I chase Tanner towards you, and you kill him.”
Gleb smiled.
“I like that plan.”
Tanner eased away from the group. He had heard enough, and had a plan of his own. When he returned to the spot where he’d left Sara and Polina, he did so by making a wide arc and coming up behind them.
He saw Sara relax when he whistled at his approach, and Polina greeted him with a short hug.
“There’s a new player in the game. The man who kidnapped Polina, and he’s sharp.”
“What is his name, do you know?” Polina asked.
“He called himself Pavel.”
Polina took out her knife.
“I would like to stick this in Pavel for killing Stas.”
“Keep that anger, Polina, it’s more useful than fear. But, if I have my way, we’ll avoid Pavel altogether.”
“What’s the plan,” Sara asked.
Tanner pointed at their earlier footprints, which were almost completely covered by the falling snow.
“Pavel wants to herd us toward Matthews and the others until we’re trapped between them, but if we head east, back toward the ridge, I’m thinking they won’t see our fresh tracks.”
Sara frowned as she looked east. The terrain was steeper in that direction and it would tax her injured knee more.
White Hell (A Tanner Novel Book 17) Page 8