The Malta Escape

by Chris Kuzneski

  Jones tapped on the two inlets with his marker. “If I had to guess, I’d say Volkov is currently hiding on one of the islands to the east. When it’s time, he’ll send men here or here. But not men he likes. Certainly not friends or relatives—unless he has a cousin that he really hates. Why? Because we’ll control the high ground above the inlets, and we’ll slaughter anyone who tries to dock. And yet, I get the sense that he’ll try to push through in order to draw our attention. I figure, if Volkov is coming to the party, he’ll be more than willing to sacrifice some pawns before his arrival. I also get the sense that he’ll search for the path of least resistance when he gets here, which is exactly what we want.”

  “Sir?” Archer said, confused by the comment.

  Jones grinned. “We’re going to open the front door and let him march right in.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  After the mission briefing, the group split up and headed in different directions. For this charade to work, they needed to make it look like an actual transaction was taking place on Suomenlinna. That meant they had to arrive at the island complex in different boats at different times in case Volkov’s men were monitoring things from afar.

  Dressed in green camouflage, Payne, Jones, and Jarkko left the airport in a bulletproof SUV with heavily tinted windows. With most of their preparations focused on the islands, Payne was concerned that Volkov might stage an attack before they even reached the water. Thankfully, this was where Jarkko’s local contacts came in handy. He had them positioned throughout the region, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious along the route from the airport to the city.

  Helsinki sits on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, which is the eastern arm of the Baltic Sea. Approximately two hundred miles from Russia, the capital city is flanked by thousands of small islands that protect its natural harbor. Sprawling for blocks along the scenic waterfront is the world-famous Kauppatori Market. It comes alive with tourists during the warmer months, attracting a wide variety of vendors who sell everything from fresh fruits and grilled salmon to fancy jewelry and animal pelts.

  As the SUV headed behind the marketplace, memories of their last visit came flooding back. This was where Payne and Jones had met Jarkko for the first time. The three of them briefly reminisced about their initial encounter while they kept an eye on the road ahead. At this time of day, most of the vendors were packing up their brightly colored stalls and loading them into trucks. The sun would stay up for a few more hours, but the workers were calling it a night.

  A few blocks later, Jarkko’s driver pulled up to the gate of a private marina and punched in the appropriate code. The mechanical arm lifted, and he drove the SUV into a small parking lot next to the water. Payne and Jones climbed out of the back seat and surveyed their immediate surroundings. As they did, their attention was drawn toward the large building behind them.

  On a hill to their west was Uspenski Cathedral, a spectacular red-bricked church with thirteen green-and-gold onion domes, representing Christ and the twelve apostles. Modeled after a sixteenth-century church in Moscow, its bricks came from the Bomarsund fortress in Aland, Finland, which had been destroyed during the Crimean War in 1854. Regardless of its beauty, the largest Russian Orthodox church in western Europe somehow filled them with dread, as if Volkov himself was peering down at them.

  Despite their confidence, they were suddenly unnerved.

  It was a feeling they weren’t used to.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Although Volkov wasn’t at the cathedral, one of his goons was. He was posing as a tourist and pretending to take pictures of the church’s central dome and monolithic pillars.

  When the tinted SUV drove past on the road below, he shifted his focus to the vehicle and snapped several pictures with his telephoto lens. He took several more when the three passengers exited the vehicle and walked toward a speedboat in the marina.

  Using the camera’s zoom, he inspected the faces of the men and compared them to the photos on his phone that he had been sent that morning.

  They were a definite match.

  The Finn and the Americans were in town.

  And they were heading toward Suomenlinna.

  He quickly sent a message to Volkov, who forwarded the news to his other goons. They were patiently waiting to make their move but wouldn’t do it until Kaiser arrived.

  Once he did, they would launch their assault.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Unable to turn off the security cameras at a major airport, Kaiser’s men smuggled him from the briefing room in the private hangar to a terminal on the other side of the facility. That way if Volkov’s men were monitoring the airfield, it would appear that he didn’t come in contact with Payne and Jones prior to their meeting at Suomenlinna.

  To continue the ruse, he also took a different route into Helsinki and launched his boat from a different marina. Instead of departing from a marina near the cathedral, his driver took him to the West Harbour on the opposite side of the city. His voyage to the island complex would be slightly longer, but that was all a part of their plan. His friends wanted to get there first to make sure everything was in place for his arrival.

  For this to work, their timing needed to be precise.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Jarkko parked his speedboat in the guest marina on the north side of Island 2, where he was met by two burly men with rifles who worked in the nearby Suomenlinna Dry Dock. The facility was massive and occupied the northern third of the island, but thanks to a narrow channel that separated it from the southern part of the isle, it would be kept out of harm’s way.

  Over the years, Jarkko had brought his boats to the dry dock for repairs and had stored them there during the cold winter months when the Gulf of Finland was clogged with ice. On several occasions, he had also utilized the workers’ expertise to hide certain contraband in the gaps below his decks, so he was more than just friendly with the staff.

  They were on his payroll.

  In Finnish, these men assured him that they had spread word amongst the civilian population on the island about the upcoming battle and everyone had departed on the earlier ferries. The men had also flipped the circuit breakers for Island 1 and 2, which knocked out all of the security cameras in the warzone. Jarkko thanked them for their efforts by slipping each of them an envelope stuffed with cash before they headed back to guard the marina.

  No one would be docking there on their watch.

  Payne glanced at Jarkko. “We good?”

  Jarkko nodded. “No people. No power.”

  Jones smiled. “Glad to hear it.”

  The trio hustled past the shipyard on their right toward the lone bridge to Island 3. As promised, Kaiser had positioned a man with an assault rifle on the southern side of the channel. Payne chatted with him briefly to make sure he understood his importance to the master plan. The guard seemed nervous, but that was perfectly normal before a major battle.

  Thanks to the fortified bastions along the water, there were limited places to dock on Island 1 and 2. Unfortunately, there were plenty of docks on Island 3, 4, and 5. But as long as Volkov’s men couldn’t cross this bridge, the trio wouldn’t need to worry about a rear assault.

  Unless, of course, the Russians decided to swim for it.

  If they did that, then all bets were off.

  But Payne and Jones doubted they would.

  They were facing henchmen, not frogmen.

  Based on experience, they knew goons tried to stay dry.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Because of his limp, Kaiser ordered his boat to drop him off at the narrow isthmus between Island 1 and 2. It was as close to the rendezvous point as possible. From the western inlet, he had a short walk up the bank to a well-worn path that led to the center of the southernmost island.

  That’s where the fake exchange was supposed to take place.

  When he reached the top of the knoll, Kaiser noted that his guards were no longer patrolling the western flank near the mass
ive cannons from the abandoned fort. Instead, his men had concealed themselves in the trees and foliage scattered across the verdant isle. Having traveled the world, Kaiser noticed the similarities to the rolling hills of Scotland. As the wind whipped in from the sea, the overgrown grasses danced in spite of the coming war.

  If not for the gun in his hand, he would have stopped to admire the beauty.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Positioned in the center of the island, Payne and Jones smiled when they saw Kaiser crest the hill. Ever since they had left his side at the airport, they had been concerned for his safety.

  Obviously Kaiser knew his men better than they did, but Payne and Jones realized that loyalty only went so far. For the right price, they knew anything could be bought, and they were worried that this would be the perfect time for a guard to go shopping for a better deal.

  Now that Kaiser was here, they could keep an eye on him.

  Unfortunately, so could the traitor.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  Payne and Jones heard the drones before they could see them.

  It started as a soft hum, carried across the island by the steady breeze, but as the machines got closer to shore, the noise transformed into something menacing, as if a swarm of killer bees had decided to attack Finland.

  Jarkko glanced toward the sky. “What is that?”

  Jones cursed as he searched the horizon. “Drones.”

  Payne clutched his assault rifle. “I don’t remember drones in your briefing.”

  Jones kept searching. “Really? Because I covered every contingency in great detail. Maybe you couldn’t hear me from the back of the room.”

  “Yeah, that must be it.”

  Jarkko looked at Jones. “Jarkko don’t remember this. What is plan for drones?”

  “Good question,” Kaiser said as he finally reached the others. He was flanked by two muscular bodyguards. One was carrying a briefcase, just to complete the ruse.

  “Easy,” Jones said. “If you see a drone, shoot it.”

  Because of the swirling wind, it was tough to locate the direction of the sound. They kept searching from their position in the center of Island 1, but their vision was obscured by the rolling hills and interior defense walls that surrounded them. Payne ran from the path and climbed onto a wall to their east. Like an abandoned temple forgotten by time, the cut stone was covered with a thick layer of moss.

  Payne touched his earpiece. “Archer, can you hear me?”

  Archer replied from his sniper post in the church on Island 3. “Barely. I’m getting all kinds of interference. What about you?”

  Payne answered. “That isn’t interference. Those are drones.”

  “Drones? From where?”

  Payne grimaced as he turned in a circle. “We were kind of hoping you could tell us that.”

  “Oh,” Archer blurted. Since the church was built on top of a steep hill, he had the best vantage point of Islands 1 and 2. If he couldn’t see the drones, then they were most likely coming in behind the church from the north. “I can hear the fuckers, but I can’t—”

  A loud roar filled Payne’s comm, temporarily garbling his communication with the sniper. When it returned, Archer was in the middle of shouting a warning.

  “—buzzed right past me! They’re coming in low and hot!”

  “From which direction?” Payne demanded.

  “They flew past the shipyard and over the bridge to Island Three!”

  A moment later, Payne could see them to the northeast.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Known as octocopters because of their eight fully functional propellers, these unmanned aerial vehicles had greater uplift, power, and acceleration than the smaller quadcopters and hexacopters that were cheaper and more commonly used by the public. The octocopters were also much louder. Not only could they reach dizzying heights, but they were incredibly agile and could fly through strong wind, which was crucial around Suomenlinna.

  Unfortunately for Blokhin, he had neglected to factor in one crucial thing when he had suggested their use on this particular mission. Due to the limited range of consumer drones, Blokhin and his team of hackers had been forced to leave the comfort of their warehouse in Moscow for a boat in the Gulf of Finland where they would control the crafts with touchscreens.

  Four of the drones were being used for aerial surveillance.

  But the fifth one had been equipped with a special surprise.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Payne spotted the drones as they rounded the corner and skimmed the water near the isthmus between Islands 1 and 2. He raised his rifle and was prepared to shoot, but before he could, the flock scattered and zigzagged across the sky in multiple directions.

  One headed north. One headed south.

  Another soared across the island to the west.

  A fourth one climbed vertically and remained in the east.

  Payne focused his aim on that one, since it was closest to his position on the stone wall, but it was like trying to track a hummingbird in a hurricane. The wind was swirling, and the drone was darting back and forth, as if it knew it was being hunted.

  Payne remained patient, waiting for the perfect moment to pull his trigger—when his attention drifted to something that wasn’t there. He had counted five drones when they had first appeared, but now he could only account for four.

  He glanced behind him and saw a group of men standing in the center of the island where their “transaction” was supposed to occur. Jones was with Jarkko. And Kaiser was there with two of his bodyguards. All clustered in one place.

  In a flash, Payne knew what was about to happen.

  “Move!” he shouted as he jumped off the wall. “Get away from there!”

  With a rifle in his grasp, Jones had been tracking the drone to his west when he heard a shout from behind. Due to the loud buzzing of the propellers, he couldn’t make out the words. He turned around and saw his best friend sprinting toward them from the east. He was frantically waving his arms for them to move.

  That’s when it clicked for Jones, too.

  With no time for words, he grabbed Jarkko by the arm and pulled him toward the west as the fifth drone plummeted toward earth. Confused by the shouting, Kaiser’s bodyguards assumed the threat was coming from somewhere on the island itself, so they shifted their focus to the surrounding terrain.

  Meanwhile, Payne kept running toward the target.

  Kaiser realized what was about to happen a split-second before impact. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew he was about to get run over by a muscular locomotive that was coming at him full steam. So he let his body go limp to absorb the impact.

  Payne buried his shoulder into Kaiser’s gut like a linebacker sacking a quarterback, but instead of tackling him to the ground, Payne arched his back and kept his knees pumping as he scooped the lifeless man off the ground and kept on running.

  A second later, the kamikaze drone came crashing down.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Armed with an explosive payload, the device erupted on impact, sending shrapnel in every direction and creating a massive fireball that could be seen by the neighboring islands.

  Having piloted the killer drone himself, Volkov grinned as he tossed the controller to the ground. Volkov would have preferred to slit Kaiser’s throat with a knife, but he still got plenty of satisfaction watching him and his men get blown to bits on the tiny screen—even if that meant he had destroyed a potentially key piece of evidence to finding the treasure in the process.

  In his mind, a long-distance kill was still a kill.

  And all of his goons had watched him do it.

  That was how to earn respect in Russia.

  By getting your hands dirty.

  Volkov and nearly two-dozen henchmen had done all of their prep work on the far side of Vallisaari, a large island just to the east of Suomenlinna. But now that Volkov had landed the first strike, it was time to unleash the next wave of his attack.

  With a nod of his head,
four men started the engines on their rigid-hulled inflatable boats. Made of flexible tubes, the watercrafts were lightweight but high-performance and could hold up to six men each. Filled to capacity with armed Russians, three of them took off for the island complex, while the fourth one waited for Volkov.

  Once he climbed aboard, they headed across the water as well.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Payne felt the explosion before he saw the damage.

  The force of the blast threw him violently to the ground in a tangle of body parts, some of which weren’t his. Temporarily disoriented from the concussive sound, Payne sat dazed in the grass as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

  Two bodyguards were engulfed in flames. They screamed in agony as their skin bubbled off before they finally gave in to the pain. One after the other, they fell to the earth like trees in a forest fire, amidst the rubble of the device that had fallen from the sky.

  Payne blinked. Then he blinked again.

  Then he heard his name.

  Not once. But twice.

  And it came from underneath him.

  So Payne rolled to his side to see who it was.

  Kaiser was staring up at him with his one good eye.

  He was just as dazed as Payne.

  But he definitely wasn’t dead.

  “Jon!” Jones shouted as he staggered over to his friend. He had been farther from the impact than Payne but was still hearing bells. “Can you hear me?”

  Payne opened and closed his jaw. “That depends. Are you humming?”

  Jones dropped to one knee. “No.”

  Payne shook his head. “Then I can’t hear you.”

  “Good. I’m deaf, too.”