by Mark Spaid
“High, Mom and Dad, what are you doing here,” Little Wolf said in his typical fashion of making people feel better about a situation even when it was him in danger.
“Dave,” Jozette said.
“It’s lodged in the upper leg here but it missed the artery and the bone.”
“How do you know?” Andy asked.
“Because he’d be howling in pain and bleeding like crazy.”
“I know you don’t complain about pain, Son,” Jozette said, “but be honest with me now, please.”
“It hurt going in but not much pain now, I’m sure the swelling will cushion it.” Little Wolf leaned back and sighed as Julieta held his hand.
“Can you get the bullet out, Dave?” Andy asked.
“I don’t know but not here, we need medical supplies and a place that’s not moving.”
“Where are we going?” Jozette asked.
“All we know now is that we’re running for our lives,” Dave remarked.
“I’ll be fine, Mom, Dad and Mr. Dave, go back to your seats and let’s see where we end up.” Jozette kissed his forehead and squeezed Julieta’s wrist before they returned to their seats.
“Okay, Yankee, we got away but it won’t be long until Kulagin has a vehicle and is on our tails,” Vladimir said.
“I know, so what now?”
“Hey, you’re the cowboy, Yankee, not me. That’s right isn’t it, a cowboy takes over and does heroic things to save the day. Isn’t that what you Americans do?”
“Yeah, I guess so…any suggestions?” Trent asked as he drove as fast as was safe but he didn’t know to where. Vladimir thought for a moment.
“We need time and a place to hole up. Maybe help can get to us before they do…okay, turn at that road.”
“How is Johnny doing?” Ellen asked Dave.
“I’m not sure, the bullet is in there and I don’t know what it may have damaged. He could die.”
“Oh, no,” Ellen said and leaned back in her seat.
“I’m sorry, Madam President for what happened to your agent and for you being kidnapped in my country. There are lunatic elements in Russia like everywhere but we should’ve kept you safe.”
“Don’t blame yourself, I have just as many nut jobs in America and they’re probably better armed. The question is, what can we do?” Sergei nodded then shouted something to Vladimir in Russian who responded in Russian.
“What did he say?” Ellen asked.
“Vladimir knows of a place that might give us some protection until we can get help.”
“Hey, Russkie, look behind us,” Trent said and Vladimir turned to see two cars and a van pursuing them at high speed.
“Faster, Yankee,” Vladimir said then went to the back of the bus. He could see Kulagin in the front seat holding a rifle and a handgun. They had commandeered vehicles at the point of a gun no doubt and now they wouldn’t stop until they had Presidents Lexington and Deniken in their grip.
“Kulagin, I assume?” Trent said when Vladimir returned to the front.
“Yes.”
“I doubt if they open fire on us,” Trent said.
“No, they want the two Presidents alive. As for the rest of us…well.”
“That’s what we get paid to do.”
“You’re right, Yankee.”
“Okay, where is this magical hiding place you have in mind?”
“About a mile ahead on your right.”
“What is it?”
“An office building and residence for the rich.”
“How many people will be there?”
“None, it’s not scheduled to open for two weeks.” Trent made the turn and saw a tall building.
“It’s a big one, how tall is it?”
“Sixty stories.”
“Should give us a few places to hide,” Trent said as he saw Kulagin and his gang closing in and he floored the bus and pulled away. They were in the parking lot of the building that was a stone structure ala the older Greco-Roman style but the entrance was mostly glass.
“Sorry, I don’t have a key,” Vladimir said as he looked to the back.
“Then let’s try this…hang on everyone!” Trent shouted then he held the steering wheel tight and bore down straight for the front door. Bonnie shielded Ellen and everyone else did what they could just as the bus crashed through the front doors. Trent got out of his seat and opened the door.
“Get out everyone, quickly!” Vladimir ordered and they moved rapidly out of the bus. “Load up both elevators were going to the fiftieth floor.” The elevators filled as Kulagin and his men arrived and got out of their vehicles.
“What about the door to the stairs?” Justin asked.
“It’s locked and sealed like a vault. It’ll take a tank or a cutting torch to get through.” The bus was blocking the entrance but soon Kulagin’s men slid under the bus and emerged just as the elevator doors closed. Trent helped Johnny off the bus and was holding him on the elevator as they went upward. Vladimir was on the elevator with Sergei and Trent with Ellen. Andy and Jozette helped Little Wolf to the elevator. Vladimir made it clear that neither elevator was to be allowed to go back down. On the fiftieth floor they got out and someone held the door open. Couches were slid into the doorway opening and the doors could never close so the elevator would remain on the fiftieth floor.
“We need to find a safe place,” Trent said and he and Vladimir looked over the floor while the crowd waited. Dave checked Johnny but there wasn’t much he could do with the bullet still in his chest.
“We have to walk up to the top,” Vladimir said.
“Why don’t we just take the elevator?” Warren asked.
“They’d see that and we’d be sitting ducks,” Trent said.
“But we’ll be up there anyway,” Belinda said.
“Yes, but they won’t know exactly where we are and it’ll give us time to prepare,” Trent said.
“Prepare for what?” Andy asked.
“The assault,” Vladimir said. They looked at one another then began the climb to the top.
* * *
“Get the door open!” Andrei shouted and his men tried but it was indeed a vault and bullets did nothing.
“We’ll never get through here, maybe there’s a back way,” one of his men said and Kulagin nodded then walked to the window and looked out thinking for a few minutes.
“Okay, we’ll operate from right here. Denisovitch take Ricekin and bring everything back here. All communications equipment, the weaponry, everything.” His two lieutenants nodded and took off in one of the vehicles.
“Comrade, how long before the authorities find out what has happened?” A man asked walking around with a machine gun on his shoulder.
“Very soon I’m sure but it’ll take some time to mount an attack on us and they don’t know where we are.”
“But someone must’ve seen us head down this road.”
“Perhaps but it’ll take time.”
“What should we do now?”
“Go down to the basement and find a cutting torch.”
“Yes, Comrade,” the man said and disappeared quickly.
“I wonder how Radinsky is doing. Without him I have nothing.”
* * *
“Colonel, I’m getting something from Moscow,” Sergeant Boris Yaselov said as he held a headset to his ear.
“What?” Colonel Azarov asked.
“Security is saying that the two Presidents have been kidnapped.”
“What!” Azarov stood up and paced. “Are you sure?”
“Apparently the bus tour was snagged. A truck stopped the bus, men jumped on board and took the bus.”
“Anything else?”
“The bus was seen driving away rapidly and was pursued by the men who stopped it in the first place.”
“We need to get inside,” Mikhail said and pushed the intercom. “Lieutenant Radinsky, open the door.”
“The test is not complete yet, sir.”
“We hav
e an emergency. I must get in there. Stop the test and open the door.”
“Can’t do it, sir.”
“Radinsky, this is an order. Open the door!”
“Can’t help you this time, Colonel. You see I’m acting for Comrade Stalin and all who believe in him.” Mikael looked at his fellow officers and sighed. Too late he realized that one of the fanatics was on the inside…literally. They were well known throughout Russia. There was little secret of their existence. The government knew it but they were hard to track down and identify. Many people believed in what they did, would offer them protection and wouldn’t tell the police or the military anything.
“You’ll be court-martialed and shot.”
“I’m aware of that, Colonel. Those of us who believe in Comrade Stalin are ready to make sacrifices even our lives.”
“We have to stop this Radinsky,” Captain Retzlarian said and approached the control panel.
“Don’t make me shoot you, Captain,” Radinsky said as he pointed a revolver at the captain.
“You need help, Lieutenant,” Svetlov said as he sat at the computer to cancel the test and open the door.
“I warned you, Captain,” as shots rang out and Retzlarian was hit in the shoulder and chest just below the heart and he slumped in his chair.
“You maniac, Radinsky, I’ll shoot you myself,” Azarov said as he pounded on the glass. Igor was working the control panel and not watching then a grin came over his face.
“Okay, now, Colonel, I’ve taken over.”
“I’ll have the door blasted.”
“You should know better than anyone that if you do that the system will interpret it as a destruction of the site and launch the missiles automatically. “
“Only if they are armed.”
“Correct and I’ve just armed them. I have thirty-eight missiles aimed at the United States. Hydrogen warheads ready to land on New York, Washington, Atlanta, Boston, Houston…well you get the idea. I don’t remember all the places but it won’t matter when I launch because when I push the button, they’ll launch at us and life as we know it on this planet will be wiped out.”
“You’re insane, Radinsky,” Mikhail said.
“My mother used to say that. I don’t know who my father was, never met him. I think, however, that you’re wrong if you think I’m clinically insane. I’m what would be colorfully called a fanatic. I’m ready to die for the cause. You know just like those jihadists. Threats of a court-martial or being shot bounce off me. I know I’m dead so what do I have to lose. I’ll just sit here and wait to hear orders from my comrade and leader.” Colonel Azarov stood staring at Radinsky then moved away to a conference room with his officers.
“He’s right, of course, there’s nothing we can do. We can’t break down the door and even if we could he’d just launch on his own,” Azarov said.
“What should we do, sir?” Sergeant Yaselov asked.
“We have to call Moscow.”
“Yes, sir but who? President Deniken is being held hostage, Berenelov is unreliable and we all know where Melenkov stands on the Stalinists. He’s one of them…allegedly.” Azarov leaned back in his chair thinking.
“You’re right of course…this is it ladies and gentlemen. What we’ve feared for decades, what we’ve guarded against and hoped would never happen is about to happen.”
“Yes, sir,” Yaselov said.
“The odds are very high that this is the last day of peace on Earth, the last day anyone can walk outside and breathe fresh air.
“Yes, sir,” Yaselov repeated.
“Is that all you can say, Sergeant?”
“Did you want me to argue with you, sir?”
“At this point I’d listen to anything.”
“Sir, if I may,” Corporal Kelchak offered.
“Go ahead.”
“Sir, this is what we’re trained for. Hundreds of others all over Russia at installations like this one have been ready for the unthinkable for many years. Many have retired and died and now we’re here. Everyone thinks they’ll be gone before the end is here and all the others before us were that lucky but in our case, we’re the ones to see the end.”
“And your point, Corporal?”
“We’re all soldiers, sir, and this is our job. It could be the last job we ever do but it’s still our job to carry on.”
“Yeah,” Azarov said as he stared at the wall. “This is beyond protocol but I’m not sure it matters now, so if anyone wants to leave and try and find their family and loved ones, you’re free to go.” No one moved or said anything.”
“Sir, Corporal Kelchak is right, our duty is here with you. Whatever happens it’s our job to carry out instructions, whatever they may be,” Yaselov stated and Azarov nodded.
“Into the valley of death rode the six hundred,” Azarov said softly.
“What was that, sir?” Kelchak asked.
“Tennyson, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote a poem after the British suffered a disastrous fate at the battle of Baraclava during the Crimea War in 1854. The six hundred cavalrymen rode into certain death but did so bravely and without hesitation.”
“A suicide mission, sir?” Kelchak asked.
“Well, I’ve always wanted to go on a suicide mission,” Yaselov said.
“Then Sergeant…you’ve come to the right place.”
* * *
“What do you know,” Agent Wallach asked as she talked on a cell in a room with the door closed. Andrew Bellingham was using a phone given to him by Wallach before he left for the Crimea. She wanted a quick line to someone close to the President.
“The bus was hijacked but then shots were fired, the bus pulled away and was later pursued by the very people who stopped it,” Andrew said.
“Do you think Wilson took the bus back?”
“Maybe but he would’ve needed help.”
“There were Russian agents on board, maybe they made a pact or something.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you have any idea where they are?”
“In Russia somewhere.” Wallach thought for a moment.
“What about our agents and the Russian agents?” There was a period of silence.
“They’re all dead,” Andrew said. Cheryl took a deep breath. They were trained for this sort of disaster but it still was hard to take. She had friends in the car.
“Alright, call me when you know something.”
“I will immediately.” Wallach put her phone away and walked into the hall of the Whitehouse. “Brannigan, come here.” An agent came over and they moved to a place under a stairway.
“What is it?”
“The Falcon is down.”
“What!”
“The President and Deniken have been kidnapped.”
“How?”
“The bus tour was a set up.”
“The Russian government?”
“I don’t know but I doubt it. Sounds like the Stalinists are at it again.”
“Where is she?”
“Unknown.”
“Bellingham?”
“He called but all he knows is that the bus was hijacked.” Wallach fidgeted and looked at her feet.
“There’s something else isn’t there?”
“Yeah.”
“What?”
“It’s bad, Tim.”
“What!”
“We had three agents on the bus, Wilson, Rodriguez and Wheaton. The rest were in a car behind the bus. The car was run off the road and all the agents were killed. The Russian agents too.” Brannigan walked away and lowered his head. After a moment he walked back to Wallach.
“Billy was in that car.”
“I know and so was my best friend, Angelo.”
“This is the worst, Cheryl.”
“I know but we have a job to do and we need to do it.” Brannigan nodded.
“You’re right…what about Jensen?”
“She’s in the hotel. Bellingham and York are with her.”
“How many ag
ents?”
“Four.”
“Not enough,” Brannigan posed.
“I know but it’s all we have. So far she doesn’t appear to be in any danger.”
“Can we get her out of the country?”
“We need to try. Bellingham and York are putting out feelers to get a flight to Kiev. Then they could fly to Washington.”
“What next?”
“We need to tell the husband and kids.” They both went to the residency on the second floor.
“They’re busy,” an usher said at the door of the residence.
“This is an emergency, tell him to come out now.”
“Hello, Ms. Wallach,” Don said as he walked out into the hall. “Is there a problem?”
“Sir, Andrew Bellingham just called me and the President has been taken.”
“What do you mean taken?”
“The bus she was on along with her staff and the Russian President and his staff was hijacked.”
“By who?”
“We don’t know for sure but I suspect it was a Stalinist element.”
“Oh, boy, they’re fanatics.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do we know where they are?”
“No, sir.”
“I assume the reason had something to do with the treaty that the Stalinists and many in Russia oppose.”
“Seems likely,” Cheryl said.
“What happens now?” Don asked.
“You tell your children and of course you can’t leave the Whitehouse.”
“Understood but what about the government?”
“We’re working on it, sir.”
“Thanks for telling me.”
“Yes, sir.”
* * *
“What’s wrong, Dad?” Shelly asked. They were watching television together like they did nearly every evening. Brian was under house arrest as he called it and Shelly didn’t want to cause any extra trouble for her dad so she’d been staying home every night as well. Don walked slowly up to his kids grim faced. He said nothing for a moment and Shelly and Brian became concerned.
“What is it, Dad?” Brian asked.
“Something’s happened,” Don said as she sat down on the edge of a chair facing his children.