by Tom Haase
He needed to clear his account with Artur and to thank him in person before he left. They’d changed cars a few minutes after the shooting at Karim’s place as Dmitri believed the FBI would have all the police forces looking for that SUV.
“I’ll be there. See you soon, Papa.”
* * *
Miles away, Matt listened to the conversation. This could be his last chance to get to Dmitri. The man would fly from America, and he would be back at square one. Now that he knew Dmitri’s location, he could trap him, he thought.
He called Scott. “Scott, the girl is going to try to escape and run to her father. I just listened to their conversation. She’s attempting to reach Manassas Regional Airport. You and Gerti need to contain her and bring her to that location.”
“What do we do there?” Scott queried.
“We are going to get the truth out of that Russian. We might use his daughter to get him to talk since I don’t have any other options at this time.”
“We’ll be on the way in a few minutes. I’ll tell her we’ll volunteer to take her to her father, if she knows where he is. I think she trusts us after we saved her from the kidnappers, and she might go along with us taking her there. I would also let Mr. Schultz know what we’re doing. I’m sure Gerti wants to bring him up to date.”
“Good luck, but one way or another, get her there.”
* * *
Dmitri relaxed in the backseat of a white Cadillac as it sped toward the airfield. Things were going to work out. He would depart with his daughter. But another idea sprang into his head. This one he really liked, as it encompassed all the elements of a Greek drama.
His phone buzzed. The Robocop’s voice boomed in his ear. “I received a call that informed me that Matt Higgins is going to the Manassas Regional Airport. Scott Donavan will also be there. No one else is to be harmed. Higgins knows that is where you are going. Fulfill your contract.”
“You should come and see it fulfilled. You can then pay me for its completion.”
The distorted voice said, “Agreed, I’m on my way.”
47
Liz at the Hospital
Matt accompanied Liz on the ambulance ride to the hospital. She remained conscious, but in a great deal of pain. The medics took her vitals and relayed them to a doctor at the hospital. With the sound of the wailing siren barely audible inside the speeding vehicle, he held her hand and told her she would make it when he saw her open her eyes. Liz seemed to go in and out of consciousness. On arrival at the hospital, the EMTs rushed her into a room, and Matt couldn’t enter.
He waited for twenty minutes, and then a doctor came to him to report that Liz would make it, but would need to be hospitalized for a few days. She would require a period of physical therapy for her recovery. Matt thanked him and went outside to get a taxi to go back to Karim’s to retrieve his car.
In the cab, he called Schultz.
“I need some help. I believe I’ve located Dmitri. Scott must have informed you of where we’re going by now. I need some manpower. I lost my FBI support, but I could use some muscle. I know you have contacts, and when I take Dmitri down, I believe he’ll have secured some local firepower. I can’t call in the FBI because what I want to do is a little beyond their tolerance for unauthorized procedures, if you follow.” Matt paused.
“I certainly do. Where and when do you need men?”
Matt told him.
“They will be there, and I will come with them. Give us thirty minutes.”
Matt breathed a little easier. He estimated that Dmitri had lost some men here in the US, but they must have come from local contacts. If so, the man would again prevail upon his source to provide more guns to cover his departure. How many, Matt didn’t know, but the last time there had been six or seven. He needed to get there as quick as possible to recon the area and prepare for Dmitri’s arrival. If he could prevent the man from reaching the hangar with the aircraft, that would be the best solution. It would keep the plane out of play and eliminate that avenue of escape.
He called Scott. “Where are you?”
“Just a few minutes from the airfield.”
“I should be there in three. Stay away from the hangar that he told Tasha to go to. We need to be wary. I don’t think he’s there yet, but I don’t want us to walk up to it without knowing if he’s there.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m playing it by ear.”
“No, I mean what are you going to do with Dmitri?”
“I want to find out why he came after us, or who put him up to it. He knows and I’ll get it out of him.” Matt hung up.
* * *
Dmitri had arrived at the hangar well before Matt or Scott. He was joined by the extra men provided by Artur. A few minutes later, he saw cars starting to arrive on the far end of the field. He knew this would be Higgins and his FBI friends. He remained confident that he could fulfill the contract and receive his money from Robocop, or the man he discovered behind the voice—Mr. Benjamin Schultz. He would then handle the last detail before his departure. He and his daughter would fly to Russia, where they would be safe, and all on the list, plus Schultz, would be dead.
If he remained in the hangar with his men, Higgins and his group would have to approach. At that point, he would launch his attack when they were in the open and finish them off. The plan made sense to him, and he told the men around him what he intended to do.
“Wait until they approach. I want them to get close,” he ordered.
They acknowledged his plan, and the five of them moved into position to gain the best fields of fire on anyone approaching.
Dmitri thanked his good fortune that he had arrived before them. Now he would destroy them. He held the upper hand.
48
Manassas Regional Airport
As Matt approached the airfield, he saw Schultz standing in front of the FBO. The Fixed Base Operations served as a gas station, eatery and general store for planes landing at the airport. As he looked around, however, he realized that this building couldn’t be Dmitri’s location. Matt pulled up beside the man and got out.
“Matt, I must apologize to you,” Schultz said as soon as Matt approached. “I acted rashly in taking the girl. I wanted to get some leverage over Dmitri for his attempts to kill my daughter. I should have worked with you.”
“I accept your apology, and, yes, it would’ve been much better if we’d coordinated our actions. I had no idea you were going to take any direct action on your own.”
“You’re correct. I will coordinate in the future,” Schultz said.
Matt decided to let it go for the present as the man had plainly apologized and seemed eager to help at this stage of his operation.
“How many men do you have?” Matt asked.
“Four. Is that enough?”
“It’ll do. I don’t know how many men he has available, but we should be fine. I believe we’re here before him. We can set up an ambush for his arrival. I want you to take half of your men and go to the rear of that hangar.” Matt pointed at the distant hangar on the other side of the field, almost out of sight of the main buildings on the airfield. He had called the airport tower before his arrival and learned in which hangar Dmitri had positioned his plane.
“Can do. What are you going to do?”
“I’m working on it,” Matt said with a smile. He realized that he needed to approach the building as fast as possible to secure it before Dmitri arrived. It would give them a tactical advantage to hold it.
“Scott told me he’s bringing the girl here,” Schultz said.
“Yes. I don’t want her to get involved in any shoot-out. I’m actually hoping to avoid any weapons use in order to talk with him. Remember, the reason we’re after Dmitri is to discover why he came after us, or who paid him to come after the three of us named in that email.”
“True, so I’ll take my men around to the rear, and once you secure the building, we’ll come in and take up positions with
you.” He pointed at two of his men to stay with Matt and two to follow him. They climbed into an SUV and headed toward the hangar. Matt now had himself and two of Schultz’s men. Scott and Gerti could augment his numbers when they arrived. He hoped all would go smoothly and they would finally uncover Dmitri’s secret.
Matt decided to move and get into the building now. He signaled the two men to get into their SUV and he jumped into his car. Schultz’s car disappeared behind the hangar, and Matt led the two-vehicle convoy toward the target.
* * *
Scott maintained a high rate of speed to reach the airfield. He wanted to arrive before anything happened. The phone call between Tasha and her father caused the girl to become quite somber. She must be confused with the happenings that now surrounded her father. She appeared to be struggling with some form of inner conflict, by the expression on her face and the fact the she had gone silent.
“Are you all right?” Gerti asked her.
“I don’t understand. My father said he is only a businessman, but I get the feeling from the men who kidnapped me and to a lesser degree from you that he could be involved in some illegal activities. Is that right?”
“We’re in no position to judge. We do know that he may be involved in an attempt on someone’s life. That’s why we want to talk to him and find out what he knows about it,” Gerti said.
“I plan on asking him outright when we get there. He’ll give me a truthful answer,” Tasha said. “I have to know.”
“We’re at the airfield,” Scott said. “I can see Matt’s car, with another one moving toward the hangar your father told you about.”
Matt’s car stopped about a hundred feet from an entrance to the right of the large sliding door that allowed aircraft to enter and to exit. Scott headed directly for him and came to a screeching halt. Tasha immediately jumped out and started to run toward the hangar. Her action took Scott and Gerti by surprise.
“Stop,” Gerti and Scott shouted together.
49
Inside the Hangar
Dmitri observed the vehicles as they headed to the rear of the hangar. He pointed at three of his men and gestured for them to go to the back wall and cover that area. The men moved quickly, taking up positions covering the rear approach from the two four-panel windows on that wall. With those precautions in place, he again focused his attention outside to the front. A car and an SUV approached from that direction.
He surmised by their actions that his attackers had assumed that no one had entered the hangar. Otherwise, there would be no reason for someone to come streaming across an open airfield without first climbing out of their vehicles and slowly coming forward to see if anyone was there or if anyone fired at them. That would be the prudent move, not this blatant disregard for the safety of the men now approaching.
His thoughts were interrupted when another vehicle came flying across the tarmac and slid to a stop behind a car. He watched the FBI agent Higgins climb out of his car and head toward the car of the new arrival. Dmitri stood dumbfounded for a second. What the hell were they doing? Gathering reinforcements? His heart almost stopped as the car door swung open. He saw his daughter jump from the arriving vehicle and start to run toward the hangar. He had to rescue her, he told himself. The FBI couldn’t capture her and use her against him.
“Hold your fire,” he commanded.
What was going on? He decided to move. Then he saw Higgins rush to stop the girl and pull her back to where his group stood near the car.
This caused Dmitri’s blood pressure to spike. He could hear his heart pumping in his chest. He must rescue his daughter, and get her away from the FBI. His mind only saw his darling girl in peril. He needed to get her and take her back to Russia.
“Get ready. We’re going out there and saving my daughter. Watch where you shoot. Don’t hit her. We need to secure her. Bring her in here and you two open the hangar doors. The pilots have already pre-flighted the plane and are in the cockpit ready to go.”
He looked at each man. “Ready?”
Each gave him a nod of understanding. Maybe this wasn’t his brightest move, attacking a group while in the open, but he had to get his little girl away from them.
“Open the door,” he commanded.
* * *
“What is she trying to do?” Matt asked Scott.
“I think she’s really confused about her father. All her life, he’s been a businessman to her. Now she’s wondering what he really is and wants to confront him,” Gerti added.
“She’s really wound tight,” Scott added.
Matt watched Tasha for a few seconds before he spoke to her. “I know this may be very difficult for you, but there’s a possibility of real danger here. I don’t want you hurt. We’re going to try and take your father into custody to ask him some questions. It could be nothing, but we need to find some things out. Please control yourself until we sort this out with your father. You will be able to talk to him when we do. I promise. So I’m asking you to calm down.”
He observed the young lady for a few seconds and saw her relax her shoulders, which he took as a subtle telltale capitulation in her manner. Then, looking him in the eye, she slowly nodded her head in silent agreement.
“Gerti, you stay here with Tasha while we go and check out the hangar. Your father is around back setting up a blocking position there in case we need it,” Matt said. He turned to Schultz’s men. “All right, let’s go check out the hangar.”
The sound of gunfire erupted at that moment. Bullets whizzed by, barely missing his head.
50
The Assault
Dmitri led the charge of his men as they ran to where he observed Tasha being held by the FBI agent. He fired his handgun, a 9mm Glock, at the extra security men he saw who stood away from his daughter. He didn’t want to hit her with stray rounds. He nailed one of the men, who reached for his weapon. The man fell. The men beside him fired as they ran over the one hundred feet that separated the cars from the front of the hangar. One of the men next to him fell as return fire sliced into the Russian assault.
Dmitri saw the men near the cars try to get behind them. Everyone seemed to be firing at once. As he neared the FBI agent Higgins, he pointed his weapon at the man and fired. Higgins released the grip he had on Tasha arm and spun, falling backwards to the ground.
Dmitri rushed to his daughter. He hugged her, took her hand, and then led her back toward the safety of the hangar. She offered some light resistance to his efforts to get her to follow, but he used his superior force to propel her forward for only a few more feet. He eventually got behind her and pushed her toward the door.
She screamed as a bullet whizzed past her head. The next moment, she felt her father’s grip release her arm as he stumbled forward.
* * *
Matt clearly saw Dmitri as the man charged out of the hangar. It took him a second to realize he held a raised weapon and, almost simultaneously, he heard the gun discharge. It looked like the five assailants were planning to overrun them by sheer force. Matt pulled his weapon and tried to move Tasha to a position behind the car. She seemed frozen in place, and he couldn’t get her to move with his gentle pulling. He reached up to get a better grip on her arm in order to force her to accompany him to the safety of the vehicles.
As he turned to yell to the others to get behind the cars, he felt the searing hot pain of a bullet ripping through his shoulder. He recognized the hurt from a previous experience with getting shot. It felt like he had been hit with a baseball bat swung by a professional player. The impact of the round compelled him to release his grip on Tasha. He also began to spin around and then realized he was falling to the ground.
Landing on his back, he felt his head ricochet off the tarmac of the taxiway, producing instant and intense pain in his head. His vision now showed two or three images of people instead of one. He thought for a few seconds that he would lose it, then willed himself to regain control and swung himself into a sitting position. He mus
t get back in the fight.
Weapons were firing all around him. His vision began to clear, and he concentrated on following the girl being dragged by Dmitri. He pushed the pain and the shock from his mind. He needed to have his wits about him or he would surely be killed. Seeing his pistol a foot from his right leg, he grabbed for it and pulled it up to a firing position. At the entrance to the hangar, he watched as Dmitri moved behind his daughter and attempted to push her inside.
The remaining men of the assault force tried to cover his retreat into the hangar. The heavy volume of fire from the men around Matt had a devastating effect on their efforts, and they began to fall before Dmitri reached his destination.
Dmitri, delayed by his daughter’s reluctance, struggled to push her forward. This provided Matt with a singular opportunity he could not pass up.
With clear vision, and using both hands, he kept his eyes open. His entire focus centered on the back of the man who now loomed in his gun’s sight. His left shoulder shot agony that reached his brain. He involuntarily flinched. The sight on his weapon fell off the spot he aimed at. From some depth in his mind, he disregarded his pain and regained clarity. With his blurry vision, he reacquired Dmitri with his weapon. As the Russian rushed to the door, Matt squeezed the trigger as gently as he could in order not to be off target.