To underscore his orders, Kiril lightly scratched Luka’s neck with the letter opener. A tiny droplet of blood dribbled out.
“Kurt, please tell our brother Aleksei whether Rogov is bleeding and whether the cut is serious.”
“Yes about the blood, no about the serious,” Brenner said—and on his own added, “Not yet.”
Adrienne held Aleksei’s revolver by the butt, resting it in her lap.
“Mrs. Brenner,” Kiril said, “do you know what the hammer on a revolver is—the piece just above your thumb?”
Adrienne almost smiled. “I’ve seen enough movies. You want me to pull the hammer back?”
“Yes. Then put the end of the gun’s barrel into Aleksei’s side. If he so much as burps, I want you to pull the trigger. Can you do that?”
Her answer came slowly. “The hammer, yes. I’ve just done it. The rest? Maybe. I’m not sure.”
Half a loaf. Well, Aleksei can’t be sure either.
“Sit on your hands, Aleksei,” Kiril said.
Aleksei did as he was told.
By now Rogov had driven at least two miles deep into the airport. The tarmac was enveloped in darkness, the car’s headlights providing the only light. Before them were dense stands of trees. To the left there appeared to be a dirt trail, maybe an old logging road.
“Aleksei, tell Rogov to stop slowly, turn off his bright lights, and turn on the parking lights.”
Both men complied.
Kiril slowly moved his free right hand to Adrienne’s, took Aleksei’s revolver from her, and put it at the back of Luka’s head while replacing the letter opener in his belt.
“Kurt,” Kiril said, “Rogov’s revolver is holstered on his right side, next to you. See it? I want you to open the holster, remove the weapon, pull back the hammer, and step out of the car. Then go around to the door behind you, open it, and press the barrel against our KGB brother’s head. Can you do that?”
“With pleasure,” Brenner responded with undisguised enthusiasm.
“Kurt, step back so Aleksei has room to get out of the car. He will walk about ten feet—backwards. As you walk backwards behind him, aim at the lumbar spine. If he makes any sudden moves, put two bullets in his spine.”
“My pleasure,” Brenner said—and had to admit that the mere thought of crippling the sonofabitch was delicious.
“Mrs. Brenner,” Kiril said, “get out of the car through the right door and step about ten feet away.”
She did.
Kiril spoke to Luka Rogov in Russian. “I am about to get out of the car. The gun in my hand will be aimed at your head. If you make any move I don’t like, I will blow your head off and then do the same to Colonel Andreyev. Nod if you understand.”
Rogov, his bushy eyebrows creased in a frown, nodded.
“I’m not finished, Luka. Once you’re out of the car, you will walk backwards until I tell you to stop.”
Rogov nodded again, left the car, and started walking backwards.
“Now stop and turn around,” Kiril told him.
“No, don’t. Don’t kill him! He can’t harm you now!” Aleksei cried out.
“Listen to me, Rogov,” Kiril said, ignoring Aleksei’s anguished plea. “I want you to remove your tie, your belt, the straps that hold your equipment, the shoelaces from your boots—all of it. You too, Aleksei.”
As soon as they were done, Kiril asked Adrienne to collect whatever items would effectively bind their hands and feet.
Walking Luka to roughly ten feet from where Brenner guarded Aleksei, Kiril told both men to drop their trousers.
Luka just stared at him, not comprehending.
Not so Aleksei. Realizing they weren’t about to die after all, he made a crude joke.
“Explain what I want—what Rogov must do next—and why, Aleksei.”
He did, and they did.
Kurt Brenner was amazed that such a simple expedient virtually froze the two Russians in place. Unable to walk, let alone run, all they could do was hop like kangaroos!
Kiril signaled Adrienne to bring him what she’d sorted. There were more than enough sturdy items to secure both Aleksei and Luka Rogov.
Kiril tied up Rogov, Brenner doing the same with Aleksei.
“What now?” Brenner asked cheerfully.
“My original plan, of course,” Kiril replied, making no effort to lower his voice. “We’ll hijack the executive jet and fly to Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin.”
Kiril had no such intention—but no way yet to let the Brenners know what he really planned to do.
With a touch of alarm, he realized that he was slipping into a state of deep fatigue, every last ounce of adrenalin draining out of him…
So much had happened without respite. Knocking Brenner out and taking his place. Fear that Adrienne Brenner would realize who he was. His exhilaration when the plane landed him in Zurich. The painful discovery that his long-sought freedom was illusory. The stunning realization that he’d found his mother but simultaneously caused her unbearable pain. The bleak resolve to go back for his brother. The disgust he’d felt when he learned what Aleksei had been holding over Kurt Brenner’s head. The desperate hope, as he and Adrienne returned to East Berlin, that he could come up with a workable escape plan.
“Before you truss me up like some pig,” Aleksei said, “why don’t we brothers share a last cigarette. After all, before long one of us will be dead. You, if we catch your merry threesome. Me, if we don’t.”
Kiril took a crushed pack of cheap Russian cigarettes out of his pocket, offered one to Aleksei, and without thinking used his lighter. When it failed to spark he tried again—and only then noticed Aleksei staring at the lighter, his expression half-shock, half-knowing.
“So you were the source of the microfilm,” he said. “It was you who gave it to Stepan Brodsky. You who was his backup. And inches from my face is the last surviving copy of the microfilm that would prove you are guilty of treason, you—”
Kiril shrugged. “Now there really are no more secrets between us.”
“Let’s finish up here,” he told Brenner.
As soon as Aleksei and Rogov were tied and gagged, Kiril took Brenner and Adrienne thirty feet away. “My original idea was to hijack the executive jet once Aleksei got us on board. It would have been hard but it might have worked. Without Aleksei, it’s impossible.”
“What can we do?” Brenner asked.
“We have at least four hours lead time, maybe more, before someone finds them or before they manage to free themselves and get to a telephone or a radio.”
“Then let’s end it here and now.”
“What’s the matter with you, Kurt?” Adrienne snapped. “We should stand by while you blow their brains out?”
“Don’t worry about Aleksei’s plane,” Kiril said in an effort to defuse the tension. “In the meantime, we’ll figure out a way to get to Potsdam.”
“You have friends in Potsdam?” Brenner asked.
“I think so.”
Kiril was remembering a handshake. A look of profound gratitude in a man’s eyes. Letters carved in dirt by a miniature scalpel.
Adrienne smiled. She was remembering it too.
And thanks to a strong retentive memory, Kiril thought he could recall an address…
“For now,” Kiril told them, we have to hide out until it gets dark tomorrow night.”
“Why”? Brenner pressed.
“Because Aleksei will be looking for this automobile.”
Chapter 45
They made good time. It was almost dawn when they arrived at the outskirts of Potsdam in the powerful ZIN-110.