They were out of the safe house within fifteen minutes and drove away without telling the CIA watcher where they were going, only that they would be back very soon and to keep that spare bedroom ready to receive another visitor.
This time, the road to the border city was busy with traffic, although the weather remained sour, and making the trip in an automobile was much easier than doubled up on a motorbike, battling through freezing wind. Anneli talked almost nonstop, emptying her soul of worry, until Kyle slowly exerted control and focused her on the night’s mission.
They went to a different place this time, because she and Brokk were too well known at the German Club. It was more of a down-scale bar frequented by Russian soldiers who crossed the bridge on leave to enjoy a tiny taste of Western decadence. Heads had turned when Anneli walked in, following slightly behind Kyle in a subservient manner. The soldiers saw a beautiful woman and a tough, scowling man, and commented that the world was unfair to allow such an ugly gorilla to have a princess like that. Must be a gangster, they concluded. Kyle kept his manner silent and stern as the couple went to a table, where he let Anneli do the talking. They had a small dinner and beer and watched the soldiers, many of whom openly gaped at her. Just watching her was worth crossing the border for on this wicked night. None of them was acceptable.
Then about eight o’clock, the corporal came in with a few friends, and went directly to the bar for a drink. When he eventually turned his attention from his vodka to look over the crowd, he locked eyes with Anneli, who did not look away. The youngster blushed and turned back to his friends. The man who was with the beautiful girl suddenly slapped the table hard and jumped to his feet, leaned over and whispered something at her that made her start to cry. He stomped out of the club, leaving her alone, teary.
Three other soldiers made approaches but she waved them off, and finally, young Corporal Valentin Serov shyly came to her table, and was lost in those big, wet eyes. Other soldiers silently cursed him. In ten minutes, when he had gentled her emotions, she rather guiltily asked Val if he would see her home, she didn’t want to be out in the street alone if that other man should attack her. Serov couldn’t believe his luck. He escorted her to the door and waved good-bye to his hooting friends at the bar.
She guided them just around the corner, beside a row of parked cars, and as they passed by, Kyle Swanson stepped out from between two vehicles and slugged Val Serov behind his right ear. Anneli had the rear door open before the stunned boy hit the ground and then she helped Kyle shove the wobbly corporal into the backseat. She drove while Swanson secured the soldier with duct tape and covered him with a blanket.
“Good job, girl. Back to the safe house,” he said, climbing into the front seat as she turned onto the main highway, driving carefully and doing nothing to draw attention.
15
“Wake up, Corporal.” Valentin Serov heard the persistent voice of a woman pulling him from a comfortable reverie of sleep. A cool cloth bathed his face. “Come on, now. You are fine. Everything is fine.” The words were Russian, and he responded, coming smoothly out of a drug-induced stupor in which he had been suspended for the past six hours. He blinked, saw shadows and light, and gradually came to his senses. There she was.
Serov saw scraps of returning memory, fragments of everything from the moment he had worked up the courage to go and say hello to the beautiful girl in the bar. He had soothed her then, just as she was helping him now, and then they had stepped outside, with his hopes so high and his attention so totally on her that he had not detected any danger whatsoever. He could hardly believe his luck. Then he remembered being stunned by a painful slam on the head, being roughly handled into an automobile, being bound and gagged, and a sharp needle pinching into his arm. Beyond that, only a deep sleep.
“Wake up,” she repeated as his eyes came into focus. Anneli Kallasti smiled down at him, and he smiled weakly back until he realized that he was secured to a bed. He jerked his wrists and tried to move his legs, but was too tightly bound, and when he opened his mouth to shout, she covered it gently with her hand. Her touch silenced him before he could scream, and he remained quiet.
The woman was even more beautiful than he had remembered from last night. Instead of the long red hair, she was now a dark brunette with gray eyes and pouting lips. She dabbed at his face with the wet cloth. “Hello, soldier. Welcome back. You’re safe here, and you will not be harmed. I apologize for the rough treatment last night. I think you really are kind of cute.”
As if to prove it, she unbuckled one of his wrists. “You will still be unsteady, but my friends are going to take you to the bathroom and help you shower and give you some pills to help with that headache. Then we will talk. Now don’t try to fight, okay? No harm will come to you if you do not resist. I promise.”
“Who are you?” His voice was a frog’s croak from the dry mouth. “Where am I?”
Anneli gave a small laugh and leaned across to unbuckle the other wrist. In the process, she pressed her body lightly against him. The captive soldier almost sighed with pleasure. She pulled away and turned to a pair of men in the room, Kyle Swanson and a duty CIA field agent at the safe house. “He’s all yours.”
Serov was still weak and did not resist as the men finished freeing his bonds and lifted him to his feet, then slowly shuffled him to a small but clean bathroom. His limbs were responding more by the minute, and he drank a glass of water, was able to urinate, was allowed a quick, warm shower and even brushed his teeth. The two escorts watched the entire time, but did not say a word, and soon he was back in the bed, lashed up but comfortable in a set of blue hospital scrubs. He saw his uniform hanging neatly on the back of a door.
“You probably have many questions, Corporal Valentin Serov. Your identification was in your wallet,” the girl explained. “I won’t tell you much, because my friends and I kidnapped you last night to ask some questions, not the other way around. Do you understand that?”
“I am a prisoner,” Serov said with a jerk of the wrist restraints. “Why? I don’t know anything.”
She was in a chair beside the bed, helping him sip some water through a straw. Then she sat back and placed a writing tablet in her lap. “You are participating in that big Russian military exercise, are you not, Valentin? It must be very difficult for you out in the wild weather.”
Serov knew that he should not answer, but she was so nice, and it was no great leap of knowledge for her to assume that he had been part of an exercise that had involved thousands of men and was being watched by the world media. “I stay indoors most of the time,” he responded with a grin. “I’m a clerk for the quartermaster. Others do the marching.”
Anneli made a tick on the pad, checking off the item. “Yes. That was on your ID card. Good for you. Have you been in the service long, Valentin?”
For the first time, Serov noticed that the two men had stayed in the room, but were seated and in nonthreatening positions. He ignored them to focus on Anneli. “For more than two years now. I either had to join or be conscripted, so I enlisted. Since I had some good schooling and knew how to type from using my computer so much, I was assigned to the headquarters company.”
“When did you transfer to the Narva area? Do you like it here?”
He decided to try a trade. “I will tell you that only if you tell me your name.” He smiled.
She gave a look she would show a naughty child. “Oh, you want to make a deal? Very well. My name is Darya and I am Estonian.”