Chapter 74
It was the brake lights that had tipped the Bratva courier off. The unexpected blast of red light this late at night in the middle of nowhere could only mean trouble. His job was to run packages from Chicago to Virginia for the organization several times a week. He didn’t know anything about the dark blue Toyota Camry he had turned around to follow, but he remembered that it had been parked on the road outside the quarry. This was the sort of attention to detail for which he would be well rewarded.
The first call he made was to Chicago. Within a couple of minutes his cell phone rang.
“’Allo,” he answered.
“We will be coming up behind you soon,” the caller said in Russian.
“I will keep my distance. I do not have my lights on. There are no cars on the roads at this hour.”
He buzzed with nervous excitement as the blacked-out car quickly overtook him. They were being led farther away from civilization by the driver at the front of the line. It was obvious that they didn’t want any witnesses, and chose a game of Follow the Leader that would bring someone straight to hell.
His pulse began to quicken as the car in front of him dove onto a side road and increased its speed. He remained on the main road and maintained a safe distance to stay out of sight from the Camry. He noticed that the lead car had slowed its pace, before it turned abruptly onto a side road.
The action was over by the time he made it to the intersection. Four Bratva soldiers had surrounded the Toyota, and a woman was leaned up against the car with her hands on her head. They forced her into the lead car at gunpoint. One of the soldiers approached the courier’s car and he rolled down his window.
“Nice work,” the soldier said with a satisfied smile. “I will tell Pavel what you have done. She could have caused big problems for the operation.”
“Is she from the police?”
“Something like that. You must head back immediately. It’s possible you will need to make another run when you get back.”
“So soon?”
“Yes, but it might be the last one.”
He smiled and held up his thermos of coffee to show he was prepared. “I will head straight back.”
“Perhaps you will be back home soon,” the soldier said.
The courier watched the soldier jog to the woman’s car and drive it into the woods. He liked the sound of home.
Chapter 75
They were left alone in a basement room of the compound. The fluorescent lights buzzed rhythmically as they flickered. Maria Soller found it increasingly difficult to keep track of how much time had passed. She and Melody Millar had been handcuffed to steel railings that were bolted to the concrete wall. They were both seated in wooden chairs with metal frames that brought back memories from high school. The door to the yellow rectangular room was opposite a wall lined with government surplus desks. The musty smell of the basement was a vast improvement over the skanky hoods.
Soller had tucked her iPhone away and out of view at her first opportunity. Once their captors had left, she had tried to calm Millar down. The teenager was still in shock from the earlier killings, and focusing on someone else had proven to be a good way for Soller to deal with the situation.
“We’ll be out of here before you know it, Melody. Just hang in there,” she whispered.
“I’m really scared,” she said.
She was no senator’s daughter, which Soller realized might make her feel disposable. She leaned toward her, but the reassurance the gesture was meant to convey was quickly erased by an angry pull from her restraint.
“It’s okay. We’ll get out of here together,” Soller insisted. “Soon. I promise.”
Millar forced a smile, but it was quickly wiped away by commotion out in the hallway. They exchanged a fearful look as the men barked out commands in Russian. Seconds later the door flew open and three powerful men shoved a hooded, violently protesting figure toward the other side of the room. Soller recognized that it was a woman. The hood brought back unsettling memories. She felt a chill as she recalled the putrid smell of the canvas that was once fastened over her head.
“Fucking assholes!” the woman yelled.
She kicked one of the guards in the hip, clearly hoping to hit him in his groin. They immediately converged on her flailing body and secured her to the railing.
She must have known she had missed her target, but it did nothing to break her spirit.
“Touch me like that again, and I’ll make sure I don’t miss next time,” she growled.
Two of the soldiers were forced to hold back the man she’d kicked. He struggled to get free from their hold and landed a blow to her head, which sent her to the ground.
“Bitch,” he spat in Russian. “Next time you will be mine.”
“Calm down, you idiot,” the other soldier wearing a utility jacket said. “We need her to stay healthy. If you harm her, we won’t have a chip to bargain with in case there is a problem. She’s yours once we’re in the clear.”
The dazed woman dangled from the wrist that was secured to the steel railing. A soldier walked over and helped her into a chair. The soldiers argued bitterly in Russian for a few minutes before they exited the room. Soller listened to them bicker back and forth down the hall. She looked over at the woman, who was rising slowly out of her slumped posture. Her hood moved back and forth as if she was trying to scan the room, but she didn’t make a sound.
Soller looked over at Millar, who again was on the brink of tears, and then back to the new arrival. “Are you okay?” she whispered across the room. There was no response, so she decided to try again. “Hey. Can you hear me? They left. It’s okay.” She wasn’t sure what she should do to gain her trust. “Nod your head if you can hear me.” Still the mysterious woman did nothing. “My name is Maria,” she continued, “and my friend Melody is here too.”
When the woman heard the name Melody, her head seemed to perk up.
“We were grabbed by these people from a house in Maryland,” she explained quietly. “We’re not sure what they’re going to do to us…”
The sounds of footsteps were heard from the hall. It was more than one person, and the noise was growing louder. Maria stopped talking, closed her eyes and began to pray.
Chapter 76
The morning sun punched its way through the blinds and slowly worked its way down the wall toward the couch. Jack Turner was in a deep sleep when it reached him. He opened an eye with a squint and instinctively jerked his head away from the beam. He sat up and put his hands on his knees.
“Shit.” He tried to wipe away the morning grog with a head shake. “Addy? Hey, Addy?” He looked at his watch. “Motherfucker.”
Turner walked into Addy Simpson’s office, where Addy was slowly coming to life on the other couch.
“What? What is it?”
“It’s already eight in the goddamn morning.”
The two men looked at each other and shook their heads. Simpson took a deep breath and exhaled.
“I’m tellin’ ya, we’re too old for this shit, Addy,” Turner said. “You know what the aching feeling you have is? I’ll tell you what it is: it’s the twenty-five-year-old inside beating on the walls that have him trapped. He’s wondering what the fuck happened and how the hell he can get out.”
“I can’t remember the last time I slept past seven,” Simpson said, indirectly agreeing with his friend. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and checked the display. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He read the text messages first and then punched in the code to listen to his voicemail. After listening to the message his expression turned to a grimace. “I turned the ringer off when we were in Poolesville and forgot to turn it back on.”