‘They usually are when you’re a spook.’
‘Where is my daughter?’ Lock asked, impatience rising over his concern.
‘She’s safe — I’ll fetch her once we’ve got him secured. Hugo, take the strap off his AK — we’ll tie his hands with it.’ Chase crossed back to Hoyt. ‘You going to tell us who you’re really working for?’
‘Go fuck yourself,’ Hoyt replied.
Chase gave him a crooked smile — then punched him hard in the face. Hoyt fell to the ground, a bright fan of blood spraying from both nostrils. ‘Never heard of ’em. They got a website? Go-fuck-yourself-dot-com?’
‘Motherfucker!’ Hoyt spat. He wiped his mouth, wincing as he touched his now broken nose. ‘You just made a big fuckin’ mistake.’
‘You made a bigger one,’ said Sullivan. ‘I don’t appreciate being lied to, or being used. So either you give us some answers, or I’ll leave you here for the Vietnamese and their Russian friends to find. After I’ve let Eddie get his licks in.’
‘Speak up,’ said Chase, kicking Hoyt hard in the side when no reply was immediately forthcoming.
The American clamped a hand to his bruised ribs. ‘You cocksucker! All right, okay,’ he hurriedly added as Castille joined the group and drew back one leg to deliver a blow of his own. ‘But if I talk, I get to walk out of here, okay?’
Sullivan reluctantly nodded. ‘You’ve got my word. If I believe you.’
‘Okay.’ Hoyt took a deep breath. ‘Right. This is what’s happening. The Russians have a biological warfare department they call Unit 201. It’s been active since the Cold War, and it’s one of their biggest secrets — only people at the very top levels of the Russian government and military know about it. The Ruskies at the camp? They’re part of 201.’
‘Biological warfare?’ said Castille uneasily. ‘Why did they kidnap the aid workers?’
‘They don’t give a fuck about the aid workers. They’re only interested in the German girl, Natalia.’
‘Why do they want her?’ Sullivan demanded.
‘Natalia’s family,’ Chase remembered. He quickly glanced back at the surrounding vegetation to make sure she was still hidden; there was no sign of her. ‘Her grandad — he was Russian, and he was a biowarfare scientist. He tried to defect to the West with his research, but didn’t make it. That’s the connection, isn’t it? They want her. Or rather, they want what’s in her.’
Castille and Sullivan were both confused, but Hoyt nodded. ‘Yeah. They think they can use her DNA or whatever the hell it is they’re after in their experiments.’
‘Well, since you started gunning ’em down, then stole their work and set everything that was left on fire, I’m guessing you don’t work for the Russians,’ said Chase scathingly.
‘You’re goddamn right I don’t,’ Hoyt replied vehemently. ‘Thing is, though, Unit 201 is like a fucking fortress. It works out of a maximum-security bunker at one of their nuclear bomber bases. It’s impossible to get in. So the only way we could get our hands on their work… was by getting them to come out.’
‘You set them up,’ Chase realised. ‘You told them about Natalia so they’d try to get what they were after from her.’
Hoyt wiped his nose, then gave the Englishman a twisted smile. ‘You ain’t quite so dumb as you seem, Chase. Yeah, we set them up. We fed Unit 201 information about Natalia, and they took the bait. She was working in a country friendly to Russia, so it was easy for them to get permission to do whatever the hell they wanted to get her. When they made their move, we were ready.’
‘You little bastard,’ snarled the New Zealander, baring his teeth. ‘How long have you been planning this?’
‘Long enough. But it was worth it. We drew 201 out of Russia to somewhere we could reach them. And once they were out in the open, well…’ Another unpleasant smile. ‘We took their research, we destroyed everything they’d been working on, we killed some of their top scientists — about the only way things could have gone better would be if their head honcho had been there too so I coulda blown the fucker away as well.’
‘You didn’t get everything you were after, though,’ said Chase. ‘You didn’t get Natalia.’
Hoyt snorted. ‘We will. You think this is over, Chase? You dumb Limey fuck. We’re only getting started—’
Chase slammed his boot deep into Hoyt’s stomach, leaving him gasping and writhing. ‘So are we.’
Jaw clenched in anger, Sullivan stood over Hoyt, pointing his rifle at the treacherous mercenary’s head. ‘I want answers, Hoyt. You kept saying “we” — who are you working for? Who’s your employer?’
Hoyt stared up defiantly at the three men. Sullivan’s finger slowly tightened on the trigger—
The sharp crack of a gunshot echoed around the riverbank.
But it didn’t come from Sullivan’s gun. The mercenary leader flinched, confused shock rising on his face… then he toppled and crashed to the rotten wooden decking. Blood gushed from a wound in the centre of his back.
Chase and Castille whirled — to find the smoking weapon now aimed at them.
‘You want to know Hoyt’s employer?’ said Lock, the slim chrome-plated Glock 26 pistol in his hand rock-steady. ‘That would be me.’
17
‘So, how long are you planning to ignore me?’ asked Eddie.
Nina refused to turn her head towards him, keeping her gaze fixed on the dawn-lit steppes of southern Russia as they rolled past far below the small business jet. ‘I’m not ignoring you. I’m just so mad at you right now that if I looked at you, I might have trouble stopping myself from punching you in your goddamn lying face.’ She jabbed an angry finger at the man on the other side of the cabin. ‘How long have you been working with your Russian friend over there?’
‘He’s not my friend,’ Eddie insisted, exasperated. ‘The only reason I was working with him was because… I had to.’
‘You had to,’ she echoed sarcastically. ‘You had to let him go after he tried to kidnap Tova.’ The Swede, who was in the row of seats behind them, sleepily raised her head at the mention of her name. ‘You had to try to sabotage the expedition. You had to plant a goddamn bomb on the runestone!’ She finally looked round at her husband as her voice rose to a shout. ‘And you still won’t tell me why you had to do all of this? Why not, Eddie? Why won’t you tell me what’s going on?’
The conflict was clear in his voice. ‘Because… because I made a promise. I told you, I can’t say any more.’
‘But I can,’ said the Russian.
It had taken considerable cajoling by Eddie to persuade Nina and Tova that the Russian was not a threat, but neither woman was willing to trust their mysterious — and until now taciturn — benefactor. At the lake, he had radioed for a helicopter of his own to fly Nina, Eddie and Tova away from the scene of the battle, though Nina had insisted that he also alert the Norwegian authorities so Matt and the other survivors could be taken to safety. A jet waiting at a small airport had then flown into the night to deliver them to a destination deep inside the vast former communist country.
Beyond that, however, he had not been forthcoming with further information. ‘So, you’ve decided to talk now?’ Nina said. ‘Why?’
He smiled. ‘I do not like it when a husband and wife fight. It reminds me too much of my parents. So. What do you want to know?’
She eyed him coldly. ‘Everything. Starting with: who the hell are you?’