‘It wasn’t part of the plan,’ Lock growled.
The Russian half smirked, then cast an unfriendly eye over Hoyt and his men before turning to Chase. ‘I do not know if I should thank you, or shoot you.’
‘I’ll take the first one,’ said Chase, not sure what was going on but looking for any opportunity to take advantage of it. ‘Who’re you?’
‘My name is Grigory Alekseyevich Kagan. I am the field commander of a Russian special operations unit. I am sure you have an idea of its purpose by now.’
‘Yeah, I got the gist,’ Chase said with disapproval. ‘Why would you want to thank me?’
‘Because you did not deliver Natalia to these men. By keeping her from them, you have done a great favour not only for Russia, but for the whole world. And once we have her back, we can make sure they never get what they were trying to obtain.’ He looked back at Lock. ‘I would guess that you will be out of a job soon, no?’
To everyone’s surprise, Lock began to laugh. ‘Oh, you stupid son of a bitch,’ the American said between chuckles. ‘You haven’t realised what he’s done, have you?’
‘What do you mean?’
Lock gestured towards the fire. ‘See for yourself.’
Puzzled, Kagan moved closer — then whirled to face Chase in horrified disbelief. ‘What have you done? What have you done?’
‘What she asked me to do,’ Chase replied.
‘She asked you to kill her?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’ It was almost a shout.
‘To stop all you arseholes from restarting her grandad’s work. She made me promise that I wouldn’t let that happen. And now it won’t.’
‘But we were not trying to restart it! We were trying to end it!’
The sudden smug look on Lock’s face told Chase that things were not as he had thought. ‘Wait, how do you mean?’ he asked the Russian.
Kagan spoke slowly, trying to control his emotions. ‘How much do you know about the work of Serafim Volkov — Natalia’s grandfather?’
‘She told me that he wrote a letter telling his wife what he’d been doing — about that eitr stuff, and his experiments. And that your lot used the biggest fucking nuke ever made to seal up the pit where you found the eitr.’
‘She told you a great deal.’ He shook his head. ‘But not everything. The Tsar Bomba destroyed the eitr pit — but we knew from the Viking runestone that somewhere there was another. Unit 201 was created to discover ways to neutralise the eitr if it was found. But we did not know if they would work, because we had no samples — until we learned about Natalia. The mutations in her body should tell us the nature of eitr, and with that knowledge we would be able to destroy it.’
‘So you kidnapped her? Why didn’t you just ask her?’
‘We did not think she would believe our motives.’ Kagan jabbed a finger at Lock and Hoyt. ‘She thought we were like the BSA, trying to turn the eitr into a weapon. But we were not. We have seen what it does — and we will not let it be used again. So when we learned that Natalia was in Vietnam, we arranged for her to be brought to us, in a way that gave us total deniability. She and her friends would have been released unharmed, once we finished our tests.’ A glance at the fire, his expression now almost despairing. ‘We were not going to hurt her. But you — you have killed her! For nothing!’
‘Oh, fuck…’ whispered Chase.
Now it was Hoyt’s turn to laugh. ‘God damn, Chase! You were supposed to rescue her, and you fuckin’ murdered her! You really fucked up, didn’t you?’
The Englishman rounded on him angrily. ‘Killing you’ll be worth something, though.’
‘Enough!’ barked Kagan. He rubbed his temple, then stepped back to regard his prisoners. ‘Natalia is dead, and all our research is destroyed — but that means neither side has it. No one has gained an advantage. But…’ He faced Lock once more. ‘If I were to kill you, here and now, you would cease to be a threat.’
The American was no longer smiling. ‘If you kill me, someone else will take my place. This won’t end.’
‘It will for you. And I know that your agency is, what is the phrase? On the bubble for its funding, that is it. With you dead and the BSA humiliated, the US government may shut it down completely. And that can only be a good thing for the world.’
Kagan’s sweating comrade spoke to him urgently in Russian, regarding Hoyt and Lock nervously. Kagan’s reply was impatient. ‘He thinks killing you will cause an international incident, and that it is a bad idea,’ he added, addressing the Americans. ‘But you tried to kill us with no such concerns, so…’ He thought for a moment, then gave an order in Vietnamese. The men accompanying the Russians raised their weapons to firing position.
For the second time in a matter of minutes, Chase found a rifle aimed at him. ‘You’re going to kill me too?’
‘I am sorry,’ Kagan replied, with seemingly genuine regret. ‘You thought you were doing the right thing — for Natalia, and for the world. And what you decided to do…’ He locked eyes with the Englishman for a moment. ‘I think you did not want to do it, no?’
‘You’re fucking right I didn’t want to.’
Kagan nodded. ‘But this must end. With Lock gone, the Americans will likely shut down their work on the eitr.’
‘But they’ll shut it down anyway, surely?’ Chase indicated Lock. ‘He failed! He had a plan to get Natalia and steal your research, but he blew it. He comes away with nothing, but you’re no worse off.’
‘Two of our best scientists are dead!’ snapped Kagan. ‘He did not destroy Unit 201, but he still damaged it.’
‘But you’re still in business. Lock won’t be! You were right, he’ll be out of a job once his bosses realise that he fucked everything up, and caused an international incident by doing it. He might have hired mercs for deniability, but just by being here, right now, he’s blown that excuse.’ He regarded Lock, who now appeared as fearful of the prospect of being at the heart of a diplomatic storm as of the guns pointed at him. ‘Nobody’s won here. Everyone’s lost. And killing us won’t get you any extra points.’
Kagan did not reply at once, again staring thoughtfully at Chase before turning his gaze to the funeral pyre. ‘You have done a very good job,’ he said. ‘It will be almost impossible to extract DNA from a body so burned.’
‘You just said this needs to end. Well, this ends it. Natalia wanted to make sure nobody could get anything else from her — you or them.’ He lowered his head. ‘Just leave her alone. Let her rest in peace.’
The other Russian spoke again, asking a question. Kagan considered it for a long moment, Chase hyper-aware of the Vietnamese covering the group, all with fingers poised on their Kalashnikovs’ triggers…
‘Nyet,’ Kagan finally said, shaking his head once more. ‘No, you are right, and so is the Englishman. Lock has failed — and that will embarrass Washington if we make good use of it.’
‘You son of a bitch,’ snarled Lock.
Chase made a sarcastic sound. ‘You’d rather he killed you?’
Kagan had a brief exchange with one of the Vietnamese, then turned back to Lock. ‘My associates from the Vietnamese secret police will take you and your men to Da Nang for… questioning.’ His tone made it clear that the interrogation would be more than verbal. ‘They are still angry that several of their friends were killed when the camp was attacked. I think they are keen to find out who was responsible.’ Hoyt’s facial muscles tensed. ‘As for you, Mr Lock, I am sure they will let you go in a few days. After making an official complaint to the US ambassador and the United Nations.’ Lock’s expression was much like his countryman’s.