She choked.
He laughed. “What does this remind you of, bad girl?”
Then he froze: The cop had the muzzle of Galina’s hunting rifle pressed against the back of Oleg’s head. The only part of him moving now was his mouth:
“You will be tortured and killed unless you put that down now.”
“No. It’s not what I will do,” the cop replied. “It’s what you will do. Take the gun out of her mouth or you’re a dead man.”
“No, he’s not,” a voice called from the stern.
Galina could just make out a red-haired guy with swim goggles propped on his forehead. He was pointing a bulky handgun at Oleg, who was now targeted from two positions.
“I’m Lieutenant John Walker,” the man said. “U.S. Navy. We don’t want him dead. So, Oleg, if you put down your weapon, we can do business. Otherwise, we’ll have to let him shoot you.”
“Put it down,” the cop yelled, jamming the barrel into Oleg’s head hard enough to draw blood.
Oleg kept the gun in Galina’s mouth, but he’d eased the pressure until she was no longer choking.
“I want to go to Moscow,” Oleg yelled at Walker.
“We want you to go back there, too,” the lieutenant replied. “That’s the honest-to-God truth. We don’t want anything messy happening out here.”
The Russian cop smacked the side of Oleg’s head with the barrel. “I will shoot this son of a bitch, no matter what he says, if he doesn’t get that gun out of her mouth.”
Oleg slowly withdrew it.
“Put the gun on the deck,” Lieutenant Walker said. “In front of you.”
“Moscow?” Oleg said.
“Moscow,” Walker echoed.
What choice does he have? Galina wondered. They’ve got him both ways.
The SEAL walked up and grabbed the nine millimeter. “You’re a Russian policeman, right?” he said to the cop, who nodded. “I’d like you to stand down.”
“I want asylum in the U.S. I can’t go back. Did you hear what he said? They’ll torture and kill me.”
“You’ve got asylum,” Walker replied quickly.
“A guy in flippers,” the cop looked Walker over, “can do that.”
“This guy can,” Walker said, removing the cumbersome fins.
The cop lowered the rifle.
It disgusted Galina that Oleg was going to get away. He had his eyes on the navy guy, his hands off her, so she tried again with her uppercut, this time smashing his ballsack so hard Oleg doubled over and fell facedown on the deck.
She fell back herself, sitting heavily on her rear. The navy lieutenant gave her a thumbs-up. The cop was smiling.
“Are you a SEAL?” the cop asked Walker.
“I’ve been called worse,” Walker replied. He grabbed the back of Oleg’s shirt and pulled him into a sitting position. “Sit up so I can watch you.”
Oleg looked green. Galina edged away, almost tripping over Captain Younes’s body. She hurried to check on Alexandra. Another SEAL appeared near the bow.
“You two had it covered,” the cop said to Walker.
“We try. You made it a helluva lot easier than it would have been. Saved her, too. Nice job.”
“I was going to kill him.”
“We couldn’t let you do that.”
“You going to trade him for that NSA guy, something like that?” the cop asked.
“Something like that,” Walker answered.
“I’ve got a better idea,” Oleg gasped to Walker. “I’ll stop those missiles. Just give me my computer and you won’t even have to take me back to Moscow. My own people will come get me.”
“Who the hell do you think you’re dealing with here?” the lieutenant replied. “SpongeBob? You’ll never get your hands on another computer. And I never said we were taking you back there. Veal, get his wrists and ankles.”
The SEAL slapped plastic cuffs top and bottom on Oleg.
For a moment, Oleg looked worried. Then he lifted his head and his most imperious expression appeared.
With Oleg shackled, Galina carried Alexandra into the cabin. She watched Veal and the cop board the trawler’s own Zodiac.
“He’s going to take him over to the sailboat and get Lana Elkins,” Red told her.
Right then Galina pointed to the trawler Oleg had hijacked. It had stopped moving. “His computer,” she said. “It’s probably over there.” She spotted the captain through the window she’d shot out, relieved he was still alive.
“Friend or foe?” Red asked her.
“He was hijacked.”
Walker rushed to the stern. “Search the trawler for his electronics, computer, phone, anything he left there,” he called to Veal. “The captain should be okay.” Then the lieutenant used the ship’s radio to talk to Lana. “Tell NSA we’re set for Stage Two. Veal’s coming over to get you. Galina’s waiting.”
“What’s Stage Two?” Oleg demanded as soon as Walker put down the mouthpiece.
“Your flight out of here.”
Ten precious minutes passed, mostly in silence, then Lana Elkins climbed aboard with Veal. She carried a large computer case and Oleg’s laptop.
“So you’re Lana Elkins,” Oleg said.
“She’s a big reason you’re sitting on the deck of this boat all ready to be shipped back to Moscow,” Walker said.
Lana said nothing to Oleg. She walked up to Galina and introduced herself, then glanced into the cabin where Galina’s laptop sat on a table. “I see you have yours ready. I’ve got mine, too, and his, but first he has to be thoroughly searched.”
“Keep her away from me,” Oleg said, staring at Galina.
“Stand back,” Red said to her.
“What did you do to him?” Lana asked Galina.
The Russian motioned upward with her fist, then pointed to his crotch.
“What goes around comes around, right?”
Galina glared at Oleg. “Let’s hope so.”
Red and Veal found a pair of camera memory cards and three thumb drives in Oleg’s pockets.
“Awfully casual about your data,” Lana said to him. His pants were down around his bound ankles.
“Bend over,” Red told him.
When Oleg refused, the lieutenant grabbed Oleg’s privates. He bent over.
“It’s nothing,” Oleg said about the memory cards, and grimacing from Red’s rude intrusion. “Tourist shit.”
If so, it had been a grim detour, Lana saw after inserting one of the cards into her camera. It revealed photos of a dead nun and a terrified expression on the face of a naked young woman backed into a corner. The second card focused less on the murder and more on violent sex. Oleg had taken a ton of pictures.
“Did you kill her, too?” Lana asked Oleg, pointing to the younger woman.
“I have diplomatic immunity,” he replied.
“In your own country?” Lana shook her head, then used a virtual machine to reveal the contents of the first thumb drive; she would never have stuck a stick with unknown data into her own computer. Rows and rows of code appeared. She scrolled down.
“What is it?” she asked, expecting no answer. She didn’t get one, either, not from him.
“I might know,” Galina said.
The other two thumb drives contained the same kind of material. Lana handed them over to Galina, who hurried into the cabin and went to work. Lana turned her attention back to Oleg: “Give me the codes you used on the Delphin, and I’ll make sure you live.” More than anything, she feared a second Trident II launch — or a whole series of launches; the submarine, after all, still had twenty-three missiles in its arsenal.
“Don’t they tell you anything?” Oleg replied. “I’m going back to Moscow.”
“Look at me,” Lana said. “I’ve just been authorized to tell you that there are men in Moscow who are going to kill you as soon as you arrive. That’s all I can say, unless you cooperate. If you cooperate, we’ll take you back to the U.S. and tell the Russians and some others to go to hell. We’re willing to break some very critical deals we’ve been making lately if you’re willing to cooperate. But don’t fuck with us. If you come and don’t play ball, we’ll make every remaining second of your life a misery.”