"Skobelev," she hissed. "I won't go with him! I won't!"
Seventeen
Naked, Nick Carter ran across the granite cell and stood behind the door. He heard only one man outside. Still on the cot, Anna Blenkochev pulled on clothes and quickly took stock of the cell, alert and ready.
The door swung open.
Carter counted to three, then slammed back against it.
The visitor went flying, landing with a thud against the outside corridor wall.
Carter pulled the door open. Anna threw his clothes at him.
She ran past him into the corridor, looking both ways for danger.
"Come on!" she whispered. "Hurry!"
"Wait!" he said, grabbing her arm. "Do you know him?"
They stared at the square-faced Silver Dove with the bushy black mustache.
"I… I think so…"
She walked forward.
"Lev Larionov. He's an Orthodox priest. Or at least he used to be."
"Back in the cell," Carter said, and he picked up the limp man.
Carter put Larionov on the cot while Anna closed the door. The newcomer groaned and rolled his head.
"I wonder what he's doing here," Anna said as she tried the door lo make sure it hadn't relocked.
"I suspect your father planted him," Carter said as he dressed. "He'd want his own people in each of the KGB's undergroups. Now my question is why Larionov came back."
"Blenkochev…sent me…" Larionov said weakly. "I'm glad… you told me."
He grabbed the wall behind the cot and pulled himself up. Anna sat on the cot beside him.
"Can you get us out of here?" Carter said.
"Told you what?" Anna said, confused.
"Carter sent me to tell your father where you were," Larionov said, holding his head. "And I'm going to try to get you out."
She looked at the AXE agent.
"You trusted my father when even I didn't," she said, her eyes full of wonder.
"I know his reputation," Carter said. "He's smoothest at double-crossing. Now he's double-crossing Skobelev's Silver Doves. But he doesn't trust easily either. He couldn't trust us to know for sure what he was up to." He looked at the former priest. "We'd better leave."
Larionov nodded, then made the sign of the cross.
"I'll be glad when this assignment is over," he said.
He stood, and opened and closed his eyes. They were bright now, gone was the dull, stupid look he'd assumed earlier as a Silver Dove.
"Blenkochev wants you to come back with reinforcements," Larionov said.
"He's not leaving here?" Anna said. "Then I won't go."
"It's not safe for you here," Carter agreed. "You've said too much. Skobelev knows you fundamentally disagree with him."
"And Skobelev will keep you locked up down here with the others," Larionov warned. "Blenkochev can't help you without endangering the mission. He orders you to leave."
She blanched, wringing her hands in her lap as she understood the situation.
"You have no choice," Carter told her gently. Then he looked at the square-faced Larionov. "You have a hidden radio that I can contact you on?"
Larionov nodded and gave Carter the frequency. Then the priest opened the door and checked outside. He disappeared for a moment and returned with a sack.
"Two air rifles," Larionov explained. "There'll be survival supplies in the skimobile."
He gave them directions as Carter and Anna checked the weapons.
"They'll think we stole these along the way," Carter said, opening the door. "Lie where you fell, Larionov. You've got a bruise on your head. No need to hit you again."
"You'll help my father?" Anna asked as the former priest slid down the corridor wall.
"Of course," Larionov said simply. "We all must stop Silver Dove. Whether we believe in God or not, we must believe in people's right to choose."
Carter and Anna ran down the hall, past the faceless cell doors and the keening women, over the rough granite.
As they approached a sharp comer, they slowed. Larionov had warned them that floor-to-ceiling bars, a locked door, and a guard waited on the other side.
They peered around the granite wall's edge. Beyond were plasterboard walls, forced-air heat, the locked, barred door, and not one guard, but three. So far, only one of Larionov's predictions was wrong.
Two of the three men were leaning against a wall, smoking. The third sat in front of a metal desk, drinking coffee. They talked in loud voices, telling stories and jokes. They were totally involved with themselves, oblivious to the faint sounds of the locked-up, weakened women.
Their air rifles were across their arms. Two were right-handed; the third was left-handed. Their belts wore loaded with knives, walkie-talkies, keys, saps, and brass knuckles. An unused arsenal that made them feel like men.
"What will we do?" Anna whispered.
"No time and no choice," Carter said. He needed them alive, needed at least one of them healthy enough to unlock the cell door.
He motioned her back behind him, then raised his rifle. He aimed and shot two of them in the right arm and the third in the left before any of the three had a chance to raise his own weapon and retaliate.
The wounded men shouted with surprise and pain. Their air rifles fell clattering to the floor. Blood splattered briefly, a fine spray that quickly dispersed into the air as red pools spread across their arms.
"Unlock the door!" Carter ordered.
One man dived for his air rifle.
Another scrambled behind the desk, preparing to bolt down the hall to safety.
Carter shot the Silver Dove air rifle as the man reached for it. It skidded across the floor.
He shot above the desk, sending metal slivers into the air, a warning.
"Unlock the door!" Carter again ordered.
The third Silver Dove narrowed his eyes at Carter.
Suddenly a knife flew from behind the desk.
Carter ducked.
The knife slammed uselessly against the granite wall behind Carter.
Carter crouched.
"Don't!" he warned, but the Silver Doves weren't to be so easily stopped.
The man with the narrow eyes had his walkie-talkie out and was scuttling behind the desk to safety. The one who'd gone after his air rifle now had it. And the one behind the desk stood up suddenly and ran down the hall.
As shots rang around him, Carter fired at the Dove who was escaping. The man stumbled and fell, blood pouring from wounds in each leg.
Carter dropped flat on the floor, a smaller target, and fired at the Dove with the walkie-talkie. The walkie-talkie exploded into a thousand pieces.
He fired at last at the rash Dove with the air rifle who was squatting unsheltered against the plaster wall. He put a neat hole in the man's shoulder, then shot the air rifle into another slide across the hall.
The defeated Doves looked at Carter with amazement.
"Unlock this goddamned door!" he ordered.
Now they looked at one another, then the one who'd lost the walkie-talkie crept to the door, never taking his eyes off Carter's air rifle.
He unlocked the door and backed off.
Disgusted, Carter walked through, then rounded up the men against the desk. Anna found rope, and the two agents quickly tied the three guards and sped off down the hall.
Carefully they rounded corners, sometimes having to wait or dashing into an empty room until the hall cleared. They passed through a section of sleeping quarters, behind the clutter of the massive kitchen, and along a row of offices where typewriters clattered and telephones rang. Lev Larionov's directions were good. Their biggest worry was remaining undiscovered.
Just as they entered a back door into the warehouse entryway, the alarm went off.
It was a piercing scream amplified by loudspeakers throughout the complex.
Silver Doves in their white snowsuits and coveralls driving trucks, working on jeeps, carrying clipboards, and looking over manifests jerked to attention and grabbed their weapons.