Ultraviolet

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

I PLUCKED YEVGENY’S black woollen cap off the table and pulled it down over my own head. My hair might have been the colour of the night, but I didn’t want it shining in the lights that illuminated the base between the hours of dusk and dawn. He’d left a half-drunk glass of water too, and I spilled some on the floor then rubbed the dirty paste over my face.

With the grey woollen blanket covering Tabby, we’d blend into the shadows. We had to—this was all or nothing. Either we’d escape, or we’d be dead.

The corridor that led from our basement prison lay silent as one of Zacharov’s makeshift graveyards as we stole along it. Years of practice meant I didn’t make a sound as I walked. Outside, I took in my first breath of fresh air in almost three months as we hunkered down behind a storage shed, watching as the inspection team loaded the last of their equipment into the six jeeps waiting to drive them over to the runway. That trip would take almost ten minutes. Base 13 was a sprawling scar on the Siberian landscape. As I’d come to expect, the team’s bodyguards stood around, hands in pockets, while Russian conscripts sullenly carried all the bags and boxes.

Fifteen metres away, a woman wearing a black parka trimmed with rainbow fur around the hood stood talking to a group of guards. Impractical and tasteless at the same time—that could only be Elizabeth.

She reached out to Vlad, a sadistic bastard if there ever was one, and squeezed his bicep. “Ooh, Vlad. Your muscles are so big. Do you go to the gym every day?”

Oh, please.

Vlad laughed, the deep sound like a train rumbling through a tunnel, and placed his hand over hers. “No, Elizavet. I do lots of fighting and shoot the big guns.”

“So tough! I wish the men in California were as strong as you.”

She grinned up at him, and I swear the asshole blushed. Still, when the only female company for two hundred miles came via the porn channel, it wasn’t surprising half of the guards had hard-ons.

“Your American men, they are weak. Russians, we are real men.”

Vlad launched into a rambling monologue about combat training and the wars he’d fought in while Elizabeth lapped up every word. Most of what Vlad said was bullshit. Elizabeth’s bodyguard was standing next to her, and his eyes had glazed over.

Vlad had barely closed his mouth when Elizabeth started up again, and her saccharine tones made me wish for earplugs. “Vlad, could you do me a teensy favour and fetch my cases from my room? They’re really heavy, but I’m sure you’ll hardly notice the weight.”

“Of course, Miss Elizavet. It would be my pleasure.”

Don’t make me throw up. Still, I had to thank her, because Vlad and the other muscle-bound waste of space with him trailed Elizabeth and her bodyguard back to the building that had served as their guest quarters, and that meant the coast was clear.

As their voices receded into the darkness, I scuttled from my hiding place and ran to the nearest jeep. The trunk was stacked with equipment, but there was enough room at the side of it for Tabby and me to fit. I’d pulled the edge of a tarpaulin over the pair of us by the time they returned a few minutes later.

Vlad threw a bag on top of us, and I shielded Tabby’s head, waiting for another hit.

“That car’s kind of full, don’t you think?” Elizabeth screeched. “I don’t want the pirozhki Yulia made me getting squashed.” Another car door opened. “There’s plenty of space in this one.”

Pirozhki? Good grief, she was taking home food as a souvenir? Vlad retreated, and thumps echoed as he shoved the rest of her luggage into the next car.

“Would you mind if I took a couple of photos?” Elizabeth asked. “The girls back home will never believe how cute you guys all are otherwise.”

Mumbles of agreement came, followed by Elizabeth’s instructions of “left a bit…right a bit…closer.” Then a squeal. “Ooh, here’s Oleg.”

Wonderful, Zacharov was here, and it seemed he and the bimbo were on first-name terms. How did somebody with so few brain cells ever qualify as a weapons inspector in the first place? The general must have been celebrating from the moment she turned up.

His footsteps sounded near the car, slow and measured. I could pick them out anywhere. Please, don’t look inside.

“Did you get everything you needed, Miss Elizabeth?”

“I think so, and it was so kind of you to show us around personally. Can I just get a picture with you? I’ve never been to Russia before, and this whole trip’s been quite an adventure.”

“Of course.”

I heard the amusement in his voice, but I figured I’d be smiling too if an inspection team had just failed to find the bunkers where all my good weapons were hidden.

Finally, the squawking stopped, and the suspension dipped as people climbed into the vehicle. One, two, three, four times. Four occupants. Who was on board with us?

A Russian driver—I heard him talking to a colleague out of the window. Something about lining the vodka up for when they got back. And… Elizabeth. I got Elizabeth. Fantastic.

“Could you turn the heating up?” she asked. “It’s freezing in here.”

Then we were off, and I forced my heart to remain steady as I counted down the ten minutes to freedom or… No, I didn’t want to think about it because that meant Tabby would have no life either.

Elizabeth frayed my last nerve as she rattled on with a constant stream of drivel about how much snow there was, how big the tanks were, how exciting her whole entire trip had been, how strange the food tasted, and on, and on, and on. If I was the guy driving, I’d have been tempted to test my gun on her. For sure, I could have found some way to write it off as an accident.

Just as I had that thought, I got the shock of my life, and I wasn’t an easy person to shock, believe me. I’d been there, done that, and got the T-shirt and battle scars to prove it. But when Elizabeth’s hand snaked over the back of the seat and dropped a phone into my hand, I’ll admit it nearly gave me a heart attack.

The screen was lit up, and as she carried on with her ceaseless chatter, I read what she’d typed.

I take it you’re not along for a joyride?

What the f**k? She knew I was there? Why didn’t she say anything? Even now she was talking as if nothing had happened, and unless my ears deceived me, she’d just asked the driver whether there were any sabre-toothed tigers in these parts.

I couldn’t ignore her. Her arm was hanging over the seat, fingers twitching for my answer. I didn’t have a clue what her game was, but I had to play along. I kept my reply vague and put the phone back into her waiting hand.

There is nothing joyous about this place.

A few seconds later, as the bodyguard next to her patiently explained that sabre-toothed tigers had been extinct for millions of years, she handed the phone back.

Our plane is waiting. Are you coming with us?

I typed out the only answer I could.

Yes.

I waited longer for her next message as the jeep wove around a series of hangars near the runway.

I’ll distract them while you get on board. Hide in the bedroom at the back.

Well, it seemed I’d found an unlikely ally. I had no idea what she wanted or why she was helping us, but as long as we got out of this godforsaken hellhole, I’d deal with that later.

Tabby and I slid forwards as the driver braked roughly to a halt, and cold air rushed in as the doors opened one after another. The stink of Vlad’s body odour washed over me as he wrenched up the lid of the trunk and began heaving the equipment out onto the tarmac. Whatever Elizabeth was planning, she needed to f*****g hurry up about it. One more case and our hiding place would be revealed.

“Aaah! My ankle! I think I might have broken it.”

Vlad’s deep voice sounded from a little further away. “Poor Elizavet. Did you slip?”

“Yes, on the ice. Could you help me up?” A sharp intake of breath. “It really hurts.”

I peered out from under the tarpaulin and saw Elizabeth sitting on the ground a car length away with the guards gathered around. The only person facing me was her bodyguard, and he remained impassive as I gathered Tabby up and slipped out of the trunk. Elizabeth let out an anguished wail as I ran to the plane, then she burst into tears as I hurried up the stairs. The bedroom. She’d said to hide in the bedroom. It wasn’t big, just a double bed with a nightstand each side plus a narrow closet big enough to fit Tabby. I yanked open the door and evicted a flight case then tucked her into the bottom.

“Stay quiet, katyonak, okay?” I touched a finger to my lips.

“Yes, mama.”

I covered her with the blanket as best I could, then crawled into the space along the far side of the bed. If somebody walked around it, I couldn’t be more obvious, but a cursory glance through the door wouldn’t reveal my hiding place. Russian voices sounded from the cabin, and I held my breath. Just a few minutes more, that was all we needed, but if they discovered Yevgeny’s body in my cell before that, the general would unleash hell.

Footsteps came closer, closer, right up to the bed. A shadow loomed over, and Elizabeth’s bodyguard looked down at me.

“Shhh.” He put a finger to his lips then dropped a pile of coats over the top of me. I burrowed into them, tucking my legs against my stomach.

Outside, Elizabeth arrived in the main cabin, no doubt assisted by Vlad and his minions.

“I can’t believe you carried me up the steps so easily. I know you said you were strong, but that was something else. Do you think I might be able to get some ice for my ankle?”

Sure, he could just scoop some up from outside.

Every second of the wait seemed to last an hour, but finally the Russian voices faded away, and the engines roared into life. Slowly, so slowly, the plane began to move.

When the wheels left the tarmac, the crushing weight on my chest lifted with them. I may have been penniless with nothing but the clothes on my back, but I had my daughter, and she was worth everything to me. As the plane flew towards an unknown destination, I found myself wanting to live for the first time in three years.