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“Don’t be stupid, Mr. Morgan. Your friend’s life is in your hands.”
I looked at West and saw him nod almost imperceptibly. He was telling me to take the shot.
“Put down the gun, Mr. Morgan,” Alekseyev said. “You don’t want to be responsible for another death.”
I was on my side with the gun pointed at the space above West. I would have to roll onto my back and adjust my aim significantly to target Alekseyev. He would have ample time to shoot West.
I lowered the pistol and put it on the floor beside me.
“People like you never have what it takes,” Alekseyev told me. “This is for my brother.”
He swung his gun toward me, but before the barrel completed its arc, his chair and the floor around him splintered under gunfire. The volley sounded like thunder breaking.
Alekseyev yelled in pain. He’d been hit in the lower leg, but like a wounded wild animal, he could still run. He managed to get through the hole in the wall and escape into the night.
I looked behind me and saw the source of the gunfire.
Dinara Orlova stood in the doorway, the barrel of her machine gun smoking.
“You might not have what it takes to be a psychotic killer, but at least you have friends,” she said.
I smiled. “Shouldn’t you be with Feo and Anna?”
“I thought you could use some help,” she replied. “Besides, Feo has rallied. He’s helping Anna outside.”
“Cut West loose and get him to safety with the others,” I said, grabbing the pistol and getting to my feet.
Dinara nodded. “Be careful, Jack. He’s wounded and that’s going to make him even more dangerous.”
As she hurried over to West, I ran through the hole in the wall, following Alekseyev into darkness.
CHAPTER 99
I LOWERED MY night-vision scope and saw him almost immediately. He was making his way along the edge of the command building. He looked back and fired a couple of wild shots in my direction before limping around the corner.
I sprinted after him. I knew he was heading for the vehicle pool, and that if I didn’t get him now, I might never have another chance. Back in Moscow, in normal circumstances, he’d be an extremely hard target to reach.
My legs pounded out the yards and my chest heaved with each gasping breath. I heard the roar of an engine being started when I reached the corner. I ran the short width of the crumbling old building and saw a gray UAZ Patriot SUV start to move away from the vehicle pool, gathering speed.
I dropped to one knee, stabilized myself, and raised the pistol. The shot was thirty yards and the distance lengthening. It wouldbe asking a lot of me and the gun, but I didn’t have much choice. I squeezed the trigger again and again, but the bullets missed their mark and the Patriot kept going.
I was out of ammunition so I sprinted toward the vehicle pool to find something fast enough to catch Alekseyev’s SUV, but when I reached the corner of the building I was startled by the sudden appearance of a green mass in my night-vision scope. I lifted it to see Feo lit by the moonlight.
“Try this,” he said, handing me his ShAK-12.
I took it, raised it to my shoulder, and targeted the Patriot’s front left wheel as it headed along the base access road. Another fifty yards and I would lose it behind the thick forest.
“I’d take the shot myself, but you know, my arm,” Feo said. “I’ll be quiet now.”
I didn’t need his silence. I’d taken shots like this in the heat of combat, amid the noise of mortars, grenades, gunfire, and the screams of the wounded.
I squeezed the trigger and the first bullet travelled two hundred yards and blew out the front tire. I adjusted my aim as the Patriot started to shimmy uncertainly. This time I targeted the rear wheel. I took the shot, and an instant later the back tire burst and Alekseyev lost control of the vehicle completely.
It veered off the access road, ploughed through a field, and smashed into a tree at the edge of the forest.
“Not bad,” Feo said.
I looked past him to see Anna leaning against a wall. She smiled weakly. West and Dinara emerged from the main entrance.
