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Aleksei came out of the bedroom carrying his suitcase.
“Is that the helicopter?”
“Down! Down!” she said, pulling her sidearm from the small of her back and aiming for the engine. She fired several shots, the first ones shattering the glass, the wind and heat of the desert night blowing into the room. The subsequent ones hit the rotor and it smoked and whined.
She rushed to him, pushed him to the carpeted floor, just before bullets shattered more windows and ripped through the wall behind them. The room plunged into darkness, some of those shots taking out the lights in the room. The door burst open, and his guards came in gunning for her, silhouetted against the light from the hall. She rolled in the dark, shooting both of them before they could even find her. She moved back to Aleksei.
The loudspeaker spouted off in Russian, “Give up, Volkov, and people will be spared.”
Two canisters lobbed through the broken glass, and she covered his face, buried in her neck as they popped. The flash grenade burst with light, then a second charge sent smoke and heat boiling through the room, eating air and multiplying till it spread over and up, then exited out the windows. The curtains caught fire.
Harley covered her mouth and looked up, squinting through the haze.
She rolled to her stomach, crawled with him to the hall, then they rose, moving briskly to the staircase.
“Why aren’t the sprinklers going off?” Before he finished, water started pouring from the ceiling. She didn’t look back to see if the fires were out.
“This way,” she said, keeping her hand in his shirt, making it to the door as the elevator dinged and opened. Anya and Achebe stepped out. Harley fired at them, catching Achebe in the shoulder, but Anya moved too fast and ducked back inside the elevator for cover.
Harley closed the door and used the butt of the gun to break the handle off. She turned to Aleksei, who watched her with shadowed eyes. “Up the stairs, hurry!”
* * *
Anya ignoredAchebe and his cursing and set a small knife in the elevator rail, keeping the doors open. She then ran full out down the hall, her legs pumping, determined to catch them. When she reached the door, she jerked hard, but it wouldn’t open. She rummaged into the small black bag at her side and pulled out a small charge, set it, and took refuge with Achebe behind a door frame. His arm was bleeding badly, but she didn’t give a damn.
She wouldn’t let her father down, not when they were so close to their goal. She blew the charge, the sound loud in the hall. The door burst open, and Anya darted through. She started up the stairs, her lungs and legs laboring to reach the roof in time.
She got word that the SEALs were in the stairwell, most of AAL and Z Militia were down. The helicopter was also disabled. She swore, her eyes narrowing as she climbed faster. Achebe lagged behind, but she had no patience or time to wait for him.
She reached the door to the roof and opened it enough to see Aleksei’s ride in the distance. She was going to lose him, but killing him just wasn’t an option. She holstered her weapon and pulled a long-range gun from a holster strapped to her back.
She stepped out onto the roof and the woman with him, the one who had wounded Achebe, fired at her. She had to duck for cover, swearing in Russian.
The chopper set down on the roof, and Anya peeked out to see them breaking cover and running for the vehicle.
She aimed, quieting her breathing, then she pulled the trigger. She saw Aleksei fall, then the woman was helping him back up. She turned and fired at Anya, who had to duck again, but she’d accomplished her task.
She rose and stepped out as the two gained the chopper and scrambled inside. It took off.
Achebe came through the door and looked around. “You lost him? How incompetent are you, woman? Your father is going to be angry.”
She turned around and looked at him as the hot breeze of this godforsaken land blew her hair around. She was sick of the heat, the sand, the poverty, and the fucking desert.
She was sick of the Achebe brothers and their One True Believer nonsense, and their whining and incompetence. But they had served their purpose. She holstered the dart gun, the biomarker now embedded in Aleksei’s shoulder. When they wanted to find him, they would.
They had forty-eight hours before it dissolved.
She pulled her sidearm and shot the AAL leader through the head, then crouched down and said, “Dosvidaniya.”
She rose and ran to the edge of the roof and was ready as the SEALs burst through the door. She clipped on her carabiner and quickly descended to the ground where a vehicle was waiting. As their faces appeared over the edge of the roof, she flipped them off with a smirk, and ran to her waiting ride.
14
The chopper camein for a landing at the US Embassy compound, Alexsei gritting his teeth against the pain in his shoulder. He tried to slow his breathing, tried to slow the pounding of his heart, and prepared himself for the coming confrontation. What had transpired in the hotel room was just the opening volley. Olenska couldn’t afford to let him run free. He had to know what he had told the Americans.
He didn’t know when or how, but it was coming. Olenska always got what he wanted.
There was so damn little justice in the world, but he would take what he could when the time was right. He closed his eyes on a harsh breath and focused on the moment at hand.
