to work out how he could escape and save the Governor.
“He escaped from Grebnevo but I thought he had died during the escape. When you turned up after having allegedly died three months earlier, I knew my Sean hadn’t died during the escape. There weren’t three of you!” he surmised.
“So you wanted me dead.”
“Not you, the other Sean! But I didn’t know which Sean you were, if that makes sense?”
Sean nodded, bizarrely it did. “But why?”
“Because he was a dreamer. As I said, he wanted to be you, not what we wanted him to be. He didn’t believe in what we were doing and knew our plan. He would have spotted it had commenced and could have stopped us. He was a risk to our objectives!”
“So what now? The Soviet Union rises and becomes the only superpower while you let your Governor become President and run America into the ground? The American system won’t let it happen,” scoffed Sean.
“You still don’t get it!” laughed Surkov, cocking the gun and aiming it at Sean’s chest.
“Katherine, take this drink through to the Governor.” Surkov nodded towards a goblet that sat on the bedside table, a small vial lay next to it. “And say goodbye to Mr Fox, he’ll be leaving us now!”
Just as Sean was about to make his move, the door crashed open.
Chapter 80
“Nobody move!” barked Borodin, crashing into the room with his pistol raised.
Sean realized the gun was being pointed at the others and not him and more strangely, he was speaking English.
“General Borodin, glad you could join us, I’ve just caught this spy!” said Surkov, pointing his gun at Sean.
“I heard everything Surkov!” he replied. “I saw him coming in this door.” He pointed at Sean. “And I followed him. I’ve heard everything you’ve said from behind the door.”
“So you get it?” asked Sean thoroughly confused. He’d have thought Borodin would have been with Surkov. After all, it was a Soviet plan.
“I get it and I’m still struggling to believe they nearly did it.”
“But they’re Russians, they’re on your side!” said Sean.
“Ah,” said Borodin realizing why Sean was confused. “They weren’t speaking Russian, Mr Fox!” said Borodin, understanding why Sean hadn’t got it. “They were speaking German, they’re fucking Nazis!”
Sean couldn’t believe how stupid he had been. He had just assumed they were speaking Russian. He hadn’t paid sufficient attention. His mind had been elsewhere. It had been a long time since he’d made that kind of schoolboy error. He really needed to start learning other languages. German, Russian and Spanish were top of the list. Arabic and its dialects were not much help outside the Arabian Peninsula.
“Jesus!” exclaimed Sean as the full extent of the plan hit home.
“They’ve been planning the Fourth Reich!” explained Borodin, furious at having been deceived by them. “They were going to build the Russian Army up to its previous power!” He didn’t mention it would have been with his unwitting help. “And I can only assume they’d have done the same in America!”
“And the world would be in a far better state!” spat Surkov, the hatred contorting his face.
“We would unite our powerful armies and crush everyone else!” added Alexey Gagarin, the impostor President of Russia.
“The people would have stopped you!” countered Sean.
“The people would do as they were told,” laughed Surkov. “The timing is perfect, just like Germany in the thirties after the great depression. Americans and Russians are desperate for work, desperate to rebuild their economies. We would give them work, we’d make them proud and strong!”
The scariest part of what Surkov was saying was that Sean believed him. The people probably would have loved it. They just would have had no idea where they were being led until it was too late.
“Sixty years in the planning and scuppered at the last breath. Must be so frustrating,” offered Sean, bating Surkov.
Surkov flushed with anger but didn’t react.
“God, Mengele must be looking down and wishing he had picked a better protege!” added Sean.
Surkov snapped and pulled the trigger but Sean was already moving and as Surkov fired his pistol, Sean was already taking Borodin down, having dived into his midriff. Surkov’s bullet had been aimed at Borodin but whizzed past Sean’s right ear, taking a small chunk on its way. Another scar to add to the list. As they landed in a heap, Sean grabbed Borodin’s pistol. He rolled and shot Surkov cleanly through the heart. More than the crazy old Nazi deserved.
Katherine screamed, launched herself at the dead Surkov, grabbed his gun and rolled across the floor towards the drawing room door. Sean fired again.
As she reached the door, it opened and took the bullet that Sean had intended to stop her in her tracks.
As the bullet thudded into the heavy wooden door, a bewildered Governor appeared from behind it and entered the State bedroom. Katherine was up in a flash and using the Governor as a shield had the gun at his head.
“What the fu…?” said the Governor as first Katherine grabbed him and then he saw his double, his identical twin, the brother he never knew he had.
“Drop the gun, Fox!” barked Katherine, pushing the gun against the Governor’s head.
Sean shook his head and continued to aim at her.
“Rick, go and take Sean’s gun from him!” instructed Katherine.
The Governor began to move, Katherine pulled him back. “Not you, the other Rick!” she said angrily.
“Can somebody tell me what the fuck is going on?!” shouted the Governor. It was bad enough he had a double, never mind one with the same name.
Sean swung his gun and aimed at Yolana. “One more move and she dies!” Although they were not twins, the likeness of the two women was undeniable. Sean had figured out they were sisters and it certainly explained the tear in Katherine’s eye when they had met.
“Stop!”” said Alexey, grabbing Rick the impostor. Alexey had just got Yolana back. He wasn’t losing her again.
Sean’s aim remained centered on Yolana’s beautiful face. “They were going to kill you and replace you with your Nazi twin!” explained Sean to the thoroughly confused Governor.
“Katherine?” asked the Governor of his captor and Chief of Staff.
“What we must fight for is to safeguard…” Yolana, Alexey and Rick all joined her word for word. “…the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission…”
“Stop!” shouted Borodin, interrupting their rant. “They’re quoting from Hitler’s 'Mein Kampf’,” he explained to Sean and the Governor as the four continued to recite the passage by heart.
The Governor’s face suddenly reddened as the penny dropped. “Jesus, did they kill Nicole?” he shouted, suddenly realizing what the swap would have meant. There was no way they would have fooled Nicole.
Sean nodded and looked at Katherine.
Before Katherine had a chance to strengthen her grip, the Governor lost control and went for his captor. Katherine instinctively pulled the trigger.
Sean had anticipated the Governor’s move and had already begun to swing his aim towards Katherine. As Sean had moved the gun from Yolana, Alexey had sprung towards Sean. Sean ignored the body diving towards him and pulled the trigger as he watched Katherine pull hers.
Sean caught a glimpse of Borodin’s hand slashing next to him as his bullet barreled towards Katherine. Her trigger finger hadn’t quite hit the required weight on the trigger as Sean’s bullet struck. Her gun took the full force of Sean’s bullet and exploded in her hand. The Governor would not be hearing anything from his right ear anytime
