A small light blinked on.
There was a toolbox, a can of oil and some de-icer. But no body. No Leo.
Allissa felt a wave of relief.
Then she heard a cry. A loud, shrill, muscle-tensing scream of pain. It came from somewhere behind her.
Allissa spun around and looked up at the buildings beyond the gate.
They were obviously not as empty as they looked. Someone must be in there.
Allissa took a step towards the gate and then paused. She would need a weapon too. Something. Anything was better than bare hands against an armed killer.
Grabbing the toolbox, Allissa pulled open the lid and rummaged through. She removed a tyre iron — a foot-long rod of hard, solid metal — and thumped it with one hand into the palm of the other. That would do.
70
“How did you think you would get away with stealing from me?” Olezka continued. He was speaking in English. No doubt so Leo and Minty could understand.
“And now you’ve got these two involved,” he continued. “Whatever happens to them will be on your dirty hands.” Olezka waved the gun to indicate Leo and Minty, then turned to face Minty. “That whole jumping under the train thing. That was pretty good. Clever. But we know people too.” Olezka was acting as though he had already won. He appeared to be enjoying himself. “If you had really died, we’d have known about it.”
Borya didn’t reply. Blood seeped through his fingers.
“Ambition, that’s your problem,” Olezka said, facing Borya. “I give you everything. A great life. More money than you could ever want. The girls. The drugs. You have it all. But that’s not good enough. You want to do it your own way. You think if you stop my supply and give yourself a good payday in the process, you can get rid of me. Cut the head from the snake, so they say. I might be old, but I’m no fool.”
Borya’s eyes burned into the man.
It wasn’t looking good.
Leo’s mind raced. He glanced at Borya’s gun on the concrete.
Could he get there before the man noticed?
Olezka’s gun was aimed squarely at Borya’s chest.
Why was he even thinking about it?
Leo had no idea how to use a gun. He didn’t even know how to hold it properly. Trying to get this one, right now, would be suicide.
Borya stood in silence, breathing hard through the pain. The full power of his cold, hard glare aimed at Olezka.
“Enough talking,” Olezka said. “I have a business to run. Fortunately, I have no shortage of good men to help me. Losing one is no problem. Just another bad apple.” He spun to face Minty. “You have my money.”
Minty didn’t move.
Leo suspected, just like his, that Minty’s mind was racing through options and solutions.
“Pass me the bag,” Olezka said. “Now.”
Minty’s fingers clenched around the bag’s strap.
“I need this money,” Minty said, no louder than a whisper.
Olezka looked at him. A smiled parted his rubbery lips. He moved the single eye of the silenced pistol towards Minty’s chest. Minty didn’t move. He didn’t even blink. Olezka swapped the gun to his left hand and took a step towards Minty. The gun didn’t falter at all during the movement. Olezka extended his right hand to take the bag.
Everything was moving in slow motion now.
Minty took a step backwards.
“Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be,” Olezka said, in a tone that suggested the pair were sharing a joke. “You give me the money, and we have no problem. My problem is with him.” He indicated Borya. “As far as I care, you can go.”
“I need this,” Minty whispered, taking another step backwards.
“I’m sure you do,” Olezka said. The thick fingers on his right hand clenched into a fist. The heavy fist swung and crunched hard into Minty’s jaw.
Minty’s hand shot to his face and the bag dropped.
“Thank you,” Olezka said, seizing the bag and taking a step backwards. “That was the right thing to do. You wanted out, and maybe you will still get out, too. After all, I respect you. You made me lots of money. I haven’t shot you yet, so maybe you will get through this. What you say…” Olezka said something in Russian and the man holding the light laughed. Borya’s stare intensified.
“Hey, you know, we could keep working together, what you say?” Olezka continued talking.
Minty’s shoulders slumped with dejection.
“Maybe I’ll make you stay and work for me. Maybe money is not worth enough to you. No one is irreplaceable. You have already made yourself look dead, so is no problem for me to do the job properly.”
71
The spy station’s domes hovered against the pale wash of the sky. Behind them, the strobing lights of a plane slid across the sky. A few hours ago, that had been Allissa, arriving in the city for the first time. And now she was here, on the trail of a killer.
Voices carried on the still night air from somewhere in the tower. Allissa switched off her light and looked up at the floors of crumbling concrete. A dim glow resonated from somewhere near the top. It was a long way off, but something was up there. Someone. As Allissa watched, a beam of light swept from left to right. There was movement near the building’s edge. Was that Leo?
She needed to get up there, now.
Allissa rushed past a dilapidated digger and three stacked oil cans. The entrance to the tower was just a dark hole in the concrete. Inside, the building was silent. The structure absorbed any of the shouts she’d heard outside. That meant they wouldn’t see her light either. Allissa flicked on the light from her phone and ran for the stairs.
Water dripped in a constant rhythmic beat.
Allissa took the stairs two at a time. The noise of her feet rattled from bare walls. Reaching the first floor, she looked around. The stairwell opened into a room which
