exposed side of the SUV, puncturing metal and shattering the windows into pebble-sized chunks of glass. An explosion shook the vehicle as one of the bullets struck the compressed gas cylinder of the air bag in the passengerside door.
Kilkenny crouched behind the front tire with his weapon drawn, glass fragments raining down on him and bullets ricocheting off the road beneath the SUV. The ML 320 lurched away from him as the tires on the passenger side ruptured and the vehicle fell onto its rims.
‘Nolan!’ he heard Kelsey scream.
Glancing up over the hood, Kilkenny saw a pair of men firing submachine guns while two others forcefully moved Kelsey and Elli into the van. Orchestrating the attack and kidnapping was the tall blond Russian. As Nolan took quick aim at their leader and fired, a short burst riddled the hood. Kilkenny fell back, hot metal fragments biting into his face and arms.
Leskov felt a burning sensation across his forehead, followed by an intense rush of pain. Instinctively, he clasped his hands over the wound just as blood began to ooze from the groove dug in the skin by Kilkenny’s bullet.
‘Grigori, Evgenii, kill him!’ Leskov shouted as he staggered toward the van, his hands and face now soaked with blood.
Without a word, the two shooters began leapfrogging toward the bullet-riddled SUV – one firing while the other moved ten feet forward, then reversing roles until they covered the distance.
Hop and pop, Kilkenny thought as he listened to the regular, short bursts of approaching gunfire. Question is, Which side of my truck are you two gonna try and nail me from?
Crouching down, Kilkenny moved along the side of his truck until he was able to grab hold of the rear door handle, and opened the door.
Evgenii caught the opening of the rear door as Grigori ran past his position and reached the shredded rear wheel. Using hand signals, he informed his partner that Kilkenny had moved into the backseat. Grigori nodded, and shifted his crouch to better position himself to fire into the shattered rear window.
Evgenii then ran toward the front of the SUV, firing until he came to a stop, crouched against the front wheel. Beneath him, a widening puddle of sickly sweet smelling antifreeze spread slowly over the asphalt.
Both men nodded that they were ready. Evgenii held his fingers up and mouthed a three count.
Kilkenny waited for the pause in the gunfire. Staying low, he moved around the rear corner of the vehicle, then rose up with his pistol aimed through the shattered rear window.
The two Russians came into Kilkenny’s view simultaneously. Both were focused on the rear seat when he fired a two-shot burst into Evgenii’s forehead. He then swept right and drilled another pair through Grigori’s temple. Both men collapsed on the ground without firing a shot at him.
‘Fuck!’ Josef cursed.
The Ukrainian put the van in gear and punched the accelerator – the large V-8 roared loudly as he drove straight at Kilkenny.
‘What the fuck is happening?’ Leskov shouted, wiping the blood from his eyes.
‘Grigori and Evgenii are dead,’ Josef reported. ‘We have to get out of here now.’
Leskov saw two of his men lying in the street and Kilkenny turning to fire on the van.
‘Kiril, shoot him!’ Leskov shouted.
Leaning out the passenger window, Kiril aimed his submachine gun and opened fire, pinning Kilkenny down behind his damaged truck as Josef drove over the shallow curb and across the lawns of Kelsey’s neighbors.
‘Shit!’ Kilkenny cursed, unable to find a clear shot at anything.
As the van rounded the corner, he saw only the shadowy forms of the people inside through the vehicle’s smoked glass. Kilkenny didn’t dare shoot for fear of hitting Kelsey or Elli.
46
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Nolan winced as the EMT extracted another metal fragment from his bloodstained cheek.
‘Good thing none of these hit you in the eye,’ the EMT said.
‘Just get ’em out and patch me up,’ Nolan replied, sitting impatiently on the ambulance’s chrome bumper.
A second ambulance pulled away from the crime scene, this one ferrying the bodies of the two Russians he had slain. Outside the perimeter the police had established, Sean Kilkenny leaned against his Explorer, waiting for his son.
Once the bodies were removed and the forensic techs finished photographing Nolan’s ML 320 in situ, the driver of a flatbed wrecker ran a steel cable around the SUV’s undercarriage and slowly began pulling the damaged vehicle up the ramp. The winch howled under the load, and the shredded tires alternated between flopping and dragging across the wrecker’s diamond-plate steel bed. Once the SUV was secured, the driver handed Ptashnik a receipt and drove off. Nolan watched until his truck disappeared from view.
‘I’ll bet your insurance company is going to love this,’ Ptashnik said.
Nolan glowered back in stony silence.
‘You’re right. Bad joke. Here.’ Ptashnik handed him the receipt. ‘We’re impounding your truck so we can collect evidence. The yard will call when we’re done with it.’
‘Are you done with me yet?’
‘Pretty much. I’ll be in touch if we need anything else.’
‘Can I have my pistol back?’
‘No, we have to hang on to that until we run this mess past the DA. Don’t worry about it, though. This was clearly self-defense, and you were attempting to prevent a kidnapping. There’s no way she’s gonna press charges against you for killing those two guys. Once the paperwork clears, I’ll release your weapon.’
‘Thanks. I see you got somebody from the phone company checking Kelsey’s line for a tap. Anybody working on my phone?’
‘The sheriff is out there right now with a line crew. Your phone should be clear in about an hour.’
‘Good.’
‘I’m finished,’ the EMT announced as he taped a dressing over the gouge on Nolan’s right shoulder. ‘Keep your wounds clean and have a doc look at ’em in a couple of days.’
Nolan nodded, then stood up. ‘I’m outta here. Call me if you hear anything about Kelsey and Elli.’
‘I will,’ Ptashnik promised.
Nolan walked over to where his father had waited for nearly two hours.
‘You okay, son?’ Sean asked.
‘I’m fine, Dad. Did you call Kelsey’s folks?’
Sean nodded gravely. ‘I hate being the bearer of bad news. These Russians, do you think they’ll-’
‘Kill Kelsey or Elli? God, I hope not, but their pattern to date suggests otherwise. They’re after the engagement ring Wolff gave to Elli.’
‘Why?’
‘Kelsey believes Wolff had the key to his cipher engraved on it. She told me this morning, and that’s how these fuckers found out! They tapped our phones, Dad.’
‘Nolan, it’s not your fault.’
‘I should have had the lines checked. We knew we had a leak when they took the notebooks. These people have been one step ahead of us all the way. We’ve got to find out who’s running this op if we’re going to have any chance of stopping ’em.’ Nolan took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to calm himself. ‘Do you have your phone on you, Dad? I don’t trust mine right now.’
Sean reached into his Explorer and pulled a small digital phone from the center console.
‘Here you go.’
