Kilkenny stripped off the guard’s shoulder holster, strapped it on himself, and quickly checked the weapon. He then patted the guard down and found two more full clips of ammunition.
‘Let’s get back in your office,’ Kilkenny said as he pocketed the extra clips.
Once inside, Kilkenny stood in front of his laptop computer. ‘I guess I can shut this down now.’
He closed the translation program, powered his laptop down, and disconnected the cables. ‘Can I ask you a question?’ Kilkenny said as he shut the laptop and slipped it back into his briefcase.
‘Certainly.’
‘Why did you send me that fragment of Sandstrom’s research?’
‘I am a scientist, not a thief. I wanted to know the truth.’
‘Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty,’ Kilkenny replied, turning to face her, ‘and very soon it’s gonna get downright ugly. Stay close to me, and just maybe we’ll both get through this alive.’
63
Moscow, Russia
Out of the west, a matte gray Mil Mi-38 helicopter raced over Moscow’s outer periphery. It roared over the VDNKh, as the All-Russian Exhibition Center was known, and crossed Prospekt Mira. The pilot changed the pitch on the Mil’s six rotating blades, adjusted the throttle on the twin TVD-300 turboshaft engines, and brought the ship into a thundering hover over the VIO FinProm building’s flat roof. Ballast aggregate flew out in all directions, propelled by the downward thrust of the helicopter, and hailed onto the ground below.
The royal blue flag that so proudly bore Orlov’s golden double eagle snapped crazily in the rotors’ gale-force blast; the fabric around the flag’s eyelets quickly tore free, and the shredded emblem fell into the street.
As soon as the Mil parked itself over the building, doors on both sides of the craft slid open and armed men in black ninja suits rappelled down onto the roof. The blue-and-white cars of the Moscow Militsia suddenly appeared, choking off Prospekt Mira and all secondary streets around Orlov’s building. Two large black trucks pulled up, one at each end of the long slab of a building, and disgorged two additional elements of the Alpha assault force. Three coordinated, well-armed teams of fifteen men poured into the building, routing Orlov’s perimeter security as they pressed their attack.
Orlov’s office reverberated with a deep rumbling like a continuous explosion of thunder.
‘Victor!’ Zoshchenko screamed, afraid.
‘Dmitri,’ Orlov shouted over the noise, ‘what is going on?’
‘Government forces are attacking the building, Victor Ivanovich,’ Leskov replied, piecing together the jumble of reports flooding through his earpiece. ‘My men are moving into defensive positions. You should evacuate.’
Of all the people in the office, only Cooper seemed unaffected by the mounting chaos. The aging spy leaned back into the sofa and folded his hands over his stomach.
‘I’d surrender if I were you,’ Cooper said. ‘It’s your best chance of staying alive.’
Orlov turned and saw Cooper sitting as serenely as a Buddha. Sporadic bursts of gunfire could now be heard.
‘You are responsible for this!’ Orlov shouted.
‘I can’t take all the credit. You have a lot of very powerful enemies.’
Pistol in hand, Leskov ran to Orlov. ‘You must leave, immediately.’
‘Give me that,’ Orlov barked as he took the pistol from Leskov’s hand.
Without a second’s hesitation, Orlov raised the Glock and fired three shots into Cooper’s chest.
Cooper slumped back on the sofa. Blood poured out of his chest with each beat of his heart. Though pained, Cooper managed to lock eyes with Orlov.
‘Fuck your mother, Victor Ivanovich,’ Cooper said defiantly, his voice beginning to fail. ‘You’re finished.’
Orlov shuddered at the pronouncement but said nothing. An explosion sent tremors through the building. Zoshchenko ran up to Orlov and grasped his shoulders.
‘Victor, they’re going to kill us!’ Zoshchenko screamed. ‘We have to surrender! You have money; you can make a deal to save us!’
Orlov looked into Zoshchenko’s teary eyes with disgust, then squeezed the Glock’s trigger. Zoshchenko staggered back, and he fired again into her chest – she collapsed onto the floor. Orlov handed the pistol back to Leskov.
‘How long can your men hold the building?’
‘Ten, maybe fifteen minutes.’
‘Long enough. Let’s go,’ Orlov said, leading the way out through the office’s private exit.
Seven Alphas eliminated the two men guarding the main hallway and then entered Orlov’s executive suite. They found Cooper slumped on the couch and Zoshchenko lying on the floor.
‘Corpsman!’ one of the Alphas called out.
The corpsman placed two fingers on Cooper’s neck.
‘This one’s dead.’
He then moved over to the woman.
‘Pulse is weak and she’s lost a lot of blood, but she’s still alive.’
64
Moscow, Russia
Near the center of the building, adjacent to the main vertical riser for electrical and communications wiring, Arkady Malik sat in front of a wall of small black-and-white video monitors, each displaying a feed from a closed- circuit camera mounted somewhere in or around the building. Malik watched nervously as several of the monitors relayed images of the battles taking place not far from where he sat.
Leskov punched in his access code and opened the door to the building’s security center. He and Orlov jogged down the short hallway, past a flush steel door and frame, and turned into the room where Malik sat.
‘Malik,’ Leskov shouted, ‘how’s the perimeter holding?’
‘Our men have fallen back from the main entry points on the first floor and from the roof access points.’ Malik played the keypad in front of him like a piano, cycling manually through all the available cameras, both inside and outside the building. ‘We’ve lost about a third of the first and fifth floors but still control all of floors two, three, and four.’
Several of the monitors showed some of Leskov’s men exchanging gunfire with men dressed in black ninja suits.
‘Fuck, it’s Alpha,’ Leskov cursed. ‘Victor, my men will make them pay for every square meter of the building, but it’s only a matter of time. We are outmanned and out-gunned.’
‘What is the status of the tunnel?’ Orlov asked.
Malik brought up different camera views on a bank of four monitors. The first displayed a large steel vault door mounted flush to a concrete wall. The second showed the back side of the door from a distance inside a concrete tunnel wide enough for three people to walk abreast. On the third and fourth, Orlov saw the far end of the tunnel, where it reached the Metro’s Chelobitevo Line tunnel running beneath Prospekt Mira.
The workmen renovating Orlov’s building had discovered the abandoned tunnel while replacing outdated utility feeders. Though not shown on any of their drawings, the tunnel had been used for material storage during the construction of the Metro line, then abandoned once the work was completed. Orlov had the tunnel extended beneath the building, where it terminated at the flush steel door.
