“Listen to me. We wouldn’t have made it in here if it weren’t for you. Right now my people are trying to disarm a ten-kiloton suitcase nuke. If they fail, we’re all going to die anyway. But I wanted you to know that what you did…” His voice cracked. “I just wanted you to know. Thank you.”
Rakken managed to nod ever so slightly. He squeezed the man’s hand again, just as Captain Welch knelt down beside him. “Sergeant, the chaplain’s on his way. Hang in there for me. You got no permission to die.”
Rakken wasn’t one to disobey an order, but the intense cold creeping into his chest would not cease. He closed his eyes. The mission had been accomplished. His work here was finished.
Suddenly, all the lights snapped on in the room, causing him to open his eyes.
Was he leaving his body now? Or was he beginning to hallucinate?
“They’ve restored power to the cell network as well,” someone shouted. “They might be trying to trigger the device that way now!”
“Get someone to shut that power down. And move it!”
Rakken wanted to sit up, see what was going on. He turned his head slightly, where the civilians were gathered around something on the floor, the nuke maybe, all working under intense, battery-operated lights.
And then, quite suddenly, the world grew dark around the edges, and he closed his eyes.
THIRTY-NINE
Viktoria Antsyforov and Green Vox were in the tiny town of Banff, just off the Trans-Canada Highway as it traversed the Banff National Park, seventy-eight miles west of Calgary. They had chosen the location to be upwind from nuclear fallout once the detonations were made.
They had checked in to The Fairmont Banff Springs, a lavish getaway nestled in the Canadian Rockies. The Fairmont was styled after a Scottish baronial castle, with ornate spires and castle-like walls. Antsyforov’s time there had made her feel very much like royalty. But that time had come to an end.
Green Vox — who went by so many aliases that even Antsyforov didn’t know his real name — was downstairs, checking on their ride out to the heliport.
Their sources in Edmonton and Calgary had said that the JSF and Euros had located both bombs and were attempting to dismantle them. And while she had wanted to wait the full forty-eight hours to ensure as many military casualties as possible, the JSF and Euros had moved more swiftly than she’d anticipated — meaning that Kapalkin must have tipped his hand to the Americans.
Antsyforov had already tried trigging the nukes via her Iridium satellite phone, but she couldn’t believe it: the entire network was down. Impossible!
She had told her sources to pass on word to get the conventional cell phone network up and running.
Vox returned to the room. “They’re waiting for us. Is it done?”
“The entire Iridium network is down. I have to try my cell.”
“No power.”
“They’re taking care of that.”
“And if they don’t?”
“They already have,” she said, studying her cell phone. “My call to Calgary is going through right now.” Once she heard the familiar hum, she need only dial two numbers: 5 9.
Confirmation that the weapon was armed to detonate in twenty seconds would come as three beeps.
But the humming continued.
She hit the numbers again. And again.
She cursed.
“I told you this would happen,” Vox cried.
“No!”
“Yes! They’ve already dismantled the nuke because you let your ego get in the way. You didn’t need to contact Kapalkin and Izotov.”
“After all those years, I deserved that much,” she said through her teeth.
“Well, now what? Do you really believe your brother can come through for us?”
“He will.”
“Are you ever going to tell me who he is? What the plan is now? We’re in this together.”
She cocked a well-tweezed brow. “We all have secrets.”
Vox grabbed her by the throat, shoved her up against the wall. “You stupid…”
He didn’t finish. Instead, he came in for a violent kiss, and she offered no resistance.
When he finally pulled back, his voice lowered to warning depths. “Tell me what’s happening.”
“If you only knew…”
“Tell me, otherwise—”
“What?” She glared at him. “We just made love. Now you’re threatening me?”
“You have no idea how much money is at stake.”
She snorted. “Oh, yes I do. This will happen — one way or the other.”
“We’re not leaving until you talk.”
“All right. You want to know it all, huh? It doesn’t matter anymore. Listen closely. My brother is commander of the
“This has never been tried before.”
“Until now.”
“How did you manage this?”
“Very carefully.”
“And you’re so very sure.”
“I am.”
“And you don’t care about how many innocent lives will be lost if you’re right.”
She smiled darkly. “I am Snegurochka. What did you expect?” She shoved him away, drew the silenced pistol tucked into her pants.
“Viktoria, what are you doing?”
“Did you
His mouth fell open. “You can’t be serious.”
She grinned and extended her arm.
Vox’s face filled with hatred. “Go ahead, kill me. Green Vox will return. He always does.”
She shot him between the eyes. He dropped hard to the floor.
“Yes,” she said, staring down at his body. “You always come back — and always as a man. What a pity.”
After ducking down the next side street, Sergeant Nathan Vatz sent two of his operators across the street, where they kept low in a doorway, while the team’s senior communications sergeant paired up with him.
They set up behind two parked cars, both so beat up that it was clear why their owners had abandoned them, and waited for the pursuing Spetsnaz troops to round the corner.
Five seconds. Ten. Twenty. They didn’t come.
Vatz immediately assumed they had doubled back in an attempt to catch them from behind. Now he had two choices, neither good: he could avoid the ambush and head back to the truck — but the air support no doubt had moved on. Or they could rush ahead, try to catch the enemy by surprise, ambush the ambushers.
The decision was obvious.
He ordered the group to move out, to keep moving forward. They kept tight to the walls, were twenty yards from the corner when the Russians burst into view, just as he’d expected. All six of them.
Vatz jammed down his trigger, spraying the soldiers, as did his men.
The Russians fell back around the corner, but one spun and cut loose a last burst.
Vatz was about to order his men to drive on, but a second group of troops, four in all, appeared behind them
