They ran again, heading toward the shooter, keeping low and sidestepping left and right to make them difficult targets. They reached a point thirty feet from the house. The gun fired again, and a bullet grazed Sentinel’s upper arm, causing him to stumble, but he regained his footing and ran even faster.
Gripping their handguns, the MI6 officers sprinted toward the place where they had last seen Razin’s muzzle flash. They ran along the track leading away from the house, the whole time Will scouring the rough ground to the right of it, where he thought Razin might still be. But all ahead of them was in darkness, and the faint moonlight enabled Will to see only a few feet in front of him.
Then he saw something move rapidly from a hedgerow onto the track. He raised his gun, but whatever he saw had now disappeared. Sentinel dashed to his right, jumped off the track, and disappeared into the darkness. Will knew that the officer had also seen the movement and was trying to flank whatever it was. Will ran faster but was now almost blind in the nighttime.
Sentinel shouted from behind Will, “I’ve found the rifle, but there’s no sign of him here.”
Will cursed, desperately looking left and right as he ran.
It all happened in an instant. The man appeared before Will, rushing at him with tremendous speed. Still running, Will raised his gun and shot, but the man twisted, dodging the bullet, and punched a fist into Will’s jaw with enough power to not only stop Will dead in his tracks but to also lift his body high in the air, hurtling backward. As Will thumped to the ground, his grip on his handgun involuntarily released and his weapon went flying away from the track into the darkness. His body was in agony from the force of the punch and from the impact on the ground. The man was over him. He looked to be in his late thirties, had a smooth face and jet-black straight hair, was tall, muscular, and clearly immensely powerful.
It was Razin.
Will slammed his foot into Razin’s ankle, used his other foot to kick his kneecap, and thrust his boot full force into his gut. Razin gasped and staggered back, giving Will just enough time to get to his feet. Stepping forward, Will jabbed his knee into Razin’s rib cage, causing the man to double over in pain. He swung a fist at his head, but Razin grabbed his speeding hand in midair, held it still with a viselike grip, and twisted his arm until he was holding Will in a lock. He moved closer to Will. Will instantly twisted his arm in the other direction, pulling Razin toward him, and head butted him in the face. Razin flew backward, holding his hands against his nose. Charging forward, Will dived at him, but Razin sidestepped and banged his elbow into Will’s back as he was still in midair. He hit the ground, rolled sideways to avoid Razin’s boot as it descended toward his head, jumped up, and took two steps away from the big Russian.
The men stared at each other, breathing fast, their faces screwed up in pain.
Then they moved forward.
Will lowered his upper body and swung his fist up toward Razin’s jaw.
Razin punched fast toward Will’s cheekbone.
Their fists impacted simultaneously.
The operatives fell away from each other.
They slowly got to their feet, their breathing now even more labored, and stared at each other. Neither man moved.
Razin gasped, “Who are you?”
Will answered through gritted teeth, “The man sent to stop you, Razin.”
Razin’s eyes narrowed. “If you know my code name, then you must be an MI6 officer.”
A shot rang out from Sentinel’s handgun; the bullet sliced across Razin’s cheekbone. The Russian special forces commander did not move, but anger was now on his face. “We’ll meet again.”
He turned and disappeared into the darkness a split second before another of Sentinel’s shots raced through the place where he’d been standing.
Will immediately gave chase, running fast but blindly across the rough ground, desperate to hear a noise from Razin. After three hundred feet he stopped, looked around, heard and saw nothing, and stamped his foot on the ground in frustration.
Razin had escaped.
He jogged back to the track. Sentinel was there, his handgun pointing right at Will.
“It’s me! Don’t shoot!”
Sentinel lowered his pistol as Will came into view. “What happened?”
What had happened was unprecedented. In his operational career, Will had engaged in unarmed combat with hundreds of very dangerous and skilled men. But Razin’s assault on him was like no other fight he had ever been in. For the first time in his life, Will had come up against a man who was physically his equal.
Will rubbed his hand over his face; the pain behind his eyes and running down his back was immense. “He got away. I couldn’t beat him.”
Sentinel looked around. “We’ve got to get out of Russia. But only for a few days. I need to come back to meet another agent.”
“What?”
“I’ve got to, and I’ve got to notify Moscow Station.”
Will couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Your plan failed!”
“Only because we were outgunned.” He shook his head. “Razin has to pay for what he did to Shashka.”
“Even if it means that another agent loses his life?”
“No.” Sentinel looked toward the house. “We need expert help. Do you think you can get a team?”
“What about your Eastern European or Russian assets?”
“They’re gifted amateurs, no match for Razin.”
Will was still incredulous. “I’m not going to let you put your life and another agent’s life at risk again.”
“You’ve got to, because we’ve just been given another opportunity to capture Razin. Shashka didn’t know this, but one of the men he mentioned-Lieutenant General Ilya Barkov, the head of Central Operational Strategic Command-is one of my other tier-one agents. He’s the only other general I have on my books, but he’s just become a very important one.”
“You’re going to ask him to activate the beacons so that we can locate Razin?”
“Yes.”
“Will he do it?”
“I don’t know; he’s a difficult man to handle. I need to lure Razin to the meeting in case Barkov says no.”
Will could see that Sentinel was exhausted. “You’re pushing yourself too hard.”
Sentinel muttered, “What other choice do I have?”
“You could trust me to do my job.”
Sentinel folded his arms. “Get me a team. Either we’ll take down Razin at the Barkov meeting, or we’ll get a grid reference for his location and make an assault on him.”
Chapter Eighteen
Will awoke as the Lufthansa flight touched down in Slovenia. The aircraft slowed to a taxi, and Will looked out of his window but barely registered the snow-covered surroundings or the activities in the airport. Instead, his thoughts returned to his confrontation with Razin.
He tried to understand what he felt about his inability to defeat the Russian. Anger, frustration, perhaps even shame? Yes, maybe all of those things. But there was something else that was far more overwhelming.
It came to him.
More than anything else, his fight with Razin had brought into question everything he’d been trained to do and tasked on. He’d been prepared to make all of the mental and physical sacrifices to endure the Spartan Program because it had been drilled into him that if he successfully completed the course, he would be able to succeed in any mission.
Until yesterday, that had been true.
But now that he’d come up against someone who was his equal, he wondered if the hell he’d gone through
