mountainside plus the lake, road, and lodge.”
Barkov gestured toward the table and chairs. “Gentlemen, shall we sit?”
Sentinel grabbed a chair. “My colleague will stay with us but not at this table.”
“As you wish.” Barkov sat down, glancing at Will. “Do what you need to do.”
W ill sat on the floor, pointing his assault rifle at the door.
Sentinel was leaning forward across the table, speaking quietly to Barkov. “Sir, we have little time, so I’ll come straight to the point. We know that a Russian colonel is planning to misuse the weapons in his possession to spark war between Russia and America.”
“Name?”
“Taras Khmelnytsky.”
Barkov laughed. “Where did you hear this?”
“We know for certain that this is what he’s planning to do.”
“He’s a Hero of the Russian Federation, and he’d know that we’d lose in a war with America. Are you suggesting he’s working for the Americans?”
“No. He’s working alone.”
Ross’s voice spoke in Will’s earpiece. “I’ve just completed a hundred-and-eighty-degree sweep of the area before me and-” Loud static sounded.
“Say again, Ross. You broke up.” Will concentrated on his earpiece.
There was more static before Will heard Ross say, “Damn terrain. I said, I’ve seen nothing.”
“All right. Laith, Roger?”
“Nothing.”
Sentinel’s voice was now very quiet. “I think he wants to bring the countries to war so that he can take over Russia.”
Barkov shook his head. “You cannot expect me to believe this.”
“I can, and I need you to do something for me.”
“If you think I’m going to take this to Platonov, you’re mistaken.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to speak to your commander in chief. You’d be compromised. But I do want you to turn on the beacons attached to the nuclear devices in Khmelnytsky’s possession.”
“And give you the grid reference of his base of operations?”
“Precisely.”
Barkov looked angry. “This smells to me like subterfuge.”
“It’s not. We’re desperate. We’ve got to stop him.”
“I think this is a charade… the men here… the idea that someone out there wants to kill me. A charade.”
A shot rang out in the distance. Will instantly jumped to his feet, gripping his assault rifle tight, and ran to one side of the windows. “What’s happening? Was that you, Ross?!”
There was static in his earpiece before Roger’s frantic voice came over the air. “Ross’s just shot one of my incendiary devices. Ross, what’s going on?”
There was more static, then another shot. Will glanced out of the window and just as quickly pulled his head and body back behind the cover of the wall. Ross had shot a second incendiary device. Two trees were on fire; black smoke billowed from them very close to the lodge. Will looked at Barkov. “Get flat on the floor by the back wall!”
Sentinel was on his feet, moving to the corner of the room, where he grabbed a QBZ-95G resting upright on its butt. “His communication system’s down. But he must have spotted a sniper.”
One with thermal imagery.
A third shot rang out, followed by a fourth, fifth, and sixth.
“Ross!” Will pressed one hand against his throat mic. “Can you hear me? Where’s the hostile?”
Another three shots rang out.
Laith screamed, “That’s all of them! The whole damned place in front of the lodge is ablaze!”
Will glanced at Barkov. The man had followed his instructions and was lying down behind the table.
But Bartov muttered, “Give me a gun.”
“Stay where you are!” Will swung his gun through the window’s glass, moved the barrel to form a large hole in it, and stood exposed, searching the outside ground for signs of Razin. But the fire from the trees was now abating, and the dampening effect of the snow on them had produced a two-hundred-foot-tall and five-hundred- foot-wide thick black wall of smoke. He cursed. Razin was blind to them, but they were now blind to him without Ross’s communications system working. His heart pounded. He looked at Sentinel; the man’s eyes were narrow, and he was gripping his gun while standing by one side of the window.
Sentinel muttered, “Maybe Ross’s system’s not down. This is starting to feel wrong.”
“I know.” Will shook his head, his mind racing. He stopped shaking his head as one stark thought pushed all others aside. His heart pumped faster; adrenaline coursed through his body. “Roger, Laith, I think Razin’s taken Ross’s rifle and fired at the incendiary devices. I don’t think he’s using thermal imagery. I think he shot the devices to make us blind.”
So that he could move in close without being seen.
“You could be wrong, Will.” Roger’s tone of voice was anything but accusatory, but Will knew the CIA man had to make the point.
“I could be fucking wrong!” He gripped his gun tighter. “Ross’s communications could be down. But it doesn’t feel right.”
“I hear you.”
Will closed his eyes, then opened them. “Roger, I’ve got to stay here.”
“I know what you’re thinking. Laith and I will get him.”
Will nodded. “All right. But move fast.”
Will looked at Barkov. “If we don’t get him, will you turn on the beacons?”
Barkov looked uncertain.
“Will you turn on the fucking beacons?”
Barkov nodded. “All right.”
“In that case, here’s your weapon.” Will withdrew his handgun and slid it across the floor to the general.
The Russian grabbed the pistol, expertly checked its workings, rose to a crouch, and looked at Sentinel.
Laith’s words were nearly breathless; it was clear that he was running fast. “We’re out of the lodge, moving along the mountainside.”
Will looked out of the window, but the wall of smoke was still thick and prevented him from seeing the CIA men.
Sentinel looked at him sharply. “Dash for the car?”
Will thought rapidly. “Not yet. But we need to be ready. All of us, downstairs.”
They moved to the first-floor lounge. Will pointed at the kitchen. “In there.” The lounge had two sash windows that opened vertically. Will yanked the first one up three inches, pulled out the pin from a stun grenade, jammed the grenade in the open gap, and ensured that it was held fast with the heavy window pressing firm against the grenade’s lever. He did the same with the room’s other window and his second stun grenade. Moving to the lodge’s front door, he took out a thin piece of cotton, opened the door a few inches, primed and placed his last grenade on the floor within the gap, pulled the door closed onto the grenade, and tied the door firmly by wrapping the cotton around its handle and a lock on the door frame. Providing that the grenades weren’t spotted, a man who opened the windows or pulled back the door, while easily snapping the thread, would be in for a big surprise. The grenades were primed to explode the instant the levers were opened.
Will jogged into the kitchen and shut the door behind him.
They waited for ten minutes with Will pointing his gun at the door.
Roger’s voice sounded in his earpiece. The CIA officer’s words sent a shiver down Will’s spine.
“Ross’s dead, and we’ve found his rifle. There’s no sign of Razin. Somehow he must have got past us. But my God, Ross has been butchered!”
Will shouted, “Get back to us!”
“On our way!”
