“Nothing yet. Hold.” Roger went silent for several seconds. “Okay, now I’ve got engine noises, I’ve got… I’ve got headlamps.” Three seconds passed. “Two vehicles. Both Range Rovers. Car in front has two men-definitely the protection detail. Car behind has one driver and no passengers. Driver is… yes, driver is target. Repeat, driver in vehicle two is target!”
Will shouted, “Move, Roger!”
“Like I needed to be told!” Roger’s voice was nearly breathless. The man was running at full sprint to the team’s parked vehicle on a side road between the river-straddling Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya and the road that Will and Laith were on. It was the same side road that their target and his bodyguards would be turning onto in seconds. “I’m at our vehicle. Fuck. Okay. Don’t think they spotted me.”
Roger had covered three hundred feet of snow-covered ground between his observation point and the vehicle in twelve seconds.
“I’m mobile, a hundred feet behind the protection detail, our target, and the FSB men who’re tailing them. I can see brake lights. The convoy’s turning onto Ulitsa Noviy Arbat. You should see them.”
Will did see them. He took quick sidesteps into the park so that he was hidden in undergrowth, but the two Range Rovers were still easily visible in the medium traffic on the road. As was the Audi containing the two FSB men, who would certainly be armed but whose job was to merely follow their target, make themselves visible to him, and thereby silently tell him that if he did anything silly in their country they would punish him.
Will crouched low. “Laith?”
“Yeah, I’ve got them.” The American’s words were slow and precise.
Roger’s vehicle emerged onto the road, four vehicles behind the convoy. Roger said, “Okay, stand by.” He went silent. When he spoke again, his tone of voice was one of absolute command. “Stand by. Stand by. Stand by. Okay”-more silence-“let’s go!”
Will sprinted out of cover, pointing his handgun at the Range Rover containing the two bodyguards. At the same time, he heard Laith’s AMR-2 sniper rifle fire two rounds into the SUV’s engine block, causing the vehicle to skid, then stop suddenly. In his peripheral vision, he saw Roger drive his vehicle around four civilian cars, then ram his vehicle into the rear of the FSB Audi, pushing it into the back of the Range Rover containing the target. All vehicles in the convoy were now stationary and trapped between Roger’s car and the immobilized Range Rover.
The two guards wasted no time, jumping out of their vehicle with pistols in their hands. Will sprinted to them even faster, and when he’d nearly reached their vehicle, he twisted, dived, and rolled on the road as one of the men raised his gun and sent a shot toward him. Then he sprang to his feet so that he was directly in front of the man. The bodyguard tried to sweep a leg against Will’s ankles to upset Will’s balance, which would cause him to stagger back and give the man sufficient distance to lift his gun again and shoot Will. But Will anticipated the movement, took one step back as the man’s leg swept through nothing but air, stepped forward again, and punched him in the chest with sufficient force to slam him back against the SUV. He took another step forward, jabbed two fingers into the man’s eyes, and brought the butt of his handgun down hard onto his shoulder blade. The man collapsed unconscious to the ground, and as he did so, Will ducked low. He was glad he did. A bullet from the other guard on the far side of the Range Rover raced through the air where he’d just been standing.
Laith shouted, “Drop your weapon and get on the ground!” Will glanced right and saw the SOG officer standing in the center of the road, only thirty feet away, with his rifle held at eye level and pointed at the second bodyguard. “Flat, facedown, hands clasped together and arms pointing at the sky. Fucking do it, or I’ll put a bullet in your skull!”
Will glanced left. Roger was on foot by the Audi. One of the FSB men was motionless by his feet. But the second Russian was moving quickly around the other side of the vehicle, a pistol gripped in both his hands. Will called out, “Laith?”
“Yeah, you’re clear. I’ve got this man covered.”
Will sprang to his feet and jumped onto the hood of the second Range Rover, ignoring the target, who was still in the vehicle. He ran over its roof, jumped onto the Audi, and dived right over it toward the FSB man, who was now at the rear of the car and had leveled his gun at Roger. Crashing midair into the man, Will wrapped his arms around the Russian’s upper body and limbs, pinning his arms tight against his sides before they hit the ground. He kept squeezing him tight. Roger appeared before them, nodded at Will, then smashed a fist into the Russian’s head. His head slumped to one side. But he was alive.
Will rolled away from the man just as he saw the target in the second Range Rover try to drive his vehicle out of the area. His Range Rover drove into the stationary SUV in front of it, moving it a couple of feet. He reversed into the Audi but was unable to move that car, as it was held firm by Roger’s vehicle. Driving forward again, he pushed the protection detail’s Range Rover a further few feet. He now had enough room to make a tight turn out of the stationary convoy and speed away from the trap. Will pushed himself up and sprinted toward the car as he saw it move back one last time and point its front tires right so that it would be ready to escape. He heard the vehicle’s gears change and the accelerator being depressed. He ran as fast as he was able and reached the driver’s door just as the car started to move forward. Smashing the window, he grabbed the driver’s throat, stayed firmly in position as the car swerved right and away from the other SUV blocking it, lurched toward the ignition, and turned off the engine. The vehicle slowed, then stopped.
Breathing fast, Will looked at the target. “You’re coming with me.”
Pulling the struggling driver out of the vehicle by his throat, Will looked around. The place looked chaotic. Civilian cars were immobile and at odd angles on the road behind Roger’s vehicle. The men and women inside them were watching all that was happening before them with looks of shock and fear. Some of them had cell phones planted against the sides of their faces. He heard sirens coming from multiple directions and knew that they would belong to law enforcement and maybe even specialist FSB units. Will wasted no time and began to drag his captive backward until he was by Roger. He looked at the CIA officer. “Is your vehicle operable?”
Roger nodded. “Reckon so.”
Roger moved into the driver’s seat of his vehicle and reversed the car, and as he did so Will heard the sound of metal tearing apart. Roger stopped the car, kept the engine running, got out, and opened one of the rear passenger doors. “The vehicle’s okay. But we need to get the hell out of here, right now.”
Will looked at Laith. The American was still pointing his AMR-2 at the head of the prone but conscious guard. Will spoke into his throat mic: “Laith, we’ve got to move.”
The sirens were drawing closer.
Laith smiled at the man close to his feet. In his earpiece, Will heard Laith’s words to the bodyguard. “Sorry about this.”
Laith spun his rifle around and swept it through the air, smacking its butt against the side of the guard’s head. He crouched down, placed his fingers against the man’s throat to check his pulse, muttered “You’ll live,” and jogged over to Roger’s car.
Seconds later they were all in the vehicle and Roger was driving the car at high speed along the road. Laith and Will were in the backseat; their captive was lying on the floor with their boots holding him firmly in place.
As they moved steadily along the route that took them west, away from the city, Will looked down and smiled, wondering what Alistair would think if he could see him now.
With a boot on the MI6 Head of Moscow Station.
Chapter Twenty-eight
It was either this place or a local school.” Roger rubbed his fatigued face.
Will looked around. They were in a small Russian Orthodox church, near woods and a tiny village that was fifty miles west of the outskirts of Moscow. Roger had chosen the venue because, like schools, most churches were empty at night, were easy to break into, and usually did not contain valuables deemed worthy of protection by alarm systems. The church had wooden pews to the left and right of the center aisle Will was standing in. The place was in total darkness, save for the light emitted by the flashlights that Will, Roger, and Laith carried. Their beams produced snapshot images of religious icons, prayer books, free-standing lamps, chandeliers, unlit candles, three- barred metal crosses, alcoves, wall-mounted paintings of various apostles and Jesus Christ, and an altar table that
