vehicle slows, then indicates right, then accelerates.” There was nothing for several seconds before Laith shouted, “Korina’s in the back. She’s called it in and betrayed us!”
Will shouted, “Direction?”
“Quayside, heading right toward you.”
Will’s heart pounded. “Roger, I want you east by a quarter mile, then south by five hundred feet. That will put you on the quayside road, ahead of the SUV.”
“On my way.” Roger gunned his Audi.
Laith shouted in near-breathless words, “I’m moving east as well. Running parallel to the SUV. Catching glimpses of it, but they’re not looking my way. They’re about two hundred feet to my right. Speed approximately twenty miles per hour.”
Laith was at full sprint and so far was matching the speed of the SUV.
Will scrutinized the quayside road adjacent to him. Three hundred yards away, one of the four-ton trucks pulled onto the route from a pier and started driving slowly toward him. “I can’t see the SUV. Four tonner is blocking my view.”
“It’s right behind the truck!” Laith was clearly still sprinting. “Get out of sight, Will.”
Will dashed across the road and into a side street and took the next right turn. As he did so, Laith nearly crashed into him. Will immediately sprinted alongside his colleague so that they were running parallel to the quayside road. “Roger, where are you?”
Roger shouted above the sound of his vehicle, “Just turning onto the quayside. Hold.”
Laith stumbled as his feet struck ice on the side street, but Will grabbed him with one hand and kept him moving at full sprint.
Roger said, “I’m stationary. The four tonner is about a quarter mile away, coming straight toward me. No sight of the SUV. Correction
… SUV overtaking truck. I’ve got clear visibility of the target. Instructions, please.”
Will’s mind raced, desperately trying to decide what to do.
“Instructions, please,” Roger repeated. “I’ve got my rifle pointing right at them. I can easily take them all down.”
“Wait!” Will ran even faster; Laith kept right by his side.
“She’s called it in, Will.” Roger’s voice was calm but menacing. “But she might not have had time to tell them everything. If I take them down, we stand a good chance of getting out of the city.”
“Not yet!”
They moved past occasional pedestrians wrapped in full winter attire, with shoulders hunched and heads bowed against the driving snowfall. They seemed to take no notice of the two men dressed in expensive suits, shoes, and overcoats sprinting through the snow and ice.
“They’re three hundred yards away from me.” Roger sounded as though he was speaking through gritted teeth. “I need a decision.”
“Come on, Will!” Laith’s words were urgent and angry.
Will said nothing.
“Five hundred feet away. Will?”
Will grabbed Laith, skidded to a halt with the man, and spoke rapidly into his Bluetooth. “Abort. Get out of there, and head straight back to her house.”
“What?”
“Do it, Roger. We’ll meet you there. But move like fury.”
Laith stared at Will with a look of bemusement while he bent over with his hands on his knees, sucking in air.
Will ignored the expression and pointed northeast. “Her house. We’ve got to be there before she gets back.”
Laith pushed himself upright, half turned, and immediately led the way. They ran to the end of the street, turned left onto a main road, sprinted straight across it while dodging slow-moving vehicles, ran into another side street, and kept moving for three hundred yards before making the turn onto the street containing Korina’s house. Laith and Will did not slow, running at full speed for a further five hundred feet until they were at her front door. Roger pulled up next to them, and Will was relieved to see that his Audi was still covered with frozen snow. Nevertheless, he and Laith immediately started gathering up some more of the stuff from the roadside and patting it onto places on the car where metal was exposed.
Will told Roger, “Get in the house, get coffee on.” He looked at Laith. “You too, and start chain-smoking to get the room feeling like we never left the place.”
Will placed one final lump of snow onto the Audi’s hood, decided it would have to be enough, heard an engine noise in the distance, and raced into the front entrance just as he saw the hood of a vehicle emerge at the end of the road.
Will dashed toward his colleagues, who were furiously stamping the snow off their feet. Grabbing their outer garments, he sprinted upstairs to the bathroom. Holding each coat over the bathtub, he punched them to release the snow, ran hot water to melt the snow that had fallen into the bathtub, turned the tap off, and returned quickly downstairs. Hanging the coats up, he scrutinized the floor of the lounge and kitchen, grabbed a kitchen towel to mop up a few spots of melted snow, tossed it back onto a kitchen surface, and breathed deeply. Laith was sitting in an armchair in the lounge, and he had managed to get through two cigarettes and was lighting a third with one hand while holding a fresh mug of instant coffee with the other. Roger emerged from the kitchen holding two more mugs of coffee. He gave one to Will and sat down on a dining room chair. Will remained standing, trying to calm his body to make it appear as if he’d just spent the last hour doing nothing more energetic than replenishing coffee cups within the small terraced house. But his heart pounded within his chest.
Directly outside the house, car doors opened and slammed shut. Will took a gulp of his steaming hot coffee, pulled out his QSZ-92 handgun, and pointed it at the front door. In his peripheral vision, he saw Roger and Laith do the same.
The door opened; Korina entered the house. She paused in the narrow entrance leading to the lounge, staring at the three men who were aiming their weapons at her. She shook her head and said urgently, “William, this is not what it seems.”
“We expected you to come back on foot”-Will took another sip of his coffee while keeping his eyes and pistol trained on Korina-“not pull up outside your house in a vehicle containing two men.” He gripped his handgun hard. “We kept our side of the bargain, waiting for you here, trusting you.”
Korina sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. But I had to make a decision, and that decision was that we needed help. I’ve not told anyone else you’re here. The two men with me are totally loyal and are experts at keeping their mouths shut.”
Will narrowed his eyes. “Then you’d better bring them in so that we can introduce ourselves.”
Korina turned, beckoned to the men who were waiting outside, then moved fully into the lounge. One man entered the room. He was of medium height, had a powerful build and a shaven head, and was dressed in a dark suit.
“This is Vitali.”
The man eyed them coldly, saying nothing.
The front door was shut, and the second man was there but had his back to them as he wrenched the door’s bolt closed. His task complete, he turned to face the room. Like his colleague, he was dressed in a dark suit, and he looked powerful and athletic. Unlike his colleague, the man was tall and had cropped blond hair and a face covered in scars.
Korina pointed at him. “And this is Markov. They’re Spetsnaz GRU.”
Will stepped toward the two special forces men, checked to see that Roger and Laith still had their guns pointed at the Russians, lowered his weapon, and tucked it into his belt. For a moment he wondered what to say. Having decided, he said, “If you’re here to do me or my men harm, I’ll kill you both before you have a chance to move a muscle. If not, you would do well to understand that your presence here could be deemed treacherous by your Spetsnaz officers. If Korina has not made that clear to you, then I’m giving you the chance now to turn around and walk out of here while you still have a job and your liberty.”
Vitali gestured toward Korina while keeping his attention on Will. “Major Tsvetaeva made two things clear to
