Authors: Rob Sinclair
We stood and stared for a few seconds. A standoff. Neither of us making a move. But eventually, much to my surprise, Lena lowered her weapon.
‘There’s an exit down the corridor,’ she said. ‘Take a right, then it’s the second door on the left.’
I hesitated for just a second. Was Lena really going to let me
go just like that? I know I’d asked it of her, but I’d never really thought she would cave in. Honestly I’d expected to have to use the gun on her. The only question in my mind had been how to do that and avoid being shot myself.
‘Well, go on,’ Lena said, her tone terse. ‘You’re right, Carl. I don’t want to die. But don’t think for a second that as soon as you’re around that corner I’m not going to raise the alarm. The men are getting bored out here anyway. The chase will be fun.’
She smiled at me again. An eerie smile. I didn’t trust her. I never had. Maybe she was sending me straight towards the other guards. But I wasn’t going to stand and debate it with her. If she’d sent me to an ambush, I’d deal with it. If it really was the exit and they came after me, I’d deal with that.
Without another thought, I started to edge past her, my gun trained on her the whole time. I continued to walk backwards, one cautious step at a time, keeping my eyes and my weapon on her. When I finally reached the corner, I turned and ran.
I sprinted down the corridor as fast as I could. As I approached the second door on the left, the one Lena had said was the exit, there was a volley of gun fire, coming from behind me. Bullets whizzed past my head, ricocheting off the floor and walls. I instinctively ducked but it was only through sheer luck that I wasn’t hit.
A bullet caught the gun I was holding. My surprise at the sudden jolt sent the weapon flying from my grip. I didn’t even think about stopping to pick it up.
Without once looking behind to see who was firing on me, I flung myself into the door, pushing down on the security bar.
And then I was out in the cold, dark forest. Running. Where to, I didn’t know.
‘What is Project Ruby?’ I said.
‘What?’ Mackie responded, sounding surprised.
‘Project Ruby. The reason you sent me here in the first place.’
‘I know what it is. I’m just not sure why you’re asking me.’
‘I’m asking you because you sent me here on a suicide mission to capture information that never existed.’
‘Never existed? You’ve lost me.’
‘Project Ruby isn’t a weapon. It’s a medicine.’
‘Is that what they told you?’ Mackie said.
‘Is it true?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Then why did the documents they showed me say otherwise?’
‘I’ve no idea what the Russians showed you, but whatever it was, it wasn’t real. Why would we have sent you after something that never existed?’
‘Exactly.’
‘Hang on. You think we set you up?’ Mackie said quickly – too quickly?
‘Did you?’
‘How long have you known me? Why would I ever do that?’
‘Politics,’ I said, cringing at my own lame answer.
Mackie laughed. ‘Politics? That’s funny. Politics isn’t really my bag. I don’t think I’d be in this job if it was. I do what I want, not what some bureaucrat in an office tells me to do.’
‘You say that, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. We have sponsors. They
are
the government. How can what we do not get political?’
‘You’re moving off the point. Everything the JIA, everything
I
told you about Project Ruby was real.’
‘How can you know that? Even if you believed that you were giving
me
good information, how do you know what you were told wasn’t a load of bull?’
‘I know because of what I’ve seen. And I can prove it to you.’
‘How?’
Mackie smiled. ‘Logan, we got the information. From RTK. We got the information you were sent there for. Your mission was a success.’
My heart lurched. With relief.
I’d been struggling so hard to come to terms with what Lena had told me, all of the confusing paperwork she’d thrust before me. I’d never wanted to believe any of it. But in the end, I had. She’d been very convincing. All bases had been covered. Even though my heart wanted so much to refute it, my head just couldn’t.
There had always been that small window of hope, though, that everything she’d told me was the lie. I’d had no empirical evidence to back that up. It had been nothing more than pure, desperate hope. But as the days had gone on, that little piece of hope had been pushed further and further back, as my mind was filled with the information that I was being fed. Pushed so far back to the recesses of
my mind that there had come a point when I wasn’t even sure whether it was still there.
Mackie’s words had just brought it back to the fore. I sat, unable to speak. I was desperate for what he’d said to be true even though I had no way knowing. I’d been lied to so many times that I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t any more.
‘How?’ I said.
‘The wireless feed. It worked. Everything Dmitri tapped into came straight to us. We’re not sure the Russians even know that yet. But we got it all, Logan. The mission was a complete success.’
I raised an eyebrow and Mackie quickly caught on why. His cheeks blushed a little and he nervously rubbed the back of his neck.
‘Well, you know what I mean,’ he said. ‘A complete success in that we got the information. Obviously you…well –’
‘I think you mean me being caught and tortured would be viewed as less than successful.’
‘Exactly.’
‘And what about Dmitri?’
Mackie simply shook his head. I knew what that meant.
‘But the information,’ Mackie said, ‘we got it all. You don’t believe me?’
‘I don’t know. I really don’t know,’ I said.
‘What did the Russians tell you?’
‘Quite a different story to you. What have you got? I want to see it.’
‘You can see it,’ Mackie said. ‘But not here.’
‘No. I need to see it. Now.’
‘Come on, man, I don’t have anything here with me. It’s not the sort of information you just lug around. Think about what would happen if we were caught.’
‘Then where?’
‘Come back with me. Back to England.’
My heart sank. Because we were back to square one. I wanted everything Mackie had said to be true. But going back to England with him would be a massive leap of faith. And I wasn’t sure I had any faith left in me.
‘No,’ I said. ‘Not until I’ve seen something. I need to get my head around this before I do anything else.’
‘The information’s not here. We need to get you home. That’s not a request. It’s an order.’
This was all too much. Not just what Mackie was telling me, but the constant changes in mood. The way the conversation kept going off at unexpected angles, pulling my thoughts, my feelings, my loyalties in different directions.
What was I supposed to believe? The Mackie who was telling me what a success I’d been? Or the one who didn’t trust me and didn’t believe the nature of my escape?
‘You have to show me something, or I’m not going anywhere,’ I said.
Mackie finished the rest of his coffee, then folded his arms, sitting back against his chair rest.
‘No. You’re coming back with us, Logan. It’s the only way.’
‘Or what?’
‘There’s no “or”.’
‘What if I refuse?’
Mackie sighed. ‘I hope it doesn’t come to this, but we’re going to get you back to England whether you like it or not. By whatever means necessary.’ Mackie looked around at the two goons as he spoke.
I laughed, but I wasn’t amused. ‘What? Are you going to take me out the back to give me a beating? Your two chums hold my arms while you throw a couple of punches into my gut?’
‘Don’t antagonise me, Logan. Why do we even need to talk about that route? Just come with me.’
‘You really think the three of you could stop me?’ I said.
‘There’s five of us, Logan. Not three.’
‘You’re going to need more than five. I thought you knew me better than that.’
‘I do,’ Mackie said.
‘Then why the empty threats?’
‘Look, let’s not carried away. I’m under no illusions as to what you’re capable of, Logan. Hell, I trained you. But don’t make us take things to that level.’
‘Just get me something to prove what you’re saying. Then I’ll come home.’
Mackie sighed again and shuffled in his seat, making sure I knew that he was struggling with my request but was nonetheless mulling it over. It would be easy for him to get me some proof. The question was why he was so reluctant to do it.
Did it even exist at all?
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ he said eventually.
‘So what now?’
‘Now we leave. I’ll have to make a few calls. Give me a few hours. You go back with Chris and Mary.’
‘You’re kidding, right? I still need my chaperones?’
‘You’re just not getting it, are you?’ Mackie said, talking down to me like I was being dumb. ‘Right now none of us really knows what’s going on here. And quite frankly if you really have escaped from the Russians – which I want to believe – then don’t you think they’re going to be after you? You’ll be better off keeping company.’
I didn’t respond. I guess I could agree to stick around with Chris and Mary. At least if only for a few more hours.
‘Do you need anything?’ Mackie asked.
‘What are you offering?’
‘What do you need?’
‘Money. A gun. Passports. The usual.’
‘I can’t do that.’
‘You can’t or you won’t?’
‘I won’t.’
‘Because you don’t trust me,’ I said. A statement, not a question.
‘Because I want to know that you’re not going to turn around and run away. Chris and Mary will sort you out for food and whatever else.’
‘I’m not sure why you bothered to ask then.’
Mackie tutted and shook his head. ‘I never thought that the two of us would end up like this,’ he said. ‘Talking to each other in this way.’
‘As far as I can see, you’re the one who sees me as a threat.’
‘Don’t be so self-righteous, Logan. You might feel like a victim right now, but I can see that you trust me even less than I trust you. I don’t know what they said to you. I just hope we can make it right.’
‘Me too,’ I said.
And with that Mackie got up to leave.
Dismay coursed through me. The tone of the meeting was as I’d expected, and yet I was feeling abject disappointment that it had been that way. It should have been a reconciliation, a reunion. The end of the whole sordid affair. It had been anything but, and even though I knew I had Mary and Chris to escort me around, the mood of the meeting and the manner in which it had ended made me feel isolated and alone.
Mackie pulled on his coat, scarf and hat and made his way to the door. Chris and Mary stayed seated. The two goons stood up, taking positions by the exit.
As Mackie approached one of them opened the door and
stepped out into the street. A rush of sub-zero air shot into the café and sent a chill right through me. Mackie’s other man stayed inside, glaring back into the room, alert for any unexpected movement from within the near-empty café. I found the whole masquerade quite amusing. Hardly discreet. Mackie was being treated more like a mafia don than a member of a secretive agency.
The goon out in the street held the door open for Mackie who turned to look at me as he reached the doorway. I think he gave the slightest of smiles, but I wasn’t really sure. I didn’t reciprocate, and he turned to leave.
But he never made it out into the street.
The bullet hit him square between the eyes before he’d even stepped over the threshold.
What I did next I would call a gut reaction. I’m not sure whether it was conscious or subconscious; probably somewhere between the two. Certainly it happened without any premeditation. And there was nothing more to it than that.
I ran.
I hadn’t heard the shot. Hadn’t seen the shooter. From where I was sitting I could see little of what lay outside the café.
That didn’t matter.
The noise of the bullet hitting Mackie – a dull, wet thwack; the way that his head snapped back as his body slumped to the ground; the dark spot in the middle of his forehead where the bullet had pierced skin and bone and entered his body – it was all I needed.
I knew that Mackie was dead. No doubt about it.
And I ran.
The two goons were half-crouching to cover themselves, hands fumbling at their sides for their weapons. Mary had hunkered down in her seat. Chris was up, out of his, facing me. His reactions were quick.
I heard shouts from Mackie’s men. Or maybe Chris. Perhaps they’d spotted the shooter. Then the blast of a gunshot rang out. Wood splinters filled the air around me.
They weren’t just shouting at me. They were shooting at me.
‘Stop him!’ one of them screamed.
I didn’t stop.
I kept on going.
I flung myself at the fire door, pushing down on the security bar that released the lock. The door flew open a full one-eighty degrees, crashing against the adjacent wall. I launched myself outside, ignoring the shock of the ice-cold air filling my lungs.
I was in a narrow alleyway, barely wide enough to fit a vehicle through. The exit out onto the street was some thirty yards off to the left. I ran toward it. As hard and fast as I could. I stumbled as my feet hit unseen potholes, and slipped where my feet failed to get traction on the icy surface.
More shouts rang out from behind me. I risked looking back. Saw the outline of Chris and then one of the other men emerge from the café doorway. Guns drawn. I was already nearing the corner of the alleyway.
I heard another gunshot. The bullet ricocheted nearby. I flinched and ducked down as I rounded the corner into safety, at least for a few seconds.
The alley opened onto a small side street. I instinctively turned right. Left would only have taken me back to the cross-street that the café was on. Not many vehicles were on the road. A handful of pedestrians had stopped to see what the commotion was. They probably hadn’t realised yet that they were hearing gunfire. If they had, they’d have been screaming and running.
I knew I couldn’t stay out in the open. I had to find cover. Chris and Mackie’s man would be coming around the corner any second. The next nearest road turning wasn’t for another forty or so yards. I couldn’t clear that distance before Chris and the goon came out into the open. As soon
as they saw me, I’d be a sitting duck.
I heard the whir of a car engine, heavily revving, coming up behind me. Without breaking stride, I looked back and saw a dark saloon car, approaching fast. Too fast to be some random Russian out for a drive. For a second, I wondered whether it was Mackie’s other man coming round from the front of the café.
The car raced towards me. All of sudden I heard pedestrians screaming. Was it because of the car, which was surely going to mow me down? Or had they seen Chris and the goon with their guns drawn, readying to take their next shot?
Either way, it seemed I was out of luck.
Every muscle in my body strained as I tried my best to keep going, to make it to safety.
I took one more look behind. The car’s bulky bonnet seemed to fill my entire vision. But then, at the last second, the brakes were thumped on and it came to a screeching halt just a few feet in front of me.
I didn’t know what would happen next, or who was in the car. My instincts, though, told me to keep moving towards it. If anything, it was my nearest cover.
The rear passenger door of the car flew open. A long, slender arm came into view. Then a face appeared that stopped me in my tracks.
Lena.
Lena, here!
‘Get in,’ she said. Her velvety-smooth voice was the essence of calm, as it so often was.
I turned to see Chris emerging from the alleyway. A look of confusion came to his face. He stopped. The goon came around the corner too. He didn’t hesitate at all but raised his gun and opened fire, squeezing off two shots. I ducked. But his shots had been too rushed, not even a nearby ricochet to indicate where the bullets had landed.
I heard more screams from the pedestrians. Maybe one of them had been hit by a wayward bullet.
Chris began to raise his gun too. But rather than fire, he backtracked quickly towards the alley. When I turned back to the car, I saw the reason. The other rear passenger door of the car was now open. A man stood half in the car, half out, an assault rifle resting on the roof, pointing towards the alleyway. He fired off a volley of rounds. I flinched as the booming sound coursed through my head and echoed through the street.
I knew that the shots hadn’t been aimed at me. The agonising yell followed by a thud from behind told me Mackie’s man was down.
But I didn’t dare turn around to confirm that.
Because, more worryingly, Lena was now pointing a handgun at my head.
‘Get in the car,’ she said. ‘Now.’