Authors: Rob Sinclair
‘I know that,’ she said. ‘And that’s why I feel that I can trust you. I know what this all means to you. What Mackie meant to you. I look up to you, Logan. You’re one of the agents that everyone aspires to be.’
‘Believe me, it’s not as glamorous as it might seem.’
‘Not to you. But that’s what makes you all the more special. Because you don’t even realise how good you are.’
I felt myself blush just a little at her comment and I could see from the twinkle in her eye that she noticed. She beamed a smile at me and I felt my cheeks turn redder.
‘See?’ she said, a wide grin on her face. ‘That’s what I mean. You’re a good man, Carl. I know it.’
Her words hung in my head and I felt butterflies in my stomach. Such a strange feeling, but I knew where it was coming from. Mary was young and she was pretty. And she was flattering me. I was attracted to her, no doubt. And it was a real attraction, however fleeting. Not the captive’s empathy that I’d felt toward Lena but the kind of genuine sexual attraction that I hadn’t truly felt since I’d met Angela Grainger.
I hadn’t been with anyone since then – I hadn’t had the time or the chance to even think about it. Not long after Angela disappeared I’d been sent to Russia. In a way it had been the perfect case to take my mind off what had happened between us. The intensity of living in a foreign, alien place had taken up so much of my focus that I’d been able to push thoughts of her to the back of my mind. But now, sitting in the café, it was hard to not feel an attraction to Mary, to someone stuck in the same dire situation as me. It was a nice feeling.
Mary wiped her mouth with her napkin and got to her feet. ‘I’m just popping to the ladies’,’ she said.
I smiled and she walked off to the back of the café. While she was gone I ordered another round of drinks and some bacon and eggs for myself. The temptation was just too much for my neglected belly to pass up on. The waitress was quick and the extra orders arrived before Mary returned. When she did, she sat down and thanked me for the fresh tea.
‘We could be here for a while,’ I said. ‘May as well keep
the hot drinks coming.’
‘Yeah, it really is bitter out there. I knew it’d be cold here, but living it is something else.’
‘Plus you’re paying,’ I said to her, grinning.
‘Ha. So you’re just as chivalrous as I’d heard then.’
I shrugged and got stuck into my bacon and eggs. We sat in silence again for a few minutes while I ate. With each mouthful I couldn’t help but feel that the lighter mood that had crept in earlier was seeping away. I couldn’t place why, but the atmosphere between us was just that little bit uncomfortable again.
I finished my second plate of food and ordered a glass of water. The two rounds of coffee had perked me up all right but they’d also left me feeling parched.
A tinkle came from the bell above the door to the café. Mary and I both instinctively turned our heads to look at the arrivals.
Two thickset men entered, long black coats closed all the way up to their necks. One was a good six inches taller than the other. They each wore jeans and heavy, work-like boots. The taller man had closely cropped greying hair and a flat, wide nose like a boxer. The small man had a shiny bald head and a protruding brow that cast his squinting eyes in shadow.
Not moving away from the doorway, they both gazed over at our table. I glanced back at Mary, saw the apologetic look on her face.
And immediately knew what was happening.
I’d never seen the two men before. But I knew who they were and why they were there.
Mary had set me up.
‘Logan, it’s for your own good,’ Mary said, getting to her feet, backing away.
I was already on my feet too. My eyes were darting between her and the two men, who were standing cautiously just a few steps from me, near the door. Other than the waitress, who was now nowhere to be seen, we were the only people in the café.
‘Just come in with us, Logan,’ Mary said. ‘We need to get this all sorted out. But it’s not going to happen if you keep running.’
‘You lied to me,’ I said. ‘You set this whole thing up.’
‘Not everything was a lie.’
From the corner of my eye I saw the taller of the two men take a step forward. I could sense Mary slowly inching away. Her words were calm and reassuring but her bodily actions were giving her away again. She was expecting a confrontation. And she didn’t want any part of it.
‘Logan. Come with us,’ the tall man said. ‘Let’s just make this easier for us all.’
I turned to face him. He was just three or four strides away from me. He had both of his hands down at his sides and was standing slightly off from square to me. The smaller man, standing behind him, had taken the same pose.
Though I noticed in his right hand he was trying to disguise a weapon of some sort underneath the sleeve of his coat.
‘Don’t make a scene,’ Mary said. ‘This is for your own good.’
‘Mary, I’ve got to tell you I’m pretty sick of people telling me that. Let me decide what’s best for me.’
I turned to face the men. ‘You two, I suggest you leave here. Now. Or you won’t be leaving here at all.’
The men stood, motionless, no response to my macho ultimatum.
But, not for the first time, I’d underestimated the threat from Mary. And I would have been suckered by her too, if it hadn’t been for the reaction of the tall man.
When he should have been eyeballing me, he flicked his gaze over behind my shoulder. It told me enough. I sidestepped, turned my body and grabbed Mary’s wrist, which she’d thrust out at me, stun-gun in hand. A split-second later I’d have been on the floor, game over.
With my free arm I reached round and then yanked her forward. She tumbled over, her arm twisting behind her back painfully. She yelped but I let go before the shoulder popped. I don’t know why. It just seemed like a step too far to have broken her arm.
I saw the movement as the tall man rushed me. I was already on my feet, the stun-gun now in my hand. I met him head on.
The knife in his hand, which I’d not seen, arced through the air. I’d come in low and it missed me. I curled my arm around the man’s neck, locking his head, and pulled downwards. His body twisted around and I fell to my knees, carrying him down with me. With my left arm I pressed the stun-gun into his chest and pushed on the power button. I heard a fizzle and crackle as the electrical current coursed
through him. His body bucked and shuddered and I felt the strength go from him.
As his body continued to spasm, I pushed him off me and looked up to see the little man. His eyes wide, he was still in the same position, about five yards from me. He was grappling with the weapon in his hand, pulling it out from his sleeve, trying to get his aim. It was a gun. If I gave him the chance, it would be an easy shot for him to take.
I grabbed the fallen man’s knife and leapt to my feet. The small man managed to adjust his aim but I was already on him. He’d been too slow. His decision to conceal his weapon had lost him the fight. A shocked look was plastered on his face as I slashed at his wrist with the knife. He let out a scream. I thrust a balled fist upward onto his chin. His head snapped back and he went down onto the floor without another sound coming from his lips.
When I turned back I saw Mary getting to her feet. She was reaching in her bag, but she was fumbling. She wasn’t used to these situations. One year a field agent. I’d bet my life this was the first confrontation she’d been in. And she certainly hadn’t received anything like the training I had.
I grabbed the gun, a Glock, out of the bloodied hand of the small man and strode over to Mary. The taller man was groaning on the floor. As I walked past him I took aim without looking and put a slug in his knee. I wasn’t going to give him the chance to come after me. He let out a piercing cry.
Mary jumped at the sound of the gun firing and cowered away from me as I approached. She was holding the handgun she’d been so hastily trying to locate. I grabbed her wrist.
‘Drop it,’ I said.
She did as she was told. Tears were streaming down her face. Her bottom lip was quivering.
‘You set me up?’ I spat.
‘No,’ she pleaded. ‘I just did what I had to do. You can’t go on like this. You can’t go running around taking on everything that gets in your way.’
‘That’s exactly what I have to do. It’s what I’ve always done.’
‘Please don’t hurt me,’ she said.
‘Tell me the truth, Mary, and I won’t. Will there be more of them?’
‘I don’t know. I didn’t know who would come. I was just told to wait here with you.’
I wanted to know exactly how and why I’d been led to that place, but we couldn’t stand and debate it in the café. I had to believe that the lone waitress, who I presumed was cowering away in the kitchen, would surely be onto the police even if no-one else from the JIA was coming.
‘Come on, we need to go,’ I said, pulling on her wrist.
Mary resisted. ‘Go where, Logan? There isn’t anywhere left to run. You’re just getting yourself into a bigger mess.’
‘I’m just surviving,’ I said.
I pulled on her arm, harder, and she relented. I dragged her over to the door and out into the open. I eyeballed the scene outside but saw no indication that anyone else was coming for me. For now at least. I looked at the clock tower of the station. Quarter to one.
‘What you said about Chris. Was that true?’
She looked up at me, offended. ‘Of course it was. That’s why I’m here. I’ve been told to follow him to Moscow.’
‘Then let’s go. We’re getting on the next train. Even if Chris isn’t on it. I’m not staying in this damned city any longer than I need to.’
We hurried over the road and back through the main entrance to the station. She wasn’t resisting any more but I didn’t let go of her wrist at all. We headed over to an automated
ticket machine; no point in adding more witnesses to the list. I finally let go of Mary and she immediately began to nurse her wrist with her other hand. I could see that I’d left a ring of red flesh where I’d held on to her, but I didn’t feel bad. She was lucky I hadn’t put a bullet into her. In fact, I wasn’t entirely sure why I hadn’t.
We booked a private cabin for the journey. It would take us nearly two days. It would have been far quicker to fly but I had no way of getting through security at the airport any more.
As we made our way through the station, Mary seemed to relax a little, walking with me rather than me having to drag her. But I wasn’t going to take off the leash yet. I needed to find out more from her. First, though, I wanted to be on that train and out of Omsk for good.
We headed down the ramp to the platform. I noticed that the train was already there, waiting. Two policeman patrolled the area, strolling along the side of the train. I slowed down, my eyes fixed on them, willing them to not turn around. I didn’t think they’d be there looking for me, but I couldn’t be sure and I’d rather not have to test it out. We scuttled across the platform towards an open carriage door, my gaze on the two policemen the whole way. But when the policemen moved past two waiting passengers who had been blocked from my view, there was the briefest flash of recognition in my mind. I did a double-take.
Chris.
He was standing, waiting, at the far end of the platform.
And he wasn’t alone.
I didn’t recognise the man Chris was with. I guessed it may have been the man from the rendezvous that Mary had told me about. Assuming she’d been telling me the truth. A big assumption to make given form.
For the next two seconds, as we moved across the platform toward the train, my world seemed to go into slow motion. In silence. As though everything and everyone was now focused on me. I wanted to be on the train, away from the gawping faces. But I just couldn’t get there quickly enough. Like in a dream when you’re trying to run away from a monster but your legs are like lead and for no explicable reason you just can’t move them.
As if on cue, Chris began to turn in my direction.
The next second we were safely through the train door and normality suddenly returned.
I looked over at Mary. She was breathing heavily. I could tell from the stare in her eyes that she’d seen Chris and the other man too.
‘Do you think they saw us?’ she said.
‘I hope not,’ I said. ‘Was that him? The man you saw Chris meeting with?’
‘No,’ Mary said, shaking her head. ‘I’ve never seen him before.’
I believed her. But I was also surprised by her response: her expression told me that she knew I didn’t quite trust her answer. Which only made me more determined to find out what was going on.
The journey to Moscow would be long. I was glad Chris would be on the train. But confronting him straight away wouldn’t help. I wanted to be out of Omsk. I wanted to know what was taking Chris to Moscow.
‘We should get to our cabin,’ I said. ‘Lie low for a while. We’ve got a lot to talk about.’
Mary looked apprehensive. About which part of what I’d said I wasn’t sure. But she only hesitated for a second or two. I could tell that she didn’t want to be out in the open any more than I did. She equally probably didn’t want to be stuck in a confined space with me. But apparently it was the lesser of two evils.
‘I think it’s this way,’ she said, turning back and heading in the opposite direction to where Chris had been standing on the platform. That was a welcome relief.
We entered the cabin and I slid the door closed behind me and locked it. Along one side of the pokey room was a static bed with another fold-down one above. On the other side was a single chair and a doorway into the tiny bathroom. The conditions were cramped but would be comfortable enough.
Mary sat down on the bed and I took the chair. She stared into space and I could tell that she was mulling over what had just happened in the café.
‘I can’t believe you attacked them like that,’ she said eventually, her voice trembling, looking down at her feet.
‘They didn’t give me much choice,’ I said. ‘
You
didn’t give me much choice.’
‘Choice? I wasn’t going to hurt you, Logan. I had a stun-gun. We were going to take you in.’
‘And then what?’ I said. ‘Don’t be so naive. I’ve been locked away and tortured for the last three months. You don’t know what the agency would do to me. How could you? What I do know is that nobody is taking me anywhere against my will. Not again.’
‘Why didn’t you shoot me too?’ she said.
‘Because I didn’t need to. I didn’t see you as a threat.’
‘Oh, you really think you know me, don’t you?’ she spat.
‘I didn’t mean it like that. I didn’t see you as an imminent threat. Plus I need some answers. And I think you have them.’
‘I’ve already told you what I know.’
‘About Chris? Yeah, well, that’s not good enough. How did those two in the café even find us?’
‘I’d been following you,’ she said. ‘I was telling the truth. I really hadn’t been staying at the safe house. But I’d been on the lookout for you returning. When you did, I followed you up there.’
‘And then you lured me to that café?’
‘Yeah,’ she said, sounding and looking proud of the fact. ‘I had to be at the station anyway to check on Chris too. So it was the ideal spot.’
‘The phone call you overhead Chris having never happened, did it?’
‘No. Winter told me Chris would be on this train. I don’t know how he found out or what is going on but I’ve been told to keep on Chris’s tail.’
‘When you went to the toilet in the café, you confirmed the hit on me.’
‘It wasn’t a hit,’ she sighed. ‘I’d already confirmed I had you when I saw you heading to the safe house. I made a call in the café, but only to set the timer.’
I felt a little foolish for having been so easily snared. But it had worked out in my favour in the end. Based on everything
I’d seen and heard, much of what Mary had already told me about Chris, about the situation, seemed to be true. She’d lied to me, had tried to snatch me, but I still sensed that her intentions were good. And that she’d seen some good in me.
‘Did you know them?’ I asked. ‘The two men in the café, I mean.’
‘No,’ she said.
I heard a whistle from the platform edge and a moment later the train began to slowly crawl out of the station. We passed the two policemen, who were now strolling back down the platform, towards where we’d boarded the train. They didn’t look up at all as we passed. Clearly they hadn’t been on the lookout for me or anyone else in particular after all.
In any case I knew the real threat was on the train. Time was on my side, though. I had forty hours to decide whether or not to confront Chris and his companion on the train, or wait for Moscow. That was unless they came to me first.
‘So what do we do now?’ Mary said.
‘We wait,’ I said.
‘They’ll be expecting to hear from me, back at the ranch. It won’t take them long to figure that something’s gone wrong.’
‘Yeah well, how are you going to call them now?’
I’d already taken Mary’s phone to pieces and dumped it at the station. No point in giving the JIA the chance of tracing our position. Though I had to assume they would guess we were headed to Moscow – they had told Mary to follow Chris onto the train after all.
‘So you’re kidnapping me now? Is that what this is?’
‘Why do you feel so threatened by me?’ I said.
She laughed sarcastically. ‘Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you just felled two people who were trying to help you and dragged me onto this train against my will.’
‘I’m not kidnapping you. And it’s not against your will. You said yourself you were going to be on this train anyway, spying on Chris. I’m just trying to find out what the hell is going on. You were the one who spoke out to me about Chris. I know you have your orders, but I think deep down you want my help. And I could do with yours.’
‘You really do think you know a lot about me,’ she scoffed.
‘Let’s just drop it for a bit,’ I sighed.
‘No, Logan, I don’t want to drop it.’
I was tiring of the barbed conversation. The to and fro. I sat up in the chair, leaned over to her.
‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ I snarled. ‘This is my life we’re dealing with. It’s not just a fun assignment, spending a few months all expenses paid, acting out my childhood fantasies from watching too much TV. You can’t even begin to understand what I went through while you sat in your hotel room eating room service. And look how it’s turned out. My own people don’t trust me, have sent people to kill me. The Russians have set me up for murder. Meanwhile one of our agents has gone rogue and I’d bet my life that fits into this somehow. So you’ll pardon me if I don’t empathise with your position right now.’
She didn’t have a response to that. She looked out the window. I sat back in my chair.
Neither of us spoke for the next couple of hours. The initial anxiety I’d felt at spotting Chris subsided. It looked like he hadn’t spotted us on the platform after all.
I watched out of the window as we sped through endless frozen forests and steppes. Once darkness descended, though, I couldn’t see a thing. No lights outside, no roads or towns or villages to break up the black. The sky had also clouded over, a sign that snow was probably on the way, and so there was little by way of moonlight even. A feeling of isolation began to creep back around me. Even though in
contrast to the previous night I would tonight be warm and in company, it seemed that my predicament hadn’t really eased much.
Mary was now lying down, but she was still awake. She had been staring at the ceiling above her, barely blinking.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ Mary said. ‘About what Chris is doing on here.’
‘And?’
‘Well, there must be some sort of rendezvous taking place in Moscow, don’t you think?’
‘Could be. Or he could just be heading home or into hiding. We don’t really know what damage he’s done yet. If anything at all.’
‘True. But the plan’s to follow them, right? When we get to Moscow.’
‘I guess so,’ I said, though I hadn’t ruled out just confronting him on the train and being done with it. It would be one less thing to worry about.
‘I think we should follow them.’
‘I think we should take it in turns to get some sleep,’ I said to her, changing the subject. ‘May as well take the chance to rest.’
‘I’m not tired,’ she said.
‘Suit yourself.’
I closed my eyes and was off within seconds.