Chapter 2
The room went dead silent. Somewhere distant, I could hear the whirring of an air system. A phone was ringing. But it was as if the people within these four walls had become frozen in a separate dimension.
One where monsters like Mikhaylo had the power to destroy lives.
Kale spoke first. “There are no known photos of Mikhaylo Vladamir Krushny on file. In any organization.”
My gaze went back to the monitor. I could almost look at him without flinching now. Now that I knew he was there. Now that I had reassured myself that he could not spring, banshee-like, through the glass to destroy me. To destroy all I held so dear.
I stated, “We have some now. What other views are there?”
Marcia’s eyes immediately went to the pad in her hands.
Click.
Alex was alongside me now, and it took all my strength not to press up against him. To stand stock still while I took in the closer view of Mikhaylo. The man almost looked like a normal human being. Almost seemed average height, with a muscular build which could have spoken to a fondness for soccer or rugby.
I knew better. I knew the evil he enjoyed inflicting on others.
I said, “Again.”
Click.
I fell back a step. His gaze was full-on at the camera. I could see the scar now. The jagged scar that traced along his neck.
I growled, “Olga gave him that scar.”
All eyes went to the screen.
My throat was closing up again. “He had this way. This was of ferreting out what a person hated most in life. What they feared. And then he would wriggle his poison down that route.”
I waved a hand. “Olga had a fear of dogs. She had been attacked by one as a child. And so he made sure there were guard dogs in the rooms where she had to service her men. Dogs which would growl. Snap. And as she broke down, as her defenses crumbled, he would escalate. Two dogs. Meaner dogs. Dogs which had to be held back on stout chains.”
My hands were shaking now, but I could not take my eyes off the man. Off that scar.
“It amused him to watch the later stages of his psychological tortures. He set up a bed in one of his warehouses and he had four dogs on chains, each barely stopping at the bed’s edge. And then he had his soldiers come in to user her. With the dogs growling and snapping. She pleaded for him to stop. To take the dogs away. But he just laughed. He laughed and laughed.”
My throat was dry.
“There was a bottle of Khortitsa on a table. She dove for it. Smashed it on the table’s edge. And then she drove it right at his face. She had gone insane. Wholly, completely out of her mind. She carved that one twisting wound before they had her pinned to the ground.”
I looked into his eyes. His soulless, depraved, evil eyes devoid of any humanity.
Kale asked, “What happened to Olga?”
My breath left me. “She died.”
Alex said, “I’m so sorry, Nadiya.”
I shook my head. “Her death was a blessing. A joyful, sacred blessing. Because for three months, for three long, agonizing, heart-rending months, Olga was brutalized. She was made an example of, day and night, every minute of every hour. She went far beyond sanity. Far beyond thought. Her existence was solely excruciating pain. And he was there for all of it. He directed and participated in every moment of it. If he had been a monster before that event, after he became a demon. A demon of the lowest levels of Hell.”
The fan whirred.
At last Marcia spoke. “I’ll track down all the photos and mark them as –”
I snapped, “No. Don’t mark anything. Don’t email or sort or text or catalogue or anything. Not one item.”
Now all eyes were on me again.
I slowly shook my head. “The man is a ghost. A wraith. He has survived this long because he has fingers everywhere. My guess is he had ordered the cameras to be under repair for the day and someone failed him. That someone is now undoubtedly dead. So his next plan is to assume he goes unidentified and that the photos merely become part of the massive data warehouse which is our government’s monitoring system. The moment we single out any of those photos – in any way – he will take action. The police systems here will be hacked. Servers destroyed. He has that kind of reach.”
Kale said, calmly, “I assume you do want to figure out where he is.”
“I’ll know that soon enough.”
Alex nudged his head toward my phone. “That call she made earlier, the one in Ukrainian. She set the ball in motion.”
Kale waved a hand toward the screen. “But surely, while we are waiting for your friends to figure that information out –”
My phone rang.
I brought it to my ear.
Laryssa said, “He’ll be at the Kalinikov Club tonight. 9:30pm.”
“Nobody is to approach him. Nobody. I’ll have Alex and Mark go in at nine and set the scene. You can have a few people in for backup. But nobody spooks him. Nobody disturbs him. And when I leave with him, no trackers. No trailers. I don’t want anything to go wrong here. I’ll carry a USB drive and I’ll find a way to use it, when we get to our destination. Understand?”
Laryssa’s voice held concern, but she didn’t argue. “I understand. Be careful.”
“For Olga.”
“For Olga.”
I hung up.
Alex had his gaze on me. His look was serious. “Where are Mark and I going?”
“The Kalinikov Club. 9pm. Dress high end. There needs to be a reason I single you out. You’ll be the Kiev businessman. Mark can be your target. Flirt with the girls – when I come in it’ll give me credibility when they scatter. And then I’ll hook you.”
His eyes shone with attention. He nodded.
I glanced at Mark. “When I’m sure we’re being observed, and the timing is right, I’ll take a break to use the bathroom. That’s when Mark will lay his hands on me, saying it’s his turn.”
Mark glanced at Alex.
Alex said, “I’ll explain it later.”
My brow creased – and then I realized I was speaking in Ukrainian again. I had switched over automatically when Laryssa had called back.
I gave up on worrying about it.
I continued to Alex, “The sight of Mark laying hands on me? Those men are avowed white nationalists. That’ll get their full attention. And it should be easy after that for me to join their party. For me to get them to take me to wherever it is they’ve set up their base of operations.”
He glanced around. “Then we’ll need tracking devices, GPS units –”
“No.”
His eyebrow raised. “No?”
“This man has detection equipment the likes you’ve never heard of. And he’ll spot any tail. These men are experts. There will be no trackers. No units. No nothing. We do this the old fashioned way. I go in, he takes me, and then I get out again.”
Tension lined his jaw. “Nadiya –”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Swear it to me.”
He held my gaze …
He nodded. “I will swear, if you will swear something to me.”
I eyed him with trepidation. “Swear what?”
He glanced over at Mark, Kale, and then rest. And then he looked back to me. “Nadiya, I realize how much you must hate this man. But I swore an oath. We all did. We are not assassins. We need to focus on taking him in. Alive.”
My eyes stayed on his. “Done.”
His brow creased in concern. “You’re willing to do that?”
“Absolutely. I don’t want him to escape justice that quickly. You know what his worst nightmare is? Losing control. Not being able to set every last detail of his world around him. If he went to a maximum security prison? Where others controlled when he woke up? What he ate? What he wore?”
My gaze hardened. “That would be torture for him. Agonizing torture, every single minute of every single hour of every single day.”
He looked at me for a long, long minute.
At last he nodded. “Then we have a deal.”
I put a hand to the side of his face. I knew how hard this was for him, to send me off alone. I knew the ache of wanting to do something – anything – to help. Instead, he would have to trust me.
To believe in me.
I gave him a small smile. “I’ll see you at ten.”
I ran my thumb down that strong, determined jaw. I looked into those steady eyes.
I turned and walked out the door.