Chapter 23
Alex clutched at the back of his head, which still hurt like a sonofabitch. He’d caught Ian doing the same thing a few times, but neither of them was about to complain about their respective smashing headaches and be the weaker man.
“Any minute, now,” Ian muttered.
The two of them were watching the FBI SWAT team make final preparations to assault the warehouse Katie and Dawn were being held in.
When he’d woken up on the ground with a paramedic crouching over him, his first question had been if the police had I.D.ed the shooters. As soon as he’d heard that several Russian nationals were among the dead, he’d known.
Alex had been the one to give the FBI Natasha’s name and phone number. It hadn’t taken the bureau any longer than the CIA’s call with her to pinpoint her location.
She always did like to live beyond her means. A superficial look at her finances had apparently shown her to be deep in debt and abruptly the recipient of regular, large cash infusions to her bank account staring about a year ago.
The FBI trace of the fund’s source petered out in Cyprus, a favorite banking center of both the Russian mob and the more clandestine elements of the Russian government.
The FBI couldn’t prove conclusively that she was on the FSB payroll, but she was definitely in bed with someone who was. Alex mentally rolled his eyes. She was one hooker who genuinely enjoyed her job. A natural slut who’d parlayed her proclivities into a nice life for herself. Although, that house of cards was seconds from tumbling down around her.
The SWAT team fanned out around the warehouse, approaching it stealthily. They’d already finished spotting and taking out the lookouts who’d been ranged around the warehouse. Natasha’s men, no doubt. The bitch was nothing if not cautious.
The SWAT team froze all of a sudden…and then turned around and ran full out away from the warehouse. What the hell?
Without warning, a lot of black-clad figures rose up on the roof of the warehouse, swung over the side on short lines and crashed through the high windows of the warehouse. More popped up and started shooting at the FBI team below.
Thankfully, the SWAT guys were wearing full body armor and seemed unscathed as they dived for cover and commenced firing back at the unexpected targets.
More shots were fired…and they came from inside the warehouse.
Alex’s heart dropped to his feet and he lurched forward. Something big and heavy slammed into his back, knocking him to the ground.
“Stay out of this,” Ian growled in his ear.
“Get off me! They’re shooting in there!”
“She’s my sister, too.” Ian ground out. “But you’d be in the way. Let the pros do their job.”
“Who the fuck are they?” he whispered urgently to Mike, who was wearing a headset beside him.
“SWAT doesn’t know who’s on the roof. FBI’s reporting incoming high-caliber rounds delivered with sniper-like accuracy, though.”
Alex bit out reluctantly, “Any chance my old man’s people got here first?”
Ian showed the white of his eyes over that prospect and he muttered into his headset hastily borrowed from the SWAT supervisors, “It’s possible those are Russian Spetznatz troops.”
To Alex he said, “All the more reason to proceed with caution. They’re badass mo’ fo’s.”
Alex swore and pulled out his cell phone. He punched in the country code for Russia and city code for Moscow. He dialed the number and jammed the phone to his ear.
Without bothering to say hello, he said, “Tell me those aren’t your guys on top of that warehouse.”
“Hello, son. Good…morning, your time. To what do I owe the honor of a call from you?”
“You know damned well why I’m calling you.”
“Did you lose your family again ?” Roman asked solicitously.
“What do you want?” Alex ground out.
“Whatever do you mean?” Roman asked blandly.
“Don’t fuck with me. Name your price for calling off your goons.”
“They are not my goons,” Roman snapped, abruptly all business. “They belong to General Shermayev and his flunkies over at the Ministry of Defense.”
Alex frowned. Shermayev was a notable hawk within the Russian regime. An extreme neo-con and zealous patriot who believed Mother Russia was well overdue for a return to the glory days of the USSR. “What the hell does Shermayev have to do with this?”
“I’m sure I don’t know—” Roman started.
“Don’t lie to me. What’s Katie to Shermayev and his cronies?”
“It’s not the girl he wants. It’s the baby.”
Alex’s blood literally ran cold. “Because she’s got uranium in her system,” he stated. “She’s the only surviving proof of what Shermayev’s goons were up to in the Karshan Valley.”
“Well done, my son, to have put that together on your own.”
“I need you to call off the Spetznatz team. Right now.”
“What will you do for me in return?” Roman asked slyly.
“Whatever you want,” Alex bit out in furious desperation as the gunfight raged in front of him.
“You love this girl?”
“Yes, dammit!” he all but shouted into the phone.
“Well, then. If you will hang up and allow me to make a phone call, I’ll see what I can do. I might be owed a few favors from Shermayev’s superiors.”
Alex stared at his abruptly disconnected phone. The only men superior to the Russian Minister of Defense were the President and Prime Minister, themselves. Crap, this was going to cost him huge. He didn’t even want to think about what Roman would demand in return. Not that Alex would hesitate to pay the price. Katie and Dawn were in there, and God willing, still alive.
He started to pray under his breath to a God he wasn’t even sure existed. But he would do anything, anything , to keep his girls safe.
In about two minutes, the gunfire stopped as abruptly as it started. Turned off all at once like a switch had been flipped The silence was eerie. Heavy. Ominous with the threat of violence about to erupt again at any second.
Alex’s cell phone rang and he snatched it to his ear. “Yes?” he bit out.
“Charles McCloud, here. Any idea why those Russians just stopped shooting at us all of a sudden?”
“I called my father. Asked him to pull strings.”
“Christ, Alex. Roman Koronov is involved in this?”
“He says those are Shermayev’s men. My father went over the general’s head.”
“Jesus. What did you have to promise him to get him to do that?”
Alex closed his eyes in chagrin. “The sun and the moon and the stars.”
McCloud made a low sound of dismay and sympathy. “FBI’s not sure how to proceed from here. Their hostage negotiators want to settle in for a nice, long stalemate. SWAT wants to ends this thing now on the assumption that Katie might be shot inside--.” The unspoken end to that sentence hung between them. She might be shot inside and dying .
Alex pinched the bridge of his nose as stress pounded through his head. “If that Spetznatz team had orders to kill Katie, she’s already—“ he gulped, “—beyond medical help. If they did not have orders to kill her, I expect not a hair on her head has been harmed.”
“Stalemate it is, then,” McCloud said briskly.
Alex pocketed his phone thoughtfully. It was decent of the man to give him a vote in how they proceeded next. Either that, or it had been a quiz. A test to see if he could think logically under the worst possible pressure. Christ, his father had raised himself a cynical son.
Hang on, Katie .
Katie ducked and Dawn screamed as a shootout erupted around them. Taped into the chair, Katie fought against the duct tape to lean her body over Dawn’s, to create a physical shield around the infant. Bullets flew around her, passing so close she felt the rush of their flight as a burst of air against her skin. Natasha’s men fired like madmen at the invaders, spraying lead in a deadly shower.
The black clad forms were at a disadvantage coming in on ropes from above and the mobsters observed no rules of combat etiquette, mowing the intruders down with merciless aggression.
The gunfire inside the space fell silent. A half-dozen bodies hung, bloody and macabre, from their ropes. Dawn took a deep breath and shouted at the top of her lungs, and Katie felt like doing the same as she unwrapped herself slowly from around the infant.
Two of Natasha’s men were down and both looked dead if the giant pools of blood around them were any indication. The third guy was swearing up a storm in the corner and hanging on to his leg like it was about to jump up and run away from him.
The vignette stabilized as no more crises were forthcoming. Time resumed its normal course. The injured man’s howls subsided to low moans. Even Dawn quit yelling. Maybe she sensed the deep, waiting settling over the place, too.
Perhaps the longest minute in history passed with only the rhythmic sound of blood dripping from the hanging corpses disturbing the quiet.
Two more of Natasha’s men emerged cautiously from the office, AK-47’s at the ready. They scanned the destroyed windows and crab-stepped to their fallen comrades. One of them knelt and tore off the shot guy’s pant leg and used it to bind his wound The shot guy howled even louder than Dawn.
Last of all, Natasha peered out of the office, her gaze finally coming to rest on Katie. “Who in hell are you?” she breathed.
In the tomb-like silence, her voice carried easily to Katie, who replied, “I’m a nurse…with friends.”
“And with fucking enemies,” one of Natasha’s men growled from beside the lowest hanging body on the ropes. He gestured at the limp corpse and spat out, “Spetznatz.”
Natasha sagged against the doorframe. Katie didn’t hear the words, but she saw the woman mouth the words, “I’m so screwed.”
Everyone jumped as Natasha’s cell phone rang. The woman put it to her ear and didn’t bother to speak. She listened in silence and, woodenly, disconnected the call.
“FBI?” Katie asked sympathetically.
Natasha stared over at her emotionlessly. “They want to send in a doctor to make sure you and the kid are unhurt and not in need of medical care.”
“Have them bring in some clean diapers and a couple of bottles,” Katie suggested lightly. Her heart leaped. If the FBI was outside, then her and Dawn’s odds of surviving had just gone up mightily.
Are you out there, Alex?
Katie held her breath as the wrangling over conditions under which a doctor would be allowed to visit were hammered out between Natasha and the FBI. Why the woman didn’t just give up and throw in the towel, Katie couldn’t fathom. But the Russian woman held out, negotiated like a shark, giving up each inch grudgingly.
If Katie weren’t certain that a hundred armed FBI agents had this place surrounded, she would guess the woman was closing a tough real estate deal, given how Natasha was haggling.
But at long last, an agreement was reached. And none too soon. Dawn’s diaper felt like a full water balloon, and the baby was hungry and mad in no uncertain terms.
A slash of sunlight cut across the floor of the warehouse as a small side door opened to admit a large profile. The doctor stood patiently while Natasha’s man frisked him and searched his medical bag. The visitor walked forward slowly.
Katie was shocked to recognize the face. André Fortinay ! She wasn’t sure she should show recognition of him, so she followed his lead and nodded formally at him as he approached.
“Miss McCloud?” he asked loudly enough for Natasha and her men to hear.
“That’s me.”
“I’m Doctor Fortinay. I’m here to make sure you and the baby are unhurt and render any medical assistance you might need. Have either of you been shot or in any way injured?”
“Not to my knowledge,” Katie replied.
“Would you mind if I examined the two of you and ascertain that for myself? It was agreed upon that I would do so.”
Katie nodded and held Dawn out to the man. What she wouldn’t give for him to turn around and carry the baby out of here to safety! Of course, her own life wouldn’t be worth a plug nickel after that. She had no value to anyone. Apparently, all this insanity was about the baby.
“Are Alex and my brother okay?” she asked low and urgent.
“Yes.”
She sagged in relief as Natasha yelled and charged toward them. “No talking!” the Russian woman shouted.
Katie’s boss unwrapped Dawn’s blanket, while the Russian woman looked on angrily from a range of about a dozen feet. The brief examination only made the irritable baby more annoyed. Her whole tiny body was flushed and vibrating with anger. “Excellent lungs,” he commented dryly.
He reached out and laid his hand on the infant’s tummy, but from behind him, Natasha barked, “No physical contact! That was the deal.”
Dr Fortinay glanced up and removed his hand. Katie was startled to see that in his palm, he had lifted away the small, desiccated remnant of Dawn’s umbilical cord, which had been about ready to fall off, anyway. On cue, Dawn howled anew.
Poor sweetie. She’d been through so much in her short life. Katie just wanted to get her home and surround her in safety and calm for the next eighteen years or so.
Doctor Fortinay reached into his medical bag and came up with a baby bottle. He held the bottle out to the baby who latched onto it angrily and sucked furiously.
He passed Katie a stack of disposable diapers as well. “I believe these were also part of the agreement,” he said loudly enough for Natasha to hear clearly.
Katie took them in abject gratitude. “You don’t happen to have any diapers for me, do you? I’m getting pretty desperate for a potty break, myself.”
Fortinay looked up at Natasha. “Surely, your hostage is allowed to relieve herself?”
“She goes nowhere.”
The doctor replied smoothly, “How about I serve as hostage in her place while you escort her to the restroom?”
Natasha considered that for a moment and then nodded briefly. She gestured one of her goons over to Katie’s chair.
He used a big knife to cut the duct tape behind the chair and at her ankles. He nicked her right ankle and she felt a warm trickle of blood there. But her bladder was so uncomfortable, she barely noticed the inconvenience.
She stood up, her entire body stiff. She passed Dawn to the doctor, who sat down on the chair and continued feeding the infant her bottle.
The gunman herded Katie to the office and Natasha took over, pointing her pistol at Katie. The woman insisted on watching Katie pee, which was embarrassing in the extreme, but was still better than the alternative. The relief was exquisite.
Natasha waved her pistol impatiently, and Katie hurried back to the doctor and Dawn. She resumed her place in the chair and was duly taped back down. Fortinay handed her Dawn, who was also wearing a clean diaper now. The old one had disappeared into his bag.
“Be patient, Miss McCloud. A lot of people are working very hard to bring this situation to a safe resolution.”
“Shut up!” Natasha yelled from across the warehouse.
Fortinay retreated and the waiting resumed. What an earth was going on out there? Her relief at knowing Alex and Ian were okay was boundless. But soon enough, it was replaced by new anxiety. Both men had to be going crazy.
Please let them not do anything stupid and get themselves hurt or killed on her account. Hang on, Alex. Be patient .
Alex rushed forward when Fortinay emerged from the warehouse. “Are they all right?” he asked the doctor urgently.
“They’re fine. The baby is much happier now that she has a fresh diaper and a full belly. I talked the woman into letting Miss McCloud use the restroom, and Katie seemed better after that.”
The FBI took over questioning Fortinay closely on every detail of the building’s interior, the number of men, their weaponry, and a thousand other details. Alex stepped back to let them do their job, his relief literally making his knees weak.
Katie and Dawn were alive. Unharmed. That Spetznatz team hadn’t been a death squad, after all. At least not directly. No doubt their orders were to kidnap Dawn and remove her from the building, dead or alive.
He looked up and was in time to see a diaper emerge form Fortinay’s bag along with something wrapped in gauze. A technician took both and the guy was hustled away into a police car that drove away fast.
He made his way over to Fortinay. “What’s up with the diaper? Is something wrong with Dawn?”
The man shook his head. “Baby’s fine. I got her umbilical stump, too. That and the diaper are en route to a lab in New York City for immediate analysis.”
Alex stared at the man. “And who, exactly, funds your organization?”
“What ever do you mean?” the Frenchman asked mildly.
“Who are you guys? CIA?”
“What makes you think that?” Fortinay asked a little more sharply.
“Why else would my father ask me to steal your staff roster and a list of where all your people are posted around the world? Katie did get word to you about that, didn’t she?”
Fortinay’s mouth twitched with humor. “It wasn’t nice of you to use her as a mule to carry your message to me, like that.”
Alex shrugged, relieved. “Never make the mistake of underestimating my father.”
“Did he call off the goons up there?” Fortinay glanced at the roof of the warehouse with the Spetznatz team still camped out on the roof, out of sight and quiet for the moment.
Alex nodded tersely.
“Did you know when you came to work for us?” Fortinay asked casually. Too casually.
“I suspected.”
“Why did you take the job?”
“Allowed me to throw my hat in with the good guys without freaking out my old man. Of course, he figured it out soon enough.”
“And here we thought we were being all clever and stealthy, drawing you in without you having any idea what we were up to.”
“We? Is Charles McCloud in on this by any chance?” Alex asked quickly.
Fortinay pursed his lips and declined to answer, which Alex would take as a yes. He blurted in dismay, “And Katie? Was she in on it?”
“No.” Quick. Firm. No hesitation. Fortinay wasn’t lying.
Thank God .
Katie had been telling him the truth. Although he supposed in his heart he already knew that. She was too open a soul, too warm a person, for everything that had happened between them to be a lie.
Patience, Katie. Be smart and come back to me alive and well .
After the visit by André Fortinay, Natasha’s phone went silent. No more calls. No more negotiations. The Russian woman got antsy, and then started to fret. She paced inside the office, muttering loudly enough to herself in Russian to be heard out in the main warehouse.
Katie watched the woman warily. What was going on? Why the long silence from outside? She hoped the FBI negotiator was just icing Natasha.
She felt some sort of crisis building. But what it could be, she had no idea. She knew from hearing her dad and brothers talk over the years that hostage situations usually dragged on for hours and hours. The negotiators would wear down Natasha. Exhaust her, or even starve her, into surrendering.
But why the sudden uptick in tension? Was it just her own paranoia?
She remembered Alex’s words vividly. It’s not paranoia if someone really is chasing you.
Where are you Alex? What’s going on?
Fortinay must have called Charles McCloud, because Alex’s phone rang sometime later. His watch said nearly two hours had passed since the doctor’s visit to Katie. His nerves were stretched to the breaking point, and Alex generally prided himself on having nerves of steel.
“Alex? Charles McCloud.”
“Any news?”
“Yes, in fact. I thought you might want to be the first to know that the results are back on the baby’s blood and urine samples. We have the proof we need to show that uranium mining was going on in the Karshan Valley. The POTUS will be calling Moscow shortly.”
The President of the United States was personally involved in this? Day-umm . “Time frame?” he asked tightly.
“Within the hour. We’re pulling together a talking paper for him as we speak. He’ll need to go over it with his advisors, first, of course. We’ll keep you informed.”
“Thanks.”
“Welcome aboard, Alex.”