14. 14 #3
“Are you going to be playing with electrical panels every time we do something like this?” I asked.
“It seems like it, doesn't it?”
Elias shut his flashlight off, privy to a noise I hadn’t heard. I hit the floor, behind the shelf between us, hoping to hide from whatever was coming our way. A beam of light shined through the small window on the door illuminating Elias’s face.
A man in a black three piece suit opened the door. His head was shaved, clean to the skin. “American?” His accent was thick.
“Who’s asking?” Elias held his hands in front of him, but he was hunched over, ready for anything. We were expecting the military, not whatever this was.
The bald man lunged for him, dropping his flashlight. Elias ducked, wrapped his arms around the man’s torso, and slammed him to the ground. The man’s legs circled around Elias’s abdomen, and he grabbed at Elias’s arms.
Elias delivered a few blows to the man’s side, catching him off guard. He groaned, the air leaving his lungs in a whoosh. After some scuffling, Elias flipped the man over his head, and he caught himself on his knees. Elias leapt on his back, pulling him back to the ground with him.
The flashlight lay abandoned near the door, the light bright enough for us all to see. I glanced at Misha who was leaning forward on his hands and knees now, watching intently. He seemed unsure as to what he should do, and was prepared to either lay down or take off in a sprint.
I thought about shooting the man, but the sound would draw Novikov to us.
Elias and the man weren’t exactly quiet, but their fight was nothing compared to the blast of a gun.
I held it in my hands and waited. If Elias was bested, if he was going to lose, then I’d shoot.
I chambered a round, just to be prepared.
He’d heard the metal snap. “No guns,” Elias grunted.
He was on top of the man now, sitting on his chest. It looked almost like he was hugging him.
The man’s arm was snug around his own throat, sticking out between them.
He was swinging his free arm, trying to hit Elias, but Elias had tucked his head on the opposite side of him.
The man stilled, but Elias didn’t let go immediately, not until he was sure.
“Here,” said Misha, holding out what looked to be wire.
Elias flipped the man over underneath him and grabbed the wire from Misha. “Good call.” He tied him like a hog. He leaned back on his heels, breathless.
I ran to him, better sense be damned. Falling to my knees next to him, I inspected him for injury. “What the fuck was that?”
Elias brushed me off, one of his arms patting my back. “A shittier version of me, I guess,” he breathed. “Better fashion sense, though.”
Misha snorted at Elias’s joke and I shot him a glare.
“I’m being serious.”
“I don’t know who that was.” He thought for a minute, his eyes glazing over. “Considering the context, I think that guy might have come to kill me.”
I huffed. “You’re a jackass.” I wondered what he was like when he was on his own and had no one to quip to. I had a feeling that he still said them, just to an empty room. I stood, leaving him on the floor by himself.
“I’m not scared of men in suits, Cassie. Mutated doctors are far more terrifying.” He held a hand out to me and I took it to pull him up, even if I didn’t want to. I needed him to feel the weight of what had just happened.
Another man ran into the room, the earlier scuffle apparently drawing his attention. Elias shoved me hard, and I fell backwards into the wall. His hand collided with my stomach so hard I began to choke.
My eyes were focused on Elias as I coughed, taking in the scene. This second man looked much the same, shaved head and suit, but this man was brandishing a knife. When it caught the light, Elias reached for his own and pulled it free from its place on his belt.
The man thrust his knife forward, but Elias hit his wrist out of the way before it made contact. “Sloppy,” he taunted. Elias kicked a leg out from underneath the man and he hit the ground, the knife clattering and falling from his hand. Misha ran out to pick it up.
Elias tackled him, holding his own knife to the man’s throat. “You should be ashamed. That was horrible.”
The man didn’t speak.
“What are you doing here?” Elias asked.
“Fuck you,” the man spat.
Elias laughed in his face, the blade of his knife pressing so tight against the man’s neck that it began to bleed. “You don’t get to play the tough guy after that performance. I might let you live, if you cooperate.”
“I’ll die if I speak.”
“Then clear your conscience because it looks like you’ll go either way.”
The man on the floor looked at Misha, looked at me. I had stopped coughing, but my eyes were wide and glossy. “We were told to kill the Americans.”
“I got that. Where did these orders come from?”
“My boss.”
Elias sighed. “Don’t piss me off. I could make it very painful for you.”
“Dr. Taylor.”
Fear was replaced with fury, a burning, blazing rage. He knew we were here, he knew we’d come to Russia.
I was going to kill him, but first, I was going to kill Novikov.