| "Darkness" | ||
|
Club Samovar May 9th, 2008, 2012 hours Lima Time He entered the corridor on the fourth floor and made his way to the Poker room. There were several people milling around, most of them guards, but a few were staff, and they didn't seem to have much of a purpose about them. That struck him as being odd; they must have jobs to do, so why hang round up here? It didn't make much sense until he reminded himself that he had a job in the club, yet he was still up here. He didn't fear for the planned event in the night; the people walking around him now would not interfere with whatever the CIA had planned, it just wasn't possible. They wouldn't use an action without fully understanding the nature of the action and the situation it was to be used in. This environment wasn't ideal for an assault; there were too many doors and rooms, places for people to conceal themselves. No, whatever they had planned tonight would take into account the presence of people up here. If they were really smart, he thought, they would wait until after midnight. That was the time when the only people on the floor where the guards, and they stayed in the Security Room. Yes, he thought, they will attack after midnight. He was quite sure that it would be an assault, and he was as certain as he could be that the target was Alexei. Had the man really pissed off that many people? Nikolai had his own reasons for wanting to kill him, and even if they weren't justified there were plenty of other reasons that were. One thing did play on his mind though, and that was the fact that the CIA was meddling in his country's affairs, taking out a Russian citizen. That the Russian in question was being tracked by the SVR and now the RGZS was beside the point. The fact remained that the Americans were planning to kill a Russian. If the RGZS were to do this with an American citizen he was sure that they would intervene. The world was full of many double standards, but this one of the ones that really grated him. He often found the Americans to be arrogant, and he just hoped that the case would not apply to tonight. The last thing he needed was to see them perform another show of might by using Alexei to make a statement. If it came to that he was not sure he would be able to control himself, he would have to intervene. He would have to make sure he wasn't playing DJ when it all went down, though he knew that was beyond his control. He spent the next few hours earning himself some money, easily beating those he was playing against. It was almost as if he couldn't be bothered to play properly; he didn't even try to play mind games with his opponents, he just simply played the cards as they appeared, and he seemed to be in a lucky mood tonight as the cards were usually in his favor. After winning yet another pot he decided to leave. He told the men that he was going to be playing soon, so he had to go and get set up. Leaving the room was like leaving part of him behind, the part being Yevgeniy Ivanovich Zakharov. As soon as he walked out he became Ruzhyo, a man who none who had been his target had ever lived long enough to disclose his identity, a man who knew that he would prevail whatever the situation. Those who looked at him saw only Zakharov the DJ; they would never know how close Death had been to them. He made his way down to the dance floor, surveying what he was sure would be his last crowd, at least in this club. The masses of smiling faces did nothing to quell his burning desire to lash out at his demons, to remove every last breath from their vile bodies. He pictured the corpses in his mind and smiled at the image, certain that it would come true soon enough. First, he had to deal with Alexei. More accurately, he had to entertain the crowd first. Once he had done that he would seek out Alexei, and if things worked his way he would take his life. He just had to make sure the CIA didn't beat him to it. This was the thought he had as he stepped up into the DJ booth for his last set. Club Samovar May 10th, 2008, 0207 hours Lima Time As the sounds of Lovebug slowly faded away he heard the crowd showing their appreciation for another great set, but Nikolai knew that it was far from his best. His mind was elsewhere, and though he tried to focus on the task at hand he found he couldn't, the anger was rising faster than he could control it. He had never found himself in this situation and he worried about what he was becoming. It was almost as if a transformation was taking place, and it had all began with the return of his demons, which in turn had been reawakened with the introduction of one Alexei Pavelevich Konstantin. If he believed in fate then he would have taken this mission in his stride, but he didn't, and so he found himself searching for answers which he knew he would never find no matter how hard he looked. All he could do to keep peace with himself was to concentrate on what he was going to do, but even that became too difficult. He felt arms on him, and after turning round he found himself being greeted by the faces of Maksim and Olesya. They had seen him change before their very eyes and now stood by him, hoping to find an explanation for what they had just seen. Instead he shook his head and smiled wanly. The three of them sat down on at one of the tables, absently talking about trivial things, none of them saying anything to compromise themselves. To anyone who might have been watching they were just a group of friends having a drink together. This continued for another half hour before Maksim leaned in close to Nikolai's ear. "It's quarter to three. I don't think its happening to night, they wouldn't leave it this late. Something must have come up, and the hit cancelled. If our cover has been blown then the longer we stay here the more danger we put ourselves in." Nikolai just stared at him. "Come on, I think its time to go," Maksim said. Olesya nodded her head in agreement, and the two began to rise but stopped when they realized Nikolai wasn't moving. "I'm staying till closing," he told them. "Why?" Olesya asked. "Just in case." They knew he wasn't going to change his mind, so they didn't even attempt to. Instead they handed over the small pad containing the communications gear they had used on their first mission. He had already removed his pistol from the record box at the start of his set, so he said goodbye to his teammates and set about extracting the two `sequins' from the black pad and placing them in the correct place; one on the lip and one in the ear. "Ruzhyo in place," he said as he looked down at the floor, preventing the security cameras from seeing that he wasn't talking to anyone near him. There was no crackle as the whole thing was digital. "Mainstay here, how can I help you?" Lisovsky asked all the way from Russia. "Patch me into the security radio frequency used by the guards here," Nikolai requested. "OK, give me a second," was the reply. After a few seconds and a couple of beeps he heard Lisovsky say, "Putting you in now." The change was very noticeable; despite his gear being digital he still heard crackles, and it took him a second to work out that it was due to the fact that the radios used by the guards were analog, hence the lack of digital clarity. "�ing nice," he heard one of the guards say on the radio. "Very nice. Nice tits," was the reply. It was nice to hear Russian voices again, even if they were describing the physical attributes of a female in such crude terms. He listened to the conversation for the next ten minutes, assigning names to the voices he heard. There were at least ten guards on duty tonight as he heard ten different voices, but he was sure there would be more. He wondered if there was an extra security presence on the fifth floor, seeing as it was Alexei's private pad. The more he thought about it the more it made sense. It also worried him when he realized that it might cause complications with the CIA hit, if it were to ever materialize. He looked at his watch and saw that it was very nearly three in the morning. The club would be shutting shortly, and he had better start making his way back to the hotel if he was to get any sleep at all. He stood and began walking towards the exit when he heard excited chatter on the radio frequency. "It's not responding at all. Priority One! Get people up here NOW!" Nikolai didn't hesitate; he pushed off with his left foot and began moving purposefully towards the elevator to get to the floors above. He was still listening to the guards shouting on the radio, and he managed to hear one of them say that they were on the fourth floor, so that was the button he pressed when he entered elevator. The short vertical trip seemed to take forever, but by the time the doors opened the man the Americans would call The Rifle if they knew about him was already fully prepared. He saw movement off to the left, turned, assessed, then shoot. There was hardly any sound at all; the silencer had worked flawlessly, and the loudest sound came from the guard himself as he moaned once then fell to the floor, two bullets lodged in his heart. Usually Nikolai would have taken a headshot � he knew he could kill every guard here with one bullet to the head � but his anger got the better of him, and so he decided to let them feel a little pain before he dispatched them. The moan of the now dead guard attracted another to his rescue, and this one managed to get three shots off as Nikolai calmly stared him down, easily maneuvering out of the firing line before lining up his shot so fast that all the guard saw was a rapidly rising blur before he felt the impact of the bullet crash into his chest, killing him.His eyes focused on yet another guard, this one running straight at him. He must have been hidden behind the recently removed guard, Nikolai thought. Never mind. His next thought was, It's your lucky day. Taking a quick step to the left as the guard rushed him, Nikolai spun the pistol round in his hand until he was holding the barrel, then forcefully pistol-whipped his attacker, knocking him to the ground, unconscious. His eyes caught yet more movement, but he saw quickly enough that it wasn't another guard. The person was dressed like a covert operations soldier, a fact that immediately irked him. Not CIA, his mind reported. Fuck, what was this? He knew the CIA occasionally executed operations such as this but he also knew they did not have a dedicated team tasked with carrying out such missions; they used people from covert military units. Is that who you are? he asked the person in his mind before he realized he recognized them. He lowered his weapon and Trouble replied in kind. It was the eyes that had given her away, not covered by the mask she was wearing. In truth it was the fact that she had a mask on which made it easier for him to identify her, seeing as it forced him to look at her eyes, as they were the only things visible. She closed the gap to within a foot of him, her eyes flicking back and forth between his, and in that instance he realized he had misjudged her completely despite all of his training, and that worried him. How could she have ever thrown him so effectively? That thought caused him to reevaluate her yet again, and this time he was unsure if she was even military. Could she be something else, something he had never encountered before? It was certainly possible, and extremely fascinating. The anger that had raged inside him the past couple of days now found that it had a challenger in the form of intrigue to occupy Nikolai's thoughts. The two fought briefly. It was an even contest until he locked his eyes onto hers, and though it was only for the briefest of moments he saw something which brought him closer to her and pushed him away in the same instance. He could see she had her own demons, and this caused his to return, tipping the balance in favor of anger. The sound of a door opening somewhere behind him didn't cause for him to move his gaze away from her. There were clearly questions from both of them that needed answering, but now was not the time. "Go, I'll cover you," he told her, and she did, turning her attention to the two other people still alive in the hallway. As he looked at them he recognized the one who was unconscious as the woman he had tailed in Moscow. Was she a part of this? he wondered. Before he could think further he heard footsteps approaching his position, and he turned and moved to meet them. He saw three more guards moving cautiously along the corridor. He shot the closest one twice: once in the groin and once in the heart. The man fell to the floor with a heavy thump which distracted the other two momentarily. Nikolai seized his opportunity to turn and watch the departing trio and was rewarded with a nod from Trouble. Turning back to face the guards he decided it would be best if he left the club as soon as possible. Both guards fell to single shots to the head as Nikolai made his way towards the fifth floor. He moved quickly, searching the rooms, and before long he found the body of Alexei Pavelevich Konstantin. The chance to appease his demons had been lost, and he knew instantly what he would have to do, already formulating a way of doing it. In the meantime he would have to disappear, and that was what he did next, moving swiftly back towards the fourth floor. There he met another three guards, all of them dead within a second. He traversed the corridor and ended up at the back of the building, where he located and removed the sniffer he had placed for the CIA. Now it was time to go. Return |
||