Epilogue
Underground facility, Yamantau
June 2019
While they waited for Miles to unveil the next plan, he said nothing. He placed the relics on the floor, looking at the distinctive features of each relic shaped like the god they were meant to represent.
“I can’t believe anyone would pay three million dollars for these,” Miles said.
“People believe in what they believe. It makes them gain some meaning out of what they do.”
“Is that a quote from someone?” Miles asked Kash.
“Yeah, Kashmoney H. Obie, the first.”
“Never heard of him,” Miles said with a straight face. He turned to Dean and the ladies. “Have any of you heard that name before?”
“Nah,” Dean and Nima chorused while Avi shook her head.
“Well, y’all are dumb.”
The ladies burst into laughter while Dean chuckled lightly.
Miles picked up one of the relics and smashed it on the floor. To their surprise, they found a nuclear reactor.
Miles smashed the other two, and the same things were found.
“Bored rich people.” Miles picked them up with a smirk on his face.
Security operatives had since doubled their presence around every exit point surrounding the perimeter of the facilities. Miles and his team avoided direct contact with anyone in white overalls. According to Miles, it was safer to answer questions of those from a different unit.
They waited behind the lab facility until the crowd at the entry had dispersed to other stations. They divided themselves.
“Avi, we might need you with us for security locks.” Miles left with the ladies while Dean and Kash went toward the storage.
Miles led the way to a red door as the ladies followed behind. Behind the red door were the control room and a vault that none of them had any idea of until they got inside. They bumped into someone in the same uniform, carrying a battery. It seemed like the man was more relieved than suspicious of the trio.
“Six-zero-four-five,” he muttered under his gas mask.
Nima and Avi nodded and closed the red door behind the man. The place was very chilly compared to the forty-five degrees Fahrenheit outside. The room had a chain of servers lined up in multiple compartments. Miles walked from one compartment to the other in search of the main control unit.
“I think this is the one.” Nima pointed at a compartment that had more room than the others.
While Miles entered the passcode, Nima leaned closer. She wanted to clear something up that had bothered her for a while.
“You know, I’ve been wondering…”
Miles turned to see if she was talking to him.
“Did you have any intention of returning for us?”
Miles turned to the computer. “Do you remember when I said we have one out of five chances of surviving the mission?”
“Um, yeah,” Nima responded.
Miles turned around with concern written on his face. “I’m sorry for the difficulties you guys had in there. I just...I was certain that the security agents wouldn’t kill anyone without trying to extract answers.”
“Sounds like a wildcard.”
Again, Miles paused. He sighed and turned to Nima.
“There was no way any of us could have penetrated this place without a convincing diversion. Trust me, many experts have tried, and their bodies have been dumped in a black hole a few yards from here. I’m sorry that my decision exposed you to a near-death situation. And to you too, Avi, I apologize.”
Avi nodded with a smile. Nima also patted Miles on his back to show that there was no grudge.
“Okay,” Miles said when the screen showed a red sphere at one side of a black background. “That’s the vault.”
They closed the page on the screen and followed the pattern earlier displayed to another compartment. Behind the compartment was the vault they were looking for.
Miles and Nima made room for Avi to take over from there. Avi pulled up the white overalls and removed the lens she carried with her in a waterproof backpack. She checked to see what brand of lock it was.
There was a thud on the red door.
Nima went and stood behind the door. The same man that had left earlier returned, still carrying a battery with him. Before he could close the door, Nima knocked him unconscious by hitting a nerve close to his neck. She dragged him down to a seat where Miles had assessed the computer.
“Voila!” Avi smiled and carefully opened the vault.
Just as they had expected, there were several nuclear warheads placed in various stands. Some had a computerized stand that required a password.
Miles and Nima were heading to older models farther down the room. Miles turned around and saw that Avi was attempting to enter a password.
“No!” Miles yelled with horror.
Nima stood motionless with her jaw dropped. Avi carefully stepped back from the stand.
“Did you press anything?” Miles queried.
“No, I did not. I was just checking to see the kind of configuration—”
“Please, don’t,” Nima sighed finally.
They found a dozen nuclear warheads that dated as far back as 2009.
Miles discovered that each warhead had a distinctive feature and a symbol that matched the Slavian deity.
“Alright, Nima. Your turn.” He handed the reactors to her and stepped back as she carefully removed a square-shaped LED close to the bottom of the warhead. She inserted the reactor, following the matching symbols. Once done, the warhead was activated. She did the same with two others.
All they had to do was take their serial numbers and navigate the weapon to various locations.
Nima led the way out of the vault. They walked past the man in the control room, still lying unconscious with his head on his desk. Miles grabbed a big cylindrical canister on their way out. He didn’t explain why, and no one bothered to ask.
______
Miles and his team were at the foot of the hideout that rested on a giant mass of rocks.
“Guys, I want to introduce you to someone.” Miles climbed up into the hideout and reappeared with the little boy. He had remained inside the hideout as Miles told him to.
“This guy here has been my little guardian,” Miles said.
“Hey!” Avi waved at the boy.
The boy dropped his head and played with his fingers.
“He’s a little shy.” Miles bent down and looked the boy in the eyes reassuringly. “These are my friends, okay? From the right, that’s Dean.”
Dean removed his mask and smiled at the boy. Miles introduced the rest by their names before he helped him as they came down to join the others. Miles removed his mask and stooped down, facing the boy.
“I wish you could say something. Nod, wave your hands, just do anything to prove that you understand me.”
Still, the boy showed no sign that would suggest that he heard anything Miles had said. Miles sighed in frustration.
Miles pointed at the house and waved two fingers in his face. “This place is not safe for you, kid. I would love for you to follow us if you don’t mind.”
Avi also tried to communicate with him in Russian, but he showed no sign to indicate he understood. Miles sighed in frustration again. He turned his back, trying to ask his friends what next to do.
“Kuda vy idete...”
Miles and his friends followed the boy’s tiny voice. All eyes were on him.
The boy seemed to have grown a little confidence. “Yest li yeda I chistaya voda?”
Miles and the others turned to Avi, who was also awed by the sudden response.
“Da. Da, yest.” Avi went forward and hugged the boy.
“He’s asking if there’s food and water where we are taking him.”
Miles smiled joyously. He hugged the boy and turned to Avi. “Tell him he can have as many chickens soup, corn beef, grills, everything he wants.”
Before Avi would respond to t
hat, Miles heard the boy in fluent English.
“I don’t eat animals.”
Kash and Dean chuckled at Miles’s reaction to the sudden realization.
“Who taught you English, boy?”
“The monks,” he said. “Acting deaf and dumb was the only way that I could survive. They saw no use for me, but there were times they just wanted to lay their hands on me, so I stayed away.”
“What’s your name?”
“My mom calls me Asen, but the priest named me Pyotr.”
“Wait, you said calls. Does that mean she’s…”
“Yes.”
Kash aimed the gun he had stolen from Boris close to Miles’s direction and pulled the trigger. A man in white overalls fell to the ground.
“We’ve been compromised.” Miles quickly picked up the boy and dropped him gently into the cylinder-shaped canister. Four of them held the canister and marched toward the most secured area. Miles got out of the white protective suit and ran in a different direction, drawing attention to himself. He ran in the opposite direction. He knew he wouldn’t get far before they’d track him down. As soon as he sighted two men in black uniforms with their weapons drawn, he fell to the ground and put his hands on his head. More officers in black uniforms gathered around him, kicking and stomping their boots on him until his face was covered in his own blood.
Miles was dragged into an interrogation room and tied to a seat. Three men in black uniforms dispensed their rage in the Russian language. For two minutes, Miles couldn’t make sense of whatever message they were trying to pass across.
Suddenly, there was silence in the room. Miles lifted his head from the chair and saw the same man in a suit who interrogated him before, while the others left the room for Miles and the security chief. He stared into Miles’s face for a moment, and when Miles almost assumed that he cared, he burst into laughter.
“How are you enjoying your tourism?”
Miles declined to respond. It seemed to have annoyed him a bit. He kicked the desk against Miles, crashing them to the floor. He looked down at Miles as he lay helplessly on the floor. “While you’re inhaling the Russian air, I’ll ask questions, and you’ll answer without hesitation. Is that clear?”
Miles declined to answer.
The next thing Miles felt was the two hundred pounds of the angry chief on his chest. When Miles coughed, blood came out. He knocked on the metal door, and one of his men came and dragged Miles back up with the metal seat.
“You Americans love hero-worship. You think you’re going to make it out of here alive? You should have done your research, Mr. Neumann. Whatever goes into Yamantau stays in Yamantau. We do not have prison yards. We have zero tolerance for foolishness here.” He paused when he noticed that Miles was trying to speak.
“Can I…” Miles coughed. “Can I borrow your phone?”
The security chief was a little puzzled instead of angry. “I thought you were a smart man. What do you need a phone for? Trying to call Donald Trump?”
“Nah,” Miles responded. “I’m trying to save you your job, you idiot.”
The man chuckled. He went over to his seat. “And how are you going to do that?”
“N-H-three-three-three-two-zero-nine-R-Z-A. You should be worried that I know that serial number. And if you think I’m bluffing, enter it on your grid right now. I’m going to forgive you for all these shows of force because I know it’s who you are. It’s how you were raised. You are exhibiting the habits of your oppressors because you can’t help it.”
The security chief got up from his seat with a smirk on his face. His facial expression seemed to suggest that he wasn’t taking Miles seriously. But he was familiar with that serial number, and there were very few people who knew it. So, he walked out of the office with a bit of grace in his step. When he returned to the room, his demeanor had changed. He seemed stressed. He took off his jacket and stuttered in his speech.
“Wh-What do you want?”
Miles shook his head. “Since you asked… You’re going to start with releasing Boris Rusev and his niece. One of my men will fly into the base unhindered. And finally, tell your boss to get ready to forward thirty million US dollars to an offshore account that I will pen down. Let’s call it even for now.”
_____
Miles joined his colleagues at an open field in front of Yamantau Mountain. All his demands were met, except for Boris.
Boris had taken multiple shots to his chest when he had barely stepped foot inside the secret city.
END (of Book 2)
Hunt for the Lost Sanctum Page 18
