by Mike Gomes
Holding a stunned look on his face, Yuri's mouth showed no indication of a smile or a frown. It simply held still, knowing that everything that Victor had said had been true.
"So if you're done being a little Napoleon, maybe you and your crew will start taking your orders from me," Victor smiled. "But if you don't feel like that that's okay, I could just kill you right now."
Chapter Twenty
Victor had commandeered one of the vehicles to use as his own. He had no time to ride with the other KGB agents, hearing the theories and ideas that they would espouse. He had always been a man that enjoyed working on his own rather than having to toil through the thoughts of others. He had always been one that believed that his theories and ideas around all missions were the most accurate. He had no time to suffer the thoughts of fools or those he considered to not be his equal.
As the three cars raced up the road, they made a quick stop at the general store, finding that the woman they thought was the Mantis had not arrived. It was their understanding that she had not been there in quite some time, other than a brief trip to pick up supplies that her and her husband needed. In most respects, she was rarely seen, and her husband did much of the interacting with the people that lived around them, despite the fact that their closest neighbors were more than a hundred miles away.
"Victor," Yuri’s voice came through on the walkie-talkie, trying to get the attention of the man that he admired, feared, and loathed all at the same time. "Victor." There was no response from the man in the other car, causing Yuri to feel frustrated, as he was simply trying to aid and help the man in his apprehension of his target.
"They always say never meet your heroes," Yuri muttered to the other members in his vehicle. "They'll always disappoint you."
Despite the lack of contact with the man in front of them, Yuri knew it was his opportunity to take control of the mission. There was too much at stake. Simply falling under the thoughts of Victor could prove to be physically dangerous for him, and he knew allowing the man to run roughshod over him would simply make him nothing more than a pawn in Victor's game. The deep research that he had done learning about the man, he knew that his life meant nothing to that of Victor and that he would prefer if Victor simply went along with the program he was offering rather than creating his own, but he knew that would never happen.
"Victor, come in," Yuri’s voice came through with more frustration in his voice than he’d had before. "We are stopping now. We have tire tracks that we see." Yuri’s car screeched to a halt, seeing Victor driving away, disregarding anything that the man had to say.
"Victor, it's clear that these tracks match the vehicle you described."
"It's a trap," Victor said simply over the walkie-talkie. His tone was matter-of-fact and didn’t even acknowledge his name or his thoughts.
"It's where the car is going, Victor," Yuri explained.
"It's a pickup truck," Victor barked on the other end, nitpicking the details and asserting his dominance over the man.
"For God's sake, Victor, we can work as a team. Get back here." Yuri was frustrated by the words of the man that he’d admired so much. "We need your help with this."
"You're wasting your time, gentlemen. I know, Yuri, that you're going to do your own thing, it's what you've been trained to do. But if the other men in your employ wish to actually catch the Mantis, then I expect that they should come with me."
The exerting of authority over Yuri's men caused a fuming anger to build up in the man. Not only had he been condescended to numerous times by the man he had just met, but now his men were being openly asked to leave their leader and move on with Victor rather than himself.
"These are my men," Yuri growled, frustrated and angered. "You have no right to try to commandeer my authority. I have been sent here as the lead on this, and I shall fulfill what the KGB has asked me to do. You do not supersede the KGB."
"Do as you will. I'm just telling you it's a fool's game." Victor carried on, not letting off on the gas pedal. "And just so you remember, Yuri, I am the KGB."
Victor's communication went silent, leaving Yuri holding the walkie-talkie in his hand as the other men in the vehicle stared at him.
"Signal change," Yuri ordered, indicating that the members of his team should move to an alternate signal that they had developed in case of someone infiltrating their radio contact. "Are you present, car two?"
"We're here and ready for your orders, sir. Nobody's leaving your side," came a voice at the other end, causing Yuri to smile.
"That's why you gentlemen are the best, and I love working with you. It looks like the Mantis took her pickup and drove it straight across the plains here. My thought is she's going for the mountains. If we double time it, push these vehicles hard, we should be able to catch up to her. I expect once in the mountains, her speed won't be as good as ours. With women, it typically isn't."
"Sir, do you think we need to return to the general store and get some supplies?" asked the man in the second car.
"I think we're equipped fine. I think we'll have this little lady before the end of the day." This statement caused looks between the fellow KGB members in his own car, as well as the other.
Dropping the car in to drive, Yuri set out across the plain with the other car close in tow. The indication of the tire tracks was clear in the dirty, dusty ground due to the limited winds that had come up during the day. The tracking was easy, but the terrain was difficult, jostling the vehicle side to side, obviously with the intent from the Mantis to destroy whatever means of transport the men were using.
"Keep it steady, gentleman," Yuri ordered from his car. "I can tell you right now that this is all intentional. I'd rather have us slow down a little bit and keep the vehicle safe than to break down and have to hike the rest of the way. Then it would simply be a challenge of endurance between us and her, and she would have had the advantage of driving all the way to the mountains and not exerting that energy."
The cars continued to make their move, zipping across the ground and proceeding forward with nothing in their way to stop them. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours before the first indication of the Mantis struck down upon them.
Boom!
Yuri's head snapped to the left looking over his shoulder, trying to see back, but instead having to place his eyes on the side view mirror. His foot instinctively pressed down on the gas, creating a separation from the explosion, not knowing what was to happen next. The view in the side view mirror showed the front of the Lincoln Continental pressed up into the air, having the car looking like it was walking on its hind legs with the trunk to the ground and the front being propped up by a ball of fire. In rapid succession, three more explosions set off all equally apart going across the back of Yuri's vehicle.
"Shit!" Yuri yelled, pulling the car to a stop, he opened the door and jumped out as quick as possible. His fellow agents joined him, standing next to the car and looking back at the vehicle that their comrades had once sat in. Two men that now were ablaze in fire screaming for their lives as they were crushed under the wreckage of the vehicle that they drove in. The explosion had hit hard on the left front tire, jostling the car up into an upright position before tumbling on its back. The explosion shot up through the floor boards, into the engine, and into the vehicle itself, riddling the men with shrapnel from their ankles up to their waist. As the car rolled over onto its back, tumbling from the upright position, the crushing blow cracked arms and legs of the KGB agents inside, leaving them nothing but to suffer the fate of the burning gas and oil that had now sprayed throughout the car causing an inferno of fiery death unimaginable to most people.
"We've gotta get them," one of the agents on the far side of the car from Yuri urged.
"Let them be," Yuri commanded, causing the other two men to look over to him.
"Let them be, sir?" asked the man, riddled with confusion about the limited attempt to help the men that he had been partners with for so many years.
&nb
sp; "If I could, I'd get over there and shoot them to put them out of their miseries," Yuri explained. "The problem here, gentlemen, is that even if we saved them, life would be worse than if they died. Can you imagine the burns, the pain, the rehabilitation, all for nothing more than to probably stay in a locked hospital facility for the rest of their lives? These were men of action. They couldn't live like that."
Yuri slid himself back into the car and placed the car into gear, triggering the men to break from their trance of staring back at their fallen comrades. They entered the car, sitting quietly and staring straight ahead.
"And now there were three," Yuri murmured, still not taking his foot off the brake. "Gentlemen, this is a situation that I've never been in. We're chasing someone of such high intellect and ability, it's going to test every fiber within us. But that is our mission. That is what we've been tasked to do, but I can't help telling you that I have my reservations now that the Mantis has killed three of us without even meeting us face-to-face."
"We're gonna have to move along very slowly, sir. Who knows what else she has set for us out there."
"And that's what I fear, gentlemen. I have no idea with a woman like this, if we drive ten more feet, whether there'll be another land mine, and that we too will be underneath the wreckage of the car. I don't like the idea of running into somebody else's playground when they have all the control. This woman, she has no soul they say. They say that she kills without feeling and without emotion. I'm not so sure I want to put both of you and myself in that predicament."
"The KGB will never let us return, sir, unless we complete the mission or fail," said one of the men from the back seat.
"Unless we were all to have the same answer, that we went to the mountains, we tracked, we looked for her, we tried, but we found nothing. She had disappeared. I don't think that would be so hard to believe from a super-agent like her."
"If they ever found out, sir, that we lied about our mission, it could be the end of us."
"That just means we need to stay loyal to each other," Yuri sighed. "I'm a pragmatic man, gentlemen, I see what lies in front of us, and I think it's death. But if you want to go on, I'll be damned if I don't lead you. I just don't want to see any more of my friends die."
The car sat silent with the three men, all pondering the question that he had laid out, and the possible ramifications of it. If one of them was to ever slip and let on that they had not done everything within their powers to complete the mission, it was sure that at minimum, they would be reprimanded and removed from the KGB. More than likely to be placed in some outpost, far away from human contact for the rest of their lives. The worst would be automatic death. Simply by being brought into a backroom and executed with no fanfare and no connection to any of their family or friends.
"So, what do you think, gentlemen, what do we do in this situation? The great Victor has left us alone, choosing not to help us on the quest. But what about you? We can simply go with a majority vote." The three men sat in silence, not knowing what was next. Leaning over and reaching into the glove compartment, Yuri pulled out an envelope and removed its contents. Ripping the envelope into three pieces, he handed one to each of the other men and picked up a pen that laid in the console.
"I'm going to ask you men to write one word on your paper. One word is stay and one word is leave. Whichever of these gets two votes or more is what we do as a team. Is that agreed?" Yuri asked, getting an affirmative reaction from both of the men. "And do we all agree that we take the information of even this vote to the death, never to share it with anybody, including family, friends or associates?"
The men again answered in the affirmative, as Yuri handed the pen to the man that sat in the passenger seat. One by one the men made their votes, folded over their papers, and handed them back to Yuri.
Looking through the three slips, not showing the others what had been written on each one, Yuri folded them again on top of each other and removed a lighter from his pocket, lighting them on fire, and then as the flame rose up on the paper, dropped it outside the window of the car onto the ground.
"What were the results, boss?" Asked the man from the back seat.
"I'm not going to let you know what the vote count was. So in your minds, you can both think that the other voted yes and no on whether to stay. But the vote ended with us leaving. And that's now what we need to do, keeping the secret between ourselves, and never letting on that we allowed the Mantis to get away.
Chapter Twenty-One
South East Asia was nothing to be taken lightly. Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand made up the peninsula that stuck out from China, creating an area that was untouched by most westerners. The sandy golden beaches that the West normally liked to go to didn't exist in the hard scrabble, agricultural societies that existed in this part of the world.
At the heart of the ruthless and toughness that held this part of the world, was Thailand and its world-renowned City of Bangkok. An area that was well-known, much like Alaska for the United States, as a place where someone could go to so that they could not be found. The opportunities for success were off the grid and didn't hold the trappings of most major metropolitan cities. A man or woman could simply slide away into the underground section of the city, able to create a comfortable living for oneself without exposure to the outside world.
On the east bank of the Chao Phraya River, close to the royal palace, a beautiful young woman with green eyes entered in through the open doors of the bar room bearing the name Burton's. The name had long been established and held its place, despite the fact the proprietor that gave its name had been dead over twenty years, falling to one of his own patrons in a knife fight that he wasn't quite good enough to handle.
The smoke laws were non-existent in Bangkok, and the billowy puffs of smoke rose from each of the tables and around the central bar as if it was a thick fog for the people to work their way through. Gabriella stared as the numerous men turned their eyes to her as she entered through the door. Attempting to be inconspicuous, she wore baggy pants and an oversized coat, with her hair tucked up under a ball cap, and no make-up to be seen on her face. But still, the looks came, and the occasional comment flew through the air toward her that she simply brushed aside as not worthy of her time or her effort.
"Over here," said the familiar voice of the one-time love she had known long ago. "Let's get you a drink." Moving over to the booth, with the high backs that rose above their heads, Gabriella slid herself across from the man who once held her heart.
"Nice to see you again Nikolai."
"It's nice to see you too," Nikolai spoke, trying to control the thickness of his Russian accent. "I'm sorry you got dragged into all of this. It wasn't anything that I expected."
"It's just part of the business, isn't it?" Gabriella sighed, not making eye contact with Nikolai, instead looking down to the table as she straightened herself in her seat. "You had no idea what was going to happen."
"Really doesn't matter if I knew or I didn't," Nikolai said softly. "I'm just sorry that you had to endure this kind of pain because of me."
"I always assumed if you were to see me again, it was going to be out of love rather than murder," Gabriella said, sending the cutting comment into him. "I guess some things change."
"Gabriella, I can't tell you how sorry I am for what happened to your husband," Nikolai apologized again, giving all the emotion he could as he reached his hand across the table, opening it up, inviting her to drop hers in its place. "You must know that I would never have done this if I had thought that Victor would go to that extent."
"You knew what he was capable of." Gabriella raised her eyes for the first time and connected them with Nikolai's. Immediately, she could feel his pain across from her, seeing the struggle and doubt that his eyes held. There was shame and embarrassment that protruded from him, letting her know he hadn't become completely hardened to the work that he did.
"Gabriella, I asked you to do this because you're the
best. You are better than I ever thought of being. And I felt like you were the only one that could get the job done. God knows I couldn't have done it on my own."
"I understand what you're saying," she said with a small smile. "We all have regrets after these missions. I can't think of one that I did that I didn't have regrets in."
"It's more than regret, Gabriella. I've taken something from you that I can never return." Nikolai pulled his hand back from the absence of hers returning the hold. "If this had just been any other mission at any other time, nobody would care. But for you and I, this is much more personal. I care too much for you, and I know now that I have caused an absence in your life that I can never replace."
"It's nothing that I'm not used to." Gabriella tried to remain hard and folded her arms in front of her. "Enough of the sad sack talk. What are we gonna do about this?"
"I think we’ve got to kill him." Nikolai attempted to muster all the confidence he could. "I think, combined, if you and I work together, we can lead him into a trap."
"Well, that's good, because I left a trail. I've been to Bangkok plenty of times and I know there are a lot of places we can move in and out of undetected, and we could also draw him in. Gunshots are nothing rare in this area."
"They also don't seem to have a big aversion to finding bodies," Nikolai said. "In the past, when they find the bodies, they do a cursory investigation, but more often than not, it doesn't lead to anything. The perpetrators are usually out of town before anybody knows, and the ones that stick around have enough contacts that they can provide themselves a pretty solid alibi without much effort."
"Well, I don't expect that he's gonna give up to us," Gabriella snapped snidely. "He's gonna fight to the death, and I have a feeling he's gonna sound the alarm to have more KGB agents here in a hurry."
"That's probably the thing that I feel the second worst about. Your husband's the first, but now I've got the KGB up your ass and they're not gonna stop hunting you." Nikolai shook his head. "I should have known better. I'm part of the system. I know what goes on. I shouldn't have dragged you into this."
