The crackle of the last velcro strap being pulled off caused Natasha to look back. Katerina freed herself and flung her arms around Natasha.
Natasha held her sister close but kept her focus on Marius. He hesitated a moment while catching his breath and seemed to be assessing the scene in front of him. He must have decided that any threat had gone because he glanced at the surgeon and Bridget then limped out of the theatre.
Natasha let out a long sigh.
The surgeon and the two nurses edged past Natasha and followed Marius.
Katerina looked down at Hugo then jumped off the operating table and crouched down next to him, tears filling her eyes.
Hugo was conscious but there was a sucking sound coming from his chest as he breathed in, and his face was wet with sweat, and his skin had turned white. It was clear to Natasha at least one shot had punctured his lung.
Katerina said, ‘I know you told me not to thank you anymore but I have to. Thank you, Hugo, and don’t tell me you were not protecting me, because this time I know you were.’
Natasha grabbed two padded dressings from the trolly, knelt down, and pushed them onto the wounds in Hugo’s chest and stomach. ‘I just have one question, Hugo. If you knew I was Katerina’s sister, why didn’t you tell Gustav?’
Hugo took a moment to get the words out. He drew a deep breath and said, ‘I guess your sister got to me in the end. I have taken more than fifty girls before but never met anyone like her.’ He turned his head and looked at Katerina. The tears streamed down her face. ‘I told you, kid, don’t make friends in this business. It will only cause you pain.’
Then he breathed out… long and slow… and the sucking sound stopped.
Natasha released the pressure on the dressing and hugged Katerina. ‘Don’t cry for him, Katerina. He is the reason you are here, and you heard him. He has taken fifty girls before you.’
Katerina nodded.
Natasha held her sister tight for a moment then helped her to her feet. ‘We need to get out of here.’
Katerina said, ‘I thought you had gone back to Comana.’
‘I did, but then I came looking for you.’
‘How did you find me?’
‘It is a long story. I’ll tell you all about it but first we need to find my friend, Mason. He helped me get in here and I left him and a girl called Sofia back down stairs.’
Natasha suddenly remembered Jessica. She lifted her head and scanned the room. She was huddled in the corner with her face buried in her hands and was almost concealed by a tall cabinet. Katerina got to her first and flung her arms around the frightened girl. ‘This is Jessica, she’s my friend.’
As the three of them made their way to the door of the operating theatre, Katerina stopped and looked back at Hugo’s lifeless body. ‘I know he was a bad man, but he did the right thing in the end. His last act was a good one, wasn’t it?’
Natasha gave her a slow nod of acceptance. ‘Yes, Katerina, his last act was a good one.’
41
MASON
Mason slowly edged over to his right to check on Gustav’s position. A bright muzzle flash confirmed he was still behind the door frame. Mason instinctively pulled back behind the chairs but not before a bullet smashed into them only inches from his face. A splinter of wood embedded itself into his brow causing a hot stabbing pain and a trickle of blood to run down into his right eye. A fraction lower and he would have been blinded.
He pulled out the shard of wood and wiped the blood away, then raised his gun and fired two shots.
Ten left.
Fragments of wood exploded from the door frame causing Gustav to pull back out of sight.
As shots rang out from his left Mason dropped to his knees, swung his pistol around, and fired three shots into the upturned table top. The clatter of a solid object falling onto wood rang out followed by a muffled thud, like that of a body hitting the floor.
The room fell silent.
Seven shots left.
Then Gustav’s voice bellowed across the room from the corridor. ‘Get the cars ready, we are leaving here.’
Mason guessed Gustav was giving orders over his mobile phone to security at the gate. He waited a moment with his pistol trained on the doorway. But it was quiet. Nothing moved. He turned his focus back to the upturned table.
No movement. No sounds.
Mason trained his pistol on the table as he left the cover of the chairs and crossed the room. When he reached the table he moved around it fast, ready to fire at any sign of life. But he looked down at the prone figure of the security man and lowered his pistol.
From the amount of blood that had pumped out of a chest wound, soaked his shirt, and pooled on the floor, Mason guessed that it had taken around twenty-seconds for the man’s heart to stop beating.
He bent down and picked up the discarded Beretta pistol then flipped open the leather jacket checking for spare magazines. There were two. He tucked them into his back pocket then pushed his Glock pistol into his waistband and slid out the Beretta’s magazine. Nine rounds left, plus two spare magazines meant he should have enough fire power to end this.
He held the Beretta in his right hand and pulled the Glock out with his left. Then he moved towards the doorway, both pistols raised in front of him. He paused a moment against the wall at the doorway then sprang out into the corridor, a pistol pointing in each direction. It was all clear. No sign of Gustav or Hugo or Jessica.
He hesitated a moment. Should he go to the operating theatre to check on Natasha or down to the carpark to stop Gustav’s escape?
He glanced along the corridor. Footsteps echoed from the stairwell a few meters away. He lined up both pistols on the doorway ready to blow away any man who came through it. But as he tightened his grip and increased the pressure on both triggers he drew breath and lowered the guns. Natasha stepped out and walked towards him.
Mason waited for her to reach him. ‘Where is Katerina?’
‘Waiting back there in the stairwell while I made sure it was safe down here.’
‘So you dealt with Marius?’
‘Not really, I stabbed him through his right thigh but he’s still alive somewhere.’
‘Well, I got two of them, so that leaves Gustav, Hugo, Marius, and probably four or five security men. I think they’ll be in the underground car park. I need to get down there fast. Hugo has Jessica with him.’
‘He did, but not now. He’s dead.’
Mason stared at her.
‘Marius shot him.’
‘Marius?’
‘I was right, Hugo did recognise me in the corridor, but he stayed quiet. You have a saying in England. A leopard never changes its spots. Well, this one did. Marius was going to shoot me and they were going to operate on Katerina but Hugo stopped him. It cost him his life. Marius shot him four times.’
‘I thought I’d heard everything but I never would have believed the big fella would change sides.’
‘I think Katerina had been working on him since he took her.’
‘It looks like she’s following in her big sister’s footsteps.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘She must have charm and guile to win over a professional human trafficker.’
‘Just a word of warning. She is pretty upset about it.’
Mason nodded. ‘Understood.’
Katerina and Jessica hurried along from the stairwell doorway to join them. Both girls looked up at Mason and gave him a nervous smile.
Mason smiled back. ‘Okay, Katerina, I need you to look after Jessica and Natasha while I go down and stop these men getting away.’
Katerina raised an eyebrow and placed her hands on her hips. ‘Please. I’m not a child. I’m twelve. If you want me to wait up here just say so.’
Mason flashed Natasha a glance then looked back at Katerina. ‘Of course. I'm Sorry.’
He crossed the corridor, opened a door, and checked inside. It was a disused office, dusty, but good enough for the girl
s to hide in and wait for him. He beckoned them over, ushered them inside, and closed the door. As he turned and headed for the stairs the door opened and Natasha stepped out.
‘If you think I’m staying here you are crazy.’
‘You have to, Natasha, they are all carrying guns.’
She lifted up her shirt and pulled out a semi-automatic pistol from the waistband of her jeans. ‘Then it’s a good job we are.’
Mason stared at her. She raised the pistol in her right hand. ‘Hugo’s.’
Mason nodded. ‘I guess I have no chance of persuading you to wait here?’
‘You are not as dumb as you look, are you?’ She winked at him.
He tilted his head at the door to the office where Katerina was waiting with Jessica. ‘I can see where she gets it from.’
As Mason looked out from the door recess in the underground carpark his suspicions were confirmed. Three black Mercedes were lined up behind a dark blue Ford people carrier. All had their front doors open and their engines running. Gustav was standing by the lead car barking orders at two of his men standing by the people carrier. ‘Make sure you deliver them. Our business depends on it.’
There were four girls inside the people carrier seated in the two rows behind the driver’s seat. He turned and motioned for Natasha to move forward so she could see.
She drew breath. ‘They must be some of the girls sold at the auction. We have to do something.’
Mason scanned the garage. The people carrier and the three cars were the only vehicles in the carpark. There were two men standing next to each car, Gustav and the two by the people carrier, and one over by a roller shutter door with his hand on the lever causing the steel door to creep up vertically. There were several support columns spaced every three meters on both sides of the carpark. These would be ideal cover. Certainly better than two stacks of wooden chairs.
Mason lowered his voice to a whisper, ‘I count ten men altogether. I can probably take out two before they know we are here, but after that it’s going to get pretty crazy. I expect them all to be armed. Just keep a cool head, aim and fire no more shots than necessary. We are out gunned which means we need to make every shot count. If you put one down don’t shoot him again unless he’s still a threat. Let him bleed out. It won’t take long.’
Natasha nodded. ‘The guys I’ve shot so far were only a short distance away. I’m not sure if I can hit anyone from here.’
‘Don’t worry about that, any shots in their direction will distract them. Just pick a target and shoot as soon as I make my move from here. But keep your aim away from the people carrier.’
‘Got it. Go when you are ready.’
Mason turned, lined up on the two men stood by the middle car, and fired two shots at each using both pistols.
No pausing. No hesitating.
Just BANG—BANG, BANG—BANG.
As both men slumped to the ground and the rest reached for their weapons, Mason ran to the nearest support pillar. The guy with his hand on the door lever was an easy target. Two shots put him down.
So far so good. Three down with no return fire. But that didn’t last long. About eight-seconds, before the barrage of lead smashed into the pillar and the wall behind him. At least thirty shots from the seven remaining guns over by the cars.
But then four shots rang out from the door recess he had left a few seconds earlier. The sound of a gun and a body hitting the floor over by the car closest to Natasha was just distinguishable between the thunder of semi-automatics being fired as fast as their handlers could manage. The echoes around the concrete walls of the underground car park were deafening. But if he had detected the shots from the doorway, then so would Gustav and his remaining men.
He couldn’t let Natasha become their main target. With his back flat against the rear of the concrete pillar, he brought both guns up to his chest, barrels pointing upwards but ready to draw down on any target coming into his vision. He took a deep breath and spun out from behind the pillar. He ran towards the cars and the men running for cover behind them, firing both guns alternately, right, then left, then right again. He wasn’t counting but he was aware he needed to make each bullet count. Some missed but most found their mark. Three more bodies confirmed it.
He crouched down behind the middle car. The scene was quiet. No gunfire. No footsteps. No movement. Just the thick aroma of sulpha from the gunpowder filling the air.
But it wasn’t over. Including Gustav, there were three left. It was just a short lull in the battle while both sides took stock, assessed their positions, and planned their next move.
Mason discarded the empty Glock in his left hand and swapped out the magazine in the Beretta for a full one. Then he looked over to the door recess and breathed easy. He could just see the barrel of Natasha’s pistol sticking out beyond the corner of the brick wall. She looked out, spotted him, and held up the thumb of her left hand. She was clearly letting him know she was okay. But she also let the other side know she was still there.
Before Mason could wave her back out of sight the bullets started flying again, all in her direction, filling the carpark with a dozen deafening booms. Fragments of concrete exploded from the walls all around the door recess like a scene from a war film. At least two, possibly three semi-automatics emptying their magazines at Natasha.
Mason raised up from his position. He could only see two figures behind the car closest to Natasha. They were both firing at her. Gustav must be behind the people carrier meaning he would have a clear shot if Mason moved around the middle car to take out the men shooting at Natasha. But that was a chance he was going to have to take. Because if he didn’t, it would only be a matter of time before Natasha was hit. Even incompetent marksmen would hit their target eventually and Mason had no reason to label them as that.
He sprang up, ran around the middle car, and put at least three shots into each of the guys shooting at Natasha.
He spun around to face the people carrier, wondering why Gustav had not taken his chance. But he was nowhere in sight. Mason dropped to the ground and looked under the vehicles scanning all around between the wheels.
He stood up and turned to Natasha. ‘All clear.’
She walked over to him, checking all around as she stepped over the bodies. She reached up and planted a kiss on Mason’s lips. Then she glanced around at the bodies again. ‘That went well.’
Mason nodded. ‘So far.’
She looked at him. ‘So far?’
‘I can’t see Gustav or Marius among the dead, which means they are still around here somewhere.’
Natasha gasped. ‘Katerina! I need to get back up to Katerina and Jessica.’
‘Give me a minute and I’ll get the girls out of the people carrier.’ He turned towards the vehicle.
‘I can’t wait.’
Mason glanced back to see Natasha running for the internal door leading to the stairs. ‘Be careful, Natasha.’
Then she was out of sight.
Mason ushered the four terrified girls out of the Ford people carrier and grabbed their passports from the dashboard. They were either genuine documents or forgeries procured by the traffickers to use when moving the girls around. Either way, the girls may need them to get home.
42
NATASHA
Natasha sprang up the stairs two at a time, her heart pounding, partly from the exertion, and partly from the anxiety of being separated from Katerina. The quicker she moved the sooner she would be holding her sister again.
She burst through the door to the disused office and froze. It was empty. No sign of Katerina or Jessica. The panic brewing in the pit of her stomach had been justified. She stared at the empty room for a moment then stepped back into the hall just as Mason appeared from the stairwell.
He must have seen the terror on her face and knew her well enough to guess what had happened. ‘Don’t tell me she’s gone?’
All she could do was nod.
Mason hugged her for a moment, then pu
lled back and said, ‘Let’s go.’
She found her voice again. ‘Where?’
‘Back down to the carpark. That’s where the vehicles are.’
‘Where are the girls from the van?’
‘They wouldn’t come back up here, so I told them to go outside and wait by the exit gate.’
Two minutes later Mason and Natasha were back in the underground carpark. It was exactly as they had left it. The roller shutter door half way up, the people carrier empty with its doors open, the Mercedes cars lined up behind it, surrounded by spent cartridges, blood, and bodies.
Mason started at the people carrier then worked his way along the three cars removing the ignition keys from each. He opened the boot of the third car, lifted the floor panel, and threw the keys into the spare wheel compartment. By the time he turned back to the stairs, Natasha was already on her way.
In the corridor on the ground floor they split up. Mason suggested she check the front foyer while he checked Gustav’s office. ‘He’s probably collecting any evidence that would link him to this place and to the nature of their operation. But if you see them first, wait for me. I’ll only be a few minutes.’
Natasha nodded in agreement but knew he was asking the impossible. She wouldn’t be able to wait a second to end Gustav’s existence in this world if she got the chance.
When she reached the door to the reception room she looked through the glass panel and gasped. Katerina and Jessica were sat on chairs in the far corner on the public side of the long counter that spanned the room’s width.
She burst through the door, lifted up the section of the counter allowing access through to her sister, and ran over to the girls. There was a click behind her that she recognised. It was the sound of a magazine sliding home in a semi-automatic pistol. She froze, shielding the girls, with her back to whoever was holding the gun. She still had the pistol in her right hand but doubted she was good enough to spin around, locate her target, and shoot him before he shot her.
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