Colleen Gleason

by Siberian Treasure

  Marina wanted that gun in her hand. At that moment, she would have been capable of blowing the skin off his face, annihilating him for his arrogance and slyness. Instead, oh, it was difficult; but she resisted. She didn’t move; she forced the fingers that itched to grab that heavy lethal piece of metal to stay still, calm; to make not the slightest twitch.

  And willed the bastard to leave so she could get out of there.

  “Will you cry for him?” Varden asked, his face closer to hers. She felt overwhelmed by him; his person that emanated a power she hadn’t felt even from Roman … a strength, a tension, and attraction.

  That realization almost made her reach for the gun.

  Thankfully, he pulled back, looking down at her with an odd expression on his face.

  She looked up at him, mustering every iota of hatred she could. “Get out of here.” She had to work to get the words from between her teeth.

  He turned abruptly and turned toward the door; it opened smoothly, without him having to wait for it and interrupt his stride. And then he was gone.

  Marina shook.

  She dragged in five—count’em, five—deep breaths, each one slower and longer than the last. The tingling in her stomach raced to the tips of her fingers; she knew she was losing time. But she had to get her emotions under control before charging out of there.

  She knew where she had to go, and how to get there. But getting through the security would not be an easy feat.

  And she wanted to make sure Varden was out of sight.

  He was. The halls were empty again, and Marina wondered just how many Skaladeskas there were. Either there weren’t more than twenty or thirty; which she found hard to imagine, based on the expansiveness of their compound; or she just happened to be in an area that was available to limited personnel.

  Either way, she considered it a blessing that she hadn’t been accosted yet by any errant Skaladeskas.

  Hurrying along the corridor, she found herself in a glassed-in walkway that actually appeared to let the natural light in. The first time she’d experienced natural illumination since she and Gabe had first arrived. This must be the connector between the Segment and the rest of the compound; her father had mentioned it but gave it no further description. It was a tunnel, glassed in; and pale, golden-blue light filtered in from somewhere. She couldn’t see anything outside; to be sure, it could have been nothing.

  At last she reached the door to the Segment. This was where her real problem began.

  In order to get through, the little tongue-tab she’d seen the guards use had to be fed into a slot and “read.”

  Marina considered as the seconds ticked away. She could wait and hope they would bring Gabe through here; and she could apprehend the group then, with the help of the gun.

  But if they didn’t bring him through … if they were going to execute him back in the private family area … .she couldn’t take that chance.

  She opened the panel next to the door where the little tabs were and thumbed one out. She hesitated. It was possible it would work for her … after all, she did have some of the Aleksandrov DNA. But if it didn’t, what would happen? Would an alarm sound? Would the trespass attempt be somehow reported? Would she waste precious time?

  She wouldn’t take that chance. Holding the tab firmly between her thumb and forefinger, she turned and ran back down the hall. There was one person who certainly had the right code.

  When she burst into her father’s room, he was sitting on the edge of the sofa, where she’d left him. He looked up as she ran over to him, grabbed his arm.

  “You’re coming with me. I can’t get into the Segment without your help.”

  He pulled away from her with surprising force. “I’m not leaving this room, Marina. I do not have the will or the energy to interfere with anything ever again. I’ve paid my dues for my mistakes, and continue to pay.”

  Half-expecting that reaction, Marina jabbed the tongue-tab in his face. “Then spit on this, and give me your DNA one fucking last time.”

  He hesitated and she pulled out the gun. “Now, or I’ll get it myself.” Her hands were shaking and her stomach rolling, and she prayed he would cooperate. Because she knew she wouldn’t pull the trigger. Dammit.

  He did. He gathered the spittle in his mouth and let it drop onto the tab. Fighting back nausea, Marina turned and bulleted from the room, through the door she’d boldly left open, and clutched the dripping tab in her hand.

  She ran back down the corridors, and was just coming around the corner when she heard it.

  Voices. Lots of them. Coming from the Segment doorway.

  Slamming herself against the wall, trying to fit inside a narrow indentation at an intersection of two halls, she waited. The gun, held pointing upward, her bent arm flush against the wall; the other hand gripping the tab.

  This was it. She had to act.

  Either they had Gabe or they were going to get him.

  Or the deed was already done.

  Please, no.

  Deep breath. The voices and people coming closer. The tab in her hand, her key to entry; the gun growing heavy in her raised arm.

  As they came closer, she made her decision, tucking the tab safely into her pocket. At just the right moment, she stepped out into the hallway, grabbing the first and closest person in the group.

  Roman.

  “Don’t move. Not a muscle.” Marina felt a wave of satisfaction as she jammed the barrel of Gabe’s gun into Roman’s neck.

  She felt him swallow, and the gun actually shifted with the wave of his terror.

  The others froze, and she took that moment to let her fired gaze blast over them.

  Gabe!

  He was there, hanging, quite literally hanging, from the arms of two men who propped him. As Marina stared, he managed to raise his head and look up.

  His mouth moved; it could have been “fucking incredible” or “get the hell out of here” … she wasn’t sure which. Either way, it didn’t matter: he was alive, and at least somewhat coherent.

  “Release him.” She didn’t need to specify whom; they knew. Gabe stumbled toward her, holding onto the wall, and she saw the bruises on his face; cuts and other wounds she didn’t care to define.

  Varden and Nora were among the small group, Lev was not. There were three others, including the guards who’d carried Gabe. They all gaped at her, none daring to move as Roman trembled next to her.

  The man was actually trembling. It amazed her.

  By this time, Gabe had reached her side and she gave him a better once-over. He wrapped a weak arm around her waist, and tightened it briefly in the form of a hug of gratitude. She was focused on Roman, and the rest of the group.

  “Everyone raise your arms and remove your wristbands,” she said sharply when she saw Varden shift near the back. She should have commanded that immediately, but she was new at holding people at gun-point and hadn’t thought of it in her relief at seeing Gabe in one piece. So to speak. “Toss them up here,” she gestured to the floor.

  “Can you walk at all?” she asked out of the corner of her mouth. He nodded against her, weakly, but his blue eyes showed determination.

  As the wristbands thumped to the floor next to her, she counted, and double counted. Even Roman complied when she jabbed him with the gun.

  There was one for each person. But Marina wasn’t satisfied. “Roll up your sleeves. Both arms. Everyone.”

  She found three more bands that way; one each on Roman, Varden, and Nora. That just confirmed for her who had the power and who didn’t.

  Kicking the bands into a small pile, she used her own to open a door and shove them inside with her foot, all the while keeping Roman under her scope. When the door swished closed, she gave her uncle a shove toward his group.

  He stumbled, fell against the wall, and stood there, chest heaving, face nearly as grey as her father’s had been.

  Marina started to back away, down the hall, one arm around Gabe, who was helping as much
as he could, and the other holding the gun aimed at the group of people she left behind. Then she had an idea.

  Stopping in front of a different door, she opened it and gestured for the group to move inside. “See how you like it,” she muttered loud enough for Varden to hear as he walked by.

  As soon as they were all in the room and she shut the door, she turned to Gabe.

  He looked dead on his feet, but his eyes glowed with admiration. “Very well done.”

  “I didn’t even have to fire the damn thing, except to get through the security screen,” she said with a grin, which faded almost immediately. “I don’t know how long we’ll have until they get out of there, so let’s get you the hell out of here.”

  Moving quickly down the hall, Gabe limping along and half-leaning on Marina, they made good time navigating through the hallways.

  But suddenly, no more than ten minutes later, their luck came to a screeching halt.

  A blast of an alarm blared through the halls, and suddenly, the lights went out.

  Apparently, there was another way to get out of those rooms than a radio-controlled key.

  In pitch dark, in fairly unfamiliar territory and a walking wounded on her arm, Marina was decidedly at a disadvantage.

  She pulled out her tiny squeeze-light, grateful once again for the little gadget, and continued trundling Gabe along with her. But she knew it would only be a matter of time before they were found.

  Hobble, hobble, hobble … pause, turn left … hobble some more. Marina was panting and gasping with Gabe’s weight, and it felt as though he was sagging more as they went further.

  Finally, she veered into a room that was near the end of one of the halls. She wasn’t sure where it was; she’d lost her sense of direction during the last few minutes of mad rush. But perhaps a little food, and some doctoring would help Gabe.

  Inside the room, she propelled him toward a sofa—a real sofa, not like the one in hers and Dad’s rooms. He protested weakly, but went.

  She dug the water from her pocket and opened it, then shoved it at him and watched as he drank. “No food, no water,” he managed to gasp between swallows.

  Marina pulled out the meat and cheese and offered that as well. While he ate, she scouted the room. This one didn’t have an attached bathroom, but she did find some cloths that appeared to be laundry of some sort. Using some of the second bottle of water, she tried to wash away some of the sweat and blood that mottled his face. But when she tried to check the leg he favored, and the wound on his head, he pushed her hand away with surprising strength.

  “No time for that now. We have to get out of here. I’m feeling better now that I have food and drink.” He didn’t look better, but the determination in his face told Marina it was senseless to argue. “We have to stop them.”

  “What are they doing? Something about Detroit?”

  “Earthquakes, I think. Like the ones in Allentown. I don’t know the details, but we have to find a way to stop them.”

  How could they stop them if they didn’t know the details? And if the entire complex was looking for them?

  Then Marina knew the answer. Dad. By God, she’d force him to tell her what he knew. “I’ll be back. Gabe, you need to stay here and rest—”

  “Absolutely not. I’m going with you. I’m feeling better now, and you’ve put yourself in enough danger. At least I know how to use that.” He forced a feeble grin as he gestured to the gun. “It’s a Smith & Wesson, in case you were wondering.”

  Marina hesitated only a moment; but two heads were better than one. And if Gabe were found, alone and weak, he’d be back in the same position she’d just rescued him from. “All right. We’re going back in there to find my dad.”

  “Victor? He’s here?”

  “Oh yes, he’s here.” Marina took the time to tell him about Roman and Gabe, Nora, Varden, and Lev because she figured a few more minutes wouldn’t hurt their cause and might help him regain a little more strength. She gave him the details of her confinement, and told him about everything except for Ivan the Terrible’s secret library. She wanted to hold that to herself.

  When she finished, Gabe spoke. “Marina … if you made it as far as my gun, you were almost out of here. You didn’t have to come back for me.”

  -40-

  July 14, 2007

  Siberia

  The halls were still dark when Gabe and Marina slipped out of the room. Not wanting to chance the full brightness of her light, Marina kept it cupped in her hand while Gabe managed the gun.

  She was more than willing to give it up to him; and was also relieved that he seemed much steadier on his feet after the rest and nourishment.

  It might have been the darkness, or the fact that Roman and Varden wouldn’t expect them to return to the place of their imprisonment, but Marina was able to lead them back to Victor’s room without incident.

  “Only complete idiots would be coming back this way,” Gabe muttered into her ear, echoing her thoughts, as they stood before Victor’s door.

  Marina held her breath for a moment before pushing the button on her wristband. There was always the chance that Victor might sound the alarm when they entered.

  Or that he would no longer be there.

  And that, she found to her shock, was indeed the case.

  The suite of rooms was empty.

  “Now what?” Gabe asked.

  “I want to go back into the private Segment. Maybe Lev’s there; maybe we can find out from him what’s going on. He wasn’t with the others.”

  “You’re going to force an old man?” Gabe looked at her in the dim light of her flash, his bruised face threatening in the shadows.

  “Maybe he’s being forced, and he’ll be glad to help us.” Marina didn’t really believe it; but the way she saw it, there was no other choice.

  “How are we going to get into the Segment, Marina?” Gabe whispered as they hurried back out into the hall.

  “I still have the tongue tab from Dad. In my pocket. I’m hoping it will read the code even though it’s long dried.”

  “And full of lint.” Gabe’s sarcasm was back, but he stayed with her on their walk down the hall. “Where the hell is everyone? You’d think they’d be scouring the place for us.”

  Marina could hear the effort in his voice; knew he was in pain. But she also recognized that he was built to keep going, regardless of personal discomfort. And that saying anything wasn’t going to make a difference. “I’m betting they’re searching all of the exits—however many there are. They didn’t expect us to be back in here, in the middle of everything. We’re probably safer here than anywhere else.” Then she remembered. “I have your sat phone. Do you think—”

  “My sat phone? Give me the damn thing!” Gabe’s voice shot through the darkness like a whip. “These things work everywhere!”

  “I couldn’t get it to work when I went and got the gun.” She fished in her pocket as they hurried along. “Guess I have a lot to learn in the spook business, eh?”

  “Well, you haven’t gotten either of us killed yet, and you’re a hot kisser…so I’m not complaining.”

  And they were at the door of the Segment. Marina dug in her pocket and pulled out the tongue tab. “Cross your fingers.”

  She had to shine the light on the slot in order to see to be able to feed the tab through it.

  Then she held her breath.

  And the door whirred, slowly opening.

  Marina and Gabe hurried through the door, unsure how long it would remain open, then paused to look around.

  Unlike the rest of the compound, this hall was still illuminated. The pleasing yellow glow of lights studded the ceiling along the corridor, still the same rounded, white walls Marina had noticed throughout. However, the floor was covered with a thick, padded carpet that looked like luxurious sheepskin.

  It helped to muffle their footsteps as they hurried along.

  “This look familiar?” It did to Marina. This was where Lev had brought her
to show her the library.

  Gabe grunted in reply as they paused at a T-intersection. “This way; they brought me this way. So let’s go that way.”

  She agreed, and followed him.

  They’d gone only a few yards down the hall when Marina recognized exactly where she was. They turned a corner and suddenly a tall, metal door loomed in front of them. And at that moment, they heard rapidly approaching voices.