by A. D. Winch
Finally, Alexander broke the silence, “What just happened?”
His voice echoed around the large space.
“I think we were set up,” Ursula said matter-of-factly, surprising herself.
“I don’t think we were set up. I know we were set up.”
“They knew we come,” Sasha added, watching the blood from her wound drip onto the floor. “I need to stop the blood,” she added but did not seem worried that her leg was completely red.
“I’m sorry,” said Alexander, moving urgently to the back of the car. “I wasn’t thinking.”
He opened the boot. Inside, he found a pile of oily rags and underneath them a dirty first aid kit which he took to Sasha.
There was no antiseptic inside, so he poured water from a bottle over the gaping wound. Sasha winced but said nothing. The leg stayed clean for barely a few seconds before the bleeding continued.
Alexander pressed a compress onto the gash and then wound a bandage tightly around it.
“It is okay,” Sasha said, taking the bottle in a bloody hand and drinking down the remaining water.
“You need stitches. You’re still losing a lot of blood.”
“Find me a needle and I do it.”
Alexander looked briefly in the car but found nothing. The bandage was already turning red, so he wrapped another one around it and tied it tighter. Once he was satisfied, he left Sasha and returned to his initial concerns.
“Seriously, where did they all come from? One minute they're not there and the next minute we were surrounded. They were waiting for us. They knew. Have you thought about this?”
“Eric knew it before the Yukon even stopped,” Ursula said, trying to be helpful.
Eric shrugged. He was sat on the floor with his back to the bricks and did not seem keen to join in the conversation. His head was bowed, and his eyes were closed.
Sasha stood up and walked straight up to Eric. Spots of blood appeared on the bandage around her leg.
“How did you know?” she demanded.
Eric did not reply.
“I said, how did you know?” and she kicked his foot with her bad leg, flicking blood onto him as she did so.
Alexander joined her and stood above Eric, looking down at him.
“How did you know, Eric? This is an important question.”
Eric refused to answer. It was not the response that Alexander or Sasha wanted. Before he was kicked again, Ursula ran over and stood next to him.
“We both knew. We felt it. Something wasn’t right.”
Sasha refused to be swayed, “Maybe your boyfriend have his mind turned by Americans? Maybe he is collaborator? This is how we worked at KGB.”
Ursula stepped between Eric and Sasha. She stood on her tiptoes and tried to look Sasha in the eye.
“It wasn’t Eric. And he is not my boyfriend!”
“Why he not answer?”
“Maybe he’s doing something,” Ursula replied.
She was right, but Eric still didn’t answer.
Sasha turned away from Eric holding her leg and muttered under her breath, “Then it was the old man.”
“What?” Alexander asked.
“It was the old man. The man who says he is our father. This plan was his idea.”
Alexander’s jaw dropped, and he tried to dispute what Sasha was saying but he couldn’t. She was right. The entire plan had been Johan’s idea, and they had all blindly gone along with it.
Ursula did not agree, but she could not dispute Sasha’s accusation. She knew it was not him, but also knew that this alone was not a convincing argument. She had no evidence to support herself except that she felt it strongly.
“See, none of you disagree,” Sasha began. “We are here because of him. Where is he now? Back with the Americans, I am sure. Watching us, laughing at…”
While she continued to speak, Eric stood up and walked to the car. Something had caught his eye, and he was heading straight for it. On the passenger seat, covered in blood and sticky to the touch, was Sasha’s phone.
Eric picked it up, wiped the blood off on the back of the seat and held it in his hand.
“What’s the code, Sasha?” he asked, holding it in the air. “We can phone for a taxi or an ambulance.”
Immediately, Sasha lost interest in talking about Johan.
“Give me the phone,” she demanded, limping towards him.
“Yes,” Alexander agreed. “Give Sasha her phone. Calling for a taxi or an ambulance would be a very bad idea given the circumstances.”
Eric ignored him and skipped easily away from Sasha.
“Then perhaps we can call your KGB friends,” he imitated Sasha’s voice, “they not like Americans.”
Alexander looked as if he approved of this idea, but Sasha continued to pursue Eric around the warehouse.
“Let me tell you what I am thinking,” Eric said. “I know I am not the rat, I know Ursula is not the rat, I know Johan is not the rat, and I even know that Alexander is not the rat. That leaves you.”
He pointed the phone towards Sasha as he skipped around her.
“Liar,” Sasha said through clenched teeth. “Give me the phone.”
“Johan did suggest this plan, but only after you had spoken to your KGB friends and told us that we were going to Morocco. We are here because of you and nobody else. I’ll give you the phone once you have given me the code, and I have checked who you have been calling. This way we can see who is telling the truth.”
“Give me the phone,” shouted Sasha. “Or…”
“Or what?”
Eric was nearing Ursula when Sasha pulled out a small gun from under her puffy skirt.
“Or I shoot you in the head.”
Eric froze. Sasha fixed him with a look that could kill.
“You are stupid boy. It is you and Johan, not me.”
“Put the gun down please, Sasha,” requested Ursula.
Sasha slowly turned to look at Ursula, who was pointing her catapult and a sharp looking stone directly at her.
Alexander could not believe what Eric was saying. The boy’s been brainwashed by the OSS, he told himself.
“Don’t be stupid girl, Ursula,” Sasha said calmly. “His brain is turned. He is against us, not for us. You don’t know him.”
“She knows me better than anyone,” Eric replied.
Sasha turned back towards Eric who had pulled out his catapult and had it trained on her too.
“You have kid toys,” she mocked. “You think you can beat me?”
“I don’t think I can beat you, I know I can,” Eric said confidently.
There was a noise behind him as Alexander knelt down and picked up two broken bricks. When Ursula twisted around to look at him, he already had one in his left hand, ready to throw at Eric. She didn’t want to, but she trusted Eric, so shot a stone into Alexander’s hand. He dropped one brick, which hit the floor and shattered.
“Let’s not do anything rash,” pleaded Alexander, holding his bruised hand and looking daggers at Ursula. His good hand held the other brick, and it was raised towards her. Ursula replied by retraining her catapult on him.
“We don’t have to do anything rash,” Eric shouted back. “All Sasha has to do is give me the code to her phone and this misunderstanding can be cleared up in a minute. I’ll even apologise.”
Sasha refused, “Don’t give me orders.”
“It’s not an order. It’s a request.”
“Request denied. I give you until three, Eric, and then I shoot you.”
Her finger tensed on the trigger.
“I’ll be surprised if you can count that far,” Eric laughed.
Eric’s comment riled her, and she began counting immediately, “One…”
The stone flew from Eric’s catapult so fast that Sasha did not even realize until it hit her just above the eyebrow. It sent her stumbling backward. As blood ran into her eyes, she fell onto the boot of the car and landed heavily on the floor. The gun went off a
s her hand hit the ground and put a hole in one of the boarded up windows. Eric ran forward and aimed another stone at her head but did not let it go.
Sasha could only see crimson and had to blink continually just to make out the shape of Eric above her. Alexander tried to move forward to help her, but Ursula released a stone into his chest. He dropped the brick and fell to his knees.
“I’m sorry, Alexander, but Eric’s right. Please wait here, or I will do the same again,” her voice was apologetic but assertive.
Eric stepped towards Sasha, but he made sure he was out of reach.
“You wouldn’t believe what the OSS did to me in Roswell,” he said to her. “I have learnt more about pain than any teenager should know, and I would be happy to show you.”
Sasha snorted, “You are a boy. I was KGB. You cannot hurt me.”
“If this were a movie I would now say, ‘I don’t really want to hurt you,’ but that would be a lie. I think you set us up, and I do want to hurt you!” His voice was determined, and he sounded genuine. “Please can I have the code for your phone.”
Sasha spat something in Russian, which did not sound complimentary, and then there was silence.
A petite, elf-like figure appeared in one of the dark doorways behind the car. Nobody saw her.
“Sasha, tell him the code,” pleaded Alexander. “Until you do, it is only Eric’s word against yours.”
Sasha refused to say anything more, and Eric was becoming impatient.
The shadowy figure stepped out into the dim light. A white mask covered half her face, like the Phantom of the Opera, and it was secured firmly around her blond bob. She was wearing a leather jacket, leather trousers and T-Shirt with ‘Blood’ printed on it.
“As your legal Guardian, Eric Meyer, I insist that you do not give her that phone.”
“Andrea,” greeted Eric excitedly. He wanted to run towards her and put his arms around her but knew that he couldn’t.
“I have been listening to your discussion. It is most probable that she is an OSS agent.”
“What about Johan?” Alexander asked desperately. He couldn’t believe that the sister he had found, and had trusted, was working against them.
“Johan is outside, in the people carrier I hired. It is highly unlikely that he is working for the OSS anymore. Please throw me the phone, Eric.”
Eric threw her the phone and said to Sasha, “Passcodes can be hacked.”
There was no answer.
Andrea joined Eric. As she inspected the phone, Eric placed his arms briefly around her.
“You have changed,” was her only reaction and he happily let go.
The phone beeped; she pressed a combination of buttons and two minutes later handed it back to Eric. On the floor in front of them, Sasha had not moved.
“We’re in,” he said. “Let’s have a look at who you called last.”
Eric navigated through the phone menus until he reached the ‘last calls made’ page. There were twenty numbers listed, and they were all the same. He clicked on one, pressed ‘call’ and then ‘speaker phone.'
The phone rang for exactly three rings and was then answered.
“What’s going on?” asked Agent Hoover.
He did not receive any answer.
“Nastya?”
Eric hung up, “Who’s Nastya?”
Alexander gingerly got to his feet and walked past Ursula towards Sasha. Ursula walked with him.
“Who’s Nastya?” he asked.
Sasha refused to answer.
“You’re not my sister, are you?” he asked, knowing the answer before he had even finished the question.
Nothing.
“You set me up. You set us all up. How blind was I!” He turned to Eric and Ursula, “I’m so sorry, I just thought… well you know what I thought.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Ursula, taking his arm. “I’m sorry that I shot you with my catapult.”
“What do we do now?” asked Eric
Andrea answered immediately, “You turn the phone off. The OSS will be tracking the signal. It is certain that they know where we are. We must leave quickly. The lorry you caused to tip will have been moved by now. The OSS agents will be on their way here. When we meet them we want to be in a crowded area, not somewhere like this.”
“Why did you say, ‘when we meet them,' Andrea?” Ursula asked, unable to disguise her concern.
“They know we are here from the phone signal. They will be watching us from their spy satellites too. We will leave, but they will follow. It is improbable we will escape. We must go.”
“What about Nastya?” Eric nodded towards the sullen figure of Sasha sprawled on the floor.
“We will need her. Eric, help me to bind her, and we will take her with us.”
Unsurprisingly, Sasha was uncooperative, and it took them a few minutes to tie her hands.
“Please stand and walk with us to the car,” Andrea requested.
A globule of spit landed on Andrea’s T-shirt.
Andrea flicked it off, placed a gag tightly around Sasha’s mouth and began to tie her legs together. Sasha squirmed, but Andrea was too strong for her, and she was soon bound. The bandage on her leg was much redder than before, but Andrea ignored it and lifted Sasha to her feet. There was no willingness to move, and Sasha stood rooted to the spot.
“Are you going to move for me?” Andrea asked.
A look of pure hatred was directed at Andrea, and Sasha did not move. Without warning, Andrea picked her up and threw Sasha over her shoulder.
“We leave now,” she ordered, and the others followed her out of the warehouse.
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***
Chapter 34 – A Trade
Back in his surveillance room at Roswell, Agent Hoover gazed at his screens like a hawk. A silver people carrier had parked outside the warehouse some minutes earlier. After so many months without seeing her, the elf woman suddenly reappeared. She moved quickly from the vehicle and soon out of sight.
Nastya’s codename floated over the warehouse and pinpointed exactly where she was located. Her codename was linked to her mobile phone signal. As long as the phone stayed on, they could track her and the targets. The OSS agents were only twenty minutes away, but Hoover suspected that they would arrive too late.
The targets knew they had been set up, and the phone call from Nastya had been alarmingly silent. As he watched the screens, his suspicions were confirmed, and Nastya’s mobile phone signal vanished. He continued to stare at the screens and watched as the elf came out into the sun carrying a struggling body. When she opened the trunk, Agent Hoover could see it was Nastya - the ex-KGB operative he had recruited to snare the man who called himself Alexander. He watched the elf place Nastya in the trunk but didn’t see her being injected with a powerful sleeping drug.
Alexander, White King and Black Queen followed the elf out of the building. They all climbed quickly into the people carrier except for White King. For a brief moment, he looked into the sky, raised his hand upwards and then pointed boldly at the sky.
Hoover wasn’t sure if White King had flipped him the bird or was gesturing defiantly. However, it didn’t matter. Whatever the action, it was enough to worry him. Worry him more than anything else he had ever seen on these screens. He had a terrible feeling in his sizable gut that things had changed and that the hunters were about to become the hunted.
White King got in the vehicle, and they drove away. A line of dust and dirt sprayed out from below the tyres.
The mood in the car was upbeat in spite of Andrea’s warning about the OSS. They had escaped, and Eric more than anyone appreciated what that meant.
Johan did not greet Eric but spoke to him as if he was continuing a conversation. “You were right to trust your instincts,” he said.
Eric smiled, “I owe you two now.”
“You owe me nothing,” Johan laughed. “I’m just glad you are all uninjured.”
“But how did you know
where we were?” asked Ursula, trying to stay upbeat. She was happy to be fleeing the OSS, but not about leaving her grandparents behind.
Johan and Eric pulled out a yellow walkie-talkie each from their pockets.
“The range is only twenty to twenty-five kilometres,” Eric explained.
“Which would have been a problem, but I had told you where to go,” Johan continued, “so, it was not difficult to get within range. Once I had, Eric kept me informed.”
“But I never saw Eric use it,” Ursula said incredulously.
As she looked at him, Eric placed the walkie-talkie in his pocket and tapped on his leg.
“I used morse code. Your Granddad taught me.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Alexander asked from the passenger seat. His voice had lost all its enthusiasm, and he sounded on the verge of tears.
“We didn’t want to give Sasha, or should I say Nastya, any clues.”
Alexander turned round, so he could look at them, “When did you arrange this?”
“We didn’t really,” Eric explained. “We just had a hurried conversation while we were finding the atlas at Captain’s Hudson’s place. I didn’t like Sasha or Nastya or whatever she was called from the moment I met her. She didn’t feel genuine.”
“So, you convinced Johan to come simply based on your instincts?”
“We should trust our instincts. They pick up on signals that the brain cannot consciously detect. In Eric and Ursula’s case, I am convinced that are even more developed.”
Alexander sighed sadly and faced the windscreen. Johan placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry she wasn’t your sister but I can assure you that I am your father.”
“Thanks,” Alexander mumbled but shook off Johan’s hand.
The roads were busy through Azrou, but once they had left the town behind the number of cars thinned out. Andrea did not object to the traffic. If the OSS did catch up with them in their vehicles, it was highly unlikely they would attempt anything in broad daylight with witnesses around.
