by Dylan Rust
“Something to hide?”
“We all have something to hide.” Igor inhaled his cigar and exhaled a puff of smoke in Jack’s direction. The large puff hung in the air between the two men. “Let’s get to your reward.”
“Finally,” Jack said.
Igor snapped his fingers again.
Within seconds, the door to Igor’s office opened.
Jack couldn’t see who’d entered the room, but he had a good idea as to what it was. He heard the groans and cries of a woman who was gagged. He wanted to move, but he couldn’t. He’d have to be careful. He looked at Igor.
“I deal with women,” Igor said. “They are my primary business. I find young ones, old ones, cute ones, and, even, sometimes ugly ones. I bring them from all over the world. It’s a good business.”
“Sex trafficking?” Jack said.
“That’s just the start of it,” Igor said. “I find the best girls and then I bring them here. Once they start working the rooms, the real work begins.”
“And what’s that?” Jack asked.
“You ask too many questions,” Igor said. “If you play your cards right. You’ll eventually learn what my business is.”
“I see.”
“Good,” Igor said. “Then enjoy.”
The security guards stepped away from Jack.
Jack stood up and turned around.
“She’s a new one,” Igor said. “A bit older than usual, but she’s not bad. Sasha interviewed her when she was brought in. I don’t think she’ll last long in the club, but that’s okay. I don’t intend to keep her around. She’ll be more valuable on the trade market. She’s American. She could bring in ten or twenty young Ukrainians. She’s been injected with propofol. She’s groggy. Don’t worry. She won’t fight back.”
Jack’s heart dropped.
It was Elaine.
She was barley conscious and was being held up. Her mouth was gagged.
“We did our best to wash her up for you.”
The primal beast within Jack, the one that he’d spent years trying to bury and control, awakened.
His mission with the feds was over.
He snapped.
Two security were standing close to him, two were holding up Elaine. Igor was behind his desk, laughing. That was five in total. He scanned the room and weighed his options.
If he had his weapon he would have drawn it and shot the two guards close to him. He then would have used one their bodies as a shield and taken out Igor and the two remaining guards. But he didn’t have his gun. His only real avenue out of the room was to get close to Elaine and grab one of a weapon from a guard.
Igor pulled the cigar from his mouth and exhaled.
“What’s wrong, Mr. Spade? Do you know her? She’s just a girl. Don’t worry. Have your fun and then come back to me. We can talk about your involvement with my gang later.”
Jack took a deep breath. He tried to not to let his anger, his pain show.
He had to hope that Elaine didn’t awake from her delirium. If she did and she recognized him, Jack’s chances of survival would drop to zero.
“I don’t think we should leave her with him,” one of the guards said. “She’s a fighter. She took two hits of propofol to drop.”
Jack gritted his teeth. His blood boiled. The more they talked about Elaine and what they’d done to her, the more he wanted to rip their throats out of their necks.
“Boris, boris,” Igor said. “Please. You worry too much. Let our champion have his fun with the girl.”
“But, boss,” Boris said. “She’s a fucking animal. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Igor laughed. “Let the champion have his reward.”
Jack walked toward Elaine. As long as she remained passed out, he’d be okay. He carefully walked up to her. Everything felt as it was in slow motion.
“I’ll consider your proposition, Mr. Spade,” Igor said. “I’ve got more important business to deal with now. I need to calm Sasha down and deal with that twat Lyle Cunningworth.”
All four guards chuckled.
Jack was three feet from Elaine.
One of the guards holding her up looked at Jack and said, “You disrespect the Eagle, you die. Understand? We’re taking you down to one of the rooms on the second floor.”
Jack nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
Whether it was the sound of his voice or Elaine’s body’s natural ability to quickly metabolize the poison, she woke up. A look of horror spread across her face. She stared at her brother. Her eyes focused. Was this a nightmare?
Jack turned away from her. He tried to hide himself from her vision, but it was too late.
“Jack,” she said. “Is that you?”
She screamed. She kicked.
Igor’s eyes narrowed. He jumped behind his desk. He was quick.
The room went still, silent. The guards were confused. What did she just say?
There was no time to play nice anymore. Jack’s cover was blown. He seized the opportunity.
Each guard reached for their weapons.
Jack dove toward one of the men holding his sister. The guard let go of Elaine and she collapsed on the ground. The other guard caught her before her head hit the ground. It was instinctual. She was a product. Damaged goos were less valuable.
The two guards that had brought Jack in fired. Wood splintered and glass shattered. One of Igor’s prized possessions, a painting by his mother of the Russian landscape was desecrated with bullets.
Igor peeked above his desk. “Be careful of where you are shooting!” He screamed. “You fucking twats! Hit him!”
Jack knelt down and grabbed the Makarov from the man he’d knocked over. He somersaulted on the ground and got up. He aimed the weapon at one of the men who’d brought him in to the office and fired.
The man dropped. Screaming. Blood poured from his belly.
The guard holding Elaine dropped her. Asset be damned. He’d pulled out his gun. But he didn’t get a chance to lift his gun up. Jack fired his gun and hit him in between the eyes. The guard dropped.
Two were down.
Two to go.
Igor was hiding behind his desk.
Thankfully, the office was jam packed with furniture. Jack rolled and ducked between each piece. The remaining guards were having trouble following where he was.
Jack was close to the body of the first guard he shot.
“Stop,” a guard said. “Put your hands up!”
They’d spotted him. Fuck. Jack grabbed the body of the dead guard and rolled. He was now underneath the body.
Two shots rang out.
The body on top of Jack inhaled both bullets. Jack felt the warm blood leak from the newly opened wounds.
Jack remained still.
He played dead.
The two remaining guards thought they’d got him.
“Did you get him?” Igor shouted.
“We think so,” the guard said as he approached Jack.
One of the security personnel walked up and kicked his dead comrade’s body off of Jack. As the weight of the dead body fell onto the floor, Jack held up the Makarov and fired two shots into the man’s head. He dropped to the ground joining his comrade in the afterlife.
One guard was left.
Elaine covered her head and cried. She was in the fetal position on the floor. While she was semi-conscious, she couldn’t get up. The drug was still having some affect on her.
The final guard picked up Elaine and used her as a human shield. He held her in front of him and fired at Jack.
He missed.
Elaine bit his arm. He howled.
Jack moved out from his cover and fired two quick shots into the man’s brain.
He ran to his sister. He wanted to get her out of the way before Igor had a chance to take any shots.
“Boris!? Anatoly!? Andrei!? Yuri!?”
Igor realized his men were all dead. He peeked above his desk. The asshole was running to the girl. He ope
ned a drawer in his desk. There was a red button inside. He hit. He then pulled out a gas mask and put it on.
The feds were right about Igor, he was paranoid. He didn’t trust anybody. It was why the club was littered with security cameras. It was also why he’d installed vents in his office that would leak Kolokol-1, a deadly and powerful incapacitating agent. It was the same gas that the Russian Spetsnaz force used on the terrorists during the Moscow theatre siege in 2002.
The colorless agent leaked through the vents in droves.
Igor finished putting on the gas mask.
Jack checked Elaine. He knelt down beside her. He smelled a strange smell. It was smelled like blood.
His vision went dark.
He couldn’t breathe.
He collapsed.
Igor peeked above his desk and laughed. He hit the button in the drawer in his desk. Fans turned on. They sucked the toxic gas out of the room. He walked up to Jack.
“Your luck has finally run out, Mr. Spade,” Igor said.
Jack opened his eyes and tried to regain control. With every ounce of strength he had left, he grabbed a gun and aimed it at Igor. His hand shook. He couldn’t. He closed his eyes. He dropped the gun.
“It’s Kolokol-1,” Igor said. “How does it feel?”
Jack’s body contorted in different directions.
“Sleep paralysis is when your body remains awake but you cannot move, you cannot speak,” Igor continued. “Your arms, legs, fingers, anything that is under conscious control is paralyzed. It’s awful. I’m sure you’re terrified. The drug affects your neurotransmitters. It may cause some light brain damage. It may kill you.”
Jack drooled on the ground. His face rested on the blood soaked Persian rug.
Igor knelt down and lifted up Jack’s head. He looked into the bleary eyes of the man who’d just tried to kill him. “Who the fuck are you?” he said. “I’m going to find out. I’m going to find out everything you about you. You motherfucker. You sick, stupid asshole.”
25
It was dark.
They must have put him in a box. Jack couldn’t be sure. He didn’t know where he was. He didn’t know if he was in The Dacha House or somewhere else.
They opened the lid.
The bright light in the room hurt Jack’s eyes. They were dry. His tongue was dry. He needed water. His vision slowly came back.
He was in some sort of tunnel or basement. He couldn’t be certain. It was very blurry.
There were cages. Maybe fifty of them. Maybe more. They were lined up along the wall. Women were inside them. Each bar was crusted with snot, vomit, and saliva.
Dim lights hung from the dank ceiling and swayed gently from a soft breeze.
Igor’s men pulled Jack out of the container they’d transported him in. They lifted him up. Jack’s feet scraped along the ground.
“Bring him over here,” Igor said. “I want him to see what he will become. This fucking ungrateful animal.”
Igor’s men dragged Jack up to a cage.
There was man inside.
He was lying on the ground, shaking. He was dressed in clothes not dissimilar from those worn by the Jews in concentration camps. His face was dirty and bruised.
How long had he been there?
The guards holding Jack made sure he could see everything.
Igor was holding Jack’s GLOCK 17. He liked the weapon. He liked the way it felt in his hands. He considered making it his primary pistol.
“I should kill you now,” he said to Jack. “I should just pull this trigger and blast your brains all over this cement floor. But what you did to me is beyond comprehension. You came into my club, asked to work for me, and then tried to kill me. Who the fuck do you think you are? I’m going to rip you into pieces. I’m going to make sure your death is as painful as it possibly can be. And don’t you worry, I’m going to find out why you protected that girl. She’s mine. I’ll make her talk. And after I do, after I squeeze every last bit of information out of her, I’m going to send her to Eastern Europe where she’ll spend the rest of her life inside a dark cell in some general’s mansion.”
Jack mumbled a response. It came out as bubbles and spit.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Igor said.
He slammed his hands against the cage. The metal rattled. The man inside shot up and grabbed hold of the bars. He pleaded for release.
“Please! Oh god, please! I’ll say nothing. Please. I’m sorry, Igor. I’m so sorry.”
Igor turned to Jack and smiled. “This is Lieutenant Rivers. He’s an NYPD cop. He was working for us. He made a mistake, though. One I cannot forgive. He thought that it would be a good idea to leave the body of one of my men he’d shot in the Hudson.”
“Please,” Rivers said. “Igor, I’ll do anything. I promise. Anything.”
Igor laughed. He aimed the GLOCK 17 at Rivers. He liked the weight and balance of the gun. He also admired the barrel length. He knew it would be an accurate and dependable gun. He held the sights up to his eyes. They were clear and clean.
“Igor,” Rivers said. “That man is…”
Igor fired.
Rivers’s head exploded. His body dropped in the cage. Bits of bone, blood and brains splattered along the metal bars and on the concrete wall.
Igor’s phone buzzed. It was Aleksander.
Are you okay? I heard about the attack.
Igor rolled his eyes.
“Throw him in there,” Igor said. “Let him sit in the blood of the dead cop. Let him come to terms with his own mortality. I’ll come back later, when his body is awake, when he can feel the pain, and then I’ll finish this.”
Igor’s men tossed Jack into the cage. Jack’s body landed atop of what was left of Rivers’s.
“I’ll come back for you, Mr. Spade,” Igor said. “When you’re awake and can feel the pain. That’s when I will have my fun with you. For now, I must bid you adieu. Maybe I’ll have a chat with that woman you tried to save? Yes. You know what? That’s what I’ll do. I’ll bring a piece of her to you. How does that sound?”
Jack mumbled. He spit. He tried to move his body. He couldn’t. The poison running through his bloodstream was too strong.
Igor laughed and left the room with his men.
The lights in the room went dark
Jack waited for his body wake up. He waited for the poison to dissipate in his blood.
Hours passed.
He regained feeling in his legs first. Then his arms. He pushed himself up. He sat with his back along the bars of the cage. The body of the dead cop was beside him. If Igor had let the dead cop finish his last sentence, that would have been it for Jack.
The dead cop was about to tell Igor that Jack was an ex-cop.
Jack looked at the dead body.
He knew Lieutenant Rivers. He had worked with him in the 77th. He was an asshole. It was no surprise that he was crooked. He had a tendency to turn a blind eye to too many small crimes. He was too loose with his gun, badge, and power.
He deserved his fate.
The light in the room flickered on.
“Hello,” an unusual voice said. “Is there anybody home?”
It sounded like an old man.
Jack looked around the room. The women inside the cages hadn’t made a noise. They were cold and shivering. The voice definitely did not come from one of them.
He saw the source of the unusual voice. It was a stout, old man in a white lab coat. He looked like a doctor.
“I’m here to confirm that you didn’t die. Igor is quite looking forward to killing you the slow way.” He laughed. “Young men like the violence, y’know.”
The man walked up to a sink. He washed his hands. “Sanitation is key,” he said. “You know what they say about cleanliness?”
Jack didn’t respond.
The man finished washing his hands and walked to Jack’s cage. He looked at the dead body beside Jack.
“Dear, dear,” he said. “Mr. Grekovitch let
his temper get the better of him again.”
Jack stared at the old man and breathed deep heavy breaths. He didn’t say a thing.
“Are you awake?” the old man said. “You seem well. But I should check you. Igor doesn’t like mistakes.” The old man laughed. “I’ll grab a few guards. I’ll get a knife. Try poking you in a few spots. See if you scream.”
The man walked slowly away from the cage. He had a limp and had a stethoscope draped around his neck.
Jack remained still and watched him.
A few minutes passed, the old man returned along with two of Igor’s men.
“Don’t try anything funny,” the old man said. He was holding a knife.
One of Igor’s men unlocked the door to the cage.
Jack controlled every muscle, every impulse he had to move. He had to time this perfect. He was still groggy and his vision was still blurry.
The old man walked inside. Igor’s men drew their guns.
“You try anything, we’ll kill you,” one of them said.
The old man took a few hesitant steps up to Jack and bent down. He held the knife up to Jack’s leg. “If you scream, I’ll know you are ready.” He giggled.
Jack grabbed the old man’s arm and twisted it. He took hold of the knife. He stood up. With his other arm he lifted up the old man. He was using the old man as a human shield.
The guards fired.
Blood oozed out of the two holes in the old man’s chest.
In the frenzy, one of Igor’s men put his gun in its holster and went to lock the cage. He struggled to find the key.
Jack threw the knife at the man’s head. The knife spun between the bars and dug itself deep into the man’s bone and brain.
The door to the cage opened.
Jack pushed the dead body of the old man toward the door.
Jack lept out.
As he flew through the air, he grabbed the gun from the holster of the man with a knife in his head. He rotated in the air and landed on his back. He aimed the gun at the remaining man and fired.
Pop.
The man dropped. Blood splattered.
The women inside the cages screamed.
Jack got up and dusted himself off. He was covered in the blood of a dead cop and the old man.
He needed to get back to Igor. He needed to get to Elaine.
