The Malta Escape

by Chris Kuzneski

  “Come on, D.J. That’s not for me to say.”

  “True, but I’d like your opinion nonetheless.”

  “Tell me this,” Payne said, looking for the best way to avoid making the decision for his best friend, “when the offer first came in, what was your initial reaction? Were you jumping for joy, or dreading the thought of letting go?”

  “I jumped so high I hit the fucking ceiling.”

  “Well, there you have it. Decision made.”

  Jones nodded again, but this time with a sly grin on his face. “In that case, I’ve got some bad news for you before you sign your paperwork.”

  “Oh yeah, what’s that?”

  “Not only am I officially canceling my lease agreement,” Jones said as he grabbed the cardboard near Payne’s feet, “but I’m taking your boxes to pack my things.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Much to his delight, Bobrinsky watched his children fall in love with the city of Tallinn. As they walked along the cobblestone streets past the medieval buildings, he narrated the tales he had imagined when he was their age—stories about dragons, knights, and wizards.

  For Sasha and Angelina, this was a side of their father that they hadn’t seen in years. Although he had doted on them while their mother was sick and had gone out of his way to make the best of a bad situation, he had lacked the warmth in his voice, the twinkle in his eye—the tiny things that could not be faked when letting a child know that everything would be okay.

  But today, he seemed like a different person.

  One filled with hope instead of despair.

  Perhaps this city was magical after all.

  With so many things to see, Bobrinsky let his kids take the lead. Whether it was trying to climb the wooden gates that protected the city, chasing after a horse and carriage, or listening to street musicians, they never stopped smiling. And when they spotted a knight wearing chainmail armor and carrying a real sword in Town Hall Square, they literally gasped in awe.

  But who could blame them?

  Tallinn’s Old Town is such a well-preserved medieval city that it was easy to forget the current century. While many cities from the Middle Ages still have small chunks of their original defense walls, nearly all of Tallinn’s remains intact. Standing taller than many town buildings and measuring over a mile in length, the massive wall is capped with twenty-six of its original towers, each offering impressive views of the city within and the sea beyond.

  Bobrinsky was quite aware of these viewing platforms and had saved this treat for last, when the crowds had thinned and they could spend as much time up top as they wanted.

  From there, he planned to tell his kids that this would be their new home.

  A magical place that would help them forget their recent pain.

  A thriving city where they could start anew.

  And he meant it, too.

  Despite the ancient charm of Old Town, Bobrinsky knew that outside the stone walls was a flourishing metropolis that was often referred to as the Silicon Valley of Europe. In addition to being the birthplace of Skype and the location of the European Union’s IT Agency, Tallinn was also home to the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, which trained NATO members in cyber security and operations.

  More impressively, Estonia was the first country in the world to declare Internet access a basic human right—much like food and shelter. In 2000, it passed a law that gave digital signatures equal weight to handwritten ones. That move created an entire paperless system. Since no one was required to sign with a pen, there was no need for paper documents to pay taxes, obtain a mortgage, open a bank account, or most of life’s other tasks.

  With all of the tech startups in the region, Bobrinsky figured he could adapt his business model once again and figure out how to use his international connections to placate the young millionaires in Tallinn, many of whom had more cash than common sense.

  But first, he had to break the news to his children.

  “Come here, my little ones,” he said while squatting down to their level.

  Sasha and Angelina came running, still revving with energy despite a tiring day.

  Bobrinsky waited until he had their full attention before pointing at a tower behind them. Known as Nunnatorn, it was topped with an orange, coned roof and soared above the fortified wall like something from a Disney movie. The children had to tilt their heads back to soak it all in. “When papa was young like you, I saw a drawing of this magical tower. I don’t know why, but I instantly got goosebumps all over my body. For weeks and weeks, I thought about this place over and over again. I simply couldn’t get it out of my mind. Somehow I always knew that something important would happen up there.”

  “What happened, papa?” Angelina demanded.

  Bobrinsky shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, my princess. This is my first time here. But I thought if it was okay with you and your brother, maybe you could help your papa climb all of those stairs and we can find out together.”

  Angelina grabbed his hand. “I’ll help! I wanna know what happens!”

  Sasha grabbed his other hand. “I’ll help, too.”

  From his crouch, Bobrinsky groaned. “Are you sure? Because papa is fat from eating all of that ice cream at lunch. If I get stuck on those stairs, you two will have to carry me to the top.”

  Angelina pulled with all of her might. “Come on!”

  Sasha joined his sister and pulled until his father started to rise.

  Slowly but surely, he stood upright. “See! If we stick together, anything is possible!”

  But Angelina wasn’t done. “Come on, papa! I want to climb the tower.”

  “Me, too,” yelled Sasha, who seemed happier than he had been in years.

  Bobrinsky grinned at his boy. “Then what are we waiting for?”

  To reach the entrance to Nunnatorn, they first had to climb an interior set of stairs that opened onto an exposed walkway near the top of the city wall. Covered with an orange-tiled roof that matched the tower above, the walkway measured several hundred feet in length and ran in both directions. Although the exterior side of the walkway was protected by stone—merely an extension of the city wall—the inner side was open to the elements and lined with timber banisters, giving tourists a great view of the cobblestone streets nearly thirty feet below.

  “Wow,” Angelina said as she ran over to the banister and squeezed her head between the vertical planks that held up the top railing. “We’re up so high!”

  Bobrinsky sidled up next to her. “Be careful, my princess. We don’t want to lose your pretty little head. If it gets stuck, we might have to chop it off.”

  Sasha was tall enough to stand on his tiptoes and peek over the top of the banister. “If she gets stuck, we can get that knight from the town square, the one with the sword. I bet he could cut it off with one mighty swing!”

  Angelina didn’t like the thought of that, so she pulled her head out quickly. “Where’s the tower? I can’t see the tower!”

  Bobrinsky smiled. Because of the roof, she was unable to see the tower looming above them. “I told you it was magic. Maybe it disappeared.”

  She glanced to her left and saw nothing but an empty walkway. Then she glanced to her right and spotted a shadowy doorway at the very end. “Is it that way?”

  Bobrinsky shrugged. “I don’t know. Why don’t you go check? But don’t go past the door. If it is magic, I don’t want you to disappear.”

  “Okay,” she said as she started to skip down the pathway.

  “Wait for me!” Sasha screamed as he ran after his sister.

  Bobrinsky grinned at the sight of his children. He hadn’t seen them this happy in a very long time. Deep inside he knew that was partly his fault. The constant moving had been tough on them, but he had done it for their protection. He knew if things went according to plans, this would be the last time they would have to move.

  He could buy them a nice house in the suburbs.

  He could en
roll them in a private school.

  And they could finally stop running.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Ivan Volkov liked it when his enemies ran.

  He actually preferred it.

  Because it gave him a chance to chase them down before their slaughter.

  In Russian, his surname meant ‘wolf’, and it was certainly fitting for someone like Ivan. He preyed on the weak, waiting for them to make a wrong move before he pounced.

  In the case of Bobrinsky, he had a good business with plenty of assets, but he also had an avalanche of mounting debt. In a moment of weakness, he had accepted a loan from Volkov with ridiculous terms in order to pay for an experimental treatment for his wife. When that had failed, he had been left with nothing: no wife, no money, and no options except to sell everything he owned.

  Despite his penchant for violence, Volkov was a businessman who needed a steady stream of cash to run his criminal empire, so he had waited patiently as Bobrinsky sold whatever he had for as much as he could in order to pay off his debt. Initially, he had little trouble making his payments, but eventually, it had become harder and harder to maintain the pace.

  And Volkov knew it.

  Sadly for Bobrinsky, he owed money to more than one criminal. In a business like his, he was constantly making deals for hard-to-find items with his long-standing clientele. He would wire them half of the money up front, and then pay the rest once an item was delivered and authenticated. Although he stayed away from drugs and weapons, some of his items needed to be smuggled into or out of Russia—particularly rare collections or pieces of art with suspicious provenance—and in those cases, he needed to pay the smugglers as well.

  He didn’t fear them as much as Volkov, but without their services, his business would cease to exist, so he did what he believed he had to do: he paid them first.

  But when Volkov found out, he was furious.

  He viewed it as a slap in the face.

  Bobrinsky had paid his deliverymen before he’d paid him.

  Technically speaking, Bobrinsky hadn’t done anything wrong. He could do whatever he wanted with his money as long he didn’t default on his bi-monthly payments to Volkov.

  Still, the slight wouldn’t be forgotten.

  The instant Bobrinsky did something—anything—to violate the terms of their agreement, Volkov would make him pay for his transgression.

  And he would pay for it in blood.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  When Bobrinsky reached the top of the stairs inside the circular tower, he grinned with delight. After so many years of dreaming about it, he had finally made it.

  His children had beaten him by several steps and were running from window to window, trying to figure out which view they liked the most.

  After making her decision, Angelina stuck her nose against the glass in order to see the ancient city below. She didn’t care about the handprints or germs on the window. Those things meant nothing to someone her age. All she cared about was getting a better view.

  Sasha was staring at a hot-air balloon that was floating above the trees. It was the only thing in sight that was higher than he was. Written on its side were two words in English: BALLOON TALLINN. He quietly sounded out the words and proudly knew what they meant.

  Bobrinsky chose a window of his own and marveled at the view. In the distance, he could see the port where they had arrived earlier that morning. It hardly seemed like the same day. They had done so much in so little time it almost seemed impossible.

  And what a day it had been.

  Perhaps the perfect day.

  Just what his family needed to move on from its past.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Unfortunately, Bobrinsky’s past wasn’t ready to let go of him.

  At least until he paid what he owed.

  Volkov’s henchmen had monitored Bobrinsky as he had gone about his day. The crowds in Old Town had kept him safe as he roamed the cobblestone streets, but as the afternoon had dragged on and the crowds had started to thin, they knew it was only a matter of time.

  Volkov smiled an evil smile when he saw his prey in the tower window. He had killed people all over Eastern Europe but never in a place like this.

  It would be a slaughter he would never forget.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Bobrinsky was getting ready to tell his children about their move to Estonia when he heard someone on the stairs. He turned to see who it was and nearly froze at the sight.

  Black jeans. Black jacket. Black boots.

  A shaved head with neck tattoos.

  Like a henchman out of central casting.

  Then a second thug appeared. And another.

  One flashed a gun while the other signaled for him to stay quiet.

  Bobrinsky glanced at his kids, but they were too absorbed in their own little worlds to notice the danger behind them. They continued to stare out their windows as the final man arrived.

  Volkov was wearing a shiny black suit that shimmered in the tower’s light. His face was narrow, his eyes were dark, and his nose was quite pronounced. His slicked-back hair had a widow’s peak without a hint of gray. In his business, it was unwise to show weakness of any kind, so he always made sure he looked his best anytime he left his mansion.

  Volkov stared daggers at Bobrinsky.

  Bobrinsky tried to stare back but was unable to hold his gaze.

  In that moment, he knew his fate.

  He wouldn’t survive the day.

  “Sergei,” Volkov said as he walked toward his anxious prey. “I was just discussing your debt with my men. Your latest payment was due at noon, and it seems you failed to make it. I was wondering how this could possibly be, but now I understand why. You were on vacation!”

  Bobrinsky tried to speak, but the words caught in his throat. His face turned red. His stomach lurched. His heart pounded in his chest. He swallowed hard before attempting to speak again. “Mister Volkov. I…I tried to call you, but—”

  Volkov shook his head. “Don’t. Just don’t.”

  “Sorry, Mister Volkov. I should have—”

  Volkov walked forward, grabbed Bobrinsky by the back of his neck, and squeezed. Not hard enough to hurt him. Just hard enough to get his attention. “Please, call me Ivan. At this point, we are well past formalities. You are Sergei, and I am Ivan.”

  Bobrinsky nodded. “Yes, of course. Ivan. Whatever you prefer.”

  Volkov grinned. “It is still Sergei, isn’t it? Or has that recently changed? The reason I ask is because you used a different name when you bought your tickets to Tallinn. I, of course, know this because I have men everywhere. Loyal men. The kind who would never betray me.”

  Bobrinsky opened his mouth, but words failed him once again.

  Volkov continued to squeeze. “Sergei, it is okay. I understand your desire to flee. You have Sasha and Angelina to worry about. You did what any parent would do. You tried to protect your family. In many ways, I find it admirable. Disappointing, but admirable.”

  With that, he let go of Bobrinsky and shifted his focus to the kids.

  “Children,” Volkov called out as he dropped to his knees. “Come over here and say hello. I have seen many pictures of you, but I don’t believe we have met.”

  Despite his fierce reputation, Volkov was blessed with an abundance of charm. He used it to lure people in and make them feel comfortable—before he tore them apart, piece by piece. Many sociopaths had the same ability, but few wielded it as effectively as Volkov. He could go from best friend to worst enemy in the blink of an eye.

  Angelina turned from her window and walked over without hesitation. She was the more social sibling, the one who never had problems making friends at the playground. She walked right over to Volkov and looked him straight in the eye. “Did you know this is a magic tower?”

  Volkov gasped. “Really? What is its magical power?”

  She shrugged. “We don’t know. We climbed up here to find out.”

  Volkov smiled. “I don’t
know if this is true, but someone told me that a very old wizard with a very long beard cast a spell on this tower. Could that be what you’re talking about?”

  “Maybe. What was the spell?”

  Volkov glanced at Sasha, who had slowly made his way next to his sister. “According to legend, no one in the city of Tallinn can hear what happens in this tower. No matter how loud you yell or how long you scream, no one can hear a thing.”

  Sasha scrunched his face. “Is that true?”

  “Honestly, I have my doubts. But if it’s okay with you, I’d like to find out.” Volkov pointed at one of his henchman. “See my friend over there. I’ll have him stand outside and close the tower door. Then, on the count of three, I want both of you to scream as loud as you can. I’ll even join in. All of us will scream and scream and scream, and we’ll see if anyone can hear us.”

  Both kids grinned. It sounded like fun.

  Meanwhile, Bobrinsky was close to vomiting.

  “Go on,” Volkov ordered with a snap of his fingers.

  The henchman hustled over and closed the thick door from the outside.

  Volkov continued to smile. “Okay, kids. On the count of three. One…two…three!”

  Sasha and Angelina screamed as loudly as they could, and Volkov did as well. Of the three, Angelina’s high-pitched shriek was the most disturbing. It was loud, and shrill, and seemed to pierce her father’s heart as it rattled up his spine. Goosebumps instantly emerged on his flesh, much like the ones he had experienced when he had first seen a picture of the tower.

  In that instant, everything made sense to him.

  He finally knew why he had reacted that way as a child.

  Fate hadn’t brought him to Tallinn for a second chance.

  It had brought him there to end his life.