Hail Warning

Termez, Uzbekistan

They left the Russian doctor’s home less than an hour after they had arrived. Kara felt the impact from the three shots of liquor they had consumed. She was feeling a little dizzy and giddy. If Kornev was buzzed, she couldn’t tell. His injury in his hand wasn’t a hole. Technically, the bullet grazed him, disintegrating more skin between his thumb and index finger. The doctor did little more than suture closed the webbing of the skin that had remained intact. Kara surmised Kornev would have difficulties fully spreading out his hand, until the wound had healed. But over time, she assumed the skin would stretch out, and he would regain full motion. The doctor had applied some antibiotic self-dissolving glue to the incision. He told Kornev the glue would act as a bacterial barrier while the wound healed. Thus, there was no need for Kornev to wear a bandage.

Back aboard the Hail Nucleus, inside the security center, Taylor reported to the crew, “Kornev and Ramey have just come out of the home and are getting back into the Hummer.” As the Hummer pulled out onto a small and narrow dirt street, Taylor turned her drone Foreigner so it pointed in the same direction.

Dallas Stone typed out Taylor’s report, making a timestamped entry in a surveillance log. When Hail called, he could provide him an accurate report. This was procedure.

It took less than ten minutes for the Hummer to wind its way through the maze of Termez streets before arriving at Kornev’s compound. Instead of pulling up in front of the compound, Kornev’s Hummer pulled into a two-car garage in a home adjacent to the main compound.

Taylor reported the information, and Stone logged the information.

Kara jumped out of the big vehicle. It was a long way down to the ground. She walked around the front of the Hummer. Kornev was already standing there waiting for her. Next to them were some wooden stairs that reminded Kara of a set of stairs that led to her family’s basement.

Without saying a word, Kornev began descending the stairs. Kara followed. At the bottom of the stairs, Kara discovered that they were not in a basement. Instead, they were at the base of a long underground tunnel. The walls were made of cinderblock, and the ceiling appeared to be made from some sort of cement that had been applied and smoothed over.

“Where does this lead to, Mexico?” she joked.

Kornev didn’t laugh at her joke. Instead he said, “This is an entrance to my home.” His voice sounded distant, as if he was on guard and not in the mood to joke around. This didn’t set off any alarm bells with Kara. If she was an international arms dealer, she would probably have some trepidation when she left or entered her home. She was certain that Kornev never knew who would be waiting to ambush him in either circumstance.

What did concern her was when Kornev suddenly stopped halfway down the tunnel. She wasn’t expecting it, and she bumped into him. Kornev turned quickly to face her, and he casually placed the end of his Glock on the delicate bridge of her nose.

Kara guessed that Kornev was waiting for her to make a move of some type. Maybe step back, fall to the floor, maybe scream or maybe cry. But she did none of those things. Instead, after taking the briefest of time to compose herself, she smiled.

This was apparently not what Kornev had been expecting.

Tonya said, “I know you like to play with guns, Victor, but don’t you think this is a little over the top?”

In Kara’s eyes, Kornev didn’t look like he was playing around. He looked dead serious.

The Russian said, “Turn this way — turn that way — all the way up until we run into the only cowboy in the entire desert who just happened to be waiting for us in the middle of the road. Who are you?”

The gun was beginning to leave an indentation in Kara’s white nose, but she didn’t attempt to move away.

“Who do you want me to be?” she asked in a deadpan voice.

Kornev looked frustrated and said, “I can pull this trigger, and no one will even hear the shot since we are deep underground. I can leave you here to rot. Answer me. Who are you?”

Kara said in a measured tone, “Honestly, does it make any difference to you who I am? I thought you wanted to have some fun. Isn’t that why you called me? But so far, we have been chased by some crazy-looking machines that were shooting real bullets at us. Then you get accosted by a cowboy in the middle of the frickin’ desert. Then we go visit some ancient friend of yours who ogles at me. His breath could kill a dead horse. Now, here we are in the middle of a tunnel, and you are resting your heavy gun on my little nose. I’ve got news for you, Victor. This might be exciting for you, but it really isn’t all that much fun for me. I have had just about enough of this. I was picturing dancing and drinking and partying.”

Kornev looked more confused than angry. He wasn’t getting an answer to his question, and this woman didn’t seem to be concerned in the least a gun was still centered in the middle of her face.

Kara pushed the gun to one side and said, “Who do you think I am? What kind of job do you do? I was telling you to turn the SUV because the flying things were on my side of the car, so it made sense to turn away from them. After all, you didn’t appear to be doing anything other than panicking.”

Kornev slowly lowered the gun to his side. He didn’t know what to say. And Tonya had a point. Worst-case scenario she was working for an intelligence agency of some sort. But did that really matter at this point? The Americans had already made it very clear that they didn’t want him dead. On the contrary, they wanted him alive so he could work for them. From a pure safety standpoint, the woman was not a threat. And if she was, as she claimed to be, a woman who just wanted to have fun, he would find that out soon. They were headed to a beautiful beachfront home at an exotic locale called Snake Island.

Kornev returned the gun behind his back, tucking it back into the waistband of his pants. He apologized to Tonya.

“I’m sorry. You understand that in my line of work I have to be careful?”

It was a trap. She wasn’t going to take the bait.

“I don’t know what line of work you are in, but something tells me I don’t want to know. Just so you know that as far as a second date goes, this one really sucks.”

Kornev tried to shrug it off. He gave her a little hug and told her, “I am going to make it up to you — I promise.”

“And what does that mean?” she asked suspiciously. “Are we going to go skydiving without parachutes? Are we going to go run with the bulls? I don’t believe you know how to make it up to me,” Tonya huffed. She pouted.

This time, Kornev laughed at her joke. He put his arm around her waist and they began walking further down the dank tunnel.

Kornev patted Kara on her round bottom as they came to the stairs that led up to the compound. As Kornev patted her other cheek, he found her cellphone and removed it from her back pocket.

“You won’t need this,” he said. “They barely have phone service around here.”

Kara considered protesting, but understood it was pointless. She decided to say nothing and began climbing the stairs.