The Russian Deception

CHAPTER 25

Valentina sat in the lobby of the Sacher Hotel pretending to read a magazine and watching the elevator, waiting for Selena to make an appearance. Late morning sunlight streamed through the windows. The snow had stopped but the sky was dark and heavy with the promise of more to come, the kind of day that made you think of hot chocolate, the smell of freshly baked pastries and the warmth of a café. There was something about Vienna that made you think like that.

The night before she'd taken a table not far from where Selena and her companions were eating dinner. They hadn't noticed her. She hadn't expected that they would. This was as close as she'd ever gotten to her half-sister. She wanted to talk to Selena. She wanted to ask her about their father. But she couldn't very well just walk up to her. Valentina hadn't yet figured out what she was going to do. Meanwhile it was enough to be nearby.

The elevator doors opened and Selena came out. She was alone. Valentina watched her walk out the entrance, then got up and followed her.

The Sacher Hotel was located in the heart of Vienna, near many of the exclusive shops the city had to offer. Selena waved off offers of a cab and began walking. Valentina followed a half block behind. She watched to see if her sister would use basic tradecraft and check to see if she was being tailed. After ten minutes there was no sign that Selena was thinking about anything except what she might see in the shop windows. She could have been using the windows to check behind her but that was an inefficient precaution against someone with Valentina's skills. It confirmed what Valentina already suspected. Selena was accomplished in many ways but she didn't have the kind of training Valentina took for granted.

Selena halted to look at a display in a window. A dark blue Mercedes van pulled up and stopped by the curb near her. Two men jumped from the van and grabbed her while one held something over her face. Selena struggled and went limp.

Chloroform, or something like it, Valentina thought. Shit.

The men threw Selena into the van and got in after her. The van pulled away into traffic. The kidnapping had taken less than half a minute. Pedestrians on the sidewalk stood in numb confusion watching the van speed away. Valentina stepped out into the street and waved down a taxi.

"You see that van going down the block? The blue Mercedes?" She addressed the cab driver in German.

"Yes."

"Follow it. Don't get too close. A hundred dollars American if you don't lose it."

"Lady, I don't do nothing illegal."

"Two hundred. All you have to do is keep it in sight."

The driver pulled out after the van and activated his meter. "Give me the money."

Valentina took two $100 bills out of her purse. She gave him one and held up the other.

"One now. One when we get where we're going."

The driver shrugged and pocketed the bill. Ahead of them the blue van drove at a steady pace through the city. The taxi followed about a block behind. The van was keeping to the speed limit, careful to avoid attention.

Valentina was unarmed. She avoided taking weapons when she had to fly anywhere. There was usually something that could be improvised if the need arose.

Who are they? she thought. That took planning, grabbing her like that in broad daylight and then just driving away. Somebody knows what they're doing.

She debated calling the hotel and alerting Selena's companions but thought better of it. For one thing, she didn't know where the van was going. Wherever they were taking Selena, it would take too much time for her team to get to her. Somehow Valentina didn't think Selena had a lot of time.

They had driven out of the more prosperous parts of the city into an industrial area.

"Where are we?" Valentina said.

"Liesing district."

They passed by a huge open market off the highway. Ahead lay a complex of refineries and enormous round storage tanks. The van with Selena turned off onto a service road leading into a maze of tanks and towers and chimneys. The landscape was like something conceived for a science fiction movie, all convoluted pipes and steel and flames from the top of tall chimneys. The air smelled of sulfur and something unpleasant. The refinery was an alien environment, hostile to humans.

The area seemed deserted.

"Where is everyone?"

"It's Sunday," the driver said. "Maybe in church."

There was no traffic. The van and the taxi were the only vehicles.

"Slow down. Don't let them see you."

The taxi fell back. The van turned and disappeared behind one of the huge storage tanks.

"Stop there by that tank," Valentina said. "Don't make the turn. I want to look and see where they went."

"Another hundred," the driver said.

Valentina thought of teaching him a lesson about greed. There might be time for that later but for now she needed him.

"All right. But that's all. You'll get the money when we go back."

The driver stopped the car. Valentina got out and eased her way around the tank until she could see what lay beyond. The blue van was parked by a large office trailer mounted on a permanent foundation. Blinds were drawn on the windows. She went back to the cab.

"Wait here," she told the driver. "I may be a few minutes."

She held up the money to make her point. The driver took out a cigarette and lit it.

Valentina made a crouching run to the side of the trailer. There had to be at least three men inside with Selena, the two who had grabbed her and the driver of the van. A short flight of steps led up to the door. She went up the steps, silent as a shadow. She placed her ear against the door and heard voices.

"She's waking up."

The voice was wet, unpleasant. In her mind's eye, Valentina thought of a frog.

"Good. Make sure those zip ties are tight. We need her awake. Is the camera ready?"

The second voice spoke with authority. Boss man.

"Just give me a minute."

The third voice had a whiny quality to it, almost adolescent sounding.

"Whoever uses this office is in for a big surprise when they come back to work," Frog Voice said. He chuckled, a nasty, gargled sound with no humor in it.

"Camera's ready," the whiny man said.

The sound of a chainsaw starting up came from within the trailer. It ran for a moment and stopped.

"All set," Frog Voice said.

"Better break out the raincoats," Boss Man said. "I don't want her mess all over me."

"They're in the van." Whiny voice again.

"Go get them. Move. We haven't got all day."

They're going to kill her, Valentina thought, and take pictures of it.

For Valentina, the decision was easy. If she didn't intervene, she would never find out what her father had really been like. She'd never get a chance to talk with Selena. Her training took over.

Valentina flattened herself against the side of the trailer and waited. The door opened. The man coming out didn't see Valentina behind it. He flipped it shut behind him without looking around and started down the stairs. Adrenaline flooded through her. Valentina launched herself from the top step and struck him from behind, reaching up with both hands and twisting his head as her body slammed into him. There was a loud crack as his neck broke. She fell to the ground on top of him. His body cushioned her fall. A foul smell enveloped her as the dead man's bowels let go.

The noise had been minimal. There was no sign anyone in the trailer had heard.

One down. Two to go.

She pictured the way the trailer probably looked inside. There would be one large room with a desk or two. Maybe a cubicle. A bathroom on one end. Another room for storage and files at the other end. Selena and her captors would be in the main room, right beyond the unlocked door.

The adrenaline sharpened all her senses. She took three deep breaths. She reached for the door handle, pulled the door open and took in the scene.

Selena was sitting in a wooden chair, straps binding her in place. There was a rag stuffed in her mouth. Her violet eyes widened as she saw Valentina come through the doorway. Three men stood nearby, one of them holding a large, orange chainsaw.

Three, not two.

The three men looked at her, frozen in place by her sudden appearance. Valentina went for the nearest one. She launched a high kick that struck him on the throat and crushed his larynx. He collapsed to the floor clutching his neck and gagging as he tried to breathe, his face turning red and purple.

She followed through with an elbow strike on the man standing behind him. Her elbow had all the force and momentum of her weight and movement behind it. The blow landed between his shoulder and his neck. His collarbone broke with a wet snapping sound. As he bent forward she spun and struck the back of his neck with the hardened edge of her palm, a killing blow.

That left the third man. She turned to face him. He was large, short and wide, swarthy and brutal looking. He needed a shave. He smiled at her and pulled the cord and fired up the saw. The distinctive sound filled the confined space.

"Bitch," he said. "I don't know who you are but you just made a big mistake."

It was Frog Voice. He moved the roaring saw back and forth and up and down in front of him, a whirring shield against her kicks. The spinning teeth could bite through a leg in an instant. He began to circle around her.

"I'm going to cut off an arm or leg and then I'm going to take my time with the rest of you," he said. "I'll cut away little bits at a time. It will take a while to bleed out. When I'm done with you I'm gonna to do the same to this little lady over here. She gets to be on camera, but you? I ain't gonna bother."

For a big man he moved quickly. He made a sudden thrust at her, sweeping low at her legs. Valentina felt the sharp bite of the chain as it went by and nicked her knee. The saw was heavy. Before Frog Voice could correct and bring the blade back Valentina planted a hard kick on his chest. He stumbled back and tripped and went down. The blade bit into the floor of the trailer and bounced back onto his face. He screamed as the whirring chain cut through his face and his skull. Blood and brain matter and white bone fountained into the air. The saw ran for another few seconds, buried in the ruin of his head until it caught on something and stopped.

The silence was overwhelming. The air in the room was dense with the smell of sweat and fear and feces, mixed with the copper scent of blood. Valentina paused, resting her hands on her knees. She took a deep breath and waited for her heart to stop pounding. She looked up and saw Selena watching her.

She went over to Selena and pulled the rag from her mouth. Selena coughed and ran her tongue over her lips.

"Thanks. Who are you?"

The woman standing in front of her was somehow familiar, yet she was sure they had never met. Then it registered.

"Valentina Antipov," Selena said. "You're Valentina."

"You know who I am? I wasn't sure if you were aware of my existence."

"I wasn't, until a few months ago," Selena said.

Valentina pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Selena. The sisters stared at each other.

"I can see the resemblance," Selena said. "It's something in the structure of the face, the way the bones lie under the skin. And you've got one high cheekbone, like I do."

"Our hair is different. The color of the eyes. The upper body. I am larger, no? But, I too, see the resemblance."

"Would you untie me please?"

"I don't think so," Valentina said. "We are, after all, on opposite sides."

"You don't trust me?"

"You are a loyal agent of your country. So am I. So no, I don't trust you, not yet."

"Why did you intervene? Not that I'm not grateful. That ugly slob was going to cut me up with his saw."

"I saw them take you on the street."

"You've been following me?"

"I saw you in the airport at Skopje. We were on the same plane."

She was in Macedonia. I wonder if she's the one who shot Todorovski?

As soon as the thought occurred she knew she was right. It fit perfectly. Why else would Valentina be in Macedonia? But Selena kept her thoughts to herself.

"I followed you here," Valentina said. "I heard them talking through the door and knew they were going to kill you. I didn't want that to happen before we had a chance to talk."

This is bizarre, Selena thought, her mind racing. She looked in Valentina's eyes. My sister is a Russian assassin and she just saved me from an awful death. She's damaged, I can see it in her eyes. What was it like for her, growing up with someone like Vysotsky controlling her at every step of the way?

"What did you want to talk about?"

"Our father. What was he like? Why did he go back to America and leave my mother?"

"You know what he did, who he worked for?"

"Your CIA, yes I know."

"Your mother was called back to Moscow when they discovered she was pregnant with you. Our father was sent home by the Chief of Station in Berlin and reprimanded. He didn't have a choice, just like your mother didn't."

"He could have done something. He never did. Nothing to find out what happened to her or to me."

Selena heard anger and hurt in Valentina's voice.

"I don't know that and neither do you," Selena said. "I don't think there was much he could've done. We'll never know. Your protector murdered him and my mother and my brother."

Valentina got up and began to pace around the trailer, careful not to step in the spreading pool of blood under the body of the big man.

"These things…" Valentina made a vague gesture with her hand. "These things, they are in the nature of our work, no? I have not yet decided what to do about General Vysotsky. He took the place of a father for me. He was better than nothing. I owe him something for that."

"Our father was a wonderful man," Selena said. "It was hard for me when he was away. He was away most of the time. Langley was always sending him off somewhere where dependents would have been a burden."

"We are similar in this way," Valentina said. "My mother was mostly gone when I was a child. Tell me more about him."

For the next half hour Selena talked with Valentina about what it had been like growing up in California before their father had been killed. Sometimes Valentina would ask a question but mostly she listened. After a while Selena stopped.

"My hands are numb," she said. "Please, can you at least free them? I can't do much tied to this chair."

"I will do this for you. But do not try anything foolish, sister. I don't want to hurt you."

The plastic ties binding Selena's wrists were pulled tight into the flesh. The hands were dead white. They wouldn't be of use for a while and by that time Valentina would be gone. She went over to the desk and rummaged through it for something to cut the ties. She found a scissors and cut through the plastic.

Selena brought her arms around front and began rubbing her hands against her legs trying to bring back the circulation.

"Who sent these men after you?" Valentina asked.

"I don't know. I heard them talking about how whoever hired them wanted a tape of me being murdered. They talked about how they'd get a bonus for making it especially painful."

"Someone doesn't like you very much."

Selena made a snorting sound. "I think that's obvious."

"Whoever it is will try again."

"Like you said, these things are part of what we do."

"I'm leaving now."

"How about untying me?"

"No, but I will call your new husband and let him know where you are."

"Do you know anything about the bomb that went off at my wedding?"

"There was a bomb? I didn't know that. Perhaps the same person who had these men bring you here."

Selena looked at this woman, the daughter of her father and a Russian spy, a skilled assassin. Her sister. She hadn't even known Valentina existed until a few months ago. It had been strange to see her standing there, stranger yet that they should meet for the first time like this, in a room stained with the blood of men who had been sent to kill her.

"Will I see you again?" Selena asked.

"Who knows?" Valentina paused. "I hope we never have to work against each other. When I learned about our father and about you I was very angry at you for having all the things that had been kept from me. But we are family. I couldn't keep the anger burning. I have no desire to hurt you but our countries are enemies, no? If I was assigned against you I would follow orders. You understand?"

Selena felt sudden sadness listening to her.

"I understand. I also hope we never confront each other."

"Good." Valentina went to the door and paused. "Goodbye, sister."

The door closed behind her.