Free The Russian Deception by Alex Lukeman Page B

put them in the first car. Don't try for a weapon or I will kill you."
    They did as he said, first one body, then the other. They put both dead men in the front seats.
    "Close the doors. Good. Now come back over here."
    They came back and stood next to Nick.
    "You're making a mistake," Nick said.
    "I don't think so."
    "So Josef was right? The Russians are behind this?"
    "Mitreski is simply preserving order," Viktor said. "The Russians are helping us keep our country from becoming another puppet of the West."
    "Oh," Selena said. "I see. You would rather be Moscow's puppet instead."
    "The time when America could tell everyone what to do is over."
    "What about the Macedonians who want a new government?" Selena asked.
    "There are always troublemakers, people who don't understand what is good for them."
    He raised the rifle. "Get in the car with my former comrades. All of you."
    Ronnie fell to his knees and held up his hands, pleading. "Please don't kill us. We can help you."
    Viktor sneered at him. "Help me? Look at you. You can't even help yourself. Stand up. Die like a man."
    "No, no, please."
    Ronnie ducked his head. His hand moved up behind his neck and there was a sudden glint of steel in the air. His throwing knife buried itself under Viktor's chin.
    Viktor stumbled and choked, blood spurting out the front of his throat. He grasped at the knife with his left hand. His right hand with the rifle dropped away and the gun fired into the ground. Viktor fell onto his back, pawing at the knife. His feet twitched in the snow and then he was still.
    Ronnie stood up and brushed snow from his knees.
    "I forgot about that little sticker you keep back there," Lamont said.
    "Most people miss it if they do a search," Ronnie said.
    "No, no, please? Where did you get that line?" Nick said. "Out of a grade B movie?"
    "Hey, it worked didn't it? What do you want, an Oscar performance?"
    Selena went to Ronnie and kissed him on the cheek. "I thought you were great."
    Ronnie blushed.
    Nick turned on his satellite phone and held it up.
    "No signal. Let's get out of here," he said. "I'm cold."
    "Let me get my knife," Ronnie said.
    He went over to Viktor's body and pulled out the blade. He wiped the blood off on Viktor's jacket and looked down at the body. The friendly smile of the helpful guide was gone, replaced by a contorted grimace of death.
    "We never did get that coffee he promised," Lamont said.
     
     

CHAPTER 17
 
     
    Stephanie sat at the wide console that controlled the enormous power of the Crays lined up behind her, staring at the lines of code filling her monitor. The room was cold with the air conditioning that kept the computers happy.
    The chill Stephanie felt went far deeper than the number on the thermostat.
    A cup of coffee cooled on her desk, forgotten. The lines of code displayed in front of her might as well have been written by aliens from Mars for all the sense they made to her at the moment.
    She couldn't stop thinking about the ambush that had almost killed her and made her lose the baby. Physically she was healing but the unseen effects were another story.
    It would be Christmas soon. She thought about how she would have been in her third trimester, shopping for a baby that now would never come. The doctors had told her she could have another, that there was no damage to prevent a healthy pregnancy. The words were meant to comfort her but were a poor substitute for the child she'd lost.
    She'd been in surgery for more than six hours. For a while afterward the pain and the drugs the doctors gave her kept her from thinking clearly. She'd been numb, unable to embrace the reality of her loss. Then the dam cracked and the emotions had flooded in, a dark mix of anger, frustration, grief and guilt. It was a tossup as to which one was the strongest.
    Her anger could find no outlet. The men who had violated her were dead. The man who had sent them was dead. There was no one left to go after, to punish. No one to take out her