“IGOR IS OUT of the office.”
I close the door gently behind me as I step out into the hall—Nicolai’s gaze darts to the door before returning to me.
“You know this how?” I cross my arms.
“I have eyes and ears everywhere.” Nicolai steps away, and I take one final glance at the door and follow him.
“He should be busy for an hour. So it’s a quick in and out.” Nicolai glances at me over his shoulder and grins. “I’ll come with you.”
I’m not sure about that part. I stop Nicolai once we’re downstairs. “You don’t have to.” Breaking into Igor’s office would be a death sentence if we got caught.
I can’t put that kind of threat around Nicolai’s neck.
“I’m going with you. Who will keep the security busy?”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead,” I admit.
Nicolai opens a door and removes two black rucksacks. One is fired at me, and I catch it.
“I’ll distract them while you go in and get what you need.”
I open the bag. It’s a standard go bag that most of us keep in our homes. I strip off my shirt and pull on the black jumper. I push the dark gloves into the back pocket of my suit trousers. I don’t remove the money but take out the gun, knife, and earpiece that will allow Nicolai and me to communicate. He’s getting ready also as I hide the gun and knife on my body.
“How will you distract them?” These men are trained to kill.
“Don’t worry about that. All you need to worry about is getting in and out.” Nicolai picks the bags up off the ground and pushes them back into the storage space.
Before we leave, Nicolai grabs a bottle of vodka and takes several deep drinks.
“A bit of Dutch courage?” I ask.
“Like I ever needed courage.” He grins as we leave the house.
Fifteen minutes later, I’m outside the building as I pull on the dark jacket. Nicolai stays in the car. When I walk through the same double doors I did only days before, it feels like a lifetime ago.
The lobby is quiet as I make my way to the elevator. There is no security on the lobby floor; they don’t need it. I take the elevator up to the top floor.
“How are you doing?” Nicolai’s voice booms in my ear, and I adjust the device in my ear so he isn’t as loud.
The ding of the doors has my answer dying on my lips, and I step out into Igor’s lobby. His security moves toward me. I don’t stop walking.
“I have a meeting with Igor.”
One of them blocks my path. “Igor isn’t here.”
“He’s en route to Sheriff’s for a suit fitting.” Nicolai’s words echo in my ear.
“I know he isn’t. He’s at Sheriff’s for a suit fitting and told me to meet him here.”
The security man eyes me for a second before moving aside. I take a seat across from his door, and the two men return to the station at the elevator door.
I want to check my watch to see how much time has passed. Nicolai said we have an hour. It took fifteen minutes to get here, and five must have passed. If I want to search his office, I need to move soon. I could just kill both men.
“I’m on my way. Don’t do anything stupid.” Nicolai’s voice has me fighting a grin. He knows me too well.
Fifteen seconds later, the ding of the elevator doors has the security shifting.
A tall man stumbles out, a cap dragged down over his eyes as he continues to stumble into the security.
“I need to take a piss. Where’s the bathroom?” Nicolai’s voice is slurred, and both security men reach for him. He’s struggling against them, and I meet his gaze for a second before I get up and enter Igor’s office. His drinking the vodka makes sense now, and he’s close enough to the security for them to smell the alcohol on his breath.
I have less time now. Nicolai can’t wrestle them for long, and when they turn and see my chair empty, they’ll know I didn’t leave, that I was in one of the rooms on this floor.
The minute I step into the office, I make a beeline for a chair that I pick up and push under the door handle. Once it’s secured, I walk back to Igor’s desk and sit down. Papers of contracts sit on his desk in a neat pile to my left. I scan them. They’re jobs, but not the one I’m doing or anything that’s relevant.
Turning on the computer is unfruitful, as the moment it powers up, it requests a password. I could try to guess, but I don’t think that would be a wise way to spend my small amount of time, so I abandon it and pull at the top drawer. It’s filled with stationery, cigars, and a cell phone.
I take out the cell phone and turn it on. I leave it sitting on the table to power up as I search the next two drawers.
A bang on the door has me grinding my teeth.
“Can’t you hold them off longer?” I press my finger to my ear as I try to speak to Nicolai.
No answer, but no one bangs on the door again. Getting out of the chair, I try to pull open the filing cabinet, but it’s locked. Removing the knife from my pocket, I wriggle it around in the lock. Using the palm of my hand, I slam it into the handle of the knife; the lock gives way. They aren’t built very strong.
I pull open the top drawer and search the Bs. I’m looking for The Brigadier, which I know won’t really be filed, but time is tight, so I start with the obvious. It’s two drawers down that I find a file on me and open it.
Another loud bang on the door has me stuffing it into the band of my trousers. After closing the door of the filing cabinet, I return to the desk, where I left the phone. It’s looking for a fingerprint. I power it off and put it back into the drawer.
“Can I come out?” I ask Nicolai.
No answer. I remove the chair carefully from under the door handle and listen. But there is no noise.
“Yes, come out and tell everyone what you are.” Nicolai’s voice is still slurred in my ear.
I open the door to an empty hall. I don’t stall but get into the elevator and take it all the way down to the ground floor.
The moment I step out, the noise of Nicolai has attracted every member of staff as he fights with Igor’s security. I’m surprised they haven’t taken him out back and beaten him.
Nicolai spots me, and his voice grows louder. The lobby is large enough that I go unnoticed out the front door.
Getting into the car, I take out the file and start to read it. I’m expecting to find a list of jobs about me, but that’s not what I’m reading. It’s about my childhood. All about my father being incarcerated and how I went to Camp Cempt.
I’m flipping to the next page, which lists all my training. How the fuck did he get this information on me? The door opens, and I look up as Nicolai gets in. He starts the car and takes a glance at the papers. “Did you get what you needed?” he asks as he pulls away.
“I’m not sure.” I return to the pages and continue to read my fucking life.
“He was investigating me,” I say as I turn to the next page.
“Why?” Nicolai asks, running his hand through his hair. Red marks on his neck make me pause.
“It got rough?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle. Was it worth it?” Again his gaze darts to the file.
“General Obshcheye’s pet.” I nearly fucking laugh at that. The General didn’t have pets. I was his favorite, but that didn’t mean anything if I fucked up.
It’s just pages and pages about me. Flipping to the next page, I find a report. “I might have something,” I say to Nicolai, who keeps looking at me. It’s a report about the job.
All seven bodies were found burned at number forty-two, Court Town, Industrial Estate.
“It’s a report,” I say to Nicolai as I read on. “It’s a report by me closing the case on Evie and the girls.”
Nicolai frowns at me as he slows down outside his home.
I glance down at my signature at the end of the report. “It says I found seven bodies at the warehouse where the girls are being kept.”
“So he takes you off the case saying he found them but files a report saying you found them dead?”
“Why me? Why did he pick me for the job? Why investigate me?” Frustration claws at me. I should have taken the phone with me. We would have been picked up on video footage along with the security saying I had been there, but stealing the phone would have been wise.
I turn the page, and it’s the final one. It’s a request to retrieve the girls and bring them back safely. It’s a request to Igor. Initials I can’t make out are scribbled on the bottom.
“Igor was requested to get the girls.”
“That just confirms what we already know. That he’s a soldier, and the request must have been from The Brigadier. I rip the piece of paper out of the file and hold it up to the window to see if I can make out the initials.
“OB are the initials,” I say as Nicolai parks the car and turns it off.
I drop the page. “We need to get to the warehouse, get the girls, and burn it.” I tighten my grip on the file. “We need to do what the report says before he does it.”
“What if he knew you would break in? What if this is a setup?”
“This is a setup.” I hold up the letter again. “He picked me for a reason. He signed the report with my name for a reason.”
My past intrigues him.
“General Obshcheye,” I say as it all clicks into place.
“You said the initials were OB.”
“Obshcheye Baluev. That’s the general’s name.” I exhale as I place the file on my knee and grin at Nicolai. “He picked me because the general is The Brigadier, and I’ve always been in his favor.” I laugh now as I think of how clever Igor is. “He picked me to the do the job because the general wouldn’t question a report by me. He trained me. Igor found a way to steal millions from The Brigadier.”
Bastard set me up.
“You’re in the favor of a Brigadier.” Nicolai sounds in awe. I don’t blame him, but knowing who it is, is dangerous, and if the general ever finds out we know, he wouldn’t hesitate to drag a knife across my throat.
“We need to burn the warehouse and get the girls.”
Nicolai restarts the car without question. I glance up at the window, hoping to see Evie, but no one is there.
“She’s safe.” Nicolai confuses my look.
“I know.” She’s safe in Nicolai’s house. It’s a fortress.
“He’ll know soon that I broke in.”
“We should have the girls by then and be on our way back.”
“We need a van to transport them.”
I glance at Nicolai. He’s picking up his cell phone. “I’ll arrange it now.”
I place all the information back into the file and roll it up before stuffing it inside my jacket. It’s something I would have to burn. No one could ever get their hands on this information. Not about me, but most importantly about the general. That isn’t knowledge that should ever be shared.