Holger was energised after meeting with the people that were going to support the rescue of Kaare. He and Tatjana had driven straight to the apartment even though they had both been exhausted after the evening at the studio. The suntanned leader of the Documentation Group had conducted his briefing shortly after midnight. It had been as stringent as those Holger had participated in numerous times in the military, thorough, based on map studies and the actual recce conducted by Vladimir earlier in the evening. Vladimir had gotten close enough to the target to confirm it was still heavily guarded. These are professionals, and they certainly have the weaponry to back-up their professionalism, thought Holger as he, for the first time, had a gut feeling that the mission would be successful. Holger had insisted on carrying out his own reconnaissance immediately after sunrise. Although the Documentation Group leader had initially objected, arguing that he might endanger the mission, he had finally relented. Tatjana had insisted she go with him, but Holger had argued against it, stressing that his chances would be better if he went alone. The dramatic events of the evening were still fresh in his mind, but Tatjana had finally got her way. She had turned his own principles against him: they 360had to leave the anonymous sidewalk hotel where they had spent the night anyway. At most, one night in the same place.
Holger had made this his mantra since the episode at Hotel Ukraine in Moscow. The Russian police were clearly on their tail, and he had also decided to abandon the rickety blue Lada. Ultimately, Holger accepted that it made more sense for them to stick together; when the rescue mission was launched, everything would be chaotic, and the risk of getting separated was significant.
Holger parked the Lada in an alley a few blocks from the apartment. With the keys left in the car, someone will hopefully find it before the police do, he thought as he walked back to Tatjana, smiling. She was waiting in the street, having already hailed a cab. Her mind drifted somewhere else, and with a latent vestige of vanity, she ran her hand through her hair as she saw him. The small, white taxi was unmarked, but that was a familiar sight in St Petersburg. Tatjana explained as they climbed in:
‘Here, private citizens are taxi drivers as a side hustle.’
Holger immediately spotted two plastic-wrapped photos taped to the inside of the windshield. One was of a uniformed man; the other was a picture of the Bleeding Saviour Church, one of the proud jewels of the Russian Orthodox Church in St Peterburg. Holger scrutinised the old driver’s facial expression in the rearview mirror and noted that he was wearing the navy’s blue-and-white striped T-shirt under his tatty jacket. He guessed that their driver had spent most of his life in the navy, presumably until the Berlin Wall had fallen. The Soviet Navy had been split up then, divided amongst the republics that considered themselves entitled to naval forces, and the remaining Russian Navy had suffered severe economic cutbacks. He looked dignified but also like a victim of 361the collapse of a system. He was too proud to complain about the navy paying him his pension up to nine months late. So, he’s forced to make ends meet with this taxi hustle, thought Holger.
Holger was abruptly derailed in his train of thought as the car pulled over sharply. They had already arrived at the Grazhdanka industrial district. Having handed the driver a handful of roubles, they stepped out and tried to get their bearings. According to the map they had been given by the Documentation Group, they were on the outskirts of an ample, vacant car park. To the north was a former bus station that now looked most like the set for a Mad Max movie. To the east, behind a row of dirty, dilapidated industrial buildings, was the marked building. Holger immediately started memorising the route through the factory buildings and felt the freezing morning air, only tempered by the low hanging, laden clouds. The chill and the dark skies unwittingly made them huddle together as they aligned the inhospitable surroundings with the map. Having checked the map one last time, Holger folded it and quickly glanced at the pump-gun in the duffel bag. It had been hard to conceal in the taxi, but his concerns had been unfounded. No one asked questions in St Petersburg. And least of all, hustling taxi drivers.
Holger led them down small streets and paths between the desolated industrial buildings and never saw any sign of life. The maze-like structure of the factory district, with its bleak buildings rising above them, made Holger’s skin crawl with insecurity. Vladimir’s recce the previous day had determined where Kaare was held captive, and they approached slowly. Holger stopped in the shadows of a gigantic building adorned with a massive, corroded red star hanging on by only one of its points. For a moment, he 362had difficulties getting his bearings and took out the map once more. These buildings all look the same. Are we at the right place at all? Once having assured himself that the surroundings corresponded with the map, he noted the guards’ positions as Vladimir marked. The disused factory was now in sight.
‘It’s over there. The guards are out in front,’ he said and pointed.
Holger folded the map, put it in his pocket and cautiously sneaked towards the large factory.
‘We have to get through here and down to the opposite end of the building,’ Holger whispered when they reached a hole in the fence surrounding the complex.
‘Wait!’
He grabbed Tatjana’s arm, pulling her to her knees as a guard rounded the corner of the building. The guard paused next to a small shed while he lit a cigarette. Apparently, he had not seen them, and they both dropped to the ground, pressing themselves flat against the grass as a Mercedes with tinted windows roared into the square in front of the factory. The guard tossed his cigarette and chased after the car. When he reached the limousine, a man got out, and a brief exchange of words took place. Another guard appeared and joined their discussion. Holger and Tatjana followed the incident but were too far away to be able to hear what was being said. Judging by the men’s gesturing, something was clearly wrong.
Once the men had disappeared into the building, Holger picked himself up and crawled through the hole in the fence. With a swift pace, he reached the factory building. Tatjana followed, pressing her body against the wall. Holger tightened his grip on the pump-gun and crept vigilantly towards the entrance. He could feel the 363sweat dampen his palms and turned to face Tatjana. Holger registered a deep amber in her eyes, radiating vigour and a touch of vulnerability. Once more, he felt a knot in his stomach and fought to suppress his emotions. It was evident that they had arrived at a critical crossroads. An attack could only be launched if the target’s location had been verified.
They only had one chance to get it right. If the kidnappers were alerted, their element of surprise would evaporate. But they had to know if Kaare was actually in there. Something that could only be determined by entering the building. They stayed silent; words were unnecessary. After what felt like an eternity, they simply nodded at each other and entered the building carefully as cats. They found themselves at the mouth of a dark, narrow hallway. At the end of the long corridor, an open door admitted a faint light from an adjoining room. Holger signalled for Tatjana to move forwards. She raised her pistol, arms stretched out in front of her. Suddenly, Holger registered a noise from the other side of the open door.
‘Continue. I’ll cover your back,’ Holger whispered and pointed down the corridor.
Tatjana took a deep breath when a guard all of a sudden stepped into the hallway. Holger hammered the butt of the pump-gun in his face, and the guard dropped to the floor. Quick-witted, Tatjana leapt forward, grabbing his assault rifle before it hit the floor. A second guard appeared, and as Holger swung the pump-gun around, the guard trained his assault rifle at his head. Tatjana was still on her knees, holding the assault rifle in one hand and her pistol in the other. Resistance was pointless, and they dropped their weapons onto the floor. The armed guard shooed up against 364the wall while his colleague slowly revived and collected their guns. Holger caught the bruised guard’s eyes ablaze with hatred and pain as they were marched out of the building.
The cool air made Holger shiver. Earlier, the cold had been numbed by adrenaline, but now, when all hope seemed extinguished, it cut straight to the bone. The guards motioned them to the back of the factory, where the large Mercedes was now accompanied by a second Mercedes with tinted windows. An athletic-looking man stood beside the cars with two bodybuilder types in black T-shirts. The man showed no sign of surprise but merely grinned at the sight of Tatjana and Holger.
‘We were expecting someone, however, not the likes of you. Did you leave a corpse lying around in the bushes outside our studio? And maybe, it was also you who was here last night? If so, you got far too close for us not to spot you, although we didn’t get you on CCTV. If you’ll be so kind as to get in,’ Sergey Pustynikov said as he opened the door of the black Mercedes.
The two hulks tied their hands with plastic strips and bundled them into the back of the car.
‘We were too slow,’ Holger whispered.
‘Shut the fuck up and think!’ Tatjana hissed back.
Sergey Pustynikov climbed into the front seat, and the car accelerated away from the factory buildings at high speed. Despite Tatjana’s reprimand, Holger just sank deeper into the abyss of self-pity. The fiasco hurt, and he looked despairingly at her, but she just turned and looked out the window. After a while, Sergey Pustynikov turned to face them, pointing his small sub-machine gun at them:
‘I’m afraid we are going to have to eliminate you. But we don’t 365just leave corpses lying around; we have respect for the dead. We’re good Russians!’ he roared with laughter.
Holger twisted in his seat at the sight of Sergey Pustynikov’s confident smirk and tried desperately to note where they were going, but he quickly gave up. All the houses looked the same, with no road signs anywhere. Exhausted, he closed his eyes and thought of Louise. I wish this was just a nightmare and I could wake up and call her. But he knew that it was not a dream; this was serious. And deadly.