Black Pawn (Michael Cailen Book 1) (27 page)

“And today?”

“The same.  Vlad expected me to keep shooting you up with
heroin and with the men around, I had to make it look real.”

Jessica was trying to wrap her head around that. 

“Who are you?”

“He's like me only he works for the Russian government,”
Michael answered.  He put his gun in his back waistband, then held out a hand
to Dmitri helping him to his feet.

“What are you doing here?  And what the hell happened to her
face?”

He gestured towards Jessica.

Dmitri looked at her and frowned.

“One of those animals tried to rape me,” she said angrily as
tears fell from her eyes.

Michael pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. 
She buried her face in his chest and started to sob.  He stroked her hair and
looked at Dmitri. 

“What happened?”

“While I was out getting the Diazepam, one of Vlad's men
tried to rape her.  When I came back she was half naked on top of him punching
him and screaming.  I threw him out, but he had beat her pretty badly.  She may
have a mild concussion.”

Michael closed his eyes and gently squeezed her.  He looked
back up at Dmitri.

 “What's going on?  What are you doing here?”

“Are they all dead?” Dmitri asked.

“All but one.  My partner is watching him.”

Dmitri nodded and bent down to pick up his gun and clip. 
Michael stepped aside as he reloaded the gun and walked out of the room.  He
spotted Josh standing over the only survivor and walked to him.

“I'll watch the front,” Martin offered, then headed for the
door to keep a lookout.

Josh had seen Michael put away his gun and knew he trusted
whoever this was walking towards him.  He stood next to him, looking down at
the man on the floor.

The man looked up at Dmitri with wide eyes. 

“Dmitri?  What is going on?”

Michael turned Jessica's head away. “Don't look.”

“Nothing that you need to be concerned with, comrade.”

Dmitri aimed the gun at his chest and put two bullets in his
heart.

Jessica jumped at the sound of the gunshots.  Dmitri walked
back to Michael with Josh following behind.

“You know I had Vlad send extra men to guard the drive?”
Dmitri said.

“Why did you do that?” Josh asked, feeling perturbed.

“I knew Vlad was after an American soldier, but I didn't
know who until earlier today when he mentioned your name.  When he said you
gave him the drive, I knew it must be a trick.  You would never do something so
stupid.  I had a feeling you would be following it, so when he said he was
sending it to me, I asked him to send some extra men.”

“You wanted us to kill them,” Josh realized.

Dmitri looked around. 

“You did as well as I expected.”

“When are you going to answer my question?” Michael returned
focus back to his original question.

Dmitri smiled.  He looked down and took a few steps as he
started to speak. 

“Five years ago, Russian and US intelligence worked on a
joint operation targeting illegal drugs, weapons and human trafficking by the
Russian mafia that I'm now a part of.  We had names, places, shipping routes. 
Everything.”  He looked back at Michael.  “There were only a few people in the
Russian government who even knew of the operation.  We know that Milovich owns
some of our own people, we just don't know who.  So the mission was kept highly
classified.  Not even the men who were going to be on the ground knew what they
were doing.  We were to strike everywhere at once.  It would have crippled
their organization, maybe even dismantled it.”

He looked down again and sighed.

“The day came and across Russia and the US, members of law
enforcement and the military swooped in on our targets.  Warehouses, homes,
apartments, abandoned buildings, trucks in route.”  He paused and looked up at
Michael. 

“It was all gone.  The buildings were empty or filled with
normal merchandise, the trucks weren't carrying anything even remotely illegal.
The brothels, weapon stores, drugs.  Disappeared.  We had nothing.  It was a
disgrace.  Our intel was good.  Someone tipped them off to our operation. 
After a six-month investigation, it was determined that the leak could not have
come from our side.  We began to suspect someone in the CIA was working for the
Russian mafia.  We tried to address our concerns with the director of your CIA,
but he was quite arrogant.  He insisted the leak was on our side.  That
effectively killed our relations with the CIA.  Our people didn't trust their
people and they didn't trust ours.  We decided to do something about it. 
Someone had to pay.

Three months it took them to build my background and I spent
eight months in prison cementing my cover.  I met some of Vlad's men inside
prison.  It took me two years working through the ranks before I even met Vlad,
and then another year to work my way up to where I am now.”

“So what's your objective?” Michael asked.

“My main objective is to find out who at the CIA is helping
Vlad.  My secondary objective is gathering intel on his operations.”

“What's the story with the flash drive?”

“I learned of the flash drive three months ago, the same
time Vlad learned of it.  The existence of it made Vlad very nervous.  And so,
it became a high priority.”

“How did he learn about it and what happened to Alex?”

Jessica had been wanting to hear the answer to that question
but couldn't work up the courage to ask.  She was glad Michael did.

Dmitri looked down and took a deep breath. 

“Alex was working for Vlad, helping him gather dirt on
officials and members of law enforcement in order to blackmail them.  From what
I gathered, he was hacking into email accounts and computers looking for
anything they wouldn't want made public.”

“No.”  Jessica shook her head in disbelief. 

“Alex wouldn't do that.”

Dmitri looked her straight in the eyes.

 “He did.  But if it makes you feel any better, I don't
believe he wanted to.  Alex made the mistake of accepting a job from Vlad eight
months ago.  After that, they owned him.  He either had to do what Vlad wanted
or risk him and his family being tortured and killed.  His mother was very sick,
which I think is why he accepted the job in the first place.  He needed the
money to care for her.  His sister is widowed with a baby on the way.

Somehow, he came across the information on that flash
drive.  He thought it was his ticket out.  He sent it to someone he trusted for
safekeeping.  To Jessica.” 

He motioned towards her.  “Some time after that, he sent a
message to someone he thought he could trust in the CIA.  He wanted to exchange
the information on the drive for the safety of him and his family.”  Dmitri
took another deep breath. 

“Unfortunately, the man Alex tried to contact no longer
worked for the CIA.  The message ended up being forwarded instead to Vlad's
inside man.  A stroke of bad luck.”

“He's dead?”  Michael asked.

Dmitri nodded.

Jessica wiped some tears away. 

“How did he die?”

Dmitri glanced at her and then gave Michael a look.  It told
him Alex didn't die well and it probably wasn't something Jessica should hear.

Michael turned to her.  “It doesn't matter.” 

He held one arm around her while he motioned to Josh with
the other. 

“I'm going to leave you with Josh for a minute while I talk
to Dmitri,” Michael said softly as he tried to pry himself from her grip.  She
reluctantly submitted and traded Michael's arms for Josh's.

Michael and Dmitri stepped out of hearing range.

“What happened?” Michael asked.

Dmitri looked over at Jessica and took a deep breath. 

“I was one of the first to know about the drive after Vlad. 
He called me to meet with him and told me that myself and a few of his other
top men were tasked with finding Alex and retrieving the drive.  I immediately
contacted my superiors.  They took Alex's family into protective custody and
began searching for him.  He went into hiding after sending the message to the
CIA.  We're still not sure why.  Maybe he realized the message didn't get to
who he intended.  Maybe he was just being cautious.  We don't really know.  Unfortunately,
Vlad's men found him first.  There wasn't much I could do for him at that
point.”

“They tortured him to find out where the drive went?”
Michael asked even though he already knew the answer.

Dmitri nodded.  “Vlad is quite fond of using heroin withdrawals
to get people to do what he wants.  Alex held out as long as he could, but
eventually he broke and told Vlad where he sent the drive.  Then they killed
him.”

“When did he send the warning message to Jessica?” Michael
asked.

“What warning message?”

“She got an encrypted email warning her that she was in
danger.  She got it too late, but he had tried to warn her.”

“I have no idea when he sent that.  We didn't even know
about it.”

Michael frowned.  That mystery would probably remain
unsolved. 

“Who did he try to contact?”

“A man named Alonso ...”

“ ... Gomez.”  Michael finished his sentence.

Dmitri raised his eyebrows. 

“Yes.  How did you know?”

Michael released an unhappy sigh.  “From the flash drive.” 
He went on to give Dmitri a brief rundown of the information on the drive and
the emails to and about Alonso Gomez. 

“He was probably the only one who we could trust who might
actually believe us.”  Michael ran his hand down his face and sighed again. 
“What happened to him?”

“Terminated.  On grounds of insubordination.”

Now it was Michael's turn to be surprised. 

“He's not dead?”

“No.  He was let go a little over six months ago.”

The wheels started spinning in Michael's head.  Even though
Alonso didn't work for the CIA any more, he still may be able to help them. 

“I have to talk to him.  Can you get me an address?”

“I think I can get that for you.”

“Good.”  He glanced around the warehouse.  “So how are you
going to account for this?”

Dmitri shrugged.  “The men were complaining that they were
hungry so I left to get some food.  When I came back, everyone was dead and the
girl and drive were gone.”

“He's gonna be pissed.”

Dmitri nodded.  “Doubt he'll kill me though since I'm one of
the few men he has left now that he can trust, thanks to you.”  He grinned.

Michael smirked.  “Well, I suppose we should get out of
here.  How can I reach you?”

They exchanged cell phone numbers and Michael walked back to
the room where Josh and Jessica were.  Jessica was lying down holding Josh's
hand and resting her head on his lap.

“She needed to lay down,” Josh explained.

Opening her eyes when Josh spoke, she glanced at Michael in
the doorway.  He looked filled with concern.  She closed her eyes again.  Her
whole body ached and she felt exhausted.

“We should go.”  Michael walked over to the bed and knelt
down.  “It's a short hike back to the truck.  Think you can make it?”

“I can try.”  She forced her eyes open and Michael helped
her stand up.

Josh retrieved the laptop before heading to the outside door
where Martin was keeping watch.  Dmitri was there to see them off.  The guys
shook hands with him and wished each other well.  Jessica, however, remained
closed up with her arms crossed staring down at the floor.  She felt mixed
emotions as her mind flashed back to being drugged and nearly strangled.  Even
though now she knew it was a relatively harmless drug he used and that he would
have never actually killed her, she didn't know that when it was all happening
and she couldn't shake the feelings of anger and hatred released during those
experiences.

Dmitri looked at her. 

“I am sorry for everything you went through Jessica.”  She
still didn't look at him. “I hope you can understand why I had to do the things
I did.  If not today, maybe in the future.”

Jessica could feel the anger melt away.  As terrible as her
ordeal was and as brutal as Dmitri seemed, he had been looking out for her. 
Hearing his apology and the genuine concern in his voice as he spoke to her
made it hard to hold onto the negative feelings she had for him.

She forced herself to look in his eyes.  The hard, menacing
look she remembered was replaced by a soft, warm and almost tender expression.

He extended his hand to her.  She reached out slowly, as if
unsure if she wanted to, and shook his hand.

“Thank you,” she said softly.

He pressed his other hand on the top of hers and gave her a
warm smile before relinquishing his grip.

“Take care, Dmitri.”  Michael shook his hand.

“And you, Michael.”  Dmitri bowed his head slightly.

Josh and Martin took that as their cue to leave.  Martin
retrieved the sniper rifle at the top of the hill then headed to the truck with
Josh, keeping an eye out for any unwanted guests.

Michael escorted Jessica out of the warehouse, keeping a few
steps behind Josh and Martin.  They made their way up a large hill comprised of
sand, loose rocks, and grass.  It would've been relatively easy for someone in
good health to climb but for Jessica, in her condition, it was most
challenging.  Every move hurt and she felt as though she were walking in cement
shoes.  Even with Michael's help, each step was exhausting.  She stumbled a few
times and when they reached the top she asked to rest.  Michael decided they'd
make better time if he just carried her, and so he did.

“Where to?” Martin asked, once everyone was inside the
truck.

“A motel or something.  She needs to rest and we need to
regroup.”  Michael sat with his back leaning on the door and one leg up on the
seat.  Jessica was sprawled across the backseat resting in his arms.  She
closed her eyes and started to doze off as they drove.