Tea Leafing: A Novel (35 page)

She opened several air-activated hand warmer
packs, dropped half of the contents into each compartment and closed the lid
securely. The new delivery box was placed in the thermal sack, and Yuliya
headed for the Lada.

CHAPTER 93

Nestor was annoyed. Beyond annoyed. “Not only
did that asshat Roman not show up for work,” he thought, “he didn’t even call.
Spartak will have to tromp around outside in the cold the whole shift because
of my bad foot. He’ll really be pissed. And if he complains to Sandor, then
there will be trouble. Maybe it will be better for me to take a tour or two
outside, even if my foot hurts like hell.”

Lights appeared on the road, a vehicle coming up
the lonely hill. “It’s that stupid kid from Dacha.” Nestor thought. “Always
late.”

The Lada appeared. A female figure with an
almost catlike gait appeared, carrying the familiar bag. Her cap was pulled
down, nearly covering her eyes.

“Big order tonight” Nestor observed, trying to
appear clever. The courier nodded and said “Hmmm.” Then she turned on her heel
and departed.

“Snotty bitch” said Nestor, forgetting for the
moment that Roman was absent. Then he turned with anticipation to the box of
dumplings. He noticed that the Lada, exiting the gate, shut off its lights for
one second and then turned them back on again. A question lingered at the edge
of his mind for a moment, and then was crowded out by thoughts of the delicious
pastries. “Best in Yekaterinburg” he thought.

However, the white-clad watchers in the woods at
the edge of the compound, hidden as they were by the recent snowfall, did not
misinterpret the light flash.

CHAPTER 94

Butthead was feeling sorely vexed. And Bevis was
becoming rather peckish. After all, wouldn’t being plucked from a swamp in northern
Luzon or the jungle in Columbia respectively, then flown half way around the
world annoy anyone? Russia’s frigid climate was terrible for the cold-blooded
creatures. Then those warm things, thrown as they were into the box, brought B
& B quickly to life.
On edge.
Nervous. Alert.

Suddenly the box was flooded with light.
Butthead, with marginally quicker reflexes, sprayed venom toward the top of the
looming entity. Bevis simply struck.

Nestor, instantly blind with burning cobra venom
and with a viper firmly attached to his right hand, howled with pain and fear.
For a human, Nestor’s 6-foot 6-inch stature and 320 pounds of muscle would have
made him a daunting opponent, bad foot and all. But, to a snake, he was simply
too big to eat and too big to ignore.

CHAPTER 95

Spartak thought he heard a muffled yell from the
direction of the guard shack. “Has Roman finally arrived?” He wondered. “Maybe
that no-good drunk and Nestor have gotten into it. Serve them right. Why do I
always have to be the brains of the operation?” Though clearly the largest and
strongest of the three, Spartak had the least claim on being the operation’s
brains. If, indeed, the operation had anything at all resembling brains.

As he crested the hill that separated the big
house from the guard shack, Spartak was astounded to see the door of the shack
fly open. Nestor emerged, running and waving something in his right hand.
Nestor ran in the general direction of Spartak, but after about 20 meters
collapsed into the snow and was still.

Spartak instinctively checked his Kevlar vest.
Still there.
Comfort. Then warily approached Nestor.

He almost made it.

CHAPTER 96

Guillaume was not happy lying prone in the snow.
For one thing, it must be 5,000 kilometers from sunny Marseille to where he was
now lying. For another, it was too cold to use a telescopic sight because nothing
in the world could keep it from fogging up in this climate. That meant
old-fashioned iron sights. Then there was the question of a single, clean
head shot
.
And a silencer.
Damn
silencer.
 
The information source
was sure the target would be wearing body armor.

The contractor had also wanted
a mercury
round. There were only a few snipers on planet
earth who would risk using one of those, and most of them he knew personally in
Marseille. As far as he knew, JFK was the last successful use of mercury, and
that was 40 years ago. Guillaume drew the line at mercury. The job was
difficult enough as it was. But the Capo
said
“go” and
he went.

Just as the big man crested the hill, another
idiot came staggering out of the guard shack, waving something. That guy was
big too. “But, Jesus, look at the size of that guy.” Guillaume wondered if he
was as big as Goliath. He remembered the priest quoting the book of Samuel and
saying that the shaft of Goliath’s spear was as thick as a weaver’s beam.
Guillaume was uncertain what a weaver’s beam actually looked like or how big it
might be.

Guillaume crossed himself and leaned into the
task he’d come so far to do. There was a dull thud. For a moment, time stood
still. Then Goliath stumbled and fell. He did not get up.

On this occasion David had used a SV-99 5.56 mm
sniper rifle rather than five smooth stones.

CHAPTER 97

Half a dozen white-camouflaged figures rose from
the prone position to a low crouch. One of them said something in Japanese.
Then he pointed at Guillaume and said “Restez-vous. Cachez-vous” Guillaume
hunkered down in the snow. The other six crested the hill and were gone.

CHAPTER 98

 
“He was brutally tortured.”
Joe shut his eyes. “Sadistic.” The word hung in the air while he composed his
thoughts. “When the authorities entered the house they found his head along
with those of his wife and two young daughters lined up on a table in the
foyer.”

The crowd at Piedmont Mall shuffled past the small group, clustered
together on a bench outside Sephora.

The girls stared at Joe, and Grace looked like she was about to
demonstrate her infamous super power.

“Their mouths were stuffed with rubles. Obviously, it wasn’t just a
random act of violence.” Pausing, Joe searched their faces. “Is anyone ready to
tell me what really happened that night?”

“No,” Sam cleared her throat. “You’re a cop.”

“I’m a Fed, Sam.”

“Whatever. You aren’t in a position where knowing details will help you.
We’ve given you everything that’s pertinent, and if you want to bust us, you’ll
have to figure it out for yourself.”

“I don’t want to arrest any of you, whatever it is you did,” Joe paused
and looked at his hands, “Okay, maybe it’s my job, but I couldn’t do that. I know
your motives and although it goes against everything I’ve been trained to do, I
just can’t.”

Tears pooled in Grace’s eyes. “His family?” she paused,
 
“His whole family?”

Joe lowered his gaze and nodded.

“I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe his whole family was killed,”
Grace mumbled with a glazed, thousand yard stare.

Joe nodded, “The old-school Italian mob is the only one that protects
women and children. Almost every other organization will take out anyone in
their way.”

“At least the children weren’t orphaned,” Mary Jane’s voice cracked as
she dug for a tissue in her bag.

Sam snaked her arm around Mary Jane and gripped her shoulder, forcing
her head under Sam’s chin. She could feel Mary Jane’s loneliness.

“How bad was it?” Birdie chimed in.

“Birdie!” Grace snapped, still wrestling with the waves of nausea.

“Bad enough, Bird.” Joe squinted. “Lots of damage was done before they
blessed them with death.”

“Can I see the pictures sometime?” Birdie pressed.

Joe glanced up at her, “You’re one fucked up girl, aren’t you?”

Birdie nodded and smiled.

“You can take that to the bank!” Mary Jane added, trying to pull herself
back together.

Joe rose from his seat on the bench they’d clustered around at Lennox
Mall. Stretching toward the sky, he tried to release the knotted tension from
his body. “Well, I guess that’s about it.” He glanced at his watch.

The girls stood and hugged him in turn, each whispering her thanks. Joe
turned to head off down the crowded corridor, then paused and turned back to
the girls.

“By the way, I thought you’d be interested to know,” Joe leaned in
closer, “a photographer from Atlanta was arrested in Savannah on charges of
attempted child molestation.”

“Was this the same . . .?” Sam’s voice trailed off.

Joe nodded, “Yup. He was working for Fedya. He was at the funeral and
apparently his hobby involved little girls. Anyway, I don’t think he’ll be
bothering Amanda anymore.”

He winked and disappeared into the crowd.

CHAPTER 99

A young black girl was
running through a field of cotton, the plants a little more than knee high. The
song she sang to herself was barely audible over the rustling wind that shook
the buds bearing white puffs of cotton. The view of the girl became clearer as
the vantage point moved overhead. Drifting down into the body of the little
girl, Tanya realized this was the child she always knew she was.

 
Plopping herself down in one of the
rows, she stroked the cotton with her fingertips, careful not to touch the
dried, dark brown shells from which they sprouted. Her dress was a
butter-colored smock, flocked with small pink and yellow flowers and two patch
pockets that marked her hipbones.
 
Feeling the breeze lift her hair, she could smell the pungent odor of
the red Georgia clay. Looking across the crop was like seeing the South’s
version of freshly fallen snow — only warmer and pricklier.

She sensed a presence
behind her, sharing the dream. She glanced over the ruffled shoulder of her
summer dress, and behind her, another young girl approached, smiling broadly.

Tanya pushed her young
frame up from the packed earth where she’d been sitting and dusted off the
clumps of dirt that clung to her legs. She gazed intently at her approaching
friend.

“Lena?” she whispered.

Lena was standing
within arms reach. Her dress fluttered weightlessly around her. Tanya wondered
how she managed to stay so clean out in the field.
 
Holding out her hand to Tanya, she remained peacefully
silent.

Tanya took the offered
hand and felt a surge of energy. Love, hope and serenity flooded her body, and
it seemed as if answers to all questions were revealed in her mind. She felt at
peace. She knew with certainty this was Lena. She wasn’t sure how she knew. She
just knew. She also wasn’t sure how long they stood that way, talking to each
other without opening their mouths. It wasn’t long enough.

Beep. Click. Pshoooo.
Beep. Click.

Physical pain washed
over Tanya as the sun-drenched South Georgia day faded away. She felt like
she’d been thrown from a cliff, maybe even a little worse. Every bone and
muscle in her body felt bruised and broken. As the vision dimmed, Lena blew her
a kiss and slowly dissolved.

Beep. Click. Pshooo.

Still groggy from the
anesthesia, Tanya moaned announcing her return to the world. Opening her eyes,
she squinted in the brightly lit recovery room. Jarred back to reality, it
dawned on her that she’d made it.
Her left arm was tethered
by an intravenous line
. Gently moving her free hand down her body, she
felt breasts.
They were strapped down by bandages
, but
even still, they were hers. Further down, the source of the most intense
stabbing pain she’d ever felt, was a thick bandage . . . and no penis.

Laying her head back on
the crinkly paper pillowcase, she smiled. She thought about the body she’d
always been mismatched with. All was right and good in the world. Remembering
bits and pieces of her dream with Lena made her heart swell. Remembering the
sense of peace that had overcome her was clear as a bell, but the answers to
that myriad of questions lurked just beyond the fringes of her memory.

A nurse with
pucker-pink lipstick hustled over to Tanya’s bedside. She began speaking
rapidly to another nurse behind a large desk at the center of the room. Lifting
a glass bottle from a metal cart, she began filling a syringe.

The nurse grasped the
injection plug branching from the IV tube and slid the needle home, speeding
the medication toward Tanya’s vein. As quickly as she had awakened, she was off
again.

CHAPTER 100

Sun filtered through
the trees. Wind picked up corners of the blanket the girls had spread across
Lena’s grave. A picnic basket loaded with fruit, wine, meats and cheeses sat in
the center.

“So, um, we’ve got a
little something for you, sweet pea.” Sam said, pulling an envelope from the
basket. The other three straightened up and stared at Amanda.