‘Okay, Ivan, let’s clear the men to a less obvious distance for the ambulance crew and lock the other room. We don’t need any more complications right now.’
Chapter 47
CHEREPOVETS
Yuri stood looking out of the window towards the runway and the fire crews still pouring water on the smouldering wreckage. Repair gangs cleared debris from the runway, filling gashes with steaming asphalt. A small crane manoeuvred itself into position and lifted a piece of wing that lay diagonally across the edge of the runway. A man waved it forward onto the muddy grass verge where it summarily deposited its load. There clearly wasn’t going to be any investigation, not of any meaning. How long would it take before they had the airstrip operational, Yuri thought, before the military police arrived? At most an hour or two at the rate they were progressing. And when they did arrive, how would he be sure they were who they said they were and had not been despatched by one of the clandestine services?
The crash and his arrest were not a coincidence, of that he was certain, and if they had tried to kill him once, wouldn’t they just finish the job? That would be much tidier than having a three-star general locked up in some prison or reinvented gulag. He had to escape, but how? He checked the window. Only a flimsy plastic downpipe, hanging off loose guttering, provided any means of descent to the concrete surface thirty feet below. And that was only if he could open the badly corroded window that had been glued into its frame with grey gloss paint. No, that would be fatal. The downpipe looked ready to detach itself from the wall without any help from him.
The sound of the door opening made him turn.
‘Captain?’
Derevenko stood in the doorway, a parka jacket in his hand.
‘Put this on, General.’ Yuri caught it and quickly pulled it on. ‘The major has given us a twenty minute start before he raises the alarm.’
There was no time to ask questions. Yuri flipped up his hood and followed Derevenko out the door. Save for a military jeep, the large open area between the building and the gatehouse was deserted, the guards gone. Fifty metres ahead, the security barrier stood raised and the sentry box abandoned.
For a moment Yuri wondered if it was a trap. Was it all part of an elaborate ruse? Shot while trying to escape. It would make life much simpler for whoever wanted him out the way. He looked over at Derevenko, who waved a set of car keys in the air.
‘Courtesy of the major, General,’ said Derevenko smiling.
‘You do not have to do this, Captain; you don’t have to get involved. You saved me once today already.’
‘I think I am, General. They didn’t mind killing me and my crew to get to you. That is what that was about?’
Yuri nodded. ‘As sure as I can be.’
Yuri jumped into the passenger seat as Derevenko gunned the engine. Seconds later they were through the gate headed towards Cherepovets.
‘So we can go any number of ways: Moscow, Leningrad, or east to Yekaterinburg. Russia is your oyster.’
‘Derevenko handed Yuri a map from the side pocket.
‘The MPs land in about an hour according to the major. They are going to be close on our heels.’
‘I have a bad feeling about them.’
Yev pointed to the front compartment.
Yuri reached forward and flipped open the lid, picked up his automatic and released the magazine clip. It was fully loaded. The major had not let him down after all. Which way to go? Leningrad and Moscow were a similar distance, maybe five hundred kilometres, he guessed. North-west to Leningrad, Viktoriya and a boat to Finland, or due south to Moscow, and whatever awaited him there. Leningrad and perpetual exile; the capital, arrest or the chance to clear his name. There was no real choice.
‘Moscow, it has to be, Yev.’
Derevenko nodded. ‘Offence is the best defence. You can’t play dead with these boys.’
Yuri opened the road map; west or east of the reservoir and Sheksna River? West was a little longer but took them out of the conurbation that much quicker, and if they had to beat a retreat they would be on the right side of the globe to head north to Leningrad.
‘A114, then south, Ustyuzhna…’
‘Kalinin, Klin…’
‘You’ve got it,’ said Yuri. He looked at his watch: it was nearly ten. ‘We can switch driving after an hour or so. We don’t want to be falling asleep at the wheel after what we’ve both been through.’
Snow began to fall.
‘They said there was early snow on the way,’ said Derevenko.
‘Let’s see how far we get?’
Chapter 48
Viktoriya watched the nurse and ambulance crew gently slide their hands under Misha and lift him delicately onto the hospital trolley. He had shown no sign of regaining consciousness. The nurse reassured her that this was intentional – a barbiturate-induced coma, she called it. The brain needed time to heal. All the same, she worried that her best friend might be a different person when and if he did eventually resurface. She bent down and kissed him on the cheek.
‘Ivan, we need to split up, or they are going to spot us. You can lend me Vladek and take the rest of the men downstairs to the cars.’
Ivan extracted an automatic from his holster and handed it to her.
‘I know you know how to use this. I’ll see you downstairs by the ambulance exit ramp.’
Viktoriya donned a nurse’s uniform and tucked her hair securely under a white cap. The nurse adjusted her apron.
‘Perfect,’ she said, smoothing the fabric over Viktoriya’s shoulders. She handed her a mask and told her to hook it over her ears and pull it down so it partially obstructed her face.
Viktoriya saw Vladek on the brink of making some wisecrack.
‘And no smart comments from you,’ she said, smiling for the first time she could remember that day.
Vladek handed her gun back. She lifted her apron and secured it firmly under her belt and prayed she wouldn’t have to use it for the second time that night.
‘Are we all set?’
The nurse and two ambulance men nodded. Squeezed between a rock and a generous bonus, the two ambulance men had fallen quickly into line. Viktoriya would deal with the driver when they were safely on board.
The hospital was a maze of intersecting corridors. It was easy to become quickly disorientated. Viktoriya looked for a reassuring sign and began to worry that the nurse might have tipped off the police.
‘Don’t worry, everything is going to be fine… just get me back here tomorrow,’ said the nurse, clearly sensing her anxiety.
Viktoriya guessed she was more used to dealing with critical situations than most.
Five more minutes of twisting and turning and they came out unopposed on the pick-up bay. An ambulance slipped the rank and stopped next to the trolley. Viktoriya warned the nurse not to say anything to the driver; their destination was the Aleksandrovskaya. Up at the exit, two armed men she didn’t recognise had stopped an ambulance and were peering in.
‘A lot going on… don’t know what it’s all about. The duty chief called the police but that was an hour ago,’ said the driver.
The nurse slid in next to the driver and Viktoriya next to her by the window. Vladek jumped into the back with Misha and the two paramedics. The driver frowned, no doubt irritated by the number of passengers, switched on the blue flashing light, and drove up to the exit.
An armed guard stepped off the kerb in front of the ambulance. He was stocky, and Viktoriya estimated late twenties, with a shaved head and wearing a metal-studded black biker jacket. The driver wound down the window.