But the three remained friends even after Alexandr left to serve in the Gulf War as navigator for one of the British units. His years as a scout and survival expert helped him rapidly move up in the ranks until he had become an independent contractor who quickly attained the respect of all those organizations that hired him. In the meantime Katya and Sergei had steadily moved through their respective academic lives, but lack of funding and political unrest in Moscow and Minsk, respectively, forced them both to return to Siberia where they were reunited once more, almost a decade after leaving for bigger things that never transpired.
Katya inherited her grandparents’ farm when her parents died in an explosion at the munitions factory where they worked while she was in her second year of information technology at Moscow University and she had to return to claim it before it was sold off to the state. Sergei joined her and the two had settled there. Two years later, when Alexandr the unstable was invited to their wedding, the three reacquainted themselves with one another, sharing their adventures over a few bottles of Samogon until they remembered the wild days as if they were living it.
Katya and Sergei found the country life nurturing and eventually became church-going citizens while their wild friend opted for a life of danger and constant change of scenery. Now he had called on their help to harbor him and two Scottish friends until he could sort things out, omitting, of course, the extent of the danger he, Sam, and Nina were really in. Kind at heart and always happy to have good company, the Strenkovs welcomed the three friends to stay for a while.
Now it was time to do what he came to do, and Alexandr promised his childhood friends that he and his companions would soon be out of their hair.
“Pass through the left gate; that one, falling apart. The padlock is fake, Alex. Just pull the chain away and you’ll see. Then drive through to the river house, there—” he pointed to nothing in particular, “about five kilometers on. There is a ferryman, Costa. Give him some liquor or whatever you have in that flask. He is sinfully easy to bribe,” Sergei laughed, “and he’ll take you to wherever you need to go.”
Sergei shoved his hand deep down his pocket.
“Oh, I’ve seen that,” Alexandr jested, embarrassing his friend into a healthy blush and stupid chuckle.
“Nyet, you idiot. Here,” Sergei gave Alexandr a broken rosary.
“Oh, Jesus, not another one of those,” Alexandr moaned. He saw the hard look Sergei gave him for his blasphemy and lifted his hand apologetically.
“This one is different from that one on the mirror. Listen, give this to one of the men on guard at the compound and he will take you to see one of the captains, okay?” Sergei explained.
“Why a broken rosary?” Alexandr asked, looking thoroughly perplexed.
“It is the symbol of the apostate. The Brigade Apostate uses it to identify one another,” his friend answered nonchalantly.
“Wait, how did you—?”
“Never mind, my friend. I was in the military too, you know? I’m not an idiot,” Sergei whispered.
“I never implied that, but how the hell did you know who we wanted to see?” Alexandr asked. He wondered if Sergei was just another leg of the Black Sun spider and if he could be trusted at all. Then he thought about Sam and Nina, unsuspecting, at the homestead.
“Listen, you show up at my house with two strangers who have practically nothing on them and no money, no clothes, fake papers… and you think I cannot see a refugee when I see one? Plus, they are with you. And you don’t keep company with safe people. Now go on. And try to be back at the farm before midnight,” Sergei said. He tapped on the roof of the wheeled junk heap and whistled at the gate guard.
Alexandr nodded in thanks with the rosary tossed on his lap as the vehicle moved through the gates.
Chapter 3
Purdue’s glasses reflected the electronic schematic in front of him that illuminated the dark he was sitting in. It was quiet, the dead of night in his part of the world. He missed Wrichtishousis, he missed Edinburgh and the carefree days he spent at his mansion astonishing guests and clients alike with his inventions and unparalleled genius. The attention was so innocent, so gratuitous with his already famous and obscenely impressive fortune, but he missed it. Back then, before he stepped in deep shit with the revelations on Deep Sea One and his bad choice of business partners in the desert of Parashant, life was all interesting adventure and romantic skullduggery.
Now his wealth barely kept him alive and his shoulders were burdened with the safety of others. Try as he might, he found that it had become virtually impossible to hold everything together anymore. Nina, his beloved, recently lost ex-lover whom he intended fully to reclaim, was somewhere in Asia with the man she thinks she loves. Sam, his opponent for Nina’s affections and (let us not deny it) recent winner of such, was always there to assist Purdue in his ventures — even when unwarranted.
His own safety was spread thin, regardless of his private security, especially now that he had temporarily brought the leadership of the Black Sun to a standstill. The council, overseers of the leadership of the order, was probably watching him and for some reason holding ranks for the moment and that made Purdue exceptionally nervous — and he was by no means a nervous man. All he could do was keep a low profile until he had devised a plan to join Nina and take her somewhere safe until he had figured out what to do should the council act.
His head pounded from a heavy nosebleed he had suffered a few minutes before, but he could not stop now. There was too much at stake.
Over and over Dave Purdue redesigned the device on his holographic screen, but there was something amiss that he just could not see. His concentration was not as sharp as always, even though he had just recently come out of a nine-hour uninterrupted sleep. The headache was already present when he woke up, but that was not surprising since he all but totaled a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red by himself in front of the fire.
“For fuck’s sake!” Purdue shouted without his voice, as not to rouse any of his neighbors, as he slammed his fists down on the desk. It was completely out of character for him to lose his cool, especially at the meager challenge of a simple electronics schematic, the likes of which he had already conquered at age fourteen. His dark demeanor and his impatience were owing to the past few days and he knew that he had to admit that leaving Nina with Sam did after all scratch at him.
Normally his money and his charm could sway any quarry with ease and to top it all he had Nina for more than two years and yet he took it for granted and disappeared under the radar without the grace to let her know that he was alive. This sort of behavior was what he was used to, and most people accepted it as part of his eccentricity, but now he knew that it was the first hammer blow to their relationship. Resurfacing only upset her more, mainly because she knew then that he deliberately kept her in the dark and then, the deathblow, getting her involved in the most threatening confrontation with the powerful Black Sun to date.
Purdue took off his glasses and placed them on the small barstool by his side. Closing his eyes for a moment, he pinched the bridge of his nose lightly between his thumb and index finger and tried to massage away his tangled thoughts and bring his brain back to technical mode. The night was mild, but the wind forced the dry trees to lurch out at the window and scratch like a cat trying to come in. Something was lurking in the night outside the small bungalow where Purdue was resident indefinitely until he had planned his next move.