The sound of a chainsaw starting up came from within the trailer. It ran for a moment and stopped.
"All set," Frog Voice said.
"Better break out the raincoats," Boss Man said. "I don't want her mess all over me."
"They're in the van." Whiny voice again.
"Go get them. Move. We haven't got all day."
They're going to kill her, Valentina thought, and take pictures of it.
For Valentina, the decision was easy. If she didn't intervene, she would never find out what her father had really been like. She'd never get a chance to talk with Selena. Her training took over.
Valentina flattened herself against the side of the trailer and waited. The door opened. The man coming out didn't see Valentina behind it. He flipped it shut behind him without looking around and started down the stairs. Adrenaline flooded through her. Valentina launched herself from the top step and struck him from behind, reaching up with both hands and twisting his head as her body slammed into him. There was a loud crack as his neck broke. She fell to the ground on top of him. His body cushioned her fall. A foul smell enveloped her as the dead man's bowels let go.
The noise had been minimal. There was no sign anyone in the trailer had heard.
One down. Two to go.
She pictured the way the trailer probably looked inside. There would be one large room with a desk or two. Maybe a cubicle. A bathroom on one end. Another room for storage and files at the other end. Selena and her captors would be in the main room, right beyond the unlocked door.
The adrenaline sharpened all her senses. She took three deep breaths. She reached for the door handle, pulled the door open and took in the scene.
Selena was sitting in a wooden chair, straps binding her in place. There was a rag stuffed in her mouth. Her violet eyes widened as she saw Valentina come through the doorway. Three men stood nearby, one of them holding a large, orange chainsaw.
Three, not two.
The three men looked at her, frozen in place by her sudden appearance. Valentina went for the nearest one. She launched a high kick that struck him on the throat and crushed his larynx. He collapsed to the floor clutching his neck and gagging as he tried to breathe, his face turning red and purple.
She followed through with an elbow strike on the man standing behind him. Her elbow had all the force and momentum of her weight and movement behind it. The blow landed between his shoulder and his neck. His collarbone broke with a wet snapping sound. As he bent forward she spun and struck the back of his neck with the hardened edge of her palm, a killing blow.
That left the third man. She turned to face him. He was large, short and wide, swarthy and brutal looking. He needed a shave. He smiled at her and pulled the cord and fired up the saw. The distinctive sound filled the confined space.
"Bitch," he said. "I don't know who you are but you just made a big mistake."
It was Frog Voice. He moved the roaring saw back and forth and up and down in front of him, a whirring shield against her kicks. The spinning teeth could bite through a leg in an instant. He began to circle around her.
"I'm going to cut off an arm or leg and then I'm going to take my time with the rest of you," he said. "I'll cut away little bits at a time. It will take a while to bleed out. When I'm done with you I'm gonna to do the same to this little lady over here. She gets to be on camera, but you? I ain't gonna bother."
For a big man he moved quickly. He made a sudden thrust at her, sweeping low at her legs. Valentina felt the sharp bite of the chain as it went by and nicked her knee. The saw was heavy. Before Frog Voice could correct and bring the blade back Valentina planted a hard kick on his chest. He stumbled back and tripped and went down. The blade bit into the floor of the trailer and bounced back onto his face. He screamed as the whirring chain cut through his face and his skull. Blood and brain matter and white bone fountained into the air. The saw ran for another few seconds, buried in the ruin of his head until it caught on something and stopped.
The silence was overwhelming. The air in the room was dense with the smell of sweat and fear and feces, mixed with the copper scent of blood. Valentina paused, resting her hands on her knees. She took a deep breath and waited for her heart to stop pounding. She looked up and saw Selena watching her.
She went over to Selena and pulled the rag from her mouth. Selena coughed and ran her tongue over her lips.
"Thanks. Who are you?"
The woman standing in front of her was somehow familiar, yet she was sure they had never met. Then it registered.
"Valentina Antipov," Selena said. "You're Valentina."
"You know who I am? I wasn't sure if you were aware of my existence."
"I wasn't, until a few months ago," Selena said.
Valentina pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Selena. The sisters stared at each other.
"I can see the resemblance," Selena said. "It's something in the structure of the face, the way the bones lie under the skin. And you've got one high cheekbone, like I do."
"Our hair is different. The color of the eyes. The upper body. I am larger, no? But, I too, see the resemblance."
"Would you untie me please?"
"I don't think so," Valentina said. "We are, after all, on opposite sides."
"You don't trust me?"
"You are a loyal agent of your country. So am I. So no, I don't trust you, not yet."
"Why did you intervene? Not that I'm not grateful. That ugly slob was going to cut me up with his saw."
"I saw them take you on the street."
"You've been following me?"
"I saw you in the airport at Skopje. We were on the same plane."
She was in Macedonia. I wonder if she's the one who shot Todorovski?
As soon as the thought occurred she knew she was right. It fit perfectly. Why else would Valentina be in Macedonia? But Selena kept her thoughts to herself.
"I followed you here," Valentina said. "I heard them talking through the door and knew they were going to kill you. I didn't want that to happen before we had a chance to talk."
This is bizarre, Selena thought, her mind racing. She looked in Valentina's eyes. My sister is a Russian assassin and she just saved me from an awful death. She's damaged, I can see it in her eyes. What was it like for her, growing up with someone like Vysotsky controlling her at every step of the way?
"What did you want to talk about?"
"Our father. What was he like? Why did he go back to America and leave my mother?"
"You know what he did, who he worked for?"
"Your CIA, yes I know."
"Your mother was called back to Moscow when they discovered she was pregnant with you. Our father was sent home by the Chief of Station in Berlin and reprimanded. He didn't have a choice, just like your mother didn't."
"He could have done something. He never did. Nothing to find out what happened to her or to me."
Selena heard anger and hurt in Valentina's voice.
"I don't know that and neither do you," Selena said. "I don't think there was much he could've done. We'll never know. Your protector murdered him and my mother and my brother."
Valentina got up and began to pace around the trailer, careful not to step in the spreading pool of blood under the body of the big man.
"These things…" Valentina made a vague gesture with her hand. "These things, they are in the nature of our work, no? I have not yet decided what to do about General Vysotsky. He took the place of a father for me. He was better than nothing. I owe him something for that."
"Our father was a wonderful man," Selena said. "It was hard for me when he was away. He was away most of the time. Langley was always sending him off somewhere where dependents would have been a burden."