Angel Eyes (75 page)

Tori, using an aikido immobilization, guided aside his thrust, grabbed his jaw on either side, and, as he reared back in surprise, twisted once very hard to the left. His neck snapped like a dry twig, he convulsed a moment, and was still.

When Tori had left him, Russell stole behind the front door. He was waiting for the next Border Guard to come through when he felt the pistol in the small of his back.

''Stoi!'' a voice commanded.

Russell, not understanding, moved. He turned around and found himself face to face with a cowled figure. "Have all priests in Moscow a need for a gun, Father?" he said.

"Only if they are in hiding," the figure said in heavily accented English.

"Valeri Bondasenko?"

"Yes."

Russell tried to penetrate the penumbra of the cowl, but the darkness of the interior of the church defeated him. "I am a representative of Bernard Godwin. My colleague is-"

"If what you tell me is the truth, why have you brought the KGB Border Guards with you?"

"It's a long story," Russell said, "and I haven't the time or the understanding to explain it all now. You must help us with the Border Guards.''

"How many are there?"

"Three enlisted men, one officer. Lieutenant Pokov."

"So few? That's odd. They are usually deployed in much larger groups."

But Russell was no longer listening. He was staring into the muzzle of a Kalashnikov semiautomatic machine gun.

Tori took the knife out of the dead Border Guard's hand. She considered taking the gun as well, but thought better of it. She did not care for guns, and in any case, the firing of just one shot would alert the authorities and bring disaster on them all. She opted for pocketing the gun's ammunition so no one else who found it could use it.

Then she moved off into the depths of the darkened church.

The impenetrable blackness was like the shroud of a forest. She could recall the winter in Hokkaido, where she was tested: to find sensei, who was living in the dense forest of pitch pines there. It took her ten days, a long time in her estimation, but sensei told her she had beaten the next best record by eighteen hours. Most of his students never found him at all.

Lightning burst, reflection off a length of metal. Tori watched the progress of the telescoping steel truncheon as the Border Guard made his way through the darkness.

A moment later she could make out his face and, seeing the fixed look in his eyes, saw that he had spotted Russell. She creeped along the edge of the pew she was on, and was just about to break toward him when she became aware of the presence behind her.

She leapt off the back of the pew as the steel truncheon-the mate of the one she had been staring at-whipped through the space where an instant before her ankles had been.

Tori whirled and, as she hit the floor, struck out hard with her left leg. She felt it strike flesh and bone, heard a sharp intake of breath, and then she attacked with the stone, a two-handed percussive atemi.

His stiff arms, the gun held in both his hands, were raised toward her.

Tori was so close she could see the tremor of intent, in a fraction of a second he would fire, and the explosion would give them all away. If not the KGB, then the police would be alerted; a loud noise like that this late at night would be reported instantly by some concerned citizen.

Tori swung her steel truncheon into the man's left wrist, momentarily paralyzing his finger on the trigger. He kicked upward, caught her on the inside of her thigh.

She grunted, felt her balance going as her left leg crumpled. The Border Guard tracked her with the muzzle of the gun. He was taking no chances, aiming for her head.

Tori ducked, but slammed into the back of the wooden pew. The Border Guard reached up, his mouth in a rictus of pain, as he grabbed a handful of her blouse, pulled her toward him with his left hand.

That cost him a lot. Tori's first blow had fractured his wrist, but he was dedicated, and not about to give up.

Now Tori was too close to use the truncheon, and she let it go just before he smashed the side of his pistol into her rib cage. Breath hissed through Tori's clenched teeth as she collapsed onto her knees. The Border Guard pressed the muzzle of his pistol against her forehead.

"Da zvedanye, suka, "he said, managing to grin through his agony. Good-bye, bitch.

Tori slammed her fists against his ears, grabbed his right wrist with one hand, the barrel of his pistol with another. He fought her every inch. The cords at the sides of his neck stood out as he beat against her with his powerless left hand.

Tori was straddled across his legs so he could not use them against her. Both she and the Border Guard were concentrated on the gun. Tori had the leverage, but he had the brute strength. They struggled silently, violently, force against force. It was a standoff, until Tori, employing one of the main principles of aikido, abruptly dropped her resistance to him. His aim came down with his unimpeded arm, past her face, past her body. She used a kite against the side of his neck, and his arm fell to his side. His eyes rolled up into his head.

She looked up. Now she had lost the third Border Guard.

"Put your pistol down,'' the Border Guard said to the cowled figure, who did as he was ordered.

"Kick it over here."

When Russell saw the Border Guard's eyes flick toward the gun, he stepped forward and across and, as he had been taught, chopped down straight and hard, thinking not of the man's flesh but of the space beyond.

The Border Guard went down as his shoulder blade cracked beneath the assault. He was scrabbling to lift his Kalashnikov into position when Russell hit the nerve at the inside of his elbow, and his arm went dead. Russell took the Kalashnikov out of his hand, swiped him across the side of the head with the stock end.

Tori winced slightly as she crouched, began to move out of the aisle of pews into the sanctuary where she had last caught a glimpse of Russell. She saw him now. He was standing above the body of the third Border Guard, and there was a robed priest with him. A disguised Bondasenko? Tori hoped so.

"Russell," she said as she came up to them, "have you seen Pokov?"

"No. What about the other two of his men?"

"Taken care of," Tori said. "Like this one." She felt gingerly at her side.

"Are you all right?" When she nodded, Russell stared at her for some time. "You really are a very scary human being."

"Mr. Slade-"

"Yes, yes," Russell said. "Tori, this is Valeri Bondasenko. Valeri, this is Tori Nunn."

"We have a lot to talk about," Tori said.

The robed figure nodded. "This way," he whispered.

''Not at this time, comrade. Maybe later.'' Lieutenant Pokov emerged from the shadows where he had been hidden. He had stayed so still that even Tori had not been aware of him. She cursed herself for her lapse. Sensei would have been very angry with her.

Lieutenant Pokov nodded his head. ''A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Comrade Bondasenko. Or I should say traitor Bondasenko."

Russell was furious. "Tori, I told you we shouldn't have trusted that sonuvabitch, Nikolev."

"Ah, poor Nikolev." Lieutenant Pokov laughed. He could afford to be jovial now. "So misguided. Unfortunately, he was stupid enough to have told you the truth. Not that it will do you any good now. You're on your way to the Lubyanka, where Mars Volkov will interview you. Comrade Volkov is notorious in the Lubyanka for his interviews. I don't envy any of you." He made a sharp motion with his gun. "That way is the exit, lady and gentlemen. Use it."

Pokov followed them down the aisle of pews. They passed the second man that Tori had dispatched. Pokov looked at her grimly. "I'll have something to say about this. I'll take a measure of their shortened lives out of you when Volkov is done with you."

Tori saw ahead of them the first man she had fought with. She could see his pistol lying on the floor where she had left it. She put her hand in her pocket.

"So you switched sides, Pokov," Russell said.

Pokov laughed. "I never changed sides is more accurate. Nikolev was a fool to try to cross Mars Volkov. No one does that and lives very long. I myself like life too much to play the fool."

During this exchange, Tori had come to the fallen Border Guard. Putting her consciousness in mind/no mind, feeling the void fill her with the elemental power of the universe, she bent down with her back to Pokov.

He saw her almost immediately. "What are you doing?" he shouted. "Get away from there!"

Tori turned. She had the Border Guard's pistol in her hand.

Pokov took one look at it and threw his head back, laughing. "Oh, good try. But it's empty. Do you think I would have left it lying around, otherwise?" his lip curled in contempt. "Stupid Americans, sending a woman to do a man's job. A man would know better."

"Oh, yeah?" Tori said, and pulled the trigger.

Pokov was slammed back against the end of a pew. His legs crumpled under him, and his expression of shock and rage transformed his face into a stylized mask.

"But it was empty," he whispered. "I know it was."

Tori walked up to him, held out a handful of bullets.

Pokov's eyes fluttered, his head hung as he slid to the floor of the church.

"Da zvedanye, Pokov," Tori said, throwing the pistol onto his unmoving chest.

Sergei, the man with the strawberry birthmark, pulled the cowl off his face. "By God, that was well done," he said. "I think it's safe enough now to-"

"No," Valeri said, striding toward them from the far end of the sanctuary. "I am Valeri Denysovich Bondasenko." He clapped Sergei on the shoulder. "You have protected me from danger long enough, my friend."

Tori and Russell introduced themselves, and Valeri nodded to them. "Our terrible risk in bringing you here may prove our downfall. I have not been idle while you were here, valiantly defending me." He nodded toward the dead Border Guards. "Your courage is beyond reproach and very much appreciated, but I'm afraid it may be for nothing. These four did not come alone. There is a contingent of Border Guards setting themselves in a standard perimeter around the church."

"That bastard Pokov," Russell said. "He must have been in communication with Volkov.''

"No doubt," Valeri said. "And now Mars Petrovich has pulled his net tightly around us."

"Perhaps too tightly, comrade," Sergei said. "Remember the tunnels that lead out of the crypts beneath the church."

Valeri nodded grimly. "But even so, Volkov's patrols are everywhere. We will have no chance at this hour on foot."

"Maybe that's not so important right now," Russell said. He recounted Captain Nikolev's warning about the dawn invasion of the Baltic states and the simultaneous assassination of the Soviet president.

Valeri closed his eyes. He seemed infinitely weary. "Yes, I suspected something of that nature. But not so soon."

"Nikolev said that White Star is the wild card in the equation. He said that if we could get to you, White Star's leader, you would be able to mobilize the organization to prevent the invasion and the coup." Russell stared at Valeri. "We know about the nuclear weapons Bernard Godwin has been selling you. It's time to put them to use.''

Valeri shook his head. "Not selling, Mr. Slade. Mr. Godwin has been giving the devices to us. He is thought of as a great patriot here. He is one of White Star's spiritual leaders.''

"Good Christ," Russell said.

"But all this does no good, I'm afraid," Valeri said. "We are rather cut off here. There is no transcontinental communication possible from the church. I was barely able to manage to get your local communique. That was what caused the delay in my responding. No. We've got to get out of here."

"We've got to get to Star Town," Tori broke in. "Mars Volkov has a woman named Irina and your computer. Is it true that the whole of White Star is in its hard disk?"

"Irina," Valeri said. "So Mars caught Irina going into my apartment. That must mean he suspects her loyalty is to me."

"So the computer could betray you,'' Tori said.

Valeri nodded. "Yes. The entire network is secreted in the software. But no one could possibly dig it out. It's a ghost in the machine.'' Then he stopped. All the color drained from his face. "My God," he said softly. "A ghost in the machine. I told Irina, and she is well versed in computers. She could-If Mars forced her-Dear God!" He glanced at his watch, then looked at Tori. "It's almost three in the morning. Yes, you're right. We must get to Star Town now.''

"But how, comrade?" Sergei asked. "The tunnels will take us to the streets, but what then?"

And then Russell said, "We have a car." He almost laughed in his relief. "Pokov's car." He knelt down, went through Po-kov's pockets, stood up with the key in his hand.

At that moment the front door to the church crashed in.

"KGB. Keep calm!"

"Quickly!" Valeri whispered. "This way!"

They ran back through the sanctuary, through doors that Valeri carefully closed and bolted behind them. He left them for a moment, while Sergei continued to lead them downward.

They were on the second flight of stairs going down to the crypts when Valeri rejoined them. "I smashed out the window in the back of the sacristy," he said. "Thinking we have escaped, they will never find us down here now."

In the crypt itself Valeri turned to the man with the strawberry birthmark. "Sergei, you must stay here with my daughter. I don't want her moved again so soon, and in any event, there won't be room in the car for everyone."

''I understand, comrade.''

''Take good care of her.''

"As if she were my own daughter."

The two men embraced.

"Godspeed, Valeri."

"I will come for you myself, Sergei. After dawn."

Then Valeri Denysovich Bondasenko was leading Tori and Russell into the tunnels, into the darkness and the light, on his final race to save his country from certain disaster.

Mars had a murderous look in his eyes. "Stay away from me," he said to Lara and Tatiana. "I'll deal with you later." He strode through the pool room. The women gaped at the blood caked on him just as the guards outside had. At this time of the night, there was no one else in the building.