Red Widow (Vivian Xu, Book 1) (39 page)

She winced as something else tumbled
to the floor. It was followed by a shrill beep that left her hairs
standing on end. She peered over the desk, expecting to see a timer
ticking down on a detonating device.

It was only a journalist’s recorder.
Her relief was short-lived as a swelling tide of static filled the
room.

“
Martin, I know you’re
there.”
It was Nikolai’s voice.
“I’m waiting in the house right now. I hope you’re
on your way. You can’t afford to miss this meeting and the truth
behind the vanishings.”

“
What the hell is this?”
Jezebel murmured.

“
Remember what we agreed
to, Martin. No more interviews, nothing. I’ve already taken care of
that bitch from the newspaper… You would do well to show up soon
before matters escalate. I can only do so much to help you
understand.”

Jezebel scooped up the recorder. It
flared to life as Nikolai’s voice throbbed with fire and
vitriol.

“
I’m calling to issue an
arrest warrant for Vivian Xu. She is responsible for the murder of
an innocent bystander. I need several units to canvass the downtown
area. Consider Xu armed and extremely dangerous. Lethal force is
hereby authorized.”

Jezebel remembered the agent she
sliced open on the autopsy table. Nikolai had named Vivian Xu as
the woman responsible for the killing.

“
Fuck, it’s getting worse.
No, I can’t do this anymore… I can’t.”
Nikolai sighed in delight. A female scream cut through the
recording before it died.

Jezebel could only stare in disbelief.
She picked up a cool syringe and held it before the light. When she
saw the fingerprints outlined in the glass, she had a terrible
feeling as to who they belonged. She reached for the forensic
powder and adhesive tape to lift the fingerprints. It wasn’t long
before she consulted the database and located a positive
match.

Her first reaction was to
vomit.

Thirty minutes later, the door slammed
open to Nikolai’s office and Jezebel burst inside.

“
Nikolai!” she screamed.
His chair sat empty.

* * *

Vivian planted her toes on the orange
grates that composed the floor. One false move could send her foot
plunging through the holes in a move that would surely twist her
ankle. Suddenly, a moaning sound ricocheted through the
grates.

Vivian spun in place, peering through
the darkness. She saw him. Viktor hobbled along below, dragging
something bloody wrapped in a black tarp.

“
Camilla!
” Vivian screamed, falling to
her knees and scratching at the grates. Viktor lifted his head to
see her. Those empty lenses of his gas mask bore no trace of eyes,
only monochrome sockets. With a grunt, he heaved the tarp along
behind him. “Camilla!” Vivian sprinted across the grates only to be
swallowed up by a set of stairs. She pounced down the steps,
heedless of the dire consequences awaiting her.

She paused on the lower level when she
saw the trail of blood, like dark syrup splashed across a
subterranean arena. She couldn’t even see what lurked beneath the
grates she traversed. Fumbling in her pocket, she extracted her
cell phone and dialed 112, the European emergency number equivalent
of 911. She didn’t care anymore if the police arrived and arrested
her for the murder of Tatiana.

“
You’ve reached emergency
services. How can I help you?”

“
Send someone to Syllax
Pharmaceuticals immediately! I’m here with the serial killer and
he’s got Camilla!”

“
What is your
name?”

“
Vivian Xu! Viktor is here
and—”

“
Stay on the line
please.”

“
You need to send
someone
now!
”

“
I’m dispatching several
units to your location, please calm down.”

They won’t show up in
time,
Vivian thought
. It will take at least twenty minutes to arrive. Can I stay
alive for that long?

“
What killer are you
talking about?” the emergency operator droned in a nasally
voice.

“
Viktor Rezník! He’s
responsible for the murders of six women around Prague, including
Krista LaCroix!”

Silence. No doubt the police operator
was stunned that an ordinary person knew the truth about the
investigation. She may even be looking up “Vivian Xu” and ogling
the arrest warrant for murder.

“
We need you to wait
outside the facility for your own safety. The officers will meet
you at a specially designated post. We need to ask you some
questions while we search for your friend.”

Bullshit, they want to
arrest me for murder. While I’m still breathing, I’m going to do
what I can for Camilla.

“
Are you still there?” the
operator asked.

“
I need to help
Camilla.”

“
Please stay on the line!”
Vivian’s heels scraped across the grates as she neared the end of
the corridor.

“
Camilla!” she cried out.
Obscenities grasped at her attention as she ran. Damp tarps were
draped across the walls. A choir of unseemly sounds filled her
head, something sexual and violent that oozed down the
hall.

She skidded to a stop.

The tarp lay uncoiled on the floor
like a bloody cocoon. However, Camilla’s body wasn’t sprawled on
the blackened plastic.

“
Camilla?” she
whimpered.

A blow rained down on her head, a
crack that may as well have split the world asunder. The floor
rushed up to greet her in a wave of pain. Vivian couldn’t see
through the daze that ravaged her sight. Diamond-like specks of
light swam before her, and the outline of a window winked from
across the darkness.

She lay crumpled on the floor,
cowering in the rust-colored light of the complex. Suddenly, his
hand seized her by her collar. Viktor held the needle to her
throat. A fate worse than death awaited her; a drug that would
break her mind, making her no better than him.

Would she, too, be gunned down like an
animal for the benefit of society?

The needle teased her neck, one prick
away from eternal damnation.

“
No,” she
pleaded.

His palm imploded against a bullet,
dropping the needle from his bloody stumps. Vivian swerved to her
left to see Nikolai. She gawked as he pumped the trigger a second
time. Viktor’s head snapped at a bizarre angle as the second bullet
tore through his jaw.

Another explosion split the silence in
two and something wet splashed against Vivian.

Viktor’s body collapsed at her feet,
bleeding to death.

“
Mother,” he whispered,
gazing solemnly at Vivian. “You aren’t Mother.”

Vivian quivered as his breath
coagulated with blood. He was drowning inside the gas mask. She
turned away as Nikolai’s footsteps thudded closer. So Viktor
wouldn’t kill her after all. Nikolai would have the sole pleasure
of absolving her with a single bullet.

“
Nikolai…”

The barrel pressed against her
forehead.

He was prepared to eliminate her as
the final liability. Vivian heard the bullet click in the
chamber.

“
Why?” she whispered. She
didn’t expect an answer. He was much too cold to grant her a
reason. Vivian squeezed her eyes shut and awaited the explosion of
steel.

She refused to cry, to show him any
sign of surrender. He may kill her and leave her as a nameless
corpse never to be found, but she would never beg for
mercy.

She would never yield.

Nikolai was taking longer to pull the
trigger than Vivian expected. She summoned the courage to open her
eyes, and the spectacle that met her was stunning. A tear rolled
down Nikolai’s face.

“
Oh my God,” he
whispered.

TWENTY-ONE

“
Oh my God,” Nikolai
whispered. The gun slipped from his hand and ricocheted against the
floor. He stared at Vivian.

“
Emily…” he sputtered.
“I’ve been searching for you for so long. I was afraid I would
never see you again.”

“
What—?”

She gasped as Nikolai crushed her in a
hug.

“
I’ve missed you so much.
I’ll never lose you again,” he choked, sheltering her in his
embrace.

In those moments, tears began to well
in the corners of Vivian’s eyes, longing to hear those words from
her own father. She trembled in Nikolai’s arms, and he planted a
gentle kiss on her cheek.

“
It’s okay. He won’t hurt
you anymore. No one can take you away from me. I’ll always be here
to protect you, I promise.”

“
Nikolai—” Tears poured
from his eyes and he buried his forehead against hers. In his
drug-addled eyes, he had finally reunited with his
daughter.

He clasped her tight for fear she
would vanish. As long as he held on, they would always be
together.

“
I’m sorry for trying to
kill the memories of you… I’m sorry for drinking them away,
throwing myself at women, for letting myself become so weak. I
tried. I really tried to put my life together. You have no idea…
You were my only link to happiness.”

He folded in on himself like an infant
rejected by his mother.

“
Please don’t abandon me to
myself.”

He silently vowed to be her guardian,
to cherish and protect her until the strength left his bones and
dust replaced the blood in his veins. No one could tear them apart
this time. No one.

Nikolai’s hands slipped from her arms.
Only then did Vivian register the other figures surrounding them.
Two police officers restrained Nikolai while a third snapped
handcuffs around his wrists.

“
Nikolai Koslov, you’re
under arrest for the murder of Dr. Radik Cervenka and Tatiana
Pražakova.”

Nikolai wrestled with the handcuffs,
wearing the same dejected expression Vivian wore when he detained
her. He tried to wrap his arms around her one last time, but he
couldn’t.

“
Emily, I love you so much.
Please don’t forget me.” His eyes begged her.

“
I won’t.”

Vivian stood there in wonder,
overwhelmed by a flood of emotions. The officers began to lead
Nikolai away. Even as they shackled him, she felt a burden slide
off her own shoulders. Viktor was dead and the chain of grisly
murders had come to an end. She no longer owed her life to Nikolai
or an investigation mired in secrecy. Maybe now she could return to
a normal way of living.

“
Shall I take you back to
the station?” a voice said, jolting her from reverie. She looked
into the eyes of a cop. His hand extended to hers. The last time
she shook hands with a man, she had plunged into the darkest
recesses of human nature, an ordeal that almost claimed her life
and sanity. Somehow she knew this man offered a different path. He
was welcoming her back into society.

A smile graced her lips.

“
Yes, I would like
that.”

And she took his hand.

EPILOGUE

SIX MONTHS LATER.

“
I’ll wait out here,”
Camilla said, skidding to a stop in the hall. Several nurses
breezed past, transporting patients to the radiology department.
The doors flung open and Camilla evaded one of the emergency
technologists wheeling in an elderly woman. Nurses chattered in the
background on lines with other departments, clarifying physicians’
orders.

“
Oh, come on! My father was
just cranky from the painkillers the other day.”

“
I don’t know. He sounded
pretty sincere when he said he would kick my ass for that Red Widow
article. Besides, I really shouldn’t intrude on your time with him.
I would only be a distraction.”

“
Okay, if you say so. I’ll
only be five minutes. I just want to see him off
before…”

Camilla nodded.

“
I understand. Take all the
time you need.”

Vivian flashed a warm smile. It was
hard to imagine she almost lost Camilla six months ago to a
depraved killer.

As Vivian ducked into the
hospital dorm, Camilla noticed a stack of newspapers in the
patients’ lounge. She picked up the latest edition of
Blaze,
fixated by the
headline.

Nikolai Koslov pleads
guilty to the murder of Pražakova and Cervenka,
written by Camilla Vesely.

She sighed and folded the newspaper.
Before they entered Syllax Pharmaceuticals, Camilla returned to
Prague to send a package to the medical examiner. That parcel
contained the hollow point bullets and syringes she scrounged up
from Nikolai’s house.

She hoped the medical examiner would
piece the evidence together and finger Nikolai as the culprit in
Tatiana’s murder. Her intuitions told her that Vivian couldn’t be
responsible for the woman’s death, and those inklings rarely missed
their mark.