The Betrayed Series: Ultimate Omnibus Collection With EXCLUSIVE Post-Shiva Short Story (92 page)

If the outside of the structure had been cute, the interior was, well…absolutely charming. The crisp white walls contrasted nicely with the blond wood floors. Little red accents gave the place life. One window had a miniature tea set. Another had a set of Russian nesting dolls, lined up along the ledge.

And the mantel? It was like a tribute to the Motherland. Red-framed pictures shone with photos of Red Square, the Kremlin, and of course St. Basil’s. If Rebecca had any doubt that this home was Nikolay’s it evaporated.

Stepping farther into the tiny chalet, Brandt closed the door behind her. Rebecca ran her fingers along a red linen tablecloth that covered the petite kitchen table. The furniture was surprisingly delicate, almost as if it were truly meant for elves. The entire first floor was open, so as they passed through the kitchen they went directly into the living area. All the furniture was arranged around a huge, and Rebecca meant
huge
fireplace.

No surprise there. This was the classic layout for any home accustomed to cold weather. In the high northern environment, the home truly was where the hearth was. Here though the hearth looked to be carved within the rocky cliff. An impressive feat of engineering, but then again Nikolay was a world-renowned architect.

To the right of the massive fireplace, a set of wooden stairs led up to what looked like a loft, the chalet’s sleeping area. Harvish stood on the third step, casually leaned back against the wall. So far nothing seemed out of place. As a matter of fact, the chalet looked as if it had just wrapped up a Winter Wonderland issue of
Slovenia Today
.

“What is the ‘sort of’ part?” Rebecca asked, now worried that the tranquil scene would be marred by an explosion or something.

Lopez urged her around the plush red armchair. There she found a body. It turned out the chair’s color wasn’t all from the manufacturer.

“Oh God,” Bunny exhaled, her hand flying over her mouth as she backed out of sight of the body.

Yeah, this was the last time Rebecca was asking for clarification.

* * *

Brandt looked to the corpse. Actually, it was more of a skeleton than a body. Was it the fact that the death had occurred so long ago that the place didn’t reek of it?

If anything, the chalet had a sweet, almost freshly roasted almond scent.

Not that Brandt was complaining, however it did seem to mean someone had cared for the body after death. Which left some significant questions unanswered.

“So is this Nikolay?” Lopez asked the most obvious one of those questions.

Brandt glanced to Bunny, who didn’t look so good as she pressed herself up against Davidson’s chest. The private’s arm awkwardly over her shoulder.

“Bunny,” Brandt tried to coax information out of her. “You’ve done the most research on him. Is this Nikolay?”

“Like that?” Bunny said as she sank deeper into Davidson’s arms. “I can’t tell.”

Brandt looked to Rebecca, who had already opened her laptop and typed away, but she came up short as well.

“Even with my sat phone patch I can’t cut through this weather,” Rebecca said as if someone had just pinched off her oxygen line rather than cutting her off from the Internet.

Lopez knelt by the body. “I think we can eliminate natural causes,” he said as he used the tip of his gun to move aside the man’s jacket. A broken piece of metal jutted out from the ribcage.

This just got better and better. Not only did Brandt have to find the missing pieces to the famed Ten Commandments so he could track down and secure a weaponized plague, but now he had to solve a decades-old murder too. Great.

“I don’t get it,” Harvish said. “I’m assuming if someone killed Nikolay for the tablets, why wouldn’t they trash the place?”

“Maybe he gave them what they wanted but they killed him anyway?” Talli proposed.

If that was the case then this trip was a bust.

Brandt refused to believe that though. It couldn’t be a bust. Because if it was a bust, then they didn’t have a single goddamn lead to find the Rinderpest, and that just wasn’t acceptable.

“Lopez, examine the body. Try to determine if that really is Nikolay and identify the weapon used.” Brandt turned to Harvish. “You take first watch outside. We’ll rotate every hour.”

“He’s going to need more than what he’s got on to survive out there for an hour,” Talli added.

Brandt nodded to the thick curtains. “Let’s make this structure light-tight, then start a fire. We can all contribute layers of clothing to the outside man.” His men jumped at his orders. “Once we’re organized, we’ll turn the place over.”

“Wait,” Rebecca said as she started taking pictures with her cell phone. “Let me document everything first.”

“You’d better hurry,” Brandt added. “I want every square inch of this place searched within the hour.”

* * *

Rebecca replaced the tiny red teacup as Davidson finished running his fingers over the wooden window ledge. So far they had found nothing to indicate that the tablets were still at the chalet or ever had been there.

She didn’t know why it was so important to her to replace everything exactly as they had found it, but it just felt wrong to desecrate Nikolay’s home. At least not if they could avoid it. After all the destruction Rebecca had contributed to, she’d like to leave one place intact.

Davidson moved on to the small cherrywood rolltop desk. Everything contained within it was so neat and precise. The pens and pencils organized according to size in the small tin can container. Papers stacked neatly. Envelopes face down so you could pick them up by the flap. The desk of a consummate architect. Even the stapler had clean, sleek lines.

As the room heated up from the roaring fireplace, Rebecca shed her jacket and tied it around her waist. A loud crash came from the kitchen, followed by a string of curses. Brandt.

“Find something?”

“Do you think I’d be swearing if I did?” the sergeant asked as he closed the pantry door. “Anything up there?” Brandt called to the upstairs loft.

Talli poked his head over the railing. “Extra linens and clothes, but that’s about it.”

“I don’t know if this counts,” Davidson added as he replaced the envelopes to their proper corner, “but there’s a locked drawer.”

Rebecca stepped out of the way as Brandt and Bunny joined them.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” the sergeant asked.

Davidson’s good lip turned down. “A set of lock picks.”

“Here’s mine,” Lopez offered as he joined them. “And as far as I can tell by height and approximate weight, the guy could be Nikolay, or not. It could go either way.”

“And the weapon?” Brandt asked beside her as Davidson picked the lock.

“Well, that’s where it got interesting.” Lopez held the tip of blade up to the kerosene lamplight. “I’m pretty damned sure this came from a ballistic knife.”

“A flying knife?” Bunny asked.

“Close,” Brandt explained. “They are spring powered either to increase penetration on contact or detach from the base and hit a distant target.”

Rebecca took a closer look at the metal in Lopez’s hand. “There’s rust on it.”

The corporal nodded. “Because it’s
carbon
steel not stainless steel.” Lopez gave a knowing look to Brandt. “A favorite of Russian weapons makers. Usually a hell of a lot stronger than stainless steel.”

“So it took a lot of force to break off like this,” Rebecca asked.

“Hella yes,” Lopez stated. “Someone was mighty pissed off to do that.”

Rebecca’s eyes swept the tidy chalet. There were no signs of anger or even haste. If she didn’t know better, she would have said Nikolay had come home, settled into his easy chair, and died in his sleep.

But there the rusted knife tip stood between her and her theory. And a Russian military knife no less. Was it completely paranoid of her that Osip had been in the Russian army and had a liking to using a knife?

“Popped it,” Davidson announced as the drawer’s lock sprang open. He carefully drew the drawer out. “Just looks like some letters in here.”

Bunny took the proffered pages from Davidson, scanning them quickly. “They look like a bunch of letters from home.” Bunny translated small passages. “Uncle, will you be home for Easter? We miss you.” She moved on to another page. “Visiting the cathedral is not the same without you…We are waiting to make your favorite
okroshka
.” The younger woman looked up to everyone’s puzzled looks. “It’s a soap made from sour milk.”

Ah, yes, the Russians.

The younger woman flipped through the old letters. “They all sound the same. Signed by Nikolay’s nephew.”

“Except this one,” Davidson stated, pulling out a partially finished letter. “I think this is Nikolay’s last response. I don’t think he got a chance to finish it.”

Rebecca read over Bunny’s shoulder, trying to keep up with the younger woman, however her Russian was fluent. “He’s just reassuring his nephew he will visit soon.”

Bunny handed the lot over to Brandt. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see any connection to these and…” Bunny nodded toward the body. “That.”

* * *

It took everything Brandt had not to tear the letters and throw their tattered remains into the fire. They couldn’t have flown through a pretornado to find nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The front door burst open, carrying with it a cloud of snow. Harvish slammed the door behind him, stomping his feet up and down. Brandt checked his watch. It had hardly been a half an hour.

“Taking a little break, Harvish?”

“Sorry, Sarge,” the point man answered. “It’s off the hook out there. I don’t see how we can even rotate through a sentry post.”

Pissed and with no one else to vent at, Brandt stomped across the room and grabbed the doorknob. Even it was icy cold. Too bad. They had a perimeter to set up. He jerked the door open and gasped. Nature had sucked every bit of warmth out of the air. And the snow? It no longer floated down from the crevice above. The wind must have shifted blowing the storm right at them. And given the fact the chalet abutted against the cliff wall, the wind had nowhere to go but churn around the building.

Now Brandt knew what it felt like to stand in the middle of a
shaken
snow globe.

He shut the door just as quickly as he opened it. Unprepared for blizzard conditions, Brandt had to admit that not only couldn’t they post a sentry, but there was absolutely no way they were leaving the chalet tonight.

“Alright. Let’s set up camp,” Brandt announced. His men smiled in response.

“I’ll get the grub,” Harvish said, heading to the small kitchen.

Talli pushed off the upstairs railing. “I’ll break down the bed to make several racks.”

“And I’ve got a pack of cards with our name on it,” Lopez announced. Off Brandt’s glare, he clarified. “Only for anyone not on guard duty.”

Brandt couldn’t blame his men. They’d been in “go-mode” for what? Five days running. First the no-holds-barred chase to find Amed and then the attack after relentless attacks since London.

His gut told him to keep moving. Get the hell out of Slovenia and regroup. Nature, however, had other ideas. So getting some guarded rest was about the best they could do.

He could only hope the weather was as much a bitch to anyone trying to follow them.

* * *

Aunush stood perfectly still, allowing frustration to swirl around her. She let her anger go and ignored the arrogant self-assuredness of the Chinese
zhong wei
, first lieutenant. Rage beat off her sniper as well, yet she did not encourage it. Even Nannan chaffed at the
wei
’s presumption.

However, seldom was a fight worth the effort. They were messy, time-consuming, and inefficient. She already knew how she was going to respond to the
wei
’s insistence they could not travel up into the mountains during the raging storm. However, now she needed to be sure the
wei
thought she was castigated enough to capitulate.

“We must scale at least the first ridge by tonight,” she pretended to insist.

The
wei
shook his head. “I have confirmed with the
shang
. We go
no
farther.”

“Then we will have lost all advantage,” Aunush pushed, fueling her words with a false sense of outrage.

“He has arranged a helicopter for the break of dawn,” the soldier explained. Again. “We shall sweep down upon them before they know we are attacking.”

“Up there? With no other sounds? They are going to hear our rotor wash miles away.”

The
wei
took a step closer, pulling to his full height, which still missed hers by several inches. “And where do you think they will go?”

“Where did they go at St. Basil’s?” Aunush said, taking a step forward. “Or in the GUM department store?”

The edge of the man’s ears burned red.

“Brandt isn’t just Special Forces. His experience has given him a certain…perspective,” Aunush stated. “If we attempt a full-on assault, he will slip our noose.”

“As you did ours?”

Aunush had to quash a scathing retort. She breathed through her nose and out her mouth. There was no point in arguing, she reminded herself. She had her plan.

She shrugged, feigning defeat. “Your decision.”

“That is right,” the
wei
snorted, indicating to the hotel doors just a few feet away. “And do not think to try and slip away in the night. We will find you.”

“I have no doubt,” Aunush agreed. As a matter of fact, she was counting on it.

CHAPTER 16

══════════════════

Chalet Nestled in the Alps

4:48 a.m. GMT

Brandt jerked upright in the chair, shaking off his rack time. He pulled the Velcro flap off his watchface. After four in the morning? What the hell? His eyes, still trying to focus in the low light, found a figure near the door. Davidson.

Rising, Brandt stretched out a few hundred kinks and crossed to the younger man.

“My watch was due at three a.m.”

Davidson shrugged. “Figured you needed the rack time.”

“You don’t figure, Davidson, you follow…” Brandt stopped short of calling them orders. That word opened up a can of worms neither of them wanted opened. “We divided up the rack time.”