Gunslinger

“I still don’t see why I have to stay here.”
“Ana, how many fingers am I holding up.”
Syn tried not to smirk as Ana gave Jimmy the finger and sat back down. Jimmy chuckled, pulling her head to one side and debating again on the risk of suggesting stitches before deciding it wasn’t worth getting punched in the face. She had combed her hair over the bruising on her temple but there was no hiding the black eye or concussion. Both Syn and Johnny had agreed, today Ana was staying behind.
“Help out and sit still.”
Syn ducked out of the way and collected the last of his gear, Zacky at his heels as they headed after Jimmy and Johnny. Charlotte blushed at the look on Zacky’s face, he had introduced her to the delights of spanking the night before and the smirk in his eyes made her pulse race. She busied herself with the stack of new books and details as Danielle went to make them all more coffee. The snow outside was nearly impassable and Johnny had agreed that it would be better to shift camps so Danielle and Charlotte had worked out that a move to the west would probably be the best thing, several properties were now under consideration.
Johnny had made his own preparations, the jeep they took with them back to the caves was well stocked and the other had been left there, packed with kit and equipment. Only the third remained behind, the last of the equipment stashed. The suspicious movements nearby that Syn had seen had made Johnny believe it was only a matter of time and he wanted to be prepared. Charlie reckoned she needed another day to piece the cluse together enough for a location so they had agreed to do one more sweep, nobody all that keen after Ana’s fall. Dani had agreed to take guard duty up high after Matt had voiced his concerns, unable to resist the pleading eyes and dimples.
“So, can I actually help or….”
“How is your Uzbek ?”
Ana blinked, surprised at the question as the three women settled with steaming mugs. She wasn’t actually sorry to be in the warm in front of the fire, she had seen enough freezing caves to last a lifetime. Danielle was curious as to where this lead might take them and pointed at the two stacks of books.
“We have some of this in Uzbek ?”
Charlotte frowned, the information from Johnny’s and Syn’s caves yielded clues that fitted in and she could see how documents in Uzbek and other ethnic languages could have been passed over by Soviet and Nazi alike. The room that Ana had fallen into was in German and Russian but pointed into Russia. It made no sense.
“Yes and it points to Kreenholm, Tartu and Narva-Joesuu. Which would make sense if a ship out of Tallinn to Germany is what you wanted. I don’t read enough Uzbeck to be more precise.”
Ana pondered, she knew several people that did but it was how to track them down. She was impressed that Charlotte could speak it at all. Danielle checked out the houses she had earmarked along the route of place names that appeared under Charlotte’s fingers and suggested she booked another house in general. The next two hours were spent in preparation and research, Ana getting more weary as the reading caused her head to throb and keen.
Matt and Johnny checked in once, the search was yielding little more and they had started looking at the areas around the cave entrance in case there were more. They would be home before nightfall, Syn had instructed again that Ana rest and she loved the possessive side, Jimmy shyly adding his own message of care to his Danielle.
“So…why do the papers and that book from the little room not fit in ?”
Ana leant back in the chair and fixed her eyes on the ceiling at her friends question. Charlotte had gone to find them some food and now the other two girls were leafing through all the paperwork. It was fascinating to hold something so old and important, a tantalising step closer to the grand prize.
“The convoy was heading towards Germany, why would it divert and go deeper into Russia ? Unless the Russians did actually capture it but Charlie doesn’t seem to think so.”
“Makes no sense.”
Ana picked up one of the books from the little room and was idly reading the Russian when her fingers brushed the edge of the cover, a raised bump that made her stop and repeat the gesture. Danielle frowned as the switchblade appeared in her hand and watched as Ana carefully ran the blade along the old paper and shook it. A small metal disc, no bigger than her smallest fingernail fell onto the table and Ana stared.
“Fuck ! That’s a homing device, someone found us. We need to evac and now.”
“You’re serious, shit !”
Danielle jumped up, pulling the plugs on all the laptops and loading them into their bags as Ana ran to the one that showed the cameras outside. She could see nothing but fields and snow but now the deep fear that someone was out there was setting in. The three of them had limited firearms and ammo and only two could shoot. She didn’t know if Charlotte had ever even held a gun. She found the patch in to Johnny and looked across to where Danielle was instructing a frightened Charlie on getting their stuff together and quickly.
“Johnny, you reading me ? Dani ?”
There was a pause before Dani came on the line, her voice already concerned by the measured tone in Ana’s voice.
“What’s up ?”
“We’re compromised. There was a bug in that room. No sign of trouble yet but we all need to evac and move on. Get to the rendezvous point, they know we were at the caves so they could be coming for you before us.”
Dani pulled her legs around and slid down the tree trunk, a grim determination on her face as she agreed to get the boys and head for the evac point they had agreed on outside of Narva. The thought of her friends being vulnerable and alone in that dacha pissed her off and she knew the boys would react the same way.
“Ana ! Out the front !”
Ana swore, crouching at the window and seeing what Dani had seen. At least four armed men were approaching and in snow camo it was hard to see if there were more. If the back was also being covered they were screwed. She handed Dani the loaded pistol and checked her own. All of the heavy duty weaponry was packed in the jeep out back so it would only be useful if they could get that far. She shuffled back to Charlotte, loading the trembling woman with the laptop bags and another bag with clothes and supplies. Anything else they could replace or was in the jeep.
“Go out back and down near the tub. Take a left that way and get to the shed if you can. Wait there and we will join you and get to the car ok ?”
Charlie nodded dumbly and they both jumped at the door being tried. Danielle had her weapon trained on it. Clearly they thought the place was empty or were really stupid which Ana hoped pointed to the mafia. If they were trained soldiers, all of them were dead meat. She scurried after Charlotte and checked out back before heading to the side door and seeing another two. There was the sound of shots and Ana waited until the first man had his hand on the door before drilling him clean through the forehead. The second ducked and fired wildly, Ana wincing at the glass shattering around her and scrambling back to find Danielle.
Both women could hear the men entering the dacha now although the back door escape route seemed to have been missed. They kept quiet, relying on the heavy boots crunching broken glass to tell them where the intruders were. Danielle signalled to Ana to head for the door, firing another shot up the stairs and clipping another of the black figures as she did so. He tumbled as the door frame splintered and Ana returned it, the wounded one going down in a spray of blood as Danielle hit a second dead centre.
Now down to three it felt more even and they risked being seen, sprinting across and down to the lower kitchen levels. More gunfire echoed after them and exploded into walls and furnishings. It was getting tighter and tighter, neither could be sure that there were not more armed men and the single clips were running low. Danielle reached the far door and had her hand on it before a stray round caught her in the leg above the knee and she toppled with a scream. Ana screeched in rage, diving out of cover and firing rapidly, another man falling to her despite her black eye making her aim suspect.
“How bad ?”
“Muscle, not anything serious but walking isn’t gonna happen.”
Danielle’s voice was tight with pain as Ana pulled her under the kitchen island and used a tea towel to bind up the wound. The blood was flowing rather than pumping out so Ana was reassured that it wasn’t an artery and surprised when Charlie’s pale face appeared around the other side of the island. She had stashed the bags and come back, a heavy poker from the sauna in her hand. Ana grinned and whispered.
“Drag Danielle out back and wait for me. I can take these two.”
Both nodded and waited, they could hear the men moving around but the split level house design helped them and Ana waited until they were out of sight before swallowing hard and creeping back up. The two men were creeping about, checking the building one room at a time and Ana waited until she had a clear shot of the first before popping up and firing. It caught his neck, splitting it and leaving him writhing as the other man grazed Ana’s left arm with one shot and she realised that the clip was empty. With a yell she threw the gun at him and dived back down into the kitchen level, her eyes darting towards the knife block and managing to pull the largest knife before squeezing herself into a gap between the units and the door and waiting.
The last assailant came down slowly, the balaclava making his face emotionless. He swung the gun around the room and she held her breath, waiting until he passed close by. As his foot passed her gap she gripped the knife with both hands and drove it through his foot and into the hardwood floor, her body weight and arms landing on him at the same time. The gun went flying and they struggled, Ana managing to get on top of the man and she tried hard to slam his head into the floor, fighting against the effects of the concussion and the arm wound it was uneven and he twisted.
Ana found herself under the man, both his hands locking around her throat as he tried to squeeze the life from her in an expression of twisted rage. She could see his blue eyes and feel his breath as her vision began to swim and she knew she was going to pass out. Death had never really been something she had let herself think about but her thoughts started to focus on Syn as she felt the blackness closing in.
“You fucker !!”
Charlotte brought the heavy poker down hard on the back of the man’s skull, the dull crack echoing around the room as he slumped onto the nearly unconscious girl. Charlie pushed him off and helped Ana sit up as she coughed and retched, her head and lungs screaming.
“D-Danielle ?”
“In the jeep. Let’s go.”
Ana crawled over to the man and found a thread pulse. She stood and pulled out one of the dining room chairs. Charlotte watched as she turned the gas hob on and put her knife into the burner, removing the belt from her jeans as she did so. Ana looked calm, unemotional as she gathered up the small firewood axe from beside the back door and the poker from Charlotte’s hand.
“Anyone else out there ?”
“No.”
“Gimme a hand here.”
The two women dragged the man to the chair and Ana tied him to it securely before removing the balaclava. A dull face stared back at them, blood trickling from his ear as Ana slapped him hard until his eyes opened and he stared at them. Charlotte had backed away a little and Ana turned to her.
“Go wait outside. I won’t be long.”
Charlotte nodded and left, she wanted to check on Danielle and be away from whatever Ana had in mind. The other girl rubbed her sore throat and badly wished for painkillers as the man leered at her and spoke in heavily accented English.
“American bitch.”
“No, Russian bitch. Well half anyway. Who do you work for ?”
The man spat at her and Ana rolled her eyes, picking up the axe and swinging it. The man didn’t have time to react or show fear as it cleanly sliced through the flesh and bone of his wrist, severing his left hand completely. He roared in pain and surprise, rocking the chair as Ana used her belt as a tourniquet, tying off the stump and slapping him hard.
“Let’s try that again. Who do you work for ? I know you’re mob, which one ?”
A string of unintelligible Russian flowed from the man and Ana switched to her first language, wrapping a towel around her hand as she picked her knife from the gas jet, the blade hissing and spitting.
“My father was Chechen, he hated Russians and that included my mother. Kinda gave me daddy issues but he taught me many, many things. I used to block them out until your kind tried to hurt me, humiliate me and use me. Then I remembered and realised he was right, you are scum.”
She smiled as she pressed the blade against the wound and he screeched, writhing around to try and escape the pain and the mad woman. Ana ran it down his throat for good measure and was pleased when two words burst from his lips.
“Vitaly Mysenko.”
“Good lad. Now I know who to kill.”
Mysenko. The man who had won her from Syn. The one who had used her, beaten her and would have killed her if her talents hadn’t been useful. It was fitting and she was unsurprised, he was the only man in Moscow with the balls to go after something this valuable.
“Wow. You are a piece of work. I know you said you would kill but fuck…”
Ana didn’t turn, hefting the poker in her right hand.
“I am my father’s daughter. You wanted out the brothel and into the deal, this is what it takes. You still think this plan is a good idea ?”
Charlotte appeared at her shoulder, her face twisted into a sneer as she loaded a clip into the gun on the kitchen counter and fired once into the captive man’s forehead. Ana didn’t blink, discarding the poker and looking back at her friend. The plan had been simple and she was surprised how well the worldly Caz from the brothel had done in transforming herself into prim virgin Charlotte.
“I’m in. I want that money.”
“Now you want Zack too. I know I said get close to him but fucking the guy ?”
Charlotte smiled, true she couldn’t resist the gorgeous man and knew that she would now take her part of the money and him if she got the chance. They left the building, turning on all the gas as they went. Whoever switched on the first light would blow the place sky high. They waded back towards the jeep, keeping their heads down in the wind and lightly falling snow.
“It’s fun fucking him and don’t tell me you and Syn is an act.”
Ana smiled.
“I will have my money and my man and take out anyone in my way.”

Notes