Helix_Episode 1 Read online

  Her father screamed, hands trembling .

  Denton cringed. ‘Please, we’re trying to have a conversation .’

  He aimed his suppressed pistol and shot her father. Olesya got up on one knee and launched to her feet, but the soldiers got to her first. Her father dropped to the floor with a thud. The soldiers held onto her arms. Tears clouded her vision and her body started to shake. She couldn’t control herself any longer .

  One of the soldiers released her to seize Zakhar as he tried to run for the bedroom. He screamed as the soldier dragged him back into the living room. She didn’t want to look at him .

  This was her fault .

  She never should have come back .

  Zakhar screamed again. His scream didn’t sound human .

  Denton aimed his pistol at her. ‘The Sixth Column have stolen my children. Where are they ?’

  Olesya’s hands were shaking. The other soldier didn’t let go of her wrist. She focused on his shoes. She could think of nothing, nothing but the man who killed her parents .

  ‘Are my children in St Petersburg?’ Denton pointed his pistol at her, then lowered it. He pressed a button near his collar. ‘Bring the rest of the squad back.’ Then he turned to the soldiers holding Zakhar. ‘Get him out .’

  Two soldiers walked out of the apartment, one carrying her brother. That left one standing by Denton and the other holding Olesya’s wrist .

  Denton leaned forward. ‘Your brother will be safe. If you tell us where the Sixth Column are hiding .’

  She felt rage coil inside. Her fingers trembled. They felt numb, icy .

  Denton didn’t notice. ‘You don’t need to be scared .’

  ‘I’m not .’

  The soldier let her wrist go and cried in pain. His fingers were black .

  Olesya lunged forward and grabbed Denton’s pistol. Before the nearby soldier could intervene, she pushed Denton’s wrist back onto itself and squeezed the trigger. The top of the soldier’s head exploded across the ceiling. He slumped onto Denton, who released the pistol and dived clear of Olesya’s aim. He disappeared behind the sofa, then moved for a nearby wall. She screamed at him, firing through the sofa and through the wall. Her scream filled the apartment .

  She barely noticed the window shatter and something roll across the carpet. A stun grenade. She covered her eyes but the flash still stripped her vision. The sound exploded through her .

  White snow .

  * * *

  I llarion shot the first of the Fifth Column’s Blue Berets: two rounds into the back and two into the skull. The Beret wobbled to the hallway floor. Illarion fired again and again, didn’t stop until there were no more targets. The others were destroyed in moments by his Spetsnaz team, crumpled across the hallway. His Spetsnaz team breached the apartment. Illarion followed them in and saw Olesya .

  She was lying on the ground, curled into a ball. Her hands came away from her face. She was alive. He felt her body for injuries and was relieved to find none .

  ‘We have you, Olesya,’ he said. ‘We have you .’

  She squinted, seemed to recognize him. Sprawled around her, the body of a Blue Beret and the bodies of Olesya’s parents. They were all dead .

  ‘Where’s my brother?’ she whispered. ‘Denton’s soldiers took my brother .’

  ‘I didn’t see your brother,’ Illarion said. ‘Where are they now ?’

  Olesya looked around with bloodshot eyes. ‘Gone .’

  The cheeks of the dead soldier were black and lilac, their eyebrows flecked with ice. The fingers on his right hand were also black. Illarion said nothing and picked Olesya up. She wrapped her arms around him. In one hand, she carried a USP Tactical pistol with an attached suppressor. He recognized it immediately—Denton’s pistol. He tried to take it from her but she held tight. It was cold to his touch. She wasn’t letting go so he kept his hand near the suppressor to control the muzzle .

  His team finished their search—Illarion motioned for them to check outside .

  He waited for them to clear the area before carrying Olesya to his red Lada sedan. He lowered her to her feet and she finally let him take Denton’s pistol. He opened the passenger door, then stopped. Something stirred under the snow behind them. He saw the barrel first, then the single Blue Beret hiding in the snow, covered entirely in white camouflage .

  ‘Don’t raise your weapon. Turn around slowly .’

  Illarion faced the Blue Beret. He aimed a slender white carbine with a magnified scope and attached suppressor. He was not part of the assault team. He looked young, mid-twenties, African American male. He shifted his aim down to Olesya .

  ‘The Sixth Column base,’ he said. ‘Where is it ?’

  ‘The Sixth Column does not exist anymore .’

  ‘The base location,’ he said. ‘Or she dies .’

  ‘You won’t kill her,’ Illarion said. ‘You need her .’

  The Blue Beret blinked. ‘Where are all the children you abducted ?’

  ‘I never abducted them. I rescued them .’

  The Blue Beret’s left glove wrapped over the carbine’s white rail, inscribed with two letters .

  ‘DC,’ Illarion said. ‘Is that your name ?’

  ‘Close enough. How far are the children from here ?’

  ‘My soldiers have secured the area,’ Illarion said. ‘You’re running out of time .’

  ‘You’re the one running out of time, grandpa.’ DC’s hands twitched around the carbine .

  Interesting.

  ‘Nine out of ten men in this world have a conscience,’ Illarion said. ‘If you shoot this girl, you’ll see her face in your nightmares. Every night for the rest of your life. Is that something you want ?’

  ‘What makes you so sure I’m not the one out of ten?’ DC asked .

  ‘Because you would’ve squeezed the trigger already .’

  Illarion turned away and opened the door for Olesya. She climbed in without protest. He walked to the driver’s side and opened the door. Only then did he look back at DC .

  The soldier was gone .

  Illarion heard his men shouting in the distance, then the sound of suppressed gunfire. They reported back to him a moment later. DC had escaped. Illarion gave them orders to withdraw. He climbed into his Lada and started the engine. It was time to take Olesya home .

  * * *

  I llarion drove in silence, unable to think of anything he could say to Olesya. She sat in the passenger seat, silent. She wasn’t crying and that worried him .

  ‘I betrayed Denton.’ Olesya wiped her face. ‘And I paid the price .’

  Illarion’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. ‘Denton is different .’

  ‘How?’ Her voice was strained .

  ‘He’s a psychopath .’

  ‘I’ve read about them.’ Olesya sniffed. ‘But in the end, we’re all the same .’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘Denton cannot feel the way you feel, Olesya. His brain is different .’

  She watched the road ahead. ‘You said one in ten men .’

  He was surprised she’d remembered that. ‘Those are your odds,’ he said. ‘Denton might look human, he might act human, but he has no humanity. He’s the type of psychopath you’ve never read about in your school books .’

  She looked at him. ‘I should have known .’

  ‘If everyone knew what a psychopath was, they would lose the power they wield over this world,’ Illarion said. ‘That’s why your school books will never have men like Denton. No one can know they exist .’

  Chapter Sixteen

  Two years later

  St Petersburg, Russia

  O lesya was drowning.

  Water splashed her face, soaked the black hood. Breathing sucked the hood into her mouth and made her choke. She inhaled through her nose, desperate to draw air from inside her hood. There wasn’t any .

  Panic flashed inside her. She slowed her breathing. Focused. She heard the loud crackling in her ear. For a moment, the darkness lit under
her hood. She knew what was coming .

  Silence.

  She breathed slowly. Listened for movement .

  The stun gun made contact. Ark screamed. His body shuddered beside her. She could hear him sucking the damp hood into his mouth with each heavy breath .

  The electrodes struck Olesya this time. They bit hard under her ribs and the current surged through, locking her every muscle. Her plasticuffed hands pulled tight against her back. The pain stopped. She slumped back. A pair of boots paced around her .

  Val screamed .

  Olesya flexed her fingers. Her hands were shaking. Every time an electric current snapped through her, her body jerked and drew the plasticuffs around her wrists tighter. Her fingertips were tingling. Soon, she would lose feeling altogether .

  The footsteps receded. A door opened and closed. They were alone now. Three teenage captives, unarmed and with no one to save them .

  Ark whispered, ‘Now .’

  Olesya kept her breathing slow and reached into the back of her pants. Hooked to her underwear, a long flat sliver of metal: an improvised shim she’d made herself. She straightened the thin wedge with almost numb fingertips and worked fast, rotating one wrist. Using her index finger, she probed for the ratchet in her plasticuffs .

  She found the gap where the teeth fed into the ratchet and lowered her shim. It took a few attempts until she lost the ratchet completely. Her breathing was heavy again, she tried to slow it. Her body ached and her fingers trembled. In any high stress situation, fine motor skills were the first to deteriorate, skills she needed desperately right now .

  On either side of her, frantic breathing and curses told her Ark and Val weren’t having an easier time. She concentrated, used her index finger to find the ratchet. Once she was sure she had it—and she wasn’t entirely sure—she tried the shim again. The more she rotated her wrist the more the hard plastic dug into her skin .

  And then she started losing feeling in her fingertips .

  ‘Come on,’ Olesya whispered .

  The shim hit the tiled floor with a tinkling sound .

  Inhaling, she sucked fabric into her mouth. She tried to calm herself, she was running out of time. Running her fingertips across the wet tiles, she searched for the wafer-thin shim .

  Then she heard the teeth on Ark’s plasticuffs tear free .

  ‘I’m out,’ Ark whispered .

  She could hear him pulling at his hood. ‘Get Val,’ she said .

  The door burst open. Color inside her hood shifted. Ark was moving, then he landed hard. The stun gun crackled. Ark yelled, then spluttered .

  ‘Not fast enough.’ Illarion circled the trio .

  He fastened a hood. Then plastic teeth clicked through a ratchet, binding someone’s wrists .

  The stun gun fired. Ark screamed. It echoed inside Olesya’s head. Next, Val screamed. The stun gun stopped and her groan was twisted, breathless .

  ‘Again,’ Illarion said. ‘You will make it out of this door in under five minutes .’

  The door slammed shut .

  Olesya’s shim was gone. She felt for a spare, deeper inside her clothing, then stopped. There was a quicker way. She leaned back into an arch until her shoulder blades touched the wet tiles. Pointing her feet to the ceiling, she pushed her bound wrists under her hips, over her butt and under her legs. She bent one knee, then the other. Now her wrists were in front of her .

  She only had one shot at getting this right. If she screwed up, it would pull her plasticuffs so tight she would cut off her circulation. Olesya held her wrists up high and pulled them back, hard, across her midsection. Pain flashed through her wrists as the plasticuffs tightened, then snapped. She ripped off her hood and saw the room for the first time. It was lit by a single light bulb, walls peeling, a single door in front. Her nostrils seared with the smell of bleach. Before her, Val was hooded, a shim in her plasticuffs as she wriggled her hands. Olesya moved to help Ark .

  He felt her hands on him and pulled away. ‘I can do it myself .’

  She didn’t bother arguing. She was on her feet, moving for the door. Illarion’s footsteps fell on the other side. The door handle turned. She sidestepped quickly and pressed herself against the wall behind the door .

  Illarion stepped inside. Olesya kicked him in the back of one knee. He dropped, and she closed her arm tightly over his neck. He lifted his stun gun up, the electric arc sizzling angrily. Olesya grasped his elbow, and guided the stun gun into his body. Illarion jolted beneath her, collapsed .

  Olesya knelt on his arm, pinning it. She knocked the stun gun clear and drove her knees high into his armpits. He spluttered, trying to knock her off. She pressed her palms over his cheek and clamped his head against the tiles. Leaning in, she applied just enough pressure .

  Illarion tapped out .

  Olesya released him. Ark and Val had removed their hoods and were watching from their seated positions on the wet tiles .

  ‘Congratulations.’ Illarion cleared his throat. ‘You’re now the team leader .’

  ‘But I cheated,’ Olesya said. ‘And we didn’t escape .’

  Illarion smiled thinly. ‘This was never about escape .’

  Chapter Seventeen

  Today

  Cartagena, Colombia

  D amien flipped the sun visor down, cutting out the glare. Water lashed the rocks outside Nasira’s window as she tore the Daewoo along the jagged coastline. Whatever the speed limit was, she was way over it. Then again, so was everyone else .

  Nasira was heading for the destination programmed into the Daewoo’s GPS—north, on the outskirts of another port town, Barranquilla. As far as she saw it, this destination was one of two places: the direction of the van they’d briefly seen before their attack, or where the Daewoo was heading after intercepting the van .

  Nasira had stopped the Daewoo once they were clear and swept it. The only thing of use inside was the GPS. Even the corpse was sterile, so they dumped it. Nasira got behind the wheel again, insisting on taking the first shift. While she didn’t have his enhanced healing, he could see the tiny cuts on her face from their border control escape were already healing. The fibrin in Nasira’s blood had hardened into slivers of carmine red over copper skin .

  Damien turned the air conditioner to maximum and relished the cold air blasting on his skin. ‘We need to swap cars .’

  ‘What for? They know where we’re going.’ Nasira accelerated into the curve. ‘What they gonna do, report it stolen? Think we’re a bit past that now .’

  ‘Well, that and there’s brain on the windshield,’ Damien said .

  ‘It’s on the inside,’ she said. ‘Nobody can see through the tinted glass .’

  ‘Yeah, but I can see it and it’s gross .’

  ‘You just killed two people in a hotel lobby.’ Nasira sighed. ‘I’ll stop for wet wipes .’

  ‘Do you have another screwdriver in that rucksack?’ Damien asked .

  ‘Still in the Chev,’ she said. ‘But there’s a crescent wrench in there if you plan on stealing another ride .’

  Damien checked to be sure. ‘They weren’t after us. Those men .’

  ‘What makes you think that?’ she asked .

  ‘The vehicle in the lead, it went right past us,’ he said. ‘Its target was the van we were following. At least until they saw us .’

  Nasira’s fingers drummed the steering wheel. ‘They attacked us, not the van .’

  Damien zoomed into their destination on his phone. ‘They missed their shot at the van .’

  ‘No,’ Nasira said. ‘They didn’t .’

  The van was ahead of them, pulled over on the side of the road. It was battered and broken, flanked by police cars. Nasira dropped to a reasonable speed as they passed. Damien absorbed what details he could. The driver’s side window was smashed. He could see a body sprawled across the wheel .

  Nasira picked up speed again. ‘That would be the driver .’

  The side door was open and there was no body inside
. ‘They took them .’

  ‘Great,’ she said .

  ‘We could’ve saved them,’ Damien said .

  ‘Just stay focused on Jay. We barely saved ourselves .’

  ‘You think they might be mercenaries ?’

  ‘Don’t matter either way. The van was heading in this direction. The Daewoo was heading in this direction. And so are we .’

  ‘I have someone checking the address for us,’ he said. ‘Could use the intel .’

  ‘I got intel for you,’ she said. ‘The van was heading in this direction! The Daewoo was plotted for this direction! We have an address for this direction. There’s your goddamn intel .’

  ‘Look,’ Damien snapped, ‘I don’t want to, you know, cramp your style. But I came down here because you needed my help .’

  ‘No, you came down ’cause Jay needed your help. Who do you think he was going back to? He was off to see you .’

  ‘What are you trying to say?’ he asked .

  ‘Don’t pretend you’re doing this for me,’ she said. ‘You don’t owe me shit. But right now, two’s better than one .’

  ‘All I’m saying is any help is good help. If I can find out more on who took Jay and why, we can prepare. Make sure we’re not walking into another trap .’

  ‘Another trap? What do you want, Damien? A briefing book with pictures and color coding?’ Nasira pointed at the GPS touchscreen between them. ‘Jay could be there right now. And if he is, we need to get him out as fast as possible .’

  ‘I just want to be sure we’re making the right move,’ he said. ‘We can’t screw this one up .’

  ‘There is only one move!’ Her hands clenched on the wheel. ‘We don’t have time to sit around and think about who’s doing what !’

  ‘Maybe if you did think, we wouldn’t be here in the first place!’ he yelled back, surprising himself .

  Nasira slowed the Daewoo to a stop. When she spoke again, she was calm and measured. ‘I didn’t want to lose him .’

  Damien wasn’t angry because of her. He was angry because even now Jay was slipping through their grasp. ‘I didn’t mean it that way .’