Jerin moved his neck in a circular motion. He yawned. Man, that was a long flight. He had never flown that far before. True, Zann had announced he could fly as long as he didn’t have to land anything, and Jerin had gotten some rest. Still, he was stiff and tired.
He turned his head to look at his copilot. Zann was curled cat-like in the copilot’s chair, asleep. He looked very comfortable and even innocent. Jerin chuckled softly to himself.
“Oy, Zann, wake up!”
The red-haired Russian stretched and yawned. “Are we there yet?”
“Yup. I need you to talk to the control tower. You know the protocol, right?”
“Sure thing.” He pulled the headset over his ears and flipped a few switches. He waited for a few seconds then spoke rapidly in Russian. The reply crackled over the radio, and Jerin added Russian to the list of languages he needed to learn. The conversation went back and forth until Zann pulled the head set off.
“They said runway one in five minutes. They’re clearing another plane off.” He swiftly imputed it into the computer so Jerin wouldn’t have to try to figure out which one was runway one.
“Wow, so fast.”
Zann grinned. “I gave them the code for government emergency landing.”
Jeirn arched an eyebrow as he guided the jet towards the runway. “And you know this, how?”
He pointed to himself. “Assassin. I have lots of government codes from all over the world.”
“That’s actually kinda cool.”
They stepped out onto the runway of the Sheremetyevo airport and stretched. Yawning, Zann arched his back, and once again, Jerin was reminded of a cat.
“What next?”
The American turned on his iPod. “Okay. Here she is in—” He frowned, his mouth refusing to attempt to pronounce the Russian words.
Zann held his hand out, and Jerin put the iPod in his hand. “Okay. She’s in between Red Square and Manege Square.” He frowned slightly. “That’s the Gosudarstvennyy Istoricheskiy Muzey.”
Jerin blinked. “The what?”
“The State History Museum.” He looked around. “Right, transportation. “
Jerin pointed. “How about a bus?”
~~~
Elliot was pushed out of the limo with the barrel of a gun poking in her back. Sherlock growled quietly, as if warning Smithy not to hurt her master. The woman looked at the large ornate building they were forcing her towards.
“What’s this place?”
Lisa waved her arm dramatically as they entered the doors. “The Gosudarstvennyy Istoricheskiy Muzey!”
“What goose is itchy in the sky and nosy?”
Lisa closed her eyes. “The State History Museum.”
“Then why didn’t you just say so?”
The group turned to the right and pushed through the doors of the museum director’s office. As they walked through, the man didn’t even look up. He something in Russian that sounded like a greeting, but no one replied. Lisa stepped forward to a closet and put her hand on the wall. Elliot decided not to ask what the chocolate she was doing and just watch. Quite suddenly, the door slid back to reveal an elevator.
“An elevator in the director of the State History Museum’s office closet. That’s original,” Elliot commented as she was forced inside.
Lisa placed her hand on a scanning pad and the elevator began to descend. “Although the building was built in the late eighteen hundreds, the spy central underneath was built during the Cold War.”
Elliot looked up at the ceiling of the elevator. “Yeah, we built a whole bunch of those, too.” She lowered her head. “Plus bomb shelters. Lots and lots of bomb shelters. You lot were trying to blow us up.” She grinned and rocked back and forth on her feet. “But we beat you and scared your pants off.” Elliot turned to Lisa who was stiff—her pride having taken a large blow. “And we’ll beat you again.”
The other woman smiled thinly. “Don’t count on it. Today, your nation falls.”
Elliot squared her shoulders. “We’ll see about that.”
~~~~
Jerin and Zann stepped off the bus in front of the museum. They stood staring for a few seconds until Jerin said, “This is your playing field, Zann. What next?”
The assassin tilted his head to the side for a few seconds, thinking. “Can I borrow your iPod?”
Jerin didn’t even hesitate, which surprised him.
Zann tapped the screen a few times then grinned. “I thought so. “ He showed it to Jerin. “These are the original plans here. Then, these are the plans as of the nineteen sixties.” He pointed to the bottom left of the screen. “They added several elevators. That wouldn’t be unusual, but this one right here doesn’t go anywhere.”
Jerin chortled. “They ought to put a fake basement in there or something. It just gives them away.”
Zann nodded and pushed through the doors. “It would appear this magic elevator is straight through the director’s office. “
Jerin slid his hand into his pocket and curled his fingers around the gun. “The director is probably in league with them, so he may try to stop us.”
The Russian reached smoothly into his pocket, pulled out a tennis ball, yanked the pen off with his teeth, and tossed it into the office, and closed the door. After several minutes, he opened the door and stepped inside.
Jerin arched his eyebrow. “Knock-out gas in a tennis ball? The Russians have been getting better at coming up with gadgets.”
“Oh, yeah. Our new gadgets girl, Nadia, is friends with your Ben Riley.”
“Cool.”
They stepped inside and Zann pointed. “That closet-ish thing there should be it.”
Jerin was already pulling on his sunglasses. He adjusted the settings and grinned. “There’s a hand-scan pad on the left.” He pulled a latex-looking glove out of his pocket and tugged it over his hand. Using the glasses to see, he placed his hand on the pad. The door slid open.
Jerin grinned and wiggled his fingers at Zann. The Russian could see small circuits inside. “Cool.”
“Yeah, it can tell what the computer is looking for and duplicate it.”
They stepped into the elevator, and Jerin put his hand on the pad inside. It began to descend. Both men checked their weapons and ammunition. They rolled their shoulders nearly simultaneously, and chuckled nervously.
“You ever get nervous before a job?” Jerin asked.
Zann signed. “Not really. I’ve been trained to be cool and calculating. But, this is different. I’ve got to a save a friend, and stop an international disaster. Just shooting is easier.”
The other nodded and took a deep breath. “Yeah, I know what you mean.” The elevator dinged. “Let’s rock and roll.”
Zann smiled slightly. “This is hardly the time to play music.”
Then, the doors opened, and they both hit the deck.
All the men inside the control room quickly re-loaded their guns as Sherlock barked. Lisa’s fingers flew over the bottoms until a stray bullet whizzed by her head. She took aim at Jerin, and Elliot squirmed out of Smithy’s grip and tackled her to the ground, so the bullet flew wide. Soon, Zann, Jerin, and Dante Vang—who had lost heart in the fight—stood standing.
The two women struggled on the ground—Lisa trying to return to the controls while Elliot tried to stop her. Finally, Lisa’s hand hit the final button. Elliot grunted as she struggled to keep Lisa pinned to the ground. “She was over there poking buttons!”
As if to confirm what she had said, the computer announced, “Sixty seconds to detonation. Fifty-nine, fifty-eight…”
Lisa grinned evilly at Elliot. “You’ve failed American!”
“Not yet.” Using strength she didn’t know she had, Elliot held Lisa on the ground. Through gritted teeth, she growled, “Stop that bomb, guys!”
Jerin stared at the multiple screens. “Zann, this is in Russian!”
“Right!” The Russian dug in his pockets until he found what he was looking for—a Rubik’s Cube.
“What the chocolate are you doing?!” Jerin yelled as the computer announced twenty-seven.
“Hang on, hang on!” He pulled out a blue square to reveal a flash drive. He jabbed it into the closest USB port. The computer called, “Three, two,” then all the screens went black.
Zann grinned. “I told them my virus would come in handy.”
Elliot grinned. “That flash drive had a virus on it that shut down the computer. Awesome!”
Jerin let out the breath he had been holding and leaned against the desk. “Wow, that was too close for comfort.”
Shelock barked her agreement.
Lisa shrieked like a banshee and threw Elliot off of her. She snatched the gun from Dante Vang’s hand and aimed at Elliot. The other just stared at the gun like a deer caught in the headlights. She shrieked, “Die!” and fired.
Sherlock, Jerin, and Zann all rushed towards the women, but Zann got there first. He grunted as the bullet made contact and collapsed on the ground. Sherlock promptly bit Lisa, and Elliot slugged her in the nose, breaking it, and knocking her backwards. Meanwhile, Jerin knelt next to the fallen Russian. He looked at Elliot, and the woman knew Zann wasn’t going to make it. She closed her eyes, tears leaking from under her lids as she knew the assassin would have had his bullet-proof vest on, had she not been wearing it.
Zann sucked air in threw his teeth and looked at his two friends. “There,” he whispered. “I think I’ve atoned for everything bad I’ve done.”
Elliot choked and tried not to focus on the growing red spot on his chest. Jerin nodded and placed his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Yeah. Thanks for everything, Zann.”
He smiled weakly and gently squeezed Elliot’s hand. “No, thank you both, my friends.” Then, he closed his eyes and let out a long breath, his life-blood pooling around him.
-----
Wow.
Are you happy, Holly? Someone died. There you go.I have no doubt that you're going to yell at me for killing off your favorite character, but you asked for a death you morbid creature, you. I cried. Seriously, I did. I have been waiting to use that last sentence for a while. Yes, I'm very dramatic.
Man. Wow. Such a sad chapter.
The Rubik's Cube thing I got from a thing I saw on a McDonald's tv. It was some spy movie or something, I couldn't hear it. It was funny, because I was on my way home from work and trying to figure out how to defeat Lisa's kaboom. I thought about using a computer virus. Then, I stopped to get a coke and some fries, and sat down--which I don't usually do. These people were climbing all over this cable car and one of them got a cube wrapped in brown paper. She opened it, turned it over and pulled out a flash drive. Too bad Holly wasn't there to yell "Ding!" for me.
I'm sooooooooooooooooooo sorry it took three weeks. But I've been so busy, out of the country, and this is a long chapter.
One more to go! Enjoy! I will be posting several more times this week to finish this story and start the next one. Yay!! I think the final installment will be tomorrow--without Zann!! *sobs*
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