CHERUB: Guardian Angel (16 page)

Using this info, Ning had pinpointed an area in the east of the city, then picked out several X-shaped housing developments within a kilometre of a large oval street market.

Kyrgyzstan was one of the world’s poorest countries and eastern Bishkek was one of the city’s poorest zones. Amy drove past ragged people, on roads with potholes big enough to wreck a car’s suspension if you took them too fast, or get you wedged if you went too slowly.

The first street they drove to was wrong, but Ning smiled as they neared the second of her pinpointed locations.

‘This is totally it,’ she said. ‘Park over by that building.’

‘You’re certain?’ Amy asked.

‘I recognise the graffiti,’ Ning said. ‘And see all those plastic sheets behind the bins? There’s an old man who lives in there, scavenging food out of the rubbish bins.’

‘OK,’ Amy said. ‘But everyone will notice two foreigners arriving in a nice hire car. It’s best if we park a couple of streets away and walk.’

The pavements – where they existed – were as much of an adventure as the roads. They were badly cracked and you had to step over open manholes whose metal covers had been stolen for scrap.

‘I hope our car doesn’t get wrecked,’ Amy said, looking back. ‘Dr D doesn’t like it when TFU has to pay an unexpected bill.’

‘I just hope Dan’s not moved away,’ Ning said anxiously.

The uneven stairs and whiff of piss stirred memories as Ning led Amy through a broken security gate and up to the first floor. Dan’s apartment was the third from the stairs, and one of the few things that had changed since Ning was last here was that a large steel plate had been fitted over his door. There were also scorch marks around the doorframe, indicating some kind of attempted arson.

‘He might have moved away,’ Ning said warily.

‘Only one way to find out,’ Amy replied, as she pressed the doorbell.

She waited a full minute before ringing again.

‘It’s the middle of the day,’ Ning said. ‘He might well be at work.’

She crouched down to peek through the letterbox, but could only see into the dark confines of a fully enclosed metal box.

‘Well, whoever lives here, they’re not home,’ Amy said.

Ning nodded. ‘I didn’t see Dan’s car downstairs.’

Amy hadn’t risked going through airport security carrying a lock gun, but she always kept a basic torque wrench and some old-skool manual lock picks in her make-up bag.

‘Haven’t done one of these in a while,’ Amy said, as she inspected the deadlock. ‘No sign of an alarm and it’s pretty quiet around here. Do you think we should have a poke around inside?’

Ning nodded. ‘If we find Dan’s stuff, we’ll be certain he still lives here. I’ll keep my ears open for anyone on the stairs.’

Amy fumbled through pots of foundation and eyeliner before digging her lock picks out of her shoulder bag. She’d expected to have to put in quite an effort with the deadlock, but while the brand name of a reputable lock maker was etched on the plate over the keyhole, the mechanism inside was a cheap knock-off that yielded to a twist of the torque wrench and a slight jiggle of a lock pick. The latch was even easier.

‘I suppose the counterfeit industry does have its upsides,’ Amy said, as she gave Ning a smile. ‘Let’s go.’

Ning instantly knew that Dan still lived here just from the coat rack and the battered trainers by the door.

‘Let’s have a discreet rummage,’ Amy said. ‘Work out what he’s been up to. And keep an eye out for a phone bill or a SIM card package. His new mobile number would be a godsend.’

The apartment only comprised a bathroom and a single room with a fold-out bed and kitchen units. As Amy passed the sliding bathroom door, a muscular arm shot out. It grabbed her around the neck and jerked her backwards into the bathroom.

But Amy was far stronger than her assailant expected and she released the arm by twisting the thumb digging into her neck, then swung back, catching a man’s nose with the point of her elbow.

‘It’s Dan,’ Ning shouted desperately as she caught a glimpse. But Amy was committed to a solid gut punch.

Dan doubled backwards into his bathroom and crashed into his shower cubicle. He was badly winded and he tore the shower curtain off its hooks as he fell.

Ning rushed forward as Amy sprang back.

‘Dan, it’s me!’ Ning said.

Ning almost cried as she made eye contact with the young man who’d saved her life. Dan’s happiness was veiled by pain and confusion, but even with blood dripping from his nose the beefy seventeen-year-old managed to smile.

‘Why you here?’ he gasped, speaking in stilted English.

Amy pulled a packet of tissues out of her bag. ‘Give him those to stop the bleeding.’

‘It’s a long story,’ Ning said. ‘Why didn’t you answer the door?’

‘I was shower,’ Dan said, as he used the edge of the sink to pull himself up. ‘I sing in shower, so I not hear. When I step out, I watch the lock turn, although I never give anyone my key.’

Dan staggered out of his bathroom, wearing only underpants. One hand clutched his stomach and the other clamped the bloody tissues to his nose. Even in a baggy grey sweatsuit Amy was clearly a babe and Dan was shamed by his defeat as he walked up to his tiny dining table and sat down.

‘You punch
really
hard,’ Dan told Amy, as he looked her up and down. ‘I watch many
Ultimate Fighting
. I think you could win there!’

With free weights, an X-box, big-screen TV, a very lax attitude to cleanliness and posters of naked women all over the wall, Dan’s apartment looked more like the home of some macho nutter than the kind of lad who’d put his life on the line to save Ning.

‘I hate that you come back here,’ Dan told Ning. ‘It’s dangerous.’

‘After I left I met good people,’ Ning said, remembering that she wasn’t supposed to specifically mention CHERUB under any circumstances. ‘Amy works for the CIA. I brought her here because they need to know what’s going on inside the Kremlin.’

Amy clicked into interrogator mode, and adopted her most soothing voice. ‘I’m sorry if I hurt you,’ she began. ‘Ning tells me you’re a good person who hates doing bad things. We need to know what’s going on inside the Kremlin right now. And I’m in a position to help you, if you’re prepared to work with us.’

‘Help how?’ Dan asked.

‘Depends what you want,’ Amy said. ‘Money? Education? A new life? America is the richest country in the world, and right now you’re in the fortunate position of having information that America wants.’

Dan’s nose had stopped bleeding and he put his hands behind his head and laughed, showing off bulging shoulders and pectorals in the process.

‘I don’t think anyone knows what goes on in the Kremlin now,’ Dan said. ‘Irena, the big boss, is very sick. Nurse made a mistake with her cancer drugs. She’s off her head. All is of a blur for her now.’

‘When did that happen?’ Amy asked.

‘Last weekend,’ Dan said.

Amy and Ning both realised that this timing coincided perfectly with Ethan getting kidnapped. Leonid was surely behind this ‘mistake’ with his mother’s drugs.

‘I lift weights with Boris and Alex Aramov,’ Dan continued. ‘They’ve always been much in love with themselves. Strut like big men. But right now they are no boasting. Very quiet, like they are pregnant with big secret.’

‘What about Ethan Aramov?’ Amy asked. ‘Have you heard anything?’

Dan shrugged. ‘Who is that?’

‘He came here from California late last year,’ Amy said.

‘Ah!’ Dan said. ‘Skinny boy?’

Amy nodded. ‘He’s no bodybuilder, that’s for sure.’

‘I see Ethan three, maybe four times, but I never speak him. There is a beautiful girl called Natalka. I think she is his friend.’

‘Right,’ Amy said.

She already knew about Natalka through Ethan’s online correspondence with Ryan, but the mention of her name was reassuring because it confirmed that Dan was being honest.

‘You’ve already given us a lot of helpful information,’ Amy said. ‘Do you think you could talk to Natalka and ask what she’s heard about Ethan? And stay close to Boris and Alex. Let me know as soon as you hear anything.’

Dan eyed Amy uneasily as he aimed a hand at Ning. ‘I helped her because I didn’t like to see her in pain. But what you ask is very different. Snitching against Aramov could get me killed. My sister killed and nephew killed too.’

Amy didn’t let Dan’s knockback affect her composure. ‘Leonid Aramov is worth billions of dollars,’ she said serenely. ‘Dan, you live in this tiny apartment which people try to set on fire. I’m prepared to open a bank account for you. The opening balance will be fifty thousand dollars.

‘You’ll be paid two thousand dollars per week for as long as you’re willing to help us. The money will be tax free, and if you and your immediate family wish to become United States citizens when this is all over, we can get that sorted too. So instead of a future pumping weights with Boris Aramov at the back of the Kremlin while you wait for Leonid Aramov’s next set of orders, you could be sunning it in Miami or going to college in New York.’

‘I need to think,’ Dan said.

But Ning had lived in this apartment long enough to read Dan’s face, and she felt sure that he’d been hooked by the beautiful girl offering everything he’d ever dreamed of.

Ethan didn’t get anything to read and the hours sitting in the dark with nothing to do were starting to scramble his brain. He made mental lists – ten sexiest film stars, ten favourite bands, ten best cars. He counted up to 17,492 and invented a game where he filled his mouth with water and spat it at bugs crawling across the floor.

That evening some of Kessie’s workers socialised in a clearing behind the cage hut. Now that Ethan had a hose to flush his piss and crap into the drain, he could turn the empty bucket upside down and stand on it to look out of the window.

He rested his elbows on a ledge and watched a soccer game, lit up by the headlights of two tractors. There was a lot of boozing going on and players faced off every time a dirty tackle went in. Older ranch workers sat at the edge watching, and the girls from the kitchen sat in their own lively circle, gossiping and rebuffing the occasional sweaty footballers who came over to flirt.

Ethan didn’t know what had gone on the day he’d been taken to the riverside shower, but the order had clearly been sent down that he needed to be checked on more frequently. Michael had delegated this task to the small lad who’d swept out his old cell, but he was something of a star on the football field, so it was his long-legged pal who came through the door at around ten p.m.

The boy was no more than thirteen, barefoot and wearing filthy nylon shorts and a Barcelona football shirt. Ethan had watched the lad charging around on the football field, mad keen but talentless. He was out of breath and sweat was beading up through his close-cropped hair.

The boy turned the lights on. It was far from floodlit, but Ethan was so used to dark that even the gloomy strip lights along the centre of the barn were enough to make him squint. The boy didn’t seem entirely certain what checking on Ethan was supposed to involve, so after a brief-but-awkward stare he spun and bolted back outside.

Ethan stood back on his bucket and watched the boy approach Michael, who was playing in goal. Michael seemed satisfied with whatever he was told and the boy ran back on to the field to continue charging hopelessly after footballs.

The boy had closed the outer door of the building, but for the first time since arriving Ethan found himself alone in the cell with enough light to study his surroundings in detail. One of the cages at the far end was used to store tools and for the first time he properly appreciated how many bugs came out to crawl up the walls in the night.

Ethan was briefly intrigued by a metal handle sticking out of the floor close to the cage block’s main entrance. This lever was designed so that all the animals on his side of the block could be let out to graze.

Each cage also had an override so that they could be locked individually, but as Ethan was alone and the handle was conveniently near the door, everybody who entered his cell used the lever. No human prison would be designed with such a simple locking system, but this place had been built to hold animals.

When Ethan grew bored with the novelty of the light he went back to stand on his bucket, attracted by what sounded like the biggest ruck of the night so far. But he was also a little thirsty so he grabbed the hose and gently squeezed its plastic trigger to shoot a drizzle of water into his mouth.

As the shouts outside reached a new peak, Ethan looked down his hosepipe, which ran ten metres to a tap at the opposite end of the barn. Then he spun and looked at the lever, seven metres in the opposite direction. His mind posed an obvious question:

Could he make a lasso from the hose and hook it around the lever?

There was no shortage of issues: the hose was attached to the tap head with a plastic fitting that didn’t look like it would be easy to break off. And if he could break it he’d then face an extremely awkward throw, reaching out through the bars of his cage and trying to hook something over a lever more than six metres away, by somehow pulling it sideways. And what then? It wasn’t like Ethan could run out into the street and hail a taxi.

He wouldn’t be able to put the hose back on the tap once it was off, so even trying the plan risked a beating and worse conditions. But while Ethan wasn’t sure how Leonid’s scheme to take control of the Aramov Clan was supposed to work, he knew he was only being kept alive as a way to blackmail Irena if something went wrong. He’d been here for almost a week and it might not be long before someone came through the door carrying a gun instead of a plate of food.

After a deep breath, and a careful glance at the lever to make sure he wasn’t insane, Ethan sat on the concrete floor, wound the end of the hose around both wrists, pushed his feet against the bars of the cage for leverage and started yanking with all his might.

*

Ryan and Kazakov packed their white Toyota Corolla with as much gear as they could find, putting the back seat down and filling the rear with suitcases, bedding, pillows and even a rusty old bike that they’d found in the garage of their rented house. The idea was to make it look like they’d left somewhere in a hurry with all their belongings.