Vampire's Day (Book 2): Zero Model (5 page)

19. Violation

Colonel Richardson winced when he saw the plane coming in to land. Apparently the troubles that had befallen him since dawn were still not enough. First, there were those damn mercenaries who had landed without explanation, and then seized power, reinforcing their words with a pile of papers with large seals and security classifications. Richardson wasn’t going to give up power and contacted the regional headquarters. But he didn’t get any support from headquarters, and instead received advice to follow the orders of this dude Bronson, the commander of the mercenaries. And not to ask any questions.

His troubles were just beginning. First the Colonel, on his own base, became Bronson’s deputy, and then in the city, where they sent the car for an unknown reason, a battle had begun. And not just in the city, but in the port, the main place of patronage of the Cartel, where Bronson had sent messengers, who were now missing. To hell with those messengers, the Colonel had lost two of his men, the driver and an officer.

The problems escalated, and now Bronson had organized a raid in the city to pull out of the fire something extremely valuable for those who had sent him here. Bronson raised into the air all the available drones and helicopters, and revealed an emergency supply of fire extinguishers. He required the marines to support the operation from the ground.

It was Richardson who found, in all this chaos, one of the Cartel bosses, who provided them free passage through the city. But in the port his authority ended and there a fight occurred with the worst results – the Colonel lost three Marines, killed in a padded Hammer.

Bronson led the fight, but he would have to solve this problem and bring the bodies home. Richardson had never experienced combat losses among his men here – one who died in a car accident a year ago doesn’t count – and now three had been killed. His vindictive consolation was the fact that Bronson had not been left unscathed. Pulling out the precious cargo, two had been killed and two others badly burned, with his medics now trying to pull them from the dead. And Bronson himself had been badly hit by shrapnel, although still stood thanks to his fucking body armor. And all of this for a strange thing that they pulled out of the fire almost bare hands.

“Did you see what it was?”

“I only saw it for a few seconds, sir. It was a metal ball about five feet in diameter, and appeared to be very heavy.”

“On the ball, did you see any signs, numbers, or flags?”

“No, sir, it was burned.”

Well, that bastard Bronson had finally got his precious egg and now he could go to hell with it. But he didn’t think to get out, and Richardson then received a new personal order. He must render all possible assistance to the team of specialists that would be working in his territory for an unspecified duration of time.

“This is still not enough.”

An IL-76 MD, painted in matte black and gray, came in to land, and Richardson stared through his binoculars at the familiar emblem. It wasn’t surprising that they used Russian aircraft, since it wasn’t military – this aircraft officially belonged to a private transport company. He knew who was behind this private enterprise, and the knowledge of this didn’t fill him with joy.

“Sir, we brought the wounded.”

“What wounded?”

“The driver, who was with the messengers. He managed to escape from the port; he was shot in the shoulder, but will live. We sent him to the hospital.”

“At least there is some good news this morning. When he is able to talk, call me.”

20. Boris

“There is a load of smoke!”

“Where is it, in the city?”

“Yes, I think it’s at the port.”

“There are two more helicopters flying.”

Boris listened to the engineers and workers, idly looking at the tall column of black smoke rising above the city. Let it burn, you never know what can happen, especially in the harbor. It didn’t interest him. But helicopters proceeding from the US military base to the city, port and fire - that was much more interesting. Why did they fly there, did they think they could extinguish the fire using machine guns and rockets? He didn’t think so. He listened, trying to distinguish gunshots or explosions, but it was too far away, and he could hear nothing. Well, to hell with it, let them fly. Soon he wasn’t thinking about the fire, and then completely forgot it had happened.

Boris thought about heading back home – this prolonged business trip was coming to an end, and soon he would leave this obscure town, sit on an airplane and start the long journey to his homeland, as soon as Natasha had finished her business here.

Boris wasn’t particularly surprised about being sent here; long ago he understood that each job put him farther and farther from home. It all started back in the Army, where he served in the Airborne - first South Ossetia, then Crimea, on peacekeeping operations and other matters. After the completion of his Army contract he had a lot of overseas travel - Boris had got a job in a private military company and now regularly traveled abroad when the work required.

He hunted pirates on the Africa east coast, guarded builders of nuclear power plants in Asia, and now followed the gas companies in their relentless search for new gas fields around the world. He had already visited five continents, and would not be surprised if the next time it was Antarctica.

But that would be after a two month vacation, which he will take in his home on the banks of the Lena. It was now his own home; Boris had recently completed paying back his mortgage. The house was on a hill overlooking the great river – a boat, fishing, what else could he want? Marry maybe? But what woman would agree to a husband who wasn’t at home for nine months out of every twelve? Natasha wouldn’t agree, he was sure of it.

This time it had been an unusual trip. Firstly, he worked alone and not with a team as before. Secondly, he had to guard just one person. Natasha was sent here to settle some business after a contract stalled. Her company wanted to get gas here, but under pressure from the United States the deal had been cancelled and now Natasha needed to close up shop. Nobody wanted this job, and they sent her with one guard, who already had experience in the region and knew the language well.

They had come to this town, next to the gas field, and spent five days aimlessly wandering from office to office. Now they would take a plane that would bring them back to civilization. Natasha was simply sick of this hole, although in Boris’ opinion it was a good place for work. In this town there lived about two thousand people, engineers and workers from the United States who came here with their families for six months or a year. Life could be good, near to the ocean and magnificent deserted beaches; and, if people wanted special entertainment, there was small city where they could find almost anything they wanted.

Natasha spent her free time sunbathing on the beach and showing her little tits to the bright Pacific sun, while he looked after her. They didn’t go to the city. And tonight the passenger plane would take them away.

21. Natasha

The flight was delayed. She had hoped to leave this hole as quickly as possible, but her troubles weren’t coming to an end quickly. First of all, about a hundred and fifty passengers were held for a couple of hours in the tiny waiting room. The air conditioning didn’t works, the water in the vending machines was gone, and children were yelling so loudly that even the music in her headphones didn’t help. Finally the plane was declared fit. This provincial airport didn’t have comfortable buses for passengers, so they had to walk more than a mile to the far end of a very long runway, sizzling like a frying pan in the sun.

The plane was an old Boeing built before she was born. There was no business class at all; it was just one giant tourist cabin, where they huddled like sardines. Finally, the passengers took their seats and waited for takeoff, which still didn’t happen. The plane quickly heated up while it stood in the sun, the damn kids yelled even louder than before, and the flight attendants didn’t even think to distribute water to the passengers.

“No signal.”

“Are you kidding?!”

The latest model tablet stubbornly refused to go online, despite the hype about it working anywhere. Clearly anywhere but here, in this hole, where she had been brought as a result of extremely bad luck.

It all started with that bitch – the chief’s wife, who found out about their little affair, resulting in Natasha’s career moving in the most unexpected way. Now, instead of in a cozy Moscow office, she traveled around the world, obeying the will of the almighty business, performing various tasks, the work that nobody wanted to do. The pay was still quite good, and the social package was excellent, but in her opinion, these bonuses didn’t cover the inconvenience.

To start with she had spent more than a month in northern Mexico, where Chinese business partners were building a refinery. She couldn’t get to the famous resorts; in the area she lived there were intense battles between drug traffickers, police and the army, so she spent the whole month in the tiny room of the cheap hotel at the plant. Then, finally, someone at head office remembered her, and Natalya got a ticket to another plant in another country, the existence of which she’d had no idea.

It had been a week of futile effort and now she was finally leaving this hole for a vacation. All she needed was to sit on the plane, and, after a few transfers, she would arrive in Moscow a day or so later. But the plane didn’t want to begin her journey; the flight was delayed again, and now the Internet wasn’t working. Strangely, it had been working in the morning.

The stuffiness and the children crying became unbearable, she can’t breathe. Boris, sitting in a nearby chair, has managed to sleep in an old army habit. How did he do it, like a big lazy cat? Pretending to guard her while he slept most of the time. Or ate. If evil Mexican bandits kidnapped her, would he be able to save her? No fucking chance.

“Were you in the city today in the morning?”

“No, it was forbidden to go there. We heard shooting and then the helicopters passed over us. There was some trouble in the port…”

She listened to the other passengers; they were all talking about the fire in the city. She didn’t know what the city was like; Boris had strictly forbidden her to go there, even accompanied. And now there was something burning – she could see smoke through the window. She wondered if they’d been held so long on the runway because of this fire.

“Passengers, for technical reasons the flight has been delayed indefinitely. We ask you to…”

“Are you kidding me?”

22
.
Medical examination

There was a sudden bright light, and someone brought a flashlight toward his head, shining a thin white beam in his eye. He made an awkward attempt to remove the blinding flashlight, but his hands somehow couldn’t move. Why would that be so?

The flashlight turned off, and instead he could see a hand that snapped its fingers loudly a couple of times. The hand was blurry to his vision, as if he was looking through the thickness of muddy water.

“Mike, Mike, can you hear me?”

“Yes. Who are you? And where am I?”

“You're in a hospital on the base, and I'm your doctor.”

He knew that voice, and he knew this woman – she was a doctor in their small hospital. But he still can’t see her properly, not able to distinguish her face.

“How did I get here? I was at the port…”

“You were brought here with a bullet wound in an unconscious state. Don’t worry, the wound isn’t serious, the bullet went right through. You will recover soon.”

Mike remembered. He could also remember the blow to the shoulder, when he drove the stolen UAZ at full speed from the burning port. He had barely got out, and ended up in the hospital. He wondered what had happened to his passengers.

“How are you feeling?”

“Well, I can hear a ringing in my head, and everything is all floating before my eyes.”

“It's OK. You've lost a lot of blood, we are doing a transfusion.”

He noticed a red package with a thin tube coming from it. The tube went into his hand, and, as he looked, he saw ties around his wrist.

“Hey, why am I bound?”

“Sorry, Mike, but you have already tried several times to pull out the IV when you were unconscious, so for a time we had to hold you still.”

His double vision became even stronger, and the woman's voice began to sound slow and malleable, like a tape played on a very low speed.

“Don’t worry, go to sleep again. You need to gain strength.”

Yes, it was a great idea - a little more sleep. He must rest; he had a really fucking crazy morning.

The injured driver fell asleep again; and the doctor added new data to his file then headed out of the tiny chamber, heading for the coffee machine for an espresso. She needed to cheer up, the day had been very difficult and it didn’t seem that the night would be any easier.

Most of the time the services provided at the hospital on the small naval base far from any combat situations weren’t the most complicated cases; usually her work involved routine medical examinations and minor injuries. But this morning, since some unknown and very influential guests had come to them, everything turned out differently; she had never seen so many seriously wounded and killed in one day.

The first three victims were those from a burning Hammer, then the marine was brought in who had been shot in the stomach; with great difficulty, they managed to keep him from death. Then it became worse: following those patients were two mercenaries who had been burned very badly. And then the driver, who escaped easily – the heavy bullet had pierced right through his shoulder. Now he was lulled by the anesthetic, and she had to go to the burn center.

“Well, what is it?”

“Here, look.”

She took the tablet from a nurse and went to the wounded, trying not to look at their burned faces. They were both now unconscious under a huge dose of anesthetic. The left one had no chance, burns covered ninety-five percent of his skin. The one lying on the right bed was likely to be saved, but he would remain disabled for the rest of his life, if it could be called life. So, what had changed with the analysis? Why was her knowledge needed?

“What the hell?! There must be some mistake, re-check the test results!”

“I already checked twice, I don’t know what to think.”

“I will check myself; there must be a mistake. This can’t be!”