Russian Law (Law Series ) (Volume 1) (22 page)

“Gun!”
was shouted by one of the agents.

The
Secret Service and FSB Agent’s all brought out their weapons in a practiced
movement within seconds from the moment Ducane’s gun was spotted. Every gun was
trained towards the door where Michael Ducane stood. Because of the panicking
accumulation of people no agent had a clear shot and couldn’t risk shooting the
bystanders.  Each set of agent’s eyes were ever vigilant, moving restlessly
around the room, assessing for danger.

The
large double doors at the entrance to St George’s Hall closed shut, locking the
occupants of the room inside.

He
looked up at the Secret Service and FSB agents. “CIA - get them out of here!” He
grabbed a hold of an agent as he moved by. “Don’t take the escape route, it’s
been compromised.”

The
agent looked hard at Lucas, judging his character before nodding. Lucas having
passed the test. The agent moved back to join his team, relaying the information.

Chapter 25

Elena
felt something
digging into her hip and sat up. She heard an incessant ringing echoing in her
head causing it to throb more painfully. Her skull felt like it had been split
in two. She reached up with her hands and felt blood. She was also feeling
nauseous. Where was she? How did she get here? Slowly the events came back to
her. Alexei had struck her with something, most likely his Goddamn gun. He had
been involved from the start, whenever that may have been. She had never picked
him for anything but a patriot. He had been planning this day for over six
months, lying to her face all this time. That was why he had shown up at her
office a few days ago, pumping her for information. She hadn’t given him
anything but still she felt used. She had trusted him. Nikolai had trusted him.

She
got to her feet slowly and held onto the wall as her head swam, the tunnel
whirling around her. She probably had a concussion. She quickly ran her hands
down from her waist and over her hips and felt the bulge of the Desert Eagle
Lucas had obtained from Iosif. She yanked it out of her pocket as she made her
way towards the screaming voices, her mind flashed back to her basic weapons
training that every agent, liaison officer and paper pusher employed by SVR had
to complete. She took the safety off and then replaced it, reacquainting
herself with the powerful weapon.

Elena
retraced her steps. She had not been paying much attention on the way down but
she managed to navigate the maze of hallways back to the hidden door at the end
of the corridor near the apartments. She turned right, cutting through the
Grand Church and Guard Room and ran down the antechamber making up the Military
Gallery, towards the throne room stopping outside St. George’s Hall. The fire
doors had been rigged to close. Trapping them all inside, not wanting to waste
bullets or accidentally shooting someone inside the room, she stuffed the
Desert Eagle inside the waist band of her borrowed jeans and went in search of
something to jimmy the door. She hit the jackpot when she found an antiquated
axe hanging from the wall, most likely dating back to Catherine the Great.
Without any qualms over the fact that the axe was a piece of history she yanked
it off the wall and took it back to the large heavy wood double doors. She was
glad Carey wasn’t here to witness her lack of regard to the antiques inside the
palace. Her friend would probably have a heart attack to see the artifacts
treated so carelessly. Elena raised the axe high and started hacking away at
the centuries old door.

God,
they don’t make doors the way they used to, she thought as she kept on chopping
barely making a dent in the wood. Her arms screamed as she raised the axe again
and again. Elena concentrated on the door knob and lock and after a few more
hard whacks, the lock broke off with the knob and the door opened, Diplomats
spilling out almost knocking her down.

There’s
gratitude for you.

She
weaved through the frightened civil servants who were making hasty getaways and
looked for Lucas. He had to be here somewhere. She spotted the FSB agents and
the Secret Service coming towards her with the two Presidents in tow. The
agents all had their guns drawn and directed them at anyone who came too close.

Elena
pulled aside an agent of the Secret Service and handed him the axe. She flashed
her identification and badge in front of his eyes.

“Be
careful, that door was rigged. We have a breach in security among our agency
and the FSB. Vital information has been passed on. If a man named Alexei Dimitrovich
with the FSB approaches, you’re well within your rights to shoot to kill. Cross
over into the Armorial Hall straight through there that will lead you to the
Court Garden.”

She
then told him the easiest way to safety from there, was to cut through the west
side of the Palace past the private rooms that once belonged to the Imperial
family to the West Garden where the government cars can pick up the President’s
out of sight and away from the protestors.

The
agent nodded enthusiastically before proceeding out the door into the
elaborately designed room. She didn’t wait to see if the agent took her advice,
instead she entered the hall, gun at ready.

Chapter 26

Lucas
glanced about
the room. The mass of people were thinning finally. Who knew when the bomb
below would go off or when Alexei would make it go off? He still had to get to
Elena and move her to safety before going after the traitorous bastard. It
wasn’t his country that had been betrayed but he still felt outraged on the
offended country’s behalf.

St
George’s Hall was a beautiful room. Once the principal throne room, the Hall
had been redesigned after the 1837 fire and was redone with white colonnades on
either side of the room. The columns leading up towards where the throne would
be on platform at the end of the Hall, had it not been removed to be replaced
with a podium and microphone. Behind the Hall was the small Apollo Hall which
connected the palace with the Small Hermitage.

The
hall had been divided into two sides, left and right with long banquet tables,
each spot at the table had the name of the nation the delegate was from.

Lucas
spotted Ducane coming at him and turned to deflect the fist. Ducane wasn’t
mucking about, his fists, his feet all were going for the most sensitive body
parts. Lucas did the same, his fist connecting with Ducane’s nose and he heard
the satisfying crunch. Blood poured from his nose. Ducane pulled the gun from
his waist band and squeezed the trigger. Lucas dived for safety as the bullet
ripped through his shoulder. He fell to the floor cutting his hands on broken
glass. His shoulder burned like fire. He pulled a few pieces of errant glass
out of his skin. Blood welled at each cut and his coat was already damp from
his shoulder.

Ducane
moved closer, the gun in his hand steady as he moved around the over turned
table that was protecting Lucas and aimed his shot to kill. Lucas had no time
to evade him and realized with clarity that he was done. He heard the shot echo
through the Hall and for a second thought he’d been shot again. He looked up at
Ducane, a neat whole in his head, blood dribbling out as he fell to the floor.

Lucas
saw Elena approach, the Desert Eagle still in her hand. She seemed unaffected
by the fact she had just killed someone, but then again the shock mightn’t of
worn off yet and she would most probably break down later.

“Where
is Alexei?” she asked, her eyes moving restlessly around the room. He could see
the guilt in her eyes and Lucas knew she blamed herself. If she hadn’t told
Fitzgibbon to warn Alexei, they might have prevented this situation. She looked
down at him and saw the blood soaking through his jacket, she paled her eyes
widening.

“Oh
my God Lucas, you’re hurt!”

He
was touched by her concern, he had never had a woman concerned about him like
that before. He certainly hadn’t had one that shot someone to protect him
either, it left him feeling strange or perhaps that was the loss of blood. Out
of the corner of his eye, he saw Alexei. His face was contorted with rage, his
weapon in his hand. His raised his arm to point the gun at Elena.

“Elena!”

Lucas
reached up and grabbed hold of her wrist and yanked her to the floor beside him
as Alexei squeezed the trigger, the bullet whizzed above their heads finally
coming to a stop when it hit the wall. The sound of the gun firing echoed
through the hall piecing his ears. He didn’t have time to ask her if she was
okay, since she was still moving and hadn’t said anything he assumed she was.

Alexei
looked at his watch. “Any second now.”

Lucas
and Elena shared a look before Lucas wrapped his good arm around her waist and
rolled her under him. He barely had time to register how good her body felt
beneath his before the ground below them started to shake. A loud groan
reverberated through the room as the explosive converted into gas. The pressure
causing a shock wave that rose up making the C4 discharge beneath them. Lucas
prayed for a little luck as the floor above the device was torn up, bits of
concrete and flooring flying in all directions from the velocity of the
detonation.

Lucas
kept Elena covered with his body, a hand covering his head for protection.
Elena was tense beneath him, her fingers digging into his coat.

Lucas
watched helplessly as several delegates and their guards unfortunately hiding
on the platform directly above the bomb were thrown up into the air, pieces of
their bodies hitting the roof. A hole was ripped through the wall behind the
platform and the podium was catapulted into the small Apollo Hall. Large chunks
of the concrete flooring were thrown through the exterior wall and out into the
snow. Fires broke out around the point of impact and furniture exploded nearby,
scattering the pieces to the far reaches of the room. The screams of panic and fear
from the frightened delegates were barely audible over the ringing in his ears.

Tables
were overturned by the force of the blast and one nearby exploded, a piece
struck the crown of his head, stars burst in his vision as he felt the blow to
the head, he could feel the resulting pounding and the trickle of warm blood
right before the impact rendered him unconscious.

Dust
and debris began to settle. The fire raged and was threatening to spread. The
smell of death and smoke lingered in the air. Elena coughed, her hand a fist
crumbling Lucas’s coat on his back. Her heart pounded in her chest and she
struggled to breath, hindered by the hundred and eighty pound or so man
crushing her into the floor.

“Lucas,”
she said, not hearing her voice as she spoke. The bomb blast had shot her
hearing, a constant ringing sound in her ear. Luckily her ear drum had not
burst from the impact on her senses. Her mouth was dry and her throat was raw,
probably due to the smoke and dust she was inhaling, she needed water. Slowly
she began to hear the distant wail of a siren as several fire engines
approached, the sound contorting painfully in her ear but there was no
disguising the well known sound of help on the way. They would need to get here
quick and diffuse the fire before it had a chance to spread through to the rest
of the palace. It would take emergency crews a while to sort through the debris
and body parts. The bomb had been planted directly under the platform at the
end of the room where the President’s would surely have been had Lucas not
warned them and been removed immediately.

Elena
tired to move, nudging Lucas. She was worried he had not made it and was
immensely relieved when she felt him move above her. She gently rolled him off
her body and saw the goose egg appearing on his head where a bit of wood had
hit him and sat up. His arm was still around her waist so she had to extricate
herself. She looked around at the sight, the once beautiful state room now
destroyed.

She
felt something cold against her head and she heard the unmistakable sound of a
gun being cocked, echoing throughout the Hall. She went still, her heart once more
pounding in her chest stopped and she felt cold. A hand reached down and yanked
her to her feet.

“Alexei?”

“Put
your hands behind your back.”

His
mouth was practically on her ear as he spoke. She shivered and wondered what
happened to the Desert Eagle, where had she dropped it? She did as he asked and
put her hands behind her back, he roughly brought her wrists together and she
felt the steel of his handcuffs connect around each wrist. Oh God. What the
hell was she going to do to get out of this? She looked down at Lucas who
unfortunately was still unconscious. Please Lucas, she begged. Wake up. He
didn’t, time for a new plan. She tried to think of one, looking about the room
for a weapon. Not that it would do her any good now what with her hands behind
her back. Elena cursed at the turn of events. She would just had to go along
with him until he was distracted and then she would run.

By
God would she run.

Alexei
half carried, half dragged her out of the room. She stumbled a few times over
debris as she tried to keep up with his long strides. Alexei immediately
reached out and righted her each time. His hand remained like a vice on her
arm.