Russian Law (Law Series ) (Volume 1) (26 page)

Lucas
made himself step back from her before he did something stupid like throw her
down and make love to her on the floor of the airport. He bent down and picked
up his small travel bag.

He
started walking away from her, she stepped forward.

 “Goodbye,”
she said, her voice husky.

He
gave her a grin. “
Do svidaniya, moya lyubov
,” and with that said he turned
away from her before she could reply.

Elena
smiled,
goodbye my love
. Elena watched his retreating back until she
could see him no more and was still there when his plane took to the sky,
retuning the man that stole her heart back to America.

***

Eighteen Months
Later

Annandale,
Virginia, USA

Lucas
opened the
door to the kitchen and entered his house. As soon as he stepped through the
opening, he immediately knew he was not alone. His years as a CIA Special Agent
making him sense the disturbance in the air. The feeling that something just
wasn’t right, not the way he had left it those many hours before. He reached
down to the gun holstered on his hip, unsnapped the safety strip and pulled out
his weapon.

He
kept the nine millimeter luger revolver pointed out, his finger grazing the
trigger as he anticipated an attack. He slowly made his way through his house,
checking behind doors and in enclosed spaces where shadows hid, searching. He
found himself entering the open-area living quarters when a figure stepped out
in front of him, his index finger was about to press down hard on the trigger
when recognition set in. He let out a deep breath and holstered his Smith and
Wesson.

“Jesus
Christ Dmitry, I could have damn near shot you!”

Dmitry
had the grace to look apologetic. “I’m sorry Lucas, but I need your help.”

“No
shit,” he replied.

***

Keeping reading
for a sneak preview of the second novel in the series, American Law due out in
2013 in the Kindle Store.

Dmitry
Ivanov felt the Rossiya Airline Boeing 767 plane go through turbulence. He
gripped the armrest of his chair and tried to relax. He inhaled and exhaled
slowly, thinking of anything but the fact that he was 35,000 feet in the air
and only in-cased in a light metal coating relying on the engineering of the
plane to hold, the engines to remain in working order and a well trained pilot
at the controls. His brain worked hard taking in the specs of the plane and
brought them together revealing how a plane was able to soar across the open
sky.

This
was how he handled stress. His mind which never shut off began comparing or
breaking down information until he found solace. Dmitry hated to fly and he
especially hated turbulence. He could feel the contents of his stomach churn
and had he been in a cartoon his face would probably turn green. His friend,
the man seated next to him in the cramped Economy section, Ivan Anisimov,
chuckled.

Dmitry
glared at him, not daring to move much in case the movement caused the
tasteless airplane food to return.

“Can
it man,” he told Ivan.

Ivan
grinned. He knew his friend had never been much of a flyer and always took the
moment to point out that fact. Dmitry had known Ivan since they were small boys
and had grown up together. Up until the age of sixteen when they each had
discovered girls they had been inseparable. Ivan was one of those men who was
always out to make the quick buck, having tried every scheme under the sun into
getting on the money train. Unfortunately the man had never had any luck and
was often short, at least until recently when he and Dmitry had started a
business together. Using Dmitry’s computer expertise and Ivan’s fast talking
they were doing really well and it was completely legal, a new detail for Ivan.

While
their business had been mostly contained in Russia, with a few odd jobs in the
Ukraine and Estonia this was the first time that they had been specifically
requested to cross the Atlantic Ocean. While the job was set to be interesting
and he could play tourist once the job was completed he was seriously second
guessing the decision to come now.

Dmitry
placed his palm on his stomach and prayed he would not embarrass himself by
throwing up. They were currently fifteen hours into their flight, having had to
catch a connecting flight in Paris before continuing on to Washington D.C. Only
roughly another five hours until they touched down at Dulles International
Airport. He hoped the hours went quickly and that he didn’t have any lasting
ill effects since they had an eight am meeting in the morning.

It
was a big deal for their business, the first international job. He and Ivan
were still in the process of building up their business and reputation meant
everything to the type of people he wanted to attract so he wanted everything
to go smoothly tomorrow. He still had no idea how Ivan had managed to
sweet-talk the clients into bringing them over from Russia all expenses paid
when a local company could have done the same work they were asking for. But he
wasn’t about to argue. The client was looking into expanding their small
business and if they played their cards right hopefully they would give the
business a glowing recommendation that would let them go far in the industry.

Dmitry
closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep. He knew it was a long way coming but
he attempted the feat anyway. He didn’t usually like to waste valuable time
that he could be working on one of his many trademark virus hunters or security
programs but the motion of the airplane was not conducive to concentrating and
his laptop screen would more than likely make him even sicker.

Four
hours and a bit later, he was still wide awake. He had begun reviewing his
software in his head after he found that sleep was evading him. Making internal
notes of what he would need to fix or update when he got a chance. Ones and
zeros rotated about in his head. He never knew where the talent for computers
came from. Elena was certainly not technology-minded. He guessed he’d just been
born with the gift and used it to his advantage, the elite programming just
appearing in his head while he dreamed.

Dmitry
felt the landing gears beneath them extend. The fasten seat-belt sign came on
and he felt the pilot begin the decent towards the ground. Thank God for that,
he thought. Any longer and they would’ve had a crazy person on board. Beside
him, Ivan sat up in his seat wiping away the drool that had escaped his mouth
as he slept. The man could sleep anywhere, Dmitry thought enviously.

“We
there yet?” Ivan asked, sleep still evident in his voice as he spoke. He
yawned, and Dmitry heard the man’s jaw crack.

Dmitry
shook his head. “Almost.”

“Get
any sleep?” Ivan enquired, looking his friend over with a critical eye.
Frowning at what he saw. Dmitry wondered fleetingly what he looked like. It
couldn’t have been pretty after the eighteen hours of airsickness he had just
suffered through.

“No
not yet. I’m too wired at the moment. That and along with this ridiculous
airsickness, it didn’t exactly let me rest.”

Ivan
nodded, clearly understanding through the haze of sleep. He was slowly
beginning to wake up. “Well we’ll be at the hotel soon and you can rest there.”

Dmitry
felt the thud of the tires against the tarmac and again silently thanked God.
He was about to go stir crazy and wondered if he was maybe a bit claustrophobic.
It would certainly explain some things. As soon as the seat-belt sign turned
off, Dmitry shot up out of his seat like a cannon. He collected his carry-on
and was halfway down the aisle before Ivan had even stood.

Another
forty-five minutes and he was through customs and immigration. Another twenty
and he and Ivan were driving out of Budget car rentals in a black Ford Focus.
Ivan took the wheel and turned on the GPS - because men don’t ask for
directions. But it was okay for a computer to tell him where to go. Dmitry
refrained from commenting as he listened to the
male
computerized voice
telling Ivan to continue east on I-66 toward the centre of D.C and eventually
to the Marriot Hotel near Dupont Circle where he and Ivan would be staying.
Their route bypassed the White House and if it hadn’t been so late in the
evening he would have asked Ivan to make a detour and drive down Pennsylvania
Avenue so he could have a look. But instead they continued on, weaving through
the late night traffic. He looked out the window at the scenery as they sped on
by, the landscape so different from home it was almost alien.

Dmitry
had lived in Moscow his entire life. He and Elena’s parent’s had been working
class who had done everything they could to further their children’s lives and
education. Unfortunately for them they passed away before they could see the
success their children had become.

Ivan
slowed the car as they came up to a fender bender, merging into the lane beside
them when it was clear that the motorists required no help from them. Dmitry
leant back in his seat. He was in Washington. He had known he would be for the
past few weeks but the reality of actually being in the city was only just
hitting him. He had always thought he would visit Elena in D.C but that had yet
to come true. He took a deep breath letting the polluted smog filled air into
his lungs and for the first time he was happy about it. He had had enough of
breathing in the regulated airplane oxygen.

Dmitry
thought about what he needed to do and wondered if he would get a chance at
some point of his trip to take a look around Washington before he heads back
home. Maybe he could tell Elena what she is missing. He already had a list of
things he wanted to see such as the Ford Theatre and Lincoln Memorial. The
Washington Monument was also featured. He only hoped that the American’s
computer problem didn’t take up the entire week.

The
Marriot was a large brownstone and the check-in desk was still attended, even
at the time of their arrival, the young college aged desk clerk looking bright
and chipper for the time of night. He quickly found their reservations and made
them out keys. They had a two bedroom suite with a shared common area. The bed
however uninviting with its floral design was the best thing Dmitry had seen in
a long time. He made his way towards it and dropped his luggage down by the bed
where it was, close to the window. He opened the window letting in the - as
fresh as you could get in the city - air as he looked out at Washington’s
nightlife, at the pretty lights and felt no excitement. He was exhausted, the
twenty-one hour flight having taken a toll on him. Ivan however frustratingly
looked well-rested, his eyes alight with mischief.

“So
are you up for hitting the streets of D.C? Doing some partying and  hopefully
some American woman?”

Dmitry
shook his head. “Nyet, I want to be fresh for the morning. You go ahead, I’m
just going to call Elena before I crash.”

His
sister worried a lot about him these days, having lost her husband to a traitor
and then potential lover to his home country. She was always afraid of losing
him too. Since their parents had died he and Elena were the only family either
one of them had left.

Ivan
shrugged. “Okay but you don’t know what you’re missing.”

He
was sure he knew exactly what he was missing. That was another reason he was
quite happy to stay at the hotel. He and Ivan’s tastes were entirely different
and he for one had never woken up in a foreign jail sleeping off the night
before, with no recollection as to what he did.

“I’m
sure I can guess and if not, you will certainly tell me. See you in the
morning,” he replied.

Ivan
gave him an exaggerated wink. “Alright, I’ll try to keep it down when I get
back.”

Ivan
turned toward the bathroom to prepare himself for lady catching. He had an
entire routine he completed before heading out on the town, all in a way to maximize
his return. Ivan was the type of man to leave broken hearts wherever he went –
that or at least a trail of one night stands and names and faces he would never
remember. The last long relationship Ivan had had lasted about two weeks. He
certainly wasn’t one in for the long haul.

Dmitry
flopped down on his bed and stretched out. He lifted up the hotels handset and dialed
the international number. Moscow was eight hours ahead of D.C so he should just
be catching his sister Elena before she leaves for work as a liaison officer
for SVR – Russia’s alternative to the CIA. She had worked at the Yasenevo
office for over five years now and had married her then supervisor Nikolai
Nagregor shortly after joining the agency. Their bliss was short lived however
when two years ago Nikolai was murdered by close friend and fellow agent Alexei
Dimitrovich. For a while he had thought she would get together with CIA agent
Lucas Gates after he came to Moscow after a case in the States had involved
another SVR agent. But eighteen months on she was still in Moscow and Lucas was
in America. He had often tried talking to Elena about Lucas but each time she
had shut him down and moved the conversation on, his sister Queen of Denial.