Objekt 825 (Tracie Tanner Thrillers Book 9) by Allan Leverone (year 7 reading list txt) 📗

She reached up and pressed her weapon to the side of his skull.

Spoke softly in Russian. “We need to have a little discussion.”

“Who are you, and what do you want?”

“Who I am is of no consequence to you. What I want, however, will be the subject of our discussion. Now, here is what is going to happen: you will get behind the wheel of your car, and I will slip into the seat directly behind yours. If you do anything other than exactly what I tell you to do, I will blow your brains all over your windshield. Do we understand each other, Commander Morozov?”

He didn’t answer immediately, but Tracie hadn’t expected him to. He would mentally review his options, quickly eliminating each until, after maybe ten or fifteen seconds, he would reach the only possible conclusion: he must do as he was told.

So she waited.

A moment later, he said, “I understand.”

“Are you armed?”

“Why would I need to carry a gun? This facility is secured by fencing and heavily armed soldiers in every direction.”

“And yet here I am. So much for your fencing and armed guards. Place your hands on the roof of the vehicle and spread your legs, while I determine whether you have begun our relationship by lying to me.”

He did as instructed, muttering softly under his breath. She ignored him and patted him down, and discovered he’d been telling the truth about being unarmed.

Satisfied, she said, “Now, get in the car.”

He slid behind the wheel while she opened the rear door and dropped into the seat behind his. They pulled their doors closed simultaneously.

“What now?” Morozov said.

“I told you. We’re going to have a little discussion.”

“I have nothing to say to you, except to remind you that your fate will be…unpleasant once you are apprehended. And you will be apprehended.”

Tracie reached up and pressed her weapon against his head for a second time. “I will lead this discussion. If you choose not to participate, you will discover your life span has been shortened considerably. Are we on the same page in this regard, Commander?”

This time there was no delay, because there was nothing for him to consider. He had no options. His choice was binary: agree to her terms or die.

“Da,” he spat. His anger was obvious, but Tracie thought there was a healthy dose of fear in the response as well.

“Good,” she said. “I want to talk about the electronic device Comrade Lukashenko delivered to you yesterday.”

“The communication decoder? What about it?” His tone was one of confusion. Whatever he thought the maniac in a Red Army lieutenant’s uniform wanted, the possibility that it was related to yesterday’s visit from The Weasel had not occurred to him.

“Correct,” Tracie said. “It does not belong to you, and I have come to take possession of it and then return it to its rightful owners.”

He shook his head. “I have no idea what you are talking about. My superiors in Moscow informed me Comrade Lukashenko would be delivering a submersible communication decoder, and that our researchers and scientists were to begin reverse-engineering the device immediately.”

“Did they tell you where the object of this pending research came from?”

“They did not.”

“And that didn’t strike you as odd?”

“I did not care. I received my orders and I intend to follow them. It is no more complicated than that.”

“Well, I have some new orders for you. You are going to escort me into your facility. Then you will bring me to your research lab, or wherever you are keeping the device. Together, we will then remove it from Objekt 825.”

“And why would I do any of that?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Perhaps, but explain it to me anyway.”

“Because,” Tracie said, “if you do anything other than exactly what I have described, you will die. It is very much that simple.”

“If you shoot me, you will never escape. Your fate will be worse than mine.”

Tracie chuckled. “I got into this place undetected. I’m quite sure I can get out the same way. But even if you’re right, and I’m apprehended, fated to suffer horribly, you will still be dead. That does not strike me as a trade-off you would find satisfactory, Commander.”

He shook his head again, his fear and frustration plain. “The device was just delivered to us yesterday. My people will become suspicious if I remove it less than twenty-four hours after handing it over to them.”

“Are you or are you not the commanding officer of Objekt 825?”

“You already know that I am. It is why we are having this conversation.”

“And are your men obligated to do as you say or are they not?”

“You know the answer to that question as well.”

“Then your argument is irrelevant. I do not care how suspicious your men get. I do not care what you choose to tell them when we take possession of the device. All I care about is that we leave the facility with it. If that happens, and you do exactly as I say, you will be allowed to live. If not…” She allowed her words to hang in the early-morning stillness, hammering home her message.

Morozov huffed angrily but said nothing.

“Do you understand everything I have told you?”

“Da.”

“Do you understand your only chance at surviving beyond the next few minutes is by doing exactly as I have said?”

“Da.”

“Then what are you waiting for? It is time to go to work. Consider it ‘Bring Your Captor To Work Day.”

“What? I do not understand.”

“Never mind. Just drive.”

25

 

June 25, 1988

6:55 a.m.

Objekt 825 administration building

 

During the short drive from Morozov’s home to the parking lot outside the Objekt 825 office complex, Tracie filled the commander in on her Olga Koruskaya identity and the flimsy cover