The Trade of Kings (Surviving the Fall 10)

ld and mature enough that I think he can handle all of this nastiness.”

“No,” Dianne shook her head, “it’s not him I’m worried about.”

“Ah.” Jason walked slowly along the driveway, kicking at the blood-stained rocks. “You’re thinking about the rest of these punks, eh?”

“There were way more than seven, Jason. There’s clear evidence all along here that they were wounded by that last blast, and there were probably several more who were wounded by the first blasts in the woods. They’ve pulled back for now, but I can’t imagine that they won’t try coming back again once they’ve licked their wounds.”

“So we get ready for them. The traps worked like a charm so we set more of them out in the woods and all around the perimeter of the house. Once they come knocking, we’ll set ‘em straight.”

All-out warfare had never been in Dianne’s blood. As she stood in the driveway of her home, looking at the bodies strewn on the gravel and off in the leaves amongst the trees, she realized that she wasn’t half-bad at it.

“How long will it take you to make more traps? Enough to replace all the ones in the woods, add twice as many out there and plant plenty outside the house?”

“The rest of the day, if I’m quick and have help. Jacob and Josie can do a bit, but I’ll need more hands than that if you want to be able to set them all up by tomorrow.”

Dianne nodded. “That should be fine. My guess is that they won’t be back for another couple days at the soonest. They’ll be coming back with a vengeance, though, so we need to be ready for them.”

Jason slowly strode up next to Dianne and planted a firm hand on her shoulder. “Oh, we’ll be ready for them. We’ll be ready.”

Chapter 12

Washington, D.C.

“Gentlemen!” Rick was in the lead as he, Jane and Dr. Evans walked out of the building with packs on their backs and bags in their hands. “Sorry that took so long. We have everything we need and we’re ready to assist.”

Ostap nodded in the affirmative and turned to Oles. “Our two eggheads were just discussing the three possible locations for this facility where the command and control network is located. They conferred with your Dr. Evans who concluded that this facility is least likely to contain it, but is still necessary to explore.”

“Oh yes, we must explore it thoroughly.” Dr. Evans nodded. “Since the most likely facility to the north was also empty, we just have two locations left, so the sooner we start, the better.”

“Sounds great, Dr. Evans.” Rick nodded at him. “Where do we start?”

In addition to the rectangular office-like buildings in the compound and the old observatory, a few smaller buildings sat here and there. Checking each and every one wouldn’t take a huge amount of time in the small compound, but every second they spent actually solving problems instead of hunting for them would be a boon.

The two technicians looked at Dr. Evans expectantly after Rick posed his question, appearing like a pair of dogs who were waiting on their master to tell them to go “fetch.” He seemed to ignore or not notice them, though, and gave Rick an answer without hesitation.

“These rectangular structures—one of which we were just in—were completely rebuilt from the inside-out after the State Department took over from the Navy. As part of the whole inter-bureau agreement, they decided to make the four basement floors of one of the buildings into a high-security location.”

“Which building do we look in, then?”

Dr. Evans pointed at the building opposite the one they had taken refuge in. “It should be in that one. The one we were in didn’t have a staircase that descended beyond the ground floor, so it’s more than likely not the right place.”

“All right, then. How are we going to do this?” Rick looked at Ostap and Carl, studying them carefully as he sensed Jane was doing from beside him.

“If he,” Ostap said, nodding toward Dr. Evans, “knows the building layout, then he should lead with Oles and Jacob. I’ll remain out here as a lookout and Carl can come with you to help provide protection should you run into trouble.”

“Great idea. I’ll stay up here as well, though.” Rick smiled as he spoke, being overly cautious to keep his words and tone as even as possible. “Two is better than one and after that group came through I’d rather not risk having just one person alone—even one as well-armed as yourself.”

For the briefest moment, Rick thought Ostap might argue, but the man merely nodded and gave a slight smile in return. “That would be most appreciated. Thank you.”

“Fantastic. Dr. Evans? You take the lead and see if you can sniff out the hidden bunker or offices or whatever it ends up being. If you find it, send a runner back up and we’ll head down and join you. Jane, make sure you help Carl with watching everyone’s back. Somehow I doubt there’s anyone down in these buildings but you never know.”

Rick felt bad for dividing the group up without having a chance to talk to Jane or fill Dr. Evans in on what was going on, but in the end things had to be like they were for a reason. Dr. Evans, as competent and clever as he was, wouldn’t be able to focus on his job if he knew about Jane’s feelings on the Russians. With Jane, though, Rick simply wasn’t able to talk to her ahead of time before dividing them all up, but his logic was sound enough that he hoped it made sense to her.

With the Spetsnaz officers offering to split up, Rick wanted to make sure that he stuck with one of them, and with Jane being as sensitive and paranoid as she was about them, it only made sense to have her go with the other. Rick knew he could count on her to keep a close eye on Carl, and he hoped that—if things went south—Dr. Evans would be able to handle himself.

There was always the chance that Jane’s feelings about the two Spetsnaz officers were wrong, but despite having known Jane and Dr. Evans for such a short period of time, he was completely comfortable with entrusting his life to them. If one of them had a bad feeling, no matter how crazy it sounded, he was going to listen. The fate of his family—and the world—were at stake.

Chapter 13