The 14th Colony (Cotton Malone 11)

They were now Spam in a can, sealed tight.

* * *

Cassiopeia waited as long as she could, watching the two black smudges, listening to the sqeak of their soles on the snowy ground as they approached the barn.

She could take one, but probably not both.

So she opted for the smart play.

“Cotton,” she called out. “You’ve got company.”

Both forms halted their advance and turned.

Then one headed her way, the other toward the barn.

Exactly as she’d hoped.

* * *

Malone reacted to Cassiopeia’s warning and dove toward the end of the wood pile, using it for cover toward the door, which burst open.

Gunfire began.

A rapid rat-tat-tat from an automatic rifle.

He hunkered low behind the wood which, thankfully, offered ample protection, rounds whining by, hammering into the outer walls, shredding the logs. The man was firing indiscriminately in the dark, trying to take out anything and everything, which meant they wanted no one left alive.

Including him.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

Zorin heard the hatch slam shut, then the rattle of heavy objects pounding its exterior. He surmised that someone had sealed them below with the wood, but he rushed to the ladder and climbed, confirming his suspicions. He cursed himself for being so careless, but the excitement of the moment had overridden his usually cautious nature.

He eased back down to where Kelly stood and asked, “I’m assuming there’s no other exit?”

Kelly shook his head, but no look of concern filled his comrade’s face. “I have PVV-5A.”

He smiled. Plastic explosives.

Perfect.

Kelly moved toward the shelves where two ice coolers sat, their lids sealed with thick tape. He removed the bindings, and inside lay several bricks of an olive-green material wrapped in thick plastic.

“It’s been here a long time,” Zorin said. “Is it still good?”

“I’ve kept it stored like this since the beginning. I was told the material had a long shelf life, if properly protected. We’re about to find out if that’s right.”

* * *

Cassiopeia stayed behind the tree trunk, realizing that the man headed her way had no idea where she was located. Nothing but thick woods surrounded them, so advantage her. Cotton, on the other hand, was under fire. She could hear the barn being sprayed with rounds. She needed to head that way, but first there was the matter of her own pursuer.

She reached down and found a rock that filled the palm of her right hand. The shadow was twenty meters away, headed toward the trees off to her left. She lobed the rock upward, ahead of the man, and it clattered through the branches, sending some of the accumulated snow drifting down in silent showers.

The gunman did not hesitate.

He opened fire in the direction of the commotion.

Bad move.

She swung around, braced her gun against the tree, and pulled the trigger.

* * *

Zorin climbed the ladder to the exit hatch, carrying one of the green bricks. It had been a long time since he’d last used explosives. One full brick seemed too much, but there was no time to worry about power or effect.

Kelly had found a spool of copper wire and cutters. Thankfully, the cache was stocked with all the right tools. But that had been the whole idea. Everything had to be there, ready to go.

He could find no good place to lodge the brick except just above the final rung, a few centimeters beneath the closed lid. He assumed whoever had trapped them had piled wood atop, making it impossible to shove the hatch upward, but that would not be a problem for the force he was about to deliver.

Volleys of gunfire raged above him.

Odd.

Like back at Kelly’s house. Something was happening in the barn. But it didn’t concern him at the moment, not until he was free of this cage.

Kelly came up the ladder behind him to hand over the exposed ends of two copper wires. He wrapped both around the brick, then inserted the bare metal tips through the plastic covering the explosive. He then relaid the bundle close to the hatch and climbed down, careful not to jostle the wires. Kelly had already snaked them across the shelter to its far side.

“Ease the door shut,” Kelly told him. “As far as you can without hurting the wires.”

He understood the wisdom. The explosion would certainly blast upward, but there would be a downdraft, too, and it was important that the RA-115s stayed protected. Not to mention himself and Kelly. He managed to nearly close the door, which opened outward. The blast would only slam it further shut. But there was still the matter of air compression in the confined space. Kelly had thought of that, too, grabbing two wool blankets and tossing one his way.

For the head and ears.

Not 100 percent protection, but enough.

They retreated beyond the shelves and the table with the five nuclear devices, and huddled in a far corner. The other end of the two copper wires lay before them, as did a six-volt battery.

Touch the exposed ends to the terminals and the charge should be more than enough to ignite the night.

* * *

Malone waited until the firing stopped, lying still behind the woodpile, out of sight of the man in the doorway. That was the problem with bursting in without thought. Somebody else on the inside just might be thinking. Especially after a warning. But this guy had not seemed to mind, choosing to see if he could kill everything quickly.

The firing stopped.

For an instant.

Malone sprang up on his knees, found his target in the dark, and fired three shots, dropping the man to the ground. Quickly, he advanced to the doorway, gun still aimed, kicking away the rifle, then checking for a pulse at the neck.

Dead.

* * *

Cassiopeia heard the shots and saw the man at the barn door collapse to the ground. Apparently, Cotton had been ready for him. A form stepped from the barn, its outline unmistakable.

She hustled across a patch of scruffy grass, calling out, “You okay?”

“Any more out here?”

“I took the other one out.”

She was ten meters away.

* * *

Zorin held one wire, Kelly the other, the battery lying on the floor between them, blankets wrapping their heads, insulating their ears from what was about to bang through their underground prison. This was what KGB officers lived for, what they spent years being trained to do. Finally, he’d awakened from an agonizing, self-induced trance. For so long he’d blundered around like a drunk, staggering through life, his stomach hollow with loathing and disappointment, but now he’d finally achieved locomotion.

He was moving. Forward.

And nothing would stop him.

He nodded at Kelly.

They touched their wires to the terminals.

Sparks.

* * *

Malone headed toward Cassiopeia, about to tell her that he had Zorin and Kelly sealed tight when the barn exploded.

Everything rushed outward and up, air surging past both him and Cassiopeia, blowing them backward, upended, then crashing them to the ground. His head immediately hurt, all sense of balance gone. He rose and tried to find Cassiopeia. She lay a few feet away. He crawled toward her, forcing his muscles to work. Debris from the barn began to rain down. He seized what final bits of strength remained and thrust his body across hers.

His muscles pained to numbness.

Then reality vanished.

* * *

Zorin removed the blanket from around his head, as did Kelly. The explosion had sent nearly all of the blast upward, the shelter’s door forced shut, clanging hard metal to metal and keeping most of the force away from them. A deep subterranean rumble had rocked the walls, coming in shocks and waves, but it had now subsided. Everything had held. The electricity still worked and the overhead lights burned bright.

They stood.

All five weapons remained on the table and appeared fine.

He moved toward the door and shoved it open. The ladder well was clear, the overhead hatch gone. He listened and heard nothing. The barn above no longer sheltered anything. Snow rained down.

“Get one of the weapons ready to move,” he said to Kelly. “I’ll check above.”

He grabbed a flashlight, found his gun, and climbed to ground level. Only about half the barn remained, the rest scattered out twenty meters in all directions. The weak beam wavered as he jumped on top of the debris. He flicked the light across the ground and saw a body. He rolled the corpse over, seeing three bullet wounds to the chest.

This one died before.

In the gunfire he’d heard.

He washed the light over what was left of the barn and spotted another body. He went close and dropped into a crouch, tossing aside the pieces of old wood. No. Two bodies. One above the other. He rolled the top one over. In the light he saw a face he recognized.

The American. Malone.

Here?

A woman lay beneath him.

Concern swept through him.

How could this be?

“Aleksandr.”