Head Of The Snake. G. Rehder

Bykov was at the front door. Mariya let him in, and he followed her to the study. The zip ties had been removed by Viktor, and Klopov’s body slumped forward, almost falling out of the chair.

      “Drag him to the kitchen, the side door, it is wide, and you can pull your vehicle close.”

      Bykov did as he was told and struggled to drag the big man the thirty feet to the kitchen. No one helped him.

      Viktor had moved back to the great room, along with the bottle of Beluga. He didn’t take a glass. He was drinking straight out of the bottle. Feeling the warmth of the vodka and the crackling fire, he closed his eyes, trying to forget the image and the last words of his friend as he took his life from him.

      Viktor knew he was a bad man. He had killed before but never loyal friends. He did not want to be the monster he was being forced to be, the monster Lehan expected him to be.

      Mariya did what Mariya did best. In situations like this, she was always rock solid, no emotion, not like her brother whom she thought of as “the weak one.”

      She followed Bykov into the kitchen and told him, “Go out this door”—pointing to the kitchen—“get your Aleko. Bring it in close.”

      He left and did as she told him.

      She didn’t want Bykov to go through the house again, to see Viktor in the state he was in; after all, Bykov needed to respect Viktor if he was to follow his orders.

      As Bykov was getting his vehicle, Mariya did the pocket search, removing all his personal things, then stripping him down to the waist, removing all his clothes, except his underwear.

      When Bykov returned, she helped him get Klopov into the trunk. It was a small car and they struggled to load him in the cramped space. You have a kit in the backseat? she asked him.

      “Da,” he said.

      “Take him to the same spot as we did Gise. Let me see your phone.” He handed it to her. She scrolled through his call log, only three calls, none to numbers she recognized. “Take a picture with this and keep it for me to see later. I want to see him in the grave you dig. Make it deep. If you are discovered, lose your phone immediately, and remember, I don’t know you. You are on your own with a dead body, understand?”

      “Da,” he answered again, not looking at her when he said it. That bothered her.

      When he was out the gate, she closed it from her desk panel then joined her brother in the great room.

      “Did you leave me any?” she snapped.

      He handed the bottle over to her. There were only a few swallows left.

      She set it on the floor, walked to the kitchen, and got a fresh bottle out of the cupboard. She returned. As she sat and uncorked it, she said, “I want Arseniy Malygin to suffer. I find him disgusting. We will not drug him. I will take pleasure in seducing him while you attack him when his attention is on me. We need to do him tomorrow before he realizes his comrades are gone for good.”

      Viktor nodded. “As you wish, dear sister.”

      Chapter 11

      After Rosa left, I decided it was time to venture into the town of Questa. I was hungry and didn’t feel like cooking. I thought I would take Mike’s Land Rover out for a drive, see if I might draw any attention, especially from a driver in a black Jeep.

      “I secured the house, told Winslow I would be gone for a while, and went into the barn, got into the Rover, and backed it out into the midday sun. It was almost sixty degrees, and the warmth felt good. I rolled down both front windows so I could feel the wind blowing in as I drove out the long dirt road to Highway 522.