Page 53 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
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“They’reone klick in front of us,” Gideon yelled.
“Oleg, ty kuda?”Kostya heard over the tank’s radio.“Pochemu ty ne v laboratorii?”
Holy fuck, he’d been concentrating so hard on keeping the tank on the trail at the higher speed that he’d missed the fact that there was a pinpoint of a vehicle up ahead. He thought fast. He had to answer the man on the radio, but in case he knew everybody from the lab, Kostya had to disguise his voice.
Kostya started coughing, then he responded in a hoarse voice.
“There was an emergency,” Kostya said in Russian. “We didn’t have any way to contact somebody, and there was no time to wait for you.” He coughed again.
“Who are you?” the other driver demanded to know.
“Who the fuck do you think I am? Are you so stupid you can’t recognize my voice when I just have a little cold?”
The driver laughed. “Yep, you’re Oleg all right. You’re the mean bastard I know and love. But seriously, Oleg, it’s against protocol to leave. Moscow will have your balls in a vice,” the man chuckled.
“Like you’ve never done anything wrong before,” Kostya scoffed. He prayed that he was playing the situation correctly.
“You’ll owe me another bottle of that good vodka that the bitch Anfisa always gets. Then nobody will be the wiser.”
Kostya let out a loud laugh, then let it go into another coughing fit. “I need you to pull to the side and let us pass. It’s a matter of life and death.”
“Quit being melodramatic. Tell me what’s going on. Your orders are not to leave the compound, you know this. From where I’m sitting, it looks like that’s a Vityaz behind you. What the hell, Oleg, do you want to spend the rest of your days shoved in some hellhole in Siberia?” The man started laughing. “Okay, okay, I know, I know, that damned cement box you’re living in is a hellhole too, but for fuck’s sake, I’m not sure I can cover for you.”
Kostya laughed with him. “Old friend, I do not take risks, you know this. I have my orders. There was a bad accident at the labs, we did what we could but some of them didn’t make it. The rest I need to get them to a hospital in St. Petersburg.”
Kostya heard a distinctive click and knew that they were now just talking between the two of them. “I hope that bitch Anfisa was one of the ones that died.”
“No such luck. She’s still at the compound. It was her order to get these others to the hospital, but…” Kostya waited to see if the man would take the bait.
“But what?”
“Now that I think about it, it would be good for you to know what was going on before you get there. She’s in a foul mood, and she could take it out on you.”
“Aw, fuck, that’s just what I need. Fine, tell me when I get out to inspect the vehicles.”
“Pull over to the side of the road,” Kostya commanded. “That way when you see I’m telling you the truth, we can get past you and on our way to St. Petersburg.”
“Fine,” the man grumbled. “But you better have some vodka to give me for all the trouble you’re causing.”
“For the information I’m giving you, you should be givingmevodka,” Kostya protested.
“Maybe so, but I know you. You always have bottles to spare, and I want one.”
“Fine. Fine. Just pull over and I’ll get you your damn vodka and fill you in on what’s going on.” Kostya said in his fake hoarse voice.
He shut off the radio. “Linc, need a couple of Semtex grenades stat.”
“On it.”
Kostya watched with bated breath as he saw the tank in front of him start to slow down and pull over to the side of the road. He saw the Vityaz behind him do the same thing.
“Mateo, how you doing?” Kostya asked.
“Gonna need to go off into the woods. No way I have enough space to brake without hitting Linc’s tank.”
“The woods?” Kostya grimaced. “How far?”
