Page 46 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
“This is not California weather! What the fuck! I’m in snow up to my nipples.”
Linc laughed. “This is mild. I used to walk to school in snow worse than this.”
“Uphill both ways, I suppose?” Landon guessed.
“Quit your bitching and get here,” Kostya commanded.
Landon strolled into Anfisa’s room with a roll of duct tape.
“Secure her,” Kostya told the kid.
After a minute, Anfisa looked like a mummy.
“Are we gathering them up?” Linc asked over the comm.
“No, leave everyone where they are. I want them isolated,” Kostya said. “Landon will bring everyone duct tape to secure them.”
Anfisa’s dark eyes were taking in everything he was saying. “You’re going to die. You, your men, and those scientists. Not only did I make the call, but supplies are due in less than twenty-four hours. You’ll be hunted down like dogs,” she spat out.
Why didn’t I let her take a shot so I could have killed the bitch?
He turned his back on her and shut the broken door and found Mateo and Ryker waiting outside the room holding different forms of ID, all in Cyrillic. “This one,” Kostya said as he looked at a worn driver’s license. “Is he dead?”
“No, just scared,” Ryker replied. “This way.”
Kostya followed him down the hallway.
Grigor didn’t look like a scientist, he looked like a weight lifter. A scared weight lifter.
“Do you speak English?” Kostya asked in English.
Grigor stared at him, his face blank.
“Are you the lead scientist here?” Kostya asked in Russian.
“Da,” Grigor nodded his head. “I am in charge of everything we do here.” His voice was filled with pride.
“I thought Anfisa Nikitin was in charge. Are you saying that you are above her?” Kostya asked pleasantly.
Grigor trembled. “Nyet. Nyet. Of course Comrade Nikitin is in charge. I report everything to her. Everything.”
“Well, that’s too bad. If you had information that she was not aware of, then I would let you live.” Kostya lifted his rifle and pointed it at the man.
He flung himself against the back wall of his room, covering his head with his arms. “Nyet. Don’t kill me. I’m begging you.”
“You are of no use. I only need her.”
The man scrabbled backward, trying to worm his way behind the dresser as Ryker and Kostya exchanged glances.
“I know things. I know everything. Nothing will work without my knowledge. Nothing!”
He tried to push the dresser away from the wall so that he could slide behind it. Kostya heard Ryker’s choked laugh.
“Where do you keep the information?”
“It’s in my office, in the lab. Don’t kill me. I have children.”
“McQueen, grab him. We’re taking him to the lab. Let him have a coat.” Kostya went out to inspect the rest of the prisoners.
