Chris Kuzneski - The Hunters

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Tell me,’ he said as he returned his focus to the victim. ‘What sorts of weapons were used in this attack?’

Anna straightened, relieved to report facts rather than theories. ‘We found metal pipes, an AK-47 bayonet, and a large, jagged piece of masonry. All with blood residue.’

Borovsky motioned for her to come over. She did so without hesitation.

‘What do you think made this head wound?’ he asked, pointing at the jagged hole in Kadurik’s skull. ‘The rock, the knife, or the pipes?’

Anna examined the wound carefully. ‘It is too wide for the pipes or the knife.’ She paused to think, looking at it from every angle. ‘Yet the depression is too uniform for the masonry.’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.’

‘Russian proverb?’ she asked with a weary smile.

‘Anton Chekhov,’ he replied. ‘Continue.’

‘Now that I see it, I don’t think this wound was made by any of the weapons we found at the crime scene,’ she said.

‘Then we have a missing weapon,’ he said.

‘Yes, comrade Colonel, I believe we do.’

‘And when there’s a missing weapon, there’s a missing suspect.’ Borovsky straightened to his full height. ‘Perhaps the last man standing — is still standing.’

She nodded, impressed. Multiple investigators had examined the body, yet Borovsky had proven their theories incorrect in a matter of seconds.

‘Comrade Rusinko, please take me to the crime scene.’

Anna drove Colonel Borovsky to the crime scene in an unmarked sedan. They conducted an exhaustive search outside before they asked the building manager to let them into Andrei Dobrev’s apartment. At first, there was a fleeting moment of dread when they grasped the extent of his massive collection of railway memorabilia and equipment, but then Borovsky grinned with anticipation and snapped on the plastic gloves he had pulled from his jacket pocket.

It was obvious he loved a challenge, and so did she. She always had rubber gloves as well, and she joined him as they started going through every box, file, shelf, book, album, picture frame, and nook. What they were looking for was unspoken, but obvious. It was the weapon, or anything that might lead them to comprehend what had happened on the street outside.

For that, no words were needed.

After nearly an hour in which they rarely spoke, Anna broke the silence. ‘Comrade Colonel, I think I may have found something.’

He withdrew his head from a low, dusty bookcase, happy for the break. He approached the policewoman, who was holding a velvet-lined rectangular box.

‘Or,’ she said, ‘to be more accurate, I have found nothing .’

She opened the box to reveal that it was empty. But he understood. The box had clearly held something precious, and it was just about the only thing they could not find amongst the piles of maps, charts, books, plans, and paraphernalia.

Anna obviously didn’t think that this small box had housed a weapon large enough to inflict the wound that had killed Marko Kadurik, but from Borovsky’s reaction, she knew she had hit on something potentially significant. He stood, fascinated, his finger slowly and carefully following the small, circular indentation in the red padding.

‘A medal?’ she suggested.

‘Medals typically use cheap, lightweight metal. This was heavier. A coin, perhaps.’ He leaned closer, angling the box toward the light. ‘A coin that Dobrev felt was special.’

‘Do you think Gelb or Klopov might have taken it?’

‘You interviewed the occupants of this building. Did anyone mention the police searching any apartments?’

She shook her head. ‘Perhaps they were afraid.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘In any group there is always one who destroys the silence of the others, one who has integrity. If the officers had entered, someone would have mentioned that.’

‘Some people on this floor reported footsteps and loud words in the hallway. We thought it might be the skinheads, calling on Kadurik.’

‘Our men searched the clothes and bodies of the victims?’

‘Thoroughly,’ she assured him. ‘There was no coin or medal or small memento of this kind. I read the itemized list.’

They stood silently for a few moments. Anna watched him think, but she couldn’t read the parade of emotions that marched across his face like a procession in Red Square.

Back at the station, Vargunin had seemed none too pleased when she had left with Borovsky. With a grimace on his face, Vargunin had stared at her while tapping on his watch as a warning. Her warrant officer knew that she had many reports to read, annotate, and file.

‘What shall we do, comrade Colonel?’ Anna finally asked.

Borovsky thought for a moment, then snapped the box closed. ‘I think you should accept the new post I will offer you, Sergeant Rusinko. I think I will need your assistance in finding Andrei Dobrev, at any cost and with all speed.’

Cobb and McNutt were out the doors instantly, one on each side of the car. Garcia stayed glued to his screen, while Papineau charged back through the train. But Jasmine hesitated. She wanted to warn Dobrev about the threat but felt like she had been a liability to the team at his apartment, so she decided to stay put, leaning over Garcia to watch the security camera feeds on his screen.

Cobb and McNutt dropped to the ground, both kneeling all the way down to get a better view beneath the train. They couldn’t get a completely clear look because of the truck frames that held the big, metal disc wheels, as well as the fuel tanks and air reservoirs that hung beneath the train, but it was a start.

The only living thing that Cobb saw was McNutt, who was holding a Ruger Mark III pistol low in his hand. Complete with custom suppressor, the.22 caliber weapon looked bizarre — like a cross between the German Luger and the Japanese Nambu — but there was a reason it was nicknamed ‘Assassin’. It was virtually silent and, in the right pair of hands, deadly.

McNutt had the ‘right’ pair of hands.

‘No killing,’ Papineau shouted on the move. Cobb and McNutt continued the sweep while Papineau raced above them, running across the semi-contained flatbed car. ‘We can’t afford to hide or dispose of a corpse this early in the game.’

‘And I can’t afford to be dead,’ McNutt snapped.

Cobb saw McNutt — and his Ruger — from the corner of his eye.

‘You heard him,’ Cobb said. ‘We are running ABM.’

The acronym stood for Anti-Ballistic Maneuvers: no firearms.

McNutt wasn’t happy. ‘Whoever we’re looking for won’t be playing fair.’

Cobb shrugged. ‘Maybe so, but you have your orders.’

McNutt nodded and reluctantly stowed his weapon. The two men moved quickly in opposite directions, starting their complete search of the train.

Papineau made a quick visual check of the flat car as he crossed it. The five-foot-tall, slatted fencing created a lip around the surface. Sections or entire sides could be folded, flattened, or removed. Nothing seemed to be out of place. ‘Anyone, is Sarah in view?’

Cobb and McNutt didn’t answer since they had nothing to report.

‘No,’ Garcia said. ‘No visual or sound since the screech.’

Not good , Cobb thought. That meant she was either down or in very serious trouble. Sarah was the type who’d find a way to make a noise, any noise, if she could.

Papineau disappeared into the freight car as Jasmine appeared on the train roof. To get there, she had climbed the ladder at the far end of the conference car. Cobb felt a flash of pride. It had taken a while, but Jasmine had decided to stop thinking of herself as a liability.