Andrew Kaplan - Scorpion Winter

Iryna used her sweater to dry Alyona’s wet hair. “We need a doctor. Now.”

“Get someone private. Someone who won’t talk. Is there anyone you know?”

“I don’t know. My gynecologist. What good is that?” Iryna said. “Look at her!” Alyona was slumped over, her head down, the cuts raw and bleeding, her body still shaking.

“Why the hell do you think they were torturing her? Why do you think they killed the other two?” he asked, grabbing his backpack. He hooked it over his shoulder and went looking for Alyona’s clothes.

“I don’t know. Shelayev?” Iryna said.

Scorpion nodded grimly. “Whatever help we get her has to be safe or they’ll grab her again. Where are her clothes?”

Iryna asked Alyona in Ukrainian and she pointed with a trembling hand at a corner. Scorpion went over and found a pile of clothes. Some were from the dead couple, Ekaterina and Fedir. A pair of jeans, a top, and a jacket looked like they would fit Alyona. They used the dead couple’s clothes to dry Alyona off. Iryna helped her dress, while Scorpion went back upstairs to see if anyone was coming.

The park was deserted, the snow pale under the lone streetlight.

“We have to go. They’ll be back any second,” he said, coming back down to the puppet room. Iryna had succeeded in getting Alyona dressed. She sat on a bench, her head slumped.

“Can you stand?” Scorpion asked Alyona.

She didn’t move. Iryna looked at him.

“Take this,” he said, handing her his backpack. He stood Alyona up and threw her over his shoulder, switching the Glock back to his other hand. He climbed the metal stairs, Alyona a dead weight over his shoulder, and carried her outside, the going difficult on the frozen snow. She was shivering violently, making it hard to carry her. He kept looking around for any sign of Kulyakov as he went forward. For the moment they were hidden from the street. Luckily, they were going downhill, with nothing around but snow and bare trees.

Alyona had protected Shelayev despite the torture, Scorpion thought, and had seen Kulyakov kill her friends. She would protect Shelayev from him as well. He had to figure a way to get her to tell him where Shelayev was hiding. He sensed Iryna just behind him. It was hard going and they had to hurry. Gorobets’s men might be back any second.

Scorpion pushed on harder through the snow.

Vyshhorod

Kyiv, Ukraine

Scorpion drove out of the park past a large public building, checking his mirrors. Iryna was in the backseat with Alyona.

“Where are we going?” Iryna asked.

“We need someplace safe.”

“There is no safe. We need a doctor.” She thought for a moment. “There’s a Medikom out by Vyshhorod.”

“What’s that?”

“A twenty-four-hour private clinic. I took a girlfriend there once. I don’t know how safe it would be.”

“Call them,” Scorpion said. “Tell them it’s an emergency, but it needs discretion. Tell them you’ll give them money.”

Iryna called on her cell phone. He heard her talking softly, urgently. When she finished, she said, “They’re waiting. I told them I’d give them each a hundred hryvnia extra. They said to come around to the back door.” She gave him directions and soon they were driving on Kostyantynivska past the university. Iryna put her arm around Alyona, who was barely able to sit upright.

“How is she?” Scorpion asked, trying to avoid skidding, the streets icy with frozen slush.

“I don’t know. Pereproshuyu,” she said to Alyona. I’m sorry. “We thought you were dead.”

Alyona looked at her as though from far away. “It was Dimitri’s idea. Dimitri Shelayev,” she clarified, her voice shaking. “He thought it would protect me.”

“You and Shelayev were lovers?” Scorpion asked, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.

Alyona nodded. She began to cry and pressed her face to Iryna’s shoulder.

“Bud’laska, vybachte mene,” she sobbed. “Forgive me! I did not want to lie to you. I had no choice.”

“What about Pyatov?” Scorpion asked.

“Can’t you let her alone?” Iryna said sharply.

“No. Where does Pyatov fit in all this?”

“We told him about us,” Alyona said, her voice shaky, almost dreamy. “Dimitri and me. Pyatov was like crazy man.”

“He was jealous?” Iryna asked.

“He was crazy jealous. I was afraid. I knew he was secretly working with the Cherkesov campaign. At first I thought Dimitri was his contact. But Dimitri told me no.”

“You spied on us,” Iryna said. “You gave information to the SVR.”

“No, not SVR. I wouldn’t give to Russians. It was for the SBU,” Alyona said, looking up.

“They false-flagged her,” Scorpion said. “She thought she was spying for the SBU, but it was Gabrilov, the SVR.”

“Why?” Iryna said to her. “Didn’t we treat you like one of our own?”

“I loved you,” Alyona said, grabbing Iryna’s hand. “You are the hope of our country, especially for women. I didn’t want to do it. Please believe me.” She kissed Iryna’s hand.

“Why did you do it?” Scorpion asked. He had spotted a militsiyu van behind him in the rearview mirror. He drove carefully, keeping them in sight. They couldn’t afford to be stopped. Not now! He breathed a sigh of relief when the van turned off toward the university.

“My brother, Stepan,” Alyona said, looking down.

“The one in Pavlovka, the mental hospital?” Iryna said.

“You know?!” Alyona said, her eyes wide.

Iryna nodded. “You were afraid?”

“They said they would release him. My maty cannot take care of him. He is very bad. I was afraid… And now there is no Dimitri! He is gone.” She looked at them, her eyes wet.

“So we had two assassins: Pyatov and Shelayev,” Scorpion said. “Who was Pyatov supposed to kill?”

“It was a secret,” Alyona said. “Pyatov would kill Davydenko, and Cherkesov would blame it on the Kozhanovskiy campaign.”

“Sure,” Scorpion said. “Cherkesov puts it out that he was the target. He gets a sympathy vote boost, destroys Kozhanovskiy, and he gets rid of a rival, all at the same time. Meanwhile Gorobets schemes to get rid of Cherkesov first. Quite a nest of vipers, Svoboda.”

“Sirhiy was a fool. I tried to tell him. He wouldn’t listen.”

“The blood in your apartment. Where did it come from?” Scorpion asked.

“It was Dimitri’s idea. I used my own blood. It was my time of the month. It had my DNA. Dimitri said if people thought I was dead it would protect me.”

She was breathing heavily, speaking in spurts. Scorpion knew she could go into shock any second. He had to get her medical help soon. He sped up, despite the chance it might attract the politsiy.

“Did Shelayev put the bomb in Cherkesov’s car?” he asked. “It would have been easier for him than anyone. He was Gorobets’s security man.”

“I didn’t know. He told me Cherkesov had to be stopped. He had learned something.”

“What was it?”

“He didn’t tell,” Alyona cried, burying her face on Iryna’s shoulder.

“Where’s Dimitri now?” Scorpion asked. Shelayev had the answer to the riddle. He was also the only evidence, Scorpion thought that would prove that he and Iryna had nothing to do with Cherkesov’s assassination and maybe stop the war. Producing him alive was the only chance they had.

“I don’t know,” Alyona said. “He wouldn’t say. Only that when it was safe, if he was still alive, he would come for me.” She grabbed Iryna’s hands. “If he did this, he had a reason.”

“We need to talk to him,” Iryna said. “Everyone thinks we killed Cherkesov,” indicating herself and Scorpion.