Craig Russell - The Carnival Master

‘Now why don’t you stand the fuck up and drop that gun,’ Fabel heard Scholz say calmly but firmly. ‘Or I’m going to have to pop one in your head.’

‘Let me go or I’ll kill him,’ said the masked man. ‘I’ll do it.’

‘And then you’ll die,’ said Scholz. ‘And nobody comes out of this on top, Vitrenko.’

The man took his automatic away from Fabel’s face and laid it on the flagstones. He stood up and pulled his mask from his face. He was dark-haired and younger, thought Fabel, than Vitrenko would have been.

‘It’s not him,’ said Fabel. ‘I don’t think it’s him.’

‘Are you sure?’ asked Scholz. Fabel scrambled to his feet and recovered his automatic. He stood beside Scholz and also locked his aim on the figure.

‘You’re right, Fabel. I’m not Vitrenko. He’ll be long gone by now. He told you that he wouldn’t walk into a trap.’

‘Who are you?’

‘Pylyp Gnatenko. As far as you’re concerned, a nobody.’

‘A nobody prepared to die or go to prison to buy your boss a few minutes to escape?’ asked Fabel.

‘If that’s what it takes. You still know nothing about our code, Fabel.’

‘Step out of the shadows. I want to see your face properly.’

There was a sound from behind them and Fabel spun around.

‘Maria?’ Fabel stared uncomprehendingly at the figure before him. Maria was dressed in cheap black clothes and looked painfully thin, her face pale and pinched. Almost grey. There was an ugly swollen welt across her forehead. Her blonde hair had been cropped and dyed black, just as the hotel clerk had told Fabel. She was aiming two automatics directly at the Ukrainian. Scholz swung his aim round onto her.

‘It’s okay! It’s okay!’ shouted Fabel. ‘It’s Maria. The officer I told you about.’

‘If it’s not too much trouble,’ said Scholz, ‘could you tell me what the fuck is going on?’

‘That’s him,’ said Maria. ‘The devil is here.’

‘We don’t know if it’s Vitrenko,’ said Scholz. ‘He says he’s just one of his stooges. I think you’d better give me those guns, Frau Klee.’

‘His eyes, Jan. Look at his eyes. He couldn’t change his eyes.’

‘Step out of the shadow. Now! ’ Fabel kept his gun trained on the figure.

He smiled as he stepped into the light. He was too young, too dark to be Vitrenko. But Fabel knew, as soon as the emerald eyes glinted in the light cast from the high windows, that that was exactly who it was. ‘I thought my new face might fool you, but unfortunately Frau Klee has already seen it.’

‘He told me he was a Ukrainian called Taras Buslenko.’

‘The policeman they sent after him?’

Maria nodded.

Vitrenko placed his hands on his head. ‘I am your prisoner,’ he said. ‘No tricks.’

‘You’ll give in that easily?’ said Fabel. ‘I don’t believe it.’

‘There are many ways to escape,’ said Vitrenko. ‘As Frau Klee has already discovered. We found the remains of the guards, Maria. Poor Olga. It would appear your bite is worse than your bark. Anyway, like I said, there are many, many ways to escape. And I know that your Federal Crime Office will want to negotiate over what information I can give them. After all, I’ve given them a lot already.’

‘I know,’ said Fabel. ‘The dossier you took from me was blank pages, but you knew I wouldn’t hand it over, didn’t you? And you didn’t really need to see it at all.’

‘May I repeat my request of earlier?’ Scholz, his gun still aimed at Vitrenko, frowned angrily. ‘Could someone tell me what the fuck is going on?’

‘The so-called Vitrenko Dossier is all crap. The mole inside the organisation was Vitrenko himself. Misinformation. A few scraps of genuine intelligence and the rest was all bollocks. This whole idea that he was desperate to get his hands on it was to convince the Federal Crime Bureau of its authenticity.’

‘Buslenko died for a lie?’ The question cracked in Maria’s throat. ‘Everything you did to me? It was all a masquerade?’

Vitrenko shrugged. ‘What can I tell you? I became caught up in the spirit of Karneval. But the lie Buslenko died for was that Ukraine was worth dying for. A patriot. A fool. Now, if you don’t mind, if you’ll handcuff me and deliver me to a cell somewhere. Of course there’s a lot of evidence against me. It’s all in the Vitrenko Dossier – oh, wait, that’s all fake, isn’t it? I wonder how long you’ll be able to keep me…’

‘There’s the murder of the policeman in Cuxhaven. The attempted murder of Maria. The container full of human cargo that you let burn to death. I think we’ll find something.’

‘And I think my lawyers and their medical experts will have a lot to say about Frau Klee’s psychological credibility as a witness.’ Vitrenko grinned. ‘You see, Fabel, I’m getting away again. Just like the last time. It’s just that I’m taking a different route.’

‘No…’ said Maria, her voice dull. ‘ Not like the last time.’

Fabel and Scholz didn’t have time to react. Maria fired both guns, squeezing the triggers until the magazines emptied. The shots hit Vitrenko in the chest and gut and he staggered backwards until he hit the wall. His emerald eyes became dull and unfocused and he slid down the stone surface, leaving a smear of blood behind him. Maria let the guns fall. At the same time Fabel saw something empty from her face.

Even in the midst of his shock he knew that what had left her would never return.

It was already dark when Fabel walked slowly up the grassy mound in the Marienfeld park to where the bonfire raged and sparked into the night sky.

‘I didn’t think we’d see you here,’ said Scholz. He handed Fabel a bottle of Kolsch.

‘I wasn’t doing much good at the hospital. I’ve arranged for Maria to be transferred to Hamburg. After you’ve completed your case, that is.’

‘I don’t think it matters where her body is. Truth is, she’s not in it any more. I’m sorry, Jan. I really am.’

‘Thanks, Benni.’

Tansu Bakrac came over to them. Fabel noticed that Scholz moved off discreetly to leave them to talk.

‘You okay?’ Tansu asked. She placed a hand on his arm.

‘No. Not really. I’m going to head back to Hamburg. I’ll be back in a week or two to tie things up with Benni. Listen, Tansu, about what happened…’

She smiled and nodded towards the bonfire. ‘This is the Nubbelverbrennung. All the sins and foolishness of the Crazy Days get burned up. Here. Tonight. Have a good life, Jan.’

‘You too, Tansu.’ Fabel kissed her and then watched as she walked back to her friends, the firelight etching the outline of her body.

Hamburg.

Fabel sat with Maria, by the window. He held her hand and looked into her eyes but she simply looked past him and out of the window. Through the glass lay the shapes of the hospital extension, the outbuildings, the large triangle of grassed grounds and the green froth of bushes that marked the hospital boundaries. Beyond that lay the roadway that rumbled continuously and faintly with traffic. But Fabel knew that although Maria seemed to be looking at this unremarkable view she was not seeing it. He didn’t know what she was seeing. Maybe it was that field near Cuxhaven. Maybe it was a garden or a favourite place from her childhood in Hanover. Wherever it was, it was visible only to Maria; it existed only in the world that she had withdrawn to. But what frightened Fabel was the all too credible thought that Maria might have been seeing nothing at all: that she had withdrawn to a void.

Fabel talked to Maria. He talked about getting her better now that she was back in Hamburg. Dr Minks was going to help with her treatment. The Polizei Hamburg had arranged it all. Maria still didn’t answer but continued to look out of the window at the view across to the road, or at nothing at all. Fabel continued to talk about the recovery that he knew would never come, or at least not completely. He talked about the colleagues that he knew she would never work with again. He talked with the same forced calmness with which he had spoken to her so very long ago as she lay close to death in the field by Cuxhaven. Except this time, he knew, he could not save her.