This time, the syringe had a legitimate use. She’d filled it with a powerful painkiller, ready for just such an eventuality. She injected the site of the bullet wounds, and then squirted more next to his burns. Kolya was staring at her in mute supplication, and she gave him a shot, too, to soothe the pain of the bullet still lodged inside his body. She spoke in soothing tones, knowing it would calm them. They trusted her.

  "It won't be long now. This is the last part of the job. Soon, we’ll go down there and finish them, and we will have vengeance for Katya."

  "And then we can go home?" Kolya asked.

  She thought of Ushakov’s condition. He'd made it crystal clear they could never go back. Equally, she knew that outside of their familiar haunts, the Russian homeland that was their regular hunting ground, they'd be like fish out of water. Better to have died in the execution room in the prison. Or she could organize a suitable alternative.

  What do I do about them?

  Even as the thought crossed the mind, she knew there was a single answer. If they couldn't go back, and unable to fend for themselves in America, they'd have to die. She'd do it herself, and again she felt the faint stirring of arousal.

  Yes, after all, I can't allow anyone else to murder my beloved brothers. After the final stage of the operation I’ll dispose of them. Just like at the Serbsky Center. A quick injection of air from an empty syringe, and they'll die quickly. Well, quite quickly. Okay, it could take a few minutes of threshing around in agony, which will be a shame. Although interesting to observe. Too bad, but someone has to do it.

  The SWAT van halted, and the rear doors opened. Men in black jumpsuits deployed, their bodies festooned with armor, helmets on their heads, and guns hanging from black webbing around their bodies. She smiled. They were infants, ripe for the plucking. For all their advanced and sophisticated weaponry, they were no match for her and her two brothers. The armored car stopped close to the SWAT van, and she saw a man emerge. Not SWAT, but a regular sheriff's deputy. A thin, rangy looking man, and even at a distance she could make out his expression.

  A stupid man, a cowboy, one inclined to take chances and be reckless. So be it, he'll be easy meat. A child.

  She took a moment to consider if any of the deputies down there had seen her before, but she didn't think so. There was the one man at the jailhouse, and he was dead. She slid back to her brothers, who’d calmed after the injection of painkilling drugs, and spoke to them in low tones. Explained what they had to do, and what she'd be doing. They smiled, and they were familiar smiles of anticipation. Her brothers scented blood, and she knew once they started down that hill, there would be no stopping them. But not yet. First, she had her mission to perform, to lay the groundwork. She started walking down the hill, innocently picking wild flowers as she went. For all the world, a pretty country girl out for a walk on a bright winter's day.

  * * *

  Sheriff Henry Dodge VIII was busy deploying his men, sending them to surround the single-story building. He was so preoccupied he didn't notice the beautiful young woman approaching his men. She was carrying a bunch of wild flowers, and she neared one of the SWAT troopers, who grinned at her before he recalled they were on a dangerous operation.

  "Ma’am, I have to ask you to clear the area. We have an ongoing emergency here, and there’ll likely be some shooting. It could be very dangerous.”

  "Dangerous? Yes, of course it will be."

  In a smooth, flowing movement that was almost balletic, she brought one hand into the open from the bunch of flowers. Her fingers held a small hypodermic. She stabbed the needle into the trooper’s neck, and he collapsed, screaming in agony as the giant air bubble tore through his artery toward his heart.

  She stepped away from him and looked around wildly. Still clutching the flowers. Innocence personified. "Help, please help. This man is hurt." Her voice was soft, sweet. Pure.

  Several cops stared at the writhing trooper and the pretty girl calling for assistance. Not one man opened fire, why would they? She was pretty, more than pretty. She had the face of an angel. Not the kind of person to pose a risk to any of them. They started grabbing emergency first-aid kits and rushed toward the fallen cop. When they got to there, she'd disappeared. Kareena had dodged between the vehicles, and no one thought to wonder why. She watched and waited for the right moment, and when no one was looking her way, she walked up behind two more SWAT troopers. They were looking at the dying man and didn’t notice her arrival. She touched one on the shoulder, and he whirled. "Officer, what's happening?"

  The other cop swiveled around, his hand reaching for his gun, and he stopped when he saw the girl.

  The first deputy said, "One of our men, he fell ill. We don’t yet know what caused it.”

  "I hope it wasn't anything serious."

  "Probably not, but Ma’am, this is no place for a civilian. Would you mind leaving the area?"

  "Of course I will. Right away." She looked past him and pointed a finger in the direction of the hillside, "Up there, what's that? There’s something moving.”

  They were no more than human, she was pretty, and they turned to look. She stabbed the empty hypodermic into the nearest trooper’s neck. With her free hand she wrenched out the pistol from his belt holster, a Sig Sauer P226. The other trooper was already turning when she pulled the trigger twice, and he fell, with two bullets in the heart. The shots were loud, and more cops were reacting, starting to run toward them, searching for the source of the attack.

  The gun vanished inside her coat almost like magic, and she was just a pretty girl holding a bunch of wild flowers. She pointed towards the single-story building. "There was a man. He shot them. He went in there."

  "We'll get him."

  They raced away, four men almost shoulder to shoulder. She fired again and dropped two more, and then she was weaving back between the vehicles.

  Chaos and violence had erupted inside the missile site. Death had arrived, brought by a sweet looking girl with an angelic face, carrying a bunch of wild flowers.

  * * *

  The shooting was still going on up on the surface, and he climbed the ladder to look. He poked his head through the hatch, and the building interior was like a firework display. Someone was firing an assault rifle on full auto from inside the armored car, with the barrel poked through a slot. What they were firing at, he couldn't work out. There was no sign of any of the Karpovs, and he concluded they were shooting at shadows; or in their despair and terror, shooting at anything that moved, including their own men.

  He was about to duck back down the shaft when he saw Kareena move behind a deputy. The hypodermic syringe stabbed into the man's neck, and he fell, screaming in agony. Then she skipped away, almost like a ballet dancer. Where she was, her brothers wouldn't be far the way, and he scuttled back down the ladder to set up the traps. Up on the surface, the place was littered with the bodies of law enforcement officers, and he wondered how long it would take before they twigged to who was killing their men.

  The first trap was the sewage pool. He pulled on the oxygen mask and clipped the small cylinder to his belt. After a final check to make sure the air was flowing, he entered the fetid, foul-smelling room, and Maria clipped the door closed behind him. He gave the signal, three bangs on the door, and she activated the halon and carbon monoxide sprinklers. A fine vapor came out of the ceiling, so at least something was coming out, and replacing the air in the room. Something intended to put out a fire, and he had to assume the firefighting system was working; at least enough to kill one of the Karpov monsters.

  He banged on the door again, and immediately the sprinklers stopped. Keeping the oxygen mask in place, he checked around the edge of the sewage pool for further exits, but there was nothing. An extremely narrow vent pipe led up to the surface, but at six inches, too narrow for a human to crawl through; especially a Karpov brother, who’d need at least a yard in diameter to get through. He returned to the door and gave the signal. It opened, and he walked back out.

  "Everything is okay in there. If we can get one of them inside, they're not getting out. We’ll flood it with the mixture from the sprinklers, and they’re gone for good."

  She nodded. "I hope you're right. Those creatures shouldn't be loose in any civilized society."

  "The brothers? I agree with you."

  "I meant the sister as well. It's time to set up the elevator. One or both of them is bound to step inside to look down through the open trapdoor. I'll remove the bolts, and leave it hanging on one or two that will shear when something heavy is placed on the floor. Like a Karpov."

  He looked around as Yuri came up to them. He was clutching a huge metal shear, two yards in length. Clearly they'd intended it as an escape tool for use after a direct nuclear strike on the silo. A shear to cut through a forest of twisted metal, but he had another purpose in mind.

  "Go into the launch equipment room, and start cutting up the metal computer casings. I want sharp spears or slivers, about three feet long. Twenty should do it."

  "You want me to destroy that vintage equipment?"

  “I want you to live. I want us all to live."

  He grimaced. "Point taken, I’ll make a start."

  He went away, and Cris started up the ladder on the side of the access shaft. He used an emergency wrench to loosen the bolts on the floor. They'd been in place for a long time, but like everything inside the silo, they were a precision fit, and that kind of fit keeps out the worst of the rust and corrosion. The bolts turned until there were two left. He loosened them, until each had a single turn of thread to hold in place, and he returned down the ladder.

  Yuri arrived a minute later clutching an armful of sharp slivers of metal. They spent tense minutes while the gunfire raged overhead, arranging them in an interlaced forest of spikes.

  “It’s like an animal trap for a wild beast,” Yuri commented as they finished.

  The analogy didn't escape him. Neither did the deadly purpose of the trap. Just like for any wild beast that has gone crazy and is killing humans, there was a single solution. Trap it and kill it.

  With the elevator shaft prepared, and the sewage pool ready, he went to prepare the final trap, the escape tunnel that led to the surface. He crawled inside and up to the top, and found the ratchet that would undo the securing bolts to the exit. He used the ratchet to make sure the bolts were doubly tight, carrying it with him when he crawled back down the shaft. Once again, with the mask in place, he rapped on the hatch, and Maria activated the firefighting sprinklers. Another flow of mist emerged from the nozzles, and he rapped the hatch again. They were ready, and he crawled out.

  Three traps and three Karpovs, even if we can kill one of them, it will even up the odds a bit.

  "What next? Maria asked.

  "We wait for them to come to us. The traps are ready, and they’ll be here soon. Yuri, you take up station inside the launch control center, and keep your assault rifle handy. Maria, you'll be inside the launch equipment room, next to the sprinkler control. I'll wait here and monitor the shaft."

  They both looked at him. "That’s it?" Yuri’s voice was shrill, almost hysterical, "We wait for those creatures to come and kill us?"

  "We wait for them to come. But this time, it’ll be us doing the killing. Go."

  The battle on the surface was still ongoing, with occasional short bursts of gunfire. He harbored a faint hope the deputies may have managed to kill one of the Russians, making it a bit easier for them. In the end, he climbed the ladder for another look. Just in time to see the cupola on top of the armored car swivel towards one of the huge, hulking Karpov brothers. He was running, much faster than seemed possible for a man of his size. He was headed straight for the elevator, and Cris was about to duck back down, when the weapon built into the cupola erupted in a long jet of oily black smoke and leaping orange flames.

  The gunner tracked the jet of flame around until it engulfed the Karpov brother. Abruptly, he burst into flames and began screaming. He was still running toward the elevator, and Cris was already sliding down the ladder to get out of the way. He’d just made it, leaping to one side as the huge man crashed into the elevator, and put his full weight on the floor. The material gave way, and immediately he plunged down, still trailing smoke and flame, to fall onto the shards of razor sharp steel in place at the bottom.

  The screams went on for a very long time, and he thrashed around, trying to extricate himself from the sharp, crude metal spears piercing his body and holding it fast. His clothing was still on fire, and most of his skin burned to a dark crisp, but he was still moving, still alive. A dead man, except he wouldn’t die.

  Cris went nearer to look at him, and the eyes suddenly flicked open. Inside they were filled with the very depths of agonizing horror. Trying to convey a message, and although the man had lost the ability to speak, there was a pleading note in the eyes. He wanted Cris to do something, and it didn't take much imagination to know what it was. A mercy bullet to end the terrible misery of his burned and slashed body.

  He brought up the AR-15 and considered for just two seconds. Then he recalled this same man hacking at the limbs of bodies, some of them still alive. Nailing the hacked off limbs to trees, and he turned his back. Ignoring the stench of burned flesh, he walked past the flailing hands, closing his ears to the screams, and went to join Maria in the launch equipment room.

  At last the firing from above ceased. He was about to go out and check again when they both heard the noise from the top of the ladder. They drew back behind the door, and he peered out. A man was climbing down, a huge man, the other Karpov brother. He didn't bother with the rungs on the ladder, held the uprights on either side, and slid down, ignoring the inevitable burns he would have suffered to his hands.

  The big man reached the bottom and glanced at his brother impaled on the sharp steel. His body was still smoking and his eyes open. He ignored him, and before Cris had a chance of a shot, he disappeared into the darkness. He wasn't sure where he’d gone, and whether he'd entered one of the traps, the escape shaft or the sewage pool.

  There was only one way to tackle him, and he crept out of the room and started to search. His back was to the shaft, and it nearly cost him his life. Kareena was halfway down the ladder, and she fired one-handed at his back. He rolled over to put her off her aim and fired back, but she had an assault rifle in her hands, and another on her shoulder. She emptied the magazine of the first rifle on full auto and tossed it to one side. She dragged a handgun from her belt and cautiously descended to the bottom of the shaft, looking for him.

  Her reaction to the body impaled on the spikes was different to that of her brother. She looked around wildly and screamed, a long, agonizing, moaning wail of despair.

  "He was mine! My brother!”

  She scuttled away, disappearing in the same direction as her surviving brother. Two Karpovs on the loose, and it wasn't looking good. Cris rejoined Maria in the launch equipment room and watched through a crack in the open door. They didn't have to wait long. A huge man was creeping slowly into the sewage pool room. He nodded for her to don her oxygen mask, pulled on his own, and told her to hit the sprinkler control for the entire complex. He was ready, and he raced forward, slammed the door of the sewage pool, and clipped it shut, shouting to Yuri to pull on his own mask.

  Immediately, the entire underground launch center was showered with a white mist from overhead. It lasted for three seconds and stopped. The Karpov brother was hammering on the door, evidently not dead, and he raced back to Maria.

  “What happened to the sprinklers? He’s still alive."

  She shook her head. "I don't know what happened, except they failed after two or three seconds. I guess they’re too old, and most of the gas has leaked out over the years. Where’s Kareena?"

  Fuck, I forgot about Kareena.

  "Yuri," he shouted across the hallway, "Heads up, Kareena Karpov is on the loose."

  There was no answering shout, and he assumed Yuri had his mask on because of the sprinklers. He wouldn’t know the trap had failed. The one Karpov was still inside the sewage pool and banging on the door, as if he could batter the steel portal down with his bare hands, which he probably could. He prowled around, searching everywhere for Kareena, and there was no sign of. She wasn't underground, so must have returned to the surface. He decided to go after her, and he climbed the ladder. When he popped his head through the open floor of the elevator, she was walking across the floor toward the stationary armored car. Her arms were stretched out, palms upward, in a supplicating gesture. As if to say she was the victim, and she needed help.

  Who wouldn't believe her, a girl with the face of an angel? She'd dropped her rifle, but he could see the handgun tucked into the belt behind her back. He wanted to shout a warning to the men in the armored car, but the moment he opened his mouth, the probing flames from the terrible flamethrower would target him, and he may well join the Karpov brother on top of the shards of steel at the bottom of the shaft. He had no choice but to watch as she neared the armored car.

  The hatch opened, and a rangy looking deputy with a mean face stepped out. He was grinning, like he was about to get inside this girl’s pants in return for saving her. He shouted, and another man joined him from inside, carrying an assault rifle. Presumably the man had been firing on full auto. The two deputies waited for her to approach, and their expressions switched to concern. When she was ten feet away, one said, "Ma’am, are you hurt? Did they doing anything to you?"

  "No, but I am so afraid. Please, you must protect me."

  They looked at each other and sniggered. "We are here to protect you, Ma’am."

  She got closer, and then she was standing in front of them. In a movement that was scarcely believable if he hadn't seen in himself, she took down the two big, tough deputies in the space of two seconds. From the knife in her hand, the first man's neck displayed a red stripe underneath the chin. The other deputy turned to stare, but his eyes were off her, all the time she needed. Her other hand came up and stabbed with a hypodermic. He went into a paroxysm of agony, and both men fell to the floor.