Black And White Ops

Chapter 4

“Maybe your people found it,” Monique speculated. She looked in the rear view mirror; the car was still following her.

“My contact had a spare key,” Rick explained. “He wouldn’t have had to bust the lock open. Somebody else has the drive. Now, I find out who they are and get it back.”

“So where do we go now?” Monique asked him.

“Let’s go back to your place,” he told her, “and try to come up with a plan.”

She turned the car and drove back down the street they were on. Her tail did the same and Rick scanned the sidewalks for anyone who might have been around the dead drop. He didn’t see a single one who was anywhere near it when he’d made the connection. The drop was in a brick on the outside of an old warehouse in a side alley. He’d used it multiple times while in St. Petersburg, but hadn’t noticed anyone lingering around the alley. He did spot a few people going in and out of the warehouse, but none of them were on the street. It was still early in the morning and the traffic was starting to accumulate.

Monique cruised by her apartment building and saw two cars parked out in front. At least five men in plain coats where standing around the car. When they saw her behind the wheel, one of them ducked inside the vestibule of the apartment.

“Oh, Christ,” she heard Rick swear. “Now we’ve got real problems.”

“What’s wrong?” Monique asked him. The men around the car weren’t trying to hide their interest in the car she was driving.

“I just picked up an SVR transmission on my ear receiver,” he explained. “Now we’re not dealing with the local boys, they’ve brought in the professionals. I’m going to give you directions to my hotel room; maybe they’re not over there yet.” Rick gave her instructions and Monique turned the car to a new course.

The hotel he was staying at was one of the big international ones near the center of the city. It had direct train service to the airport and catered to the foreign community in St. Petersburg. Monique maneuvered through the traffic which was building up in the street and soon found the car stuck in cars. Ahead loomed the hotel. Suddenly, Rick jerked forward and touched his left ear.

“Keep going, don’t stop,” he told her. “They’re at the hotel too.” He slammed a fist down on the dashboard, startling Monique. “Well, if this isn’t fine!”

“So what do I do now?” she asked him. The traffic was moving slowly due to the cars which were merging into the lanes from the hotel.

“Just keep driving around,” he instructed her. “I’ll have to think of something. My dead drop is compromised, your apartment is swarming with SVR and now they’ve broken into my hotel room. I have to get us away from here and get my super drive back. Is the car still following us?”

They drove down Nakhimova Street to reach the Nalichanaya highway across the Smolenka River. Having been built on a bay over a swamp, St. Petersburg was created at the intersection of several rivers. When driving around the city, it was always good to know if you were anywhere near a canal as they had a tendency to block your passage. Many cities are chopped up by rail lines, in Tsar Peter’s city; it had been divided by rivers and canals for centuries.

“I just had a thought,” Rick said to her. “There is a way to get in touch with my employers directly, but I’m going to need an Internet connection. It won’t take me long if I can find a café with access. But they won’t do much to help us get out unless I have the super drive. I know these people and what motivates them. We have the drive; they’ll have a reason to get us out of Russia in a hurry.” Rick began barking out directions to Monique and she did her best to follow them.

He looked behind them. The car following them was gone, but it would be back. The local police and the SVR had a million ways to track foreign spies in St. Petersburg. Right now they were taking their time. They had both of them bottled up and could take their time picking Rick and Monique up. They were in the process of going through all their possessions taken from the apartment and hotel room. Once they turned their attention back on the two fugitives, it would only take a few minutes to pick them up.

“We’re going back to the warehouse,” Rick explained. “The drive has to be there. One of the guys I used to see loitering around it probably saw me and figured out I was hiding something important. When we get there, pull up and let me go in. This should only take a few minutes.”

Rick seemed so calm to her, so self-assured. She’d never met a man like him before. She still couldn’t believe he’d provoked her into slapping him. She had wanted to stay in bed with him all day, even though their lives were in danger. She thought about feeling his hard ere*tion on her thigh and was glad he wasn’t driving. Right now all she wanted to do was have him on top of her. If she could have reversed the flow of time and gone back to those few hours, Monique would have done it without hesitation. She wondered what he liked to do in bed. He didn’t seem the submissive type. Rick had to be the confidant one who enjoyed having his women on their stomach, butt in the air and naked when he entered the bedroom. She had a vision of him strolling up to her, whipping his co*k out and saying: “kiss it!”

“I said the second left,” Rick was saying to her. “Did you hear me? It’s where the warehouse is located.”

Monique sped down the road toward the destination Rick gave her. The car she was driving, a Ford imported from Europe, made excellent time as she went through the traffic heading toward the warehouse. She turned and looked at him. Rick was calm; it was almost as if he’d done this countless times before. Maybe he had.

The palaces and museums of St. Petersburg were everywhere as a reminder of the city’s history. Monique had visited most of the better known ones during the time she’d lived in the city. In the distance she could see the fortress which had been built to guard the approach of the river system. It was difficult to believe how big it was until you walked up to it. The fortress was the old Imperial Russian way of saying to the world: “here and no further”. This was far northern territory and the Russians had battled the Teutonic Knights for control of the Baltic States in this region. They were ready to do it again if you talked to them after a few drinks. Here was a land which had been over-run by the Mongol hordes and lived to tell about it. But St. Petersburg was Tsar Peter’s attempt to show the world he could create a European style city even in the far north and he didn’t care what it cost to do it. She had seen the bronze statue Katherine the Great had built to honor him. It was something to look at and remember he’d had his own son executed for working against him.