Cold Silence (A High Stakes Thriller) (41 page)

Kirov struck backward and pushed Ryan off.

Cody tried to wave him away, but Ryan came back. Her arm slid across her front and her shirt came free from her pants. The metal gun was icy against her belly.

She pulled the gun and tried to remember what she'd once learned about which guns worked underwater. She prayed this was one of them. It was rounded; the bullet should be chambered.

She saw Ryan in front of her and she grabbed his arm and wrenched him away from Kirov.

Kirov was still gripping her, and she lost hold of Ryan. She lifted the gun above the water and pointed it at Kirov's head. The trigger was stiff, but finally released.

She felt the shot's recoil. No pain.

The grip on her disappeared. She gulped fresh air and saw Kirov's body sink below her in the water. She didn't stop to see if he was dead. She searched for Ryan. He couldn't be far. She spun in circles, scanning for his face.

"Ryan," she called softly. He'd been right there. It had been only a moment ago.

There was no answer. In the distance, she could still see the spot where Kirov had gone down. She kept moving, swimming in a circle.

Each second that ticked by made her chest tighter. Her pulse shifted into higher gear until she felt like her torso might explode.

"Ryan!" she screamed to the sky. Sobs loosened and she let them shake her warm. Tears streamed down her cheeks, creating paths of heat on her frozen face.

She saw a glimmer a few feet away. Something moving. She made broad strokes toward it.

She recognized the head, the back of his shirt. It was Ryan. Facedown.

"Oh, God. No!"

She reached out and grabbed his hair, yanking his head back. The sight of his pale face made her scream.

She put her right arm across his chest and under his arm and used the other to drag herself toward shore. She was sobbing and her vision blurred.

She fought to hold herself together, but it was too much. Ryan wasn't moving.

It seemed like forever before she could feel the lake's rocky bottom beneath her feet. The cold battered her, but she ignored it. She dragged Ryan to the shore and sat in the cold snow, pulling him across her lap.

She dipped his head back and opened his airway. Choking back her own sobs, she took a deep breath and forced it into his lungs.

She waited for his response, counting in her head. Nothing. She pushed on his chest with her free hand and then moved her mouth down to give him more air.

The three seconds took forever. And still he didn't move. She laid him on his back on the snow and leaned over him to try again. There was still no response.

She gave him three hard thrusts on his chest.

He lay lifeless.

The water was still.

"No." She sobbed. She was completely alone.

Kirov was dead, but she had never felt so terrified.

She tried another breath and then applied the pressure on Ryan's chest.

His diaphragm constricted and his chest jumped.

"Ryan," she shouted. "I'm here, baby. Mommy's here." They were the same words she always said to him every night when she left his room. His whole life.

She studied his body for the slightest flinch and saw nothing further.

Sobbing, she shook him. "Ryan! You come back here." She turned to the sky and cried out. "Goddamn it. You give him back."

She turned her face back to Ryan's and gave him a long, hard breath and then three fast, strong jolts just below his breastbone.

Ryan made a short choking sound and then started to throw up.

Cody let out a startled laugh and turned him on his side, pulling him toward her as he emptied the water from his lungs and stomach.

She felt him breathing and cradled him in her arms. His breath was warm on her cheek.

"Ryan," she whispered. "Please, honey. Can you hear me?"

In the distance, she could hear the sounds of motors getting closer. She didn't look up. All her focus was on Ryan.

"Ryan, it's Mommy. Can you hear me?"

Ryan's eyes flashed open and closed and she felt him shiver in her arms.

He blinked again and she smiled, squeezing him and kissing his neck and head and throat.

"Ryan. Ryan, baby. Can you say something to Mommy?" She paused, waiting. "Please."

Ryan opened his eyes and frowned. He licked his lips and looked around before settling his gaze on her.

"Can you say something, sweetie?" she repeated.

He swallowed and blinked hard before whispering, "It's cold."

Cody laughed and pulled him tighter into her arms. "Oh, thank God. Thank you, God," she said, crying harder than she ever had.

Chapter 41

Mei felt the pressure in her head rising as they curved around the small alpine lake. The voices of the other agents faded in and out like a radio as she concentrated on the slice of moon that reflected on the dark water.

Behind them was a caravan of FBI. Two other cars carried local field agents—one car from Sacramento and another from the San Francisco office. They'd borrowed whoever the offices could lend. They had no idea how many Russians or who else might be in the cabin when they got there, or what the body count might look like. She tried to focus on something else.

"They shot that bodyguard movie here," someone up front said.

"What bodyguard movie?"

"Yeah, the Kevin Costner one," Jack Bernadini said.

"I heard they actually put some big hot tub under the water for when he jumped in."

"Wimp," Kyler Wisenor cracked.

"Hell, no. You know how cold it is out there?" someone else countered. "Freeze your nuts off!"

Mei felt Andy tap on her shoulder. "You okay?"

She glanced over at him without turning her head away from the water. "Just thinking."

"About Jennifer?"

She thought about the news that Jennifer hadn't made it. Her parents and sister had arrived, but she'd never regained consciousness. She hadn't really been thinking about Jennifer. Her death was sad, but Mei was clinging to the hope that something good would come of this trip.

"Mei?"

She turned to Andy. "I'm sorry. I was thinking."

"Maybe we shouldn't have brought you," he whispered.

She shook her head. "Don't say that. I'm fine. I'm tired, but I want to be here. I need it. I just need a little time to think while we're getting there." She spoke firmly, hoping he would understand her plea for silence.

In the darkness of the car, he leaned forward and wrapped his fingers in hers. He didn't say anything else to her. Instead, he leaned forward to block the view of their hand-holding and continued to join in on the conversation, which had now turned to a comparison between the characters Kevin Costner played in
Bull Durham
and
Tin Cup.

She let his hand cover hers, feeling the chill dissipate. She still watched the lake, anxious to be there, to know. And equally anxious to go right back to the airport and get on the plane home.

Her thoughts drifted to how things would be at the office without Jennifer. She'd go through some mandatory counseling for the loss of a partner; then she'd get someone new for a while, probably more tenured, just to make sure she was doing okay.

Andy squeezed her hand. And Andy would be there, she hoped. That would be different.

The next time she surfaced from her own thoughts, the road had become rougher and the car's headlights were off. Andy let go of her hand and everyone in the car seemed to be shifting about.

"We're there?"

"We think so. The house Travis Landon owns is that one there." Jack Bernadini pointed to a large, shingled cabin with dark trim up on the hillside. It was the only house in the area with any lights on.

Mei pulled her holster off the floor and strapped it across her shoulders. She checked the gun and unsnapped the leather hold on it. "Looks like someone's home."

"Looks can be deceiving," Wisenor cracked.

Mei didn't answer but listened as the agent in charge of the Sacramento team gave directions. He and the two other field agents were going to lead the way.

"You and I are going to bring up the back," Andy said. He tapped her gun. "Just because you've got this, don't get any ideas. We're only here for support for Megan and Ryan and for the paperwork on Kirov. Once these guys call it clear, then we go in."

"Fine by me."

The field agents dressed themselves in full raid gear with black Kevlar vests and helmets. Mei shivered at the thought of an eight-year-old boy facing whatever it was that prompted eight men to dress like they were going to war. She prayed Ryan still had a chance.

The men continued to huddle and she found herself growing weary of waiting. She wanted them to move. Now.

The men split after another minute and crept across the parking lot as they went in twos to approach from different sides.

Andy stood watching their approach, but Mei couldn't stop pacing. She needed to walk it out, to stretch her legs. She wished she'd had some coffee on the plane. Her stomach was nauseous from exhaustion and adrenaline and it was a sensation she hadn't felt since staying up all night in college. She hated it.

As she turned to pace back toward Andy, she heard a loud pop.

Andy reached for her and together they dropped to the ground. Her pulse was trampling across her ribs. "It came from there," she whispered, pointing into the darkness.

They didn't move, and the only sounds Mei could hear were Andy's breathing in her ear and the gravelly crunch of feet moving steadily closer. Mei studied the darkness until she saw a form take shape. It moved slowly in an unstable shuffle.

"Is it someone wounded?" he asked.

"I don't know. It looks like someone older."

"Kirov?"

Mei hesitated, watching the form catch a foot and fall.

"Oh, dear," a woman's voice said.

Mei started to get up. "It's an old woman, Andy."

"What if there's someone else?"

"Using an old woman as a front?"

"Maybe."

Mei considered the possibility. "Then cover me while I find out."

Andy reached to stop her, but she was already gone. She moved slowly into the darkness toward the woman. "Are you okay?" she called out when she thought she was close.

"Oh, is someone there? It's so dark and I seem to be lost."

Mei found the woman and helped her to her feet. She was wearing house slippers and a sweat suit with a jacket over them. "You must be freezing."

"I don't remember the last time it's ever been this cold in Memphis."

Mei wondered where the woman could possibly have come from. She certainly was a long way from Memphis. "Are you here alone?"

"Oh, no," she said, and Mei could see her bright smile even in the dark. "I'm here with the colonel."

"The colonel?" Mei repeated, wondering if that was a name for Oskar Kirov. But this was an older black woman, and having grown up with prejudices herself, Mei couldn't imagine Oskar Kirov bringing along this woman as a travel companion unless he'd meant to dump her along the way.

"Colonel Walter Turner of the U.S. Marine Corps."

"Does he have a house up here?"

"We certainly do. We've lived in the same spot for more than thirty years. Our baby, Roni, was born in that house. All sorts have come and gone, but we've been there since three years after the house was built. That first couple found something fancier, but not us. We love that house."

Mei looked around and thought there was no way this woman was from around here. Mei had read that this area had been developed over the last twenty years or so, but certainly not thirty. One way or another, the woman was confused.

The woman did not seem at all comfortable on the slippery snow, and so Mei held her arm tightly and took cautious steps. They reached the spot where Andy was waiting. "They've called down. It's clear," he announced.