KILTED DESIRE 2 - Russian Roulette (21 page)

“Hey Tom,
it’s
guid tae see yer,”
he said, as he shook Tom’s hand.

“Hi Scott, how are you? How’s the head injury healing?”

“I’m guid. Have yer found anything oot aboot exactly who
we’re dealing with?”

“Nothing at all, I’ve had my contacts ask around, but nobody
has heard anything.”

“Well, we should hear from them sometime today.”

“That’s good, so what do you want to do now? You can come
back to my hotel if you like. I have a suite so there’s plenty of room if you
all want to rest for a while.”

“Aye, that sounds guid.”

Scott introduced Tom to Chris and Alexei, as they walked out
of the airport. Obviously Tom knew who Alexei was but they hadn’t formally met.
Alexei had no idea that Tom had followed him and Kyle the previous week. Scott
didn’t see any reason to tell him. Soon, they were in the car and driving
through the streets of the busy Russian capital. About an hour later they
pulled into the parking lot of the Imperial Hotel.

“So is this the place that Kyle checked in tae?” asked Scott,
as they got out of the car and headed inside.

“Yes, I checked in about half an hour after him. The suite I
am in was the only available room which was close to his.”

“Okay.”

“Here Scott, take the room key, it’s up on the fifth floor.
I need to go to the lobby to see if I have any messages,” Tom said, as he
handed Scott his spare room card.

“Okay thanks. Here Chris
take
Alexei up. I need tae check something too.” he replied, handing the card to
Chris.

Chris and Alexei went to the elevators. Scott went with Tom
towards the main desk. Just after the elevator door closed, and Scott was sure
they were gone, he turned to Tom.

“Tom, we think Alexei may be involved in some way with this
kidnapping. And if he is nae, then it’s someone he knows. We’re keeping a close
eye on him.”

“Right, I thought the kidnapping probably had something to
do with him.
Although, I didn’t see anything suspicious, when
I was watching them.”

“I guess all we can do now is wait fer the call. We should
hear from them today. They’re going tae want their money as soon as possible.”

“I suppose so. Are you planning some form of rescue mission,
being as though you brought another former military man?”

“Nae at all.
We just want tae make
sure we have him, afore we give them the money. This is what his parent’s
wanted tae do.”

“They seemed like good people, I know you like them too.
We’ll get him back.”

“Aye they are. It’s pretty important tae me. I’m actually
seeing their oldest daughter so if anything happens tae her little brother.
It’s
nae going tae be guid.”

“Wow, what happened to Katie?”

“It’s a long story Tom. We broke up a while ago.”

“Okay, well I need to get him back too. I’m sure they won’t
pay me if we don’t bring him back in one piece.”

“Aye, I know yer have a lot of money riding on this. We’ll
be fine. We’re nae going tae try tae be heroes. We’re just giving them the
money and taking him haem.”

“Yeah, we’ll still need weapons though. I’m not going to
meet people like that unarmed. I have guns up in the room.”

“Aye that’s fine.”

“Okay, Scott
go
up and get some
rest. I’ll be up soon.
It’s
room 524,” Tom said, as he
started to walk again, heading towards the main desk. Scott turned and went to
the elevator.

Later that afternoon as all the men relaxed in the suite,
Scott’s phone started to ring. There was no number displayed on the caller ID.

“Hello,” he answered, fully expecting to hear a Russian
accent. But, instead there was a soft, familiar voice.

“Hi Scott, how are you?”

“Hey Tiff, we’re guid. We’re in Moscow, in the hotel that
Kyle checked in tae. We have nae heard anything from the kidnappers yet. Have
they emailed yer Dad?”

“No. We haven’t heard anything at this end. What time is it
there?”

“Just after five.
They’ll call,
they want their money. We just have tae wait and be patient.”

“So everything is okay over there! Did you meet up with Tom,
yet?”

“Aye it’s fine. He met us at the airport and we’re resting
in his hotel suite. We’re literally just waiting tae hear from them so we can
get this over with.”

“Just be careful.”

“We will. I’d better go Tiffany. I need tae keep the
line open
in case they call. As soon as we hear anything,
I’ll call yer and let yer know what’s happening.”

“Okay Scott. I’ll talk to you later. Take care of yourself.”

“Bye.”

As he put the phone back in his pocket, he looked at Chris,
and shook his head.

“I’m guessing that was nae the bad guys,” Chris said,
smiling.

“Nae, I hope they call soon though, I want tae get this over
with.”

The room was filled with apprehension. Everyone just wanted
to get going. The waiting was the worst part, Scott was confident the call
would come but even he was getting frustrated just sitting around waiting. Two
more hours passed, then, at just after 7:00 p.m., the phone rang. Scott quickly
pulled the phone out of his pocket and looked at the display, once again, no
numbers showed.

“Hello.”

“You bring our money?” said the man, on the other end of the
phone in a strong Russian accent.”

“Aye I have yer money. Do yer have what I want?”

“Come to three two zero eight
Volokolamskoye
Shosse
in
Krasnogorsk
. It’s
abandoned warehouse. Be there at midnight and no tricks or boy is shot.”

Scott motioned for someone to give him a pen and paper, and Tom
obliged.

“Where is that? Can yer spell it fer me?”

“Google it,” came the short reply, before the phone went
dead.

Scott turned to Tom.

“Give me the map, Tom,” Scott said, as he scribbled what he
thought he’d heard onto the piece of paper.

“Where do we have to go?” Tom asked.

“
Krasnogorsk
, have yer heard of
it?”

“Yes, it’s a suburb, to the west I think.”

As Scott checked the paper map, Chris checked a map on his
laptop to try and find the address. Scott quickly scribbled down the street
name and although he was a couple of letters off with his spelling, Chris
managed to identify the location. They were set. Tom told Scott that he didn’t
think it would take long to get there, maybe less than half an hour. For the
next couple of hours they talked about what they were going to do. Tom handed
out hand guns to Scott and Chris. Alexei didn’t want to carry one, which was
good because there was no way Scott was going to arm him, just in case. The
guns were Russian 9mm Makarov semi-automatic pistols. Tom told them both that
they were loaded and each one would fire ten rounds. They all hoped the
firearms wouldn’t be needed but it was best to be prepared for the worst.

At 11:00 p.m., they started getting ready to leave. Scott
made sure that nobody took any personal effects with them. So, all of the
passports, plane tickets, cell phones and wallets were placed in the safe in
the suite. Apart from weapons, the only things they took with them were the one
cell phone that the kidnappers had the number for and Chris’ laptop, which
Scott needed to transfer the money. As they walked outside towards the car,
Scott called Tiffany.

“Hello.”

“Hey Tiff, we heard from them. We’re on our way tae meet
them now. Hopefully we’ll have yer brother back soon.”

“So, where are you meeting them?”

“At an old warehouse.
Just
tae
the West of Moscow.”

“Oh Scott, please be careful. This doesn’t feel right, I
don’t like this.”

“None of us like this. But we dinnae have much choice.”

“I know.”

“How are yer Mom and Dad doing?”

“They’re doing as well as can be expected. Bill and Sue came
over a few hours ago. Britney’s here too. It has been a while since we have all
gotten together. The distraction of getting caught up with them is good for Mom
and Dad. And it is really nice for them to have their closest friends here.”

“That’s guid, I bet yer running oot of room there,” Scott
said. He was worried about what Britney might be saying to Tiffany. But, then
again, there were more important things on his mind.

“They’re not sleeping
here,
they’ll
be going to a hotel later. But, it was really sweet; they said they would stay
up here until Kyle comes home.”

“That’s guid fer yer parents. Hopefully, we’ll have some
guid news fer them soon. We’re meeting them in
an
hoor.”

“Okay, that’s great. Please call us as soon as you have Kyle
back. I know my Mom wants to get to talk to him first.”

“I will, I promise. We’re just getting in the car now tae
leave. I’ll call yer as soon as possible, bye.”

“Good luck Scott, bye. Oh, and be careful!”

It was a warm, humid night in Moscow, the sky was clear and
there were lots of bright stars visible. They all got into the car, Tom was
driving again and they slowly made their way away from the center of the city
towards the Western suburb. There was still quite a lot of traffic considering
it was so late, and just as Tom had estimated, it took a little over half an hour
to reach the
Krasnogorsk
area of Moscow. Chris used a
wifi
internet connection and he surveyed the map up
on his laptop, so they easily located the street that they were looking for. It
was really dark. And, it seemed to be a semi-rural area. After a few more
minutes driving, and searching, they found their precise destination. There were
about twenty minutes early, Scott asked Tom to drive past, so they could look
at the place they would be going to.

As the man on the phone had said, it appeared to be an old
warehouse. It was located in a fairly isolated area and it was very dark. There
weren’t any street lights or any lights on the building. As they drove past,
Scott did notice that there was a dark van parked near the warehouse. He wasn’t
sure what make it was. He commented that it looked like the ‘A-Team’ van, but
without the red stripe.

When they drove about half a mile past the warehouse, Scott
asked Tom to stop the car. It was time to go through some last minute details
and to decide exactly how they were going to proceed. They still had a few
minutes before they needed to be at the rendezvous point. Scott informed all
the men, that he and Tom would leave the car, and only the two of them would approach
the kidnappers. Chris and Alexei needed to remain safe in the car. After a
brief, final pep talk, Tom turned the car around and headed back to the
warehouse.

Tom pulled slowly into the parking lot and stopped the car
on the opposite side of the lot, facing the black van. It was about fifty yards
away. Tom left the engine running while they sat there, and waited for
something to happen. It only took about thirty seconds before the lights on the
van flashed twice. Tom flashed their lights too. Scott turned to Chris.

“This is it. Here take the phone, and let me have the
laptop,” he said, handing Chris the cell phone.

“There yer go, be careful.”

“Aye we will,” he said, taking the computer.

Scott opened his door and stepped out. Tom did the same and
walked by Scott’s side, towards the van. Both men were wearing lightweight short
dark colored jackets and carried their guns, holstered underneath.

After they had taken a few steps, the driver’s door of the
van opened and a tall man got out. He was wearing jeans and a short black
leather jacket. He was carrying a semi-automatic assault rifle, on a strap,
over his shoulder. He strode towards Scott and Tom.

“Why you no come alone,” he shouted in their direction. He
had a deep voice and strong accent, along with the broken English. This led
Scott to believe that this was the same man he had spoken to on the phone
earlier.

“I have yer money. My friend is here fer back-up. We dinnae
want any trouble,” Scott shouted back, as he held up the laptop and pointed to
it.

“There will be no trouble if you have money. But, you should
have come alone.”

“I’m sure yer nae alone,” Scott responded. He was angry that
he needed to comply with these thugs. Ideally he’d have liked the chance to take
them on, but this wasn’t his call. It wasn’t his son that was kidnapped, so
reluctantly he held back.

“No, you are right. I have comrade inside.”

“So, where’s the lad?” Scott shouted.

“Inside, you come,” the man said, and walked towards a door
on the front of the building. When he got there he held the door open and
signaled for Scott to come inside.

Scott and Tom approached slowly. When Scott was a few yards
away he opened his jacket and pointed to his gun.

“We’re armed too, but we dinnae want any trouble. We just
want the lad.”

“Follow me,” the Russian said, walking into the building.

They followed slowly and carefully. Scott turned around and
waved at Chris before the door closed behind him. Chris knew what to do. They
had arranged earlier that if Scott went inside the building and anything seemed
to be going wrong then Chris was to get away from there with Alexei. He was to
be there bargaining chip if things weren’t going to plan.