The Alex King Series by A BATEMAN (free ebook reader for ipad TXT) 📕

her, his body now completely through the hole and inside the building. He pushed himself up onto all fours, his legs scrabbling on pieces of broken wood and discarded waste from years of neglect.

Caroline struck again, this time on his shoulder, shattering his clavicle. He screamed, grit his teeth and continued to push himself up. Caroline adjusted her grip on the table leg, positioned the two-inches or so of protruding bolt and swung as hard as she could. The table leg travelled in a wide arc, but The Beast raised his arm and met the attack. The impact shook Caroline to the core and the table leg rebounded off his arm. Enough force to break most men’s arms, but his arms were like most people’s legs. He didn’t make a sound, stared into her eyes through the gloom and stood up to his full height, towering above her. Caroline took a step backwards, trod on the pistol and skidded, losing balance. She fell backwards but was already scrabbling for the pistol as The Beast stepped forwards. She slapped the floor repeatedly with her palms, desperately searching for the pistol in the darkness. She glanced upwards, saw how close he was, and dropped onto her belly as she searched.

“Just where I want you, bitch!”

Caroline’s fingers groped the pistol. She got her hand around the butt, brought the weapon up to The Beast’s groin and fired. The pistol jumped in her hand and the noise inside the confines of the building was deafening. The Beast screamed, cupped his crotch and dropped down onto his knees, his sheer weight enough to shake the ground she laid on.

Caroline pushed herself up and pushed the hot muzzle into the man’s right eye and fired. She said nothing, didn’t so much as give a backward glance as she walked on past the man as he dropped to the ground and lay still.

51

 

The shouts and commotion pierced the cool night air. Vehicles started their engines, headlights cut swathes of light through the darkness. Caroline had dropped heavily over the fence, curled up in the undergrowth to wait. She needed to get a handle on what was happening. She did not want to stumble blindly into her captors. A few minutes to assess, and she’d move on.

She had given up on Michael. The man had not waited for her, nor had he come back to help. She could not entirely blame him. He had played his hand with these people and he would have been called out by now. It would only be a matter of time before they caught up with him, she was sure about that. She needed to accept that she was on her own and plan accordingly. She had The Beast’s pistol, which made her feel more secure. The weapon only had three bullets remaining, but it was still an advantage. She knew that to head north was not an option. The mountains were indeed a solid range of towering peaks, interjected by few passes, and like Michael had said, a dangerous place. To the south, the mountains were less dramatic, but she doubted the problems would be different. To the east? The opposite direction from home, towards Azerbaijan or Chechnya and the Caspian Sea? Not an option. Not for an attractive western woman with blonde hair travelling alone. She may as well hand herself back in and resume her role as prisoner. Which left west. A limited alley through which to travel, hemmed in by mountains, funnelling out to the Black Sea and the same towns where Helena Milankovitch once spent her time along the coast of Russia, Georgia and the Ukraine, imprisoned by the Russian mafia in the sex trade. For Caroline, the choices were coming down to just one. But what she feared more than her imminent situation, was that Helena would work out her choices as well. Which meant she had to get moving.

Caroline got slowly and carefully to her feet, making sure she did not disrupt the bushes as she pushed her way through the undergrowth. She needed to remain out of sight, and that meant everything around her should stay still, too. The way ahead was no longer illuminated by the lights around the farmhouse and courtyard, but the ambient glow seemed to create a halo around the area, making the night sky difficult to see in detail. She could no longer ascertain the direction of the mountains, which she knew to be due north. Without knowing the direction of north, and without being able to pick out the stars for reference, she would not be able to work out which way was west. She walked onward, keeping the farmyard behind her, which at least meant she was not heading east or south. She would have to best-guess until she could find a marker.

Keeping low, Caroline negotiated the brush. She knew that from what she had seen from the bedroom window, that it would thin-out soon and open out to farmland before long. From there, it was almost uninterrupted meadowland thirty or so miles to the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains. She kept the automatic in her right hand, her finger off the trigger with well-instilled discipline. The Makarov was chambered for a unique 9.2mm cartridge that made for a hard-hitting round in such a small pistol. The fact that she had killed The Beast and had his weapon to offer herself protection did much to bolster her resolve and confidence. She had been captured when she had been in a vulnerable state and she had not had an opportunity to escape until now. She was an ex-soldier, a trained agent with MI5 and she would be a tougher opponent than they could ever imagine.

Armed and dangerous.

She almost stood on Michael. Stopped herself in time. She crouched down and prodded him. He groaned. Her eyes were well-adjusted by now and she could see