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

bears and wolves, but it’s pushing it for large bull moose and brown bears at a distance greater than three-hundred metres. So, he’d have to be close to cover the big game up here. I reckon it’s zeroed for close kills. He’d stalk and get near. It’s not a theatre of war, and nor is it a rifle range. It’s the wild, and it’s all about one shot, one kill. Protecting yourself and putting food on the table. The scope is only a four by forty. That would indicate one-fifty metres, say two-hundred tops.”

“So, you’re saying bank on it being accurate at those ranges?” Rashid shrugged. “I suppose it’s all I can go on. Unless I can get some more ammo?”

King shook his head. “That’s not going to be easy.”

Rashid nodded. “Well, it’s better than nothing, I suppose.”

“Well, that’s it,” King said. “Socks for you next time.” He watched as Rashid put the rifle together. It was a simple screw in the bottom of the fore-stock. Once the barrel had recessed into three lugs, the screw tightened it all together. Rashid used a coin to turn the head of the screw. “Keep the bullets as warm as you can, close to your body. Load them when you want to fire, and remember, with this freezing air, the second round will be the accurate one.”

“Thanks, dad. But I learned a fair bit about warmed barrels and cold shots when I was with the SAS.”

“Keep up the attitude and you’ll get a ticket back there.” King chided. “How is the colonel’s daughter anyway?”

“Bastard.”

“I’d leave that particular piece of personnel integration off your CV if I were you.”

Rashid smiled. “I’ve moved on, mate.”

“I can see that.”

“Meaning?”

“Nice a cosy with the analyst bird.”

“She’s got a name,” Rashid said tersely. “Christ, you’re as bad as Ramsay.”

“Now do I go around taking Allah’s name in vain?”

Rashid shrugged. “You can if you want. Two billion people can’t be wrong.”

“Well, by that logic the other five billion are barking up the wrong tree then.” King smiled. “Or pillar…”

“I miss our intellectual chats,” Rashid said. “Remind me when we start to have one, won’t you?”

“Marnie, then,” said King. “Nice girl. Unusual for her to be here. Ramsay must like her.”

“Piss off,” he paused, looking at King’s teasing expression. “I like her. We’re casual. I don’t want anything to get in the way of work. Imagine if we got close, then some nutjob kidnapped her and I went off on a rampage that compromised the service, put people’s lives at risk and stirred up troubles with foreign governments…”

“Okay, twist the knife,” King conceded. “You’re no fun anymore…”

Rashid shouldered the rifle and aimed at a spot on the wall. He worked the bolt, took up the tension on the trigger and dry-fired on an empty chamber. “That will have to do,” he said. He took the rifle apart and smiled. “Thanks, it’s the thought that counts…”

“When are you heading out?”

“First thing.”

“It’ll be dark.”

“It’s dark all the bloody time up here.”

“Twelve to three if the sky is clear. That’s all the light I’ve seen so far.”

“They hire snowmobiles at the desk if you have a driving licence. I’ll nip down in a moment and get one ordered. Then I’ll go back to my room and get my kit together.”

“Your room? Not sharing, then?”

“No. The consummate professional, me.” Rashid smiled. “Marnie has her own room. We thought it would be better to resist mixing business and pleasure.”

“Yeah, you lucked out there,” King grinned. “I heard all about it. Women talk.”

37

 

The Inari Falls Paatsjoki River Hydroelectric Plant

Russia

Natalia had set the shower as hot as it would go. She had used neat sanitiser on the wound and scrubbed it with a rough flannel. She had used the sanitiser all over her body, wincing as it stung at her private parts, the wound and her eyes. She had then scrubbed herself almost raw and soaped all over until the whole bar of soap had worn down to a piece so small that it washed away down the plughole. She had been in the shower for almost half an hour. She had wanted to cry, but there was nothing there. She was beyond hysteria, merely as low as she thought it possible to be. She had lost track of time, passing like it was merely a few minutes.

When she finally stepped out from the shower, she wiped the heavy condensation from the mirror and studied herself closely. Some would describe her as pretty, but she had never laid stock in that. She wore her reddish-brown hair to her shoulders and never bothered with makeup. There was precious little reason to up here. She was slim and well-toned. She used the gym and ran through the woods and along the lake’s shore in the summer months. Occasionally she would swim at the shore of Lake Inari where the super-heated water pumped out from the turbines. It was warm through the summer months and kept an area around the size of an acre from freezing throughout the winter.

She gently touched the wounds on her abdomen. Nothing more than a couple of scratches, really. And she had scrubbed them raw with the sanitiser and then the soap. Surely, she would be ok? It was with a heavy heart that she realised that she was being absurdly optimistic. But what could she do? To speak to anybody here would mean certain discovery of her antics. And she had seen how former employees had been treated. No, she needed to get out. Whomever she took her secrets to would have, or soon have the means to treat her. An antidote. It was her only option. She needed to bring forward her defection and get to the prearranged rendezvous early. She simply needed