Colony by Benjamin Cross (best way to read books .TXT) 📕

up to see both Darya and Ava, their faces twisted with panic, peering down at him through the smoke.

“You need to get out of there! The tail is on fire, it is spreading!”

“Just grab his arms,” Callum shouted, lifting Lungkaju’s body up as high as he could. “I’m not leaving him to die.” He struggled to support the man’s dead weight. Then at last the strain began to lift, as Darya and Ava helped drag him from the cabin.

Remembering the pistol, Callum scrabbled around at his feet, found it and stuffed it into his jacket pocket. Then he finally hauled himself up out of the smoke.

Callum emerged from the helicopter, lungs heavy, eyes stinging. Gasping for air, he and the others slid down the exterior panelling onto the ground and hurried from the craft. They stopped at a safe distance and looked back towards the wreckage. It was concealed in great swathes of smoke, the cloud swelling out towards them.

Lungkaju looked up at Callum. “You saved me.”

Callum said nothing. He was still struggling to breathe.

“Why?”

He coughed up a lungful of black phlegm. “I didn’t do it for you!”

“Then why, Doctor Ross? After what I have done—”

“Because I didn’t want your little girl to have to grow up without a father, that’s why. I didn’t want that on my conscience.”

“How very touching.”

The group turned around to see Mr Volkov emerging from the smoke, his pistol drawn and aimed towards them. His face and uniform were smeared black, but his eyes were the only thing aflame.

“Mr Volkov? Is that you?” Darya asked.

“It’s him alright,” Callum said, looking Volkov straight in the eye. “And you were right about him too. This man is pure evil. He’s the one who ordered the Albanov to be destroyed.”

“He murdered Sergeant Marchenko and the rest of his team as well,” Ava said. “He took us hostage, and Lungkaju… well, Lungkaju’s just his stooge.”

“Lungkaju?”

Lungkaju met Darya’s gaze and then looked away.

“Thank you, Doctors,” Volkov said, “for such a colourful summary.” He gestured towards Lungkaju. “Now release him at once.”

“They are only helping, Mr Volkov—”

“Be quiet and come here.”

Lungkaju staggered forward.

“Wait.” Volkov’s eyes narrowed. “I want you to search all three of them. One of them has the data stick and I want it now. Playtime is over.”

“Mr Volkov—”

“There’s no need,” Callum said.

“Oh, really, Doctor Ross, and why is that?”

“Because I know where it is.”

A triumphant smile broke across Volkov’s face. “I knew it! I knew that Yankee imbecile had entrusted it to one of you.” He brought the pistol to bear on Callum. “You will hand it over now.”

Callum turned to Ava. “Do you have your survival tin?”

She looked at him in obvious confusion. Then she dug a hand into her inside pocket and removed the gold tin. Callum took it. He unhitched the lid and rifled through the contents until his fingers fell upon the small, black, rectangular key ring. He removed it and pressed at the centre. The concealed USB connector emerged from the tip.

“I’ll be damned!” Ava said.

Callum held the key ring up. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

Volkov’s eyes widened. “Hand it to Lungkaju.”

Lungkaju held his hand out, and Callum dropped the data stick into his palm.

“Bring it here. Quickly!”

Lungkaju hesitated. “You must promise to let them go.”

Volkov’s face contorted as he bawled at Lungkaju.

“Mr Volkov, please. Nobody else has to die.”

Volkov’s pistol panned around to aim at him. “I wouldn’t be so sure,” he sneered. “Now bring me the data stick!”

“Just give it to him,” Callum urged.

“If I do this, Doctor Ross, then he will kill you all. He cannot risk leaving you alive.”

Volkov cocked the pistol. “Lungkaju, it sounds suspiciously as if you are betraying me. You know how very dangerous that would be, and not just for yourself.” He paused, then dropped his voice, adding, “I owe my life to your father. It is for this reason only that I am giving you one last chance to prove yourself to me.” He spoke slowly. “Bring me the data stick now.”

With Volkov distracted, Callum seized Lungkaju’s pistol from his belt and trained it on Volkov. “Drop the gun.”

With his own pistol still pointing at Lungkaju, Volkov’s eyes moved slowly back across to Callum. He took one look at the gun in his hand and then laughed out loud. “Ah, Doctor Ross. Come now. You are a thinker, not a killer. Besides which, you do not reach where I have reached by arming your enemies.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Drop the gun or I will shoot you.”

“Of course you will.”

“Don’t push me, Volkov!” Not for the first time, Callum was shaken by the venom in his own voice. “A month ago, if anybody had told me I’d be stood here now pointing a gun at another man, perfectly prepared to kill him, I’d have called them crazy. But not now. If Harmsworth’s taught me one thing, it’s kill or be killed. Now this is your last chance. So drop the gun!”

Volkov shifted slightly.

Callum squeezed the trigger.

6

There was an impotent clicking noise, but no bullet.

“How unfortunate,” Volkov beamed. He withdrew a small silver container from his pocket and tipped whatever the contents were into his mouth.

As he did so, Callum snatched at the trigger again and again. But still nothing happened.

“It was clear to me that Lungkaju’s loyalties may have been misplaced,” Volkov said, placing the container back into his pocket. “He is not a man of business.”

Callum dropped the pistol to the ground.

“As I said,” Volkov continued, “you do not reach where I have reached by arming your enemies. Or by letting them live.”

He fired a single shot.

With a gasp of shock, Lungkaju stumbled backwards into Ava’s arms and collapsed. Callum and Darya rushed to help support him. The bullet had passed through the side of his neck and the wound was spewing out blood. It was fatal, that much was clear to all of them, but Darya attempted to stem the flow, while Callum grabbed his hand and tried to