“You’re coming with us. Shut up and obey or I kill you,” I say.
If Nikki doesn’t kill him first.
We head out the back, down a stoop littered with cigarette butts to a patch of scrubby grass. Valhalla is nondescript from the outside, like a small apartment building. Tiny windows set into dirty, pale brick. We run up the alley past more such apartment complexes. We are definitely still in the city.
I clutch Tanechka to me like she’s my own life. Our van screams up, and the back doors open. Aleksio hops out. “What the fuck, Viktor!”
I throw him the Santa guard’s keys. “Somebody needs to drive the black 2013 Volvo out of here now.” I tell where it is.
Yuri comes around, eyes wide. “What did you do to Tanechka?” he asks in Russian.
“Nothing.” Gently as I can, I settle the unconscious Tanechka into the back. I don’t want to leave her, but we’re running out of time. “You ride in back with her, Nikki. She knows you. Be nice or we’ll throw you right back.” I shut the door.
Mischa comes around. He has control of the guard.
“She’s alive!” Yuri says.
I can barely contain my heart. “Hit me, Aleksio.”
“The fuck?” Aleksio’s pissed.
“I had to do it, brat. I’ll go back and sell it. The mission is fine. I’ll go back, manage the perceptions; you’ll see.”
Yuri comes up and hits me in the jaw. I clip my lips into my teeth so that it will be good and bloody—we’ve done this many times.
I grin. “Now get them safe.” I rush around through the alley, making it back to Valhalla’s backyard just as two guards are running out.
I act the part of the dazed, angry customer, demanding my money back. “Look what she did!” I say, gesturing at my jaw. “She hit me!”
I give them the tall tale. I tell them Nikki hit me. I say I called out to the Santa guard, but Nikki took Santa guard’s gun and ran off. I tell them how the Santa guard seemed upset and angry and how he left me alone in the room. I called out and nobody came, so I went out in search of somebody. The outside door was open, so I went out, looking for the van, for a ride home. I play my part forcefully, with commitment. That’s the key. I’m the angry customer.
The guards start putting it together, telling each other in their own words. “He let Nikki go and he knew Charles would fuck him up, so he left,” one of them explains to another.
Then they find the nun gone. The story changes—Santa guard fucked up and let Nikki escape, and he had nothing more to lose, so he ran away and took the nun with him. They all talk about how pissed Charles will be.
I demand my money back, as though that’s my main concern.
The story of the bearded guard taking the nun continues, gains more detail.
It’s working. I’m relieved.
When I ask a third time for my money back, I get a Glock shoved into my neck. “How about we drive you back instead of killing you—would you settle for that?”
I put up my hands as they threaten my fictional family. If I reveal anything, they say, people that I love will die. I play the frightened john, promising never to speak of it. I show them total collapse. I show them the kind of man who would visit such a place. They no longer think of customer service with me.
They blame me a little bit, I think. After all, the chain of events began with me. I allowed a girl they tied and bound to hit me. I whined enough to distract the guard and allow her to steal his gun and escape.
They blindfold me and put me back in the rear of the van to take me back. I put my ear to the metal partition, straining to hear. They’re upset with the Santa guard. They’re hunting for him and Tanechka already.
Aleksio will put him somewhere. This guard will have good information.
Tanechka will stay with me.
The ride back to the bus station takes much less time. They don’t bother driving in circles to fool me now that they’ve threatened my family. They strip my blindfold off and nearly throw me to the curb. They have worse problems than me.
I walk through the crowded station. I don’t think they’re tailing me, but I’m always careful. I come out the other side and see Aleksio leaning against his Jaguar.
He grabs my suit jacket and slams me back against the door, eyes wild. “Were you always going to grab her? Just tell me that one thing. I need to know. Were you planning it?”
“No. I wasn’t.”
He twists my shirt, pushes me harder. “I need to trust you!”
“Where is she? Is she okay?”
Aleksio glares, nostrils flaring. “What the fuck? You shouldn’t even get to see her now!”
“She’s awake?”
“Yeah,” he bites out. “She’s back at the house with Tito and that girl. Mischa’s on his way.”
I nod. She and Mischa were close friends. “She was in danger we didn’t understand.” I tell Aleksio about the amnesia. “I couldn’t leave her.”
“Was she in danger that minute?”
“That minute?” I look into his eyes. “No.”
“So what the fuck?”