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.Everyone knew it, including them.“You’re very talkative for someone in a cell.”Kostya shrugged.“I have nowhere to go.I’ve accepted my fate.Nothing I can do will change that.”“At least you know your place.”Kostya closed his eyes again.“What do you want?”“You’re a smart boy, I’m told.Your aunt speaks highly of you.She says you want to be a doctor.”“As long as I’m in your cell, it doesn’t matter what I want.Is that what you wanted to hear?”“If you were released right now, what would you do?”Kostya opened his eyes and crossed his arms.“Why are you wasting my time? We both know what’s going to happen.I’ll have a trial, and men whose crimes are blacker than any I’ve ever even contemplated will pronounce me guilty of buying my sister a birthday present.They’ll send me to prison, and you’ll go on doing whatever you want.I’m tired of it, and I’m tired of playing along.”“You’re free to go.”Kostya scoffed.“You want to shoot me in the back and call it an escape attempt?”“If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t need the excuse.I’d shoot you in the head here.Now stand up and go.”Kostya eyed him for a moment, but then pushed himself off the wall and stood.“What is this?”“A pardon in lieu of your family’s extraordinary services to the state.”Kostya felt his shoulders fall.He didn’t have any famous leaders or soldiers in his family, just an aunt who cared enough about him to sacrifice herself for his safety.“Myra did this?”Vladimir shook his head and reached into his pocket for a strip of tattered cloth.Kostya recognized the fabric immediately; he used to have an identical bit before Vladimir confiscated it several years earlier.It had come from the dress his mother wore before she died.Anastasiya had the only other strip in existence, and she wouldn’t have let it out of her sight if she could help it.“Your aunt was unavailable.Return this to your sister and apologize on behalf of my men.Some of them can be…demanding.”Kostya’s hands shook, but he tried to keep the revulsion from his voice.“What did you do to her?”“We gave her a birthday present.”For a moment, Kostya couldn’t speak.He wanted to hit him, to strike back with everything he had.Vladimir wanted that, though; he would have sent an underling if he didn’t.Kostya’s vision clouded as moisture sprang to his eyes.He blinked it away and held his breath to choke the emotion from his voice.“My family has never done anything to you.I won’t forget this.”Vladimir shook his head, the outline of a smile on his lips.“It doesn’t matter.You’re going to go to school and become a doctor, just like your family wants.You’re weak, like your uncle.That’s all you have in you.Your tears betray that as much as anything you could say.”Kostya wiped his cheek.“Whatever I am, whatever I have in me, you’ve put there.I will kill you for this.”“I sincerely hope to see you try.Now get out.I have real work to do.”* * *The warehouse had stood in that spot for so long its elaborate exterior brickwork and leaded glass windows had become pieces of history.As Kostya stepped inside, the sterile, white paint that covered every surface in the building reflected and magnified the artificially bright light from the overhead lamps.Just five years ago, two hundred workers in that plant pumped out fifty thousand meals ready to eat for the U.S.military every day, but with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan more or less over, the factory’s output had slowed and then stopped completely.The U.S.military still paid for the space, but one of Kostya’s companies owned the building.Other, active industrial sites surrounded them, but no workers had stepped into Kostya’s building in several months; they wouldn’t have guests anytime soon.Lev opened a metal folding chair for Kostya beside a drain in the concrete floor.“Thank you.Please bring her in.”Lev nodded and directed his boys to follow him back to their van.Kostya didn’t relish committing violence, but he understood its utility when applied judiciously [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]