Russian Roulette by Anthony Horowitz

Author:Anthony Horowitz [Horowitz, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

I knew everything about the dacha

and that included all the security

arrangements. I took out one of the

exercise books that Nigel Brown

had given me – it was full of

English vocabulary – and turned to

an empty page at the back. Then,

using a pencil, I drew a sketch of

the compound and, resting it on

my knees, I began to consider the

best way out.

There wasn’t one.

CCTV cameras covered every inch

of the gardens. Climbing the wall

was impossible. Quite apart from

the razor wire, there were sensors

buried under the lawn and they

would register my footfall before

I got close. Could I approach one of

the guards? No. They were all far

too afraid of Sharkovsky. What

about his wife, Maya? Could I

somehow persuade her to take me

on one of her shopping trips to

Moscow? It was a ridiculous idea.

She had no reason to help me.

Even if I did miraculously make it

to the other side, what was I to do

next? I was surrounded by

countryside – the Silver Forest –

with no idea of how near I was to

the nearest bus stop or station. If

I made it to Moscow, I could go

back to Tverskaya Street. I had no

doubt that Dima would hide me …

assuming he was still there. But

Sharkovsky would use all his police

and underworld contacts to hunt

me down. It wouldn’t bother him

that he had been keeping me a

prisoner for three years and he had

treated me in a way that was

certainly illegal. It was just that we

had made a deal and he would

make sure I kept it. I worked for

him or I was dead.

For the next few weeks,

everything went on as before. I

cleaned, I washed, I bowed, I

scraped. But for me, nothing was

the same. I could hardly bear to be

in the same room as Sharkovsky.

Tasting his food made me

physically sick. This was the man

responsible for what had happened

to Estrov, the unnamed investor

my parents had been complaining

about the night before they died. If

I couldn’t escape from him, I would

go mad. I would kill him or I would

kill myself. I simply couldn’t stay

here any more.

I had hidden the exercise book

under my mattress and every night

I took it out and jotted down my

thoughts. Slowly, I realized that I

had been right from the very start.

There was only one way out of this

place – and that was the Bell

JetRanger helicopter. I turned to a

new page and wrote down the

name of the pilot, Arkady Zelin,

then underlined it twice. What did I

know about him? How could I

persuade him to take me out of

here? Did he have any weaknesses,

anything I could exploit?

We had known each other for

three years but I wouldn’t say we

were friends. Zelin was a very

solitary person, often preferring to

eat alone. Even so, it was

impossible to live in such close

con nement without giving things

away and the fact was that we did

talk to each other, particularly

when we were playing cards. Zelin

liked the fact that I was interested

in helicopters. He’d even let me

examine the workings of the

engine once or twice, when he was

stripping it down for general

maintenance, although he had

drawn the line at allowing me to

sit in the cockpit. The security

guards wouldn’t have been happy

about that.

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