Trans-Mongolian Express by David L. Robbins

Author:David L. Robbins [Robbins, David L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Adler Entertainment Trust LLC
Published: 2024-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

39

LARA

Kilometer 1491

Waking felt like rising through slush. The berth drew Lara down even as Gang’s hand and voice tempted her upward.

“Hey, sit up. I brought tea.”

Lara came upright. She batted her eyes to jumpstart them; warm mint drifted under her nose. Two-handed, she accepted a glass cup from Gang.

“Jesus, that’s hot. How do you hold that?”

Gang took the tea back and set it on the table.

She asked, “Where are we?”

“An hour out of Ulaanbaatar.”

“Wake me before we get there.”

“No, no, sit up. Lara, come on. Some things have happened.”

“Okay.” She sniffed. “Alright.”

Gang sat beside her. On the table the teacup steamed.

“What’s going on?”

Gang made little halting gestures, a way to ask her to stay calm.

“Just tell me.”

“Maxim, the Agency guy. He’s dead.”

Scalding or not, she grabbed the tea. The cup was very hot, but she held on.

“What happened?”

“You heard Maxim out in the hall yelling at Anton and Timur.”

“Vaguely.”

“He was threatening to call the KGB on them both. He was drunk but he meant it. Anton opened the door to talk. Then Timur hauled him in out of the corridor.”

Lara said, “Wow,” and sipped. The part of her that would always be a cop tamped down her reaction. This was a crime, a sad but common thing.

Gang said, “Yeah.”

They’d all liked Timur. A massive man, intelligent. Brave, headed to Chernobyl to labor in the tunnel under the reactor. But the Chechen was no one to threaten.

Gang said, “Timur didn’t do it.”

“What? Who, Anton?”

“Not Anton.”

The pieces fell together.

“Gang, no.”

“I know.”

“I’m not going to yell.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“You said you were done. You looked me in the goddam face and said you were done.”

“I know. I was.”

“Why? Why on earth did you get involved?”

Softly Gang took the cup. He returned the steaming tea to the table, maybe so she wouldn’t throw it on him, or to make it easier for her to hit him.

He said, “I need you to believe me.”

“Then don’t lie. About anything.”

“Timur was going to choke Maxim to death. The look on Timur’s face, Lara, there was nobody home. I swear, he was going to kill the guy. Then he was going to haul the body down the corridor and throw it off the train. And he’d have gotten caught. Natalya, Sinjin, Björn, one of them would’ve heard him or seen him. He was going to snap the guy’s neck, break his windpipe, something obvious. Then when the body’s found, probably tomorrow, Mongolian police and the KGB start looking for us. We’ll all get detained as witnesses. Timur goes to jail. Probably Anton as an accessory.”

“Tell me how this concerns you.”

“You know who I am. I don’t get detained. I don’t witness. As far as the police are concerned, I don’t exist.”

Gang pointed at the wall behind him that separated Lara’s cabin from Timur’s.

“I went over there to calm things down. But I swear to you, Timur was five seconds from tearing off the guy’s head.”

“So you actually killed Maxim for him.”

“Look, the guy went after Timur. He was drunk and stupid.

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