Cthulhu Reloaded by David Conyers

Author:David Conyers [David Conyers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-24T04:00:00+00:00

RAAF Base Darwin, Northern Territory, October 2012

Harrison Peel emerged from shadows cast by the morning’s sunrise, chambered the first round of his Glock 9mm sidearm and stepped into the Royal Australian Air Force hangar. He aimed his weapon towards three figures in the hangar’s center. Their leader was a tall, thin woman who conversed with her male American pilot and co-pilot. The three corporate-types ran through final pre-flight checks before boarding their Bombardier Challenger 300 private jet — except one of them wasn’t corporate, she was an enemy spy.

“Going somewhere?” Peel asked, stepping into the light, his weapon never wavering. He’d shoot the Russian intelligence operative to wound if she challenged him, but felt certain it wouldn’t come to that. The pilots were civilian and would be no trouble. Already the men were raising their arms in surrender. In contrast, the woman’s icy stares were her only reaction. But then it would take a lot to rattle this senior SVR agent defiantly stealing secrets from the Australian Defence Force.

“Major Peel,” the woman replied with her husky American cover accent. For added effect she flicked her long dark hair over one shoulder and pushed forward a long skinny leg barely covered by a short skirt. She looked Peel up and down in his camouflaged army uniform. “Didn’t expect you so early?”

“You have a crate that belongs to me.”

The two pilots’ eyes drifted to the wooden box in question, alerting Peel to where the item was, near to the aircraft and marked US GOVERNMENT: TOP SECRET.

The Russian wouldn’t look at it. “You plan on stopping me, Major Peel?”

“I do.”

“I am the most senior representative of Centaurus Limited on this base, their Chief Mathematician. Surely you know I’ve been Code-89 cleared and authorized to deliver this crate to our Singapore office.”

Peel’s smile grew wider, for she did not yet know he had already identified her as a double agent. It seemed the perfect time to break the news. “Except that you aren’t Juliette Yaxley, and you don’t work for Centaurus, do you Zoya Reznikova?”

She hesitated for a fraction of a second before she said, “How fanciful.”

“Maybe, but considering Yaxley’s remains have just washed up on a beach twenty kilometers from here. The crocodiles you fed her to obviously weren’t hungry enough.”

She smiled then, but there was a flicker in her eyes, an edge of uncertainty betraying the fact that Peel had guessed correctly. “You got me there,” she slipped to her Russian accent.

“You can’t escape.”

“How droll.” She ran a long thin finger along her lipstick red lips. “Did you know, Major, that these aren’t Centaurus pilots either, but agents from the Motherland? And this isn’t really a Centaurus jet?”

Peel had not been aware of these facts. The odds now changed. Three against one. But he was the only one with a weapon. “Doesn’t change a thing, Reznikova.”

“I think it does.” Her eyes drifted beyond Peel to where he heard a figure shuffling forward, closing the space between the main hangar door and where he stood.

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