Red Thunder by William C. Dietz

Author:William C. Dietz [Dietz, William C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798682760718
Google: fyL3zQEACAAJ
Amazon: B08JVLV2XT
Goodreads: 55503652
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: 2020-09-29T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Ozersk, Russia

It was pitch black. And Mayor Nicholai Brusilov was imprisoned in a wire mesh cage which, judging from the pile of dusty suitcases heaped in one corner, had been used to store luggage long ago. There had been noises earlier. Hours ago? A day? Brusilov’s watch had been confiscated, so he wasn’t sure. But the Lenin hotel was silent now. Silent except for the drip, drip, drip of water from a leak nearby, and the occasional groan typical of old buildings.

The question was why? Did Colonel Savvin think he had committed a crime? If so, what crime?

Or, and this was the possibility that Brusilov feared most, had he been imprisoned on orders from the President? The notion of blaming him for the bombings and the pindo raid was ridiculous. But it wasn’t impossible. Scapegoating politicians was a time-honored tradition in Russia, and had been since the time of the Czars. And, as the Mayor of Kyshtym, he was the perfect fall guy.

Brusilov took a moment to listen again. There! The clang of a door. “Hey!” Brusilov shouted. “Can you hear me? I need light. I need food. I need water.”

There was no reply other than what might have been the scrape of a shoe. That was when Brusilov remembered the mutants that lived in City 40. They were degenerate things that ate rats, and each other, when the opportunity presented itself.

Fear drove Brusilov into a corner where he got down on his hands and knees to hide behind some trunks. Now, thank God, the lock on the cage would to protect him.

The scraping sounds came closer. And suddenly a light came on! The beam from the handheld torch swept across the cage, found Brusilov, and stopped. The voice was gravelly. “Konfety?” (Candy?)

Brusilov recognized the sound of it. The Scarecrow! A high-functioning mutant, who’d been entrusted with a police radio, and been willing to report trespassers in return for Alenka chocolate bars. Brusilov stood. “It’s me! Mayor Brusilov!”

The Scarecrow handed the flashlight to a crone dressed in rags. She’d been invisible until then and Brusilov felt a stab of fear. How many of them were there?

Now, thanks to the light from the torch, Brusilov could see The Scarecrow. He was wearing a tac vest and carrying an AK-74. All taken from a dead soldier.

Brusilov saw that the mutant was armed with something else as well. A bolt cutter! It took less than five seconds to cut the padlock off. It fell to the floor. Hinges squeaked as the crone pulled the door open. “Konfety?”

“I don’t have any candy,” Brusilov replied. “But, if you release me, I will return with more candy than you can eat.”

That brought the mutants to a halt. The Scarecrow shook his head. “No. You give meat instead.”

Brusilov was about to say, “I don’t have any meat,” when he realized that he was the meat. The Scarecrow drew a pistol from his waistband and aimed it. Brusilov said, “Please,” but it made no difference.

The Scarecrow fired. The slug hit Brusilov in the shoulder and threw him against the mesh.

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