The Vladivostok Incident

Chapter 7

Enter Dmitri

"What the hell are you doing?"

"It's cold in here."

"I don't care! Get away from me!"

That was the conversation that woke Shelton up some six hours later. With sleepy eyes he looked over to see Antanas kicking Petras away from him. It was obvious the younger one was merely joking around with the bureaucrat. Shelton yawned and stretched. Well, he tried to stretch. His right arm was stiff and heavier than he expected. He winced when it smashed down onto his head, out of his control. Not the way I planned on starting my morning, he thought as he examined his arm. After a couple seconds of searching he found out how to detach it from the socket. It clanked onto the concrete floor when it popped out. Intrigued, Shelton picked it up and started to examine it. It wasn't anything special, it simply had a plug and lock on it.

A warm cup of coffee was pressed against his cold cheek. He looked up to see Sonya offering him a drink. He smiled at her and said, "Thank you." The heat from the cup instantly warmed his frozen palm; the liquid inside burned his tongue and seeped down into his stomach, heating his core. Another source of heat grabbed his stub of a right arm. With the cup still pressed to his lips, he peered down to see Sonya reattaching his arm. "Thanks for that, too."

"It's really no problem," she smiled back at him. He offered her the empty space next to him. She accepted, and was surprised when he flung his real arm around her shoulders. "You're an awfully brash man."

He winked at her and joked, "Second to only one. But with this new arm, I'll impress all the girls with my cricket skills."

Then he remembered: for the first time all week, he recalled with great clarity the last time he saw Liza and Viktor alive. Cricket was Liza's favorite sport; Viktor was the man he was second to. It was a difficult concept to get his head around. They weren't alive anymore; they didn't exist anymore. It wasn't as though they went peacefully into the eternal night. The last girl he touched with that left arm of his was Liza; it was the last thing she touched as well. His palm twitched a little when he remembered the light feeling of her lone arm being gripped tightly by him. The dripping sound of Viktor's blood as he tried to save them, how much pain was he in?

She noticed his frown and wondered, "Is something the matter?"

"No," he lied and forced a smile. His eyes traveled down to his right arm and tested it out again. This time, it moved easier and with a little bit more exercise, it began to work fairly well.

"You should be careful around Shelton," Antanas warned. He had moved away from Petras and was on his feet, straightening out his suit. Petras had opted to just snuggle with the warm and soft Bonaparte. As Antanas adjusted his jacket's cuff he shot them both a look and declared, "It's been awhile since he's been with a lady. For a womanizer like Shelton, he's probably looking for a way to ease his mind."

Instead of being offended, the young lady laughed behind her hand. "Ah, get out of here," Shelton retorted. "You're a million times worse than I am."

"Not so," Antanas said. "It's been four days since I've been with a woman."

"You keep track?" Shelton asked with a small laugh. Antanas merely produced that Cheshire cat grin like he always carried. He hadn't seen that grin since the day before they were attacked. Perhaps the shock prevented Shelton's mind from understanding; maybe, like Andrei warned, the full realization hasn't hit them yet, and this was a bad choice. Still, was any pain truly different from the other? Was any horror more terrible than ones previously experienced? Shelton didn't know, and although a curious man, he didn't particularly want to find out.

As his thoughts took over, Shelton completely missed the conversation that was happening between Antanas and Sonya. His eyes drifted towards the window where the outside world had been blocked by a heavy layer of frost. Across the shop floor laid the shivering, sleeping bodies of the mercenary group. What a pathetic sight they were on such a cold morning. Shelton had faced colder, lonelier nights than this, so what gave them the right to seem so weak?

"Me and Shelton can take care of that for you, Miss!"

"What?"

Without realizing it, Shelton had been dragged into a situation by the newly awoken Petras. Apparently, the lack of warmth woke the younger man up for good and sometime while Shelton was daydreaming Petras agreed to do something. Whatever it was, it appeared as though Shelton was now part of it. The skinny Petras gripped Shelton and pulled him up and away from Sonya. With a grin he said, "Just don't let Antanas get too cozy with you, eh?"

Like a punch to the gut, the cold air suddenly hit Shelton. Before he had time to grasp the situation, he was dragged out of the shop and into the snow. The alleyway only had a couple of inches, but from where they were they could see the street was completely covered. Once the door was clicked shut, Petras dropped Shelton's arm. With his hands in his pockets, he walked away. "What was that all about?" asked Shelton as he caught up with him.

"I just wanted out of there, honestly," Petras shrugged. He ventured to the street. Carefully he poked his head around the corner to see the town was still very quiet. The sun reflected off of the white ice, nearly blinding the two of them. "We do have to return with some fresh eggs, though. That girl is madly in lust with Herr Fedorov."

"She seems kind of easy," Shelton said as he stepped past Petras. He stepped onto the snow to find it was covered with a layer of ice. With a bit of luck and maybe some skill, they managed to travel on the iced roads towards what they assumed to be the market. The normally talkative Petras lagged behind and said nothing. Concerned, Shelton asked, "So what wanted you out so bad?"

"Just thinking," he answered. "It felt like a workers' camp. And… that little boy reminds me of my brother."

Shelton shot a look over his shoulder in time to catch Petras sigh. "Ah, well, when this is all over, your brother will have all the food he can eat. You'll make Herr Fedorov look like a chump you'll have so much money."

"What if there's no Tynda to go back to?"

"Uh," Shelton murmured. He was speechless. It was hard enough to comprehend Liza and Viktor no longer existing, so to try and imagine an entire town gone was too difficult for him to even try. With a nervous laugh he said, "Come on now, Petey, don't say stuff like that."

"Don't act like you never thought of it," Petras accused. "Do you have any idea how close we were to having a heart attack when we sawed your arm a few days ago? Andrei… Andrei was so red in the face, why, I thought he was gonna pass out. And even Antanas was shaken. We've lost a lot of people, close people, in a short amount of time."

"I know."

Shelton followed common sense; ahead he saw nothing resembling a food market, just housing, so he turned the only way he could, which was right. As he twisted around the building's corner, his body smashed into something – hard. Thanks to the ice underneath him his feet slipped, and he and whatever he ran into both ended up on the ground.

"Sir, I'm sorry!" a man cried out as he scrambled to help Shelton up. In the end, the man was barely able to get his footing, so it took both him and Petras to get Shelton on his feet and stable again.

Jarred, his vision took a moment to return to him. When it did, he saw before him a familiar face. "Andrei?"

The man c****d his head and said, "I'm sorry?" It couldn't have been Andrei. The young man in front of him was only in his teens and dressed in a blue drab and a red beret. While the light brown hair the poked out of the beret and the green eyes may have resembled Andrei's, the boy had much softer features. Another noticeable difference, and one that would stand out later, was his American accent.

"It's nothing," Shelton said. "You just looked like someone I know."

Petras was panicked; the teen in front of them was a soldier. Behind him, an entire gang of soldiers! Okay, okay, there was three more, which would be no problem for Shelton and Petras alone. The problem was if they were reported, or if the soldiers decided to use their weapons. Why was Shelton so ridiculously calm in the face of the enemy?

Easy: he completely forgot they had an enemy.

"Sorry, but that would be impossible," the boy said with a laugh. "We're just passing through on our way to the Port of Vladivostok." Shelton remembered then. He recalled the reason they were in that small town as well. As the teen in front of him rambled, his mind slowly realized the danger they were in. "Truth is I don't know anybody from around here. We were on our way to Vladivostok when we got the order to find Antanas Fedorov. I guess everyone on this side of the border is looking for him. His family is pretty worried. Turns out one of his factories got hit up by some mercenaries. Anyway, we spotted a group of them headed this way, but we got delayed in the snow. They're probably long gone by now. Oh, how rude of me, I should introduce myself, just in case. The name's Dmitri Sinclair."

"Uh," Shelton was again, speechless. He quickly looked around in an attempt to find a way out. He ended up stuttering out his name anyway. "The name's… Shelton."

"Shelton, huh? Not a bad name," he thought out loud. "Well, don't forget, alright? If you find anything out, you tell me as soon as you can. Here," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. After another dig in, he produced a pen. Quickly, he scribbled down contact information. "If you happen to spot 'em, give me a holler, would you? Bye!"

Shelton gaped down at the paper he held and the four soldiers pushed past him and Petras. As the soldiers disappeared around the corner, laughing and joking about something, Petras pushed Shelton against the wall and whispered, "What the hell are we supposed to do?"

"We have to get back to the others."

They both leaned around the corner to see the soldiers approach the shop they stayed at. Fortunately, the ice had prevented any tracks from being formed, so the soldiers never could have guessed that's where they came from. But when the Stars stopped at the shop, the two workers got worried. Another quick glance showed there was no way to get there before the soldiers and warn everyone. There was no shelter from the enemies eyes, either, save for one large frontload container on the opposite side of the street. They opted to ease themselves around the corner and slip closer towards the dumpster; without fail, the managed to literally slide behind the protection.

"This is the place," one of the soldiers said.

"Yeah, didn't that kid say he saw Fedorov with a prostitute around here?"

"If it's a w***e then it should be easy to get information out of her," Dmitri said as he examined the building. There were no visible tracks and the window was frosted over. When he tried to wipe the frost away, it refused to move.

"How do you know that?"

"Well, women become whores because they need money, right? All we got to do is remind her of the reward money and she'll be on her knees," Dmitri said confidently. A couple of the soldiers snickered at the last comment. Dmitri tried to examine the shop doors, but discovered that they were iced shut and the handles were under almost thirty centimeters of snow.

"I don't see why his brother has such a large reward out for him," one of the soldiers said. Another gave a swift look around the area. Petras and Shelton had to quickly duck behind the dumpster again to avoid being spotted. A small bit of snow fell from above; the soldier's eyes shoot up and he just barely caught someone scurrying away. Curious, the soldier started to find ways to get a better view of the roof. "You'd think with an inheritance like that, he'd rather him dead."

"Some people actually care about family."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, joking. His eyes noticed the other soldier gazing up at the sky. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"There's something on the roof."

"It's probably just a cat."

"Last time you said that, we were ambushed."

From where Shelton was he could see the rooftop. He ventured his eyes up and noticed Caesar crawling on the shop's roof. "Hey, it's that kid!" he pointed out to Petras. Caesar spotted the two workers' heads popped out over the dumpster and pointed at them.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I don't –"

Without warning the boy leapt from the roof top – which was easily five meters high – and smashed his feet right into the head of the soldier looking for him. He bounced back up without any injuries and scurried around the opposite side of the shop. The remaining three soldiers took off after him. Once they were out of sight, Petras and Shelton rushed out from behind the dumpster. Luckily the alleyway they needed to turn into wasn't very far away. In the distance, they could hear Dmitri and his American accent shouting at Caesar to halt. It was followed by a continuous gunfire.

His heart racing, Shelton rushed in front of Petras and went to turn down the alleyway. He was halted when he tried to avoid the man on the ground. His feet slid on the ice and he went flying into the wall. His forehead cracked against the brick and he staggered backward. Petras meet a similar fate; when he too tried to slow and turn he ended up crashing into the dead soldier and smacked his head against the ice and concrete. When he looked over to see what he tripped on, he spotted the body – and the blood and cracked open skull, which revealed the soft gray of the man's brain. It looked just like the top of Nikon's head not a week earlier.

During the moment of recovery, Dmitri shouted, "The little s**t's back on the roof! I want his ass down here, now!" For the second time that day, Dmitri and Shelton collided. This time, it was Dmitri's fault, as he whipped around the corner towards the alley.

"Ow! God dammit!"

Unintentionally, Shelton head butted Dmitri when they collided. Shelton held his forehead and swayed; Dmitri fell straight onto his backside and gripped his bleeding nose, tears clouding his vision. The other two soldiers tried to stop, but one ended up tripping over Dmitri. The other was stopped by Petras, who grabbed his leg and pulled him down. The one stopped by Petras was greeted by Shelton's fist in a self-defense reaction. Unfortunately for the soldier it was Shelton's artificial arm, which violently connected with his temple. As for the one that tripped over Dmitri, he was silenced when Caesar again leapt from the roof. With all of his might he landed onto the soldier's chest.

"We have to hurry," Caesar told them.

He pushed Shelton towards the doorway. Petras scrambled to his feet and followed. Thanks to his throbbing head, Shelton didn't think to open the door. In the end it was the panicked Petras who swung up the door. To his surprise, he found himself facing the barrel of a gun. He was pressed forward when Caesar redirected Shelton and gave him a push into the shop. The door shut behind the youngest of the three.

"What's going on?" Antoine asked. He was the only one aside from the civilian not pointing a gun at them. "We heard gunfire…"

"There's, there's, there's," Petras stuttered uncontrollably. He couldn't get the sight of the dead soldiers out of his mind. "Outside! Outside! Soldiers! There's soldiers outside! We have to get out of here!"

"Everybody!" Rex commanded. "Load up!"

It was chaos for a moment as everyone scrambled into a vehicle. Everyone was handed a weapon: a light weight automatic rifle. Antanas apologized to Sonya and the child before being escorted to an IFV. Shelton, still a little dazed, was placed into the jeep by Antoine. They didn't even bother opening the doors, they just blew them off.

Dmitri was slowly recovering from his broken nose. He gazed around to see his men were knocked out or dead. With a grunt he struggled to sit up. He still held his hand against his bleeding nose. His other hand fumbled to find his radio. Had he dropped it? He rolled over onto his knees, his free palm pressed against the cold ice. Just as he was about to try and stand the ground rumbled. Beside him, the shop door was blown off its hinges and he was forced to cover his head from the splintering debris.

Once the dangerous rain ceased, he looked up just in time to see two armored vehicles and one jeep speed away on the slippery ice.

"f**k!"

Shelton could hear Dmitri's accent echo down the streets as they pulled out. The IFV's had no problem on the ice, but the jeep slipped a tad and fished tailed down the road. They would have made it out without any problems, if it wasn't for the fact Dmitri's gang hadn't entered town alone. Just as they were about to reach the Eastward gate, they were flanked by two Eurasian assault jeeps. The IFVs took heavy small arms fire from the enemy; the jeep was lagging too far behind to be considered an immediate threat.

Shelton could feel his heart race quicker than it ever had before. Was this battle? This was exciting! Sure, he wasn't in the IFVs, being shot at, but he was closing in fast and ready to join in the struggle. With him was Marc, the driver; behind him, Antoine and Andrei. While he wished Petras was near, having the group he did made him comfortable and confident.

From behind him, Antoine produced an anti-vehicle rocket launcher. Shelton was surprised at first so he just stared at the heavy weapon. "Here," he said to Shelton. "There's no way we could get a good angle from the back. Hurry!"

It was thrown into Shelton's hands as he abandoned the rifle. It was much heavier and awkwardly weighted, though the caliber couldn't have been bigger than sixty millimeters. Despite the insane driving by Marc, Shelton managed to stand up in the jeep. He placed the rocket launcher on his shoulder. He barely understood how to work the thing, so he went purely on instinct. His blue eyes looked into the sight. It was just a piece of glass, how was this supposed to help him? He whipped his body towards one of the enemy's vehicles and followed it with the sight.

Another vehicle appeared from the brush and tried to cut the jeep off. Marc swerved hard to the right, exposing the enemy driver. Andrei was quick to react as he fired off a burst into the attack vehicle and the struck the driver several times. As the jeep went around, the other two men in the enemy vehicle fired several rounds at the jeep. Both Andrei and Antoine responded.

"Don't worry about targeting," Marc shouted as he weaved around some enemy fire.

"Watch out for the kickback," Antoine warned.

"What?" Shelton asked.

"Watch out for the kickback!" Antoine repeated.

Thinking he was told, "Go kick some ass!" Shelton pulled the trigger. The sight flashed, "Locking…" for several seconds until it said, "Ready." The confused Shelton pulled the trigger again. The brace rammed against his shoulder and he flew over the front seat as the rocket took flight. Excited, he scrambled to watch the projectile twist and turn its way through the sky. It sought out one of the enemy vehicles and struck it within five seconds. It flipped into the air before the rocket exploded. A brilliant display of fire and smoke lit up the sky as it turned from a wondrous piece of machinery into a heap of twisted and smoldering metal.

"Hot damn!" Shelton shouted, proud of his work. "I could get used to this!"

With a ready hand, he went to fire another rocket but was too late. One of the IFVs had managed to get a decent shot off and completely obliterated the weak armor with bullets. Satisfied at the groups work, Shelton smiled and sat back down in his seat. Antoine smacked him on the shoulder and gave him a thumbs up. The rocket launcher was handed back and disappeared out of Shelton's sight. He sighed and relaxed as they slowly started to catch up with the IFVs and left that tiny town.

"Are you alright?" Antoine suddenly asked. Shelton glanced behind him to see that he was actually talking to Andrei. "Killing Stars can't be easy for an ex-soldier."

"Hey, how did you know that?" Shelton asked.

"We talked a lot when you were getting your arm worked on," Antoine answered. He focused back on Andrei and said, "You okay with it?"

"I don't know any of them," Andrei said. "I'll be alright."

"That's good, old man," Antoine said with a smile. Shelton offered his former boss a smile, too. It wasn't returned, however. Offended, Shelton turned to face forward again. The glare given to him by Andrei was one of a condescending adult – a hypocrite. It looked a lot like Dmitri; the glare he managed to produce through his tear stricken eyes right as Shelton scrambled towards the door.