shrugged. ?It can?t be avoided.?
?But from the looks of you, this kind of work could send you to the hospital.?
?I?ve just got to be more careful from now on.?
She frowned. ?Now you?re making fun of me.? She came and sat next to him. ?But there?s nothing amusing about that wound in your chest.?
He produced the photo he?d printed out at the Internet caf茅, set it out between them. ?To become Professor Alonzo Pecunia Zu?iga I?m going to need your help.?
She held quite still, her liquid eyes studying his face for a moment. Then she nodded.
Day three of Oserov?s reign of terror brought a downpour such as no one in Nizhny Tagil could remember, and this was a city where grudges were nursed, meaning memories were as long and vibrant as the winter chill. Day three also brought other deaths, ones so brutal, so horrific that there now came to the remnants of Stas Kuzin?s people a black fear. One that crept into their bones, lodging there like a grain of polonium, eroding their confidence the way the radioactive material eats away flesh.
It began in the early hours of the morning, just past two o?clock, as Oserov boasted to Arkadin afterward.
?With great stealth I broke into their head enforcer?s house, tied him up, and forced him to watch what I did to his family,? Oserov told Arkadin later.
When he was finished, he dragged his victim into the kitchen, where he went to work on him using the fire-reddened tip of a carving knife he slid from a wooden rack. The pain of what Oserov did to him hammered the enforcer out of his state of shock and he began screaming until Oserov cut out his tongue.
An hour later, Oserov was finished. He left him in a pool of his own blood and vomit, alive, but just barely. When the enforcer?s associates came for him as they did each morning to begin their daily patrol, they found the front door flung open, which led them to the abattoir inside. It was then, and only then, that Mikhail Tarkanian entered Nizhny Tagil. By then, the criminals were in such a frenzy that they?d all but forgotten about Arkadin.
?Lev Antonin, I think I can provide the solution to your problem,? Tarkanian said to the new head of Stas?s gang when he met with him in his office. There were seven heavily armed men standing guard. ?I?ll find this killer for you and take care of him.?
?Who are you, stranger? Why would you do this?? Lev Antonin squinted at him suspiciously. He had a gray face with long ears and stubble on his chin and cheeks. He looked like he hadn?t slept in a week.
?Who I am is of no importance, except to say that I?m intimately familiar with men such as your murderer,? Tarkanian replied without hesitation. ?And as to why I?m here the answer is simple: I want Leonid Danilovich Arkadin.?
At once Antonin?s expression changed from suspicious to enraged. ?And why would you want that fucking whoremonger, that shit-faced miscreant??
?That?s my business,? Tarkanian said mildly. ?Your business is keeping your people alive.?
This was true. Antonin was a pragmatic man, with none of the mad fire that had burned within his predecessor. Tarkanian could read him like a comic book: Clearly, he was all too aware that the current of fear lapping at the knees of his men was undermining both their effectiveness and his authority. He also knew that once fear made its presence felt, it spread like wildfire. On the other hand, he wasn?t about to give away the farm. Arkadin?s head on a platter was what they?d all dreamed of since Arkadin had killed Kuzin and set their world ablaze with bullets and death. Letting go of that dream wouldn?t endear him to his rank and file.
He scrubbed his face with his hands and said, ?Fine, but you?ll bring me the killer?s head so all my men can see for themselves the end of this filth. And then if you can find that bastard Arkadin you can have him.?
Naturally enough, Tarkanian did not believe this Neanderthal. He recognized the greed in his yellow eyes and intuited that it was not enough for him to be given the head of the murderer; he wanted Arkadin as well. The two bloody heads would cement his power over his people for all time.
?What Lev Antonin wanted was irrelevant,? Tarkanian told Arkadin afterward. ?I had planned for such a treacherous eventuality.?
It would have amused Oserov