Ganglands: Russia: Russia Read Free Page A

too, I hear.’
    The bespectacled man smiled.‘Very kind of you to say so.I have another case to attend to now – but be assured we’ll be doing everything we can for Lena.’
    The man walked away, leaving Alexei in a state ofcomplete confusion.Why had a complete stranger paid for Lena’s treatment?
    ‘I’m not rich, you know,’ he confessed to Jordan. ‘I don’t know if I can pay you back.’
    ‘Not monetarily.This place doesn’t come cheap, let me assure you.But maybe there’s other ways we can work together.If you’ll come and discuss it with me …’
    ‘Talk here or not at all,’ Alexei insisted.‘I’m not leaving Lena alone.’
    ‘I understand completely,’ the American replied, unruffled. ‘Perhaps you’d be better off not knowing after all.I’m sorry to have troubled you.’
    He turned to walk away.
    ‘Wait!’
    Jordan stopped and looked back, his eyebrow raised quizzically.
    ‘I’d be “better off not knowing” what?’ asked Alexei.
    ‘Trojan has certain information about what happened to Lena that I thought you might want to hear.Information you might not get from the authorities.’
    Alexei’s eyes narrowed.‘Then how do you know about it?’
    ‘It’s my job to know these sorts of things.Listen, Alexei, I know it’s difficult to take everything in right now.I wish this dreadful thing hadn’t happened to Lena, and that you and I hadn’t had to meet in these circumstances.All I’m offering you is a chance to understand what’s going on.The rest is entirely up to you.’
    ‘And if I don’t come with you, what happens to Lena?’
    Jordan spread out his palms.‘I’m a businessman,Alexei,’ he said.‘As long as Trojan Industries has a reason to be in Moscow, I can take care of Lena.But if we can’t do business, then that’s a different matter.’
    Jordan turned on his heel and strode away, not waiting to see if Alexei followed him.Alexei glanced back at Lena through the shuttered window of her room, then jogged down the corridor after the tall American.Jordan didn’t acknowledge him when Alexei caught up – something about the man’s manner suggested he was used to people obeying him.They walked in silence back down to the main entrance.
    Outside the hospital, Alexei zipped up his tracksuit and pulled his hood over his head.The thick winter snows might have melted away, but there was still an icy sharpness to the night air.A large black people carrier with tinted windows was parked next to the loading bay.Jordan opened the rear passenger door and gestured for Alexei to climb inside.Alexei hesitated, his simmering anger tempered by the first gnawings of fear.
    The American noted the pensive look on Alexei’s face. ‘Don’t be nervous, son,’ he said.‘The safest place to be is right by my side.’
    He spoke with a no-nonsense briskness that Alexei found reassuring.He climbed inside the people carrier and settled into the back seat.Two other people were sharing the vehicle’s gloomy interior: a man in the driver’s seat, softly drumming his fingers on the steering wheel; beside him, a woman smoked idly out of the passenger window.Neither of them said a word to Alexei as Jordan joined him in the back seat.
    ‘Take us for a drive, Richard,’ the American said crisply as he closed the door behind him.‘Nice and easy – I don’t want any unnecessary attention.’
    The man in the driver’s seat nodded, flicked on the people carrier’s headlights, and nudged the vehicle out into the traffic.As the car ploughed on through the dark streets, Darius turned to Alexei.
    ‘You’ll have to forgive my caution,’ he said, ‘but I prefer to talk business in a secure environment.’
    ‘I don’t know why you keep talking about business,’ Alexei said stubbornly.‘All I care about is what happened to Lena.’
    ‘It’s all business, Alexei, one way or another.But OK.The police are still collecting reports on the attack tonight, but our man on the inside has had a chance to