“Nobody move!” barked Borodin, crashing into the room with his pistol raised.
Sean realized the gun was being pointed at the others and not him and more strangely, he was speaking English.
“General Borodin, glad you could join us, I’ve just caught this spy!” said Surkov, pointing his gun at Sean.
“I heard everything Surkov!” he replied. “I saw him coming in this door.” He pointed at Sean. “And I followed him. I’ve heard everything you’ve said from behind the door.”
“So you get it?” asked Sean thoroughly confused. He’d have thought Borodin would have been with Surkov. After all, it was a Soviet plan.
“I get it and I’m still struggling to believe they nearly did it.”
“But they’re Russians, they’re on your side!” said Sean.
“Ah,” said Borodin realizing why Sean was confused. “They weren’t speaking Russian, Mr Fox!” said Borodin, understanding why Sean hadn’t got it. “They were speaking German, they’re fucking Nazis!”
Sean couldn’t believe how stupid he had been. He had just assumed they were speaking Russian. He hadn’t paid sufficient attention. His mind had been elsewhere. It had been a long time since he’d made that kind of schoolboy error. He really needed to start learning other languages. German, Russian and Spanish were top of the list. Arabic and its dialects were not much help outside the Arabian Peninsula.
“Jesus!” exclaimed Sean as the full extent of the plan hit home.
“They’ve been planning the Fourth Reich!” explained Borodin, furious at having been deceived by them. “They were going to build the Russian Army up to its previous power!” He didn’t mention it would have been with his unwitting help. “And I can only assume they’d have done the same in America!”
“And the world would be in a far better state!” spat Surkov, the hatred contorting his face.
“We would unite our powerful armies and crush everyone else!” added Alexey Gagarin, the impostor President of Russia.
“The people would have stopped you!” countered Sean.
“The people would do as they were told,” laughed Surkov. “The timing is perfect, just like Germany in the thirties after the great depression. Americans and Russians are desperate for work, desperate to rebuild their economies. We would give them work, we’d make them proud and strong!”
The scariest part of what Surkov was saying was that Sean believed him. The people probably would have loved it. They just would have had no idea where they were being led until it was too late.
“Sixty years in the planning and scuppered at the last breath. Must be so frustrating,” offered Sean, bating Surkov.
Surkov flushed with anger but didn’t react.
“God, Mengele must be looking down and wishing he had picked a better protege!” added Sean.
Surkov snapped and pulled the trigger but Sean was already moving and as Surkov fired his pistol, Sean was already taking Borodin down, having dived into his midriff. Surkov’s bullet had been aimed at Borodin but whizzed past Sean’s right ear, taking a small chunk on its way. Another scar to add to the list. As they landed in a heap, Sean grabbed Borodin’s pistol. He rolled and shot Surkov cleanly through the heart. More than the crazy old Nazi deserved.
Katherine screamed, launched herself at the dead Surkov, grabbed his gun and rolled across the floor towards the drawing room door. Sean fired again.
As she reached the door, it opened and took the bullet that Sean had intended to stop her in her tracks.
As the bullet thudded into the heavy wooden door, a bewildered Governor appeared from behind it and entered the State bedroom. Katherine was up in a flash and using the Governor as a shield had the gun at his head.
“What the fu…?” said the Governor as first Katherine grabbed him and then he saw his double, his identical twin, the brother he never knew he had.
“Drop the gun, Fox!” barked Katherine, pushing the gun against the Governor’s head.
Sean shook his head and continued to aim at her.
“Rick, go and take Sean’s gun from him!” instructed Katherine.
The Governor began to move, Katherine pulled him back. “Not you, the other Rick!” she said angrily.
“Can somebody tell me what the fuck is going on?!” shouted the Governor. It was bad enough he had a double, never mind one with the same name.
Sean swung his gun and aimed at Yolana. “One more move and she dies!” Although they were not twins, the likeness of the two women was undeniable. Sean had figured out they were sisters and it certainly explained the tear in Katherine’s eye when they had met.
“Stop!”” said Alexey, grabbing Rick the impostor. Alexey had just got Yolana back. He wasn’t losing her again.
Sean’s aim remained centered on Yolana’s beautiful face. “They were going to kill you and replace you with your Nazi twin!” explained Sean to the thoroughly confused Governor.
“Katherine?” asked the Governor of his captor and Chief of Staff.
“What we must fight for is to safeguard…” Yolana, Alexey and Rick all joined her word for word. “…the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission…”
“Stop!” shouted Borodin, interrupting their rant. “They’re quoting from Hitler’s 'Mein Kampf’,” he explained to Sean and the Governor as the four continued to recite the passage by heart.
The Governor’s face suddenly reddened as the penny dropped. “Jesus, did they kill Nicole?” he shouted, suddenly realizing what the swap would have meant. There was no way they would have fooled Nicole.
Sean nodded and looked at Katherine.
Before Katherine had a chance to strengthen her grip, the Governor lost control and went for his captor. Katherine instinctively pulled the trigger.
Sean had anticipated the Governor’s move and had already begun to swing his aim towards Katherine. As Sean had moved the gun from Yolana, Alexey had sprung towards Sean. Sean ignored the body diving towards him and pulled the trigger as he watched Katherine pull hers.
Sean caught a glimpse of Borodin’s hand slashing next to him as his bullet barreled towards Katherine. Her trigger finger hadn’t quite hit the required weight on the trigger as Sean’s bullet struck. Her gun took the full force of Sean’s bullet and exploded in her hand. The Governor would not be hearing anything from his right ear anytime soon, but at least he was alive.
Rick was next to join the fray and dived towards Borodin who, as Sean turned to deal with Katherine, had saved Sean and sent Alexey, the impostor President off to Nazi hell with his ceremonial sword. Borodin moved like a man half his size. He side stepped Rick and with a Zoroesque flick of the wrist, ensured that Rick the impostor would never be mistaken for the Governor. The deep curved slash across his cheek would scar him for life.
Yolana was caught like a rabbit in the headlights. Her sister screamed in agony to her right as her hand had taken the full brunt of the exploding pistol, while her one true love, Alexey, died at the end of Borodin’s sword, to her left.
The Governor staggered away from Katherine and slumped into a chair as he remained dazed from the explosion so close to his head.
“Nobody fucking move!” screamed Sean, as he swung the gun around the room. Nobody did.
Where is the real President?” Borodin asked Yolana, looking at the dead impostor at his feet.
A shake of her head was enough to confirm his fate. They had already killed him and removed any evidence of his existence. Borodin took all his strength and re-sheathed his sword. He didn’t trust himself not to kill the bitch there and then.
The Governor looked around the room and shook his head in disbelief. “Jesus! Nazis, really?!” he asked rubbing at his ear.
“Really!’ confirmed Sean.
“So what now?” asked Borodin. He had a dead Russian President to explain.
Sean looked at the Governor for guidance but he sat catatonically rubbing at his ear. He was still in shock and in no position to help.
Sean looked across at the dead impostor President. “You can’t prove he’s not your president. His DNA, fingerprints, they’re all identical. Trust me, I know only too well!” explained Sean.
“We have him to prove it,” Borodin pointed at the Governor’s twin.
“And tell the world they nearly succeeded?! Jesus it’ll cause havoc!”
Sean paused and thought for a moment. He had an idea but he really didn’t like it. He shared it with Borodin.
“Do you have anyone you can trust with this secret?” whispered Sean.
“Yes,” replied Borodin confidently. He had Vasiliy.
“Excellent, get Vasiliy here with a car or even better, a van. We need to get these three out of here and to Siberia or wherever you can ensure they remain out of sight and contact. You’ll need some footage of the grieving widow but just enough to prove she survived the attack.”
“You don’t really want to send us to Siberia,” said Yolana, giving Sean her best come to bed eyes.
“Shut up bitch, it’s taking all my will power not to shoot you, don’t make it any harder!”
Borodin entered with Vasiliy and without question, Vasiliy began to tie up the prisoners. Pillowcases became hoods for the three and before long, Vasiliy and three of Borodin’s most trusted men were transporting the three to, Sean imagined, a cold and desolate place.
“I am going to take the Governor and board our plane. If you could delay raising the alarm for a half hour that would be great!’ said Sean.
“Thank you,” Borodin said, shaking Sean’s hand.
“No, thank you and good luck!”
Sean took the Governor by the arm and helped him to his feet. His balance was still affected but they walked slowly from the building to their waiting car.
As the car pulled away, Sean was still struggling to come to terms with what had just happened and what so nearly could have been.
“Did that really just happen?” asked the Governor as he began to regain his composure and his mind began to work rationally again.
“I think so!” replied Sean bluntly.
“Nobody can ever know!” instructed the Governor, as the full ramifications of what could have been hit home.
“I wouldn’t worry, nobody would ever believe us anyway!” replied Sean.
For the duration of the flight back to the US, Sean and the Governor discussed what they would say about the evening’s events. In effect, it came down to zero. As far as they were concerned, the night never happened. As they landed in Washington at Andrews Air Force base, the press clamored for a statement. Not about the Governor’s announcement but the assassination of the Russian President in close proximity to himself. Sean listened as the press detailed the story he and Borodin had concocted. A Chechen rebel had fled after being disturbed in his assassination of the President. The President’s beautiful wife had been saved by the brave General. The assassin had fled but some CCTV images had been released. Fuck, thought Sean, he could have doctored them better than that. He knew how facial recognition scanners worked and Sean was going to trigger them with the photos Borodin had released. Sean’s travelling days were over. You’d never recognize him from the photo looking at it but the facial dimensions would identify Sean perfectly.
Sean bid the Governor farewell and walked onto the tarmac at Andrews. Before he reached the terminal building, the FBI arrested him.