Vengeance: A Derek Stillwater Novel (Derek Stillwater Thrillers Book 8) by Mark Terry Page B

Akbar.”

15
    Moscow, Russia
    Derek was met at the Shereyetmevo Airport by Konstantin Nikitinov. Konstantin was average height, broad-shouldered, with a black beard and thinning hair. He reminded Derek of a bear. They embraced and Konstantin squinted at him. “How is the shoulder?”
    “Better every day.”
    “What happened this time?”
    “Syria happened.”
    “Come. Let’s go. You can tell me in the car. What the hell were you doing in that godforsaken place, Derek?”
    “You know damn well what I was doing there.”
    Konstantin’s car was a black BMW , new since the last time he had visited. “The short version,” Derek said, “is I and another guy were dropped into Syria to look for very specific WMD and got caught between the FSA and the SAA . And things went to hell. How are things with you?”
    Konstantin sighed. Konstantin Nikitinov had been a legend in the FSB , the Federal’naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti, or Federal Security Service, what had once been the KGB . Many in the intelligence world found very little difference between the FSB and the KGB . Konstantin’s particular area was counterterrorism, making he and Derek counterparts. They had been thrown together a year earlier, started out as antagonists and ended as friends. In addition, Konstantin was the adopted father of Derek’s son, Lev. Eight months earlier Konstantin and Irina Khournikova, Lev’s mother, had married. “It’s complicated.”
    Laughing, Derek said, “It always is.”
    “Politics, politics, politics. Irina has gone back to school. She’s heavily into computer security now.”
    “A booming business with a lot of options.”
    “That’s what she says. What are your plans?”
    “I’ll be here a few days. It’s just a visit. I want to see Lev. How’s he doing?”
    “Since you saw him last? Growing like crazy. His English is good, his Russian is better. He keeps us busy.” Konstantin hesitated. “He might be getting a brother or sister.”
    Derek grinned. “Might be?”
    “It’s early, but yes.”
    “Congratulations.”
    “You’re okay with this?”
    “Of course.”
    And he was, that was the thing of it. He and Irina had spent two weeks together cruising the Caribbean on his boat after a particularly horrible international incident they had both been involved in. She was with the FSB , he had been with Homeland Security. She had gotten pregnant and not told him. Derek had found out when Irina disappeared during an investigation into a Russian terror group and was presumed dead. Luckily, he and Konstantin had broken the group and recovered Irina. He had no particular claim on Irina and was happy that things were working out the way they were.
    Konstantin and Irina and Lev lived in a lovely neighborhood called Frunzenskaya on the banks of the Moscow River. Gorky Park was nearby on the opposite bank. It was a four-story building, elegant, eighty or ninety years old but in excellent condition. “How is Raisa?” Derek asked as they climbed the stairs to the third floor. Raisa Belov was sort of Raisa’s grandmother, although Derek had never quite gone to the effort to figure out what her actual title would be, relationship-wise. She was Irina’s sister’s husband’s mother. Irina’s sister and brother-in-law had been murdered by the terrorist organization that Derek and Konstantin had brought down. Murdered in this very apartment.
    Derek had been surprised when Irina and Konstantin decided to stay in the apartment, but agreed that it was a beautiful neighborhood in which to raise Lev. Raisa, who had been living with her son and daughter-in-law at the time, babysitting Lev, had been there when they were murdered. Perhaps not surprisingly, she had declined to live there.
    “Traveling,” Konstantin said, grinning. “South of France and Italy.”
    “Good for her.”
    Konstantin pushed open the door and a solid three-year-old in blue jeans and a red and white striped shirt shouted, “Derek!” in English and flung