The Hotel Ch. 10

Chapter Ten.

The soldiers came quickly, the sounds of the gunshot alerted them to the location and within a minute they tumbled over the rubble aiming their rifles at Sarah and looking down in astonishment at the body of their dead captain. Sarah fully expected them to execute her out of hand, but then Kirov, surprisingly spry for an older man rushed up and shouted at the men to lower their guns,

"Niet!" Kirov's gruff authoritative voice snapped the soldiers to attention.

Sarah looked up at him, her face tear-stained and mouth bloodied from the cruel violence, "He tried to rape me!" She pointed to the captain's half-naked body; his genitals clearly visible.

"Cover him!" Kirov ordered, "Escort her to her room, allow Miss Harding to change and then meet me in the command tent as soon as she has composed herself," Kirov snapped then softened his tone," Please Miss Harding, these men will ensure you are not disturbed,"

Sarah allowed the soldiers to pick her up and gave her time to rearrange the tatters that were her clothes and then allowed her to walk back to her hotel room, where Marta was waiting. As she stumbled through the door. Marta jumped up,

"What has happened?" Her voice was now suddenly tense and shrill.

"It's okay. Please I just need to shower." Walking into the bathroom, she stumbled and could now feel that she was at the end of her rope; she trembled as she attempted to unbutton her blouse. Paradoxically, she was now in the same situation Marta had been in and could now feel the same sense of violation. Marta followed her into the bathroom and saw the tremor in her hands, stepped into the shower firmly placed her hands down by her sides and undressed her.

"Sarah, let me help you as you helped me..." Sarah became a simple automaton, allowing Marta to undress her, for all her implied strength, and confidence, she could feel any resilience ebb away. All she wanted was to crawl away and hide from the world that had hurt her. Marta could see the blood on her clothes but no wound. She recognised instantly what had been done to her clothes. Marta completed her undressing, leaving the clothes on the white tiled floor and walked her into the stream of warm water and held her beneath it. The water soaked her too, but she simply held her to the warm stream.

"I shot him. I killed a man. I could still feel him inside me when the bullet pierced him. He went limp inside me, and then I pushed him away. I watched his breath leave his body," Sarah's thoughts simply unwound like a ribbon from a spool. Marta turned Srah around, allowing the water to wash off any other blood traces.

"Who was he?" Marta asked simply, not caring who she had killed, but the fact that her friend had been hurt wounded her.

"The Captain. I heard him and Kirov talking about what they would do. He pissed on me and I jumped, and then she tried to rape me. I got his gun and..." Sarah's voice trailed away.

"You had to survive, Sarah. You had to survive, like you told me." Marta repeated the words that Srah had spoken. Something clicked in Sarah's brain, and she then tensed. She looked into Marta's eyes.

"I had to kill him, didn't I?" Her question was simple and childlike.

Marta nodded but knew the burden of taking a life. She hugged her friend and waited for the sobbing to come and then helped shower her clean. After Sarah was dressed in fresh clothes, a knock on the door heralded Kirov's lieutenant. Marta opened the door to him,

"My Colonel requests your presence...if she able to come?" He asked, his voice quavering a little, showing a hint of trepidation after his Captain's attempted rape of the war correspondent.

"She...." Marta began to say and then Sarah joined her at the door,

"One minute and we will follow you." Sarah's tone was determined and once they set off, each step gave her strength and by the time she approached the command tent she was resolute. She didn't quite know what to expect from Kirov; after all, he was no stranger to allowing soldiers to rape civilians or captured soldiers, or even indulge his own base desires, as Marta could attest but he was surprisingly convivial and apologetic.

"My dear Miss Harding, I am sorry for the outrageous behaviour of the captain and I have a trusted soldier to act as your escort in all your dealings in and around camp, "He spluttered, leaving no opportunity for Sarah to answer, " I have a state-sponsored news crew will be joining us in an hour and another crew from Reuters and so I think it wise for you spend some time writing your report and please ensure you send me a draft copy for my approval!" Kirov steeled his voice for the last sentence.

"Approval?" Sarah scowled,

"Perusal is perhaps a better word, but I feel it would be best to omit any mention of one drunk officer's behaviour!" Kirov stepped forward, "As I have already informed the Minister of the situation and appraised him of the incident and your part in the killing of my officer. He, like I, attached no blame to you, of course!" He added. He turned and walked out of the tent and beckoned to a Lance-Corporal. He spoke softly to him and then walked across the camp. The Lancer stood, his face half-covered with his helmet and chin strap, his eyes looking straight ahead. Sarah and Marta, realising that any argument was hopeless as Kirov had slyly outmanoeuvred her with a pre-emptive message to the Capitol and to Kuznetsov to pull any sting from her report on her attack.

As the Lancer followed the two women back to the hotel, he stayed a few steps behind them, his rifle across his chest and with the occasional glance to either side as the trip walked, Sarah managed to whisper to Marta,

"This will put a dent in our plans, having Lurch with us the whole time!" Sarah smiled ruefully,

"Lurch?" Marta enquired and looked confused.

"Oh, don't worry... Marta, what happened with the radio operator?" Sarah asked, "The only hope is to contact your Colonel!"

"No luck at all. I tried but the operator was quite dutiful, and I don't think he fancied me anyway."

"Well, we are just going to think about this whole situation! However, the addition of television film crews might be to our advantage." Sarah sighed, hurried along, and glanced back to see the Lancer simply match pace with them. As the two women reached their room, the Lancer followed them and caught up. As Sarah opened the door, Marta looked back and gasped.

"Alecu!" Marta's jaw dropped. Sarah looked at the unshaven and scruffy-looking Lancer and then recognised him as the handsome Corporal that she had met when the Colonel arrived at the hotel.

The Lancer, clearly a borrowed uniform, brought his finger to his lips, "Marta, please don't say anything!" He pulled down the chin strap and levered the helmet up, to reveal more of his face, "I'm to be on duty until midnight when I will be relieved, but I'm to get you out if I can before my Colonel launches his attack on the compound!" He took up position outside their door, with his back to the door, and the two women stood behind it, with the door open a crack.

Marta could barely contain herself, "Alecu, how did you escape? I thought you were dead!"

"I played dead after Kirov's men hit us! I rolled off down the slope and hid under poor Lavrov. They were in too much of a hurry to catch you. I'm sorry, I heard them drag you away...I couldn't do anything to stop them" His voice broke.

"Corporal, you said Colonel Chenyy was about to attack. He can't!" Sarah interrupted. The Corporal shook his head,

"The Colonel wanted you out of the area. He's going to attack at dawn!" The Corporal blurted out, incredulously.

"No, it's a trap! Kirov has been working on a deal to allow him to stay. He's got Minister Kuznetsov to grease the wheels and allow his men to stay on a private army, but they need to eliminate your Colonel and if he attacks; they will claim that he is a rogue officer attacking the innocent." The Corporal was stunned, and words dried in his throat, he had orders but knew that he had a greater duty to inform his Colonel.

"I must... but what will you do?" The Corporal, doubt creeping into his mind, looked back to the door.

Sarah took a breath and composed a short message, "Corporal, wait until you are relieved then steal away from the camp. Tell the Colonel that Kirov has set a trap for him. Tell him about the Minister and the plan for Kirov to be attached to the Interior Ministry as a private security force. He must not attack without the whole business being exposed to the country and the world!"

The Corporal nodded slowly but still fretted about the orders regarding the War Correspondent's safety. He had no choice but to get back to his Colonel. Sarah had other ideas,

"You must commit something to memory, that will allow your Colonel to contact my Sat phone," She told the Corporal her Sat phone website messaging service website and her account "Remember, the personal account number is 773990231, repeat it please,"

The Corporal recited the number and repeated it twice more, " I have it. Miss Harding, I don't think I will be able to return to the camp once I have been reported missing. I had to work hard to pass myself off as a convict soldier but they're not stupid." He shrugged, knowing that there was nothing he could do.

"I understand. Tell the Colonel that we will be safe until he can figure out a way to resolve this." Sarah sighed.

Marta nudged Sarah and pointed to the corporal through the door, "Marta wants to talk to you.."

After Marta whispered for a long time with the Corporal, Sarah busied herself with her laptop writing a florid and completely false report of the liberator of the eastern regions, and the upholder and protector of the civilian population. Sarah twisted facts to make them sound plausible, exaggerated the impact of the men and shredded the idea that Kirov was a war criminal and simply a misrepresented soldier muddied by a propaganda campaign. She hated herself as she found the tissue of lies, far easier than she thought possible. Looking over her shoulder, Marta had closed the door to the infiltrating Corporal and turned to look at Sarah.

"I thought him dead and after Kirov's men captured me and dragged me off.." She stammered and then sat down.

"I think he feels worse for not being able to help you, having to play dead." Sarah shrugged, closing the laptop after saving a copy.

"He blames himself for my abuse!" Marta added and looked back at the closed door.

Sarah detected an inkling of an attraction and pondered if she should enquire further but thought again, as the situation was complex enough. The very thought of love and physicality now made her feel uncomfortable. The fetid sour breath over her as the Captain pushed himself inside her was too fresh in her mind and she wondered if she would welcome anyone's touch again.

The afternoon wore into the evening and then into the night, as the two women considered every option for Adam to not only deal with Kirov and his men but also to secure their release. Occasionally, odd questions were fielded to the Corporal on guard duty about where his Black Colonel was, in relation to the camp, the forces at his command and where Kirov's munitions were stored. Marta crouched by the door relaying the details and finally a kernel of a plan formed in Sarah's mind to derail the conspiracy and maybe prevent a slaughter.

Maybe.

It was 2:55 am when the Sat phone, tucked under Sarah's arm while she drifted in and out of sleep, woke her with a written message.

10km away.

Sarah jumped as and blinked as she read the message. Marta also stirred beside her,

"The Colonel?" She asked,

"He's near," Sarah confirmed. She typed in a word, she knew to keep the messages short, lest the transmission was picked up by Kirov's communications officers.

Kuznetsov

Srah waited impatiently for a reply. Marta slipped from the bed, in vest and panties and listened at the door. She dared not open the door, in case she provoked the guard to action.

The Sat phone chirped, Sarah smothered it against her breast and then looked at the display.

Capitol is unaware.

Sarah looked dumb-struck. Was the government unaware of the actions of its ministers? Was this whole situation a front for a greater ambition? She had been so focused on Kirov's plan to legitimise his existence and completely ignored the ambitions of Kuznetsov. She typed,

Kirov.

He glanced over to Marta and beckoned her over, despite her being on watch. They huddled together and whispered,

"Is Kuznetsov strong enough or popular enough to form a government?" Sarah felt completely ignorant of the man and his politics and his support.

"I remember him being popular when the invaders began to retreat across the border, but I don't know. I don't trust politicians," Her whisper confirmed what Sarah had heard of the man when she first landed in the war zone.

The Sat phone chimed again,

Expect me at 10:00.

The Sat phone went dead.

"What the hell is planning?" Sarah whispered. Marta looked as surprised as she.

When Sarah eventually got back to sleep, she was restless and plagued with dreams of death and by the dawn, the two women were clinging to each other. Marta was nestled into Sarah's arms and she felt her warmth and her smell. She felt her own body respond but her yearning was for Adam and then the fear crept into her heart, and she shifted in the bed.

"Oh Fuck! Today is going to be a disaster!" She sighed.

End of Chapter 10.