Chapter 9
Kitty Petro leaned her fair-haired head around the corner, one blue eye showing, then quickly ducked her head back. "Clear," she mouthed to Ling, and the snow leopard Inspector, shock pistol at the ready, dashed around that corner to the next position of cover, his pistol now outstretched, an expression on his face Kitty had seen before, but did not particularly like.
Ling darted his head out snake-like, then back. "Clear," he called back.
This maneuver continued again and again as Kitty and Ling moved through the C'est Sing, taking the most direct way they knew to get to Yuri's office. Once they had secured a place where the door to Yuri's office was in sight, Kitty looked back to Ling, and blinked rapidly as she took note of the look of frustrated disappointment written across his handsome face. Kitty sighed, lowering her pistol a moment. "Am I getting that look because I wouldn't let you dash in to push your pistol under Rezneykov's nose?" Kitty demanded, her blue eyes showing the strain she was feeling.
Ling looked at her, then shook his head. "No, you are not. You are getting that 'look' as you put it, because, Kitty…I am sorely disappointed that you broke your promise," Ling told her in his soft voice.
Kitty blinked, nearly dropping her shock pistol to clatter on the ground. "Say what?" Kitty growled back, pointing a finger to her own chest. "Look, sport…I never break my promises. Ever!" Kitty huffed.
"Oh really?" Ling retorted, his eyebrows furrowing. "Then kindly explain to me this: do you remember what you promised me…right after we left from Le Hotel Champlain?"
Kitty frowned, then thought back to that particular moment Ling made mention of. It was only then that it finally dawned on her what he was alluding to, and she slapped herself mentally. "Oh, er…that," Kitty said meekly.
"Ah, I see that you remember now," Ling observed wryly.
Kitty felt tears spring in her eyes, and lowered her head in misery. "Ling…I'm so sorry," Kitty apologized. "I…I just plain forgot."
Ling nodded. "So I surmised," he replied…though his expression did soften. "You said, 'I promise to not drag our friend into any trouble'. Did you not think that Uma or Trish might wonder why two wanted criminals might show up at the most prestigious shop in all of Paris?"
"Well…no, I guess I hadn't," Kitty responded, still feeling terrible. Then, tears in her eyes, she looked back at Ling. "But…what could I do, Ling? It's not like we could take these bastards all on our own, right?" she told him, pleading. "I had to ask for backup, you know. I just figured that it'd be better with just Uma and Trish…instead of the whole QRF, right?"
Ling sighed, then nodded his head, unknowingly making Kitty sigh with relief. "I know, I agree with you on that point," he told her, smiling. "However, you didn't have to tell Ms. Connelly that you didn't trust either of us to capture them either."
"Well, no," Kitty agreed. "But, c'mon, Ling…I know I didn't trust myself. Can you really say you did?"
Ling's ears flattened against his skull, and he finally shook his head. "No…I suppose I could not, Kitty," he finally admitted.
"Well, buddy boy…it's way too late to worry about that now," Kitty decided. "And, I'm pretty sure that Yuri will come up with a pretty swell explanation. You know how good she is at that sort of thing." Kitty then nodded, lifting her shock pistol up into position again. "Whatever the case, Trish and Uma are moving into position. We just have to continue."
Ling nodded. "Quite right," he murmured, then reached out a hand to softly squeeze Kitty's shoulder. Kitty looked back at him, thankful for his forgiveness. The two put on their professional faces once more, and turned the corner to move into position…when they nearly collided with both Svetlana and Maria!
Svetlana gasped in surprise, her slender hand moving over her pretty mouth a moment before she could whisper, "Kitty? Ling? What are you two doing here?" she demanded.
"Hello! Newsflash, girlie…Ludmilla and Arkady in the building? Ringing any bells yet, sweetie?" Kitty asked harshly, giving them both a look.
"Er," Svetlana managed, blinking furiously before she and Maria exchanged pointed looks. "Um, that is…we…" she stammered.
Ling then realized just what was going on! "Kitty, don't you see? They are here to protect Yuri and Naomi!" he accused. Svetlana frowned irately at the unflappable snow leopard, ending up glaring at him.
Kitty flared at that. "Are you two insane?" she hissed at them, her blue eyes full of anger. "Absolutely no! Hell no! You are going to do no such thing! You hear me?" Kitty felt the fur on the back of her neck bristle. "Now, this is official police business, you two. Get back to your cubicles and stay there!"
Svetlana looked to Maria, and Maria looked back, then the two Russians nodded, as if making some sort of long agreed upon pact. It was only then that Kitty chose to look at the two normally sweet girls she thought she knew. She watched in mute surprise as their expressions went from friendly to cold and most eerily business like. It was then that Kitty saw for the first time the faces of what Svetlana and Maria had once been: the tough, no-nonsense young women that had once been a pair of Raikon Polarsky's dedicated lieutenants. Frankly, Kitty did not much like that unsettling metamorphosis…no, not one bit. "Okay, hold on one minute here…" Kitty protested.
Svetlana sadly shook her raven-haired head. "Nyet, Ms. Petro. Kitty, you will not stop us. We both know Ludmilla and Arkady far better than you or Comrade Chu," Svetlana pointed out, her usual warm brown eyes agate hard, her normally shy nature evaporating like a drop of water on a hot plate. "Madame Sing is in most serious danger, and we will help…whether you like it or not…"
"Da, my Svetlana and I did some research on the 'Net. After you had brought all this mess to our attention, please understand," Maria explained, just a bit hurriedly. "You both do not---I think---understand the danger Madame now faces!" Maria growled, then closed her eyes a moment to calm herself, even though her small white hands were now shaking. "You remember---da?---telling us that the escapees, they were arrested? For what you thought was trying to steal some cloaks to hide themselves and stay warm, nyet?"
"Yeah, so?" Kitty scoffed, rolling her blue eyes.
"Well, Comrade Petro," Svetlana then continued, her voice edgy and harsh. "What if I were to tell you something, hmm? What if I were to tell you that the alarm that sounded was not from within Tristam's Outerwear…like you seem to think it was. What then?" Svetlana smiled a wan smile.
Ling frowned. "But, the security company, Svetlana…it reported that---" he pointed out, only to be cut off harshly by Svetlana again.
"Da, I know! I know," Svetlana growled, waving her hand to cut off that line of conversation. "That is what Ludmilla wanted you to think! She was feeding you a rope---er, um, I mean…gah!---a line! Yes, she was feeding you a line! The alarm that truly was tripped was that of the store next door! The store that is now currently reporting missing several firearms…three Browning Hi-Power pistols to be exact!"
"Huh?" Kitty gasped, perplexed. "What the---?"
"Kitty! Come, comrade…think!" Svetlana urged desperately, looking at Kitty. "Do you not remember Arkady's dossier? Here, let me refresh your memory, da? Twelve counts of murder, dozens of acts of terrorism, as well as several counts of aggravated assault. Then, throw in his years of gun-running…and---?" Svetlana opened her big brown eyes wide, her expression leading.
Kitty paled, her mouth opening in shock. "No!" she squealed into her hand over her mouth. "No! No! No!"
"Da!" Svetlana pressed on. "Imagine now, please…your Interpol friends, da? Storming into Madame's office, da? Weapons drawn, da?" Svetlana's resolve then crumbled a moment, and she closed her eyes tightly. She opened them a moment later, and they were icy…almost glacial. "They storm in---like our Spetsnaz back home, da? What do you think they will see, hmm? Trust me, Arkady---that bastard!---he will have his stolen gun pointed directly at M-M-Madame´s head!" Svetlana cried, her voice breaking.
Kitty snapped, and pushed her hand up to her earpiece. "TRISH! ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!" she screamed into her mike.
Trish Connelly nearly swallowed her tongue as Kitty's screeches echoed in her pointed ears. "Land sakes! Whatever for, Kitty darlin'?" Trish demanded, her heart thudding in her chest, her big green eyes wide. Trish held up her hand to Uma, signaling the big bobcat woman to halt. Uma nodded, but she still reached her hand behind her waist to wrap her finger around the butt of her concealed shock pistol.
"I just got wind that our suspects are armed and dangerous, Trish!" Kitty hissed into her throat mike. "If that bastard Rezneykov---or Tetrakova, for that matter!---have got a gun, and you two go storming into that office right now…"
"Aye," Trish replied, understanding the changing situation. "We'll be havin' ourselves a hostage situation o' epic proportions." Trish then paused a moment to curse softly in her own Celtic tongue. "God save Ireland," she spat at last, reverting to more recognizable English. "All right, understood," she acknowledged. "Do either you or Ling know o' a way we can spirit out Madame Sing then?"
Kitty sighed, pressing her lips together in her frustration. "Sorry, we don't, Trish. I haven't a clue, my friend," she sadly announced, looking mournfully over at a most concerned Ling.
"Ah, but we do!" Svetlana proclaimed, shouldering her way between a flabbergasted Kitty and Ling, Maria steadfastly on her heels.
Kitty sputtered in her rage. "Halt! Just where in hell do you two think you're going?" Kitty demanded, her knuckles white around the grip of her shock pistol.
"That is simple, tovarisch," Maria called back over her shoulder. "Svetlana and I are giving those two exactly what they want."
Kitty's eyebrows threatened to disappear into her hairline. "Stop! You can't! That's---!" screamed Kitty, even as Svetlana and Maria trotted around the corner. "Damn it!" Kitty swore, gritting her teeth. "Trish!" Kitty reported into her microphone. "Heads up, girl! There's an artic fox woman and a tigress inbound your position! Stop 'em both! I don't care if you have to shock---!"
"Too late, luv!" Trish voice came back to her. "Yer two lassies just blew past me! Sorry, Kitty…I couldna stop them."
"Crap! Grrr…those two are in so much trouble!" Kitty growled, both she and Ling dashing toward Yuri's office and whatever fate would decide. Kitty and Ling joined up with Uma and Trish---who had drawn their shock pistols---and then they dashed through the now open doors to Yuri Sing's office…
"Interpol! Hands in the air!" Kitty screamed in her loudest voice, trying to shock the Russian ex-mobsters. However, as things would have it…that show of bravado was mostly wasted.
For…Kitty could see Naomi standing bravely in front of Yuri, pressing the shocked snow leopard woman back into the wall, all the while her faithful long-barreled Uzi---her baby---its folding stock extended, was braced against the cheetah's shoulder, it's long barrel pointed directly at the blinking Russian pair. "Arret!" Naomi growled as she saw Arkady make a move toward the back waist of his jumpsuit. Naomi's eyes were hard and scary, and the girl's chest rose and fell rapidly. "Please, ami…please give me a reason," she growled, gasping. Her trigger finger twitched edgily.
Arkady Rezneykov swallowed hard, looking directly down the barrel of the 9mm submachine pistol, then back into the weapon wielder's hard amber eyes. His hand was still behind his back…but he made no move toward the Browning there…as he could see his death in the cheetah girl's unflinching eyes. Wisely enough, he sat down.
Naomi relaxed a fraction, easing away from Yuri, where she had pressed her back against the wall. "Are you all right, Madame?" she whispered back to her friend, her eyes never leaving Arkady's nor Ludmilla's.
"Oui," Yuri answered, her green-gold eyes still very large. "I…I am fine, cheri."
Arkady and Ludmilla then returned their gaze toward their hated foes…Svetlana and Maria. "You!" hissed Ludmilla, her blue eyes filled with insane rage. "Traitorous sluts!" she added, then spat at them. "You shall pay for what you have done to my Raikon!"
Arkady was grinding his teeth in frustration. All his dreams were going up in smoke…as it were! Betrayed…again! Beaten…again! It was nearly too much for the raccoon to bear. "Foloreva," he somehow managed, then nodded. "Svetlana. It is good to see you again." His blue eyes glittered with his malevolent rage.
"Comrade Rezneykov," Maria replied, trying to be polite.
"Hey, pally," Kitty grinned. "Long time, no see, huh?"
Arkady frowned in confusion, then gasped in recognition. "You!" he hissed.
"Yep…l'il ol' me," Kitty replied. "How's the ol' nervous system doin' there, old buddy, old pal?"
Arkady shivered, remembering the acute agony of being overwhelmed by Kitty's stun shot. "Bitch," he muttered.
"Tut, tut," Kitty softly rebuked him, then laughed.
That's it! Arkady growled to himself, as he snapped. In a lightning quick movement, he extracted the loaded Browning Hi-Power from his jumpsuit and twisted, trying to bring it to bear against the smugly laughing vixen…
However, even as his hands were still coming up, he blinked…looking down the barrel of 9mm handgun, it's satin chromed finish seeming to glow in the light of Yuri's office. Arkady blinked his blue eyes, gazing at the suddenly huge, threatening hole of the 9mm's barrel, then allowed his gaze to travel the length of the huge-seeming handgun to the face of who was wielding it.
Svetlana Umanova, her brown eyes narrowed, her lips peeled back slightly from her sharp white teeth, gazed down the sights of her Heckler & Koch 9mm Universal Service Pistol. "If you even so much as twitch, Arkady Ivanovitch," she remarked in a sweet cool voice that made Arkady---as well as some of the others!---shiver, "I will take great delight in removing your head…from the eyes up."
Arkady blinked again…quickly sorting out his chances. His pistol was still not in position to fire, first of all, blast it! Second, in addition to Svetlana's pistol trained upon him, there was now two shock pistols pointed directly at his head. And, lastly, there was the most unexpected, frighteningly murderous look in Svetlana's glowing brown eyes. Valuing his hide over anything else, Arkady slowly and smoothly laid his pistol down on the ground and sat back up. He swallowed hard as he heard the ominous series of clicks as Svetlana thumbed the exposed hammer back on her pistol.
"Svetlana?" Maria called out to her friend, seeing her brow twitching, and her eyes looking a bit more wild. She moved smoothly to her little friend's side. "Svetlana?" she said again.
Svetlana's eyes brimmed with tears of frustration. "What?" she hissed.
"Svetlana…do not do this," Maria counseled, softly touching the tigress' quivering arm.
"Why not?" Svetlana growled, her muscles hardening again, as she trained the big satin-chrome and black polymer pistol at her hated foe. "Tell me the world will not be a far better place…without him in it!" A fat tear leaked down Svetlana's left cheek.
"No! Please!" Arkady pleaded softly…nearly imagining her pulling the trigger, the bright flash and deadly explosion, and finally… He shuddered, closing his eyes.
"He has threatened me," Svetlana went on, as if she had not heard his pleas at all. "He has hurt me. He has threatened those I love most." She squeezed her eyes shut quickly, allowing her tears to course down her cheeks. Svetlana then hardened her voice, chilling them all. "Please, my friends, kindly turn away," she instructed them all, an odd husky timbre in her voice now. "This will most likely be very messy and somewhat disturbing, I fear…"
Arkady lowered his head, awaiting his own death.
"Svetlana, c'mon!" Kitty wheedled, her nerves jangling. "You don't want to do this."
"Nyet, you are wrong," Svetlana answered, her arms trembling again. "I very much do."
"No, you don't," Kitty corrected her. "That's your hurt and anger talking." Kitty moved a step closer to Svetlana. "The Svetlana I know could never do something like this. You're too good a person to commit cold-blooded murder…no matter how justified it might appear to be."
"But, Kitty," Svetlana protested. "He has no conscience! He is…he is a monster!" Svetlana eased her pistol forward an inch, her arms trembling.
"Yeah, he is," Kitty soothed, moving yet another step closer to the tighly-wound tigress, her friend. "Do you wish to become a monster too, Svetlana?"
Svetlana blinked in surprise. "W-What?" she demanded shrilly.
"You heard me," Kitty shot back. "You say you want to waste this rat, right? Well, if you do, why…why then you'd be just as much of a monster as he is. Is that what you really want?"
Svetlana shuddered, her pistol's barrel wavering for the first time that day. "Nyet! You do not understand! I would be doing the world a service!" she screeched.
"'Fraid not," Kitty corrected again. "Ling and I, oh…and Trish and Uma here, of course…would have to arrest you. You'd be tried, convicted, and then would most likely spend the rest of your rather promising life behind bars in a French prison."
Svetlana choked, then sobbed once, tears continuing down her smooth cheeks. "B-But, Kitty!" she pleaded, flicking her big brown eyes to Kitty, entreating her to turn her back…just this once. "Pahoolsta? Please?"
"No!" Kitty growled. "Decide, Svetlana! You've got to decide..now! Are you going to become a monster, like him…or stay the sweet young woman I'm proud to call my friend?"
Svetlana gripped and re-gripped her hands upon the grip of her pistol, her lower lip now quivering. Her face twitched, her lips peeling back in a silent snarl of rage, then her expression changed to one of horror. "I--- I---" Svetlana cried, stammering, her petite frame shuddering. "I can't!" she finally decided, and began to cry.
Maria said nothing, but moved over to gently remove the pistol from her friend's shaking hands. She smoothly ejected the pistol's magazine, then jacked the pistol's slide back to remove the round in the chamber. She then handed all of this over to the waiting Trish Connelly. It was only then that she readdressed her gently sniffling friend. "Come, Svetlana," was all she said, putting her arm around the girl's shoulder, drawing her into her embrace. "Shh, everything will be all right," she soothed the now weeping little tigress.
Maria then turned to Kitty. "Bring in your police friends now, Kitty," she instructed. She then looked over at the beaten Ludmilla and dejected Arkady. "The danger is over now, I think…"