A/N: Thanks again for the reviews and follows, I hope you will all tell me what you think of this part...
Chapter Sixteen
Linka paced in the tiny area afforded by the Geo-cruiser's main aisle until Susi let out an exasperated sigh, "Chort voz mi Linka, you are setting my nerves on edge, and I am not a naturally tense person!"
It had taken them a couple of days to get everything set up and to work out exactly what to ask Linka's grandmother to reveal to her soon to be granddaughter-in-law. At first the sense of doing something positive had greatly alleviated the Wind Planeteer's worry but after everything had been set in motion all she could do was wait and fret.
Wheeler had sat quietly in the pilot's seat until then, letting Linka deal with her fears in her own way but now he held out a hand to her, "Come here Babe, you need to calm down, we're gonna be here a while."
Letting out a frustrated breath, Linka sat in his lap, burying her face in his shoulder and trusting him to rub away some of the tension in her shoulders.
"Great, now I have to sit here and watch you make out." Susi huffed.
"You're right," Wheeler replied with amusement, "Her pacing did make you pissy, didn't it?"
Both girls laughed, easing their worry by a few degrees and Linka snuggled into him, grateful for his presence.
They were waiting for the police officer assigned to watch Linka's family home to alert them to any activity. Since they were too noticeable in their bright yellow craft they'd had to park at some distance away, and the other Planeteers had done the same in another location.
"You know I always wanted to go on a stake out." The American commented, "But somehow I thought there'd be more coffee and donuts."
"Thank goodness there is not," Susi teased, "Can you imagine Linka on a sugar and caffeine high right now?"
Linka looked up to glare at her friend, "I cannot help it, this is my family. I need to be doing something!"
The other Russian nodded apologetically, "Me too."
[Suspect is on the move.] Their borrowed police radio crackled into life, in English for the benefit of the Planeteers. The seconds that ticked away felt like an eternity before he continued, [She is entering a building… nyet, she is talking to someone in the entrance way. They are getting into a car…]
Rather than follow them in the dark where their headlights must have made pursuit obvious, they'd set up various lookout posts around the town and now began a running commentary on the location and direction of the vehicle.
Linka quickly returned to the co-pilot's seat and Susi strapped herself in behind, while Wheeler began to run through their standard checks in record time in order to get them airborne.
"They are coming his way," Linka reported, more familiar with the streets than her partner.
"I see them." Susi, her face glued to the window, pointed at the dim silhouette of a moving vehicle down below them.
Linka nodded and picked up the radio receiver to continue broadcasting their quarry's movements as it passed out of her home town and onto the unmade roads that divided the surrounding countryside. They followed them to another town several miles away. It was bigger than Linka's home but it was on the list of towns on alert so it wouldn't be long before the local police force mobilised.
"There is another car," Susi commented as they found a place to set down. "A way behind them, but it seemed to be following… it is not using its headlights."
"Probably the cops." Wheeler said with a shrug.
Linka was still listening to the police radio, keeping track of the car until it was reported that they'd apparently reached their destination. "I think I know where they are, we can take the bikes and catch up with the police there."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea Babe," Wheeler said frowning, "We don't want to get in the way, besides they'll need us if they leave again."
"The others are not far from here, they can do that if we are not back in time." She looked him in the eyes, her own determined, "Yankee we need be there, I have to go."
"She is right." Susichka stood next to her, "I will go with her."
Wheeler glared, "Yeah, like I'm letting you two go on your own, have you forgotten that I'm the reckless one here?"
Linka reached up to give him a brief kiss, "Let us go!"
By the time the Planeteers arrived, the police had already given the order to raid the warehouse Svetlana had entered and there was nothing they could do but keep out of the way. They could see the car they had been tailing parked at the side of the road and the second car just behind it, though they didn't take any particular notice of it, their thoughts solely on what they couldn't see going on behind the imposing walls of the old building.
The Russian Planeteer held tightly to Wheeler's hand, his firm gentle clasp a constant source of strength. She had begun to feel guilty that their time together had so far largely consisted of his comforting her. 'Nyet,' she reminded herself, her face colouring under the cover of darkness, 'even if the last few days were focused on the trouble here, our nights have not been about anything but each other.'
Fortunately for Linka's state of mind it wasn't long before the prisoners were brought out; they included a few rat-men and an equal number of nasty looking humans, including Svetlana who seemed to be having an argument with one of the other captives.
"No sign of Skumm," Wheeler said, his expression stormy. "But there's no way he's not involved with so many of his Mini-Me's here."
Linka began to agree and then cried out as she realised who it was Svetlana was yelling at, "Mischka!" He must, she guessed, have followed his girlfriend, not knowing that the authorities were also watching her.
She ran over to the couple who were struggling with their guards, not in an attempt to escape but so that they could carry on something that had all the hallmarks of a domestic dispute.
"I trusted you!" Mischka was shouting, though as it was in Russian Susi had to translate for Wheeler while Linka tried to get the policemen to release her brother. "I loved you!"
Svetlana gave a derisive curl of her lip, "Love! You mean lust, you got everything you wanted, be satisfied."
Her fiancé was shaking his head, "You loved me too, before we came back here and you got involved with them again. You were free. I knew you were in trouble, that is why I followed you tonight."
"How stupid are you? I never left them, why would I? They're family, they paid for my education, they gave me a purpose!" she snorted, "You were just another sheep to be herded and manipulated, it'll be a relief to be free of your goody goody attitude tying me down."
"You're just saying that, I don't believe you." He no longer looked sure however but when - after Linka had got one of the higher ranking officers to authorise his release - he walked over to her, his first impulse was to urge her to change, "Come clean, help them put a stop to this, and we can start again."
Svetlana rolled her eyes and her voice took on a tone of loathing, "You really don't get it do you? Skumm paid me to get close to you, he wanted to recruit you, though god knows why. You're a nobody, I even had to go elsewhere for pleasure, not that Krupin and Vakhrov minded." She laughed at him and Wheeler had to restrain his girlfriend to prevent her from punching her.
She shook her head mockingly and laughed, "Poor Mischka, even Wheeler was more of a man… did I say I turned him down?"
The Russian man's face had set into a hard expression and he now turned to Wheeler but her words hadn't had quite the effect she was expecting, "Wheeler I owe you an apology. I knew in my heart that she was lying from the first but I could not accept it, I hope you will find it in you to forgive me."
"No sweat," Wheeler shook his head, "It's forgotten."
They shook hands making Svetlana screech at them, which was when Susi stepped forward, "She always was easy, not even her friends respected her… feared her maybe, she had some rather nasty associates after all, and she'd do anything for them. But she was never liked and never respected." She looked her straight in the eyes, "You ruined my life, but you know something, you've done far worse to your own. You do not know what a good thing you could have had."
Svetlana took her captors by surprise by suddenly wrenching herself free, yelling something that no one would translate for the American, and hurling herself at the other girl with her nails up-raised like a rat's claws.
Without any conscious thought Mischka pulled Susi out of her path, and as it happened, into the protective safety of his arms, while the police fought to restrain their prisoner once more.
"Susichka?" he blinked down at her as he finally recognised the features of the girl he once knew.
"Hi." She responded shyly, grateful that the gloom covered her blushes.
Linka meanwhile wasn't paying attention, and had wandered a little way away from the group as her eyes sought out the one criminal she knew had to be there. The police chief had told her that they'd found large stashes of weapons, stolen goods and contraband substances, but there was no sign of Skumm.
Ma-Ti had called to say that he and the others had gone to help with the round-ups in one of the other towns that had been planned to happen before word got out, but she doubted they would find much to do there either as the local law enforcement seemed to have it covered.
A stray cloud passed across the moon and as its light re-emerged the Wind Planeteer happened to catch sight of a familiar silhouette, high up on a metal bridge that led between the warehouse the police had entered and another brick building. "Nyet! Wind!"
Several heads turned towards her, including Wheeler's but she was already rising into the air, just reaching the near side of the bridge before Skumm. "You will not escape this time!"
The rat laughed and raised a gun to point at her heart, rasping, "Are you sure blondie?"
Down below, Wheeler ran for the second building's fire escape, outdistancing the police officers. It was a long way up however and he was terrified that he wouldn't make it in time.
"Give up Verminous, there is no way out of here." Linka ordered, "Shoot me in front of all these witnesses and you will have doomed yourself anyway."
He gave her a look of pure evil, "I own you."
She laughed, "That was never true."
"I know you still crave the Bliss, I can give you what you need." Skumm offered, caring more about drawing her back in than escape.
Linka felt dirty just listening to him and said coldly, "You have nothing I want and you cannot control me anymore."
"Wrong choice," for a heart stopping second she thought he was going to pull the trigger but then he pointed the gun away, down over the side of the bridge… at Mischka.
"Wind!" he staggered back, momentarily caught off guard. "You will not hurt any more of my family!"
He laughed the mad laugh of a true eco-villain, "Who's going to stop me? You 'good guys' are all weak, and I'm going to make sure you suffer for it."
He levelled the gun once more and as his finger started to pull the trigger a sudden gust of wind caught him up, forcing him to fire into the air. It did not stop there however as his whole body rose up, struggling in vain with the air currents and finally screaming as he was dropped over the side of the bridge onto the empty concrete below.
Linka turned away and came face to face with Wheeler.
She couldn't meet his eyes.
To be continued…