Drake Sisters 06 - Turbulent Sea

left to find when I'm done here. I do, however, do other things besides arrest people. You don't want me to have to do those things to you. There are no cameras in this room, no recorders, and those men outside are my men. They'll walk away and disappear, just like I can make you disappear. So, with that in mind, let's try again. Miss Drake was injured by your little stunt.'
    Tony tried to get his feet under him twice, but fell back coughing.
    'I have a good job. Extermination. At first I wasn't so certain it was a good thing, but after a while I realized there were people that just were never going to get it, you know? They were never going to understand the rules of living in a society' Ilya shrugged. 'You know what I mean, Mr. Silver?' He never took his gaze from Tony's face.
    Raymond nodded vigorously again.
    Ilya sighed and took a step toward Tony.
    Tony froze. 'I'm sorry she was injured,' he managed to blurt out, although the words were strangled and rusty sounding. 'I hope it wasn't too bad.'
    'That wasn't so difficult, was it?' Ilya asked.
    Tony shook his head.
    'I want a description of the man who paid you money to injure Miss Drake.' He held up his hand for silence. 'Not out loud. I want separate descriptions written down. Details are important to me.' He reached down and with casual strength hauled Tony to his feet, caught a chair with the toe of his shoe, spun it around and slammed the kid down into it. 'Get started.
    'Keep in mind while you're writing, I know where you both live. I know your names. My men will recover the device and trace the origins. Should you have any involvement other than sheer stupidity, I'll come back and do my job. Are we clear?'
    Raymond kept nodding. Tony mumbled an affirmative reply. Both bent to the task the moment Ilya put pen and paper in front of them. The younger boy was an artist with a good memory for every facet of his subject. While Tony wrote down a description, Raymond drew the man who had paid them, and he drew him with close attention to detail.
    Ilya immediately recognized the emerging face. He waited until the boy finished.
    'Both of you look at me. Look directly at me because I don't want you later to say you misunderstood me.'
    He had already been distorting his image and feeding their imaginations another one, but with Raymond an artist, he needed to implant memories. 'I want you to draw me just as you see me, every detail so you won't forget my brown eyes, and long hair, and small dark beard. You won't forget that I'm very tall and lean. I want you to remember the sound of my voice. The pattern of my speech. Everything about me.'
    The two boys set to work, and Ilya watched the drawing come to life of a security guard who looked anything but like him. He shoved the first sketch, of one of Joley's crew members, John Dylan, into the inside pocket of his jacket and walked out, nodding to his two men, who immediately disappeared into the crowd.
    Ilya made his way back inside the bowl, noting that Joley still had her arm wrapped in a towel as she sang a love ballad. She hadn't slowed down at all, giving her audience everything inside of her, sending her beautiful voice to every seat in the stadium with as much energy as she'd had when the show started.
    Jerry came up to stand beside him. 'Isn't she amazing?'
    'She's in pain. Lots of pain.'
    Jerry nodded. 'I've got a medic standing by. We'll take her straight to her bus and let him work on her there, away from cameras. There's a huge crowd of the bastards waiting for her. Ordinarily I'd be happy for the publicity, but she's running on nerves. I'm putting them all on a private plane and flying them out of here tonight. No one knows yet, not even them.'
    'That's probably for the best. You might give Nikitin a heads-up. He was planning a huge party for them. He won't tip the press.'
    'Good idea. Why don't you give him a call and let him know. Tell him what's happened and that we can't take any chances with the band. The show's almost over. I want to hustle her out of here fast, Ilya, so make certain we've got a clear path.'
    Ilya nodded and made the call to Nikitin. The Russian had elected not to come to the night's performance, which was highly unusual, but he'd been acting strange for the last few days. He asked if all the band members were okay, and Ilya gave him the information that Joley had been injured. He wanted the flight time, to meet them at the airport and see for himself that everyone was okay. He ordered