Birth of an Assassin Read online

  They laughed, but then the mirth faded and his bottom lip pushed out.

  “Whatever’s wrong with my little man?” she asked, and her smile paled as she dabbed a finger at the offending article.

  His big sister was the only one he could talk to about his passion. “I don’t think the army will want me, Miriam,” he replied, and pouted some more.

  “Whatever makes you think that?”

  “Already Nat is taller than me, and I’m even skinnier than the girls. Why would the mighty Red Army want a skinny little man?”

  Miriam pondered without expression and then said, “Silly, there’s still plenty of time for you to grow and become as big as you hope to be; but even if you don’t, they would want you for your strength and swiftness. And you’re clever. Don’t worry, Jez, things will work out – you’ll see.”

  Of course, that was the answer. He would study hard. He would be faster and stronger than anyone could be. Already he was more powerful than his older brother, and much more so than Nat. He could do it. Heart swelling back to full size, he hugged Miriam and she laughed out, as the wooden gun poked between them.

  *

  His smile dulled as he wondered whether he’d ever see his family again. But… he’d imagined being a soldier for as long as he could remember: he had no choice. He sighed, straightened his back and pulled the greatcoat tighter across his chest in an attempt to fill it.

  Without notice, the vehicle shuddered to a halt and the recruits roared as they bundled into a pile towards the front. The tailgate dropped and the tarpaulin flaps separated. Jez followed the others from the truck and smiled at the NCO who awaited them. A blow snapped his head to one side and his cheek burned with a blistering heat.

  “What…” he began, and dropped his kitbag so he could lift a hand to cover the pain.

  This time a slap rattled his brain and his beret slipped over his newly shaven head. He reached to straighten it and a sidekick sent him sprawling to the ground. But before he could get up the NCO had leaned over him and his alcohol-laced breath wafted into his nostrils, turned his stomach.

  “When I tell you to speak, fucking speak. If I don’t tell you to speak, then keep your mouth shut and your stupid face straight. Now follow me, smartly…”

  The group followed him into a large wooden hut where, apart from hosts of rusted steel-framed single bunks with wooden stools between, the quarters were unfurnished. Faded green gloss peeled from the walls. Wood plank flooring had shrunk and expanded so often it no longer butted together and a chilled wind whistled through.

  Another assembly of cadets stood at the foot of their allotted bunks. The group included girls, but that hadn’t mattered to the NCO. Each of them held a small wooden stool at arm’s length that wobbled under a weight that increased with time. The lines on the cadet’s foreheads deepened, and their faces changed from red to white and back again. Whatever they’d done, they were paying a stiff penalty.

  The NCO walked the length of the hut, turned and stopped with his hands behind his back and his feet apart.

  “Don’t just stand there like a bunch of fucking idiots. Put those stools next to your billets,” he said, belting out as much noise as he could.

  Somehow, the other recruits squeezed the stools into almost non-existent gaps.

  “The rest of you, take off the greatcoats, grab a bunk and stow your gear.” He ambled back to the door from where they’d come and gave them a minute to get back to the foot of their beds.

  “I am Corporal Nikolas and you will address me as Corporal or Corporal Nikolas. You do not call me ‘sir’. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Corporal,” Jez shouted along with the others.

  He’d been under the impression that, since the war, women were no longer used by the military and his curiosity got the better of him. What kind of girl would volunteer when she didn’t have to? The NCO turned his back and Jez sneaked a look at the girls. He stopped when his eyes came to rest on the bunk opposite and gulped. A blonde girl stood to attention. Attractive without doubt, but that wasn’t what fascinated him. He’d never seen anyone so obviously a soldier in the making: such hard determination, eyes unyielding, yet stunningly embroidered in dark blue against a pale skin, unforgiving, yet such angelic features.

  But then he withered under her gaze as a fierce glint in her eyes made him avert his own. She’d thrown him. He’d forgotten about the NCO and lifted his head, pulled the “little boy” face he used when Miriam got angry with him. He was sure the girl’s eyes softened, so he followed up with a coy smile. Before he saw a response, a dull clap left him staring up from the bed.

  “Are you some kind of fool? What did I tell you about stupid faces?” the NCO screamed.

  Jez panicked. This would be reported back to Colonel Petrichov. He had to make amends. “I’m sorry, sir, it won’t happen again, sir,” he said. Too late, he remembered what the NCO had just told him.

  The corporal grabbed him angrily to pull him up by the shirt; Jez screwed up his face as fingernails clawed into his chest.

  “I won’t tell you again: speak when I tell you and not before.” He cast him back to the bunk, almost turned away, but then came back and bunched Jez’s shirt into a fist. “And I thought I told you to address me as corporal.” Jez remained silent. “Well?”

  “Sorry, Corporal, it won’t happen again, Corporal.”

  “Lights out in ten,” Nikolas shouted, and slammed the door as he left, almost taking it off its hinges.

  Jez sat on the lumpy old striped mattress and rubbed a hand over his still stinging head.

  “Are you all right?” a stern voice asked.

  He looked up. The girl had come over. Without permission, his chest beat out a drum roll. “Yes, I’m fine, thanks.” He tried to appear laid back and stood to offer his hand. “I’m Jez Kornfeld, pleased to meet you.”

  She looked at the hand, hesitated, but then sighed and offered hers. “Anna Puchinskaya,” she said, and shook his hand.

  His fingers crumbled under the pressure of her grip – but that was only because he hadn’t expected her to grab him so hard.

  The introduction finished as quickly as it had begun. “I’ve got to sort my kit out,” she said, and left.

  He wanted to say something that might hold her there, but only nodded.

  She got to the foot of her bunk, turned and smiled, and his heart leapt.

  *

  Two weeks went by and Jez tried all he knew, which wasn’t very much, to win Anna’s friendship. The thing that actually won her over was his ability. He stood out at every discipline and she warmed to him because of it; for her, anyway, the term “friend” had become reasonably accurate.

  Another intensive day finished and Nikolas called her to his quarters. For five minutes, then ten, Jez lay on his bunk and anger festered. It wasn’t his business, he knew. So he couldn’t intervene, or Colonel Petrichov would finish him. No, there was nothing to be done. But career or no, if Nikolas laid a hand on her he’d kill him, he thought.

  His mind was still in a red haze when she stormed back into the dormitory, head bowed, rubbing her face with the back of her hand.

  “Anna,” he said, jumping to his feet, “that’s it.” He turned towards the door.

  “Whoa,” a few of the cadets chorused.

  “Jez is going to sort Nikolas out for screwing Anna,” a boyish girl called Popova yelled.

  They all laughed, Jez glowered, and they laughed the harder. He tried to push past, but Anna grabbed his arm roughly, stopped his progress.

  “No, Jez. I can look after myself,” she said, and then she glared at the other cadets. Under her gaze, they all seemed to notice that their bunks were untidy.

  “Your lip is bleeding… he can’t…”

  She nodded. “You’re right, he couldn’t.”

  Jez lowered his shoulders and tried to relax the stiffness. “What happened, Anna?”

  She guided him to his bunk and ordered him, “Sit. He tried to grope m
e, but I got my knee to his balls before he had a chance to do too much. He did manage to backhand me in the mouth before I left. But it’s over, leave it, this is my worry…” She smiled, “but thanks.”

  Chapter 3

  Corporal Nikolas pulled a white vest over his head and tucked it into his shorts. The material strained against a girth that bulged so much that if he could move it round to the back he’d be a hunchback. He shook his head miserably.

  “Not so long ago it was solid muscle. Now look at it: pulp.” He filled his chest with a massive breath and pulled in his stomach enough to get definition on his rib cage. “That’s better,” he consoled himself. “It was just the way I was standing,”

  But then Kornfeld crossed his mind. The little shit. Who the fuck did he think he was? Okay, he knew he’d been spending too much time in the mess with the other NCOs, and maybe he did down a few too many vodkas and look a bit out of shape because of it, but the way that little bastard gawped at his paunch...

  And Puchinskaya, what did she see in the little fuck? There she was drooling over him but trying to look as if she was the one in control – and Kornfeld believed her. Fucking idiot: she was panting for it and the moron had no idea.

  “He must be a virgin,” Nikolas chuckled.

  She was the tastiest bit of meat they’d had for… forever, and she had to fancy someone like Kornfeld. The final insult came when she’d kneed him in the balls. He should’ve had her arrested – and he would have if she hadn’t had such an effect on his balls in other ways.

  But now was “getting even” time. Today they had unarmed combat. “This time the corporal gets to use his dagger,” he laughed.

  He’d worked it out: he would hold the lovebirds until last; inflict the usual cuts on the other cadets, get Kornfeld in the arena before Puchinskaya, wind him up and then accidentally stab him. He couldn’t kill him or he’d put himself under the spotlight –he’d been there before and didn’t like it. But if he punctured a kidney and got him sent home, it would leave a clear path to the girl. The way she was so obviously committed to the army and with Kornfeld out of the way, she would be easy to manipulate.

  His stomach had relaxed again. He pulled it back in, flexed his muscles and went into the combat hall with a grin on his face.

  *

  Dressed in white shorts and vests, the cadets gathered in a gymnasium void of equipment. Stripped to the waist, Nikolas held a dagger, trying to affect a muscular pose, but with too much belly and slack muscles. Well, put a pig in a pair of shorts, and it’s still a pig. Hold on to that picture, Jez thought and grinned.

  One after another, the cadets attempted to evade an armed strike from the enemy, but not one returned to the outer circle without clutching at a gash. Jez watched nervously. He knew he was fitter than the NCO, and bringing him down for what he’d tried to do to Anna was a fantastic thought; but if he kicked against the system... Whether he’d fully understood what the colonel had said back in his office he wasn’t sure, but he was sure his mentor wouldn’t tolerate aggression towards a senior soldier. And besides, it was clear the NCO was expert at what he was doing. Out of shape or not, he’d beat Jez easily.

  A yell from Popova and she left the circle suppressing a sob, clinging to a wound high on her right breast. That was it then, only him and Anna to go.

  “Centre circle, Kornfeld,” Nikolas commanded.

  He sighed and moved forward.

  The corporal, to Jez’s surprise, sheathed his knife and announced, “Athletics, shooting, seems you’re a bit better than good. But you’re a skinny little runt and somehow…”

  A sickening thud sank into Jez’s chest and pitched him to the ground.

  “…I don’t think this will be your specialty.”

  He tried to get up, but Nikolas kicked him in the side and rolled him onto his back. Jez had moved with the blow, but it still left him staring at the ceiling, winded. He needed a breather, but Nikolas came at him again. Jez fought nausea and darted to one side.

  “Oh, girlie tactics. I didn’t expect that from a big shot like you. I might have expected it more from Puchinskaya. Ah, Puchinskaya, yes, you’re up next,” he said, and turned to Anna, grinning, breathing heavily. “And we still have a little debt left unpaid.”

  As he considered the words, Jez got to his feet, but his attention had shifted. Nikolas pulled his knife and slashed it sideways. The tip of the blade scratched a red line across Jez’s now slit white vest. The corporal holstered the weapon and flexed his physique, readying for hand-to-hand.

  “Come on, Kornfeld, one on one. Do your worst.” He laughed. “You have my full permission to set all your might against me.”

  Nikolas suddenly lunged, and the heel of an open-palmed strike knocked Jez heavily to the floor. Somehow he had to keep out of the way, but getting to his feet he was surprised to see the trainer had paled. He’d overdone it with the other cadets and his lack of fitness was there for all to see. A chance presented itself as he took a more casual swipe. Jez followed with gut reaction. The punch flew and he reacted with a nimbleness that left his opponent in slow motion. He grabbed the corporal’s wrist with both hands, made a half turn, held the grip, brought the larger man’s arm onto his shoulder and whipped it down as hard as he could. The limb snapped to the sound of bone breaking and gristle tearing. Then came a shriek, as Nikolas screamed out in agony. Jez stepped back, but a surge of arousal had warmed the pit of his stomach and the stimulus urged him to finish the job. Why not? His career was over after this. He fixed his eyes on Nikolas and moved forward.

  “Jez, no,” Anna shouted.

  He stopped just as a hulking silhouette emerged from the shadow of a doorway to assist the crippled trainer. Jez returned to the group and joyous murmurs flowed through the circle. Suddenly, he’d become the most popular cadet in the hall.

  The man helped the trainer out of the hall and the cadets separated into smaller groups, hanging around, awaiting further instruction. Jez and Anna sat together with their backs against the wall, he staring at the door expecting guards to come and get him any minute.

  “I think the others are worried they might all be in trouble,” Anna said.

  “Maybe they are, but it’s me who’ll come under fire,” Jez said, voice miserable, emotions much the same.

  Anna cleared her throat. “Thanks,” she said, with a softness he hadn’t heard from her before.

  “For what?” he asked.

  “I know you lost it because Nikolas tried it on with me, and I know how important the army is to you… I’m sorry it had to happen. I’ll always be grateful.” The words were sweet, but the voice was stern.

  He was embarrassed, just as when his older brother and sister had ribbed him about looking like a pretty girl.

  He had no reason to say it, other than being stuck for words, but he responded, “You’d have done the same.”

  She came back at him in a flurry of decisiveness. “No, Jez, no, I wouldn’t. I’m like you in as much as the army is everything to me. But believe me, I wouldn’t have done anything so… irrational. Not for any reason. I would protect my career at all cost.”

  He smiled. “Or maybe it’s just that you don’t like me as much as I like you.”

  Her shoulders dropped, her face relaxed and her eyes sparkled. “No, it isn’t that. I like you well enough.”

  His cheeks were still burning when a cadet from one of the other huts came into the hall.

  “I’m at the end of my training and have been told to command this unit for the rest of today. I don’t know how far you’ve all got with your preparation, so we’ll just go out for a run… I want to see you in front of the hut in full kit in five minutes.”

  *

  The next day, after a sleepless night, Jez worried that he was about to be kicked out of the army – maybe after serving a prison term. His life’s dream had ended before it began. He wouldn’t mind, except ever since he’d arrived he’d steeled himself against Nikolas’s verbal abuse, constant
ly put up with being picked on, and obeyed orders like a toy soldier who’d been wound up and pointed. How could he have been so stupid as to react like that? The trainer was worn out and Jez knew it. He could have walked away, but no…

  Now was the day after he’d broken the man’s arm and no one had mentioned it yet; but a new NCO had assembled the squad outside the hut and Jez was standing at attention in line with the others. He knew there was no way out of this one.

  “Kornfeld, one step forward at the double,” the man shouted.

  Shit, here it comes. He stepped from the line.

  The NCO stared at him blankly and then grinned derisively. “Are you sure you’re the only Kornfeld?”

  “As far as I know I am, Sergeant.”

  He shook his head with a bemused expression. “Right, back into the ranks.”

  Several weeks passed without incident, other than that his fascination for Anna grew out of all proportion. The military preparation had finished and he was ordered to return to Lubyanka. He’d got through the first stages, but his heart ached. For some stupid reason Anna had become as important to him as the army itself and he’d probably never see her again.

  Chapter 4

  Colonel Michel Petrichov read the dossier as Jez stood to attention in front of his desk.

  “At ease, Kornfeld… You said you were as fit as anyone here and it appears you weren’t far wrong.” He looked up over half-framed glasses. “And according to the man I had at the camp, you’re a natural rifleman, and your ability to deal with military strategy and leadership, as far as it went, is excellent. I commend you… but he also said you broke your NCO’s arm in response to a bit of bullying.”

  He turned back to the report and Jez was sure it was to hide a grin. When the colonel’s words had sunk in, he realized who the man in the shadows had been.

  The colonel lifted his gaze but his face had soured. “Of course, you realize you could be in a prison cell right now?”