Ganglands: Russia: Russia by Ross Kemp Read Free Book Online

metal object shaped like a small pistol, a power cord snaking away from its base.She inspected the tip carefully.
    ‘What’s that?’ Alexei asked.
    ‘A tattoo gun,’ replied the make-up artist.‘I was told to give you a swastika tattoo.’
    ‘What?’ yelled Alexei, half-leaping out of his chair.
    ‘It’ll be OK,’ Yelena said reassuringly.‘We can laser it off afterwards.You’ll barely have a mark on you.’
    ‘I don’t care!’ Alexei shouted.‘No way you’re putting that on me!’ As Richard Madison hurried over towards him, he yelled ‘This is bullshit!’ at the Englishman.’
    ‘This is the exact opposite of bullshit,’ Madison replied sharply.‘This is exactly what you need.You’re a Moscow Eagle now.You need to talk like them, act like them, and you need to bloody look like them too.If we stick some kind of temporary tattoo on you, they’ll spot it in seconds, and you’ll be done for.’
    The Englishman crouched down beside him, and carried on in a softer voice.‘It’s all right to be nervous, Alexei.God knows, I’ve seen agents with a damn sight more field experience than you freak out before a mission. Understand that I wouldn’t put you through this if I didn’t think it was crucial.I promise you we’ll remove the tattoo when your mission’s over. Yelena’s expertise doesn’t end with hairclippers and make-up.You have to trust us, Alexei.Can you do that?’
    Alexei turned his head away, then nodded, He closed his eyes as Yelena turned on the tattoo gun, which immediately began buzzing like a hornet.As the needle bit into his chest, Alexei gritted his teeth to stop himself cryingout.The tattoo seemed to take forever, every line of ink demanding another insistent scratch of the needle against his skin.In an attempt to block out the pain, Alexei flooded his mind with happy memories of him and Lena back in Volgograd, when no dream had seemed impossible and the future offered only bright possibilities.
    Afterwards, as he inspected the black symbol on his pink, raw skin in a mirror, Alexei had to blink back the tears.Yelena touched his arm sympathetically.
    ‘I know it looks like it’ll be there forever,’ she said quietly.‘But it’ll gone before you know it.’
    It was all Alexei could do to nod mutely.
    After dinner, Darius Jordan ordered Alexei to phone his uncle and reassure him that he was settling in.Stepan bombarded him with so many questions about the university and his fictitious course that Alexei quickly began to falter.In the middle of a stammering lie about his accommodation, Valerie Singer appeared at his shoulder and beckoned at him to pass her the phone.She was soon charming Stepan, and in under a minute she had snapped the phone shut and tossed it back to Alexei.
    ‘You’re never that nice to me,’ he said.
    ‘Work on your lying,’ Valerie replied icily.‘That was just your uncle.Stutter like that in front of the Eagles and you’re a dead man.’
    That night Alexei snatched three hours of sleep dozing in a cot in the corner of the hall.He was awoken by Darius Jordan dropping a file on to his bed.
    ‘What’s this?’ Alexei asked sleepily.
    ‘Your backstory,’ the American replied.‘The Eaglesare going to want to know about you before they trust you, so I’d advise you learn this thoroughly.You can keep your first name – it’s common enough, and the fewer lies you have to tell the better.Breakfast in five minutes.’
    Looking up at the LED clock with a heavy heart, Alexei saw that there were only twenty-eight hours left.Rozalina Petrova’s kidnap had shortened what little time there had been for his training – it felt like every time he turned around, Alexei was being fed new information by one Trojan operative or another.He was dizzy with the speed at which people moved, their clipped efficiency betraying their military backgrounds.Only Richard Madison maintained an easy-going facade.Later that morning, Alexei was summoned to one of the