Team Work [Sink or Swim Book 2]

Epilogue

Seven weeks had passed since the moments of madness in the Australian bush and almost a world away Robert Wells, Ivanna and Romain made their way through the semi-wrecked mansion palace of Rajul Easaba Manzil, situated in the Al Tal suburb of Damascus, Syria. It was late in the evening and the sounds of the Adhan, Muslim call to prayer,  echoed through dusty streets. The minarets of the mosques towered above the market places and low rise buildings. Their silhouettes forming and amazing foreground to the beautiful sunset sky. 

Romain opened the door to one of the rooms. The walls and floor were adorned with plastic sheeting to keep out the dust. It was semi-dark.

Robert entered the room and suddenly Romain slammed the doors closed behind him. He was about to turn and scold the Russian when a voice echoed from a desk at the opposite end of the room.

"Ah! Mr Wells..." the voice carried an unmistakable Russian accent. "I am so glad that you could join me."

Robert walked slowly through the room and out of the shadows the figure of Dimitri Ivanov came into view.  Two large scars ran down the left side of his face. "I do apologise for my appearance but it would seem that your young friends I was tracking down led to my drugs operation being compromised. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this would you?"

An  MP-443 Grach pistol lay in front of him on the table.

Dimitri stood up, his left arm drooping to the side. "Look carefully, you see my shoulder - I had a 0.5 calibre bullet blast through it. My right arm works fine though."

He picked up the gun from the table using his right hand and released the safety. 

"Now, I know you and Ivanna have a thing, you see - she is rather special to me too..." 

Ivanov raised the gun and levelled it - "I can see why you might want me out of the way, you wanted to take over my business and my love. You see you obviously realised I was in your way. You owe me for the drugs, the diamond and for my dead men. Are you going to pay?"

Robert stood silently.

"I thought not." Dimitri said menacingly. 

He pulled the trigger of the gun. The single shot hit Robert Wells centrally in the forehead and exited through the back of his skull. Fragments hit the wall behind as he collapsed into the plastic. The remains of his brain ran down the solid sandstone wall behind him whilst a large pool of blood surrounded his head and body.

On hearing the gun shot Romain and Ivanna entered the room followed closely by two Syrian men who were charged with wrapping the body and removing it from the office. 

"One problem solved. Now please Ivanna you do have access to his bank accounts don't you?" Dimitri asked.

"Of course dear, what do you expect! I got the information, I think I played him rather beautifully. I even managed to avoid going to bed with him!" Ivanna laughed and kissed Dimitri on the cheek, "There maybe one problem though - he does have one existing son so the bank may freeze the accounts and hold them in a fund when they know Robert is dead."

"This is something we may need to look at." Dimitri said sinisterly.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at 'The Palms' in Malibu, Juliette had gathered everyone together by the infinity pool.

"I am so glad we are all back together again" she began a speech, "Whilst it was nice for us to all go our separate ways I think the last couple of months have shown that without each other for support our friendships and teamwork break down. This is not a good thing for any of us and I believe we need to stay together and ensure that we are always here for one another."