Redemption Read Online Free PDF Page B

with them on a personal level. There was always a line he didn’t cross, a gulf of professional detachment that separated him from the person he was required either to rescue or to hunt as the situation dictated.
    But not this time.
    Franklin shook his head. ‘Sorry, buddy. Stuff like that is above your pay grade – and mine,’ he added with an unhappy look. ‘All I was told was that she was important, and we were to use any and all resources to bring her in. I chose you.’
    ‘I’m honoured.’ Drake took another gulp of coffee and rubbed his eyes. His mind still felt sluggish, and the headache from earlier hadn’t left him.
    His friend frowned. ‘You feeling all right?’
    ‘I’m fine.’
    ‘You don’t look fine,’ the older man persisted. ‘Late night?’
    ‘Early morning,’ Drake evaded, unwilling to say more.
    Franklin exhaled slowly. ‘Listen, I’m sorry for putting you on the spot like that. I didn’t know Cain was going to give you such a hard time.’
    Drake flashed a wry smile. ‘You’re a shit liar, Dan. You always were.’
    ‘And you’re a shit cook. What are you gonna do?’ He grinned. ‘Look, for what it’s worth, I was trying to do you a favour. I thought it might be a chance to put all that shit behind you, make a fresh start.’
    Drake sighed and nodded. Whatever else, Franklin was being honest about that. ‘Well, I appreciate the thought.’
    He took another drink of coffee and turned his attention back to the vast array of documents spread out across the conference table in front of them. ‘Right then, let’s plan our jailbreak.’
    Cain had made good on his promise to provide them with all the intelligence available on Khatyrgan, literally dumping two packing boxes’ worth of it in their laps. Everything from construction orders to design blueprints, personnel transfers, logistics arrangements and maintenance requests – it was all there. The National Security Agency was even working to tap into the prison’s outgoing communications.
    According to the files they’d been able to sort through, Khatyrgan had been founded as a penal colony under Stalin’s regime in the 1930s, mostly using slave labour. Ironically enough, the construction crews who survived the brutal working conditions would go on to become the first batch of prisoners. Drake had to admire the Russian pragmatism, forcing men to literally build their own prisons.
    In any case, its isolated location in the midst of a frozen wilderness made escape impractical as well as impossible, and Khatyrgan soon became a warehouse for some of the most dangerous enemies of the Soviet Union.
    Thousands found their way there over the next sixty years, often without trial or parole. Most ended their days behind those grim walls, never to be seen or heard from again. Its current inmate population was just shy of three hundred.
    And in all its seventy years of continuous occupation, there was not a single record of any prisoner successfully escaping from Khatyrgan.
    Now Drake had three days to change that.
    ‘This place is a beast,’ Franklin decided, reviewing the blueprints with a critical eye. ‘No wonder nobody ever escaped.’
    The strength of Khatyrgan lay in its simplicity. The entire facility was just a big square, built with typical Soviet functionality in mind. The south side housed the guard barracks, mess hall, armoury, security centre, administrative areas, power generation and vital utilities.
    It was also where the one and only gate was located. One way in, one way out.
    Tunnelling would have been an exercise in futility. The ground beneath the prison was permafrost; permanently frozen soil with the consistency of poured concrete.
    There were no windows, no ventilation ducts, no maintenance corridors or obscure passageways. Each of the cell blocks was secured at both ends by heavy reinforced doors that were impossible to breach with anything less than high explosives.
    The east and west sides of the square housed