MOSKVA, PRESENT DAY.
"Winter becomes Mother Russia," Dominika Nedel'ka Patroph mutters to herself. Her brandy-toned eyes stare out the trolley's ice-incrusted window at the fur-wrapped Muscovites trudging along the snowy street. She glances down at the evening's duty assignment sheet in her gloved hand. "Infiltrate a formal business gathering and sniff out any intelligence of interest," is all it says. Dominika's luscious lips curl into her naturally sensuous smile. "With luck, I'll even keep my clothes on," she whispers to herself.
"Astanovka pajalst," she calls to the trolley driver.
With two sharp bell-clangs, the battered vehicle shudders to a halt. Its rear door unfolds and Dominika steps out into the bitter cold. Sveta Novoshev is right behind. Dominika frowns at the repetitive buzz coming from inside her shoulder bag. She removes the cell phone from under the Beretta 3032 Tomcat pistol that Russian Swallows like Dominika always carry.
TOKYO.
Halfway around the world a woman's curvy figure steps into a shadowy room made of teakwood. Turquoise and white water gurgles and bubbles in an oval hot tub. A match flares. Her delicate hand touches its flame to a candlewick. The amber glow illuminates Tomiko Kasawara. High cheekbones and dark brown, almond shaped eyes underscore Tomiko's haunting Asian beauty. A tiny snow-white Brazilian bikini hugs her flawless skin.
DEBOVSK APARTMENT COMPLEX, MOSKVA.
Light from a bare bulb slashes shadows across bearded faces . . . Middle Eastern faces. Sitting in the middle of the dingy apartment is a table filled with chemicals and mixing containers. Three men mill about fastening small canisters to a forth man's bare chest with strips of duct tape. The fourth man isn't Arab. He's of average build, clean-shaven and Russian.
TOKYO.
Reaching under her cascade of waist-length blue-black hair, Tomiko tugs at two knots. The triangular bra drops liberating small sloping breasts that stand high and proud, apparently immune to their own weight. Fragrant incense floats about the private bathhouse or Kousyu-Yokujo as the Japanese call it.
A few feet away Yakamitsu Niguri removes his black silk robe. Tomiko's eyes twinkle with crafty intelligence as she browses his bronze, muscular frame and the elaborate tattoos of a dragon in a turbulent seascape that cover his entire torso, front and back. Fifteen plus years beyond Tomiko's twenty, Yakamitsu Niguri's entire presence emits the dangerous aura of the Nipponese Yakuza. Tomiko's gaze drifts lower. She feels secretly pleased that such an important man's body is acknowledging hers' with a growing erection.
Niguri can't help but stare. Glints and shadows dance across Tomiko's succulent young breasts. They're the biggest of all the other "comfort women" he owns, bobbing only slightly as she steps nearer and bows. There's a warm rush between his legs as she turns and walks toward a small table laid out with oils other substances. As he settles into the oval hot tub's warm water, his focus rivets to Tomiko's butt-muscles rubbing rhythmically as they play a game of hide and seek with the thong's white center-string.
MOSKVA.
Dominika slams her cell phone closed. Her exquisite face has turned as icy as the sub-zero air biting at her cheeks. Dominika's pace turns into a brisk walk.
"What is it? What's happened?" Sveta says catching up with her.
"Viktor's just ordered us to kill Dmitry Rostislav."
Sveta's eyes widen. "Dmitry? Holy-shit, why?"
"He just became a suicide bomber with a short fuse."
TOKYO.
Tomiko's pink-nailed fingers slide under the thin elastic waistband stretched above the flare of her hips. The tiny back-string slips out of its hiding place and the scrap of white cloth skitters down her legs to the teak floor. With the appropriate amount of Oriental shyness, she turns around.
Her nakedness swamps Yakamitsu Niguri's jet-black eyes. "Come here," he says in a gruff demanding murmur.
There's a whisper of Tomiko's footsteps. The warmth of the hot tub's bubbles consumes one foot and then the other.
MAIN LOBBY, HOTEL NEZHKA, MOSKVA.
Dominika's glossy red fingernail anxiously presses the ancient elevator's up button. Its door grinds open. Both girls step inside the claustrophobic car. Motors vibrate. Gears clash.
"Is Viktor sending backup or are we naked?" Sveta asks as the elevator moves slowly upward.
"Naked."
"Shit. Nothing like doing wet-work in close proximity to a bomb," Sveta mutters.
Dominika glances into Sveta's bright blue eyes. "We'll just have to improvise."
"Great. Do I storm in, pull out my Uzi and yell -- take this you creep?"
"It may come down to just that."
The elevator car jounces to a stop and the door grinds open. Both scurry into an empty cloakroom. Dominika pulls off her mink ushanka and tosses her head. Long golden blonde hair falls past her lower back, kept that way since her teenage years.
"There're 200 people in there," Sveta says as her fur coat reveals a -- let it all hang out -- ivory micro-dress. Its snug silky material does little to conceal Sveta's beautiful breasts . . . one of a Swallow's most valuable commodities when employed to make many a man's mouth water.
Dominika lifts her gaze to Sveta's heart-shaped face, framed with salon-styled short-cut blonde hair. "This could get sloppy."
"We'll need a diversion," Sveta cautions.
Dominika removes the Beretta from her purse and screws its silencer into place. "You do the dangle and I'll do the nasty."
"Why do I always get the grunt work?" Sveta mutters.
"Because you're friendly, loyal and trustworthy."
"So is a damn dog. Hey Dom? You sure you're up to doing this?"