Timur smiled. ‘I did consider that. But then I thought you might be the contact, Yuri. I sent Anya to talk to you that night. I didn’t tell her to start sleeping with you. That was her own doing. She hasn’t been easy to control, as you can imagine. But then it turns out it wasn’t you or little Semyon, but dear old Grigory. The godfather of Pyramiden.’
Timur was so pleased with himself that at first he did not notice Catherine entering the room behind him. When he did, his smile disappeared. She looked at his gun, but he kept it pointed at Yuri and Grigory.
‘Catherine,’ he said. ‘It would be better if you left now. I will explain all of this later.’
‘I think you should go too,’ said Yuri.
Catherine looked from Timur to Grigory, and then Yuri. She did not say a word. Just stared at them all in turn. Finally, her eyes returned to Timur.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked.
‘These men are criminals,’ he said. ‘They need to face justice.’
‘Like you gave Semyon,’ said Yuri.
Catherine studied Timur’s reaction, and then she looked over at Yuri again. He saw her glance at a typewriter on the table nearest the door. She turned and nodded to Timur, and walked towards the door.
Yuri dropped his arms.
‘Hey,’ said Timur. ‘Did I say you could do that? Hands back in the air.’
Yuri did not budge.
‘Did you hear what I said, hands up,’ said Timur.
Catherine grabbed the typewriter and raised it above her head, before bringing it down hard on the back of Timur’s left shoulder with one swift movement. Timur staggered sideways but didn’t fall, nor did he drop his gun. He elbowed Catherine in the face as she reached for his arm. Then he raised his revolver once more. The sound of a silenced gunshot was followed by an unnatural breath from Timur. Blood spread across his shirt, from a bullet hole in the dead centre of his chest. He dropped his gun first, then he followed it to the ground. Yuri looked from him to Grigory. The party man had impressed him with the speed with which he had retrieved his gun from the top drawer of his desk. He only had time for one shot, and he had not hesitated.
Catherine knelt down beside Timur and checked him for signs of life. When she could see there were none, she turned her face away.
‘I thought you were not that sort of spy,’ said Yuri.
Grigory laid the gun and silencer flat on his desk. ‘I’m not. I’ve never killed anyone before. He is the first.’
Grigory rubbed his hands together. Yuri could see they were shaking.
‘Hopefully, you will never have to do it again,’ said Yuri. He turned to Catherine. ‘You all right?’ he asked.
She was standing now and seemed to be in a state of confusion.
‘He would have done the same to us,’ said Yuri. ‘And he wouldn’t have given it a second thought. One man is already dead because of him. And maybe one woman too.’
Catherine looked at him, and nodded her head. He could see there were tears in her eyes.
‘Tell Grigory he’ll be fine over there in the west. Won’t he? He has to go, and today.’
He wanted her to lie to Grigory, whatever the truth was. Catherine hesitated a moment. She stared down at Timur’s body again.
‘Tell him, please,’ Yuri repeated.
She pulled her eyes away and Yuri saw a coldness in them that he had never seen before.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘They will look after you, Grigory, I’m sure. You don’t have to worry.’
‘How would she know?’ said Grigory. ‘She doesn’t know anything about these things.’
Catherine did not take offence, if she heard him at all. She turned her gaze away from the body of her former lover, and she did not look at him again.
‘I am too old to be going to the west,’ protested Grigory. ‘I’m retired.’
‘You’ll be dead before the year is out, if you don’t,’ said Yuri. ‘Is that what you want? Plus, they’ll want to know everything you’ve done for the last thirty years, and they won’t mind how they get that information out of you. You get the picture. It won’t be pretty, Grigory. It’s up to you.’
Grigory nodded reluctantly. He was trapped and he knew it, with only one way out.
‘Same plan,’ said Yuri. ‘Except you’re going, not Anya.’
He picked up the gun off the table and stuffed it into Grigory’s pocket. ‘Here, you might need to point that at someone.’
‘What about him?’ asked Catherine, nodding at the body on the floor. ‘You’re not going to just leave him here.’
Timur had become as much of a problem in death as he had been in life. Yuri turned to Catherine, and he saw that she knew what he was thinking.
‘No,’ she said, shaking her head.
Grigory looked confused. ‘What is it?’
‘The coal furnace at the power station,’ he explained. ‘It’s the same as cremation. And he’ll be gone in minutes. No evidence. No one will ever know what happened to him.’
‘No,’ insisted Catherine. ‘We’ve done enough to him already. I am not doing that.’
Yuri was surprised to see that her feelings for Timur had been genuine.
‘Besides,’ said Grigory. ‘There are people here old enough to know what that smell is.’
‘Fine,’ said Yuri, throwing his arms out. ‘What then?’
‘I’ll take him with me,’ said Grigory. ‘I’ll find a place to leave him on the way. Is that acceptable to you?’
Catherine nodded her agreement.
‘How is that better?’ asked Yuri. ‘And it doubles our chances of getting caught.’
‘It’s decided,’ said Grigory. ‘As you said, there’s no time to argue.’
Yuri accepted the will of the majority even though he thought they were both idiots.
Catherine kept watch in the corridor as Yuri and Grigory carried Timur’s lifeless body out the office door. They rested him on the floor while Yuri opened the back window at the end of the corridor, and then they pushed him out. The corpse fell twelve feet and hit the ground with a dull thud, cushioned by a deep layer of fresh snow.
Catherine looked at them angrily.
‘It’s not hurting him now,’ said Yuri.
Timur rolled once on the incline and Yuri saw that the snow was already stained red where he had landed. All traces would have to be removed before they moved on.
‘Get whatever you need,’ Yuri said to Grigory, ‘and meet me out front in ten minutes. And remember, you need to stay light, so none of your books. I’ll look after them.’
‘What will I need, do you think?’ asked Grigory.
‘I don’t know,’ said Yuri. ‘Imagine you are going on a two-week holiday.’
Grigory nodded. ‘Thank you for this, Yuri.’
‘My pleasure,’ said Yuri. ‘Doing this never made any sense to me until today. Now hurry.’
Grigory left, passing Catherine, who was still standing at the door of the office.
‘I need you to do something else for me,’ said Yuri. ‘A last favour.’
‘What?’ asked Catherine.
‘I need you to keep Anya out of the way. We can’t have her talking to anyone else about this until Grigory’s well away from Pyramiden.’
‘I can do that,’ said Catherine. ‘But I get the feeling she’s not interested in any of us.’
‘You’re probably right,’ said Yuri. ‘She never was. But just to be sure.’
No one would accuse Anya of doing what she did for ideological motives. It had been a purely personal revenge. So hopefully they could count on her silence about Grigory, since there was no benefit for her in betraying him.
There was no reason for anyone to walk through the thick snow behind the building. Yuri knew he would have some time to get organised. Just to be safe, though, he covered Timur’s body in a tarpaulin. Then he piled snow on top of it. He kicked away the bloodstains where the body had hit the ground. When he was finished he walked around to the other side
of the building. Catherine was keeping watch across the street. He waved to her that all was well, and she walked off to find Anya.
Yuri collected the keys to both snowmobiles. Luckily, none of the researchers had needed to take them out that day. He did not want to have to postpone Grigory’s departure for any reason.
Grigory arrived looking ten years older and carrying too many of his belongings. Two coloured holdalls bursting with who knew what. Yuri made no comment, just handed him one set of keys. Together they drove to the rear of the administration building.
They strapped Timur’s limp body to the back of Yuri’s snowmobile and covered it with the tarpaulin. Yuri had zero sympathy for him.
‘Why are you coming?’ said Grigory. ‘There is no need. And you should be here when they find out I am missing.’
‘I’ll see you part of the way,’ replied Yuri.
Grigory was even more unfit than Anya. Too many big political dinners over the years. And since Yuri had known him, the only physical exercise he had engaged in was a game of chess. He let Grigory go ahead of him so he could watch his progress. They headed west out of town, with their heads and faces wrapped up against the cold. If anyone saw them, it would be nothing unusual. Everyone knew that he often accompanied the researchers on their field trips. And Timur’s body was well hidden under the tarpaulin, and could appear from a distance as though they were carrying equipment.
Their headlights gave them a very limited field of view. However, the sun’s halo, peeking faintly from below the horizon, afforded them at least some ambient light. As they passed the graveyard Yuri spotted a female polar bear heading towards the fjord, with her two cubs doing their best to keep up.
It took Grigory ten minutes to get into his stride. But when he did, he drove well and Yuri’s fears began to subside. Yuri moved to the front and led the way for a further five miles. When he spotted a copse of leafless trees up ahead, he slowed and pulled in.
They both dismounted and removed their goggles, and the scarves that were covering their mouths.
‘What do you think?’ asked Yuri, nodding towards the trees.
‘As good a place as any,’ agreed Grigory. ‘Catherine would approve, I think.’
Yuri unstrapped Timur’s body from the back of his snowmobile. They carried him together into the trees. As they walked, Yuri looked down at the lifeless face of the man who had caused him so much grief over the past few months. There were no bushes under which to hide him. And burying him underground was not an option without digging equipment. They laid him on his side behind two trees, where he would not be easily visible if anyone passed in the spring. However, they both knew, but didn’t say, that the body would most likely be scavenged long before that. An Arctic fox or a polar bear would be more than delighted to make an early spring meal of his corpse. Not to mention the birds. Yuri would not be pointing out this detail to Catherine.
‘You want to say a few words?’ asked Grigory.
‘Not for him, no,’ said Yuri. ‘You?’
Grigory shook his head. They retraced their steps back to the snowmobiles.
‘Maybe it’s better not to have ambitions in this life,’ said Yuri. ‘Semyon and Timur had that in common, they were both desperate to get ahead. And it got them killed.’
‘Funny how life works out sometimes, isn’t it,’ said Grigory. ‘I never had any desire to go to the west, and now look at me. At my age, a most unlikely defector.’
‘They owe you,’ said Yuri. ‘Make sure you remind them of that.’
‘I will,’ said Grigory. ‘I will be a surprise package for them.’
He was in no hurry to depart, and Yuri hoped he was not having second thoughts. But they had time. No one knew that Timur was dead except Catherine. By the time someone decided to organise a search party, with any luck Grigory would be safe in Longyearbyen.
‘What if Anya gets her wish, and they do find Taisia? Will you be in trouble?’ asked Yuri.
Grigory considered the question.
‘If it was the Soviet authorities, then yes, for sure. But with the British, who knows. I just did what they asked me to do. It’s not my fault it went bad, is it?’
Yuri shrugged. ‘You’re right. You’re lucky it was not a Soviet mission. Hopefully the British will be different.’
He pulled out a map of Spitsbergen from the inside pocket of his coat.
‘Let’s go over the route again.’
Grigory paid attention as Yuri went through it step by step, even though he was the one who had taught Yuri all of these things. Rocky ground and ravines to avoid. Stretches where he could go as fast as he liked, others where he would need to limit his speed.
‘What if someone saw you leaving with me?’ asked Grigory.
‘Don’t worry about that,’ said Yuri. ‘If anyone did, I’ll make up something appropriate. Maybe we were paying our respects at the graveyard. And when my back was turned you sped away.’
Grigory frowned. ‘Then as soon as you get back you must report it.’
Yuri shook his head. ‘No. You’ll need the time. At least a day before the alarm is raised. I’ll think of something better on the ride back.’
Grigory nodded, his mind elsewhere again. Yuri folded up the map and handed it to him.
‘Maybe I won’t make it,’ said Grigory. ‘And you’ll find me out here in the spring, like Timur.’
‘You better make it,’ said Yuri. ‘I don’t want to have gone to all this trouble for nothing.’
Grigory smiled. ‘I will do my best, for you.’
Yuri offered his hand and Grigory shook it.
‘Goodbye, my friend,’ said Grigory. ‘I left some things in my apartment for you. The chess set is one. You’ll have to find yourself a new partner.’
‘Someone I can beat,’ said Yuri. ‘And better-looking.’
‘And you might consider actually fixing my bathroom plumbing while I’m gone.’
Yuri smiled. ‘I will definitely consider it. But no promises.’
Grigory mounted his snowmobile and turned on the engine. After putting on his goggles, he waved once and drove off. Yuri watched him until he disappeared around the next hillside. Then he started his own engine, turned around and began the journey back to Pyramiden.
He made a mental note of all the people who saw him arriving back. As he drove slowly into town, he was seen by the principal of the school and some of the children in the playground. As he parked, he saw the Mongolian researcher looking at him out a window. He had the usual unreadable expression on his face. The man did not acknowledge him, just turned away from the window. The missing snowmobile would become a focus of the investigation as soon as it was discovered that both Grigory and Timur were gone.
A new idea had formed in Yuri’s head on the ride home. If asked, he could say that he had seen Grigory and Timur together on the missing snowmobile. Two defectors, it would seem to anyone who did not know the truth. A partnership in crime. Who was to say that Timur had not made a pact with the double agent himself? Or perhaps Timur had also been a double agent all along. All of these theories would be hard to disprove without anyone to question.
There were only two loose ends as far as he could tell. Timur’s body might be found in the spring. In which case the murder would be blamed on Grigory. So he and Catherine were safe in any event. The other loose end he would have to sort later that night. Timur’s office and apartment would have to be thoroughly searched for any notes he might have kept. It would not be helpful for Yuri’s name to feature prominently all over the dead man’s writings.
However, that was a job for when everyone was sleeping. Right now, there was a more pressing matter to attend to. He made a beeline for Paris, where he hoped Catherine had been keeping an eye on Anya for the last few hours. He knocked on the apartment door. He heard voices inside, and a few seconds later Catherine opened the door an inch. When she saw it was him, she looked relieved. She opened the door wide to let him inside, and closed it behind him. T
hen she stood with her arms folded, barring the exit.
Catherine had evidently taken her task seriously. Anya was sitting sheepishly on the bed. On her face was the unmistakable early-stage colouring of a black eye.
‘She hit me,’ said Anya.
‘I bet you deserved it,’ said Yuri.
Catherine nodded in agreement from the doorway.
‘She wouldn’t even let me go to the bathroom,’ said Anya.
‘You can go now,’ said Yuri. ‘Just as soon as I’m finished with you.’
Anya slumped back against the wall with her arms folded.
‘I thought you loved her,’ said Yuri.
Anya looked at Catherine first, for her reaction, and then to Yuri.
‘I did,’ said Anya. ‘That’s the point. She was supposed to love me too. But instead, she turned my life upside down without a thought for what might happen to me after she was gone. It was typical of her, always putting herself first, before anyone else.’
Catherine had no idea what was going on. Anya turned to her.
‘You think men are pigs,’ she said. ‘Try loving a woman.’
‘But she wanted you to join her,’ said Yuri. ‘Didn’t she? She wrote to you.’
Anya let out a laugh.
‘You know why she did that, after five years?’
Yuri shook his head.
‘I do,’ said Anya. ‘Because she’s bored. That’s all. She’s bored and she thinks I’ll make it better. Maybe it would be fine between us for a year or two, but then she’ll find a way to leave me again.’
Catherine looked fit to burst with questions, but the answers would have to wait.
‘So you wanted her dead, because of what she did to you,’ said Yuri. ‘Even before you came to Pyramiden.’
‘She ruined me,’ said Anya, almost spitting the words. ‘I was somebody before she left. It wasn’t my fault. She did it all. She turned me into a nobody in one day. And nothing can ever give me back what she took.’
‘Maybe they won’t find her,’ said Yuri. ‘Did you think about that?’
Anya looked up quickly. It was not an idea she liked.
‘They’ll find her,’ she said. ‘And when they do, she’ll know I sent them. I want her to know that.’
The Reluctant Contact Page 27