The Secret of Excalibur

by Andy McDermott

  ‘It’s Eddie Chase,’ he said impatiently. ‘I know you’re there, Pavel, so stop pissing about and let me in.’

  Another pause, then a buzzer sounded. Chase pushed open the gate and waved the SUV inside, then headed for the warehouse door.

  The driver remained in the Navigator, but Nina and Mitchell, the latter carrying a large briefcase, hurried across to Chase as he banged a fist on the door. It opened, a neckless man with a perpetual frown opening it. To Nina’s alarm he was holding a small machine pistol. ‘All right, put it away,’ Chase told him, unimpressed. ‘Just take us to the gaffer.’

  The man sneered, then stepped back to let them in. Nina took in the contents of the warehouse as he led them through it. Rank upon rank of boxes and crates displaying high-end Western brand names: big-screen TVs, computers, designer clothing, whisky, cigars, watches . . . an emporium of riches.

  ‘And I bet he doesn’t have a receipt for a single one of them,’ Chase said disapprovingly as they reached an office at one side of the packed space.

  Waiting for them was Pavel Prikovsky, flanked by a pair of stunningly beautiful blonde women in short, tight dresses less than suited to the chilly environs. Slightly shorter than Chase, he was considerably broader, most of it round his waist. His figure wasn’t flattered by the bulky fur coat draped over his shoulders. A fat Cuban cigar was jammed between his grinning lips, and the amount of gold jewellery he sported couldn’t help but make Nina think of Mr T.

  ‘Eddie Chase!’ he boomed. ‘Come here, let me kiss you!’

  ‘Let’s just make do with a handshake, eh?’ Chase replied. Prikovsky cackled, then stuck out a hand so hairy it blended with the coat’s cuff. Chase shook it with rather less enthusiasm than the Russian was showing.

  ‘So, can I get you anything?’ Prikovsky said. ‘Cigar? Cognac?’ He leered at one of the women. ‘Companionship?’

  Chase put an arm round Nina’s shoulders. ‘No thanks. I’m sorted.’

  ‘No, you never did have any trouble with the women, hmm? No money, that face - how do you do it?’ He cackled again. ‘And a celebrity, too! Dr Nina Wilde, I believe? Welcome to Moscow! I’ve heard all about your discoveries, Atlantis and Hercules. But you made a mistake.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’ said Nina suspiciously. Despite the Russian’s seeming friendliness, everything about him made her want to cringe away.

  ‘Yes, you went and told the US government rather than keeping the secret for yourself. Just think how much money you could have made from selling all that treasure!’

  ‘It wasn’t about money,’ she said icily.

  ‘Everything is about money, in the end.’ He took out the cigar and jabbed it at Mitchell’s briefcase. ‘Like how much your friend here is willing to pay me to help you. So, what are you? CIA? DIA?’

  ‘DARPA, actually,’ Mitchell told him.

  Prikovsky’s face twisted into a gargoyle-like expression of disbelief. ‘Really? I would have put money on you being in intelligence. I can usually spot my own kind.’

  ‘Your kind live under slimy rocks, Pavel,’ said Chase. Prikovsky didn’t seem offended; if anything, he appeared amused. ‘You want to do business, or what?’

  ‘Oh, I always want to do business.’ He clicked his fingers and said a single word in Russian, at which the two blondes turned on their high heels and left the room, closing the door behind them. ‘You said you wanted to talk about Leonid Vaskovich.’

  ‘That’s right. He’s having a party tonight, at his mansion. I want to be there.’

  ‘And you think I can get you an audience with one of Russia’s richest men?’ Prikovsky asked in exaggerated surprise. Chase just stared at him. ‘Ha, of course I can!’ he boasted after a moment. ‘My girls, they will be there tonight, and plenty of others too. When anyone in Moscow wants to party - anyone who matters, anyway - they come to me. Pavel Prikovsky always has whatever they need! I can get you an invitation, no problem.’

  ‘I don’t mean as a guest,’ Chase said. ‘I want to get in without anyone knowing about it.’

  Prikovsky instantly became wary. ‘Okay, now that is not so easy.’

  ‘I know the layout of the building and the security system,’ said Mitchell. ‘I’ve been there. All we need is for someone to shut down the cameras long enough for Eddie to cross the grounds. Thirty seconds, tops.’

  ‘My girls are not spies,’ Prikovsky protested.

  ‘I can tell them what to do through an earpiece—’

  ‘No, no! Do you have any idea what would happen to them if they were caught? Vaskovich is a hard enough man, but his lieutenant, Kruglov, is a psychopath! He would kill them!’

  ‘Yeah, we’ve met Kruglov,’ said Chase. ‘And I wouldn’t mind meeting him again. One on one.’

  ‘Then go to the front gate and ask for him! But I won’t put my girls at risk. It’s too dangerous - and not just for them. Do you know what would happen to me if they found out I had helped you?’

  Chase gave him a cold smile. ‘Nothing you don’t deserve.’

  This time, Prikovsky was not amused. ‘I agreed to see you out of, shall we say, professional courtesy, Chase. But this is not something I will help you with, however much money your friend has.’

  ‘Then send me,’ said Nina.

  Chase wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. ‘What?’

  ‘I’ll go,’ she said, Mitchell and Prikovsky regarding her with surprise. ‘This whole thing’s my fault - if I hadn’t been suspicious of Jack in London, we wouldn’t even be here.’

  ‘No,’ said Chase firmly. ‘No fucking way.’

  ‘Eddie, I don’t want to do it, but it’s the only way to get you inside. Unless Jack knows another way to shut down the security system?’ Mitchell shook his head. ‘I could go in with Pavel’s other . . . girls, pretend to be one of them. Once I’m inside, Jack can guide me to where I need to go, and then I’ll just hide until he’s ready to pick us up in the chopper.’

  ‘You are using a helicopter?’ Prikovsky exclaimed. ‘Expensive, dangerous, a high risk of disaster - I can tell this is an American operation!’

  Chase ignored him. ‘Are you out of your fucking mind? I’m not gonna let you do it.’

  ‘We don’t have any choice,’ Nina insisted. ‘If there isn’t somebody on the inside, you won’t be able to get in without being seen - and you’ll be killed.’

  ‘Better me than you.’

  ‘No. No, Eddie, it’s not. You don’t want to see me get hurt? Well, I don’t want to see you get hurt.’ She took his hands in hers, looking into his eyes. ‘Eddie, we’re getting married, we’re going to be doing everything together - which means we share the risks. Either we both do this, or neither of us do. And if we don’t do it, Vaskovich wins, and all the people who’ve died trying to stop him will have died for nothing. I know you won’t let that happen. Well, I won’t either.’

  She could tell he was angry - but also that he was considering her words. Mitchell seemed about to add something, but she gave him an almost imperceptible shake of the head. This was a decision only Chase could make.

  Finally, he looked at Prikovsky. ‘If we did this - if we did it - could you get her in?’

  ‘Yes, I can get her in,’ said the Russian. ‘It is getting her out that will be hard!’

  ‘What about you, Jack? Can you get her to where she needs to go?’ Mitchell nodded. ‘And then get her out again?’

  This time, his head remained still. ‘I can’t give you any guarantees, Eddie. But Nina’s right - it’s the only way to get -’ he glanced at Prikovsky - ‘the item back before Vaskovich takes it to his facility.’

  ‘And there’s no way we could get it back from there?’

  ‘No. It’s an old submarine base - but it’s still in a closed military zone, and Vaskovich has very good connections with the Russian military. The only option would be to send in a SEAL team by submarine, and if they got caught, the state relations are between the US and Russia at the moment . . .’

  ‘S
hit,’ muttered Chase. He looked at Nina. ‘I don’t want you to do this.’

  ‘I don’t either, but I’m going to have to. Because there’s nobody else who can.’

  ‘Then I’m going to have to let you, aren’t I?’ He let out a long, unhappy sigh. ‘Buggeration and fuckery.’

  ‘I know,’ said Nina, squeezing his hands.

  ‘If she is caught, I will tell Vaskovich that I knew nothing of this,’ Prikovsky said quickly. ‘Or that you held me at gunpoint and threatened to kill me. He would believe that, I’m sure. And by the way,’ he added to Mitchell, ‘I would like my money up front. All of it.’

  ‘How much do you want?’ Mitchell asked.

  ‘I just told you - all of it! Everything you have brought - in your case and in your truck. In fact, I will have the truck as well! Tell your driver to take a taxi.’

  Mitchell appeared surprisingly unconcerned about Prikovsky’s demands, placing the briefcase on his desk and opening it to reveal crisp wads of hundred-dollar bills. The quick glance Nina got before Prikovsky turned the case round to riffle through its contents suggested there was probably the better part of half a million dollars within.

  Half a million dollars - of American taxpayers’ money. Being given to a man who seemed little more than a glorified pimp. Then there were all the other resources the mission had so far consumed . . . and the lives it had taken. ‘It better be worth it,’ she said quietly, only Chase hearing her.

  Prikovsky snapped the case closed, his smile suggesting he was more than satisfied with its contents. ‘Well, then. We still have a few hours before the girls go to the party, so there is time to get you ready, Dr Wilde.’

  ‘Get me ready?’ she echoed.

  ‘You do not seriously think you would be able to get in looking like that, do you?’ He looked disdainfully at her heavy coat, jeans and Reeboks. ‘My girls all look amazing, like models - like supermodels! You will have to look the same.’

  ‘Oh,’ Nina said. ‘Y’know, that might be a problem. I’m not really the supermodel type.’

  Prikovsky grinned - or leered, though it was hard to tell with the cigar clenched between his teeth. ‘No need to worry. Some makeup, the right clothes . . . Mario is incredible.’

  ‘Mario?’ hooted Chase. ‘There’s a proper Russian name.’

  ‘He styles all my girls,’ Prikovsky told him as he put the briefcase into a safe. ‘We’ll go and see him now.’ He grinned again. ‘In my shiny new truck!’

  ‘Shut up,’ said Nina, before Chase even had a chance to open his mouth.

  It opened anyway - mostly in amazement. ‘Bloody hell,’ he finally managed to say. ‘You look . . . whoa. Pavel was right - Mario really is incredible!’

  Nina had spent the better part of two hours in an opulent salon, her hair being washed and styled, makeup applied to her face. She was not the only woman there - over a dozen others were also lined up before the huge illuminated mirrors, being worked upon and fussed over by two women apiece. Mario - who despite his name was about as Italian as Joseph Stalin - scurried back and forth along the line, brushing and plucking and tweezing and glossing, fixing every last detail of each makeover.

  And though the overall look was a long way removed from anything Nina would have chosen herself, she was forced to admit it was indeed one hell of a makeover. She had spent a good portion of the time in a reclined position; when she finally sat upright, she experienced a bizarre moment of disassociation, as though someone else was looking back at her from the mirror. Someone who happened to be a model . . . though she wasn’t prepared to go as far as supermodel. Mario wasn’t that good.

  It wasn’t the heavy, smoky-eyed makeup or scarlet false nails or ultra-moussed hairstyle that aroused her ire, though. It was the outfit Prikovsky had provided for her - which, as she’d expected, provoked a wide-eyed response when she was presented to Chase and the other men.

  ‘I look like a goddamn hooker,’ she moaned. The sleeveless black rubber minidress was, she’d been assured, the product of some extremely expensive and exclusive designer in London - but that didn’t alter the fact that it was also extremely tight and revealing. She had the horrible feeling that if she moved her knees more than a fraction of an inch apart, the entire skirt would twang up over her hips like an overstretched elastic band.

  ‘You’re supposed to be a hooker,’ Chase pointed out.

  ‘Hey!’ said Prikovsky. ‘My girls are not hookers. They are . . .’ He thought about it. ‘Escorts? No, courtesans. The courtesans of Pavel Prikovsky, that sounds better. Like the title of a great Russian novel.’

  ‘Or that crappy American novel, The Immodesty of Nina Wilde,’ Nina grumbled. ‘Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.’

  ‘No, no,’ said Chase, smirking, ‘I’m all for it now. You are going to dress like that after we’re married, right?’

  ‘That’s it, I’m outta here.’ Nina turned and tried to teeter back into the salon on her high heels, but found her way blocked by Mario, who clapped approvingly and ushered her into the lounge once more. He reached up, trying to remove her pendant, but she forcefully shook her head. He tutted, then spoke in Russian to Prikovsky, who laughed. Mario then bowed and returned to the salon.

  ‘What did he say?’ Nina demanded.

  ‘He thinks your necklace looks cheap,’ said Prikovsky. Nina shot an offended look after the stylist. ‘But he is very pleased with how you turned out, considering how little time he had to work with you. Oh, and also considering your age.’

  ‘My age?’ she shrieked. ‘I’m only thirty!’

  Prikovsky shrugged. ‘Most of my girls are only twenty-two, twenty-three! You should be proud. You look . . . unrecognisable.’

  ‘And that’s a good thing?’

  ‘In this case, yeah,’ said Mitchell, who had been watching with quiet amusement. ‘Honestly, if I didn’t know you, I wouldn’t have recognised you when you stepped out of there. So hopefully no one else will either.’ He stood, taking a box from a pocket. ‘Okay, time to mike you up.’

  ‘What’s that?’ Nina asked, eyeing the object in the box. It looked like a small golden bullet.

  ‘Earpiece. You ever watch that show, 24? Just like Jack Bauer uses. It’s two-way - you’ll be able to hear me and Eddie, and we’ll be able to hear you and what’s going on around you. All you have to do is whisper.’

  Chase stood for a closer look as Mitchell carefully slipped the bug into Nina’s left ear. ‘What’s the range?’

  ‘Only about two hundred metres. But that doesn’t matter because you’ll have the relay so I can hear, and once you get to the outer wall you’ll be in range.’ The device in place, he stepped back, quickly running an admiring eye over Nina’s glossy curves.

  ‘I saw that!’ she snapped.

  ‘Get used to it,’ Prikovsky told her. ‘You will get a lot more attention than that tonight.’ He frowned as a thought struck him. ‘Do you speak Russian?’

  ‘Nyet.’

  ‘Hmm. Still, not a problem. The girls are not there for conversation.’ Nina could barely suppress a disgusted shudder. ‘Okay, you’re an American student here to learn Russian - and you’re doing this because you need money to buy a dictionary. Ha!’ He drew back a hand as if about to slap her on the butt, but stopped short on seeing Chase’s stony glare.

  ‘All right,’ said Mitchell, adopting a commanding tone. ‘I’ll be waiting in the helo. It’ll take me four minutes to reach the mansion from my takeoff point, so once you secure the item, that’s how long you’ll have to get to the extraction point. There’s a balcony on the west side - it’s not big enough to land on, but there’s enough clearance for me to hover next to it so you can climb aboard. If you don’t raise the alarm, we should be able to get clear before anyone realises what’s going on.’

  ‘And if we do raise the alarm?’ asked Nina.

  Chase reached into his leather jacket and drew out a massive silver handgun. ‘Jack had a little present delivered while you were getting your cuti
cles done,’ he said with definite glee. ‘Desert Eagle, .50-cal Action Express. Would have preferred a Wildey, but I’m not complaining.’

  Mitchell shook his head. ‘Big, heavy, limited load, huge recoil . . .’

  ‘Works for me. Anyone gets hit by this, they’re done.’ His smile disappeared. ‘And if I see Kruglov . . .’

  ‘Let’s hope you don’t need it,’ Nina told him, gently pushing the raised weapon back down.

  ‘Okay,’ said Mitchell. ‘Let’s party.’

  24

  The girls left the salon in a small convoy of minivans driven by Prikovsky’s men. Nina was in the last vehicle with three other young women, as carefully made-up and provocatively dressed as she was; none spoke English, but all seemed excited - in a somewhat calculating way - about the evening.

  Excited wasn’t the word Nina would have used to describe her feelings, however. Tense would have been closer. Or nauseous.

  A voice in her left ear. Chase.

  ‘Nina, if you can hear me, clear your throat.’ She did. ‘Okay, I’m not far behind you.’ She glanced back, seeing headlights in the distance. ‘I’ll call you again soon as I get to the entry point.’

  The lights dropped away. There was a faint crackle as if he had opened the line to speak again, but then it faded to nothing. Out of range.

  She was on her own.

  The minivan came to a stop at a gate with a high wall to each side - the same wall she had seen in the background of the spy photo of Kruglov.

  Vaskovich’s mansion. The dragon’s lair.

  Security guards opened the doors and shone bright flashlights into the faces of each of the van’s occupants in turn. Nina was the last to be checked. A chill swept over her, not solely from the night air. What if they recognised her, if she wasn’t on the guest list, if Prikovsky had betrayed her . . .