by Asher, Adele
“How far is it?” I asked.
“Not far. Maybe three kilometres offshore.”
“Can we catch her up? I have to be there before nine. Let’s just say it’s a life or death situation.”
“Sure. No Problem. It should take us maybe ten to fifteen minutes. There is a speed limit on the harbour but once we get outside the breakwater we can go quicker.”
“As fast as you can. Don’t spare the horses…or knots.”
“There is a cabin down below if you want to freshen up.”
“Thanks,” I said.
I followed his directions down the stairs to the large stateroom. Little Nelly’s engines fired up and I felt the boat vibrate as the propellers started to push us forward.
Locking the door behind me I put the bag of money on the bed and headed for the en-suite shower room.
I was shocked at the state I was in. The beating I had sustained was much worse than I realised. I ran the tap and took a towel from the rack and soaked it in cold water and dabbed it on my nose. I walked back through to the stateroom and retrieved a bottle of Vodka then returned to the en-suite, soaked the towel in the Vodka and gently dabbed it on the cuts on my face. It stung fiercely as the alcohol bit into the cuts but it did at least stem the bleeding. I looked at my poor battered face and wondered if I would ever look normal again.
Having done my best to clean up I returned to the stateroom. I took the PPK out of my pocket and did my best to re-tape it in my concealed position at the base of my back. I checked the Beretta. Sixteen rounds. With seven in the PPK I wasn’t exactly tooled up for the job in hand. Given the sizeable army Anatoly had dispatched to deal with me on location lord only knows how many battalions he had protected him on his floating palace.
I tried to put the thought out of my head and concentrate on my game plan. All said and done I would only need one bullet to kill Anatoly. As long as he was in mortal danger his goons would not react. I would have to get close enough that if the need arose I could take him hostage.
This was all fine in principal but as I had already found to my cost dealing with Roy, situations involving guns rarely went to plan.
With nothing else left to prepare I took the bag and headed up on deck to get some fresh air. By the time I got outside we had left the harbour walls and the boat was climbing onto its plane as it reached full speed. I watched as Monte Carlo disappeared behind us and hoped I would at least see it again. The sun was already setting and there was a sharp breeze.
It wasn’t long before La Perla came onto the horizon. Good to his word Little Nelly’s captain had made good progress, as we got closer I could see the small army of black suited henchman patrolling the deck with concealed SMG’s. I suddenly became nervous. There was a world of difference between being involved in a unplanned fire-fight and actually intentionally walking into one.
My only hope was that I would be able to negotiate a further discount off Anatoly and he wouldn’t take it too badly and would let us go.
Somehow I doubted it.
The captain started to slow down as we came alongside. Little Nelly’s small crew ran around and dropped fenders alongside the deck. Despite it being quite a sizeable tub it was dwarfed by the size of La Perla.
I discretely checked the Beretta I had procured from the French police officer and headed over to where they had lowered a gangway for me to board.
I walked gingerly across the narrow gangway and onto La Perla’s lower deck and was immediately met with two large Russian suited security guards. One of them went to frisk me.
“Don’t even think about it unless you want to lose fingers,” I told him.
Reluctantly he backed off and gestured me to walk down the corridor. I followed my security escort up two flights of stairs and into the main salon lounge. It was decorated with the opulence of a Tsars palace. We reached the large dining room, a lavish centrepiece dining table with seats for twelve. At the head of the table Anatoly was sat carving up his dinner.
“Ah our guest has finally arrived,” he said looking at his watch. “You believe in living dangerously.”
“Well who has time to be on time,” I replied.
“Please sit,” he said gesturing at the seat at the other end of the table. A suited waiter pulled out the table and I sat down. “You have to forgive me. When you weren’t on time I started on dinner.”
“Don’t mind me. Wouldn’t want to inconvenience your dining arrangements.”
“A drink perhaps?”
He gestured to the waiter who served a large glass of Krug. Despite my usual suspicions that Russians will poison you first chance they get, given the day I had just had I decided to drink it.
“Good yes?”
“A little feisty for my tastes but I’m quite fussy,” I said.
“Of course,” he nodded. “We have other choices in the cellar. You may get chance to sample them.”
“I wasn’t planning to stay for dessert and coffee,” I replied.
“Of course not. But you never know. Things can always change…” he said then frowned looking at my face. “Things seem to have got worse for you since our last meeting. I can assume you managed to catch up with our mutual friend Mister Roy?”
“Roy was no friend of mine.”
“Was? How interesting. How much your English grammar gives information away. You speak of him in the past tense which can only mean one thing.”
“Roy has wired his last plug,” I said.
Anatoly smiled.
“That is very good news.”
“I’m glad you think so. Now where’s Nick?”
“Please. I don’t like to do business deals over dinner. After dinner yes but dealing with talk of sordid coin gives me indigestion.”
“Well I’m paying for my boat by the hour so if you don’t mind…”
“Of course,” Anatoly said. He snapped his fingers and one of his guards walked over. He whispered in his ear and the guard departed out to the deck. “You won’t be needing it any longer. There’s no point in your crew waiting and getting bored,” he said and smiled.
I suddenly had a very bad feeling.
“You have the money?”
“It’s on the boat,” I said lying.
He laughed.
“Please don’t insult my intelligence. That’s quite a large handbag you are carrying.”
“I have the money. Now where is Nick?”
“Are you curious? Why we are here?”
“After today, not especially.”
“I do not mean here on the boat, I mean in our present situation?”
“No. I just want my man back. Then I want to go home.”
“Of course you do.” Anatoly put his knife and fork down. “The money?”
“Nick.”
Anatoly smiled.
“I do not think you are in a position to bargain with me right now,” he said. I pulled out my pistol with a flash and pointed it at his head.
“Really?” I said.
“There is no need for that my dear. We’re all friends here.”
“I’m having a really bad day. You have No idea, no idea what I went through to get here. So if it’s all the same with you. Please. Pretty please. Pretty-fucking-please with sugar on top get Nick so I can go home.”
“That’s not going to be possible I’m afraid.”
I sighed.
“And why would that be?”
“Because Mister Salinger is quite a resourceful gentleman. It didn’t take him long to escape my employees. Idiots that they are. I have no idea where he is. But clearly neither do you or you would not be here.”
“You lied to me? In the Casino.”
“I thought you were more intelligent. Remember our conversation. I deal in information.”
“False information.”
“Is still profitable. And here you are. With the money. So in this respect the presence or not of Mister Salinger is entirely academic.” He smiled.
My heart san
k. Not only had I fallen straight into Anatoly’s trap but Nick had escaped and he hadn’t stopped me from falling into it. Then I realised he had tried. The guy in the pizza shop who spotted him…the phone call to the hotel…Nick had been in Monaco looking for me.
“Why should I believe you? How do I know you didn’t just kill him and throw him overboard?”
“My dear, it makes no difference to me whether you believe me or not. It does not change the outcome that you are here with the money and Mister Salinger is not.”
“That wasn’t our arrangement.”
“Our arrangement terms can always be changed.”
“That includes me shooting you right now,” I said. Anatoly laughed.
“My dear put the gun down. You would not even get out of the dining room with your pretty little head intact. It is pointless to threaten me.”
Reluctantly I lowered the pistol down on the table. I downed the Krug.
“I think you like it better now. Yes?”
“So what now?”
“First I am going to tell you what you do not know. This is our deal. Information. For your four million you get information you did not have.”
“Actually it’s not quite four million but as you said, that’s pretty academic now so go on…”
I held my glass up at the waiter for more Champagne. He brought it over. I took the whole bottle off him and shooed him away.
“We’ll start with Mister Roy. As I mentioned at the casino Mister Roy came to our attention some time ago. You see Mister Van Sant was a very skilled subcontractor of ours and we had used him for frequent opportunities. So of course when Mister Roy decided to approach us as Mister Van Sant we saw through his deception straight away.”
“So why didn’t you take care of him?”
“As I told you, all garbage-men are useful when you have a lot of trash to take out.”
“Go on.”
“Of course we threw him some jobs. Difficult things that were too sensitive for us to deal with. Things with political consequences where an expendable asset is always useful. In such cases ironically Mister Roy became more useful than Mister Van Sant was. Not having knowledge of our business he was less than discrete in his choice of assignments, therefore should he ever be caught he would be simply dismissed as some charlatan.”
“Deniability?”
“Exactly.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded.
“It allowed us to be much more aggressive in our pursuits than we would have normally been. Unfortunately for us what we didn’t realise what that Mister Roy had a little puppet helper…”
“Me?”
“You my dear. And unlike Mister Roy it seemed you had quite a talent for our kind of business and were exceptionally good at not getting caught.”
“Thank you. I worked hard on that.”
“Indeed you did. We did actually consider approaching you for a more direct engagement of your services.”
“My rates are very reasonable,” I replied.
“Then of course like all bad children Mister Roy got greedy. He started to believe his own creation. He was no longer satisfied with being the garbage collector. He wanted to drive the garbage truck. Not really considering him much of a threat we decided to have a little fun at his expense.”
“The arms deal and terrorist plot?”
Anatoly laughed.
“Yes we let our imaginations run wild! And like a fool Mister Roy believed it all! He simply couldn’t wait to get his dirty little paws into our pot of honey. Of course such deals have a price of participation and Mister Roy didn’t have the funding for such a grand scheme…”
“But I did.”
“Indeed you did.”
I frowned.
“That’s all well and good. But why did he kill Vladimir?”
“You mean why did you kill Vladimir?”
“We’ve been through that,” I sighed.
“Well Vladimir was the negotiator and he was responsible for extracting the money from Mister Roy. Unfortunately my brother was less than discrete whilst drunk. He decided to boast to a young call girl who was an acquaintance of Mister Roy about the idiot he was about to con out of several million. When Mister Roy found out he decided to punish Vladimir…using his puppet…you my dear.”
“And?”
“Well of course we are not ones to let such small setbacks get in the way of a good idea. We convinced Mister Roy he had been mistaken. Should he have the appropriate funding there was a deal to be done. It was a win either way situation for us. We would either get the money from him…or from you.”
“So all this time you were playing both sides?”
“Of course! If one wishes to win one always plays on both teams.”
“And where does Nick fit into all this?”
“Where MI6 agents always fit in my dear. Having their noses in other peoples businesses. Unfortunately Mister Roy’s indiscretions started before he began his liaisons with you. Those indiscretions including some colleagues of Mister Salinger and his special American friends. They have been running around trying to figure out who to blame for this for many years.” Anatoly smiled. “And they still haven’t found their answer which is why you find yourself sat here now.”
“So where do I figure into this? Apart from the money?”
“As you said blood is thicker than Vodka, despite my brother having more Vodka in his blood than blood…he was still my brother.”
“Revenge? That’s it?”
“My dear, Revenge is for young excited men. I am old.No my dear, you are a young trinket, a plaything for me to amuse myself with on my voyage. When I am bored with you I will sell you to the highest bidder. Such a rare beauty has a good price for a place in many collectors harems.”
“Would you like to say that again in English?” Anatoly nodded.
Four of his men surrounded me with Uzi’s.
“As you can see you have no possible hope of escape. But let us not fall out over your predicament. You are my guest. I’m sure we will have a most pleasant voyage together.”
“I should have shot you while I had the chance.”
“Yes my dear, you should.” He smiled.
I looked down at the Beretta on the table. I stared at it wondering if I would manage to get an accurate enough shot off before the four goons surrounding me ripped me to shreds with their SMG’s.
“Do not even consider it my dear, even you are not that fast.” Anatoly said.
He gestured at the four guards. One of them walked across and put the Uzi barrel to my head while the other took away my Beretta.
“I just have one question for you.”
“Yes my dear?”
“Nick. Is he alive?”
“As far as I am aware yes. I promise you if I had killed him I would tell you. But sadly I did not have the satisfaction. Take her to my stateroom.” he ordered the guards. The two guards nearest me grabbed me and pulled me up. Anatoly smiled at me. “I will have the pleasure of you later.”
They dragged me down below deck to the large stateroom, threw me onto the bed and tied me to the headboard before locking the door behind them.
Chapter 29
THE SHOCK of Anatoly’s revelations took a while to sink in. The whole thing had been an elaborate con against the gullible, egotistical Roy. His vanity and stupidity had dragged us both into a sick game of chess played out for Anatoly and his associate’s amusements. There was no arms deal, Harrington Club or vast terrorist plot. It had all been fabricated for the most basic of motives - theft, to deprive me of my fortune.
While I was at least in part relieved to finally find out from a reasonably solid source - if you could consider Anatoly that, Nick was who he claimed to be - an MI6 agent. Anatoly clearly feeling secure in his floating palace had no reason to lie. As a former KGB agent he would have the connections to know exactly who Nick was. The confirmation brought me no comfort however since I had stupidly fallen for his cunning plan to trap me
whilst rescuing Nick despite the fact he had already escaped.
Why I hadn’t asked for proof he had him I do not know. It was stupid and reckless. My love and desperation to save Nick had blinded me to the simplest tradecraft of not believing others with motives that are unclear.
Anatoly probably didn’t care that much that I had killed his brother. It was just another part of his game of chess. He cared only about winning and capturing me - his brothers assassin and keeping me as his plaything. Like keeping a fearsome bird of prey he would prove his superiority at playing the game by holding me captive.
The prospects ahead didn’t bear thinking about. Being repeatedly raped, abused and humiliated by the despicable creature was a fate worse than death. I could only imagine what perverted acts he was planning to perpetrate against me. I felt sick.
I had survived every ordeal that Roy could throw at me and escaped the carnage of a train wreck only to end up captive on a luxury boat. A living sex doll for the amusement of a vile Russian gangster.
I tried to loosen my bonds but they had been very thorough and no matter how much I struggled all I managed to do was inflict more pain on my wrists. I still had the PPK. Stupidly they had thought I had only brought one gun - my Beretta and having relieved me of it in the dining room hadn’t bothered to search me. Unfortunately I couldn’t reach it. I only hoped I would have chance to release it before Anatoly got close enough to put his disgusting wrinkled old cock anywhere near me.
An hour or so passed. I lay on the bed and sobbed quietly. I felt the boat start to vibrate as the engines started and movement as the boat got under way. A couple of hours later after it had gone dark finally the key turned in the lock and Anatoly arrived to claim his victory prize.
I looked at him with contempt and disdain which only seemed to delight him further.
“Comfortable my dear?” he asked as he walked over to his wardrobe and started to undress. “There is no need to look at me like that. We both knew how this would end. You are most talented my dear but there is simply no substitute for experience.”
“Didn’t work for Vlad did it?”