The Russian's Greed

by Cap Daniels

  Changing tack, she folded her hands into her lap. “I understand this, and I am sorry for being so excited about the diamonds, but they make me feel like animal inside. Nothing has ever had this effect on me before. I love you for bringing such beautiful things into my life.”

  “You are welcome, my angel, and I am happy you are happy.”

  Daring to push the conversation even further, she asked, “Speaking of beautiful things that make us happy . . . When can we see Anya dance again?”

  29

  SLUSHAY KAMEN'

  (LISTEN TO THE STONE)

  Volkov’s gaze fell to the floor of his office at the sound of Anya’s question. “I don’t know. I have left several messages, but she won’t return my call. She’s still angry with me.”

  Anya turned in her seat to face him more directly. “I am certain she isn’t angry with you. She is only a child, and she has so much responsibility with the ballet company. How long will she be in New York? I would love to see her dance again.”

  “I’m afraid that will be challenging. They are scheduled in Chicago, Atlanta, and Miami on this tour, but I don’t know the dates. We will be very busy after we pick up the diamonds . . .”

  Anya stopped listening after his diamond comment. “Perhaps we can see her dance again next time she comes to New York. But I understand, the diamonds are important. When will we pick them up?”

  Seeming to surrender to her questioning, Volkov said, “When Shel finishes cutting and polishing them.”

  Anya leapt at the door Volkov had left ajar. “I have great idea!”

  Volkov recoiled. “There’s no need to yell, my dear. I’m right here.”

  “I am sorry, but I have brilliant idea. If I can see stones while Shel is cutting them, I can describe to him how they should look to match the ones in shops.”

  Viktor held up a finger. “Don’t go anywhere.”

  He stood from the sofa and nestled into his chair behind the enormous desk. With the phone in hand, he dialed the long number. “Sascha, stop Shel. Do not let him cut anything else until tomorrow when we arrive.”

  “We? Who is we, and why would I stop Shel?”

  “Anya and I will be in Yarmouth tomorrow morning, and she will work with Shel to cut the stones perfectly.”

  Sascha sighed. “I don’t know if this is a good idea. Bringing her here once was dangerous enough. She still has a lot to prove.”

  “I understand your concern, and with anyone else, it would be valid, but you haven’t seen her come alive when she works.”

  Sascha groaned. “She is an actress, Viktor. Lying to her audience and making them believe it is authentic. This is what she does. Yes, she has a magnificent memory, but there is so much more to what we do. Viktor, this is our life. Our everything. We have to be careful.”

  “Listen to me, Sascha. I’ve done this since I was ten years old. I know what I’m doing.”

  Sascha surrendered. “I know you do, my friend, but we have so much to lose. I am afraid—”

  “Yes, you are afraid, and no one can do his best work when he is afraid, so find a way, Sascha. Find a way to have faith in me. I need you, and you need me. We’re in this together, but never forget your position.”

  “Yes, Viktor, I am the minority shareholder, and you never let that fact drift far from my mind. Of course I’ll do what you ask, but in return, I want you to be careful for both of us.”

  Volkov gave a satisfied nod. “Good. I’m happy you haven’t forgotten. Anya and I will be there tomorrow, and Shel does not cut another stone until we get there. This is agreed, right?”

  “Agreed,” Sascha whispered. “No more cutting until you arrive. I will see you tomorrow, my friend . . . and majority partner.”

  Without ceremony, Volkov returned the handset to the cradle and slapped his hand on the desk. “Sascha is excited that we are coming, and he loves your idea. We will leave from Teterboro tomorrow morning at nine. I will pick you up at eight thirty.”

  “I’m so excited,” Anya said. ‘How long will we be there?”

  “Perhaps two days, no more.”

  “I cannot wait, and Gwynn can come to make Sascha feel better? I could hear only your side of conversation, but perhaps a beautiful woman would make him feel better. He puts himself under so much stress.”

  “You’re exactly right. He does put himself under too much stress. He likes to blame me for that, but he does it to himself. Yes, Gwynn can come. She will be a fine stress reliever for him.”

  * * *

  “What? Are you serious? No, I’m not getting on a plane with a history of women being thrown in the ocean. You’ve lost your mind.”

  Anya laughed. “You are not afraid, are you? Remember, we took an oath, and it is our job to stop these people.”

  “Yeah, I took an oath. I don’t know what that was you took this morning, but we are not the same. You can fight off a musclebound pilot and probably throw him out the door, but I can’t do that.”

  “Yes, I can do this, and I can also land airplane when he is gone, but there is something else I can do. I can protect you because you are my friend.”

  “Oh, boy,” Gwynn said. “Here we go again with the friend stuff. I don’t know. Regardless of what I say, it’s not up to me. We have to call Agent White.”

  He answered almost before the phone rang. “White.”

  “Agent White, it’s Davis and Anya. There’s a twist, and you need to know about it.”

  “Don’t keep me waiting. Spit it out.”

  Gwynn motioned toward the phone as it lay on the table on speaker.

  Anya wasted no time. “I am flying back to Nova Scotia with Volkov tomorrow to work with Shel, the diamond cutter, and Gwynn is coming with me to gather evidence. Oh, and thank you for my badge.”

  “I think you may have forgotten how this works. You don’t call me and dictate what’s going to happen. In this case, though, you guessed right. You’re both going, and you’re coming back with enough to put these guys away for a long time.”

  Gwynn said, “I want to go on the record here as saying if I get thrown off that airplane, I’m coming back, and I’m going to haunt both of you for the rest of your lives.”

  Anya let out a laugh. “I do not know about you, Agent White, but I am already haunted by so many demons I will hardly notice one more.”

  White said, “Trust me, Davis. You don’t want to live in my head. It’s dark and scary in there.”

  * * *

  Viktor Volkov was waiting on the curb when Gwynn and Anya emerged from their building, each with an overnight bag in hand. The driver kept his seat while Volkov ushered the women into the back. Traffic was light, and they pulled into the private hangar less than forty-five minutes after leaving Times Square.

  They slid from the car, and the bulky pilot who’d done the dirty work on the previous flight reached for their overnight bags. “It’s nice to see you again, Ms. Anya. Let me take your bags. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to them along the way, would we?”

  They climbed the stairs into the luxurious jet.

  “This is impressive,” Gwynn said as she nestled into the leather seat.

  Anya sat beside her and fastened her seatbelt. The flight attendant immediately handed Anya a blanket, and she looked up. “Thank you for remembering.”

  The woman lost her smile. “I never forget anything, and I hear the same is true for you.”

  Anya kept her smile. “I am simple actress, nothing more.”

  The flight attendant said, “Aren’t we all?”

  Volkov climbed the stairs and leaned into the cockpit momentarily. Neither woman could hear what he was saying, but unlike Gwynn, Anya didn’t suspect anything sinister.

  Just as they’d done on the previous flight, someone towed the Hawker jet from the hangar, and the engines came alive. The wait for departure was a little less efficient than the exit from the hangar. A long line of airliners and business jets strung its way from the departure runway down the
taxiway. After nearly half an hour on the taxiway, N111VV was finally cleared for takeoff, and the jet blasted into the sky like a homesick angel.

  As the jet and its passengers winged their way to the northeast, Anya mentally replayed the sleight-of-hand techniques Veronica had taught her. She couldn’t avoid replaying Veronica’s untimely departure from the flight, but she tried to banish that thought from her head. There were too many other things needing her attention, and she didn’t need distractions like a dead woman who enjoyed pretending to be French.

  Gwynn leaned over. “Uh, Earth to Anya. Where are you?”

  She shook off the mental film roll playing in her head. “I am sorry. I was thinking about my last flight.”

  Gwynn checked across her shoulder. “Well, how about staying in the moment . . . with me? I’d like to make the full round trip.”

  “Do not worry. I won’t let the big, scary man hurt you.”

  Gwynn scowled. “Don’t make me shoot you in the eye.”

  It was Anya’s turn to check for prying ears before she leaned near her partner. “You will not shoot me in my eye because I am now federal police officer like you, and it is federal crime to kill me, remember?”

  “I’ll claim self-defense, and everyone will believe me.”

  The landing was less elegant than before, but the pilots got the jet safely back on Earth and parked on the ramp at Yarmouth.

  Unlike the first flight, the flight attendant gathered everyone’s passports and handed them to one of the pilots. He held up the little blue booklets. “I’ll check us in, and you’ll be able to get off in a few minutes. It won’t take long.”

  Anya turned to Volkov. “We did not have to do this last time.”

  He subconsciously shot a look at Gwynn and back to Anya. “Sometimes, this is necessary. It will not take long. It never does.”

  The pilot returned with a customs agent who followed him onboard the Hawker.

  The agent gave a cursory glance around the interior. “Does everyone speak English?”

  Heads nodded, so he continued. “Welcome to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Enjoy your stay. You’re free to deplane whenever you’d like.” With that, he hopped down the stairs and disappeared inside the terminal.

  The pilot stepped from the cockpit again and handed Volkov his passport. He held up the other two. “I’ll hang onto these until we leave the country. We wouldn’t want you losing them all the way up here.”

  Neither passport was authentic, so Gwynn and Anya offered no argument. Everyone deplaned without issue, but Volkov spent another long moment conversing with the pilots.

  Gwynn’s eyes lit up when Sascha stepped from the Land Rover.

  He ambled over, ignoring Anya. “Well, hello, Gwynn. What a treat this is. I was hoping to see you again.”

  She shot a look at Anya, then turned back to Sascha. “This place is beautiful. Do you live up here?”

  He looked around. “This is an airport. You’ve not seen beautiful yet. Just wait until we get to the lake. It’s breathtaking.”

  Volkov and Anya climbed into the back while Gwynn slid onto the passenger’s seat beside the scientist. She was as enamored by the scenery as Anya had been on her first trip from the airport to the lab. Sascha manipulated the security keypads just as he’d done before, and they drove through the sally port and into the enclosure. Once inside the lab, Volkov led Anya directly to Shel’s workshop, where they found the old man napping in an upright position in his chair.

  Volkov cleared his throat several times with increasing volume each time.

  Finally, the diamond cutter opened one eye and then the other. “It isn’t polite to interrupt an observant Jew during his prayers.”

  “The only thing you were praying to was the inside of your eyelids. It’s time to go to work, you old relic.”

  “I’ll have you know that without this old relic, you’d still be”—he paused and gave Anya a glance—“doing whatever you did before I made you rich.”

  Volkov pointed to a second rolling chair behind Shel. “See if you can keep him awake long enough to cut my diamonds.”

  She took the seat and pulled a pen and paper from the desk. “I will draw for you first stone.”

  When she finished, Shel held the paper at arm’s length and studied the sketch. “This is a beautiful work of art. I hope I can turn this ugly old lump of carbon into something close. Young men who think they are master diamond cutters rely on electronic mapping software to plan the marking and cutting for them. A true master needs only his eye, his imagination, and his willingness to listen to the stone. They whisper to me, even in my sleep.”

  He went to work shaping the rough diamond and inspecting every surface after only seconds on the wheel. Two hours later, he wiped his hands and the stone with a delicate cloth and laid the diamond in Anya’s palm.

  She clamped the stone and studied its every surface through her loupe. “It is perfect, Shel. You are truly a master of your craft.”

  He blushed and rose from his chair. “An old man has to visit the water closet more often than a young man. By the time you have another sketch, I will be back and refreshed.”

  They repeated the process five more times with precisely the same result every time. Shel studied Anya’s drawings and listened to the stones as they claimed their shapes under the master’s hand.

  When they finished, Shel looked as if he’d aged a decade. “I have reached my limit for the day, my dear. If you have more diamonds in your beautiful head, they will have to wait until morning.”

  She stood and helped him from his chair. A kiss on each of his cheeks seemed to revitalize him as the worn expression drained from his eyes.

  “You know,” he said, “I once knew a woman as beautiful as you. She broke my heart a thousand times before she became an old woman. And then, she broke it a thousand more. I’ve been married to her for twice as long as you’ve been alive. Goodnight, my dear. Whatever you’re doing, please be careful. There are wolves afoot.”

  30

  ETO GAZ

  (IT’S A GAS)

  Gwynn stretched and forced her eyes open. “Where have you been?”

  Anya whispered, “I am sorry to wake you. I have been working.”

  “Working? On what?”

  “Go back to sleep. I will tell you in the morning.”

  Gwynn pawed at the nightstand and lifted her cell phone. “It’s already morning. Tell me what’s going on.”

  Anya sat on the edge of the adjacent bed and pulled off her shoes. “First, you must tell me what you learned.”

  Gwynn sat up and gathered the sheet around her. “I guess you already know what’s going on in this place, but Sascha is creating diamonds. It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t even bake a cake, and this guy’s baking diamonds.”

  “Yes, it is amazing. I cannot understand the science.”

  “Nobody can understand the science. Otherwise, the whole world would be cooking diamonds instead of crystal meth. It’s clearly Sascha’s baby. I think he may be the actual father of the process. If not, he’s at least its fairy godmother. He says nobody can do it in the sizes he can. He may have just been bragging, but if he’s telling the truth, this place is a gold mine. Well, I guess it’s actually a diamond mine.”

  Anya shivered. “It is cold in here. I must get beneath covers.” She undressed and slid into the bed, then adjusted to see her partner beyond the nightstand separating the two beds. “I have been with Shel. He is their diamond cutter.”

  “Is he as cute as Sascha?”

  “Perhaps he was sixty years ago.”

  “Oh, I see. So, what did you learn from this Shel guy?”

  Anya surrendered to the coming yawn. “He is not only diamond cutter. He is master of this craft. He made perfect recreations of the six diamonds I memorized from yesterday morning.”

  “How do you do that?”

  “How do I do what?”

  “Remember every detail of a diamond you’ve
only seen once.”

  Anya turned from enthusiastic undercover cop to a tortured little girl in an instant. “It is skill I was forced to learn as child. You know everything about my training at Sparrow School, as you call it.”

  “Yes, that’s where they taught you to get anything you wanted from a man by using, we’ll say, your charms.”

  “Our bodies. Not our charms.”

  “Yes, but I was trying to be polite.”

  “It is three o’clock in morning. Time for polite ended hours ago. Anyway, when a man begins to talk after tasting our charms, it is not possible to press record button or take notes. We must remember every detail and recite exactly what we are told to analysts. Sometimes, also, we are required to make mental photograph of documents and recreate these papers later. I excelled in this part of training. Perhaps it is because I was so happy to no longer be inside whore school. Using my brain is better than other.”

  Gwynn sat up straight, her interest piqued. “So, you can remember every detail of everything you see?”

  “Not everything, but if I choose to remember every detail of one thing, I can focus on this thing, and it will stay inside my mind for a very long time.”

  “Can you teach me to do that?”

  Anya smiled. “You must first go to Sparrow School. Obviously, you are not very good at this because you are in hotel room with me and not in Sascha’s bed.”

  Gwynn threw a pillow at Anya’s head. “Cut it out. I think he may be gay, or maybe he prefers blondes. He kept telling me how he doesn’t mix work with play.”

  Anya sat up and returned the pillow with much better accuracy than Gwynn’s effort. “This is exactly same thing Viktor tells me.”

  Gwynn shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe they’re more than just business partners.”

  Anya turned off the lamp. “I need to get some sleep. We will fly home later today with new diamonds.”

  She breathed in slow, rhythmic breaths in no time while Gwynn lay awake, piecing together the puzzle of Volkov’s operation.

  * * *