Spyder Web

by Tom Grace

  Soft footsteps echoed from the mouth of the alley, measured and confident. The footsteps didn’t rush in, but moved with patience, closing the distance between them. About ten feet from her position, the footsteps stopped. Backlit from the adjacent street, the silhouette of a slightly built man wearing a hat became visible; the figure threw a long shadow across the alley floor. The head of the shadow fell in line with Roe’s concealed position. For what seemed like hours, neither one of them moved.

  The man casting the shadow finally spoke. ‘Anya, it is your old friend, Andrei. I am alone. You may come out now.’

  A sudden shock swept through Alex at the sound of Yakushev’s familiar voice. She’d prepared herself to fight or run, but not to face a ghost. Her mind froze and she found that she couldn’t move.

  The shadow drew closer, until the man stood before her. Half in light, he turned to face her. The harshly shadowed face was that of her mentor, Andrei Yakushev. Alex’s mouth opened, but no words formed to express the jumble of thoughts that filled her mind.

  Yakushev smiled at the sight of his protégée. ‘I see that you are full of questions. I understand. Come. I believe that you were on your way to dinner. If you don’t mind, I would like to join you and get reacquainted.’

  Yakushev threw his arms around the still-shocked Roe in a warm Russian greeting. Alex returned the embrace feebly, still waiting for her mind to reconnect with her body.

  ‘You look as though you’ve seen a ghost,’ Yakushev said jokingly. ‘I assure you that I am very much alive. Let us go now—there is much to discuss and little time before your British surveillance relocates you.’

  The firmness of her mentor’s voice finally brought Alex out of confusion. Yakushev turned away and began moving back toward the street. Roe collected herself and followed. She watched Yakushev practice the expert tradecraft that had made him one of the Soviet Union’s greatest spymasters. Not since she had been in training had the two of them prowled the streets of a Western city together.

  Sir Daniel Long was dining at 10 Downing Street with the prime minister when an urgent call came through for him. Excusing himself from the table, he took the call in a private study near the dining room.

  ‘This is Sir Daniel Long. What seems to be the problem?’

  ‘Eldridge, at the cottage, sir. Sorry about the intrusion, but Yakushev’s gone. We’ve searched, but he’s not anywhere on the grounds.’

  Yakushev’s disappearance caused a whole host of problems to emerge in Long’s mind. ‘How long since he was last seen?’

  ‘Near as we can estimate, sometime early this afternoon,’ the man explained. ‘Staff at the cottage say he was feeling a bit tired and went upstairs for a rest. That’s the last they saw of him. We still haven’t figured out how he got off the grounds or where he’s gone to.’

  ‘I have an idea where he might be headed. Continue your search of the grounds and surrounding area and see what you can find. Call in whatever resources you feel necessary, but try to use some discretion.’

  ‘Right, sir,’ Eldridge replied.

  Long broke the connection and dialed up the evening duty officer of the surveillance section. The line rang only once before it was answered. ‘Surveillance, Duty Officer Cain speaking.’

  ‘Cain, this is Sir Daniel Long.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’ Cain’s voice jumped to attention.

  ‘Cain, I need to speak with Neville Axton. See if you can ring him up.’

  ‘He’s off duty, sir, but I think I can reach him. Will you hold, sir?’

  ‘Yes,’ Long replied with some annoyance, ‘just get Axton on the line.’

  Long waited as the phone went quiet. On the other end, Cain brought up Axton’s directory listing on the computer and dialed the pager number. Two minutes later, Axton called in and Cain patched him through. The line buzzed for a second and then became clear as the electronic scrambling devices adjusted themselves to the new connection.

  ‘Axton, we have a potential problem that you need to be made aware of. An aging defector, one that we’ve had under wraps for several years, is missing. I suspect he’s making his way toward London, if he’s not already there.’

  ‘Do you think he’s heading for the airport?’ Axton tried to be helpful, but he didn’t see what place he had in dealing with an AWOL defector.

  ‘No, I don’t expect that he’s trying to leave the country at all. I do think he may make some trouble with the Kang Fa investigation. I assume you read the notice I sent you regarding Roe’s background?’

  ‘Of course, sir.’ Axton remembered reading the sanitized report that blandly stated that Roe had once been a KGB deep-cover agent.

  ‘The missing man is Yakushev, the chap who mentored Alexandra Roe back in Russia. I confirmed the connection between the two of them yesterday. Yakushev was very close with Roe, so I expect that he’ll try to warn her. Meet me down at the office in half an hour and I’ll fill you in on the details. In the meantime, inform your teams to be watchful for an elderly man trying to make contact with Roe. I don’t know what he’s up to, but it could be a problem for our operation. If your people spot Yakushev, bring him in immediately. Oh, and Axton?’

  ‘Yes, sir?’

  ‘Take care with him,’ Long advised. ‘He’s very dangerous when he wants to be, but I don’t expect that to be the case here. Try to get him to come back in willingly, before he reaches Roe.’

  ‘I’ll see what I can do, sir.’

  Long hung up the phone and made his apologies to the prime minister and the other guests. After collecting his briefcase and mackintosh, Long left number 10 and took his chauffeured car back to the office.

  Damn, he thought, what does Yakushev hope to accomplish?

  Yakushev had become visibly upset when he learned of Kang Fa’s involvement with Roe and Parnell. If Axton’s people were lucky, they’d find him before he reached Roe and brought the entire operation crashing down.

  51

  LONDON, ENGLAND

  May 14

  The British Airways Concorde flight from New York landed just before noon at Heathrow Airport. Phillip Moy had traveled alone on this flight, but he prayed that he would have a passenger with him when he returned. In the next seven hours,Moy would both betray his country and his life’s work in hopes of freeing his uncle.

  A few hours earlier, another British Airways flight had arrived at Heathrow. This one, from Hong Kong, carried several men bearing diplomatic passports from the People’s Republic of China. All of the new arrivals passed quickly through British Customs and Immigration, bearing the credentials of trade representatives. In the midst of this group of travelers was an elderly man who appeared very frail and tired.

  Moy checked into the Hilton, as directed, and began his vigil. Jackson Barnett had promised him security immediately upon his arrival in London. So far, he’d seen none. He knew that the promised security was out there, and hidden for obvious reasons, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was naked and alone.

  At 3:30, Moy heard a knock at his door. He answered and found a smartly dressed Asian with a firm,muscular build.

  ‘It is time, Mr Moy,’ the man announced.

  Understanding the summons, Moy grabbed his jacket and followed the man to the elevator. Once inside, the man pressed a button for a higher floor. They exited the car and walked down the long corridor toward a suite where two men stood guard beside the door. Moy saw Kang Fa’s security and wondered again about his own.

  One of the sentries frisked Moy while the others watched. The sentry nodded that Moy was clean of weapons and listening devices, and the lead guard allowed him to enter the suite. Inside, he found three other men who looked much like the one who had come to get him. None of them spoke or even acknowledged his existence; their attentions seemed to be focused elsewhere. Another man walked out of the bedroom, and at first, Moy didn’t recognize him. As soon as he turned to face him, Moy realized that it was Kang Fa.

  ‘You have finally arrived.
Good.’ Kang played the role of gracious host. ‘I assume that you will want to inspect the merchandise before completing our transaction?’

  The merchandise Kang referred to was a human being, and Moy resisted the urge to strike the man for such a disgusting remark. How dare he refer to my uncle like a commodity to be bought and sold! Moy quietly raged.

  ‘Yes, I would like to see my uncle.’

  Kang motioned with his hand. ‘He is in the other room. You have thirty minutes to hand over the codes.’

  Moy entered the bedroom and found a frail old man sitting on the edge of the bed. The man was gaunt, tired, and aged beyond his years by hard labor. Moy studied the man closely. His head was slightly bowed and he seemed not to notice Moy’s arrival. But the man’s face drew Moy in closer. His skin was like a faded parchment, but the features were so similar to Moy’s father’s.

  ‘Uncle? Uncle Huian? It is your nephew, Guanhua. Can you hear me?’ Moy spoke softly in his father’s native dialect.

  The old man looked up at Moy, and for the first time in many years, he tried to look outside of himself. Guanhua was a name he hadn’t heard in a lifetime, not since his nephew was a child. Before him, he saw the face of the man that his young nephew had grown to become.

  ‘Guanhua, is that really you?’ Moy Huian asked in a soft whisper. ‘I did not believe them when they said I was going to meet you. I thought it was just another of their tricks.’

  ‘It is no trick,’ Moy assured him. ‘You and I are here in London. I am taking you home with me.’

  Moy’s half hour with his uncle passed quickly and both momentarily forgot about armed men in the adjacent room. At the appointed time, Kang entered the bedroom, interrupting the old man’s quiet whispers.

  ‘Are you satisfied that this man is your uncle?’

  ‘Yes, and I am ready to complete our transaction. Here is the key to my hotel room and another for the safe inside the closet. Send one of your men down to retrieve a computer diskette and a cashier’s check from the safe. You will find all the passwords required to complete the file transfer on that disk. The disk also contains a list of all the files that you will need to duplicate the ciphering system. The list is written as a batch command, so once you log on to the secure computer, execute that file and the computer will do the rest. It should take no more than thirty minutes to download everything you’ve asked for.’

  Kang accepted the keys and turned them over to one of his men with a quick order to retrieve the disk. He poured himself a drink and offered one to Moy—which was declined. Five minutes later, the guard returned from Moy’s room.

  ‘Show me how to use the disk,’ Kang demanded.

  Moy sat down in front of the laptop computer on the desk and inserted the diskette into the drive. Switching over the diskette, he requested a listing of the file directory; only two files appeared. Moy pointed at the first file on the screen.

  ‘This one contains all the access codes to the computer. Just enter the codes in the order listed, and you will pass right through the machine’s security. The other file is a batch program that automates your file retrieval. This is everything you requested.’

  ‘Excellent.’ Kang pocketed the diskette. ‘I must leave you now. You will remain here with your uncle until the file transfer is complete. If everything is as you say, I will order my men to release you both. If not…’ Kang shrugged his shoulders.

  ‘I understand,’ Moy replied, studying his aged uncle.

  Kang barked out some orders to his men and left with two of them. The other three remained to guard Moy and his uncle. Moy hoped that Barnett’s forces weren’t too far away if anything went wrong.

  52

  Kang left his men with strict orders regarding their guests. Moy and his uncle were to remain in the bedroom with two guards in the suite and one posted in the corridor. When the call came, they were to be eliminated quietly. A cache of opium in the suite would cast the suspicion that the two dead men were involved in a failed drug deal. The Chinese embassy would denounce Moy Huian’s diplomatic papers as forgeries and provide documentation identifying him as an Asian drug smuggler. Phillip Moy’s reputation as a dynamic entrepreneur would be stained by an alleged link to organized crime and drug trafficking.

  Kang and his men took the elevator down to the hotel’s parking level and retrieved their rented car for the trip to Parnell’s office in Canary Wharf. Teams of agents, posted throughout the Hilton, monitored Kang’s departure, each seamlessly handing responsibility for tracking the Chinese agent to the next person.

  From a maintenance scaffold in the hotel’s parking garage, one of Axton’s watchers picked up Kang and his men as they left the elevator and located their car, a black Mercedes-Benz.

  ‘Team one to team two, Mad Hatter is moving,’ the watcher announced over his radio. Kang’s men paid no attention to the maintenance worker as they passed. ‘Black Benz pulling onto Park Lane.’

  ‘Roger, team one,’ team two’s lead answered. ‘We have him.’

  Axton and Mosley listened to the radio traffic of the watcher teams as they followed Kang Fa. Officially, Mosley was there to observe the British side of the operation, but, with the large number of CIA personnel assisting MI5 with the technical aspects of the sting, the two senior agents treated it as a joint venture.

  Axton’s people kept track of all the players moving about, while Mosley’s staff monitored the computer linkup between Chicago and London. If everything went well, British SAS officers would be making the arrests in a few hours.

  From Looking Glass, they could clearly see Parnell’s office. Below, thirty agents composing fifteen teams formed a net that would draw close around Parnell’s building. Mosley checked in with his line-monitoring crews while Axton followed the status of his watchers.

  On the streets below, Nolan Kilkenny and British agent Peter Stone were returning to Looking Glass after making a final check of the team monitoring the district’s telephone switching station. All the phone lines servicing Parnell’s office and flat were tapped by British Intelligence with equipment from Moy Electronics.

  Kilkenny and Stone blended in with the crowds of people milling about the street. As they approached Parnell’s building, Kilkenny noticed a work crew by a manhole, several delivery vehicles, and assorted cars. Looking closely at the crowds as they roamed, he began to pick out people who weren’t what they seemed. Despite the use of scarves and hats, he spotted the lightweight communications gear favored by the surveillance teams. A young lady in a pair of brightly colored running shorts and a tank top skated by on Rollerblades. Beneath her helmet, Kilkenny spotted a thin wire.

  Kilkenny identified twelve teams of agents stationed around the building. The path that Stone and he followed was circular, randomly doubling back on itself in case Kang had any of his own people in the area. The last circular sweep ended behind the office building where British Intelligence had set up their base of operations. They were about to enter when Stone got a call over his headset. Kilkenny waited while Stone received new orders and signed off.

  ‘Do you know anything about boats?’ Stone asked.

  Kilkenny smiled. After six years in the navy and a lifetime of sailing on the Great Lakes, he knew more than most people. ‘I can find my way around one if I have to. Why?’

  ‘No reason really.’ Stone chuckled at the absurdity of the story he’d just been told. ‘A few days back, we managed to “borrow” a slip in the marina underneath Parnell’s building. Parnell has a boat down there, and we want to make sure that every exit is covered. Our boat was supposed to be on-station by now, but its motor is running foul. They’re puttering a ways upriver, but they’re not going to be of much help to anybody. I’ve been ordered to suit up and take two men down to cover the marina. Axton has graciously asked if you’d be willing to give our boys on the boat a hand when they finally get here. There’s a small dock alongside the park where they’ll tie up.’

  ‘Sure, I’ll see what I can do,’ Kilke
nny said, accepting the assignment. ‘Beats waiting upstairs anyway. I don’t think your boss likes having strangers hanging around his command post.’

  ‘Axton’s a strange one all right,’ Stone agreed, ‘but he knows his business.’

  Stone walked Kilkenny over to the edge of the park where he was to wait, then bought him a newspaper. It was a pleasantly warm, overcast May afternoon with less than an hour to go before the file transfer was scheduled to occur. Kilkenny sat down on a park bench and began flipping through The Times while waiting for the troubled boat.

  Several boats moved along the river: a couple of tourist ships and a small barge. When Kilkenny was younger, his uncle had often taken him out to Belle Isle or the Saint Clair River to watch the great ships on days like this. He’d spent many afternoons along the shore, hoping to catch a glimpse of a thousandfoot freighter.

  An older man with a bag of bird feed strolled along the river walk and sat beside him on the bench. Soon a small congregation of pigeons flocked at his feet, waiting for the next handful of seed to be dispensed.

  ‘A lovely day, is it not?’ the man asked in thickly accented English.

  ‘Yes,’ Kilkenny replied, ‘though I wouldn’t mind a little more sun.’

  ‘Young man,’ the stranger’s tone became more serious, ‘why are you here?’

  Kilkenny feigned innocence. ‘I’m just sitting in the park, enjoying the day.’

  ‘That is not true.’ The stranger’s rebuke was firm, but not angry. ‘I have been watching you since you arrived. You are involved with a surveillance operation, but only as an observer. Officers of the British government are stationed all around that building.’ The old man nodded his head in the direction of several teams visible from where they sat. ‘I also believe the base of this operation is located on the twelfth floor of this building. Don’t bother to deny these facts or feign ignorance of them. I know them to be true. I also know that you are Nolan Kilkenny, from the United States. So I ask you again: Why are you here?’