by Steven Gore
Ninchenko dropped Gage off at the apartment. He packed a few things to take on the boat, then made a cup of tea and imagined Faith lying in bed, on his side, where she always slept when he was away. He called their home number and pictured her reaching over to pick up the handset.
She answered on the first ring. “Graham?”
“How do you always know?”
She laughed. “When you’re in love, the ring sounds different.”
“You okay?”
“Other than worrying about you, I’m fine.”
“No need to worry. I’m almost done, but I’ll be traveling for a few days through an area without cell service.”
“Going where?”
“I better not say.”
He thought for a moment, searching for a way to reduce the uncertainty he knew she felt. “You recall what I had delivered to Jack in the hospital?”
“Let me think…in the hospital…” She laughed again.
He smiled to himself as they both said the word silently to themselves: Turkey.
CHAPTER 66
I think they finally made up,” Gage said to Ninchenko, as Matson and Alla walked arm-in-arm from the entrance of the Lesya Palace Hotel to the waiting Mercedes. “It’s a good thing. I wasn’t looking forward to them squabbling all the way to Istanbul.”
Gravilov’s enforcer, Razor, trailed Matson in a security car. Ninchenko’s driver followed them from two blocks behind and let the other two surveillance cars work the perimeter.
Matson’s driver wound his way east, northeast, then northwest to Artema Street, a mixed-use boulevard of offices, apartments, restaurants, and car dealerships.
Gage’s cell phone rang as they drove. It was Slava.
“I talk to Alla Petrovna father in Budapest,” Slava said. “He say he not have daughter. What you call disown. Look like she follow in father business, but not follow father.”
“Maybe it’s genetic. She must have a crook chromosome.”
Ninchenko chuckled.
“What chrome zome?” Slava asked.
“I’ll have Ninchenko explain it later.”
“Maybe American humor not translate.”
“Afraid not. Is everything ready for the happy couple?”
“Da. Nice room. No view.”
Ninchenko’s driver pulled over as they approached the end of Artema Street, then pointed toward the Madison Restaurant, a casual New York–style steakhouse and bar. Matson and Alla were walking in. Razor had parked his car on a street to the west of the building, and Matson’s Mercedes had swung in behind.
Gage directed the driver to position the van on the opposite side of Artema, with a view of the entrance and the long row of restaurant windows. Ninchenko then ordered his two chase cars to bracket Razor’s and the Mercedes, ready to freeze them in place while Gage and Ninchenko grabbed Matson and Alla as they left the restaurant.
“Are they too close?” Gage asked Ninchenko, tilting his head toward the chase cars.
“No. Many of the patrons bring security. Razor’ll think our men are merely comrades suffering in the cold while the bosses eat in comfort. He’s too arrogant for his own good. He shouldn’t have let himself get boxed in.”
Ninchenko handed binoculars to Gage.
Gage scanned the restaurant interior. Matson and Alla sat in an oversized leather booth in the wood-paneled restaurant. Down lighting from recessed ceiling coffers illuminated their table.
A wine steward approached to take Matson’s order, then entered the glassed-in circular wine vault. He made his selection, then returned to Matson’s table.
Matson swirled the wine, then tasted it and nodded.
“Matson thinks he’s a real charmer, a debonair man about town,” Gage said. “Look at his little pinky sticking out, like a society matron…He looks ridiculous.”
The wine steward filled Alla’s glass, then added to Matson’s.
Gage watched Alla’s face brighten as she reached across the table to clink glasses. She smiled, then slid around the table so that she was next to Matson and her back was to Gage.
The waiter approached to take their dinner orders and moved Alla’s place setting. She lowered her menu as if to defer ordering to Matson, then reached her arm through Matson’s and snuggled close.
“Suppertime,” Ninchenko said, retrieving a bag from the floorboard and handing Gage a sausage sandwich and a Coke.
After Matson and Alla’s dessert dishes were removed, Ninchenko signaled his chase cars. The four occupants exited the Ladas, two taking positions against the building out of the wind and lighting cigarettes, while the others simply stretched, then stamped their feet on the icy grass, their breath rising in swirling clouds that quickly condensed into invisibility. One walked up to Razor’s window and offered him a cigarette. Another approached Matson’s driver, holding out a flask of vodka.
Alla gave Matson a light kiss on the cheek, then walked toward the far left rear corner of the dining room and disappeared down a hallway leading to the restrooms. Matson left the table and followed the same route. A minute later Alla reappeared. She glanced toward the empty booth as she walked toward the coatroom. She retrieved a black, fur-collared overcoat, then walked toward the entrance.
Gage lost sight of her when she passed on the opposite side of the reception station, then spotted her again as she descended the concrete front steps. She looked toward Razor and the Mercedes, but Ninchenko’s men blocked her view. She then walked behind a large fountain near the entrance.
“Tell your men to stand by until Matson comes outside,” Gage said. “And get them out of here fast. We don’t want Razor thinking there’s anything left to fight over.”
Ninchenko gave the order as Gage looked toward the restaurant window. Matson had not yet returned from the restroom. A slight motion caught Gage’s eyes.
“She’s running! She’s running!” Gage yelled at their driver and pointed at Alla fleeing across Artema, and then said to Ninchenko, “Razor hasn’t noticed yet. Have your men keep him diverted.”
Gage fixed his eyes on Alla as their driver pulled away from the curb.
“What should we do about Matson?” Ninchenko asked.
“Nothing yet,” Gage said. He pointed at Ninchenko’s phone. “Keep your guy on the line and reporting what Matson does.”
They followed Alla as she cut south, then slipped into a small residential street running southeast. Gage lost sight of her until their driver looped around the block to cut her off, but she was already beyond them.
Ninchenko held his phone tight to his ear, then said, “Matson is back at the table, waiting for his credit card receipt.” He then pointed at Alla. “She’s fast.”
“One of our surveillance people in London said she was a jogger,” Gage said. “But how the devil did she know we were here?”
Gage felt anger rise within as he turned toward Ninchenko. “Did one of your people sell us out?”
“I don’t know—but we will know in a couple of minutes.”
“I don’t want her hurt. Leave it up to me.”
Alla slowed as she approached a group of theatergoers strolling toward the Zoloti Vorota Theatre, mixing into the crowd to conceal herself and catch her breath. The driver pulled over until she separated and began scampering farther south.
Ninchenko raised his hand as he listened on the phone. “Matson is walking toward the coatrack.” He looked at Gage. “What should we do?”
“Have someone go in pretending to be a friend of Alla’s from her hometown. Say she walked down to his apartment to say hello to his wife. She’ll be back in ten minutes. Have him buy Matson a drink in the bar.”
Ninchenko passed on the order as Alla cut onto a side street angling northeast.
“She’s heading back toward Artema,” Ninchenko said. “Lots of places to escape into. Apartments, stores, even embassies.”
“We better get her now.”
The driver sped up until he was ten yards beyond her, then cut int
o a blind alley to block her way. Gage and Ninchenko leaped out and grabbed her just as her feet slipped from under her when she tried to stop on the icy sidewalk.
Alla struggled against them, squirming, kicking, trying to shake free by wiggling out of her coat. She then went limp. Ninchenko smiled at Gage, but instead of loosening his grip, held her even more firmly, turning her coat into a straitjacket.
“Let me go!” she yelled in Ukrainian. “Let me go.”
Ninchenko covered her mouth. Gage pointed down the shadowed alley, and Ninchenko dragged her to the end. The driver backed in and then walked around to the rear of the van to tie her hands. They lowered the tailgate and sat her down.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” Ninchenko said. “If we were, you’d be gagged and hooded. We just want you to answer some questions about Stuart Matson.”
Alla’s eyes flashed, then she nodded and he removed his hand.
“Who are you running from?”
“Everyone.”
“Who’s everyone?” Gage asked.
“Shit,” Alla spat out, her face red not only from exertion, but now from anger. “Another fucking American.”
“That’s not an answer. You were just kissing an American ten minutes ago.”
“That’s nothing. I would’ve gone down on a toad to get that bastard.”
Gage glanced toward Ninchenko. “I think I made a mistake about her.”
Alla kicked at Gage, who skipped back a step. “You bet you did. Wait until my father gets ahold of you.”
“From what I hear Petrov Tarasov doesn’t have a daughter anymore.”
“Who are you?”
“Graham Gage. I’m a private investigator from San Francisco.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“Not Matson’s,” Gage said. “He’s trying to frame a friend of mine and I’m here to stop him. Where were you heading?”
“The U.S. embassy.”
“A little late in the day.”
“So what. They’ll open the door for me.”
Gage shook his head. “Not over a lovers’ quarrel.”
“It’s worse than that,” she said.
“How much worse?”
Alla shrugged. “How do I know you won’t send me back?”
“You can trust me on that. I’m not letting you go at all. Tomorrow you’ll be on a slow boat to Istanbul.”
Gage tensed, expecting her to kick at him again, or push off against the tailgate in a final attempt to flee. Instead she asked, “What about Stuart?”
“He’s next. I’ve already got him, he just doesn’t know it. He has something other people want and I need to stop him from turning it over.”
Alla laughed with frustration and disgust. “You’re about six months too late.”
“What do you mean?”
“What do I get?”
“What do you want?”
“The whole truth and to see that son of a bitch hung by his heels in Shevchenko Park.”
Gage glanced over at Ninchenko to see whether his picture of Alla had also turned inside out.
Ninchenko raised an eyebrow in response, then asked Alla in English, “What was your fight about the other day?”
Alla’s eyes widened. “It was…” She hesitated and looked back and forth between Gage and Ninchenko. “Why should I trust you two?”
Gage pointed back toward the street. “You notice anybody out there that wants to stop him besides us?”
“How do I know you don’t want to steal it?”
“Because I could’ve done that in California.”
“The fight?” Ninchenko asked again.
“It was…” Alla looked back and forth between them. “It was about what he’s really doing here. Before we came, he said he wanted to make an investment. But that’s not the truth, or at least not the whole truth. The investment had already been made.”
“Is that what the meetings in London with Gravilov were about?”
She drew back, then smiled as if Gage had walked in on her in the shower. “Have you been living in my flat and I somehow missed it?”
“No, just close by.”
“I wish I knew you were there.” Her smile faded. “This would all be over by now.”
“Unfortunately, your background suggested that you were carrying on the family business, or at least working for Gravilov.”
“He tried to recruit me to spy on Stuart. One Ukrainian to another. I didn’t want his money…that fucking gangster.”
“Does Gravilov know who your father is?”
“I don’t think so. I didn’t want to get caught in a crossfire between him and my father’s people so I used my ex-husband’s last name when he came by.” Alla looked down and sighed. “How did I get into this mess? All this time I thought Stuart was different, but he turned into the same kind of predator I was trying to escape from.”
“People fall in love with the same person over and over again,” Gage said. “It’s just the names that change.”
Alla looked up at Gage. “You must know my ex-husband.”
Gage shrugged. “Just a guess.” He circled back to the fight. “What investment?”
“Stuart, Gravilov, and Hadeon Alexandervich built a plant in Dnepropetrovsk, to manufacture missile guidance systems.”
Gage caught his breath. He felt as if life had been fast-forwarded and he’d blinked at all the wrong times. Rage mushroomed inside him, at Matson for his treason and at himself for failing to recognizing what Matson had been up to.
“Stuart got caught sending over military-grade video amplifiers, so Gravilov suggested that he manufacture them over here.” She emitted a bitter laugh. “Stuart liked to brag that SatTek can drop a missile into a coffee cup, but he never seemed to grasp that it’s people, not coffee cups, who get blown up.”
“How far have they gotten?” Gage said, keeping his voice steady, concealing his anger.
“They’ve already built fifteen hundred.” She glanced over at Ninchenko. “Stuart ordered the parts, mostly through intermediaries in Taiwan and Singapore, and shipped them over. Gravilov and Stuart fronted the money.” She glanced over her shoulder. “A FedEx box from Germany arrived at the hotel.”
Gage tensed as he said the words, “MMIC controller chips.”
Alla nodded. “The last five hundred. They were repackaged in Munich to disguise them as computer components. Gravilov’s bodyguard snatched them right out of Stuart’s hands and headed for the plant. All that’s left is to embed the software.”
“How do you know—”
“I studied engineering in college. I understand the process better than Stuart does.” She shook her head. “Putting weapons in the hands of these people is lunacy…sheer lunacy.”
Alla glanced in the direction of the restaurant. “Now what?”
Gage looked at his watch and asked Ninchenko, “What’s Matson doing?”
Ninchenko passed on the question, listened for a moment, then answered. “He’s still at the bar.”
“How’d you get Matson to tell you all of this?” Gage asked her.
“I told you what I’d do to a toad,” she said, unsmiling, “so use your imagination. And it didn’t hurt that Stuart has painted himself into a corner. Gravilov gave him a down payment of five million dollars for the software and Stuart’s afraid that if he hands it over, he’ll never get the rest of the money and they might even force him to give the five million back. He knows he’s already lost his investment in the plant.”
“Where’s the software?” Gage asked.
“Stuart told them it’s with his lawyer in London, but it’s really on his laptop. The idea is that he stays in Ukraine until the payment is wired into his account. Then he gives them the software and they’re supposed to let him leave.”
“Supposed to?”
“That’s what’s got him worried most of all.”
Gage looked at Ninchenko, who shrugged his shoulders as if to say, Use your best judgment. Then back a
t Alla. “Would you go back to him if I asked you to?”
She shook her head. “If they don’t let Stuart leave, there’s no way they’ll let me. Why not just kidnap him and the laptop?” She jutted her chin toward the restaurant. “I’ll make sure he cooperates.”
“Things have gone too far. We need to disable the devices so no one can ever use them.”
Ninchenko held up a finger and again listened to his phone. “Matson has looked at his watch a couple of times.”
Alla peered up at Gage. “You seemed to be good at following people. How good are you at rescuing them?”
Gage glanced at Ninchenko and smiled. “Even better. There’ll always be people just minutes away.”
“And if I say I want out?”
“We’ll get you out.”
She turned sideways and rolled her shoulder. “You’ll need to untie me.”
“You going to run?”
“No.” She flashed a smile. “I think I’d like a ride back.”
Gage nodded, then Ninchenko released her. Gage then pointed at the front passenger door and said to Alla, “You ride in front.”
She slipped down from the tailgate, rubbing her wrists, then walked around and climbed in. Gage and Ninchenko got into the back.
Alla turned toward them as the driver pulled out into the street. She locked her eyes on Ninchenko, and then tilted her head toward Gage. “I know how he fits in. What about you?”
“I work for an enemy of Gravilov—”
“I should have guessed.” She glared at Ninchenko. “The enemy of my enemy. It’s the Ukrainian way.”
“Except,” Ninchenko continued, “this enemy agrees with you and Mr. Gage. The devices have to be disabled. They mustn’t fall into the wrong hands.”
“They better be disabled, and fast.” Alla looked back at Gage. “You know what Stuart’s leverage for more money is?”
Gage shook his head.
“The video amplifiers are supposed to be installed in Ukrainian air-to-ground missiles next week. Like your Hellfires. Orders were placed. Part of the money has already changed hands. And they’re in a hurry to get it done. Hadeon Alexandervich is afraid the opposition will win the new election. Within weeks there’ll be a new prime minister and a new chief prosecutor. Hadeon Alexandervich knows he’s target number one. He wants the rest of his money. Now.”