by John Case
In lights above the bank across the street, a sign blinked the time and temperature: 4:03 0°. Twilight and freezing. At least officially. In reality, it was raining one minute and snowing the next. Then it would turn into something in between, a sort of flying slush. Whatever it was, it stung his eyes as he gazed into the wind, screwing his face against the ice, blinking hard.
It was his own fault. He’d forgotten to bring the book, and now he was paying for it. He could see it, almost as if it were right in front of him, sitting on the table in the kitchen: a solid rectangle, neatly wrapped in brown butcher’s paper, taped, and tied with string. Addressed to the shop in Boston, all the book needed was a couple of stamps and a Customs form, and it could go on its way. Only now, because he’d forgotten it, he’d have to go back to the apartment and pick it up.
He’d left about forty-five minutes ago, with a list of errands in his head: uskadar post office toilet paper prayers. The idea was to have a cup of coffee at the Uskadar, a small cafe on a side street not far from the mosque. Like most of the cafe’s customers, the coffee was Turkish, and it wasn’t very good. But the owner was a “Bosniak,” and like Bobojon, he loved football. So there was always a match on the TV, high up on the wall behind the counter, and workmen watching.
The cafe itself was less than a mile from his apartment, but if he walked back home to get the book, the post office would be closed by the time he returned. Finding a cab could be difficult, though, especially since it was raining. Taxis were never plentiful in “SO36” – the down-at-heels neighborhood that Bobojon shared with nearly two hundred thousand “guest workers,” mostly Turks and Kurds. It was the old postal code for the eastern half of the Kreuzberg district, where Checkpoint Charlie was a tourist attraction.
He might as well go back to the cafe. He could mail the book in the morning and no one would care. The decision made, he was turning to leave when, out of nowhere, a taxi sluiced up to the curb, windshield wipers thudding back and forth. The driver leaned across the seat to the window, and looked up at him. “Wo zu?”
Jurgen preferred to work alone, and he usually did. But today was different. Today, he needed a partner.
They had been waiting outside Simoni’s building for twenty minutes, sitting half a block away in a black BMW with a broken defroster, windows dribbling with steam. They did what they could to keep the windshield clear, wiping away the fog with the front page of Bild, a tabloid newspaper. The headline read “Turbo Orgasms” and came with the picture of a brunette who appeared to be having one.
It was all a little embarrassing. And that was unfortunate, because Jurgen wanted to impress the woman in the seat beside him. Clara was new to the BfV. What must she think? First the defroster and then this turbo person! Of course, she pretended not to notice, but … mein Gott!
In the end, they just rolled down the windows, pulled their coats close, and froze.
The thing about today was, they didn’t know what the target looked like. All they had was a name (Bobojon Simoni), an address, and a telephone number. For all they knew, Herr Simoni was twenty years old. Or forty. Or sixty. He might be tall or short, fat or thin. Well dressed and bearded. Tie-dyed and clean-shaven. But a Bosnian – or someone traveling on a Bosnian passport.
Jurgen couldn’t work it alone – there was just no way to be sure the flat was empty. Sometimes people didn’t answer their phones. Sometimes they sat in the dark or napped on the couch. So he’d use the Wachtturm ploy. Go up to the door, and knock three times. If someone opened the door, he’d give him a handful of tracts and a copy of the der Wachtturm. Then Jurgen would launch into his spiel about Jehovah’s Witnesses and the end-times. Most of the time, the door would slam shut in their faces, and that would be the end of it. But not always. Wind him up with a couple of beers, and Jurgen would tell you how he’d converted a member of the Red Brigades to Jesus.
He checked his watch. Five after four. It would be dark soon. He dialed the flat for the third time. Again, no answer. He turned to Clara. “Shall we?”
She made a face.
“C’mon,” he said. They got out of the car.
She was a pretty woman, maybe ten years younger than Jurgen himself, and he wanted her to think well of him – and of the BfV. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution was an elite intelligence service whose main responsibility was tracking extremists – left, right, and religious. Clara’s former employer, the BKA, was the criminal police. The BfV was different. Sexier, somehow.
As they crossed the street to Simoni’s building, heads down against the weather, it occurred to Jurgen that most people would take them for social workers, what with their battered briefcases and woolen overcoats. And that was good, because nothing could be more ordinary. Social workers were to Kreuzberg as steelworkers were to the Ruhr.
She would install the bug while he searched for a computer. If he found one, he’d clone the hard drive to the laptop in his briefcase. The whole business shouldn’t take more than ten minutes, but of course, it would seem like hours. It always did.
The only question mark was Simoni himself. They had no idea where he was or when he’d return. Two days earlier BfV had received a query from Malaysia, a flash cable from the CIA station chief in Kuala Lumpur. During a recent debriefing, a foreign national detained under Malaysia’s Internal Security Act indicated that an attack on U.S. property and personnel was imminent. Simoni was implicated in a communications capacity.
The BfV got to work immediately. Within twenty-four hours, they were able to establish that Herr Simoni had entered Germany on a Bosnian passport. He’d come to Berlin from Beirut about six months earlier, and rented a two-room apartment at Oranienstrasse 54. Soon afterward, he opened a passbook account at a local branch of the Dresdner Bank, where his monthly balance averaged 936 euros. Though he did not appear to have a job, neither was he receiving public assistance. None of the informants at the Mevlana mosque were familiar with a person of that name. Inquiries were continuing.
The flat turned out to be a walk-up on the third floor. Jurgen was puffing when they got to the door, so it took him a second to catch his breath. When he was ready, he opened the briefcase he was carrying and took out a handful of religious tracts. He gave a couple to Clara, then broke into as bright a smile as his tobacco-stained teeth would allow, and rapped smartly on the door. As far as they knew, Simoni was living alone, but you could never be certain. Maybe he got lucky the night before. Maybe he had a dog. Maybe … nothing.
The flat was quiet as a stone. Jurgen gestured for Clara to step aside, and when she did, he got out his kit and picked expertly at the lock. A few seconds later, and they were in.
“I’m right back!” Bobojon declared. “I get package, we go post office!” The driver shrugged. Bobojon climbed out of the cab and bounded up the steps to Oranienstrasse 54.
Inside, the smell of cabbage hung in the stairwell, buoyed by an updraft of Arab music flowing from the janitor’s apartment in the basement. Bobojon didn’t mind the smell. If anything, it reminded him of home.
He took the first three flights of stairs two steps at a time, then paused to catch his breath. He was in okay shape. Not like when he’d just gotten out of prison, but not bad, either. He walked everywhere in Berlin, even in the winter, and worked out at a kickboxing studio four nights a week. So it only took him a moment to get to his door.
He fumbled for the key in the pocket of his coat, came up with it, and turned it in the lock. To his surprise, the door didn’t open. So he turned the key again, the other way, and then it did. For a moment, he stood where he was with a frown on his face, thinking he must be losing it. How could he go out without locking the door? And then the answer came to him: He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. So he pulled out the little gun that he carried, a Makarov, and stepped inside.
A young woman – maybe twenty-six, nice-looking, short brown hair, net stockings – was standing frozen at the kitchen table with a look of horror on her face. The telephone was on t
he table in front of her, disassembled, the speaker and earpiece next to the handset. Beside the phone was his package. He didn’t stop to think about it. His gun came up and, almost as a reflex, he shot her in the face, tearing a hole in her cheek, then fired again as she fell, blowing a chunk out of her neck. She did a sort of pirouette before she fell. Suddenly, blood was everywhere – on the walls and the floor, on the side of the sink. Clawing at the linoleum, dying to get away, she was at the epicenter of it all. And Bo felt sorry for her, he really did. But he shot her again, this time in the back. Finally, she lay still. By then, his heart was a jackhammer, so loud in his ears that he almost didn’t hear the gasp that came from his left. Turning toward the noise, he saw what looked like Christian religious tracts falling to the feet of a man with a Glock. There was no time to react. Bobojon could almost feel the man pull the trigger. It didn’t even take a second, but the moment lasted forever and, in it, Bobojon realized where he’d seen the tracts before – in Allenwood. Then the Witness pulled the trigger a second time. Bobojon felt the side of his face explode as the bullet spun him around and sent him staggering. For a moment, he was bright with pain. Then his legs gave way and he sank toward the floor. The Witness kept firing, tearing new holes in him, but by then, Bobojon could feel his body shutting down. The gunshots sounded farther and farther away as a red mist fell like a curtain behind his eyes. Oh shit, he thought, I’m dying. …
Fourteen
Odessa, Ukraine | March 3, 2005
WILSON SAT BY himself in the hotel’s lobby, drinking tea while he waited for Belov. It was midafternoon, and the lobby was suffused with a wintry light. Zero and Khalid were playing backgammon at a table near the door, occasionally looking up in annoyance at a tour group of Orthodox Jews, who were arguing with the desk clerk in a language Wilson didn’t understand. Nearby, a couple of businessmen sat on the edge of a white leather couch, reading newspapers.
It was three o’clock when Maxim Pavelovich Belov arrived, brushing the snow from his shoulders. Seeing him, it occurred to Wilson that he looked like a million bucks – or about two percent of his net worth. (Wilson had Googled him the night before.)
A former KGB major, Belov wore a Savile Row suit under a black vicuna overcoat, and a sable hat of Soviet army design. Snowflakes sparkled in the fur. According to a report by a UN investigating team, he was forty-three years old and held an economics degree from the Institute of Social Relations in Moscow. He was also one of the largest small-arms dealers in the world, having gotten his start flying South African gladiolas to Dubai, where the flowers sold for ten times what he paid for them.
Striding directly over to Wilson, Belov pulled off his gloves, clicked his heels with a look of bemusement, and held out his hand. “Welcome to Evil Empire!” he said, his voice filled with gravel. “Or what’s left of it. Did you enjoy yourself last night?”
Wilson got to his feet and shook the Russian’s hand. A low-pitched buzzing sound emanated from an improbably pink pair of earphones dangling from Belov’s neck. White Stripes. “I was surprised when you didn’t meet the ship,” Wilson told him.
Belov laughed. “I never ‘meet ship.’ Maybe you smuggle drugs. Viagra, even!” He laughed again. “That’s all we need. You ready?”
Wilson nodded. With a heads-up to Zero and Khalid, he followed Belov out to the street, where a pair of Cadillac Escalades idled in the snow, their windows gray with steam. A small flag flew from a plastic standard on the passenger-side fender of each car. The flags consisted of a black field, emblazoned with a silver sheriff’s badge – the kind with a six-pointed star.
It was odd, Wilson thought, but so was the way the Russian came and went without bodyguards. Then he saw that this wasn’t actually true. As he got into the back of the second Escalade, he saw the “businessmen” from the lobby, the ones who’d been sitting on the white couch, climb into the car ahead of him. Apparently, they’d been watching him for more than an hour before Belov himself appeared at the hotel.
One by one, each of the car doors slammed shut against the sleet. Belov slapped the top of the seat in front of them – two quick raps with the palm of his hand – and the cars pulled away from the curb.
“First time in Odessa?”
Wilson nodded. The car was soundproofed or armored, or both. He couldn’t tell. Either way, it had the feeling of a cocoon.
“You see Steps?”
“Yeah.”
Belov sat back in his seat. “First time I see Steps, I cried. Not like baby. But … I’m wet in face. Maybe you feel same way when you see Statue of Liberty. No?”
“No.”
Belov laughed.
The SUVs gathered speed as the city petered out into farmland, the earth fallow under a blanket of snow and litter. They were heading away from the sea, moving inland over a road that needed repairs. “So how do we do this?” Wilson asked.
Belov shrugged. “Easy. First, we go nowhere.”
Wilson shot him a look.
“No joke. Place we’re going … this place doesn’t exist.” He cocked an eye at Wilson. “You know Transniestria?”
Wilson shook his head.
“I rest case,” Belov said. “Ten, fifteen miles. Like being on moon.”
“Why is that?”
Belov thought about it. Finally, he said, “Perestroika! Remember? Means, ‘restructure,’ I think.”
Wilson nodded.
“First thing, big cutbacks for army. Then Wall comes down. Soon, everything comes down. No more Evil Empire, okay?”
Wilson nodded a second time.
“Okay. So, soldiers come home. Cuba, Germany, everywhere – it’s hasta la vista! But now, we have big surpluses. Tanks and APCs. Artillery! Choppers, rockets. Mortars, missiles. Antiaircraft guns. They have to put surplus somewhere, right? So where do you think?” Belov raised his chin toward the windshield. “Transniestria.”
As they neared their first checkpoint, the Russian explained that Transniestria had been a part of Moldova, which, in turn, had been a part of Romania until the end of the Second World War. Annexed by the Soviet Union, Moldova declared its independence when the USSR dissolved. Russian troops remained where they were, however, on Moldovan territory east of the Dniester River. That was fine with the locals, who liked the idea of an independent state allied with Moscow. And so Transniestria became what diplomats like to call “a fact on the ground.”
The only problem (other than the country’s extreme poverty) was that almost no one recognized it. This meant that its citizens were effectively stateless. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, Transniestria doesn’t exist.
“Transniestria, he is No-Man’s-Land,” Belov said. “Big problem. No country, no trade. No trade, no money. So everyone is poor. Not good. Someplace else, normal poor country, poor is okay. Look at Argentina. Africa! People get in line to give money. IMF, World Bank, Soros. Morgan Stanley! Here? No! No country? No help! All you can do is leave. Except you can’t leave, because to leave, you need passport. And Transniestrian passport, this is like cartoon.”
“So what do they do?”
“They get passport somewhere else. In Russia, maybe, or Ukraine. Third best is Internet. You’d be surprised how many Knights of Malta living in Tiraspol.”
“What’s Tiraspol?” Wilson asked.
Belov did a double take. “This is capital of Nowhere,” he explained. “Maybe twenty miles now. But first, airport. I show what you’re buying!” Belov told him. “You see with eyes!”
Wilson’s shoulders heaved. “If you tell me it’s all there, I’m sure it’s fine.”
Belov slapped Wilson on the knee, and guffawed. “I never do business this way! First time! So tell me, what happens? You land in Congo. Client opens crate. And – uh-oh! Is grapefruits! What then?”
“Well,” Wilson said, “then I’d have a problem.”
“No shit!”
“But that won’t happen,” Wilson told him, “because then you’d have a problem.”
&
nbsp; Belov looked surprised. “With you?” he asked. The question was almost cheerful.
“Of course not. I’d be dead by then.”
“Is true! You’d have red hole.” The Russian tapped his forefinger, three times in rapid succession, against his forehead. “Right here.”
“I know.”
“So … for me? I don’t see problem.”
“You’d have a really basic problem,” Wilson said, punning on the only Arabic he knew.
Belov looked puzzled for a moment, and then he chuckled. “Is good joke. ‘Basic.’ You mean al-Qaeda.”
“Well, Hakim and his friends.”
Belov nodded. “True.” The Russian pursed his lips. After a moment, he said, “So! We go to airport. Maybe you don’t know guns, but you know grapefruits from grenades, right?”
Wilson laughed. “Yeah,” he said. “Grapefruits are pink inside.”
“Okay, so you see crates, and later, maybe you talk to Hakim. And you tell him: ‘No pink.’”
The Tiraspol airport was nothing like Wilson expected. He’d imagined the kind of airstrip you find in the Caribbean: a ribbon of asphalt running past a cinder-block terminal. But what he found, instead, was a military base with barracks and hangars, and runways capable of handling the biggest cargo planes.
Chain-link fences, four feet apart, circled the base. Each was topped with razor wire. The Escalades came to a stop in front of a guardhouse, and cut their engines. A soldier appeared beside the car, and ordered the driver to roll down the window. As he did, a second soldier examined the undersides of the Escalades, using a mirror attached to the end of an aluminum racing jack.
Belov and the soldier chatted in Russian for a bit, then the soldier saluted and waved them on. Leaving the road, they followed a dirt track that ran beside the fence for half a mile until it came to an end at a hangar on the far side of the airfield. Belov motioned for Wilson to follow, then put up a hand when Zero and Khalid began to follow.