by Tim Heath
“Good people of Russia, I’m here today to ask you for one final term in office. This honour, this Presidency of our beautiful nation, is not something to be taken lightly, nor something that everyone can do. Change takes time in a country the size of ours, and if you give me six more years to complete what I started many years ago, I promise that I’ll leave things in a much better place. Whoever I hand things over to in six years time, will have the chance to build on my legacy.
“It takes a political party to run a nation. I, of course, lead United Russia––I dream that we would be a united people––and I’m thankful to have such an experienced political force behind me, men and women who each day put your needs before governors and foreign nations alike.
“Can the same be said for my challenger? No, it cannot. He does not have a political party; there are no regional offices you can go to when you need something changed in the village or town where you live. If you are thousands of miles from Moscow what then?
“Do you think an actress of the charm and grace of Ms Volkov is best suited for a life in politics?” He had twenty seconds left. “Good people of Russia, I’m asking you to trust me with six more years. Let’s continue what you’ve helped me start.”
The studio lights dimmed for a moment––the indication that Putin’s time was up––but he’d timed his speech perfectly. There was silence. Putin handed the microphone to Matvey, giving him the slightest of pats on the back. Try and follow that one, loser.
“Fellow citizens,” Matvey started, “what you all did three weeks ago gives me hope. Over sixty-five per cent of you did not vote for this man beside me. In the previous elections, that was the percentage of the vote that he received. You have therefore already voted for change. Then have the courage of your convictions and allow me to complete the job.
“When I am elected President tomorrow night, I promise to lead this country in strength. This man beside me mocks the fact that I have no political party––yet that fact only means I can listen to you all. Communist or Environmentalist, it doesn’t matter. And to suggest that this is a weakness is shortsighted.
“There are many things Putin can look back on with some pride. I’m happy to acknowledge that before you all. There is also much blood on his hands. Situations that have been allowed to continue, Russian lives lost, families left suffering. I will not be like that. It’ll be different when I lead this country, and that is what you voted for three weeks ago.
“For those who didn’t vote for Putin but didn’t vote for me, you now have a choice. You’ve already declared you want to change. You backed your candidate because you didn’t want this man here given another six years. Well done. Now see it through. Give me your support in the same way you backed your own candidate.
“What Putin has failed to see, is that brilliant minds surround me. Some of the best political minds over decades came from the business world, as he should well know from his team. You can’t build a business empire as I have without such people. That is what I bring to the table. A proven track record without the baggage of all that has gone on these last decades. Ukraine, Crimea, Georgia, Syria. The assassination of a British agent in London itself.” Matvey looked Putin square in the face at that moment. For a second those watching edged even further forward in their seats, wondering if a fight was about to break out.
“When cancer gets discovered, it needs to be removed. It needs to be cut out of the body and destroyed. People of Russia––here stands that cancer!” and he was pointing at Putin, microphone dropping to his side, the presenter standing open-mouthed, before taking his prompt to continue the show.
Vauxhall House, London––MI6 HQ
Sasha came rushing in through the door to the office, Alex and Anissa turning to see what was the matter.
“You must see this,” he said, dropping the information he had received in front of them both. It showed that Duke’s was owned by Matvey Filipov, and had been in his name for decades.
“Jesus!” Alex let out. “It was him all along! He told me he had no idea where Putin met Price, stating it must have been in the car. All the time he was covering his own back.”
“Do you still think Putin had anything to do with the kill?” Sasha said, having thought it all through on his drive across town.
“I guess not,” said Anissa.
“If Filipov had control of that club, then he knew everything that was going on there. That’s how he knew about Price and Kaminski, that’s why he sent us that information.”
“And that’s how he knew Putin turned up to meet with Price,” Alex added to what Sasha had said.
“Exactly. Filipov saw his opportunity, the chance to silence two men in one hit.”
“Take out Price which would affect the British connection with Kaminski, and then make it look like Putin did it. He must have known we would look into it.”
“He didn’t need to. I asked him about it,” Alex said, “when he called me. He told me he’d found the proof that it was Putin.”
“He lied.”
“Naturally.”
“I guess he leaked the story to the press, too.”
They were all talking over each other but heading to the same conclusion. Matvey Filipov was far more dangerous than they’d ever realised. He had to be stopped.
32
Moscow, Russia
Voting Day
Turnout had indeed been higher than expected. Queues had formed outside some of the more than ninety-five thousand polling stations as, once again, the people of Russia voted for their next President.
Around the world, coverage focused on Russia, with constant updates and continuous online coverage giving viewers any information that came through. In London, the government was gathering for a special meeting. The news from MI6 had just reached them. There was little they could do at that moment until after the vote came in. Assuming Putin would remain in power, they would merely pass him the information and trust him to act on it.
In Washington, the American President was being briefed every half hour with news as it came through. He’d never met Putin since getting elected––rumour had it that there was a connection––but his encounter with Filipov in front of his own home still left chills running down his spine. It took a bully to know a bully. He’d instructed the NSA to do everything they had in their power to make sure Putin got re-elected. However, because the NSA’s link into the Basement had been compromised, influence was no longer possible, though they were not yet aware of that.
It was late in the night when results first got announced. Voting had taken much longer to count this time, given the fact that firstly there were more to count, and secondly that with just the two candidates, and margins so tight, they needed to make sure it was accurate.
As three o’clock that night passed, with no sign of things slowing down anytime soon, Putin had a two per cent lead with results as far west as Yekaterinburg declared. Kazan and Samara were expected anytime soon––cities that had voted mainly for Kaminski in the first round––and it was speculated what type of lead Putin would need before the capital’s vote was declared. Would the cities of Moscow and St Petersburg still mostly vote against Putin, or did Filipov scare them all the more?
By six the next morning the result got called. There were only just over one million votes in it––from a turnout of over ninety-million, a record for a Russian election.
Worldwide focus zoomed in on the presenter now in the middle of the stage of the Moscow studio. He looked tired and was running on coffee, but the announcement of the result was still the highlight of the night, and he would rally for one final push.
“The people of Russia have voted,” he started as if it was Eurovision or a twisted version of X-Factor. “With over ninety-eight per cent of the votes counted and verified, and with fewer votes left than the current difference between the two candidates, we can officially release the results now.” Most people watching added a drum roll of some sort, usually just thei
r pounding hearts as the presenter paused and now moved to a large screen that was apparently about to spring into life with the announcement.
“The next President of the Russian Federation is Matvey Filipov,” he said, the oligarch's name flashing across the screen for all the world to see.
Character Glossary
Who’s who in The Hunt series––as of the start of this book
MI6 - Alex Tolbert, Anissa Edison, Gordon Peacock (head technician), Charlie Boon, Zoe Elliot.
FSB - Sasha Barkov
Former T10 members - Mark Orlov (Grey Eagle), Roman Ivanov, Lev Kaminski (Lion Man), Vladimir Popov (the Priest), Matvey Filipov, Viktor Gavrilyuk, Dima Petrov, Yefrem Fyodorov, Valery Holub, Timur Budny (Iron Man)
Former T20 members - Foma Polzin, Arseni Markovic, Rurik Sewick (Mr Grey), Akim Kozlov, Aleksey Kuznetsov, Dmitry Kaminski, Motya Utkin, Andre Filipov, Dmitry Pavlov, Osip Yakovlev
Matvey Filipov––father of Andre Filipov, oligarch and Presidential hopeful.
Andre Filipov––son of Matvey.
Dmitry Kaminski––Presidential hopeful.
Anastasia Kaminski––wife to Dmitry, of Belarusian origin.
Pavel Kaminski––father of Dmitry.
Lev Kaminski––brother of Pavel, uncle to Dmitry, though raised Dmitry after Pavel’s death.
Sergej Volkov (the Wolf)––Billionaire and husband of Svetlana, with huge influence within Russia, though otherwise unconnected to the Games.
Svetlana Volkov (the Lamb)––Wife of Sergej, world famous actress and founder of the Games.
The Machine Leadership––Mark Orlov, Sergej Volkov and Lev Kaminski.
Author Notes
And so you’ve completed the fourth book in the Hunt series, bringing you bang up to date.
As I finish up on this latest instalment (in March 2018), the backdrop of real life couldn’t have been more similar had I tried. A former Russian spy has just been attacked with a nerve agent in Salisbury, UK, and the British have accused the Russians of a State-sponsored attempted assassination. Diplomats have been expelled from both countries, and the papers are calling it a return to the cold war. What a build up, therefore, to the first part of a new trilogy (unusually this time, I haven’t yet written the next books, so I have much to reflect upon). Fear not, I plan to write and release both of these books before the year is out.
This book is my seventeenth title in total, and novel number eight. Have you read everything else yet? If not, there is plenty to keep you going until the next book in this series is ready. I’ve listed what’s currently available on the following pages. Do let me know what you think. And do let me know what you made of this one––I’ve added my usual plead for a review in the next section, but make mention of that also here. Reviews do help, especially as I advertise more. I also regularly use reader comments in marketing material, so you never know, maybe your words will be shared with many others.
What excites me about this piece of real estate––prime placement at the end of a book––is that I know you are the perfect type of reader. Someone who has just finished a book, hopefully still with a smile on your face, and lapping up these last few pages. So I want to give you something here that you might not see anywhere else––after all, you deserve it. You are precisely the reader I want to get to know, want to offer interesting insights to, and want to have you feel special and appreciated in the process.
I write most locations from first-hand experience. Thinking back across this series so far, for example, I’ve taken characters to the US states of Montana and Washington. They stayed on a ranch and in a mansion––both places I’ve personally visited myself. I’ve had agents meet up in Oslo and Tallinn––again, I’ve been to the airport in Norway, and if you didn’t know already, we live in Tallinn. During Games events, characters have walked the streets of Paris and Almería, both places I also walked, streets I put into the action of each scene. We can't forget that St Petersburg forms a massive backdrop for the entire series (as it does for The Tablet, also). My family lived there for the nearly four years that preceded our time in Tallinn (for which we’ve been over six years already).
In Estonia, and as covered in this book, they’ve recently celebrated the 100 years of being a nation. That event, maybe more so than most, featured highly in this book. On the day itself, I couldn’t help standing at the entrance to the car park at Freedom Square, with rows of tanks in front of me, and seeing in my mind Alex running down the ramp as he races towards the car park. I took plenty of photos and videos on the day, and these will be posted in the Facebook group no doubt shortly, so if you want to put some images to the story, feel free to check them out. I can tell you it was a freezing day this year!
There are many ways to stay in touch and hear when my latest books have hit the shelves. You can follow me on any/all of these:
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If you follow me on any of the above, each time a new book of mine is ready, they’ll email you and let you know. Try it; it works well.
The Importance of a Review
Now you know!
Reviews should be automatic. Think of it as a tip left for the waiting staff after a meal out. Except, the book you’ve just devoured wasn’t prepared in just the last twenty minutes––the author has possibly spent months agonising over it.
Sadly, very few people leave a review.
Reviews greatly help an author. They do not need to be wordy (but they can be), you do not need to talk about all aspects of the book (but you can if you wish), they just need to be there. Visual. They help other readers to choose a book, thereby increasing the author’s readership. They also affirm, encourage and assist the author in keeping going. There are days when you just want to quit.
So now you know. I make it a matter of principle always to review a book I’ve read––how about you?
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Acknowledgments
I want to thank God for the gifts He’s given––all I can do is use them to the best of my ability. He requires nothing more.
I want to thank the fantastic team of people around me who help me at each of the levels of edit and scrutiny through which this novel has gone. All remaining errors are purely my fault (you are welcome to email me and let me know––I’ll make corrections so that future readers don’t find what you found).
Thank you to my wife Rachel, for always believing in me. You’ve cheered me on, supported and released me to get where I am today, for which I am so thankful. I’m always aiming higher, always wanting more––which isn’t a bad thing––but you help me celebrate the little victories now. We are nearly through this challenging season––you’ve done so well! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed this book.
Thanks once more to my editorial team; the brilliant Elizabeth Knight and Chelsea Bielskus.
Thank you to Taaniel Malleus, again blowing me away with a cover of the highest quality––it was a winner the moment I saw it sent through in his first batch of designs.
Thanks in advance to my ART and BETA reading teams––your keen eyes and minds have often spotted things that had been missed, saving me from needless errors. I appreciate every honest review you have written, and have drawn enormous encouragement from each one.
Finally, thank you, the reader, for buying a copy, for reading it, and hopefully anticipating what is to come next.
The Hunt series concludes (Books 5&6)
The Machine starts a brand new three-part trilogy within The Hunt series world, with the final two books planned
for release (all being well) before the end of 2018.
The titles are:
The Menace
The Meltdown
Books By Tim Heath
Novels:
Cherry Picking
The Last Prophet
The Tablet
The Shadow Man
The Prey (The Hunt #1)
The Pride (The Hunt #2)
The Poison (The Hunt #3)
The Machine (The Hunt #4)
Short Story Collection:
Those Geese, They Lied; He’s Dead
The Boxsets––Tim Heath
Buy in bulk––and save!
The Hunt Series (3 Complete Novels)
Tim Heath Thriller Collection––4 Stand-Alone Novels