The President's Fixer: (A Financial and Conspiracies Thriller – a prequel to the Legacy Thriller Series)

by William Wield

  ‘Still that’s all good news. It should give us an opportunity to actually locate this Athena shouldn’t it?’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Silayev, ‘though of course it doesn’t have to be physically there to be launched but for us to steal it we really do need to have a physical location.’

  The rest of dinner was spent in their getting slightly drunk whilst indulging it more speculation as to where this lost Athena might have been moved to. They were just sober enough, however, to realise that all of this was just guesswork and that only careful investigation and maybe a sprinkling of luck would actually reveal its whereabouts.

  * * * * *

  Early Thursday morning Komarov got onto his contacts in both the FSB and the SVR to focus searches of various kinds for quantum computers and to hunt for the name Athena in relation to the Bank of England conference. The searches were disguised so that not even the UK’s GCHQ or the NSA in the US would be able to tell who was making them. After half a day spent on this, both organisations had come up with a fair quantity of data and all of which was sent back to Komarov. He would need to sift through it, some of it useless and extract anything that he thought looked useful.

  Silayev who had to make do without the Russian State’s huge surveillance and databank resources but used his network of organized crime and the worldwide Mafiosi brotherhood for his searches. All of these resources needed to be used carefully, as it had happened before that a simple request for assistance had turned into an idea being taken over by those who had simply been asked for help.

  But it was little wonder the Russian searches were making no progress. For when, some months back, Angus Macrae had realised that Athena’s location would be bound to become a major search for many hacker teams, he had taken steps to hide both it and the team away from London, and he had done so with careful thought and planning.

  He had moved the quantum computer, the two immensely powerful digital super-computers and all the other equipment used directly by the Athena program in two separate moves and by different carriers. The members of the Athena team were given generous financial assistance for their travels and were told to make their own arrangements and go north singly or in pairs at the most. Their baggage and other personal belongings were moved for them to Crinan from where it was ferried out to the island of Craithe by the Castle staff. Each of them was also asked to amend their social media details so that they would not be traceable to Craithe for the following six months at least; it was therefore hardly surprising that neither Komarov’s nor Silayev’s investigations came up with anything to pin any hopes of finding or stealing Athena.

  After a couple of days, Komarov rang Silayev and the two of them agreed to meet again – this time Komarov went to Silayev’s large apartment on Trveskaya. Whereas Komarov, had changed out of all recognition from his humble beginnings and now looked like a prosperous businessman, Silayev was still stuck in some of the trappings that a few of his mafia breed still seemed to enjoy. And although Silayev had toned down his personal appearance, Komarov considered his apartment still to be grossly ostentatious. It was situated above his offices and there was too much baroque furniture, red velour drapery and gold to his more mature taste. Nevertheless, Silayev was still king of the heap within his own community and as this was an extremely useful heap of people to Komarov, he put up with it but spent as little time as possible there.

  They settled themselves comfortably, were plied with coffee and biscuits and discussed at some length what each had been doing to find Athena. There were a number of references to a Professor Hapsley who had been working on research in getting the new quantum computer technologies to work more closely with digital technologies. One technical publication had reported that Hapsley had moved from his post at Cambridge and had joined the staff at one of the Towneley Foundation’s computer training centres in the Tower Hamlets district of the East End of London. But it was clear to both of them that Athena had been hidden away with great care and a different approach was necessary.

  ‘So with a temporary dead-end,’ said Silayev, ‘I’ve given this whole matter some considerable thought and I’ve come up with an entirely new strategy as a result,’ he said as he lit a large dark cigar.

  ‘But you’ve always been of the act-now-think-later persuasion,’ said Komarov taunting him, ‘isn’t strategy a new experience for you?’

  ‘Better my strategy than none from you,’ replied Silayev, ‘especially as I think even you will approve of my new plan. In fact, I had so much confidence in it myself that I’ve even made a start on it.’

  ‘Okay, I’d better hear it then,’ said Komarov.

  ‘As this Athena program was developed specifically to protect banks in the UK and is being launched on Good Friday at this conference, why don’t we set up a project to attack a bank in London and draw Athena out of hiding to do its protecting?’

  Komarov’s cup of coffee stopped half-way to his mouth and he quickly put it back down again on the table without taking a sip from it.

  ‘My God, you really have been thinking about this,’ said Komarov, ‘but what do you mean by setting up a project?’

  ‘First you need to bear in mind that this is still an embryo plan and needs a bit of developing, but would you like me to go on?’

  ‘Yes, of course, on you go.’

  ‘I know from work that’s already been done that many of the larger banks in London are protected by just a few of the largest security people internationally. I looked through these and picked one of these major bank protection companies – CSL. I propose that we put together a crack team with one or two top hackers and that they work solely on cracking CSL bank defence systems. Once we have that expertise, we attack a CSL-defended bank in London on the day of the conference and wait for the authorities to wheel out Athena to defend it. Then all we need is some first-rate computer people to monitor the bank we’ve attacked and put a physical trace on Athena as it’s busy doing its defending.’

  ‘And you reckon that this can actually be done?’ asked Komarov.

  ‘I’ve already cleared it in principle with my IT people and they’ve given it the go-ahead as being entirely feasible’.

  ‘Well, I’m impressed; and do you have any ideas where we might set this up?’

  ‘I do and that’s where I said I had already made a start,’ said Silayev. ‘I’ve already contacted a small organization in Manila in the Philippines who right now setting up the project up for us.’

  ‘Fine, but why the Philippines?’

  ‘Mainly because we needed somewhere to develop our new CSL attacking software and Manila is far enough removed from London for no one there to worry about our experimental attacks on some small banks while we’re doing practice runs – I mean who’s going to be that much fussed about a spate of cyber-attacks on some smaller CSL-protected banks in Manila?’

  ‘Okay,’ said Komarov. ‘So what about timescales for this?’

  ‘A matter of days I’d say till we have the hackers on board and working on CSL defenses,’ replied Silayev. ‘We’ll also need to find some seriously good IT people in London who know exactly how to trace Athena as soon as it comes to the defence of the bank that we attack in London. There would be no point, would there, if Athena comes out but we can’t track it back to its location. As I said before, we need a physical location from which to steal it.’

  ‘No chance I suppose of stealing it via the internet?’ asked Komarov.

  ‘Not a chance,’ replied Silayev, ‘people who are clever enough to invent an ultimate cyber-weapon such as Athena will have devised defence systems to protect it from electronic attack.’

  ‘Okay, but you’ve got good IT people here in Moscow, are you saying you don’t want them involved in the moment when we track down Athena?’ asked Komarov.

  ‘Of course, I’d love my people in on the kill, it’s just that I reckon we give the game away if we arrived in London, a whole bunch of Russians, just as they’re about to launch their new weapo
n. I mean the first thing I’d do if I were the UK authorities looking after the launch of something as important as Athena, would be to look at flight arrivals from Moscow – as well as some other high risk places as well, of course, such as Beijing, Delhi, Brasilia or Manaus as well as New York, LA and Seattle.’

  ‘You’re right. Let’s get on with this then. Let me know as soon as your people in Manila have set up the team and find the top hacker. And good work on the strategy front, I shall look at you in a different light from now on,’ said Komarov, ‘and though I won’t make Bazarov’s mistake of boasting before I’ve actually got my hands on the weapon, I’m longing to have some good news for the President. One other thing, I cannot emphasise enough, we cannot afford to have anyone else trying to follow up on Bazarov. Can you get one of your better persuaders to keep an eye out for anyone showing interest in Bazarov and do some serious dissuading?’

  ‘Consider it done.’

  * * * * *

  Yuri Chernin was tired. He had been doing the President’s bidding since early morning and now, in dark he fumbled with his keys as he tried to unlock his car whilst still holding his briefcase and some loose files. These were copies of some of Bazarov’s studies and though he had not actually been involved with his former colleague, he thought he would look through the papers to see if they shed any light on his extraordinary disappearance. In this he was also rash enough to ignore the warnings that the vanished Bazarov and all his business were now off limits.

  ‘Let me help you,’ said a voice from immediately behind him.

  Though he had felt a sharp object thrust into his ribs, he still had not realized what was happening. Stupidly he spun round dropping the files which opened as they fell scattering papers onto the tarmac. Suddenly he realized that the sharp object was a gun barrel and the man confronting him towered over his portly five-foot six.

  ‘Get into the car,’ said the tall man, ‘I’ll get your effing papers after I’ve delivered my message.’

  Now trembling so badly that he found it impossible to unlock the door, he began to whimper.

  ‘Oh for Christ’s sake give me those,’ said the man, snatching the keys and opening the door. ‘Get in,’ he commanded as he bent down and picked up the fallen papers. Still training the gun on Chernin, he looked through the papers.

  ‘Ah, so what do we have here?’ he said at last, ‘letters addressed to Mr. Bazarov, eh? And what are these letters to you, might I ask?’

  By now Chernin had climbed into the car but as he had wet himself, found it difficult to slide across the leather seat. The man gave him a helping push but held the door open and also kept a hold of the sheaf of letters.

  ‘Now listen to me carefully,’ he said bending down and looking through the gap of the open door. ‘The President has nominated a successor to Mr. Bazarov and absolutely no one else is to have anything to do with Mr. Bazarov’s former interests – is that clearly understood?’

  ‘Oh perfectly, yes, completely understood,’ muttered Chernin still shaking.

  ‘What’s more, you would be doing your friends amongst the president’s inner circle a great favor if you were to pass this message onto each and every one of them. I would hate for anything to happen to you or to your daughter Katya simply because you had failed to warn off one of your friends as I have you. Do you understand that?’

  ‘But I can’t be held responsible for what others close to the president do or …’

  ‘Oh but you can and you will be responsible as from this moment,’ interrupted the man. ‘It won’t be too difficult. Just tell them that your daughter’s wellbeing depends on them all leaving Bazarov’s business to the person that president has authorized and no one else.’

  ‘All right, I’ll do it, I promise,’ said Chernin.

  ‘Good,’ said the man. ‘Here are your keys and watch out how you drive home.’

  ‘I will, I will.’ The man handed Chernin the car keys, straightened and stood there. His gun now down by his side.

  On pulling his door shut and starting the car up, Chernin slammed the car into reverse, swung quickly to the right and accelerated swiftly backwards into one of the car park’s concrete pillars. In a panic he maneuvered the car back out again and shot off towards the exit.

  One thing was for sure, he would pass the message around his colleagues. His description of this conversation would be far more effective even than the fact that Chernin’s daughter’s wellbeing was at stake.

  Chapter 5

  Friday 4 March, 10am

  Fifth Avenue, New York

  Guiseppe Lupo, stood at the large floor to ceiling window of his New York apartment looking out at his favourite view over Central Park. He was both pensive and frustrated. After watching the traffic and the park for a short while he turned and went over to the sofa to rejoin his chief accountant and right hand man Rocco Balboni.

  ‘Well I smell a rat, even in Moscow a prominent man like Bazarov can’t just disappear,’ said Lupo. ‘Are you sure your contact confirms it?’

  ‘Dead sure,’ replied Rocco. ‘Look this is serious enough for you to check on the story yourself – I won’t feel offended, promise.’

  ‘Okay, okay, I’ll do that – Anton Silayev is sure to know what’s going on, I’ll give him a ring.’

  He got out his smartphone looked up a telephone number and then went over to the landline. On picking it up he asked for the secretary to get him the number. This was one of Lupo’s extravagances that Rocco loathed. Just because the family had grown way beyond its earlier mafia days and was now a large quasi-legitimate business was no reason to have offices nearby in this ridiculously expensive part of the City. Still Lupo was the boss and there were certainly funds available if he saw fit to spend it this way.

  As soon as the call came through, he put on his best old-pals act even though Anton Silayev’s reception to the call seemed chilly from the start.

  ‘Anton good to speak to you, I won’t waste your time with small talk as you’re probably busy, though ten in the morning here means about six in the evening with you. You should be knocking off for your first vodka martini if I remember right.’

  ‘You are right, well remembered,’ said Silayev. Just because Lupo was about the last person he wanted to speak to right now, better to freeze him out politely – never know when you’re going to need a friend in the Big Apple. ‘Just the surprise of hearing your voice out of the blue, after, what is it - must be two years?’

  ‘Yeah, two years at least,’ confirmed Lupo. ‘Look I’ve been doing some business with Vasily Bazarov, the other day I rang him as usual but got no answer to his phone. After ringing a few times with the same result I rang another contact and I hear this cockamamie story that he’s vanished – and we know what that means in Moscow. Wondered if you knew more than what’s come out in the press since then.’

  ‘I’m sorry Guiseppe, we’re as shocked as anyone. Here in the office we were just wondering the same thing as you – all I know is that he failed to turn up for the last president’s inner circle meeting. Sorry I can’t help more than that, but I promise I’ll give you a ring if I hear anything more, all right?’

  ‘Yeah, do that and thanks Anton – we must keep in contact.’

  Lupo slammed the telephone down and looked across to Rocco. ‘The bastard, why does he lie like that after all I’ve done for him in the past.’

  ‘What?’ asked Rocco.

  ‘Elementary mistake to make for someone who’s trying to lie but also trying to sound plausible,’ said Lupo.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Rocco.

  ‘A couple of the better newspapers got it right though. The last inner circle meeting was Wednesday, Bazarov was there and, from the most reliable sources, got the chop after the meeting supposedly because he lied to the President. It’s the next meeting that he won’t be turning up for. He’s a partner in business with Igor Komarov, for goodness sakes. Igor goes to the same meetings. Though it might have been a slip of the tong
ue, I know better.’

  ‘What do you know better?’

  ‘We’ve been following Bazarov for some weeks now, haven’t we. He had the ear of the President because of the weapon thing he’s been chasing. I’ll bet anything you like he and Komarov are aiming to step into Bazarov’s shoes. Isn’t that just sod’s law that the man we hope will find this weapon thing and steal it from gets the hit and Komarov and that rat Silayev take over.’

  ‘That’s not so bad,’ said Rocco, ‘we just wait for the pair of them to find and steal it and then we do the two of them what we planned for Bazarov.’

  ‘Hey, wait a minute,’ said Lupo putting up his hands in mock surrender, ‘Komarov and Anton are much higher profile than Bazarov could ever be. As we’ve seen already, Bazarov gets the old heave-ho and though there’s plenty of press coverage, I’ll bet all the fuss doesn’t even outlast the weekend.’

  ‘So they’re higher profile,’ said Rocco, ‘but to get this weapon they’re probably going to have to go to the UK to get their hands on it. Foreign soil, it will be much easier to fix them whilst they’re on foreign soil.’

  ‘Yeah, suppose you’re right,’ said Lupo, ‘no need to panic then, but we’ll have more difficulty keeping tabs on those two than we did on Bazarov.’

  ‘Maybe, but it’ll be more fun getting our reliable old pal Evgeny to chase around after them than after Bazarov – and hell, we pay Evgeny enough with his retainer and a lot of the time he’s not actually doing anything for us. All we need to do is to decide which of the two Evgeny should concentrate on Komarov or Silayev – unless we double up and get him a partner so we can watch the two of them at the same time.’ Rocco leant back into the sofa and thought about this for a moment while Lupo got back up and went over to his view.