by Matthew Dunn
“Bloody freezing.” Will forced a smile.
“Did Alina talk?”
“Yes.”
“Anything of substance?”
“Difficult to know.”
Roger produced a mock frown. “Let me help. Was she a bit more effusive than you’re being right now?”
Will laughed. “Much more.” His expression became neutral. “Tell me about the Russian team.”
Roger drummed his hands against the wall. “They’re in the Grand Hyatt and they ain’t moving.”
“Sightings?”
“We’ve seen two of them but only briefly. They’re ordering room service and the two we spotted have only been down to the lobby twice.”
“Who saw them?”
“Laith and Mark.”
“What do they think?”
“They’re sure we’re looking at a team. Doesn’t mean they’re the right team though.”
“I know.”
Roger was silent for a moment before saying, “Mark has the same level of team leader experience as me. Did you put him in the section so that he could learn the ropes and then take over if I get shot?”
Will smiled, and this time it was genuine. “Exactly. I’m just waiting for you to take a bullet. Trouble is, every time you do, you recover.”
“Yeah. I’m odd like that.”
“You are.” Will became serious. “I put him and Adam in because they fit. Do you foresee a problem?”
Roger seemed to consider this. “No. Mark doesn’t seem concerned about status. He just wants to get on with the job. He’ll be fine. Plus, since when did we have any hierarchy in the section?”
“We don’t. It’s better that way.”
Roger nodded. “How long do you want us to stay on the Russian team?”
“As long as it takes. Do you mind?”
“Not in the slightest.” Roger swept an arm through the air. “Germany’s home from home for me.”
“Your fatherland . . .”
Roger chuckled. “Stop that.” His expression changed. “Base of operation’s the Auguststrasse apartment.”
A modern, luxury vacation home located in Mitte, the heart of Berlin’s old city. Capable of sleeping six, more if the couches were used as beds. Peter had paid for the apartment in cash and told the owner that he and his business colleagues would need the place for at least three weeks while they were in town to close a major financial deal.
“Suzy and Peter have made it all quite homey. They’ve looked like newlyweds moving into their first home.”
Will grinned. “I can’t imagine two people more unsuited to marrying each other than Suzy and Peter.”
“Yeah, and Suzy’s real husband might have something to say about it.” Roger frowned. “You think Suzy should be on the case given she’s pregnant?”
“She’s not going to be in the field.”
“Even so . . .”
“Do you want to be the one to tell her that she should go home and rest?”
“No thanks.”
“I thought not. Still, we’re responsible for her.” He looked at one end of the tunnel. Rain was pounding the walkway beyond the exit. “Alistair and Patrick?”
“Back at Vauxhall Cross to ensure that the Gdansk operation hasn’t left an uncomfortable audit trail.”
“Okay. How are you operating your team?”
“While the Russians are static, it’s been easy. Two on at all times—one in the lobby; one making circuits outside.”
“Cover?”
Roger told him that he’d introduced himself to the hotel’s head of security, gave him false but verifiable credentials, said that he was responsible for the security of one of his guests, and that the identity of that VIP had to remain confidential, even from hotel staff. He’d further advised the hotel manager that there was no direct threat to the client, that Roger and three of his employees would be taking turns keeping an eye on the place, that they were unarmed, and that they would be grateful for the hotel’s cooperation in allowing them to sit in the lobby and other parts of the hotel, day or night. After checking Roger’s identity, the head of security had agreed.
Will nodded. “Diplomatic boxes?”
“They’re at Auguststrasse, arrived yesterday.”
Boxes that were sent from London and contained guns, ammunition, cash, alias passports and bank cards, tactical binoculars, night-vision scopes, and military communications equipment.
Will hoped that most of the equipment would remain unused. “Alina told me that she was visited by an SVR man. Based on her description of him and the circumstances of his visit, I’m convinced it was the big guy I spotted in Gdansk. He gave her the name Mikhail. No surname. It will be an alias, but give the name to Suzy so that she can do some digging.”
“That’s a hell of a dig.”
“It is, but I’ve seen her do more with less in the past.” Will lowered his head and was silent.
“Something’s on your mind.”
Will didn’t respond.
“I reckon your lady did give you something of substance, something that’s troubling you.”
Will raised his head. “I’ve got a problem.”
Roger smiled. “You always do.” His smile vanished. “Tell me.”
Will studied the former DEVGRU SEAL. He completely trusted Roger and yet he was still unsure whether to tell him about the note because he knew what Roger would say if Will told him what he was planning. “You’ve got your work cut out on the Russian team. Focus on that.”
“You’re not going to fob me off that easily, Cochrane.”
Will sighed, hesitated, then said, “Someone knows my name and address and has given that to Alina, who in turn has relayed it to Yevtushenko.”
“What!”
Will told him everything he knew.
“That’s a massive breach of security. Alistair and Patrick need to get on it right away. They’ll task Peter—he’ll find the bastard who leaked this.”
Will shook his head. “I’m not going to do that.”
Roger’s expression turned to one of exasperation. “Why, oh why, doesn’t that surprise me? You need . . .”
Will held up a hand. “The note used the word ‘we’ ten times, ‘our’ twice, and ‘us’ once. It could have been done deliberately to hide the hand of one man, but I don’t think so. Whoever wrote the note is not in direct contact with Yevtushenko, but they wanted him to know exactly who they were. Plus, they didn’t expect the note to be read by anyone other than Alina. I’m certain we’re dealing with a team, and that the team is wholly independent of the men who have Lenka or the Russians. The other thing that leapt out at me was the reference to their business dealings with Yevtushenko and the fact they misled him as to their true identities. What does that say to you?”
Roger answered immediately, “Business cover operation.”
“Precisely.”
“There are other possibilities.”
“There are.” Will had thought of fourteen other possible explanations for the reference. “But none of them are as convincing.”
“Hostile intelligence agency trying to string a Russian SVR officer along by pretending to be a company?”
“It’s the most likely hypothesis at present.”
When he spoke, Roger’s tone was solemn. “You need a witch hunt. Find out who leaked your name and we’ll know which intelligence agency we’re dealing with.”
Will shook his head. “What’s the most vulnerable time in a witch hunt?”
Roger considered the question. “When the number of suspects falls to a handful of people. At that point, the investigation may be visible to the culprit and he or she may bolt.”
Will agreed. “Our problem is that the number of suspects is already small. The culprit knows that and yet has sti
ll leaked the information. I think he’s covered his tracks and betrayed me knowing that if I became aware of the leak, he’d find out very quickly. Going after the man or woman who did this is too risky. Yevtushenko remains the key. If I can find him, I stand a chance of finding out who’s got him, the location and significance of the paper, and who’s trying to get the men he’s with to take me out of the equation.”
“Please don’t say what I think you’re going to say.”
“I’m going to disappoint you.”
“Then I’m going to come with you.”
“No, you’re not. I’m dealing with multiple assumptions and intangibles, but you’ve got four very tangible men holed up in the Grand Hyatt who remain our best hope of leading us to the paper. I can’t afford for you to have your eye off the ball for even a moment.”
When Roger spoke, his voice was measured, but tense. “Springing a trap sounds all good in principle. But you of all people know that it rarely works out that way. Don’t go back to London.”
Ten
Not far now, sir.” The London cabbie drove his vehicle onto Vauxhall Bridge. “Was it a long flight?”
From the rear passenger seat, Will answered, “Not too long.” He looked along the Thames. It was evening, and the walkways on either side of the river were tastefully illuminated by old-fashioned streetlamps. On the north side of the river, lights within Thames House, a landmark building that was the headquarters of Britain’s Security Service, otherwise known as MI5, were beginning to go out as employees were packing up for the day. Beyond the building, the Houses of Parliament were bathed in the golden glow of carefully positioned halogen lamps. He looked ahead. On the south side of the river, adjacent to the end of the bridge, was the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, popularly known as MI6. Despite being prominent, imposing, and palatial in design, it had always amused Will that the MI6 HQ had been positioned at arm’s length from London’s political district. It also amused him that he’d only been allowed into the building twice—as a new recruit before he’d been selected for the Spartan Program, and years later when he’d been guided to a secure part of the building by men after they’d placed a hood and shackles onto him.
The cabbie increased the speed of his windshield wipers. “Still, bet you can’t wait to get home though. Long flights, short flights, it’s still bloody travel, ain’t it? And those blinkin’ queues at the airport . . . drives you crazy, don’t it?” He reached the end of the bridge, drove alongside MI6, and pointed at the building. “I blame those boys. Seven P.M. and the place is all shut up. They should be out catching Al Qaeda and the Taliban and all of the other nutters who’ve made it impossible to take a bottle of aftershave through airport customs. But no, looks like the spooks have gone home for the night.” He drove south. “Just a minute or so now. Business in Europe, was it, sir?”
Will yawned. “Yes, Germany. My company’s setting up a new factory there. I had to go to sign off the paperwork.”
“Long way to go just to give a few signatures.”
“True.”
The cabbie chuckled. “You know, in my business I have to put up with all sorts of crap—yobs, drunks, tight-arse tourists, City boys who talk to me like I’m some lowlife. But it ain’t all bad. I reckon the best part of the job is getting travelers like you”—he pulled into West Square and stopped adjacent to Will’s house—“home safe.”
Will walked slowly up the flight of stairs, avoiding three steps that he knew creaked. Reaching his front door, he put down his bag, moved to the side, listened, heard nothing, placed a hand flat against the entrance, and pushed. The door remained firmly shut. Withdrawing his keys, he eased one of them into the lock, waited, then gradually began turning it until he felt the lock spring open. He placed the keys back into a pocket, put a hand onto the door handle, tried to calm his breathing, and began easing the handle downward.
His heart was beating fast.
He wondered if there was a man on the other side of the door, waiting with a heavy-gauge shotgun.
When the handle was fully depressed, he pushed the door open and simultaneously moved away from the entrance.
Nothing happened.
Out of habit, his hand moved toward the place where he would often keep a handgun on his person. His hand stopped midair. Because he had no handgun, no weapon at all.
Lifting his travel bag, he held it before him. Inside the soft canvas carrier were clothes and toiletries. The case wouldn’t stop a .22 target round, let alone a high-velocity pistol bullet, but he held it anyway, ready to hurl it into the face of an intruder. He took a deep breath and swung into the doorway.
Everything before him was as he’d left it—a hallway full of packing cases and little else. Placing the bag on top of one of the cases, he pulled the door shut behind him and locked it. If there was a man inside his home, he had to make sure that person didn’t escape.
Moving through the pitch dark, he reached the kitchen, stopped, and placed fingers over the hallway light. He hesitated, knowing that the moment he turned the light on would be a likely opportunity for him to be attacked.
He switched the light on and braced himself.
But nobody came at him.
The light illuminated the kitchen and one of the bedrooms. Both looked empty. He moved back down the hallway and crouched beside the entrance to the second bedroom. Reaching into the room, he flicked on its light, instantly withdrew his arm, waited for two seconds, glanced into the room, and pulled his head back out.
The room was unoccupied.
He stood, walked slowly to the bathroom, repeated the same drill, and saw that it was empty.
One more room. The living room.
Pausing by the entrance to the kitchen, he saw the pans, plate, and cutlery he’d washed after cooking the pheasant dish four nights ago. Lying next to them on the draining board was the razor-sharp chef’s knife he’d used to prepare the meal. He grabbed the knife and held it close to his waist.
Beads of sweat trickled down the back of his neck as he inched closer to the living room door. It was shut, just as he’d left it before departing for Austria. He imagined where he would be in the room if he’d come here to kill the apartment’s occupant. Probably waiting flush against the wall, to one side of the door, with a handgun pointing at the height of a man’s upper body. One shot into the side of the rib cage, followed a split second later by another into the temple. Or perhaps he’d be on one knee at the far end of the room, positioned behind a sturdy piece of furniture, his gun pointing at the door, ready to put rapid two-round bursts into whoever came into view.
Or maybe he was dealing with a tough amateur. He hoped not, because their lack of training made them unpredictable.
He placed a hand on the doorknob, turned it, and pushed the door open while keeping his body away from the doorframe and his knife low.
The room was silent.
Though that meant nothing.
More sweat ran down his back. He had to go in the room, had to decide where the man was waiting for him. If there was only one of them.
Placing his free hand against the frame, he readied himself, sucked in a lungful of air, held his breath, rocked back on his heels, and lunged through the entrance while simultaneously spinning and thrusting the knife toward the wall opposite his hand. It sliced into wood paneling. No one was there.
Yanking the knife out, he turned to face the rest of the room, expecting a bullet to strike his head as he did so.
But the room was empty.
He spent the next ten minutes making a more thorough search of his home—in wardrobes, under beds, in cupboards, as well as kicking all of the packing cases to see if any of them had increased in weight. Satisfied that there was no intruder in his home, he moved back to the living room and stared at the two windows. Outside, there were at least nine places where a man could comfortably position him
self with a rifle and remove a large chunk of Will’s head—many more places farther afield, if the weapon was a military-spec sniper rifle and its owner was highly trained.
Lowering himself to the ground, he leopard-crawled along the floor, pulled both windows’ curtains shut from his prone position, crawled back along the floor, and stood. Grabbing one of the dining chairs, he positioned it in the hallway so that it was facing the front door at the other end, placed one hand on the living room light switch, the other on the room’s door handle, switched the light on, and immediately slammed the door shut.
If a man was observing the living room through binoculars or a telescopic sight, he’d know Will was home.
But Will was now in the windowless corridor, out of anyone’s sight.
He sat on the chair, stabbed the tip of the knife into its wooden arm, and stared at the front door. In the absence of complete privacy and professional assault gear, no one would be able to enter the property through the barred windows. They’d come for him through the main entrance.
He stayed like this for two hours before checking his watch. It was 9:30 P.M. He felt hungry and tired but dared not move.
He tried to keep his mind active by recalling memories—any that came to him, it didn’t matter.
He remembered a teacher announcing Will’s high school grades to the rest of his class and saying that they were good enough to take Will to England and Cambridge University; going home later that day to find four criminals holding his mother and sister hostage while they looked for cash; feeling utter fear and confusion after he’d killed the men with a knife similar to the one by his side; his older sister telling him that he had to run away; and flying to France the next morning to enlist in the Foreign Legion.
He recalled the brutal training, the feeling that his transition from boy to man was not supposed to be like this. But over time he became numb to most emotions.
Other images raced through his mind: the day he received his képi blanc, placed it on his head, and was officially a legionnaire; earning his wings and being deployed to the Second REP; the mental and physical agony he’d felt as he underwent selection for the GCP; being given instructions by a DGSE officer and two days later placing a bomb underneath a car in Tripoli; and calling his sister from a pay phone in Marseille on the day his tour with the Legion had come to an end and her saying that she’d been wrong to tell him to run away after he killed his mother’s murderers.