by Tom Wood
‘It won’t be a problem,’ Procter assured.
‘But if he was too spooked-’
‘Then he’ll calm down. Kasakov is well aware of the risks involved in the dubious way he conducts his life. Trafficking illicit heavy munitions to every dictator, warlord and death squad on the planet isn’t something you stay in long term if you have trouble sleeping at night. Besides, do you really think no one’s tried to take him out before? He’s one tough son of a bitch. It’ll take a hell of a lot more than a gunshot to scare the guy.’
‘There’s a difference between being scared and acting smart.’
‘Trust me, that bastard’s got balls of granite. Did you know that the French secret service tried to take him out back before he was a really big player? He screwed them on an Exocet sale. Came this close too.’ Procter held his thumb and index finger an inch apart.
‘I did not,’ Clarke said evenly.
‘Very few people do. It went down in Morocco, I believe. He was on vacation. A DGSE team went in shooting, took out most of Kasakov’s retinue but only wounded him. Shot half his ear off. Did that stop him? No, it did not. He’s even helped them sell some Mirage jets since then. And let’s remember, the French came a lot closer in Morocco than our Croatian friend just did in Bucharest. I’m telling you, Peter, you don’t need to be concerned about what old Vladdie boy will or will not do.’
Clarke’s face hardened. ‘It’s not with Kasakov where my only concern lies.’
Procter sat forward. ‘We’ve been through this before, and I do understand your reservations about my new employee.’
‘I’m not sure you really do.’
‘Listen, any risk he might potentially pose is more than offset by his value.’
‘That value is still debatable at this stage.’
‘I think you’ll find his value has very recently been demonstrated.’
Clarke shrugged his narrow shoulders dismissively. ‘So the prodigy passes the first real test, so what? That means he’s useful, so are a lot of people. A lot more manageable people.’
‘I think you’re underestimating just how lucky we were to have him. In case you’ve forgotten, we found out someone was going to try to put a bullet in Kasakov all of forty-eight hours before it went down. Kasakov was off the grid and we had no way of warning him even if we knew where he was. All we had was one lousy intercepted phone call revealing where it was going to happen. We didn’t know who was going to do it or how. We sent Tesseract in blind and he got the job done. This whole op of ours would have crumbled before we got to first base if Kasakov had been killed in Bucharest. So tell me, who else could we have sent, unofficially, to get us out of that potential disaster without also putting us in the spotlight? Me? You? ’
Clarke straightened in his seat and put his right index finger to good use. ‘Don’t try to bait me, Roland. I have expressed reasonable doubts about who you’ve chosen to employ for this operation, none of which relate to Tesseract’s abilities. May I remind you it’s his loyalty, reliability, and accountability that I have issues with.’
‘You did just remind me,’ Procter said beneath arched eyebrows.
Clarke exhaled strongly. His normally pale face was flushed red.
‘Peter, calm down before you give yourself an aneurysm. You came to me, remember? You asked me for help, not the other way around. Obviously, I’m glad you did, but we agreed at the beginning of our little scheme that you would allow me to run things on the ground as I saw fit. That includes whom I choose to put out there. Tesseract is extremely capable and utterly deniable. Anything about his history before he began working for us is irrelevant to me as long as he produces results.’
‘As long as he does.’
‘The point is,’ Procter continued, lowering his tone, ‘we needed him, we used him, and he pulled it off perfectly. We can’t ask for any more.’
‘But he is a risk to us, you can’t deny that.’
‘And I’m not. But his value outweighs the risk.’
‘For now,’ Clarke said. ‘But remember, however much of a risk he poses at present, that risk only increases over time. And all the while our ability to manage it diminishes.’
‘Then we’ll act before we get into the red.’
‘I hope so.’
‘You worry too much.’
‘You don’t worry enough.’
Procter smiled. ‘Which is why I have you,’ he said. ‘But let’s get back on track, yeah? You’ll be pleased to know Tesseract is in Berlin for the next phase of the operation.’
‘Good. Let’s see if your boy can keep us on a winning streak.’
‘He will,’ Procter said with the utmost confidence. ‘And with Xavier Callo now in our custody too, things are progressing nicely.’
‘What’s the strategy with Callo?’
‘I’ve left it up to the boys on the ground. I’m not going to play armchair interrogator from six thousand miles away. He’s spent the last forty-eight hours in a car trunk with only a few sips of water so he’ll to be pretty shaken by now. They’ll get him on site by tomorrow, I expect, and then leave him to stew in an unlit cell for a few hours. Then they’ll go in hard.’
‘Sounds delightful,’ Clarke said.
Procter leaned forward again. ‘No less than he deserves.’
He heaved himself out of the chair and walked to the window. Outside, early morning sunlight bathed the Virginia countryside. Procter loved this part of the country. If it were up to him, he’d move out of DC and get a nice rural house, maybe with a few acres for a horse. Patricia was too enamoured with city life though to give it up without one hell of a fight. Procter, a man who was always careful picking his battles, knew he wasn’t going to win that one just yet.
‘How sure are you he knows what we need?’ Clarke asked.
‘Oh, he knows all right. If there’s a better link out there to Ariff’s network then we’ll never find it. That Egyptian scumbag has done a mighty fine job of staying under the radar for a very long time now.’
‘Who’s going to be asking the questions?’ Clarke asked. ‘Because whoever is in that room with Callo is going to learn a lot of information. Information that, when all this is over, could end up being used as leverage over us.’
‘I think you’re overestimating who I’ve got in mind. There’ll be the British contractors you supplied and vouched for, of course, and they only know the barest of details. So no problems there. The guy overseeing it is Agency, and though he’s an ambitious little prick, he’s got balls of purest cookie dough. He won’t breathe a word to anyone, ever.’ Procter smiled. ‘He’s my own personal bitch. I’ve got enough shit on him I could ask him to cut a leg off for me and he’d say thank you for the privilege while he bled out. I keep him so strung out he doesn’t know whether I’m Jesus Christ or the devil himself.’
The last part prised something resembling a smile from Clarke. Procter said, ‘He’ll do what we need done and within forty-eight hours we’ll know enough to set up the next phase of the operation.’
Clarke seemed pleased for once. ‘Then everything is going exactly as planned.’
‘Exactly as planned,’ Procter echoed. ‘It’s going to be beautiful.’
CHAPTER 9
Berlin, Germany
According to the dossier, Adorjan Farkas would be arriving in Berlin the next day for a maximum stay of seven days. He would then return to his native Hungary, where, Victor presumed, either the Hungarian would be an exponentially harder target, or his killing would lose its value. A lifelong member of the Hungarian mob, Farkas was now fifty-two years old and making a name for himself outside the typical organised crime industries of drugs, extortion and prostitution, most notably in international people trafficking, and arms dealing.
The latter was why, the dossier stated, Farkas was to be removed from existence. In particular it was because Farkas was currently making a lot of money buying assault rifles from manufacturers in Eastern Europe and illegally selling them o
n to buyers in the Middle East. Farkas didn’t seem like a particularly high-value target on the global scale of bad guys; there was probably more to it than just the arms sales. The absence of a specific motive was further evidence of Victor’s need-to-know status. Farkas was likely part of a chain Victor’s handler wanted disrupting, and killing the Hungarian was either the simplest, or perhaps the only way of stopping the guns he traded killing Americans further along the line. Though, having had saved the life of one arms trafficker already, Victor knew that nothing was necessarily as obvious as it appeared.
Aside from an exact motive, the rest of the information on Farkas was particularly extensive — a lengthy biography, lists of associates, personal details and so on — but mostly useless. Recent photographs and Farkas’s location were the most important, and sometimes only, information Victor needed. Precious few other facts were relevant to the completion of the job. And as those who compiled dossiers didn’t operate in the field, what was relevant to them and relevant to Victor could be very different. Still, given the specifics for this particular job, it was better to have too much information than too little.
Farkas had to be blown up. No accident, no suicide, no gunshot wound, no slit throat. Farkas could only meet his end via high explosives. And only the explosives supplied by Georg would do.
Again, Victor hadn’t been graced with an explanation, but, as with the motivation for Farkas’s demise, he had a reasonable idea why this death had to be so particular. Blame. His employer wanted the spotlight for Farkas’s murder to shine on some individual or faction, and whoever those people may be, the explosives Victor used would implicate them.
He examined the cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine he’d acquired in Hamburg. Usually referred to as RDX, the compound was a common military- and industrial-use high explosive and one of the most destructive of all explosive materials. With the addition of some chemicals and motor oil, RDX formed plastic explosives like C-4, which Victor would have preferred to work with, but unfortunately he didn’t have that luxury.
The fourteen pounds of RDX Victor had collected from Georg’s van was packed in seven two-pound military-use blocks. Whereas plastic explosives were malleable, RDX was a hard white crystalline substance. With the blasting caps that accompanied the explosives, Victor constructed a compact bomb from a single block of RDX that had more than enough power to kill one man from several yards away. Using all fourteen pounds would have formed a devastatingly powerful device, but its larger size would render it problematic to transport, too difficult to plant secretly, and would make if difficult to fulfil one of the contract’s requirements. Despite the obvious risks associated with using a bomb, Victor’s employer had stated there must be no collateral damage. Not that Victor needed to be told. He wasn’t in the habit of killing bystanders, but with explosives that was always a possibility, and the primary reason he didn’t work with them.
Georg hadn’t supplied any remote detonating equipment, so Victor needed to place the bomb somewhere only Farkas would trigger it. He could form an ad-hoc remote detonator by rigging a cellular phone to the blasting caps and using a second phone to trigger the bomb, but Victor wasn’t keen on that idea unless he had no other choice. Such a bomb would require him to be in visual contact with the target at the time of detonation, which not only limited where the bomb could be placed, but also forced Victor to be in close proximity to the assassination. That and the fact that the one time Victor needed full service could very well be the exact moment when he had zero bars.
From the information supplied, however, Victor had a rough plan in mind.
For his stay in Berlin Farkas had rented out the penthouse in a block of luxury holiday apartments. He would have an entourage with him — anything between three and five of his mob subordinates — all of whom, based on Farkas’s previous trips abroad, would stay in the penthouse too. There was no intelligence on whether or not they would be armed.
The weather was cold but sunny in Berlin when Victor passed the apartment building. It was a grand structure in the heart of Prenzlauer Berg, one of Berlin’s most desirable districts. Four beautiful stone storeys rose from the street with one subterranean level beneath. Maybe two or three apartments per floor with a single penthouse.
Victor spent a while exploring Prenzlauer Berg, both routinely checking for surveillance and to get a feel for the area he would be operating within. It had escaped much of the devastation of the Second World War and so had been mercifully spared the post-war development the rest of the city had endured. What was built in the late nineteenth century as a working-class district was now a very affluent part of Berlin. There were many tasteful bars and restaurants, high-end fashion boutiques, delicatessens and cafes. Victor could see why a wealthy Hungarian gangster would choose to stay in this part of the city.
He took a seat outside a cafe bustling with people on their lunch hour. Clothes stores and eateries lined the leafy street. Opposite him was the metro station, particularly clean even by Berlin’s high standards. He watched the people going about their days, especially the men in their early and mid thirties in their casual-but-stylish clothing.
After he’d finished his iced tea, Victor walked to a department store and perused the men’s clothing section. A slim young guy asked if he could be of assistance.
Victor said, ‘I’m going for casual, but stylish.’
He dismissed anything too bright or anything he would look too good in, much to the young man’s confusion. He settled on two pairs of dark jeans, some patterned button-down shirts, a cream sweater, and a tan blazer, all loose fitting. He also picked up underwear, loafers, a leather shoulder bag, designer sunglasses and a pre-pay phone from different stores.
Victor’s modest hotel was three stops along the line. He wanted to be close to where Farkas was staying, but far enough away that he would have the opportunity to conduct counter surveillance if he needed to take a direct route. In his single room, Victor changed into his new clothes. Suits were his preferred clothing for urban environments, but wearing one would make him stand out in Prenzlauer Berg, where men his age opted for more bohemian attire.
Earlier, he’d noted there were two possible locations from which to conduct surveillance — a chic coffee shop on the same side of the street as the apartment building, and a cocktail bar on the opposite side of the road. He entered the bar, bought a still lemonade with a slice of lime and sat outside.
The view wasn’t a perfect one but he could see the entrance to the building, and the bar justified his presence for what could potentially be many hours over several days. He took out a small notebook and pen and placed them on the table next to his drink. He made a record of anyone who entered or exited the building, and waited for someone who met his requirements. He was hoping to spot someone who looked like he or she wasn’t a guest — a maid or janitor perhaps — but he saw no one who fitted the bill.
Eventually, he watched a man and a woman leave the building at the same time. They were in their late twenties, a good-looking couple who knew it and couldn’t keep their eyes on where they were heading or their hands to themselves. As soon as they appeared, he could tell they were perfect for his requirements. In Victor’s line of work, love could be an extremely useful emotion to exploit.
It was easy to follow them. Even if he hadn’t been careful — which he always was — he doubted they would have seen him, let alone paid him any attention. They walked slowly, like most couples seemed to do, blissfully unaware of the amount of space on the sidewalk they took up. Annoyed singletons had no choice but to walk around them.
He followed them into a bar a few minutes after they’d entered. Inside, a lively audience of fans watched a Bundesliga game on several big screens. Victor spotted the couple at a table in one of the marginally quieter corners. He ordered a beer and stood where he could watch the couple while looking as if he was just another sports fan in for the game. The bar was warm and Victor watched the man take off his jacket and hang it over
the chair. Like Victor, he had a beer, which he drank quickly. When the woman finished her white wine, the man stood up to get a second round. Placing his own beer down, Victor made his move, negotiating a path through the busy crowd while the man made his way to the bar.
Taking out his phone and pretending to write a text, he swayed a little as he squeezed past the table where the woman sat, brushing himself against the man’s jacket hanging off the chair. Victor felt the weight of keys in one of the pockets, and faked a stumble, the phone falling from his fingers. He cursed under his breath as he leaned over to retrieve it with his left hand while his right slid into the man’s jacket pocket to remove the keys. He stood up, shaking his head. In his peripheral vision, he saw the woman glance at him but there was no suspicion, just an amused smile, assuming he was a drunk sports fan.
At the bar, Victor took another mouthful of beer before leaving. He already knew where the closest locksmith was located and made his way there to get a copy cut. Returning to the bar, he handed over the keys to a barmaid, pretending he’d found them near to where the young couple sat.
The sports fans roared as the ball hit the back of the net.
It took a while to find a store that sold art supplies, where Victor bought paints, paper, brushes, pastels, and a bottle of pure graphite powder. At a cosmetics counter of a department store, he purchased a foldaway make-up brush with very soft bristles, blusher, and a bottle of perfume recommended to him by a friendly sales assistant when he asked for advice on buying for his girlfriend.
On his way back to his hotel he threw away his purchases save for the graphite powder and make-up brush. In his room, he changed into his suit and dipped the make-up brush into the graphite powder before folding it away and placing it in a pants pocket. He was running a little late for his appointment and walked slowly.
He found the realtor pacing outside the apartment building. She stood around five-seven, late twenties, smartly dressed in a navy trouser suit that gave her an air of pure business without hiding the very obvious facts she was an attractive and shapely woman. Her blonde hair was shoulder length and swept back from her face by the breeze. Predictably, her expression was one of annoyance and impatience. She checked her watch.