by Tom Haase
23
Planning the Trip
Gerti rose from her bed when she heard Scott call her name as he entered the house. Her heart beat faster in anticipation of seeing him. The fainting spells of the last few days were now waning, and she’d begun to feel like her old self. She saw him in the doorway to her room and gave him a warm and welcoming smile.
She reached him and they embraced. “It’s so good to see you.” She paused and then continued, “I love you so much, and I miss the hell out of you. You’ve been gone a long time, so could you please take your horny wife to bed?” she said with a coquettish smile. Scott hugged and kissed her passionately. Then he led her back to the bed and assisted her in getting comfortable.
Later she asked, “Tell me what’s been happening.”
“First of all, how are you really feeling?” he asked.
“A lot better after that, but being trapped here makes me feel like the acorn a squirrel put away for the winter. It’s so isolated. Yes, I know it’s necessary, but I want us to be together. We should be, since we just got married. Right?”
“I agree, and I’ve missed you. I’d rather have you here and alive than out there and—”
“I know. Give me a hug.”
He took her in his arms and held her. After a minute, he took a seat on the side of the bed and they sat together. In vivid detail, he explained what had transpired in Rome and told her about the subsequent meeting with her father.
“So what now?” Gerti asked.
“We’re going to St. Petersburg in the morning. I want to go to make sure we don’t experience any screw-ups in the search for the final location of the IP address of the emails. I think it necessary for me to go with Matt. He’s acted like a loose cannon on occasion, and I think I’d better go with him.”
She looked at him for a long time. Her mind raced as she tried to figure out some way she could help him. Being confined to this safe house imposed severe limits on her movements, but not on her mental capabilities. Her thought processes, honed by years of observing her father and his methodology, kicked in.
“I have an idea. I can help with this trip to Russia. I’ll call Val. You remember him. He saved our bacon the last time we were there. He knows me, and he’ll be glad to help. He believes I’ll take over for Father one day.” She reached for her cell.
“Hang on,” Scott said. “Let’s talk about this. I thought we weren’t going down that road, the one where you take over the company. We talked about raising our children away from the type of business your dad is in.”
“You’re right. I already explained to you what I intend to do for our future. What I have to do now is all in order to make that possible. I want what we planned more than anything now that the baby is on the way. You’re going to Russia. I think you’ll need some help, and I can get it.”
“Why?” Scott asked.
“I’ll arrange for someone to assist you over there. There’s no other choice. If I don’t, you’ll be walking around blind in a place you know nothing about. Am I right?”
He conceded the point with a nod. “I guess I have to learn that you’re the boss in many areas. We’ll only be away for a few days, I hope. Promise me you’ll stay here, no sneaking out or anything. I don’t want to worry about your safety while I’m gone.”
Without another word, she placed the call to Val. After a short conversation, in which she asked him to help Scott and Matt when they arrived in his country for a visit, she hung up. “He’ll be waiting for you on arrival.” She gave him Val’s phone number.
“Now that we’ve settled that…” She pulled him down on top of her.
24
Matt Arrives in St. Petersburg
Matt and Scott arrived at the St. Petersburg airport at noon. The temperature required a coat and gloves. The clear blue sky domed the capitol city without even a puff of a cloud.
Matt recalled that Scott and Gerti had visited here in their attempt to learn about the man behind the arms shipments to the United States. The FBI suspected Russians were delivering the weapons to homegrown terrorist groups. It proved to be a fact. During Scott and Bridget’s visit to Russia, they’d learned the name Dmitri Alexandrovitch, compliments of a man named Val and his team.
After clearing Russian customs and immigration, they started walking toward a taxi stand. A muscular man over six feet tall with a full black beard approached them and held out his hand to Scott. “Welcome to Russia, Scott,” the man said in English, with a slight British accent.
“Val, how did you know we’d be on this flight? I didn’t plan on calling you until after we’d checked in to the hotel. This is Matt Higgins, by the way.”
Val and Matt shook hands. He extended a warm welcome to Matt.
“How did you know we’d be on this plane?” Matt repeated Scott’s query.
“Gerti told me you would be arriving today. We have our ways. If I couldn’t find out what flight you were on after the call from Ms. Gerti, I wouldn’t be of much use to you, now would I?”
“You maintain your methods. Do you know why we’re here?” Scott asked.
“Not exactly. I would imagine it has something to do with Dmitri Alexandrovitch. Am I correct?”
“You got it,” Matt said. “We’ll be attempting to verify that he’s the man responsible for trying to murder the four of us. You know that we killed his nephew in Savannah.”
“Forgive me, Scott, I’m sorry about your sister,” Val said without acknowledging Matt’s comment. “I’ll always remember her. Such a dynamic character and full of courage.”
Matt looked away and tried not to show the welling emotion Val’s mini eulogy conjured. The wound stayed open and sore. He had come here to deliver justice to the man he now believed had ordered her death. Nothing would deter him, and his goal remained crystal clear in his mind.
“Our friend Dmitri recently moved to a new location. His new house is a fortress. I suggest we take a ride to see it during the daylight.”
“Is it heavily guarded?” Matt asked.
“From what we have been able to put together, it usually is. Today, however, the guards were reduced to two, and all the others have gone with Dmitri. We believe to Moscow, but I haven’t confirmed his destination. The villa appears to be basically deserted.” Val led them to a car. A driver grabbed their small suitcases and put them in the trunk.
“How far is it?” Scott asked.
“About a half hour or so. Just to let you know, we’ve been doing surveillance on it for some time for our own purposes.”
On reaching the area of the city containing the villa, Matt noticed a large hill to the east side of it and walls surrounding three sides, with two of them dead-ending into a steep cliff. They observed the place from an elevated vantage point about half a mile away. There existed an extensive array of antennas over the roof on the second story of the house. The house stood back from the road about fifty meters and had a double door entrance gate.
“I believe this is the spot where the emails originated. But I can’t understand why they’d leave the computers on if no one is here,” Scott said.
“We need to get in there,” Matt said.
“I suggest you go to your hotel and rest until this evening. I’ll pick you up at eleven. Is that a good time?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Matt said. He knew this would be the best course of action. Going in during daylight hours would be foolish even if the house remained unguarded. He’d love to go now, but reason dictated otherwise. He told himself that he’d gone off half-cocked too many times in the recent past. He wished he could call Liz and get overhead coverage of the place, but the fact that he was off-book doing his own thing prevented that. She would have a convulsion if she knew he was calling from Russia.
Liz would ask too many questions he didn’t want to answer. She would undoubtedly query, “What the hell are you doing? You need to get back on the reservation. You are our asset and we want you to be in communication with us at all t
imes.” That would never work if he wanted to accomplish his mission. Besides, he sensed that Liz had a small crush on him, and he didn’t want to hurt her in any way.
The director would rant with justifiable rage if he knew Matt had gone to Russia in his pursuit. He would order him home to prevent a possible diplomatic incident. In the end, he determined it would be better to do this his way and not the FBI’s.
“These are for you,” Val said as he handed each a Glock 9mm handgun and a pair of NVGs. “I’ll have my men do surveillance of the house while we wait. We’ve found another good position a kilometer from here where we can see down into the property.”
Matt’s cell rang. He saw Liz’s number and ignored the call. If he answered, she might tell him something he didn’t want to hear. She was undoubtedly tracking his phone and probably knew his location.
“I’m giving you the latest pictures and diagrams we were able to acquire of the house. They’re only a few hours old.” Val handed them to Matt.
“Damn, I hoped to pay him a visit now,” Matt sighed. He then looked at Val. “But we’ll drop in on him tonight.”
Val nodded.
25
Breaking and Entering
Matt enjoyed a two-hour nap in his hotel room before his cell phone rang. On seeing the number belonged to Liz, he decided to ignore it again. Instead, he texted a short note that he would call her tomorrow. Anything to keep her at bay until he could complete his mission.
A knock at the door caused him to look at his watch. Val wasn’t scheduled to arrive for another half hour. He presumed it would be Scott, but on opening his door, he found Val standing there.
“Come in. What’s up?”
“I propose a slight change of plans,” Val said. He took a seat in an armchair while Matt sat on the bed. “We’ve been observing the house for the last few hours and noticed another group repeatedly going by. One of that band stayed behind to conduct surveillance on the house. Lucky we’re located further away and were able to observe all this without getting spotted. I don’t know who they are, but I don’t believe they’re from Russia. Based on what I saw through my binos, I would guess Middle Eastern, probably Syrian, maybe Iranian or even Hezbollah personnel. Why they are here, I can’t figure out. What’s even more puzzling is why they are watching Alexandrovitch’s house.”
“How many are there?” Matt asked.
“Ten that we counted.”
“Almost like a strike team,” Matt said. He paused before continuing. “Perhaps they’re there to do something against Dmitri. He may have shorted them in some arms transaction. Maybe that’s why he’s away. He might suspect they would come after him.”
“I suppose that’s possible, but why stake out a deserted house? It would be easy to see when Dmitri returned by the number of guards. Pass by once a day to determine that, not keep the house under constant surveillance. No one is currently there but the two watchers, and one of them is generally asleep after ten at night and the other dozes off in a chair at the entrance.”
“Will either the guards or the people you observed interfere with our planned mission to visit the house?”
“I don’t think so. We’re going in through an unguarded entrance, a servant’s gateway, actually. I called on a few friends to reinforce my men at the observation post. We’ll have about fifteen or so who I’ll position around the exterior of the house, and they will move to cover the house when we go in. They’ll provide outside firepower in case anyone shows up unexpectedly,” Val said.
“Sounds good. Let’s pick up Scott on the way.”
In the car, Matt told Scott that he would not be going in with him, as he needed someone on the outside as a precaution.
“I didn’t come all this way to sit on my ass,” Scott said. He looked angry at this new development.
“I know, but I think it would be the best course of action. We don’t want to have all three of us in the house together. I need a lookout and some eyes on my back.”
Scott nodded his understanding. He handed over a flash drive to Matt. “You’ll need to insert this into the computer in the house to make certain that the email originated from that IP address. It’ll give me some other information as well.”
They stopped at a location two blocks south of the main entrance to Dmitri’s house. In the darkness, the faint light of the streetlight at the corner illuminated the fire hydrant directly beneath it. The wind sent a chill through Matt. He zipped up his parka to the neck.
“Scott, I want you to stay here in the car. We’ll use our private two-way comms and we’ll be in constant touch. If anything happens, you’ll have all the info I do and you can get away to safety with it. Understand?”
“I’d still like to go with you,” Scott said, but Matt fixed him with a hard stare showing he would not brook any backtalk.
“Okay,” Scott conceded.
“I’ll lead,” Val told Matt. “We’re going to go around to the left side and through a garden entrance. It’s never guarded at night. There are no lights on in the building, so we’ll need the NVGs.”
Matt put his around his neck at the same time Val did. They headed off. Matt gave Scott a farewell wave and a thumbs-up.
Getting in through the wall’s side portal proved as easy as Val had suggested after he produced a key he’d somehow acquired that unlocked the gate. They entered the grounds. With the aid of the NVGs, they hurried across the open space, moving around two statues placed on the lawn, which would have remained unseen without the NVGs’ help. They reached the servants’ entrance to the house in short order. Val turned the knob and it opened. Matt realized there would be no need to keep the doors to the house locked with all the security Dmitri employed.
Val swung the door open. A rifle butt swished by his head, but he instantly ducked down and reacted automatically by attacking the man. He slammed his fist into the man’s face and then aimed his knee toward his groin with a vicious upward thrust. The weapon flew from the guard’s hands when Val made contact. Val regained his upright posture and, with the practiced movements of an expert, plunged a knife into the man’s throat while covering his mouth to prevent any sounds from escaping.
“I thought you told me he slept after ten,” Matt whispered to Val.
“Maybe we caught him on a pee break. Come on, we’re alive, aren’t we? Let’s move,” Val said and slapped Matt on the back.
“We need to ensure we don’t make any more noise before we get out of here. Maybe we can leave without anyone knowing we’ve been here.”
On searching the first-floor main entryway, Matt found nothing, but the design appeared to be a receiving and party area. He peeked out the glass panel in the front door. There he observed the guard with his head slumped over, sleeping. They climbed the palatial marble staircase to the second floor. There they opened and closed the doors on the first two rooms on the right and discovered they were small bedrooms. They entered the third room on the right side of the hall. Matt realized by the furniture that this had to be the office.
Val went over to the window. His phone buzzed a soft tone. He answered, and after listening for a couple of seconds, he looked at Matt. “There is a group of men heading this way. They came from the same vehicle we observed earlier. I believe they are coming here. The spotter they left behind surely saw us enter the house. We need to hurry. There’s more of them than we thought, maybe twenty.”
“Any good news?” Matt asked. He searched the large mahogany desk but found nothing of significance. On top of the desk, however, was a picture of a young girl with two elderly ladies. This might be important. Another single photo resided on Dmitri’s desk; Matt intended to grab it later but then changed his mind, deciding that now was as good a time as any. With the two photos stashed away, he got back on with his search for the computer.
Val spoke into his phone. “Move our men into position. Be ready for action in two minutes.”
“Do we have any time?” Matt asked.
Val moved
over to where Matt had placed the pictures in his backpack. “They may be here before my men get set. They are moving quicker than I expected. I think we must go. Now.”
Matt was now becoming desperate in his search for a computer. There must be one. This whole venture relied on finding the instrument that had transmitted the email and thereby verifying the culprit was indeed Dmitri.
Two beautiful paintings hung behind the desk. Matt snapped a photo of them and then lifted each to see if a panel or safe was buried there behind them. No luck, so he continued around the room without finding anything useful. He took a few snapshots of the room. He needed to find the damn computer, but where?
At that moment, Matt heard Scott’s voice come over his earpiece, but before he could acknowledge it, the sound of automatic gunfire erupted at the front of the house, where bullets smashed through windows on the ground floor.
“We gotta go,” shouted Val.
“Not yet,” Matt responded. He started to grab everything he could and throw it into his backpack. At least he could make it look like a robbery. He snatched other pictures, the papers from the desk, and then, before he could capture anything else, he heard a sound from the hall.
In the next second, a man holding an AK appeared in the door and rounds peppered the room. Matt and Val dove for the floor.
Val let out a scream.
26
Escape
The attacker continued to fire in all directions without concentrating on any one spot in the room; since he didn’t wear NVGs, he didn’t realize the targets had already dived for cover. Matt heard and felt the rounds pass over his head as they scampered in a low crawl toward the far wall. He pulled his Glock from its belt holster with one rapid and fluid movement, then sprang up and fired two bullets into the man standing in the doorway shining green in his NVGs.