One of the North Koreans spoke. He was tall, deathly thin, his jet-black hair cut short. ‘The Indians will sell us upgraded MiG-29s for forty million each.’
Eltsina gave a small shrug. ‘Of course they will. Especially when they are worth no more than fifteen million, upgraded or not. And those upgraded MiGs will have been modified in India. We are offering genuine Russian-manufactured hardware, surplus to requirements, but that has never been used operationally. They are in perfect working order. Moreover, when you buy from us, you know with one hundred per cent certainty that you will receive one hundred per cent of your order.’ She smiled and raised her eyebrows. ‘You won’t have a repeat of that unfortunate Kazakhstan/Azerbaijan affair.’
The North Koreans began conferring among themselves in their own language. It sounded to Burliuk like an alien tongue. He shook his inhaler and used it to ease his breathing.
Kasakov turned to Burliuk and gestured for him to move closer. As he did, Kasakov whispered, ‘Kindly tell me what was so urgent that you had to leave the table in the middle of a deal that you said yourself we desperately need.’
Kasakov’s voice was quiet, tone calm and controlled, but Burliuk could feel the malice.
‘Forgive me, Vladimir, but I assure you it was necessary. I heard a rumour yesterday, from an associate of mine in Minsk, that an assassin would be travelling through the city on his way to Russia to make an attempt on your life. I sent some people to check the validity of the rumour. It turned out to be true. My men intercepted the assassin. Unfortunately, when they tried to detain him there was a gunfight and the assassin was killed before he could be questioned.’
Kasakov looked surprised, buying the lie perfectly, and then even smiled a little. ‘Then you’re forgiven, my friend.’ He looked at Eltsina. ‘I thought you were in charge of my security, Yuliya. Maybe I should give your pay cheques to Tomasz from now on.’ Eltsina smirked but she didn’t respond. Kasakov smiled and reached for his wine. He took a large swallow. ‘Oh, and on this matter, if either of you would be so gracious as to discover who is so keen to have me killed, I would rather appreciate it.’
Across the table, the North Koreans were still conferring.
‘I heard something about a mass killing at a hotel in Minsk,’ Eltsina said to Burliuk. ‘Is this the incident you are referring too?’
Burliuk sipped his mineral water and avoided looking at her. ‘I’m afraid I haven’t yet got all the details.’
‘When you have,’ Eltsina said, her tone gentle and understanding, ‘I would very much like to hear them.’
Burliuk nodded.
‘More importantly,’ Kasakov said, ‘what is happening regarding the bastard who killed my nephew? Have you found out where he is hiding yet, and commissioned someone to extinguish his miserable existence?’
Eltsina said, ‘We’re following leads, but Ariff never stays in one place for more than a year or two and takes many precautions to avoid being found. Therefore it’s taking some time. But I promise we will locate him. An American team looks to be the best option to send once we know where Ariff is. They come very highly recommended by my associates in the SVR. The team’s track record is excellent. The only problem is, they are asking for a lot of money.’
Controlled anger passed over Kasakov’s face. ‘When I said money is no object, what did you not understand?’
Eltsina frowned. ‘I do not sign the cheques. It was Tomasz’s idea to negotiate their price down.’
Kasakov looked at Burliuk. This time the anger was not controlled.
‘They’re asking for a ridiculously huge fee, Vladimir,’ Burliuk countered quickly, feeling his lungs tighten. ‘You expect me to manage your finances, and that is what I am doing. For the money they are asking we could employ an army. I’m not exaggerating.’
Kasakov leaned closer to Burliuk. ‘If they are as good as Yuliya says they are then cease negotiations immediately, and pay them whatever – and I mean
whatever
– they want. Each second Ariff breathes and Illarion does not is unacceptable. If they bring me the Egyptian’s intact head so I can mount it on my wall, I shall pay them triple. Is that clear enough?’ Burliuk nodded. ‘Just make sure that worthless dog and his family are dead. Quickly.’
The North Koreans stopped talking and looked back across the table.
‘So, gentlemen,’ Kasakov began, anger gone, back to business. ‘Have you made up your minds?’
The thin North Korean interlaced his fingers. ‘What about armaments? Tell us what you intend to deliver with the planes.’
Burliuk used his inhaler a second time and fought not to smile. Everyone, governments included, wanted something for nothing.
‘A hound without teeth is no good to any man,’ Kasakov said, ‘but sharp fangs cost money. You’ll be pleased to know I have near enough unlimited access to air-to-air missiles such as the R-33 and the newer R-77, as well as air-to-surface, including the X-55 anti-ship missile. Please, my dear friends, check your catalogue for a full list of prices. However, as a sign of our enduring friendship, if you would be so very kind as to buy all twenty jets then I will supply each with a full armament of your choice of missiles. No extra charge.’ He paused. ‘So, do we have a deal?’
The thin North Korean nodded. ‘But we want assurances of quality.’
‘Of course,’ Kasakov said with another smile. ‘You can have a money-back guarantee.’
Washington, DC, USA
Procter met Clarke in the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. He was waiting next to the Great Cats enclosure, watching a couple of Sumatran tigers lying on the ground, doing nothing. It was a warm day, which meant it was hot for a guy of Procter’s size. He stood next to Clarke and watched the tigers. They continued to do nothing.
‘They look bored,’ Procter said after a moment.
Clarke didn’t turn his way. ‘What animal built so perfectly to kill merely wants to be fed?’
Procter nodded. Few other visitors were near but Procter spoke quietly regardless. ‘I know what you are going to say, so don’t, all right? Things didn’t go exactly as planned last week in Minsk.’
Clarke didn’t say anything. One of the tigers yawned.
‘Yamout made it out of the country alive, true, but Yamout is just the bishop, we’re going after the king here. The important thing is that we struck Ariff’s network right where he’s going to really feel it. Forget the fact that Yamout survived, what matters is that Ariff is going to be furious his best pal almost ended up a corpse. He’s still going to do the two things we wanted: he’s going to be on guard against further attacks and he’s going to want to deliver a nice big fat dollop of payback to the culprit. And courtesy of Callo, both Ariff and Yamout are going to believe that Kasakov was behind it. So that’s score number one.
‘As for number two, Kasakov now knows the RDX that killed Farkas came out of the batch stolen from him when his nephew was killed. If he hasn’t already begun moving against Ariff, he will very soon. But now Ariff knows Kasakov is gunning for him he’s going to
be that much harder to hit, so Vlad won’t just be able to wipe him off the face of the Earth like he might have if Ariff didn’t take steps to protect himself. Kasakov is already hard to hit.’ Procter paused for a second. ‘The result is exactly what we want: the world’s two most prolific arms dealers thirsting for each other’s blood and entrenched in a war for hopefully years to come. The flow of illicit arms will be damaged so badly it might never recover. We’ll save countless lives.’
Clarke huffed. ‘I’m well aware of the strategy, Roland.’
‘I know you are,’ Procter agreed, ‘but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of it when things become a little less clean than we would have liked.’
Clarke was still watching the tigers, one of which was now sleeping.
‘Roland,’ he began, still without looking Procter’s way. ‘I hate to be the one to break this to you, but it couldn’t have been much dirtier. Your boy managed to gun down, what was it, twelve people? And if the initial reports are correct, four people who had been staying in the next suite along are among the dead.’
‘And I’m deeply unhappy about those civilian deaths,’ Procter assured. ‘But Tesseract didn’t have a lot of choice with the strike point. It would have been great if Yamout and Petrenko had met in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, but they didn’t. Civilian casualties are always a possibility with these things, and we need to wait to hear from Tesseract before passing judgement.’
Clarke scoffed. ‘Your MVP failed to kill Yamout and took out four civilians in the process and you want to hear from him before passing judgement? Roland, please. You need to accept the facts: Tesseract is not as good as you hoped he would be, and he’s an even greater liability than I feared. He managed to kill one civilian casualty for every two bad guys. We might as well have shelled the building. At least then we would have taken out Yamout as well.’
‘Being from the military,’ Procter commented, ‘you should be more accepting of collateral damage.’
Clarke’s eyes narrowed.
‘Speaking of collateral damage,’ Procter said, ‘there’s something you need to know. Regarding Saul Callo. Those Brit contractors we used contacted me after making the call to Yamout’s people. Callo tried to escape. Abbott and Blout had no choice but to neutralise him before
they were compromised. I’m pissed off about it, but I’m not going to lose any sleep, and neither should you. Callo was a disgusting excuse for a human being. You know that as well as I do.’
Clarke sighed and shook his head. ‘I vouched for Abbot and Blout, so I take responsibility for what happened with Callo. But, like you said, I won’t lose sleep over him. I wish I could say the same about Tesseract.’
Procter rested his palms against the fence. ‘There is a lot we don’t know, Peter, so let’s not jump the gun and condemn him without all the facts. When he reports in, we can have a proper debriefing. Our primary objective was achieved, even with Yamout alive. That’s what I call a success in this game.’
Clarke said, ‘I think it’s time we re-evaluated our relationship with this assassin.’
The second tiger joined the first and closed its eyes. They lay side by side.
Procter shook his head. ‘I’m having a hard time understanding why you are so quick to write him off. Need I remind you that he completed his first two assignments perfectly? If he hadn’t saved Kasakov in Bucharest we would never have been in a position to get our little war. We are only this far into our plans and able to discuss how we continue because of the work he has done. Kasakov is going after Ariff, and Ariff will be going after Kasakov. All thanks to Tesseract.’
‘Exactly,’ Clarke said. ‘We have set things into motion so now we can start thinking about tying off loose ends.’
‘Hang on a minute, Peter. Things are in motion, that’s true, but we are still going to need Tesseract at least once more, don’t forget.’
‘If we even get to that stage. Which we won’t if Tesseract failed to get away cleanly. I’m sure the Belarusians won’t be too concerned with a bunch of dead gangsters and mercenaries, but what about those four civilians? They’ll want to know why they died and who killed them. That’s another spotlight on us. We could have a huge problem walking around out there. We can’t allow that.’
Procter sighed. ‘I very much doubt he’s left his fingerprints all over the damn hotel. Until he has made himself into a genuine problem then I don’t want to hear another word about loose ends.’
‘I find this protectiveness for your new pet quite touching, Roland. But if he has or will become a liability then I expect swift and decisive action.’
Procter nodded and said, ‘Of course. You have my word.’
Hindu Kush Mountains, Afghanistan
The huge aircraft was one hundred and ninety feet long with a wingspan of over two hundred feet, and a height of more than forty. It was a Soviet-made Antonov An-22, a cargo plane, one of the largest in the world, with a payload of up to 180,000 pounds. That capacity had been reached with two partially disassembled MiG-31B jet fighters and accompanying missiles and spare parts filling the aircraft’s cargo hold.
The Antonov was flying at an altitude of twenty-two thousand feet above sea level and its shadow passed over the snowy peaks of the Hindu Kush mountain range in north-eastern Afghanistan. The sky was blue and cloudless, the air thin and free of turbulence. The Antonov had begun its long journey at an airport outside of Novosibirsk, Russia, and since leaving the country had flown south over Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan before entering Afghan airspace. The circuitous route would also take it over Pakistan, then India, Thailand and several bodies of water before it reached its destination of North Korea. North Korea and Russia shared a border, but the international community paid far too much attention to it to risk flying over directly with illegally traded arms.
Each member of the crew was highly experienced in the extra-long flights necessary to deliver weapons to Kasakov’s customers around the globe. They numbered five: pilot, co-pilot, navigator, and two flight engineers. All Russians, except the Ukrainian pilot. He had flown An-22s in the Soviet air force and made almost a hundred times more money now working for Vladimir Kasakov than he had for the communists. The other four crew members were too young to
have flown for the Soviet Union and had been poached from the private sector. What they flew for the arms dealer, and to whom, never bothered them. All that mattered was their generous salaries.
The plane cruised near to its maximum ceiling but the mountain peaks and ridgelines were only a few thousand feet below. The shaking of the fuselage and monstrous whine of the Antonov’s four massive engines prevented the flight from being peaceful, but the view of the snowy peaks glowing from unfiltered sunlight was a beautiful one.
The pilot was grey-haired, perpetually unshaven and forever chewing an unlit cigar. He’d flown Antonovs into Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion and all this time later the country was no different. It was a cursed place, destined to be a battlefield for the rest of time. Why the Soviet Union had ever wanted to add it to the empire was beyond him. Soon the West would finally be driven out and the land could revert back to its natural barbarism.