“And who knows,” Anna said with a head tilt and a slight shrug, “maybe we’ll have better luck with Valgerda.”
“Oh, you want to talk to her?”
“Yes, now that you have placed all the blame on her in order to save yourself, of course we’re going to interrogate her.”
“I haven’t said… oh, I see, you’re trying to play us against each other,” Magnus said in a mocking tone. “She’s not going to take the bait.”
“We’ll see about that,” Justin said with a confident nod.
Joe’s cellphone rang. He glanced at the screen, checking the caller ID. “It’s Ned,” he said, handing the phone to Justin.
“Hi, Ned, what’s up?” Justin said.
“Not much, just cleaning up the terminal. Listen, we’ve finally got through to someone from the Canadian Forces. They’ve dispatched a couple of Cormorant helos to check things out here, after military officials from the US and Denmark began asking all kinds of embarrassing questions.”
Justin pressed the cellphone to his ear, so Magnus and the other passengers could hear only his side of the conversation. Ned’s unexpected call had given him an idea.
“Who’s aboard the helos? I mean from the Danish side?”
“Nobody, there are no freaking Danes in there, the bastards. It’s the Canadian Forces, our army, can’t you hear me?”
“Yes, I hear you. Anyone I may know?”
“They didn’t give me any names.”
“But they’re from the Ministry of Defence, right?”
“Yeah, they call it the Department of National Defence, the DND. But you know that.”
“Do you think they would be interested in picking up one of their own?”
Justin released his grip on the cellphone. He guessed Ned’s reply and wanted Magnus to hear for himself the words that could seal the deal.
“Of course, they will, when they go back.”
“OK, Ned. Tell them to meet me in Arctic Bay, and that I have something for them. The man for whom they came this far is sitting with me in the truck as we speak. Bye!”
Justin flipped his cellphone shut. Before he could say another word, Magnus leaned toward Justin.
“Hey, move back.” Anna shoved her pistol into Magnus’s side.
Magnus sat up straight.
“It’s OK,” Justin said. “I think he wanted to whisper in my ear.”
“I want a deal,” Magnus said, his voice low and unsteady. “Don’t hand me over to the Danish troops, whoever they may be.”
“What do you want?” Justin held Magnus’s eyes. Panic had begun to replace the courage in the man’s heart.
“Political asylum and a new identity. Both for me and Valgerda.”
“That’s a steep price. Your secrets are really worth that much?”
“They are. Trust me, you’re the one getting a deal here. I’ll give you everything about the Arctic Wargame, the players, the story, everything.”
“Start talking.”
“Do I have your word?”
“A lot of people will have to sign off on this, but as far I am concerned, I’ll do my best to get it done.”
“That’s good enough for me, I guess,” Magnus agreed with a deep sigh.
“OK, I’m listening,” Justin said.
“No, you said it yourself that talk is cheap, and I know you’re a difficult man to convince. Find me a computer, and I’ll show you everything. E-mails, photos, plans, coordinates. Everything.”
Chapter Thirty-two
Magnus’s watch looked like any other wristwatch. Its only remarkable feature was the black dial, which had four yellow dots representing the numbers three, six, nine, and twelve. There was nothing special about its leather band either. But as Magnus flipped over the watch, Justin noticed a small clasp in the casing, right next to the switch for setting the time. Magnus inserted the tip of his fingernail underneath the clasp, popping out the pin of a USB connector.
“It’s a jump drive,” Justin said. “What a great idea.”
Magnus shrugged, as he handed his watch to Justin. “Its capacity is 64 GB. I keep it as a backup for confidential materials. In this case, it turned out to be my insurance policy.”
Justin turned on the desktop computer and looked out of the living room’s small windows. Ned had allowed them to use his old Compaq.
“What’s in there?” Anna asked, pacing around the desk, waiting for the computer screen to light up.
Justin was sitting in the only chair in the room, in front of the monitor, while Magnus stood to the right of Justin, his back against the wall.
“You’ll see. Pictures, maps, names, numbers. The entire Arctic Wargame operation at your fingertips.”
“So, you just happened to be carrying around the operation’s database?” Justin asked, fumbling with the keyboard. The computer was still going through the stage of scanning the hard drive for startup errors.
“No, of course not. I planned it well in advance. I sensed at some point things were not as they seemed in this operation. I had this unsettling feeling that Gunter was not telling me everything, and I was being set up. Maybe he needed someone to blame in case things went wrong, like they did. I know Gunter is very close to our Defense Minister. Then, just before the beginning of our mission, I saw…”
Justin looked up at Magnus. “What did you see?”
Magnus remained silent. He wanted to tell Justin how he saw Yuliya kill in cold blood one of the recruits, how he ran a background search on her but could not find a record of a Yuliya Novikov ever working in the Danish Defense Intelligence Service or anywhere else in the security establishments of Denmark, about Yuliya’s slight trace of a foreign accent, and how Gunter was not really in charge of the Arctic Wargame. But Magnus did not trust the Canadians. Not yet. After all the paperwork was signed and he received his new identity, he would tell Justin everything he knew.
“Magnus, what did you see?” Justin asked again.
“Eh… I realized that… that most likely things were going to turn ugly… We had very few soldiers and against my better judgment, I still went on with this mission.”
Justin thought over Magnus’s reply for a few seconds. “Here. It’s working.” He pointed to the screen lit up by a Caribbean sunset picture set as the wallpaper.
“Once I began to feel uneasy about the whole deal,” Magnus said, “I began backing up anything I could get my hands on. I figured the information might come in handy if my survival was at stake. If not, it was hidden so well that your own men missed it.”
Anna nodded. “It’s very clever. Hidden, but still in plain sight. I would have never thought these things even existed.”
“They do, and for a couple of hundred bucks these days you can get larger capacity models.”
“OK, let’s see what secrets you actually have in here,” Justin said once the computer was ready. “Let’s start at the beginning.” Justin selected the oldest folder, “March 30.”
Three other folders were stored inside it, named respectively “To Do”, “In Transit” and “Completed.” A simple method of keeping records of the mission’s daily progress. He accessed the To Do folder. The screen was flooded with an abundance of files. JPEG and PDF files, as well as Word documents. The first picture he clicked on was a blown-up map of Cape Combermere in Ellesmere Island. There was another satellite picture, showing crystal clear details of a rocky beach and a structure that looked familiar to Justin.
“Do you know what that is?” Magnus asked.
“A Sirius Patrol depot,” Anna replied.
“Yes, very good,” Magnus said.
“We were there actually right here.” Justin tapped the monitor with his index finger and pointed at the wooden hut. “The depot was pillaged by some of the locals, but we still found leftover items, evidence of your patrols landing and stashing weapon caches.”