Kaluzny flinched at the baton's movement and glanced up at Yeshevsky. "He gave me a forwarding address in Sweden. I forward maybe two packages a year for him. 22 Bondegatan, Apartment 3B, Stockholm. Please don't hurt my family," he pleaded.
"Is he at this address right now?" Yeshevsky pressed.
"I really don't know. I haven't heard from him in over a year. I passed a few packages on to the address several weeks ago. 8x10 padded mailers from Novosibirsk. Looked like an air shipping company name. Something with aviation in the title."
A few weeks before, FSB agents had found three men murdered at the Nizhny Novgorod airport. Two Chechen mobsters and a guy who ran a VIP transportation business out of Novosibirsk. It was enough to keep Vanko Kaluzny alive for the moment. Yeshevsky signaled for his partner to leave, and they both walked briskly toward the door of the apartment.
"That's it? Are you going to kill me?"
Feliks Yeshevsky stopped and turned his head. "Do you want me to kill you?"
"No. I just—"
"Then quit trying to talk me into it. We know where you live. Where everyone you care about lives. If you fucked us over with this address, we'll kill all of them in front of you. If you somehow miraculously remember a phone number for Mr. Reznikov and try to call him, I will personally arrange the rape, mutilation and live incineration of your entire extended family. If I were you, I'd call in sick at Cragnia Biotech and head to the hospital to have that collarbone examined. Once the shock of our visit wears off, the pain will become unbearable."
Yeshevsky followed the other SVR agent out of the apartment and closed the door behind him. He quickly removed the suppressor and placed it back in his jacket. Screwing the suppressor onto the pistol in front of the suspect almost always produced immediate results. As they walked toward the staircase, he pulled out his cell phone and placed a call to Moscow.
Chapter 48
Major Stepan Eristov slapped his cell phone shut and turned to Captain Rusnak. "22 Bondegatan. Apartment 3B. No guarantee he is there. I want both vehicles moving in less than twenty seconds," he barked.
"The van goes first," Rusnak said.
All of the men scrambled to put on their jackets, which would conceal the weapons attached to specialized slings underneath. The slings allowed them to covertly carry their weapons "hands free," tightly along their torsos until they needed them. In one swift, practiced motion, each member of the team could put their weapon into action at a moment's notice.
Most of the team carried the latest Russian PP2000 submachine guns. Compact and futuristic-looking, it fired the new 7N21 armor piercing 9mm projectiles at a rate of 800 rounds per minute. Each weapon was loaded with a 20 round magazine for initial concealment, but each team member carried several 40 round magazines on their internal harness rig.
Two members of the support team would carry AKS-74u assault rifles, which would be stashed within easy reach inside each of the vehicles. The assault rifles would give them additional stopping power and range in the unlikely event that the operation blew up in their faces. Major Eristov and Captain Rusnak also carried silenced Makarov pistols, which would be the only suppressed weapons used by the team. Zaslon training had stressed the importance of minimizing the use of suppressors, which often served to encourage the inappropriate use of firearms during an operation. Eristov envisioned using his silenced pistol to compel Reznikov's compliance with their abduction, or if that failed, to kill him.
As the operatives piled out of the apartment, Dmitry Solomin grabbed Eristov. "Bondegatan is south of Stockholm in the Sodermalm district. Get over to the Klarastrand immediately. Head south on Sveavägen and take a right onto Radmansgatan, then a left onto Dalagatan…"
"We have maps, Dmitry. I'll call you when we're finished," Eristov said.
"Bondegatan is a one-way street headed east. Tight quarters with plenty of cafés and stores. You'll need to be very careful."
"We'll take that under advisement," he said and shut the door on the SVR agent.
Chapter 49
The National Clandestine Service's Operations Center was fully staffed and buzzing with activity in anticipation of the impending covert operation in Stockholm. They had no idea when or if the operation would proceed, but most of the CIA personnel currently locked into the glass chamber wouldn't see daylight until it was finished, or the mission was abandoned.
Similarly, a small private chamber in the White House Situation Room was manned by the most trusted members of the national security advisor's inner circle, along with a similar group aligned with the Secretary of State. They had access to a live, classified feed of the operation. A CIA operations technician ensured that none of the data fed to the White House directly compromised CIA operatives in the field. The White House would see a slightly watered down version of what was seen and heard in the Operations room.
Bauer and Manning had managed to convince White House bureaucrats that any premature release of information to European allies could be intercepted by the Russians, with horrifying results. Any sniff of a western intelligence agency alert in Stockholm had the potential to cut off their inside source at the FSB. Without Reznikov's address, the Russians would dispose of the rogue scientist, leaving them with no leads to chase down the deadliest bioweapon ever mass produced. The White House agreed to give the CIA team one shot at recovering Reznikov before bringing the rest of Europe into the fold. The CIA was gambling everything on the success of Sanderson's team.
Berg glanced over at the bioweapons specialists assembled around one end of the table. They had borrowed a few scientists from the Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center to analyze the lab results from Helsinki. The scientists had been asked to stay in the Operations Center to provide technical support to the team in Stockholm. None of them had any idea what they might find in Reznikov's apartment. Manning had suggested they stick with Edgewood personnel for now, until the next phase had been decided. The scientists were assigned to the U.S. Army and much less likely to slip away for a private phone call than their Center for Disease Control colleagues.
The scientists had stressed the serious implications of the laboratory examination performed on the intact brain sample retrieved from Monchegorsk. The subject's temporal lobe showed multiple localized lesions, in addition to a generalized neuropathy throughout the entire brain. The severe damage to the limbic system, specifically the temporal lobes, explained the erratic and violent behavior seen by Petrovich's team on the streets. The CIA's chief psychiatrist had added her own assessment and explanation of the bizarre behavior witnessed by Petrovich's team and confirmed as widespread by Major Sabitov.
In her opinion, the encephalitis virus had been genetically modified to mimic the behavior of the Herpes Simplex Encephalitis (HSE) virus, which was the only form of encephalitis known to localize in the limbic system. She explained that the temporal lobes were critical to the mediation of aggression. Psychiatric literature strongly suggested that patients with severe temporal lobe damage frequently exhibited a tendency for marked destructiveness and impulsiveness. It was not uncommon for patients to look emotionless or unresponsive, followed by sudden, unpredictable fits of uncontrolled motor activity and aggressive behavior. She called it intermittent explosive disorder (IED), but one of the scientists from Edgewood called it the ultimate weapon.