‘I’d like to see it as soon as possible,’ accepted Charlie.
‘I can tell you already there’s not a single fingerprint, anywhere,’ said Popov. ‘The canvassed lorry was stolen three months ago, in St Petersburg. The other two from a Moscow haulage company, at the same time. The Moscow registration on the BMW is false: it belongs to a Lada owned by an air traffic controller at Sheremet’yevo. The plates on the Ford abandoned on the ring road were stripped off a genuinely imported Ford parked at Kazan railway terminal.’ Looking directly at Charlie, Popov said, ‘We are going to take all the vehicles on the check run to and from Pizhma tomorrow.’
Charlie decided Popov enjoyed showing the efficiency in front of Hillary, who looked suitably impressed. The man with the beard fringe offered that they’d already checked the Ford, which had shown no radiation whatsoever, and that the vehicle remained isolated on the ring road solely for their examination. Hillary shook her head as Kestler translated and said: ‘Not unless you guys want to.’ Neither did.
Kestler manoeuvred himself next to Hillary in the rear of the Militia car, putting Charlie in the front. He sat turned towards the American, his arm over the seat, so he was instantly able to squeeze the girl’s leg in warning when she started; ‘Well, the story so far…’
She stopped, grinning at Charlie. ‘You trying to tell me a secret?’
‘No!’ he said, pointedly. ‘Maybe keep one.’
She remained silent until they transferred at the ministry into the embassy car. Because Kestler had to drive it put Charlie in the back with Hillary again. At once she said; ‘Sorry. But everything with the driver was in Russian; I didn’t think he could speak English. And anyway, aren’t we on the same side now?’
It was Kestler who explained their acceptance on sufferance, which Charlie finished by saying that if he’d arranged their transport, like Popov had for them, he would have ensured the driver was fluent in English. ‘So what would he have heard?’
‘The level of radiation when I got there was virtually nonexistent,’ reported Hillary. ‘If the Russians’ curie reading is accurate to within a degree, any contamination was entirely residual and from outside, from when they smashed the containers. That’s why I checked the outside and underside of the lorries and confirmed a reading. The inside of the trucks gave me a lot, though. It’s not shown in any of the satellite photographs, but each truck had some sort of hydraulic lifting device, to bring the canisters on board. Near the tailgate of each there’s extensive scratching and on the metal floor of one of the covered lorries there are clear circular markings of the sort you get from rubber pads at the end of support legs. The canvas lorry is flatbed and wooden decked: the wood here has been positively depressed for maybe a millimetre. From the satellite shots of the smashed open containers Washington’s already made weight calculations from height and thickness measurements. The floor markings on the lorries are consistent with the containers being pretty standard, hard outer casing, two-inch thick lead lining. In my opinion the floor markings prove that the containers were full when they were lifted inboard. On our estimate of twenty-two being stolen, that puts the total nuclear graded loss at just under two hundred and forty nine kilos…’
‘… According to this morning’s meeting, they only lost nineteen,’ interrupted Kestler.
‘We’ll have Washington recount,’ said the girl, at once. ‘I can’t see how our picture analysts were wrong, but on the lesser figure the loss will be two hundred and forty two kilos, forty minimum.’
‘Five kilos makes one bomb,’ remembered Charlie. ‘They’ve got enough to make forty-eight, at least.’
Hillary hesitated. ‘Only with proper laboratories staffed by properly qualified technicians and physicists. But you’re right – the bad guys have got enough to rule the world.’
‘Unless they’re stopped,’ said Kestler.
‘I think the most significant thing is that the housing isn’t in the lorries back there any more, either,’ said Hillary, answering the question as Charlie was about to ask it.
Instead he said; ‘So it was transferred, to go on supporting the canisters in the trucks into which it was transferred.’
‘Obviously,’ agreed the physicist.
‘From the timed satellite sequence we know it took an hour to move the containers from the train into the trucks,’ said Charlie.
Hillary took up the calculation. ‘Where the egg box was already prepared. This time the support frames had to be transferred, along with the containers. I’d say two hours, minimum. More likely three. Longer than that if they did it in the dark.’
‘So it wasn’t done at the Arbat,’ concluded Charlie, positively.
‘Who said it was?’ demanded the girl.
‘That was the suggestion at a briefing this morning.’
‘On the street back there!’ exclaimed Hillary. ‘Bullshit! No one taking the trouble these guys did would have risked that.’
‘You think there could have been an expert – a physicist even – involved in the robbery?’ queried Kestler.
‘Advising, maybe,’ she judged. ‘What I am damned sure about is that they didn’t intend losing what they got. Or being caught, getting it.’
Natalia called Lesnaya within an hour of Charlie returning from the embassy, listening without interruption to everything he recounted. She said, ‘There must be a connection, between the two! Kirs had to be a decoy!’
‘Prove it, from the people you’ve got in custody,’ urged Charlie. ‘You did well, personally involving yourself in the questioning.’
‘I’m pretty sure Yatisyna will break quickly.’
‘Did he give you any indication of what he’s got?’
‘If he’s telling the truth about Kirs being set up by Agayans, he might know who the intended purchasers were.’
‘That could take us a long way forward,’ agreed Charlie.
‘I almost promised it at today’s meeting.’
‘Don’t promise what you haven’t got,’ warned Charlie. ‘And don’t tell anyone else. If you get it, keep it for a higher authority meeting. And get all the credit yourself.’
‘I didn’t know anything about the lorries and the cars being found,’ Natalia admitted abruptly.
‘Popov didn’t tell you before the meeting?’ queried Charlie, recalling the look on her face. He could hear Sasha in the background, singing tunelessly.
‘I didn’t get up from the interrogation cell until fifteen minutes before it began. There wasn’t time. For me to be told about Oskin, either. I personally promised the protection!’
In the solitude of his apartment Charlie frowned. ‘It’s work, Natalia! Don’t get personally involved. You couldn’t have anticipated what was going to happen.’
‘I should have done.’
‘Stop it!’ he insisted, sternly.
After several moments’ silence, she said, They’re obviously very well organized, particularly here in Moscow.’
Charlie hesitated. ‘I wasn’t personally challenging Popov. He was assuming too much.’
‘You don’t have to keep apologizing.’
‘I’m not apologizing. I just don’t want you to misunderstand.’
Beyond the sound of Sasha’s tiny, unformed voice Charlie heard a man’s shout. Natalia said quickly, ‘I have to go.’
‘Yes.’ Popov must be in the hallway: it was obvious he would have his own key.
Charlie replaced the phone feeling emptied. It was a feeling he was to experience a lot in the coming days, increasingly about events involving Natalia. Which was not Charlie allowing an intrusion because invariably those events were professional. He actually wished they hadn’t been.
None of which, however, was his immediate concern. That was – finally – the public disclosure of the robbery.
The metal hooks and shackles had probably been fitted into the basement walls when the dacha was first built, to hang meat or support gardening equipment. The bands around Silin’s wrists and ankles were very tight and wide apart, so that he was spreadeagled with his arms and legs widely outstretched. He was trying very hard not to show any fear to Sobelov, who stood directly in front of him.