“Very good,” he said, stepping back half a pace to not crowd her. “If you feel you need to kill me,” he said, “do it now. If you feel I’m responsible for your fiancé’s death, avenge yourself. I’m in here illegally. Your story would be that I threatened you. No one would question further. This is my gift to you, a chance to set everything even.”
For what seemed like a long, long while, she held the gun on him.
“But if you do not pull the trigger, I will be out of France by nightfall. I am going somewhere to keep my money warm.”
“Switzerland?”
“Somewhere,” he said. “Hey.” On a piece of notepaper, he wrote down the names of a hotel and a restaurant in Geneva. He handed it to her. “If I can ever do you a favor,” he said, “come visit. Go to the restaurant and ask for me. But come alone.”
She held the weapon steady. She set the notepaper aside.
“I should be going,” he said.
“You should be going,” she agreed.
Yuri Federov, onetime kingpin of crime in Ukraine, turned and walked to the door. At that moment, as if on cue, someone tried the door from the other side and, finding it locked, rapped sharply. A male voice from the other side called out in English.
“Alex? You in there? You okay in there?”
A beat and she answered.
“I’m okay, Ben,” she said.
She pushed the weapon under her top sheet.
“Go,” she said to Federov. “Now.”
Federov unlocked the door. The door opened. Ben stepped in. Federov gave him a nod. Ben gave him a nod in return.
“Sorry,” Ben said with a shrug. He labored in an alien tongue. “Je ne parle pas français.
” I don’t speak French.
“And I don’t speak English,” Federov lied quickly in English. He turned back to Alex. He smiled. “Dasvidania,” he said. Good-bye.
“Uvidimsia, ” she answered. See you.
He gave her a final grin and a nod. “Da. Uvidimsia,” he agreed. See you.
Federov clasped Ben on the shoulder for a moment and gave him a nod. Then Federov left the chamber.
Ben came in and sat down. He looked at the door, then back to Alex.
“So?” he finally asked. “Who was that?”
A moment passed.
Then, “A friend,” she finally said. “An unlikely friend, but a friend.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In addition to conversations with selected personal sources, the author is grateful to many sources for background and research on Kiev, the Orange Revolution, and the political histories of North, Central, and South America. Among them, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The United States Department of Justice, Wikipedia, The Columbia Encyclopedia, and The Encyclopedia Britannica.
The author welcomes comments and correspondence from readers either through the Zondervan website or at NH1212f@yahoo.com.
Noel Hynd
