‘By the way, I believe you drew a blank when you tried to find out who masterminded the attempt on your life. Well, I made a few enquiries of my own before I left New York. It seems the order for your assassination came from within the Politburo itself. You’ve been a thorn in their side for a long time now so what better way to get rid of you than by letting the resistance movement do the dirty work for them? That’s why the missile launcher got into the country so easily. Not that the resistance movement suspected anything, they thought it was all down to their own ingenuity. This is the best bit, though: Hendrique was the unwitting middleman using Werner Freight to bring the missile launcher into the country. It’s a small world, isn’t it?’
Benin stared at the door after Kolchinsky had left. He knew the case would never reach a court of law. There would be an official cover-up as quickly, and quietly, as possible. He also knew the choices facing him. Either die in detention, after hours, perhaps even days, of unrelenting torture, or take his own life before they arrived to arrest him.
He swivelled his chair around to face the window overlooking the breathtaking grandeur of the snow-covered Bittsevsky forest-park then reached behind him and removed his Tokarev pistol from the top drawer of his desk.