“How’d you find me?” Dogan wondered.
“I followed you, of course. Marvelous job of losing your tails, by the way.”
“I didn’t lose you.”
The Russian shrugged.
“You witnessed my meeting with the Commander, no doubt,” Dogan assumed.
Vaslov nodded. “And it wasn’t hard to judge from your physical responses — body language, I believe you Americans call it — that things were not going well. I’m not surprised. You should have let that young man kill me this morning.”
“Not in my book.”
“Any regrets?”
“Only that I didn’t crush the prick’s vocal chords.”
Vaslov leaned back and laughed easily. “Look now at how we find ourselves, two cold warriors sharing the fine French landscape. If only I had brought wine …”
“We could toast the success of your mission today. You had a clean escape coming to you.”
“You used a similar ruse against me in Prague with similar success. When was that, seventy-seven, seventy-eight maybe?”
“Seventy-nine. Winter.”
“You remember?”
“I remember the cold.” A pause. “You spared my life then just as I spared yours today.”
“And with good reason, comrade. When the nobility is gone from our profession, we become nothing more than simple assassins instead of knights jousting for our country’s pride.”
“How romantic….”
“Indulge me, comrade. I look forward to the rivalry between us because it forces me to challenge myself, to reach for perfection. I could have had that defector collected and returned to Moscow yesterday or even the day before, but that would have prevented another match in our ongoing tournament.”
“You took quite a risk.”
“But well worth it. In the end, what do we have besides each other? Today I won. Tomorrow may be different.”
“For sure. Tomorrow you’ll be the only one playing.”
Vaslov sighed. “They pulled you, comrade?”
“I forced the issue.”
“This morning?”
“And tonight.”
“They are fools, comrade, little different from my superiors in the Kremlin. Only sometimes I think those in the Kremlin know they are fools so they leave me to run things as I wish.”
“You’re lucky, my friend.” Strangely, addressing Vaslov as “friend” didn’t come at all hard for Dogan. This was the longest conversation they’d ever had, but through the years they’d shared things far more important than words.
“Of course, I knew the sanction you would face, comrade,” Vaslov said in a more somber tone. “I knew you would have plenty of time on your hands, and I have a project that might command some of it.”
“Working for you?”
“Not exactly. What if we had a common enemy, an enemy that could devastate all the ideals we fight for along with our countries?”
The breeze toyed with Dogan’s thick brown hair. “You’re on to something?”
“Just talk now, random pieces of information that together make no sense. Something is in the air, that’s all I know. Our countries are strong, but vulnerable to another who knew what to look for.”
“Another country?”
“I don’t think so.” Vaslov hesitated, crossed his legs. “Have you ever heard of the Committee?”
“Just rumors. No one’s sure they really exist.”
“Which is their greatest strength. No one believes in them, so no one bothers to stand in their way.”
“We thought their existence was tied to disinformation on your part.”
“Just as we thought about you, comrade. With both of us chasing our own tails, they could operate unhindered right before our eyes. True enough?”
“I suppose.”
“Then tell me what you have heard of the Committee.”
“The best I’ve been able to gather is that it’s an international organization dedicated to bringing control of the world to the private sector through economic manipulation.”
Vaslov nodded. “Their own sector, actually. It all comes down to vulnerability again. If they understood ours sufficiently, they could use it against us with greater results than any bomb.”
“That would certainly fit the pattern. The Committee, some say, has bankrolled terrorist and other subversive activities in the hope of destabilizing governments and weakening their economic structure. Then they move in and take over the marketplace. Eventually they control the entire country.”
“And the rest will tumble, one at a time. Like dominoes, comrade?”
“Doubtful. Assuming the Committee really exists, they would have found the process too long and unfulfilling. You can’t take over the world a little piece at a time because the little pieces don’t mean shit.”
“Ah, but what of the big pieces? What if the Committee had discovered a means to successfully cripple the countries it needs to the most?”
“The United States and the Soviet Union?”
“Precisely, comrade. The Committee is patient but you’re right, dominoes do take a long time to tumble. The world is changing fast these days. Something might fall in the path of the dominoes and block them. So the Committee had to find a way to strike at our nations directly.”
“You just switched to the past tense.”
“Because I believe they have already found this way.”
“Why?”
“There is talk. People have been disappearing conveniently. Funds, massive funds, have been mobilized. Money is changing hands in amounts too vast to contemplate. And all of this I think has to do with a simultaneous strike against both our nations.”
The breeze caught part of the fountain’s spray and whipped it out at the two men. Dogan didn’t bother to wipe his brow.
“Nuclear?” he posed.
“To provoke a war between us, Grendel? No, a war-ravaged world would not be what the business-minded people who make up the Committee would want. Their ideals have been shaped in the marketplace. They seek to control the world by controlling its resources. That is where the weapon will come from.”
“Which doesn’t tell us a whole hell of a lot.”
Vaslov thought briefly, choosing his words carefully now. “Whatever strike they are about to initiate will be against something we hold in common, something that can damage us both equally. The two superpowers are what truly stand in their way. If they are to obtain global domination, our power must be neutralized. We are not vulnerable militarily, either of us. The way to strike is economically, where our shortsighted leaders have opened the door to any number of strategies.”
Dogan found the inside of his mouth was dry. “Hell of a scenario. But everything’s too vague.”
“That is how the Committee works, comrade. This time, though, they may have left one of their stones turned up. It will lead us to them. Our weapon will be exposure. Once in the open, they cannot function.”
“Where is this stone?”
“Colombia. A town called San Sebastian.”
Part Three:
Cadgwith Cove, Friday Morning
Chapter 10
The trip to Cadgwith Cove and Bruggar House, the residence of Colin Burgess, took Locke a good part of the night and left him exhausted. After leaving the Dorchester, he had found a cab, which took him to Paddington Station. There he boarded a train traveling south for the English countryside. The journey was long to begin with and the train’s many stops — at Reading, Somerset, Taunton, Exeter, and Newton Abbot — had Locke’s nerves even more frazzled. Rest was impossible, especially during the rocky segment between Exeter and Newton Abbot as the train passed into the wilds of Dartmoor over ancient track beds. Finally it arrived in Plymouth, where Chris boarded another train for Cornwall, disembarking at the station in Truro. A single cab waiting outside then took him the final hour-long stretch through Helston onto the Lizard and ultimately into the remote village of Cadgwith Cove.