“I have told you what I know,” said Katusev. “I am not going to start pointing fingers directly. I am not a fool.”
Morton stood up and extended his hand to Katusev. “We appreciate your help. It’s likely we will need to speak to you again.”
“Of course.”
“Do you mind if I keep the picture of Vitsin?”
“It’s yours.” Katusev walked the three detectives back to their car. More legionnaires had now appeared on the roof and around the gravel drive.
“What sort of money is this programme worth?” asked Cohen.
“If you can beat the market,” said Katusev. “The potential for profit is…intimidating.”
“And you found a way to beat the market?”
“There is only one person on the planet that knows how to beat the market Sergeant. His name is Seva Vitsin.”
- Chapter 11 -
The Exchange
Alpha arched his back a little to relieve the pain simmering away near the bottom of his spine. He reached for the heater and turned the dial up a couple of notches, all the while keeping an eye on the darkness beyond the border. The driver, Randall, was sucking slowly on a boiled sweet, making a faint clack clack sound as he rolled it from one side of his mouth to the other and it collided with his teeth. The three other cars were parked close by, all with their headlights turned off. The goods they had come to trade were sitting quietly in the black Saab estate a few yards away.
Alpha stirred as several sets of headlights appeared in the distance. It was tough to judge how far away they were, but the vehicles were clearly slowing down. They finally stopped around a quarter of a mile from the border, lining up behind one another at the side of the road. Alpha stayed seated as car doors swung open and the highway suddenly teemed with movement. He watched from the darkness as four of his people escorted the two men forward towards the Russians. He could just about make out a similar group advancing from the other vehicles. Once both sides were close enough to confirm they were receiving what they expected, the handcuffs were taken off and the prisoners started their walk away from their captors. The four men all slowed down as they passed each other on the road.
It always happened, thought Alpha. People liked to assess their worth.
Walker and Varndon quickened their pace as they crossed the Estonian border and neared the waiting reception party. Alpha remembered clearly the days they were both recruited to the service. Varndon was simple. His small favours to the department were becoming big favours and he was very good at what he did. Pushing money from one bank account to another to pay agents. Creating shell companies within shell companies to benefit operations. He was practically a full-time employee when he eventually came onboard officially.
The service can always rely on men like William Varndon.
Walker on the other hand, was an uncomfortable necessity. Alpha could make out his cocky stride as he got closer to the car. He had strutted into their first meeting at Vauxhall Bridge in the same manner. These city boys had no respect for anyone. They played by their own rules and the economy had suffered as a result. If the head honchos had listened before instead of wasting money on chasing ragtag Islamists around the hills of Afghanistan, the country wouldn’t be in such a mess. No, Walker hadn’t changed his spots. He’d just found a new way to get his daily adrenaline rush.
Alpha opened his window as the men arrived back at the parked cars. “Well done all. That was nice and clean. Let’s get out of here.” Randall spun the car round in the road and set off back in the direction of Talinn. Alpha checked over his shoulder and just caught the faint red glow of the opposition’s motorcade disappearing from view. They kept a steady pace all the way back to the capital and arrived at the city limits just before sunrise. The embassy was quiet as they parked up and filed into a side entrance. Alpha led Walker and Varndon into the Ambassador’s office and closed the door.
“Welcome back gentlemen,” he said. “You look tired.”
Varndon rubbed his eyes. “They interviewed us for as long as they could. They didn’t want to waste any time by letting us sleep.”
“I can understand that. I’d do the same. What were they asking about?”
“They quizzed us about the expansion of the Department and about you. Kept asking about your health.”
“Nice of them to be concerned,” said Alpha.
“But they mainly wanted to talk about Cavendish,” continued Walker. “We got the usual paranoia about ‘you people did it’ but it was fairly obvious they knew about as little as us.”
“They were pretty shaken up,” said Varndon. “Svaboda’s top quant went AWOL. He took all the code with him and disappeared off the face of the planet.”
“Or someone forced him to disappear,” said Alpha.
“Or that,” said Walker. “The guy’s name is Seva Vitsin. The Russians kept asking about him. They must have presumed we already knew. They just kept pushing. Where is Vitsin? Who has Vitsin? Vitsin this. Vitsin fucking that. It was like a bloody broken record.”
Alpha stood up and placed his hands into his trouser pockets. Walker’s constant swearing grated on him, but he said nothing. “How do you think you were blown?”
“We have no idea,” said Walker. “The whole country is a house of mirrors.”
“Were the higher ups concerned about the exchange?” said Varndon.
“They’re only concerned about publicity,” said Alpha. “As far as the general public knows, nothing happened.”
“Who went the other way?” said Walker.
Alpha took off his spectacles, folded them and placed them in his inside jacket pocket. “Have you ever heard of Leonid Ashansky?”
“The Prince?”
“That’s right,” said Alpha. “They call him the Prince. He presides over a very diverse empire of interests. Some of it legal and some of it illegal. The illegal part landed him in Belmarsh prison last year.”
“What did they get him for?”
“He was running weapons out of Russia into Northern Ireland. Shipments of explosives and grenade launchers for a group of Loyalists out of east Belfast. There’s a lot of dead IRA over there because of Leonid Ashansky. Anyway, we knew the Russians wanted him back pretty badly, so back he went. The other man was his second-in-command, Yuri Gershov, a real nasty piece of work.”
“I can’t imagine the plod were very happy about that,” said Walker. “Must have taken some serious effort to convict him.”
“Well, the police need to understand that there are security concerns well above their station,” said Alpha, a hint of anger in his voice. He buttoned his jacket and patted down the creases in the material in a signal that the meeting was over. “I think you two should get some sleep. We can continue the discussion tomorrow back in London when we are all feeling a little fresher.”
“Is the Met team still in Moscow,” said Walker?”
“The Met are bunch of clowns,” said Alpha. “They got chucked out after a day. They’ve got no one in Russia.”
- Chapter 12 -
Rublyovka
Harper slugged back the remainder of a quarter bottle of Dagestani cognac. It was smooth. He looked at the bottle and took note of the brand name, for next time. A faint scratching sound came from the other side of his bedroom door. He opened it and looked down to see Rasputin eyeballing him. The dog stood still, just staring up at him. The black fur above his left eye was still flecked with dried blood. He waved his hand to motion the animal to go, but it bared its teeth and he thought better of it. It casually looked around and then turned and walked away.