“Good.”
Mark said, “It’ll all be fine, but we’ve got a lot of eggs in one basket. Mikhail may know what he’s doing, but we’re depending on his not being distracted or overstretched.”
“He won’t be. .” Will’s stomach suddenly knotted as a realization struck him. “Oh. Fuck!”
“Will?”
Will ignored his colleagues. His mind was racing and panicking. He cursed his stupidity.
If Will’s theory was correct-that Mikhail had given his name to Alina in order to send a message to William and produce a standoff-William would do everything in his power to destabilize Mikhail.
Just as he’d done with Will.
He’d go after Mikhail’s loved ones.
Fifteen
Will couldn’t sleep during the flight. He was tired, but his mind was too active and his emotions confused. He tried not to think about Sarah, about the disgust he felt toward himself for putting her and her husband in danger, about the way she’d held him and asked, Where have you gone, my little brother?
But those thoughts remained. As did the worry that sometime over the coming days, a man with a gun could be walking toward a house in suburban Moscow, kicking the door in, and shooting Mikhail’s family.
Until now, the right thing to do had been to allow the standoff between the SVR officer and William to continue until Will could establish William’s location and the significance of the paper in his possession. But things had changed. He was totally reliant on Mikhail to keep William pinned down, and he was totally vulnerable to the possibility that Mikhail could lose his nerve, if he realized his family was under threat, and return to Moscow.
If no threat had yet presented itself to Mikhail’s family, Will had one option available to him to accelerate matters. But that option would also place other people’s lives in extreme danger.
That afternoon, Will stood outside a faculty building belonging to the Belarusian State University, Minsk. Students were leaving the building, carrying books and bags, some of them holding hands, all of them dressed in scarves and hats and coats. They all seemed carefree and full of joy, and as Will watched them he hoped that none of them would make the kind of choices he’d made toward the end of his degree program.
Alina exited the building, carrying Maria in one arm and a folded baby carriage in the other. She stopped and tried to open the carriage but appeared to be struggling.
Will walked quickly across the street. “Hello, Alina.”
She barely glanced at him, looked annoyed with the carriage, and continued to try to release catches. “Damn thing. I think it really has broken this time. Here.” She handed Maria to him. “Keep her warm.”
Will took her, wondered what to do given he’d never held a baby before, then unbuttoned his thick overcoat, placed her inside, and drew the coat around her. “Thanks for meeting me at such short notice.”
Alina was bent over the baby carriage, trying to yank bits of it apart, clearly on the verge of losing her temper. Something snapped close to her hand. She rose, holding a jagged piece of plastic tubing. “Shit!” She tossed the tubing away and kicked the carriage. “Another expense!”
“Come on.” Will looked at the dark clouds above. “We need to get inside before the heavens open.” He started opening his coat.
But Alina said, “She seems happy with you.” She grabbed the carriage, walked up to a university security guard who was attempting to light a cigarette in the bitterly cold easterly wind, spoke to him, and left the useless carriage in his care. Returning to Will, she muttered, “I didn’t bring Maria a waterproof coat because the carriage keeps her dry. If we walk quickly, we can be home in twenty minutes. But watch out for patches of ice.”
She led the way, with Will anxiously scouring the ground for signs of anything that would cause him to slip with his precious burden.
They walked past shops and parkland before moving into residential streets. “I’m not sure I can be of any further help to you.”
Will gingerly stepped onto a sidewalk and replied, “You may be right.”
“Aren’t you supposed to tell me that you know I’m hiding something from you?”
“I’d be relieved if you were; it would mean this trip hasn’t been a waste of time.”
“I’m going to disappoint you.”
Maria seemed to be waking up. She was emitting small sounds and starting to move. Will held her close to his chest, hoping that his coat was keeping her warm and that she didn’t try to wriggle out of her wrappings.
When they reached Alina’s apartment building, snow was starting to fall. Will placed his big arms farther around his care. Alina tapped numbers into a security pad while cursing and shaking.
The warmth was immediate as they entered the building. Thirty seconds later, they were inside Alina’s apartment. Alina took Maria, placed her in a high chair, and disappeared into the kitchen. As Will dumped his coat over the sofa, he could hear Alina putting a kettle on to boil and rummaging through cupboards. When she returned to the living room, she was holding a small plastic bowl containing a spoon and baby food. Placing the food in front of Maria, she looked at Will and frowned. “You’ve got Maria’s dribble on your suit. Start feeding her; I’ll get a sponge.”
Will grabbed a chair and positioned it in front of the child. Sitting, he looked at Maria, saw the child bang her fists expectantly on the high chair’s tray, and tentatively raised the spoon to her mouth. Maria swallowed the food, banged her fists again, and beamed.
Alina reentered the room holding two mugs of tea. After placing one of them next to Will, she crouched down beside him and smoothed a damp sponge over his jacket’s lapel. “It should be fine.”
“I don’t mind.” Will placed another spoonful into Maria’s mouth.
“You have children?”
Will shook his head.
“Your wife is one of those busy career woman types?”
Will smiled. “I don’t have one of them either. I live alone.”
She stood and glanced at her baby. “Well, you’re not doing a bad job. Sometimes it takes me an hour to get her to take her first mouthful. The cold must have built up her appetite.” She sat on the sofa and took a gulp of her tea. Keeping her eyes fixed on him, she asked, “Have you come back because you’re suspicious of me?”
Will laughed gently. “I have to be suspicious of people.”
“Is that why you don’t have a wife? You have trust issues?”
Will’s smile faded.
“Must be an occupational hazard, I guess.”
Will scooped the spoon through more baby food. “From what you’ve said, Lenka was different.”
“Was?”
“Is.”
She was silent for a moment before saying, “He’s always been an academically intelligent man, but not smart. Does that make sense?”
“I know what you mean.” He gave Maria more food.
“His flaw, and I’ve always loved him for it, is that he’s too trusting of people. He should never have joined the SVR.” She gripped her mug, allowing its warmth to soothe her cold hands. “You’re obviously different.”
Will held the spoon in midair, feeling a moment of sadness. “Yes.” He placed the spoon into Maria’s mouth.
“What suspicions do you have about me?”
Will scraped the last of the food onto a spoon and said, “I had to consider whether you were a Belarusian security service or SVR officer planted here to meet whoever came knocking on the door after Lenka disappeared, or a freelance agent for one of those services, maybe that you aren’t Alina Petrova. So I checked up on you. While I can’t discount the possibility that you’re an agent, I do know for certain that your identity checks out and that you’re not an intelligence officer.” He placed the spoon into the empty bowl and turned toward her. “But I don’t think you’re an agent or have previously had any kind of relationship with intelligence services. The relationship that matters to you is the one you have with Lenka. I think that if anyone had approached you and asked you to spy on your lover, you’d have told them to go to hell.”