MAN: "Let me get this straight. The diaper factory was attacked--"
TARIGHIAN: "The rift was already there. We just made it wider."
MAN: "An Arab--"
TARIGHIAN: "I sent him--" (garbled) "--and left Tirma material all over the place."
I wish I could see Zdrok's face. He's probably sitting there with his mouth wide open. Silence fills the room again. He's not moving. I hope he's in shock. After a minute goes by he plays the file again. When it's done, there's more silence. He plays it a third time and then picks up the phone.
"Ivan, have you found General Prokofiev yet? Well, hurry!" He hangs up. I hear him type some more. Maybe he's forwarding the file to all his buddies in Russia or wherever they hang out.
After a minute the phone rings. He answers it with a "Yes?" I switch on the OPSAT's record mode and listen.
"General, where the hell are you?" he asks. "I see. Where's the plane? Yes, ourplane, what did you think I--? Yes. I see. Listen, this is what I want you to do. I want to order an air strike on Akdabar Enterprises in Van, Turkey. Yes, I know what I'm doing. I have proof that the Shadows are double-crossing us. They never sent that money and have no intention to do so. And I know now they are responsible for what happened at the hangar in Baku. Yes. I just sent you an e-mail, did you get it? Well, check it, damn it! I'll wait."
There are a few moments of silence, but I can hear Zdrok breathing heavily. The guy's blood pressure has probably shot up.
"I'm still here," he says. "You have it? Listen to the file. I'll wait."
More breathing. A cough.
"Well? You see? No, no, I just want to--General, this is not negotiable. These are my orders. Send the plane to Turkey and bomb the shit out of that facility. I want it done today. Right. Keep me informed. Thank you, General."
He hangs up the phone and I hear him stand and walk out of the room.
I stop recording and play back the file. His voice comes through clearly. He said all the right things and it's beautiful. Apparently Tarighian's people are going to see some fireworks later today. Too bad the big man won't be there. I know he's down in Cyprus now. Carly got hold of his e-mail address easily enough, so I prepare the file and type the same message in Russian--"I thought you'd find the attached conversation interesting." I sign it "A Friend" once again and send it to Tarighian.
As I drive away from Fountain Square and head toward my floating hotel, I hear Lambert's tinny voice in my ear.
"Sam? Are you there?"
I press the implant in my throat and speak to him. "I'm here, colonel."
"You're finished in Azerbaijan, Sam," he says. "All the evidence you've managed to capture in pictures is enough for us to move against the Shop. We're going after the Swiss-Russian banks there in Baku and in Zurich. We're also making arrangements to move in on Nasir Tarighian. Good job."
I tell Lambert about Zdrok's conversation I just recorded. "He's going to do some damage to Tarighian's operation in Turkey and it's gonna happen soon," I say. "You might want to alert the Turkish air force. If they're on the lookout for a small plane capable of dropping bombs, they can kill two birds with one stone. Let the Shop do their thing on Tarighian's place and then knock their plane out of the sky."
"Good idea, will do. Now listen, Sam. I want you to go to Cyprus. We need to know exactly what Tarighian is up to. All we know is that he's built a shopping mall in the north, but he's got to be hiding something."
"I agree."
"Go to the American Embassy on Azadliq Avenue there in Baku. Find our man George Tootelian and he'll set you up with transport out of the country. We're going to fly you to Tel Aviv, where you'll catch a ride to Cyprus. Tootelian's expecting you. I'll talk to you again once you're in Tel Aviv. Have a good trip."
"Thanks, Colonel."
He signs off as I arrive at my hotel. I'll need to check out and head for the embassy, but I'm hungry and want a bite to eat first. Knowing the efficiency of our embassies abroad, they'll have me on a plane before I'm able to fill my belly.
My OPSAT beeps and I check it for an incoming message. It's coded so I know it's--Christ, it's from Sarah! It's the first time she's ever used the private number to reach me.
But as the words appear on the screen, my heart skips a beat. I feel a growing dread that threatens to erupt into full-blown panic. I want to tear off the OPSAT and throw it into the Caspian Sea. I want to scream at the heavens for allowing this to happen.
The message reads:
WE HAVE YOUR DAUGHTER. YOU HAVE 72 HOURS TO COME TO JERUSALEM FROM WHEREVER YOU ARE.
The message goes on, ordering me to phone a specific number when I arrive and ends with the parting shot:
NO TRICKS IF YOU WANT TO SEE HER ALIVE AGAIN.
31
FORthe Shop, one of the advantages of keeping a top Russian general in a major administrative position was his ability to procure and modify military equipment. When the Su-47 prototype stealth plane was presented to Andrei Zdrok, the aircraft was still in the stage in which design alterations could be made. The plane was originally conceived to carry air-to-air missiles, such as the R-73 (AA-11 "Archer") or the R-77 (AA-12 "Adder"). However, Zdrok thought that air-to-surface missiles would be more useful for the Shop's purposes, and he asked General Prokofiev to adapt the Su-47 to fire tactical ASMs.
The Soviets lagged behind in developing air-to-surface missiles. The first one introduced, in the late 1960s, was the Kh-66 Grom, a solid-fuel, radio-guided missile with a general appearance similar to that of the U.S. Bullpup-A. This was followed in the 1980s by the Kh-25 series, modular weapons that allowed field fit of different guidance heads, including radio and laser-seeker systems. The Kh- 25 gave way to the bigger Kh-29, another solid-fuel ASM. Designed by Molniya Design Bureau, it has a NATO designation of AS-14 "Kedge." The Kh-29 was built to be carried by small and medium tactical aircraft such as the MiG-27, Su-17, Su-24, and MiG-29 and was specifically designed for use against hardened targets. It has a reinforced nose section and the warhead takes up almost half the weight of the missile. Today it comes in three styles--a laser-seeker Kh-29L, the TV-guided Kh-29T, or the fire-and-forget thermal imaging guidance Kh-29D. All three versions have been heavily exported and can be encountered almost anywhere in the world.
It seemed to General Prokofiev that the Shop's stealth plane could be most easily adapted to carry the Kh-29L, with its semi-active laser homing head 24N1. Weighing approximately 657 kilograms, the missile has a minimum range of 1,000 meters and a maximum of 8,000. With a speed of 3,000 meters per minute, the thing is fast and deadly.
The Shop kept three hidden hangars for the Su-47--one in Baku, which was now destroyed, one south of Moscow in the tiny village of Volovo, and one south of Kiev in a small hamlet called Obukhov. The stealth fighter was in the hangar at the latter location when the orders came through to attack Akdabar Enterprises. The Shop's ace pilot, Dimitri Mazur, lived and breathed with the plane. He had apartments near each of the three locations so that wherever the plane had to go, he was there to take it. He then baby-sat the aircraft until the next assignment.
Three hours after Zdrok gave the order to attack the Shadows, Mazur eased the Su-47 off the runway and rose to an altitude of 10,000 feet, where he would stay until he was a good distance from Kiev. Within ten minutes the plane ascended to 30,000 feet and turned in the direction of southeast Turkey. While in flight Mazur kept in contact with the Obukhov control center, but for all intents and purposes he was on his own. Mazur worked from a set flight plan that he prepared before takeoff, and he served as his own navigator. The rules were that if he got into trouble, he was to destroy the plane by activating a self-destruct mechanism. Prokofiev had installed explosives within the plane for this purpose because he couldn't afford having the Su-47 discovered by the Russian government. Pilot Mazur was well aware of his obligations should events transpire that might force him to eject. What he didn't know was that Prokofiev had fixed the system so that the pilot wouldn't be able to eject--he would meet the same fate as the plane itself. This was done to protect the integrity of the Shop and keep its directors in the clear. Should the government recover fragments of the plane, it would be chalked up to one of the many mysterious bureaucratic snafus that occurred when the Soviet Union fell apart.