“This is tough to ask, Jake.” She turned and looked at him seriously before concentrating again on her driving. “Does he blame you for his brother’s death?”
“I don’t know.” It was the truth. After Jake’s action on that mission, he never heard what happened to those left behind, including the disposition of Colonel Yuri Pushkin. “It depends on how the Russians briefed the event. I’m sure they made me out to be the bad guy, with Yuri a state hero. So maybe his brother Viktor blames me. But I don’t know.” Pushkin’s name had not even come up on his radar in the past two months as Jake lay in bed and wondered who had killed Anna.
“Sounds like a good motive.”
That’s what Jake thought from the moment Viktor’s name came out of the mouth of the dying Russian. Jake reached behind him to his backpack, retrieving a few more full magazines to replace some of the firepower he’d thrown into the river. Then he made sure all of his magazines were full. Now he had two identical Beretta PX4 Storms.
“I thought I saw you throw a perfectly good gun into the river,” Alexandra said.
“It was the Glock I got from Franz in Austria. Remind me to buy him a new one.”
“All right. I hate to see Jake Adams abusing one of his children. We’re almost there. How do you want to play this?”
Good question. “I’m guessing the guy already knows I’m coming. Otherwise his man would have called him, saying I was dead. In fact, I’m thinking he bet on his man getting killed, but not before he gave up his location.”
Alexandra looked shocked. “But why?”
“Because he wants to confront me himself.”
“You think he thought his man would fail?”
“Yeah. I mean, if he’d succeeded he could live with that. He loses a good killer, but then he gets to set me up as well, and take me on his turf.”
“He’s that calculating?”
“You can bet on it.”
“But then he knows we’re coming.”
“Pull over.”
She did as he said, pulling her car to the curb in a deserted industrial area of Berlin’s eastern area. Turning off the engine, she stared at Jake with concern.
He found his cell phone in the backpack and put the battery back into it, activating the GPS.
“What are you doing?” she asked him.
“Just in case I fail.”
“Let me call my people,” she pled.
He shook his head. “This man killed Anna to get to me. One of the shooters got away that day. I was down and out. He could have simply walked up to me and put a bullet in my head. It’s always bothered me that I survived that shooting.”
“That’s natural.”
“There was nothing natural about Anna’s death.”
“I’m sorry, Jake. I didn’t mean that. I meant you feeling guilty for surviving.”
“I know. But I was vulnerable in the hospital for nearly two months. An easy target. Why not just kill me then?” That had also bothered Jake for the past few weeks.
She simply shrugged.
“Viktor Pushkin was setting this whole thing up, running the chess board like a grand master playing with his grandchild. I knew someone was doing this when I saw the list of people on the hit list. Everyone on that list had some contact with me over the years — either as an adversary or a confederate. I assumed someone was just picking off former agents or government intelligence officers. But that list would have included some people that I had never worked with. This list was quite specific. My only problem was trying to link who else would know I’d worked with these people, and who would have a motive to kill me. Many on the list fit that description. So, I thought that perhaps someone on that list had actually added their name to throw me off.”
“Ah. That’s why you went to see the Russian in Baden-Baden and the Stasi officer here in Berlin.”
“Right.”
“But neither man could’ve been the one who was trying to kill you.”
“No. Vladimir Volkov was killed right in front of me. And I don’t think Bernard Hartmann is involved. He’s just waiting to die himself.”
“Let me call in our people,” she reiterated. “We can handle this.”
“I don’t think so. He’s with SVR. Your people will just pick him up and put him on a plane back to Moscow. He has diplomatic immunity. Then he simply regroups and comes after me again.”
“Only if the SVR has sanctioned his actions.”
She had a good point, but he wouldn’t tell her that. He needed to take care of this himself. “Even so, they would still just ship him off to Mother Russia and put a bullet in the back of his head. Maybe send him to Siberia.”
“Do they still do that?”
“Haven’t you heard, Alexandra. This is a new Cold War. One the Russians have started with their desire to return to some level of relevance. They want to become a superpower again.”
“So, the shadow game is on again?”
“Afraid so.”
She considered his words carefully and said, “At least let me come with you, Jake.”
He didn’t want her to get hurt, but he also knew that Viktor Pushkin wouldn’t be alone. Especially if he knew Jake was coming. He would have called in all his agents to help. And it wasn’t like Jake could really tell Alexandra what to do. It was her country. Her intelligence responsibility. She was obligated to take down any rogue element in her country.
Jake agreed and they took a few minutes to discuss how they’d approach the Russian.
He thought about his own words to Alexandra. He had not been entirely truthful to her. There were many names on the hit list he didn’t even know. Names he assumed must have been former intelligence officers or agents they had been running. No, this was bigger than Jake Adams, he knew. The Russians were making a major power play. A purge.
33
Having just gotten a call from CIA headquarters, Toni and Franz were on the move heading toward Berlin’s east side.
“Why would Jake turn his phone back on?” Franz asked.
He must have had a good reason, she thought. But she was glad he’d done so. The Agency had been monitoring Jake’s cell phone for days, hoping he would put the battery back into it.
“Why don’t you call him and find out,” Toni said. “But don’t mention you’re with me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Do it now. He’ll turn it off again soon.”
“How do you know?”
“Because if he’s going in somewhere covertly, he won’t want his phone going off. He knew we would be monitoring his phone. Knew we would be checking on him. Especially after having gone to see our station chief in Berlin.”
Franz quickly flipped open his phone and hit Jake’s number in his address book. Two rings later someone picked up on the other end.
“Jake?”
“Franz. Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
“Where are you?”
“Are you driving after dark?”
Without going into great detail, Franz told Jake how he’d just come from a shooting along the river in Berlin.
“What are you doing in Berlin, Franz?”
“Trying to keep you out of trouble. But I seem to be one step behind you at all times.”
“Some things never change. Hey, your voice doesn’t sound right. Are you okay?”
“Wunderbar.”
They were coming to a turn ahead with a choice of left or right, so Toni grabbed onto Franz’s sleeve. Franz pointed to the right.
“Who’s with you? Stefan Beck?”
“No, I’m alone.”
“You’re a terrible liar. I turned on my phone for a reason, Franz. I knew the Agency would be monitoring my line. Since you were the first to call me in the middle of the night, I’m guessing the Agency told you my phone was back on. Why would they do that unless you were with an Agency officer. And there’s only one Agency officer we both know really well. So, why don’t you hand the phone to Toni.”