Moscow USA. Gordon Stevens

the runway lights of Sheremetyevo were bright against the grey. The Ilyushin touched down and taxied toward the terminal. Walk to the Novotel and get the courtesy coach into town, Sherenko had said. Hope to hell immigration is quick tonight, Kincaid thought. The aircraft stopped and the seat belt sign flicked off. He stood, joined the line, and hurried off the plane. Sherenko was waiting at the top of the jetbridge. Ten minutes later they turned left out of the airport towards Moscow.

      Kincaid settled in the passenger seat. ‘The pick-up’s appreciated.’

      Sherenko waved the thanks aside. ‘So what about Pearce? You think the girlfriends might be involved?’

      ‘Pearce is straight. It could be he or Whyte let something slip, but if it was I don’t think it was Pearce.’

      ‘Why not?’

      ‘Pearce was Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre, therefore he’d have done the interrogation course.’

      Sherenko changed down to beat a set of traffic lights. ‘Except the interrogation course doesn’t tell you what to say when somebody’s unzipping your flies. Or perhaps yours did.’

      ‘So what about Moscow?’ Kincaid asked.

      ‘You mean the interrogation course or the Contex money?’

      ‘Whichever.’

      ‘The ConTex interviews were routine though a couple of people were missing, including Maddox’s secretary. The financial backgrounds on Maddox and Dwyer are still coming in, but we might have a problem with Maddox. He’s married, but according to sources he’s having an affair with a First Secretary at the US embassy.’

      ‘Any indication she’s screwing with someone else as well?’

      ‘Not yet, but we’re checking. We’re also checking on the girlfriends of the two couriers.’

      ‘What about the security company who were supposed to make the pick-up?’ Kincaid asked.

      ‘Leaks like a sieve. The boys making the pick-up cocked up all the way down the line but seemed straightforward.’

      ‘You believe them?’

      ‘Probably.’

      ‘Why?’

      ‘The same reason you would. If I’d lifted six million, even if I had a cut of six million, I wouldn’t be in Moscow now.’

      ‘What about whoever runs the mafia at Sheremetyevo?’

      ‘Mikhail came up with a name. Alexei Kosygin. Igor’s running a check on him.’ Sherenko leaned back and handed Kincaid a box from the rear seat. ‘Present. You’re booked in at the range at six in the morning.’

      They crossed the ring road and dropped toward the city centre, the traffic suddenly busy around them. Sherenko turned off the main road and into a side street, trees along the pavement and cars parked on either side.

      ‘So what was Moscow like five years ago today?’ Kincaid asked.

      Sherenko reversed into a space and switched off the engine. ‘No idea. I wasn’t here.’

      Vorkov left the glass-fronted building at Yasenevo, on the outskirts of Moscow, and was driven towards the city. It was shortly after ten.

      Felix Andreyevich Vorkov was forty-three years old, tall, with dark hair swept back, well-built but even better dressed. In the old KGB Vorkov had attained the rank of major. In the new order, with the KGB disbanded and its functions divided, Vorkov had made full colonel in the SVR, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, formerly the First Chief Directorate.

      Five years ago there had been chaos in Moscow … Five years ago today in New York Nikolai Sherenko had done the job on East 54th – the ghost came at him … Not that Vorkov knew all the details, because then, as now, Malenkov didn’t tell him everything. Thank God Malenkov had known about the bastard, though; thank God Sherenko had taken him out.

      The cellphone rang.

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘The shipment’s on the way,’ he was informed. No other details, because the line wasn’t secure.

      ‘Good.’

      Thirteen minutes later Vorkov’s unmarked car stopped outside the Up and Down Club. Vorkov told his driver he would call him when he needed collection and went inside.

      Alexei Kosygin was seated at a table in the corner. Kosygin was early thirties, squat build, and dressed in a designer suit. He had two bodyguards on the next table, and two girls at his own. He greeted Vorkov, poured him a glass of champagne, and nodded that the girls should leave for a moment.

      ‘Za nas.’ Vorkov emptied the glass in one and allowed Kosygin to pour him another. ‘Thought you ought to know …’ It was said casually, as if it was interesting rather than important. ‘Somebody pulled your FSB file this evening.’

      Kosygin poured them each another glass. ‘Which somebody?’

      ‘Omega, the security company. I’m not sure who in the company is looking at you. No doubt we’ll find out.’

       4

      The headlights bumped through the night behind him and the half moon arced like a shepherd’s crook over him. Another thirty minutes and he’d take a break. Karpov changed up and checked in the wing mirrors. Karpov was ex-military, so did things like checking rear mirrors. The man in the passenger seat unscrewed the flask and poured him a mug. Karpov swung round the bend and saw the car pulled into the roadside, saw the woman – mid-twenties and short skirt – waving to him. Christ, he laughed: must think he’d been born yesterday. He changed down and eased his foot on the accelerator. The trees on either side were like ghosts. They overtook a series of slower-moving trucks and purred on, the trees flashing by as if they, not him, were moving. The night was a brighter silver now and the man to his right was slumped in the seat, apparently asleep. Karpov rounded the bend. The Volvo was slewed at an angle, totally blocking the road.

      ‘We’re on,’ the man in the passenger seat whispered in the Motorola and wound down his window.

      Karpov changed down and stopped thirty metres away from the Volvo. The men came out from the trees, five of them, all armed – in the dark he couldn’t make out the details. The first man reached him. His face was blackened and the gun he pointed at Karpov was a Kalashnikov. Another man joined him on the driver’s side of the cab, two others on the passenger side and one in front. What’re you carrying, they would ask; behave and you’re okay, they would tell him. Would kill him anyway.

      ‘Get down,’ the first man ordered him. The moon was more three-quarters than half, Karpov thought; funny how you noticed the insignificant things. ‘Get down,’ the man told him again.

      The night erupted, sub-machine fire pouring in from the murk of the woods on either side, the first rounds tearing down the man giving the orders, plus the man at his side, and more slamming into the man in front of the cab. To Karpov’s right the man in the passenger seat raised his AK so that it cleared the window and squeezed the trigger.

      The silence descended again. The figures came out of the trees, kicked the bodies round the cab, and made sure they were dead. ‘Bezdelniki luybiteli.’ Fucking amateurs. The turbo-charged Mitsubishi Shogun emerged from the black behind them and stopped behind the Scania. Karpov lit a Marlboro, left the cab and stepped through the carnage to the Volvo. The keys were in place. He started the engine, pulled the Volvo clear, returned to the Scania, and drove on.

      Behind him the headlights of the back-up fell into position.

      Kincaid’s brain was beginning to swim. He declined another vodka, knew he couldn’t win, shrugged, held up the glass in a toast, and downed another stogram. A waiter brought the next round of food, and a second the next bottle. Joshua dead and buried, so what the hell.

      The