“Murdered. Three days after the U.S. started investigating. It was made to look like an auto accident.”
“Murder not solved. Investigation end.” Slava spoke in a tone that reported a rule, not an exception. “Matson not understand that they always break chain.”
CHAPTER 64
Lovers’ quarrel,” Ninchenko said after he disconnected his cell phone. He and Gage were parked a block away from the Lesya Palace. “Alla just ran out of the hotel restaurant where they were having lunch.”
“What did Matson do?”
“Apparently just turned red and sat there eating his borscht.”
“Any idea what the argument was about?”
“The only thing Slava’s people heard was her crying as she got into the elevator.”
“It’s out of character. Gangsters don’t cry.” Gage thought for a moment. “It may have something to do with the meeting at Puscha Voditsa. Maybe a little you-don’t-trust-me-with-the-money manipulation.” He glanced over at Ninchenko. “I’m not sure we understand all the ways she may fit in.” Gage smiled. “And what acting school she went to.”
Gage recalled Slava telling him in Geneva that he and Alla’s father had sat together on an underworld tribunal.
“Slava and Petrov Tarasov served on a skhodka last year. Maybe he can pry some information out of her father without alerting him that we know what she’s up to.”
After Ninchenko made the call to Slava, Gage asked, “Do you know where Gravilov and Hadeon Alexandervich are this afternoon?”
“Gravilov has been in his apartment since he arrived in Kiev. The radio reported that Hadeon Alexandervich was at Rima Casino until 5 A. M. I expect he’s still sleeping it off.”
“Sounds as though the Destroyer likes to party.”
Ninchenko shook. “Not party. Humiliate women. The strippers at Rima dread him. They never know if he’ll stuff thousands of dollars in their thongs or urinate on them. Or both-and his father isn’t much better. Once he made all of the cabinet ministers strip to their underwear at a banquet and sing the national anthem.”
“Why would they put up with that?”
“You mean why would they pay to do it? It costs anywhere between a million and five million dollars to buy a spot in the Cabinet of Ministers, depending on how much money can be made in the position. Energy and defense are the most lucrative, so they’re the most expensive. One energy minister skimmed eighty million dollars in just one year. Whenever the president needs a little money, he just fires an official and sells the job to someone else.”
“And when the kid wants money?”
“Until the last few months he didn’t want money, he wanted things, big things. Now it’s all about cash on hand. If the opposition wins, they’ll try to take back all the factories he and the other oligarchs stole. There hasn’t been a privatization of a major steel works, truck factory, defense plant, farm, or electric generation facility that he doesn’t partly own through nominees or dummy companies. And it’s all at risk.”
Gage watched the passing traffic as he tried to fix in his mind the relationship between Hadeon Alexandervich and the president. “I was assuming the son was just a nominee for his dad.”
“Hadeon Alexandervich got some things on his own and some things he got because people thought they were paying off his father. Not that different than what the European press used to say about the second George Bush and his oil interests.”
“Assuming that Hadeon Alexandervich decides to buy what Matson is selling, he has either got to flip it quickly or take it with him when he flees the country.”
“My guess is that he’ll flip it,” Ninchenko said. “He needs assets that are liquid.”
Gage pointed down the street. “There’s 0087.”
They watched the government Mercedes pull to the curb in front of the hotel, followed by a dark green BMW 530i.
Matson and Alla stepped out the hotel entrance and waited at the top of the steps.
“It looks like the lovers’ quarrel isn’t over,” Gage said. “I saw her in London, a scowl is not her normal expression…I hope she’s not armed. I want Matson to live long enough to go to jail.”
“I better find out who owns the BMW,” Ninchenko said. He made a call, then read off the license number and waited.
“No such number is registered,” he reported a minute later. “It’s probably State Security.”
“Matson’s having a big day,” Gage said. “Sauna with the generals, fight with the girlfriend, protection by SBU.”
“And probably a meeting with Hadeon Alexandervich. That’s Gravilov’s Mercedes SUV pulling up. There are only a couple of G55s in Kiev. Everybody knows which one is his. It’s better armored than most banks in Ukraine.”
They watched Matson and Alla walk down the steps and enter Gravilov’s G55. The procession pulled away, speeding along Shevchenko Boulevard, skirting the main part of Kiev, then into the exclusive Pechersk District of wide boulevards and expensive apartments.
“Looks like the meeting is at Hadeon Alexandervich’s apartment,” Ninchenko said. “We’ll need to break this off when we get close. There’s too much security. Many government officials live in that building. Video cameras sweep all sides and the streets.”
“So it’s a black box?”
“Yes, a black box,” Ninchenko looked over at Gage. “How would it play out if they make a deal?”
“My guess is that Matson would give them at least one low-noise amplifier and one video amplifier to test. Then they’d have to negotiate a price. At some point he’d have to give up the software. And then the money would have to be moved.”
“So it will take a few days.”
“Probably,” Gage said. “Any chance of searching his hotel room?”
Ninchenko considered it for a moment, then shook his head. “Too risky.”
Gage fell silent as Ninchenko directed the driver to break off the chase. He felt a wave of frustration. He’d been reduced to a spectator, watching Matson travel from place to place, powerless to intervene, not even knowing how far along Matson was in the deal.
Then a moment of self-blame. He should’ve prevented Matson from leaving the U.S.-but maybe it wasn’t too late to backtrack. He reached for his cell phone and called Alex Z.
“Did you find out where FedEx delivered the MMIC chips?”
He heard Alex Z yawn before he answered. It was 4 A. M. in San Francisco.
“They dead-ended at a mail drop in Trenton, New Jersey. The receiving company is registered in Delaware, but is owned by a Florida corporation.”
Gage sent Alex Z back to bed, then disconnected. He had his answer about where the chips went: into a maze. And it would take a month of dead ends to get to the other side.
He was still a spectator.
CHAPTER 65
Ninchenko bumped Gage with his elbow as they drove toward the center of Kiev, then pointed up at the building housing the Cabinet of Ministers, a stucco monstrosity resting on granite blocks.
“That,” Ninchenko said, “along with most of Kiev, was leveled by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War.” He gestured toward the building as they passed by. “The government kept German prisoners for two years after the war was over to rebuild it. As slave laborers. Some of them were just twelve-and thirteen-year-old children forced
