On Target

“Not really. A pastime, nothing more. Most of my business interests are rather benign: prostitutes, money laundering, stolen cars, credit cards, drugs . . . money-makers, yes, but money is not my true passion. There is, you see, nothing to me so fulfilling as to be a player in the industry in which you ply your trade. I am speaking of the industry of death. I am Russian. Our history is gloom and destruction. There are many sufferers and only a few dealers in suffering. I chose to be one of these. Awful, but preferable to the alternative, yes?”

Court said nothing. He was accustomed to working for, with, around, and against total nut jobs. This Russian freak was just par for the course on which he played.

Sid continued, “You are my instrument. You are my tool.”

“If I choose to be.”

Sidorenko smiled. “Yes. If you choose. Which is why I brought you here today.”

“I thought you brought me here to intimidate me.”

“Are you intimidated?”

“Not in the least.”

Sid smiled. “Ah, well, good thing I have another reason. I have a job.” He took another long sip of his purple tea and leaned forward on his desk as if to get down to business. “If you could kill anyone in the world right now, who would it be?”

“Greg Sidorenko.”

Sid laughed. Court did not. Sid’s levity chilled and morphed into a slight smile. “The best assassin on the planet wants to kill me. I should be frightened. But I’m not, because once I tell you who your new target is, you will thank me, and you and I will be the best of friends.”

Court stood and turned on his heel. Quickly the four men by the door behind him pushed off the wall and moved closer. Court said to Sid, “I’m leaving. These guys try to stop me, and they will get hurt. I get the impression that you might get off on watching that, but you’ll have to find yourself a new crew of hoodlums.”

“President Bakri Abboud,” Sid shouted the name, the name echoed in the long hall, and the Gray Man stopped dead in his tracks. He did not turn around immediately.

Court said, “I don’t mind difficult, but I insist on the possible. He is an impossible target.” He began walking again.

“Normally, yes, it would be so. But I have a way in, I have his schedule, I have access to him, and I have a way out.”

Court chuckled derisively. “Then do it yourself.”

“I did not say it would be easy. But you . . . you can do it. Just listen to my plan. You may still walk away, of course, if you do not like it. But I am sure you will be satisfied.”

Court turned and took a few steps back to the desk. “The president of Sudan knows he is a wanted man. There is a warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the genocide in Darfur. A hunted man who is surrounded by bodyguards, controls a national police force, an intelligence agency, an army, an air force, a navy . . . who rules an entire fucking nation? One man cannot get to him.”

Sid sipped his tea again slowly. “Nine days from now a Russian transport plane will depart Belarus with military equipment for President Abboud’s army. The aircraft’s destination is Khartoum, the capital. It is a secret flight. No manifest, no customs, no problems. Four days after that is April 10, Abboud’s birthday, which he always spends in his hometown of Suakin, an ancient port city with no military garrison and no major government installations. He will travel there with his close protection detail, two dozen or so men, but that is all. His farm will be well-guarded, to be sure, but he will go to the local mosque three times a day while he is there. In the morning, at dawn, the president will perform the muezzin’s call to prayer himself from the minaret of the mosque. Suakin is also surrounded by ancient ruined towers and buildings from the time of the Romans. A competent man equipped with a sniper rifle could find many good places to position himself, yes?”

“I don’t know,” said Court, an affectation of annoyance in his voice, but he was listening.

“Mr. Gray, I can put two million dollars into your bank account tomorrow. I can put you on that transport plane into the Sudan in nine days, and I can arrange for you to slip out of the airport facility without being detected. I have a man who can drive you to Suakin. One week after this, presuming you accomplish your mission, I can similarly arrange for you to get back into the airport with no trouble from the locals, and fly back to Russia on a Russian jet. Once home, you will find two million more dollars in your account.”

“Four million. Plus whatever cut you are keeping for yourself. You must have been commissioned by a party extremely interested in the termination of President Abboud.”

“Indeed I have.”

“Who?” Court sat back in the uncomfortable chair.

Sidorenko cocked his head but did not seem too surprised. “It was my understanding that you don’t normally care who the payer is, only whether or not the target is worthy of the punishment you are being paid to dole out.”

“I am not in a very trusting mood after the last contract.”

Now Sid did show genuine surprise. “Slattery? He was exactly who I said he was.”

“But the payer was not who you claimed him to be,” responded Court flatly.

The Russian weighed the comment carefully, his beady eyes nearly turning in on themselves as he thought. His pupils flickered in the light from the burning logs in the fireplace. At first Gentry thought Sid was going to argue, to feign confusion, to deny. But instead, the Russian just raised his hands in sheepish surrender, shrugged, and said, “Yes, true. I deceived you. I am sorry. But in response to your question, no less than the Russian government wants Abboud dead. They are putting up the money. They are commissioning the contract. Through intermediaries, of course.”

“You’re lying again. Russia and China are practically the only two countries who do have good relations with Abboud. Why would Russia—”

“Because Russia’s relationship with the Sudan is not as good as China’s relationship with the Sudan. Three years ago China was given expanded mineral rights in the Darfuri desert, specifically a large sector called Tract 12A. At the time Moscow did not care; it was just desert scrub land on the Chadian border.”

“But China found something,” said Court.

“Not just ‘something.’ The most powerful ‘something’ of all.”

“Oil.”

“Yes. A tremendous amount. The Chinese are running all over Tract 12A as we speak. Bringing in equipment and experts. Drilling will begin very soon. And Abboud has allowed this. But if Abboud were out of the way, powerful members of the Sudanese Parliamentary Council, people within Abboud’s own party, have made it clear to Moscow that the new leadership will throw the Chinese out on their ears and give Tract 12A to the Russians with an arrangement beneficial to both countries.”

“If the Sudanese already have an agreement with the Chinese, how can the new president just ignore this?”

Sidorenko looked momentarily disappointed in his assassin. He answered as if the man’s question was dangerously naive. “This is Africa.”

Court nodded. “And what will this new man do about the genocide in Darfur?”

“One cannot say for sure; you must know that. But it is logical that without President Abboud, the situation will improve. Abboud has a personality cult under him, his minions do his bidding, and he has no similar successor. Also, Darfur has become important for something other than eradicating a broken and hopeless people. His successor may end the genocide in order to get the UN to look elsewhere for a place to waste Western money.” Sid smiled. “And then my countrymen will come.”

Gentry said nothing, just looked off to his left, into the crackling fireplace under the portrait of Joseph Stalin.

Sid pushed. “So your act will take a very powerful and very bad man off this earth. Further, it is possible that it will go a long way to ending the genocide that has been perpetrated there for the past decade or so.”

“So you say,” muttered Court, still looking into the fire. He knew Sid didn’t give a damn about genocide or an