face.
“Two days, Marshall,” winked Surkov.
Surkov waved the helicopter off, so far so good. The biggest hurdle was yet to come but one major one had been crossed.
Borodin couldn’t believe it, Marshall. It didn’t even cross his mind to consider what was to become of the incumbent Chief of the General Staff.
Vasiliy sat in the seat next to Borodin and had watched the interaction with Surkov, unable to hear but witnessing both men’s facial expressions. Borodin was putty in Surkov’s hands and Surkov knew it. Vasiliy had the uneasy feeling come over him again. Every time he was around the man, he felt as though somebody had walked over his grave.
“Was the meeting OK?”
“Very good!” beamed Borodin.
Vasiliy did not like it. The General had never been so secretive in all the years he had known him.
“And the President?”
“Let’s just say I had misjudged him. The man has balls after all, massive ones. His plans for Russia are fantastic!”
Knowing where Borodin stood on Mother Russia, what he had just expressed was the single scariest thing he had ever said. Vasiliy knew Borodin would not be happy until Russia had regained her power from the height of the cold war. Anything less he considered weakness. However Vasiliy struggled to understand how President Alexey Gagarin, a man who had won the election on an economic ticket was all of a sudden winning over General 'give me more power’ Borodin. The two should have been as different as apples and oranges.
Again, the influence of Surkov hung in the air. Nothing good was going to come of the General’s involvement with, Vasiliy had to admit, the scary Dr Surkov.
Dr Surkov thanked the President again as he boarded his presidential helicopter for his trip back to Moscow.
The President smiled down on Grebnevo as he left what was a truly wonderful home and after a short flight back to Moscow was met by his wife, Yolana at the helipad. She rushed across and hugged him as though he’d been gone for months rather than the three hours that he had been. As they walked back to their private quarters, it took all their resolve not to rip each other’s clothes off in front of the staff. As the door closed, they launched into each other’s arms and fucked like they hadn’t fucked for twenty years which was in fact just less than it had been. Yolana, finally, had her first true love back.
Chapter 68
Sean had listened to the transcript almost in disbelief. He asked for clarification more than once that it had been recorded in the eighties and not the thirties. The hate and rhetoric were like nothing he had heard since Nazi Germany. Mike had explained that he had obtained the recording first hand. He had heard it first hand and he had struggled to believe it first hand. Recorded in a university auditorium that of course the KGB had no knowledge was being surveiled by the CIA. Mike had never forgotten the day or the name of the doctor. When Vincent had explained what had happened with Sean, the memory of Dr Boris Surkov came flooding back.
Little was known of the doctor other than what had been gleaned from the transcript. What was uncovered after exhaustive investigations was little other than confirmation that a Boris Surkov had in fact studied under Joseph Mengele. Surkov was listed as a young hospital assistant at Auschwitz and thereafter popped up in a number of facilities linked with Mengele. He had then effectively disappeared from the face of the earth until he delivered his speech to the KGB hierarchy. This fact alone was concerning, the list of attendees at the speech meant that Surkov was connected at the highest level and his work was classified as extremely important. The fact that the CIA had no knowledge of such an important project, nor could they subsequently find any, caused even greater concern. The CIA knew everything, or so they had thought.
The uncovering from his investigations that Dr Boris Surkov was due to be the guest speaker at the upcoming State banquet meant only one thing. He had instigated the project which he had promised would deliver Russia back to her former glory and beyond. As far as Mike was concerned, the Sean situation proved his work had been successful and the subsequent determination to eliminate him, proof that something had gone wrong. President Alexey Gagarin, son of one of Russia’s greatest ever heroes, was quite frankly the single best vehicle Surkov could have picked with which to launch the new Russia.
As far as Mike Ritter was concerned, it was their only hope to stop something before it started. Quite frankly, it was the first time in fifty years they even knew where to find him.
The inclusion of Sean in the Governor’s party was a Godsend and his lightning fast VISA approval, yet another sign that pointed back to Dr Boris Surkov’s original plan.
As Mike was about to continue, Jane raised her hand to interrupt.
“There’s one little problem with that plan,” she offered cautiously.
“What?” asked Mike looking at the diagrams and names he had detailed on the board. He had spent every waking hour over the last day working through his conclusions.
“The Governor’s wife!”
“Yes?” he asked impatiently.
“She died this morning. I’m not sure he’ll be going anywhere!”
Mike looked at his ramblings on the whiteboard. “How did she die?” he asked.
“A freak accident I believe, slipped in the shower, or something like that, I just caught it on the late news. I can’t believe we missed it!”
“Neither can I!” said Mike. His level of agitation had just increased as he grabbed his laptop and typed away furiously.
“What?” asked Vincent.
Mike waved his hand to stop anyone speaking. He was working through a theory. As Jane, Sean and Vincent waited, Mike tapped wildly and scribbled notes like a man possessed, none of them dare speak.
Finally, after twenty minutes, he dropped his pen and looked at them in horror.
“Oh my God, its brilliant!” he exclaimed.
“What’s brilliant?” asked Sean.
“Surkov, I mean his plan. Oh my God, why didn’t I see it before!”
“See what before?” asked Sean frustrated at Mike’s rambling.
“It’s because I came at it from the wrong agenda!” he chastised himself.
“Jesus, Mike, will you try and explain what you’re thinking,” said Vincent, breathlessly.
Mike did and watched the color drain from each and every one of their faces.
Chapter 69
Sean woke up as the CIA jet touched down in Austin. It had been a long night planning exactly what they needed to do. Unfortunately, 'they’ had very quickly become Sean. He was the only one who would have access to the banquet and as such, the ability to stop Surkov. Of course, all of that was on the basis that he managed to convince the Governor to still attend despite his wife’s death and without divulging what they believed. While in Russia, if he did pull off the miracle of getting the governor to go, he was not to allow the governor out of sight while ensuring that he dealt with Surkov. How he was going to succeed with that part of the mission was beyond him, unless of course he just pulled out a gun and in front of the Governor and shot Surkov. But then the Governor was to be kept blissfully unaware of Sean’s real mission at all times. So even that didn’t work.
This was, of course, all for a country who had four law enforcement agencies who wanted him to spend at
