“Actually, no. I’m one of the bulls, thebyki, more like bodyguards. I protect the Councilor.”
“Do you have any information that could helpus locate the car we’re looking for? You say you don’t have theaddress of the shipping yard for your shipment, but do you knowwhere they hold the cars before they ship?”
Kozlov shook his head. “Look, even if I didknow, I don’t think I would tell you. To have you Division guysbarging in to rescue one car could destroy everything I’ve workedfor these last five years. Do you know what I’ve had to give up,what I’ve had to become?” He locked eyes with Jeremy, and I couldsee that he was haunted.
“In one year, I’ll have enough to bring downthe whole bratva. Don’t ask me to do anything to endanger that.” Hestood up. “I’ve told you what I can, and I can’t stay any longer.What you do now is up to you.”
Jeremy and I watched him go. I knew what hewas thinking without him having to say it. He wanted to abandon theproject. Before he could derail it, I would have to try to convincehim that we should stay on it.
“We can’t give up on this, Jeremy.Seriously, there must be something really important about this carthat we don’t know about, or Division wouldn’t have sent us afterit. If you think about it, it’s really not only about the one car,it’s about all of them. We find it, and the whole car theft ringwill be exposed. Once it’s exposed, the FBI or whoever, can shut itdown. Think of the impact we could have…how many people we couldhelp.”
He looked at me with a calm patience thatmade me feel a bit frantic. He didn’t interrupt me or even twitchas I talked. I was going to lose this battle. “Jeremy?”
“Normally, I would agree with you, but inthis case, there are too many variables, too much danger, too manyunanswered questions. Every time I go to the director with myconcerns, he ignores them and basically strong arms me into gettingto work instead of getting to the bottom of things. It’s just notsafe. The mafia? Hello! The four of us cannot take thatorganization on and expect a good result. I’m certain that when theDirector hears what we have to tell him, he will take us off thecase immediately and turn it over to the FBI and CIA so they canmount an appropriate operation to bring them down.”
“But think about this. What if being afour-man team worked to our advantage? The mafia would have no ideawe were coming. No one could leak information, and we could get inand out without a lot of hassle. Don’t you think it would be thegreatest challenge ever?”
“But,” Jeremy said, raising an eyebrow,“what if what we did exposed Kozlov and ruined all the work he’sdone to bring down the entire network? Would it be worth it to saveone car when in a year all the cars, weapons, people, and drugscould be saved?”
I sighed.
“We have to consider the big picture. Ourpride can’t get in the way of the greater good.”
What could I say to that? He was right,really. I had no way to counter what he was saying. The risk wastoo great. “You’re right. We better get to headquarters.”
Jeremy gave me a sad look and immediatelyasked for covert entrance into Division Headquarters, givinginstructions that we needed Director Skriloff to be present. Istewed the whole way there, still trying to think of a reason whywe should stay on the case, but the writing was on the wall. It wassimply too dangerous for us to continue without more specializedtraining about the mafia, and it would be a silly move that wouldjeopardize everything Kozlov had worked for. The car-theft gangwould fall if he were successful, along with the entire structurefrom the Pakhan to the shestyorka. I had to concedeto a defeat beyond my control.
***
Even in the middle of the night, Divisionwas hopping. Sure, not every desk was full, but the night shift wasat least half-staff. The director, however, worked about a ten-hourday and then went home. He’d be getting out of bed to come meetwith us. I hoped that wouldn’t make him less approachable. We madeour way through the cubicles in central command and down a longhallway to a conference room. It shocked me a little to seeDirector Skriloff already sitting at the head of the oval tablewith a smile on his stern face. He wore a crisp suit that hungperfectly on his moderately toned body. He’d even taken the time toslick down his graying black hair. That’s when it occurred to mewhat he thought we were going to say. He thought he was about toreport to whoever had hired us that we had retrieved the car. Hewas about to be one very upset man.
“I didn’t think you would succeed in suchquick order. Is the car in the garage now? Was there any damage?”His broad smile hitched his glasses up a bit on his nose, givinghim a comical look.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Jeremy said. “We haven’tuncovered its whereabouts as yet, and it doesn’t look like we’ll beable to.”
The director’s face fell, and he rubbed athis clean-shaven chin. “I don’t understand.”
“It would seem that this is not a small-timetheft operation after all. It is an arm of the Russian mafia,shipping cars to West Africa.”
The director shifted his head to the side,an abrupt, short movement. “Did you say the Russian mafia?”
Jeremy nodded with one slow motion. Heexplained what we had learned from Agent Kozlov, though I noticedhe didn’t mention any names.
A look of complete dejection spread acrossthe director’s face. “No wonder. I guess nothing can be as simpleas it seems on the outset.” He bit the corner of his lip. Silencefilled the room while the director seemed to be thinking. His eyesdarted from one side of the room to the other, and then he closedthem and took in a deep breath. Finally he spoke, “But I’m
