Threat Vector

dead or else eating snow soup in a gulag somewhere in Siberia.”

John had been striking fear into the hearts of his enemies for forty years, but he doubted he’d ever seen anyone this terrified in his life. It was obvious from his reaction that Kovalenko had no idea John Clark had anything to do with his operation.

When Valentin still did not speak, John said, “I just lost some good friends, and I intend to find out why. You have the answers.”

“I… I did not know—”

“I don’t give a shit what you didn’t know. I want to know what you do know. I’m not going to threaten to torture you. You and I both know there is no reason for me to threaten you. I will either break you apart, limb by limb, or not break you apart limb by limb, regardless of how helpful you are to me now. I owe you a lot of misery.”

“Please, John. I can help you.”

“Yeah? Then help me.”

“I can tell you everything I know.”

“Start talking.”

“Chinese intelligence is involved.”

“No shit! I’ve got dead and hog-tied Chinese soldiers all over the building. What is your involvement?”

“I… I thought it was industrial espionage. They blackmailed me, sprung me from prison, but made me an accomplice. The jobs started easy, but they got harder and harder. They tricked me, they threatened me, threatened to kill me. I could not get away.”

“Who do you report to?”

“He calls himself Center.”

“Is he waiting to hear from you?”

“Yes. Crane — that is one of the men still alive out there on the floor — was letting me come in to get some data, and I was to upload it, send it to Center. I had no idea anyone was going to be hurt or—”

“I don’t believe you.”

Kovalenko looked to the floor for a moment. Then he nodded. “Da, da, you are right. Yes, of course I knew what was going on. The first people they killed, the other day in Georgetown? No, I did not know they would do that. And then again, when they killed the cabdriver and tried to kill the woman today. I did not know that was the plan. But by now? I am no fool. I thought I would come into this building and find a stack of dead bodies.” He shrugged. “I just want to go home, John. I want no part of this.”

Clark looked him over. “Cry me a fucking river.”

He got up and left the room.

* * *

Back in the hallway, Clark found Gavin Biery talking to Gerry Hendley. When Biery saw the older man, he rushed up to him.

“That guy in there. Does he work for Center?”

“Yeah. Says he does, anyway.”

Gavin said, “We can use him. He will have a program on his computer that he uses to communicate with Center. It’s called Cryptogram. I’ve created a virus that can go through Cryptogram and photograph the person on the other end.”

Clark said, “But we have to get him to agree to help us, right?”

Biery said, “Yes. You’ve got to convince him to log in to Cryptogram and get Center to accept an upload.”

Clark thought it over for a moment. “Okay, come with me.”

Biery and Clark returned to the conference room.

Kovalenko had been sitting alone, his hands tied behind his back, his body positioned so that the two dead Chinese assassins were on the floor near his feet. This was by design. Clark wanted Valentin to sit there with dead men, to think about his own predicament.

Biery and Clark sat down at the table.

Before he could speak, Kovalenko said, “I had no choice. They forced me to work for them.”

“You did have a choice.”

“Sure, I could have shot myself in the head.”

“You sound like a guy who wouldn’t mind living through this.”

“Of course I do. But don’t fuck with me, Clark. You, of all people, want to see me dead.”

“I’d get a few chuckles out of that, yeah. But what’s more important is defeating Center before this conflict gets any bigger. There are millions of lives at stake. It’s not just about you and me and a grudge.”

“What do you want?”

Clark looked at Gavin Biery. “Can we use him?”

Gavin was still in a mild state of shock. But he nodded and looked at Kovalenko. “Do you have Cryptogram on your computer?”

Kovalenko just nodded in reply.

Clark said, “I am sure you have some security check you use to establish that it is actually you communicating with Center.”

“I do. But it’s actually more complicated than that.”

“How so?”

“I am pretty sure that while we are talking on Cryptogram, he’s also watching me through my camera.”

Clark’s eyebrows rose, and he turned to Biery. “Is that possible?”

Gavin said, “Mr. Clark, you have no idea what we’ve been dealing with since you left. If this guy told me Center had microchipped his brain I wouldn’t bat an eyelash.”

Clark turned back to Kovalenko. “We want to take you to your place and get you to connect with Center. Will you do that for us?”

“Why should I help you? You are going to kill me anyway.”

John Clark did not disagree. Instead he just said, “Think back to a time before you were spying for a living. I don’t mean for Center. I mean… before the SVR. There must have been some reason you went into this line of work. Yeah, I know your dear old dad was a KGB spook, but what did that get him? Even as a kid you must have seen him, the long hours, the low pay, the shithole postings, and you must have said to yourself, No way in hell I’m going into the family business.”

Kovalenko replied, “It was different in the eighties. He was treated with respect. The seventies even more so.”

Clark shrugged. “But you got into this in the nineties, long after the shine wore off the hammer and sickle.”

Kovalenko nodded.

“Did you, just maybe, think that someday you just might do some good?”

“Of course. I was not one of the corrupt ones.”

“Well, Valentin, you give us about one hour of help right now and you very likely might just stop a regional war from going global. Not too many spooks can say that.”

“Center is smarter than you,” Kovalenko said flatly.

Clark smiled. “We’re not going to challenge him to a game of chess.”

Kovalenko looked at the dead men on the floor again. He said, “I feel nothing about these men. They would have killed me when this was over. I know that like I know my own name.”

“Help us destroy him.”

Valentin said, “If you do not kill him — I don’t mean his virus, his network, his operation — I mean him. If you do not put a bullet in Center’s head, he will be back.”

Gavin Biery said, “You can be that bullet. I want to upload something into his system that will give us his exact location.”

Kovalenko smiled slightly. “Let’s give it a shot.”

* * *