TWENTY-FOUR
A few moments past eleven o’clock at night, Pete Nimec sat at his laptop computer in his home office, his face a study in concentration as he read the e-mail that had just appeared on its display regarding Gordian’s ongoing investigation into the events in Russia, code-named “Politika”:
Status: Reply 1 of 1, 3 attachments (PEM Sign and Encrypt)
Re: “Politika”
>Pete,
>It’s 2 A.M. here in D.C., but I wanted to
>complete and upload the data files you
>requested before hitting the sack.
>Knowing you as well as I do, you’re
>probably online looking for them right now,
>and won’t be able to tear yourself away from
>the damn machine until they’ve popped into
>your mailbox. So here they are — a bit on the
>sketchy side, but the best I could do on short
>notice. I suggest you give the material a
>quick review and relax. It’s already much too
>late for me to get a decent night’s sleep, but
>there’s no sense in both of us staying up to
>greet the Wolf.
>Best, Alex
Nimec moved his cursor to the menu bar, clicked on the Download option, then rocked backward in his chair and waited, smiling a little. Alex was so often correct it was uncanny. And he never disappointed.
When the transfer was done, Nimec logged off the Internet server, opened the first of the three files, and began scrolling through it:
Profile: Bashkir, Yeni
HISTORY
PERSONAL:
Born 2/12/46 in Vladivostok, Primorsky Kray. Paternal grandfather operated pre-Bolshevik import/export firm with offices throughout China and Korea. Father (deceased) among the first generation of naval officers in Soviet Pacific Fleet. Mother (deceased) of Manchurian Chinese ancestry. Bashkir is married and presently lives in Moscow. The eldest of his two adult sons is a concert violinist who has toured with…
Nimec let his eyes go down to the following section; what Alex meant by “sketchy” might have constituted a full academic treatise for other researchers.
MILITARY/POLITICAL:
Followed his father into distinguished naval career; served with Soviet Pacific Fleet during Cold War; captained November-class and Echo II–CLASS nuclear submarines berthed in Kamchatka Peninsula. Promoted to rear admiralty in 1981, eventually achieved command of entire nuclear sub fleet. Former Communist Party member; joined Yeltsin’s party approx. 1991. Close associations with Beijing regime, esp. government trade officials, extended through period of strained Sino-Soviet relations. Handpicked by President Mikhail Gorbachev to be special consul to China, 1992; instrumental in strengthening political and economic links between the two nations. Primary author of Chinese-Russian cooperation agreements in 1996 and 1997…
The next few paragraphs were devoted to a summary of the agreements, which were more declarations of principle and intent than formal pacts. Something he read farther down in that same section, however, made Nimec sit up straight with interest:
In August 1999 Bashkir attended trade summit in Beijing and was chief negotiator of bilateral arms/technology exchange agreement. Delegation of Russian arms merchants included representatives of
Nimec read those lines twice before continuing, his eyes riveted to the screen, a low, thoughtful sound issuing from his throat. It seemed to contain the answers to a lot of questions — and that was what bothered him. He mistrusted the obvious.
He sipped the lukewarm coffee on his desk and scanned the rest of the document.
Bashkir was appointed minister of the interior by President Boris Yeltsin 1999, retains post to present. Friendship with Vladimir Starinov said to have begun while Starinov was commanding general of elite Air Assault Force (VDV) division stationed in Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka region. While still professing personal and political loyalty to Starinov, he has been a vehement critic of his accelerated economic decontrols and Western-style democratic reforms…
Ten minutes later Nimec reached the end of the dossier. He printed it out, closed the file, and opened the next one on his download queue, a detailed rundown of the Lian Group’s various international holdings.
It was midnight before he’d finished looking over Nordstrum’s reports, and the feeling he had after having skimmed the last of the three was a more intense version of how he’d felt midway into the Bashkir file — a sense that things were just too damn easy. Somehow, he was reminded of a trip he’d taken to the Great Adventure Theme Park in New Jersey many years before. You drove along automobile paths that led through simulated wildlife habitats, but the truly dangerous animals were restrained behind not very well camouflaged fences. The idea being for visitors to have the illusion of traveling down a safari trail while in fact remaining on a safe, contrived, and carefully overseen route.
Rubbing his eyes, Nimec again made hard copies of the reports, then abandoned the program, switched off his computer, and closed its cover. He pushed back his chair, stood, and stretched, rotating his neck and shoulders to work the kinks out of his muscles. He was simultaneously exhausted and wired, and knew himself well enough to realize he would be unable to sleep. There was something else here, something he wasn’t getting, a layer of understanding that seemed just out of reach.
Nimec shook his head. He needed desperately to unwind.
Leaving the office, he went across the wide, unpartitioned space of his living room, dining room, and kitchen to his private elevator. He thumbed the Call button, and when the car arrived rode it to the upper level of his triplex condominium apartment.
The elevator opened into a rec/training complex that spanned the entire floor and was divided into four large areas, all enclosed by a circular indoor jogging track: the dojo where he conducted his daily martial arts exercises, a fully equipped boxing gym, a soundproof target range, and the room he was headed into now, a faithful recreation of the dingy Philadelphia pool hall he’d haunted as a teenager, learning the game from some of the best players, not to mention the most seriously degenerate gamblers, ever to work magic with a cue stick… his own father unrivaled among them.
He pushed through the door and went inside. The room held two rows of antique championship tables with
