“Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know… One less person chasing you.”
Fisher shook his head. “High price for that.”
Noboru considered this, then said, “Well, thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Now that we’re in on the con,” Valentina said, “we’re going to have to be
“Agreed,” Fisher said. He looked around. “Are we good?”
There were nods all around, except for Ames. Hansen saw this and said, “In or out, Ames? Either you’re with us, or I’ll kick your ass back to Fort Meade.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Hansen didn’t answer but offered a half grin.
“Yeah, okay. I’m on board. We don’t have to hug or anything, right? I ain’t doing that.”
“Idiot,” Gillespie muttered.
Fisher said, “Any questions?”
“I have one,” Valentina said. “You said the guy you’re tracking looks to be heading into Russia, right?”
“Right.”
“If the auction’s taking place on Russian soil, we have to consider that the government might be involved. If that’s the case, we could find ourselves up against the Russian army.”
“Anything’s possible,” Fisher agreed. “Let’s cross that bridge when we get to it.”
“Or die on that bridge when we get to it,” Ames shot back.
They waited until Ivanov regained consciousness; then Hansen and the others left, while Fisher made sure his old friend/not friend had suffered no ill effects. He gave Ivanov fifteen hundred rubles — about five hundred U.S. dollars — for his trouble, called them even for the trouble Ivanov had caused him in Minsk, and left with the Russian’s assurance that he was only too happy to forget the last two hours of his life.
Outside they split into two groups of three and checked into hotels near the passenger port terminal. Fisher, Gillespie, and Ames took the Mozart Hotel; Hansen, Noboru, and Valentina, the Londonskaya Hotel a couple blocks away.
Once in his room, Fisher texted Grimsdottir:
Mission accomplished. Call for details.
His phone trilled ten minutes later. Fisher answered and said, “Another pay phone?”
“Outside a 7-Eleven,” Grim muttered.
“Oh, the degradation,” Fisher replied.
“Smart ass. How’d it go?”
“Complicated. Hansen took a little hands-on convincing, but he came around.”
“Was that before or after he called me?”
“Before. The rest of the team’s on board, too, including Ames. He grumbled, but I imagine he’s thrilled at the idea of being able to give Kovac a blow-by-blow.”
“If he tries Kovac, he’ll get voice mail, and vice versa. He’ll turn to texting soon enough; then he’s ours. What we still don’t know is how deeply Ames is involved. If Kovac’s linked to the auction, that doesn’t necessarily mean Ames is.”
“We’ll know. When the time is right, I’m going to have a heart-to-heart with him.”
“Why doesn’t that sound as friendly as it should?” In the background Fisher heard a double bing. Grimsdottir said, “My other phone. Wait.” The line clicked into silence. She returned half a minute later. “Qaderi just left Moscow, heading east to Irkutsk.”
“How do you know that?”
“The bots are into five devices in Qaderi’s group: a laptop, three cell phones, and one satellite phone. They’re all pinging, so the GPS coordinates are triangulated down to an eight-foot circle. They had him placed at the gate assigned to an Irkutsk flight.”
“Score one for Terzo Lucchesi. Flight time?”
“Six hours, fifty minutes.”
Fisher checked his watch and did the time-zone conversion. Irkutsk was six hours ahead of Odessa. With flight time that would put Qaderi there in thirteen hours, or at one in the afternoon Irkutsk time.
“How fast can you get us there?” Fisher asked.
“I’m on my way back to the office right now. I’ll text you.”
Grimsdottir disconnected and Fisher called Hansen with an update. “Thanks,” said Hansen.
“How’s the mood over there?”
“Still a little stunned, I’m guessing, but I gotta be honest: None of us is gonna miss chasing you around. You taught us some tough lessons.”
“We had a saying on the Teams: The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat.”
“I’m a believer. Listen, Sam, I’m at the ice machine. I think I may have solved one of our problems.”
“How’s that?”
“I’m bunking with Ames. He left his phone sitting on the bathroom sink. I knocked it into the toilet. He didn’t notice it for ten minutes. It’s dead.”
Fisher chuckled. “How’d he take that?”
“As you’d expect. I feel better knowing his only option is the OPSAT now.”
“Agreed. I’ll call you when I hear back from Grim.”
She called fifteen minutes later. “Best I can do is a Czech Airlines flight leaving at 4:00 A.M. your time, with connections in Prague and Moscow. You’ll touch down in Irkutsk eight hours behind Qaderi.”
“Unless the auction’s in Irkutsk, he’ll be traveling from there. I’m guessing car or train.”
“Gut feeling?”
“Partially. Irkutsk is a big city, but it’s still Siberia. It’s about as remote as you get, and if I were holding this kind of auction…”
“Where better,” Grim finished.
“As long as our bots keep phoning home, we’ll be able to find him. Book the flights. I’ll gather the troops.”
32
“You tried to wash me out, didn’t you?”
The words penetrated Fisher’s dozing mind and he opened his eyelids. He turned his head and looked at Ames in the aisle seat. The rest of the team was spread throughout the cabin. “What’s that?” Fisher asked.
“I said that you tried to wash me out of the program.”
“Are you asking me or telling me?”
“Asking.”
“The answer’s no. I helped train you and I submitted my evaluation. That’s it.”
“But you didn’t give me your stamp of approval.”
“Doesn’t work like that.”
“But you’re the man, the legend.” Ames’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“I told them I thought you had the skills and the intelligence for the job but not the temperament. I haven’t seen anything that changes my mind.”
“Hey, the hell with you. I’ve done damned good.”
Fisher shrugged, then closed his eyes again.
