Part 17 (2/2)

”I am impressed.” Ivanov led the way, and Holley said, ”You'll know all about me, then?”

”You could say that.”

”So you'll know what dear old Josef wants with me?”

”Of course I do, but I think he'll prefer to tell you himself. This way.” He gestured up the stairs to the walkway and followed Holley up.

Lermov was standing beside the old tea lady, and she was filling a gla.s.s for him.

”Just in time, Josef,” Holley said. ”I'll join you.”

”Another for my friend, babushka, babushka,” Lermov told her. ”You look good, Daniel. They've been treating you well, I think.”

”Six months since you last saw me,” Holley said. ”I've been promoted. Looking after the accounts in the general supply office. A corrupt lot, the staff in there. Thieves and chancers. Most of them merited a cell themselves.”

”Yes, the governor told me how pleased he was. Didn't want to part with you.”

Holley sipped the tea the old lady had given him. ”And is he going to part with me? How can he? Who says so?”

Lermov took the letter from his pocket and unfolded it. ”Captain Ivanov and I have several copies between us. It's proved to be an open sesame everywhere we've shown it.”

Holley held it in one hand and studied it, still sipping his tea. ”Well, it would, wouldn't it? Vladimir b.l.o.o.d.y Putin himself.” He handed the letter back. ”Your chum here dismissed the guards. What was that all about?”

”We don't need them,” Ivanov told him. ”What are you going to do, Daniel, suddenly make a run for it? Where would you go?”

”Daniel, now, is it?” Holley said. ”We are getting friendly.” He switched to English, and the Yorks.h.i.+re accent was obvious. ”I'll say it again, Josef, what goes on?”

Lermov answered him in English. ”It's a miracle you're here at all, Daniel. Five years ago, when you killed two of my men in Kosovo, the rest wanted to execute you. I kept you alive, with two bullets in you, for moral reasons, then discovered we'd captured someone very special indeed.”

”Someone worth saving,” Holley said.

”Absolutely-an open window on terrorism and the death business. Over twenty years of hard experience. You were beyond price, and the knowledge I've gained from our many talks has been i nvaluable.”

”Happy to have been of service, but I didn't have much of a choice about that, did I?”

”Station Gorky?” Lermov shook his head. ”At least be honest with yourself. You had a choice of a better option and took it. Whatever else you are, you're no martyr, Daniel, and shall I tell you why? You have to believe to be a martyr. You, my friend, don't believe in anything.”

Daniel Holley changed, something dark pa.s.sing on his face like a shadow over the sun, an elemental force there that had Ivanov reaching for the flap of his holstered pistol, and then Holley actually laughed.

”You want to know something, Josef? I think you might well be right. What happens now?”

Lermov nodded to Ivanov, who said to Holley in English, ”You and I will go into the office opposite, where I'll show you a DVD and offer you certain files on the computer-”

”Some of which is information gained from you from our conversations over the years,” Lermov cut in.

”-Then we'll have a look at a situation that is giving us trouble, and we'll see what suggestions you might make to rectify the matter,” Ivanov finished.

”That's what you were always good at, Daniel, isn't that so? a.n.a.lyzing the situation, a.s.sessing the risk? You're a master at that sort of thing,” Lermov said.

”If that's supposed to make me feel good, you're wasting your time. What is the point of this exercise, Josef?”

”Your sentence, Daniel. You've done five years so far, you're forty-nine and look forty on a bad day. But as the years roll on, that won't last. Maybe we can do something about that.”

”Your logic is irrefutable.” Holley turned to Ivanov. ”So let's go into the d.a.m.n office and see what you've got.”

”I'll leave you to it,” Lermov told him, and went along to the walkway to where the old tea lady had pushed her trolley, when Holley's mood turned black.

”Tea, Colonel?”

”No, babushka, babushka, I need vodka . . . a lot of vodka.” I need vodka . . . a lot of vodka.”

”The one with the accent? He's a little mad, I think.”

”Aren't we all, babushka babushka?” Lermov told her, and went down the stairs.

But instead of the bar, he went to his room, sat at a desk by the window, got out the ma.n.u.script of the book he was working on, and read through the current chapter, which had been cut off in midsentence by a tap on the shoulder by Ivanov in the university library. It was good stuff, but it was unfinished, there was no ending, but, then, there seldom was in his business, the life he'd chosen instead of a calm and scholarly career in the academic world. It suddenly struck him that he'd never really had a choice. He glanced at the final page of the chapter, then closed the ma.n.u.script with a kind of finality and put it in his briefcase. he went to his room, sat at a desk by the window, got out the ma.n.u.script of the book he was working on, and read through the current chapter, which had been cut off in midsentence by a tap on the shoulder by Ivanov in the university library. It was good stuff, but it was unfinished, there was no ending, but, then, there seldom was in his business, the life he'd chosen instead of a calm and scholarly career in the academic world. It suddenly struck him that he'd never really had a choice. He glanced at the final page of the chapter, then closed the ma.n.u.script with a kind of finality and put it in his briefcase.

”So what next?” he asked himself softly, and the knock on the door answered him.

Holley wore a cord around his neck, a red-and-gold security tag dangling from it of the kind worn only by senior staff members. around his neck, a red-and-gold security tag dangling from it of the kind worn only by senior staff members.

Lermov pointed to it. ”What's this?” he asked Ivanov.

”I thought people might wonder who he was when he's walking round.”

”You know, like going to the lavatory or down to the bar, Josef,” Holley told him.

He pulled a chair forward, sat opposite Lermov, and Ivanov leaned against the door. Lermov said, ”So you've gone through everything, Daniel?”

”Absolutely. You don't seem to have missed much, you and the boy wonder here.”

”So what do you think?”

”About the fact that the boss man wants Charles Ferguson and his people eliminated and doesn't care how you do it?”

”Yes,” Lermov replied calmly.

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