Project - 16 (16 page)

“
You mean nuclear? No, my dear, we would all know about it by
now. You would have as much hair as I by now.”

“
I suppose,” I said. “Piotr, why are you here? I mean, I'm
glad to see you, but I suspect your timing isn't
coincidence.”

“
You know why already. The same reason you're out here with
your Yankee friend. You are looking for Alex and Saska.”

“
Saska? You must mean the girl. We didn't know her
name.”

“
Now you do,” said Piotr. “Saska Ibromavich. She is here with
the soldier, Alex DuPont.”

“
Do you know why?” I asked.

“
I was hoping you did. When I heard they'd fled here I assumed
you'd be the one sent to find them. I went to your house but you'd
already left.”

“
Yeah, we've been out here for the last few days. Was that one
of your drones that went by?”

“
Not mine. NSU intelligence maybe. They know you're here and
probably wanted to see if you'd gone looking too. That's why they
sent me, to maintain relations, so to speak.”

“
Diplomatic as always,” I replied. “How much searching have
you done?”

“
Not much, I only arrived a few days ago. They dropped me near
Newcastle so I’ve had to walk the rest of the way. Caught plenty of
game. Did you know how much deer you have in the north? It is good
to see, my friend.”

“
No, I’ve not been up there for a while. They're breeding
well, even here. You know what I did see last year?”

“
No, tell me!”

“
A bear - a big one, the biggest I’ve seen in a very long
time. Probably a second or third generation zoo animal, but there
it was, as large as life. I nearly walked right into
it.”

“
We'll have to go and find him,” said Piotr, visibly excited.
“There might be more of them and I would very much like to know
it's breed.”

“
We will - once we find these two runaways,” I said. “For now
come and meet Riley.”

“
I do not like Americans,” he said. “But I guess we have no
choice, eh?”

“
She's a handful but pretty harmless,” I said.

“
Aren't they all?”

6.

Riley came down from her look-out post and was stunned when
she saw Piotr and I waiting for her.

“
Who is he? How did I not see him?” she said.

“
Riley, this is an old friend of my Dad's and one of mine too.
Piotr, meet Claudia Riley, formerly of the US Rangers.”

“
Are you NSU?” she said.

“
Not as such,” replied Piotr in broken English. “But I work
for them, much like Miller here works for the US.”

“
Can we help you with something?” said Riley making no effort
to hide her anger.

“
Riley, he's an old friend. Not all Russians are your enemy.
He's here for the same reason you are - to find Alex and Saska,” I
said.

“
Saska? Is that her name?”

“
Yes,” said Piotr. “Saska Ibromavich. Her father would like
her back in Russia safe and sound. It would appear that we both
want a similar outcome to this adventure, don't you
think?”

“
Do you know what they're looking for?” she asked, calming
down a little.

“
I don't know and neither does the NSU but they are curious. I
guess the bunker over there was empty?”

“
Sort of,” I replied, seeing the faces of the dead in my mind
once again. “Enough to tell me they're not in there.”

“
What's your next move?” he asked. I got the map from my
pocket and showed it to him, angering Riley further.

“
Our plan had been to search these bunkers that we guessed the
drone we saw had passed over. Our assumption was that the NSU
already knew where they were, or at least had a good idea where to
look. So that narrowed our search.”

“
Why a bunker?” he asked.

“
Of course,” I said, “you haven't seen the
letters.”

“
Letters?”

“
From Saska to Alex. She managed to smuggle them through US
channels to Alex when he was stationed abroad. They mentioned a
bunker - just not which one. There's so damn many of them we could
be looking for a lifetime.”

“
And when you find them?” asked Piotr.

“
Alex will be arrested for going AWOL, Saska is all yours I
guess. Are you okay with that, Riley?”

Riley shrugged. “I'm here for my nephew. The girl can hang
for all I care.”

“
He is your family?” asked Piotr.

“
Yes. I came here on behalf of my sister. I just want to take
him back safe. I don't know what it is they're looking for but I'm
not interested - I'm just here to fly him out.”

“
Well then,” he said with a grin. “We'd better work together,
yes? Combine our resources.”

“
This gets better every day,” muttered Riley.

As we walked through the woods back towards my house, Riley
marched on ahead - within earshot but refusing to get too close to
Piotr. She had her rifle cradled in her arms and her dark
sunglasses on, scanning the way ahead as if on patrol. I left her
to it, I couldn't expect her to give up an in-bred hatred of
Piotr's people overnight. It'd take time, but if the mission was to
be successful then she'd have to find a way - and pretty damn
quickly.

Saska Ibromavich was the third daughter of General Marcus
Ibromavich - the famed war hero of the first Syrian conflict and
Piotr began filling me in on her importance to her
father.

“
The General had three beautiful daughters but only two
survived to this day. The first and the eldest, Alia, and of course
Saska.”

“
The middle one?” I asked.

“
Died at eleven years old, drowned in a pool at a friend's
party. The General has never come to terms with it and as such
treats the other two as if they were precious artefacts, strangling
the life out of them with his protection. For this reason I was
amazed to hear she'd managed to leave the country without him
knowing but it would seem that she was able to bribe one of the
home security guards and make her escape.”

“
What happened to the guard?”

“
I'm sure you don't really want to know. Anyway, the General
has a lot of influential friends in NSU command and a country-wide
alert was put out for her. By then, I suspect, she had already
managed to leave the country.”

“
So we know how she left, but we don't know why.”

“
I have only a handful of clues to go off. First of all her
computer revealed a third party, someone she was in contact with
who we suspect told her about this 'thing' they are looking for
here.”

“
You mean the emails didn't say?”

“
No, they were heavily scrambled and most of them had been
deleted before she left. She also spoke in code and expected the
person at the other end to understand her.”

“
Piotr,” I began, “Are you telling me that Saska, a young
woman, is capable of all this? To hide it from her Father? To
scramble computer messages and speak in code? It all sounds like a
ridiculous spy novel.”

Piotr laughed. “Miller, you have been raised by your Papa in
the woods. What you know of the world came from books or soldiers
who came for training. There is still much you do not know. At
their fingertips, children can learn anything they want to learn.
It is all there. You need only a computer and the drive to sift
through all the junk to find what you need. It is very plausible,
my friend.”

I felt a little put out, but I knew what he was saying was
true. A lot of my understanding of the world came from Dad's books
or from the technology the soldiers sometimes brought with them. I
wasn't in touch with the world that continued to exist outside - my
own world had ended and was now being given over to
decay.

“
So okay, there is Saska, Alex and now...?”

Piotr shook his head. “A mystery. It could have been an
ex-pat of yours, someone who fled after the Panic and set up
somewhere else. He may have worked in this bunker and is offering
the information to Saska in return for she and Alex to go there and
get something for him. At this point, we are both at a
loss.”

“
You mentioned other clues?” I asked.

“
Yes. My next clue came in the form of an invoice the General
discovered in his accounts. It was for items ordered from a
pharmaceutical company and shipped to Paris to be collected by a
Mr. Duphrane.”

“
The order?”

“
Various things. Not what you would expect. The bio-hazard
suits we did expect - a great number of people believe your nuclear
plants must be leaking radiation by now.” Riley muttered something
under her breath but I didn't catch it. I could guess
though.

“
They're not - the US checked them out as soon as they could,”
I said. “They claimed they were all in shut down and that the rods
had automatically been submerged during the Panic. I know something
is leaking into the water supply further north, but that's another
matter.”

“
So so. Still, it is a misconception and so once we'd
established their destination we thought nothing of the suits. The
other items were far more worrying.”

“
In what way?”

“
Chemicals. Compounds. Various drugs and agents. Not enough to
alert the supplier to any kind of terrorist plot, but to a trained
eye they could be used in a few different ways. Firstly, as an
antidote to...” He paused. For the entire conversation, in fact,
since we'd met up with Riley, he'd spoken in English and I'd
admired his consideration for her. But now he looked at me, then
her, and shook his head. I stopped walking. I'd been so involved in
Piotr's story that I hadn't noticed us moving past a village sat at
the bottom of the valley and Riley was scanning it with her
binoculars. She turned, noticed that the tension had risen, and
removed her glasses.

“
What is it?” I asked.

He turned to Riley and said, “I struggle to trust Americans.
It is part of our culture in Russia. I'm sure you can appreciate
that.”

“
Yes,” she replied. “I can.”

“
Then what I am about to tell you puts my life at risk. I know
I have Miller's trust and he, mine. But you, former Ranger Riley,
do I have yours?”

Riley looked pained by the openness of Piotr. He was bearing
his heart and she didn't know how to handle it. Eventually she was
able to reply.

“
I no longer work for the US government and as such I have no
ties to it nor obligations. I worked for a private security firm
that did things the US would never sanction. You have my trust. But
let's understand each other - if it jeopardises the lives of my
people or any that I love then there will be a reckoning - do we
understand each other?”

“
I think we do,” he replied. “You would make a good Russian.”
Then, to me, he said, “The drugs are a possible antidote for a
virus we suspect the United States Government developed and chose
to hide on British soil, knowing that the Panic would come and hide
their mistake.”

Riley's face turned crimson and she cocked her rifle. “What
did you say?” she yelled.

“
Riley - calm down!” I said.

“
I want to know what this Communist bastard just
said!”

Piotr simply stood there, his arms at his side, a man too
mature and too seasoned by life to respond to such a threat. My own
insides had knotted up though.

“
May I reach into my pocket for the evidence?” he asked her,
calmly and without the slightest hint of patronisation. She nodded
like her head was caught in a vice, the rage tightening up every
muscle. Slowly, Piotr unzipped his fleece and reached inside for an
envelope sealed in a plastic bag. He passed it to her, causing her
to uncock the rifle and sling it over her shoulder. She opened the
packet and took out a handful of folded sheets of paper and began
reading.

I looked around me for something to sit on. Piotr sat on the
rock opposite me. Riley paced up and down as she read. The sky was
cloudy but there was still some warmth to be gained from the
sun.

“
Have you eaten yet?” asked Piotr.

“
Not since this morning,” I replied.

“
I have some of that game left.” He reached into his pack and
passed me some grilled strips of meat that I ate with some
mouthfuls of water. It was tender and cooked to perfection - the
way Dad used to cook it. He passed some to Riley who received it
without taking her eyes off the papers.

We sat there chewing and drinking and reading. There was
little noise other than the breeze in the air and the sound of our
breathing and it made the situation seem absurd. Occasionally Riley
would flip the page and the crackle of dry paper interrupted our
own thoughts.

“
Goddam it!” she yelled at one point before carrying on. She
was wearing a patch in the grass with her heavy boots.

Eventually she turned and handed the papers back to
Piotr.