Simpson shot a glance at a passing waiter, and the man instantly appeared beside their table — a trick Richter found quite impressive, from his personal experience of French waiters. Simpson ordered two more coffees, plus one for Adamson, and then continued with his explanation once the waiter had moved out of earshot.
‘Now, at that time nobody at SIS Rome had any idea what had happened to stir up the Russians so badly. However, the inference was fairly obvious: clearly they were looking for somebody. It wasn’t until that email from the cyber cafe arrived at Legoland that we knew exactly what was going on. Somehow, the SVR had not only already discovered that Yuri had done a bunk, but also that he’d been on his way to Rome. And we also knew that he’d slipped through the net they’d cast, simply because of the time the message was sent to us.’
‘So it’s likely that the Russian Embassy people will still be out there looking for him?’ Richter said.
‘Yes, but it’s worse than that, because SIS Moscow has since reported witnessing a lot of arguments and disputes at Sheremetievo Airport. Angry passengers were confronting airline officials about being bumped off their booked flights. Within a couple of hours, we knew that those flights were all heading to Rome and other destinations in Italy — and to some parts of France as well. So the Russians obviously weren’t relying just on their local staff to find Yuri; but were sending out specialist teams from Moscow as well. SIS Rome now estimates they’ve sent out at least fifty men to Italy.’
‘And in this context the word “specialist” means what, exactly?’ Richter asked, sitting back in his seat as the waiter reappeared with the drinks Simpson had ordered.
‘You can call them what you like,’ Simpson said a few moments later, stirring his coffee thoughtfully. ‘Snatch teams, hit squads, whatever. But their orders will be simple enough. They’ll be tasked with finding Yuri and hauling him back to Moscow, probably unconscious and strapped to a stretcher. When they get him back to Russia, they’ll stick him in a nice quiet interrogation room somewhere, then they’ll pull out his fingernails and apply other interesting techniques to ensure that he tells them what they want to know, before they finally kill him. And if there’s some reason why they can’t actually capture him, they’ll do their best to eliminate him in Italy, or wherever else they find him. The one thing we do know for certain is that the Russians are desperate to plug this leak.’
Richter stared at Simpson for a long moment. ‘And you really think there’s some chance that I can slip past all these highly trained assassins, find this Yuri and simply take him to London?’
‘Yes,’ Simpson nodded. ‘Because nobody knows who you are. You’re not a known face to the Russians, so you’ll have no trouble at all until you actually meet Yuri. Once you’re together, of course, then the risks will multiply because the Russian teams know exactly what he looks like.’
‘And then you expect me to fight my way out of trouble with just a Browning nine-mil and fifty rounds of ammunition? Fight my way past fifty-odd heavily armed Russian assassins with shoot-to-kill orders? All by myself?’
Simpson shook his head briefly. ‘Not quite by yourself. I’ve talked to Hereford, and Dekker’s been reassigned. He’s going to be your shadow, your guardian angel watching you from a distance. He’ll cover whatever meeting point Yuri chooses, and he’ll take out any opposition players he notices. Dekker’s a specialist sniper.’
‘Oh, that makes me feel much better,’ Richter snapped. ‘So now the odds are twenty-five to one instead of fifty to one. That’s a hell of an improvement.’
‘If you move carefully,’ Simpson said soothingly, ‘there’s absolutely no reason why you should even encounter any of the Russians. Italy’s a big country and, once you’ve made contact with Yuri, you should be able to just drive straight over the border into France. And once you’re here, there’s almost no chance anybody would be able to follow you. France is huge and it offers dozens of possible routes you could take back to Britain.’
Simpson leaned forward and continued. ‘You can do this, Richter. I know you can. You’re stubborn and resourceful, and you obviously think on your feet. You’ll be carrying a weapon, and you’ll have Dekker watching your back. As of now, the opposition have no idea who either of you are. I’ll give you some contact numbers for me back in Hammersmith, and I absolutely guarantee you’ll get whatever help I can provide you. Make no mistake, bringing in Yuri is vitally important, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure it happens.’
Richter grunted. ‘There’s one other thing you need to think about doing right now.’
‘What?’
‘Yuri must have a passport to get out of Russia in the first place, but that’ll be no good now because the Russians will have blocked it for every border crossing. So you’ll have to arrange a diplomatic passport for him. As soon as I meet him, I’ll email you his picture and the name he wants to use, then you’ll need to send it out here somewhere so we can pick it up. Otherwise getting him to London’s going to be difficult.’
Simpson nodded. ‘That’s already in hand. But don’t think you have to rely only on commercial transport. If it makes better sense, I can have a private plane or an RAF aircraft, something like that, on standby, ready to fly down here to pick you up, which will avoid the passport problem altogether.’
‘OK,’ Richter replied, ‘I’ll let you know.’
Simpson’s phone rang again, and he answered immediately.
Richter listened with interest to one side of the conversation.
‘What? No, I’ve heard his name. I mean, I know who he is but I’ve never met him… he said what?… how did he find out?… right. I’ll pass that on.’
Simpson snapped his mobile closed with an irritated expression.
‘What?’ Richter asked.
‘I don’t know exactly how it happened, but now the Americans have decided to stick their oar in the water as well. Just a short while ago, the SIS duty officer was called by a man named John Westwood. He’s CIA, and a big wheel at Langley, in fact their Head of Espionage. He’s in Rome at the moment and he called SIS yesterday to see if we knew anything about a Russian defector. Obviously the SIS officer there denied all knowledge of it, because actually only one man at Vauxhall Cross does know what’s going on, and he won’t tell anybody.’
‘So what did this Westwood guy want?’
‘To give us a warning,’ Simpson said. ‘Apparently the Russians have upped the ante and got the Italian police involved. According to Westwood, the hunt for Yuri is now overt, and the Eyeties will be watching everywhere for him — checking the hotels, the whole nine yards. You’ve got Yuri’s mobile number, so you need to send him a text message. I’ll dictate it now.’
Richter pulled out his mobile, opened up a blank SMS page, input the number he’d been given for Yuri’s mobile phone, and waited.
‘Right, here goes,’ Simpson said. ‘Tell him: “Airports, ferries, trains, buses, taxis watched. Hotels slash guest houses checked. Autoroute toll-booths watched slash main roads blocked or watched.” That’s it. I don’t know how Yuri’s travelling, but if he checks his phone for messages, at least he’ll now know what he’s up against. There’s nothing else we can do for him at the moment.’
Richter pressed the button to send the text, then looked up at Simpson. ‘I presume I’m still heading for Italy?’
Simpson nodded. ‘Yes, proceed as we discussed. It doesn’t look good for Yuri, but if he makes it out, you’ll need to be right there ready to pick him up. And there is one hopeful sign.’