‘Quite,’ Victor agreed. ‘I have acquired some enemies.’
‘I imagine that’s an ever-present hazard in your line of work.’
‘It’s somewhat more complicated than that. I need your help.’
There was something approaching amazement in Norimov’s expression. ‘You need my help?’ Victor nodded. ‘This must be serious.’
‘It is.’
‘So what can I do?’
‘I want you to make some inquiries for me.’
‘I stopped doing work for them before you did. I-’
‘But you are still connected to the organization, are you not?’
Norimov nodded absently, the action seemed almost subconsciously.
‘Good,’ Victor said.
‘What do you need?’
Victor reached into his coat. He did so slowly, so the two bodyguards couldn’t mistake the action for something else. Victor pulled the hand out from under his coat. In his fingers was the flash drive.
‘On this is a file. I need its encryption broken.’
Victor placed it on the table, and Norimov picked it up and examined it closely.
‘Where did you get this?’ he asked.
‘From a former business acquaintance.’
Norimov raised a knowing eyebrow. ‘Tell me what happened.’
‘I did a contract in Paris on Monday, a part of which was the recovery and delivery of that memory stick. When I returned to my hotel there was a kill team waiting. I’d like to know who sent them.’
Victor thought it prudent to leave out the fact that the someone appeared to be the same person who had hired him, who also happened to work for the CIA.
‘Paris? I read about that, but I never would have guessed it was you. You’re not one for making headlines.’
‘This time it was unavoidable.’
Norimov leaned forward. ‘They said eight people were shot dead at that hotel. All you?’
‘I only killed seven,’ Victor corrected. ‘Another beforehand. Another since.’
‘I thought you weren’t counting.’
Victor looked at him for a moment. ‘Some habits are harder to break than others.’
Norimov shook his head. ‘Well, you haven’t lost your touch anyway.’
Victor ignored the remark. ‘Whoever tried to kill me wanted that drive. As of this moment it’s all I have to go on. If the information on that thing is worth killing for, then I need to know what it is.’
‘And what will that achieve?’
‘Maybe it will help track down my enemies. Maybe not.’
‘But why do you want to? You’ve never cared about revenge before.’
‘I don’t care about revenge now,’ Victor said. ‘And I never will.’
‘Then why?’
‘Because they found me.’
Norimov held his gaze and nodded. ‘I still know people in the organization, computer people, who may be able to help.’
‘Thank you.’
‘But what you ask is highly irregular. People will be suspicious, questions will be asked.’
‘Then bribe them. I will cover any expenditure.’
Norimov looked at him closely. ‘They still want your head, remember?’
‘I’m not likely to forget.’
‘And you’re willing to take that risk?’
‘I’m here, aren’t I?’
The Russian weighed the response for a moment. ‘I always used to think that for a man who is so careful to stay alive you sometimes act as if you have a death wish.’
Victor made sure to show nothing in his expression.
Norimov ran a hand over his beard. ‘They’ve asked me about you before, you know? A general, Banarov I think his name was, had died. Suicide. Shot himself in the head with his own pistol. They thought it was you, said they could place you in the country that week.’
‘What did you tell them?’
‘That I hadn’t seen you for years.’
‘They believed you?’
‘Who knows? The investigating officer didn’t like me, I can tell you that for nothing. Aniskovach his name was. I made a point of remembering that one. A rising star I think. He had that look about him, arrogant but clever. He reminded me of you, actually.’ Norimov smiled briefly. ‘He brought with him a list of corpses as long as my dick, wanted to know who out of them you could’ve killed.’
‘And you said?’
‘That you could’ve killed them all for all I knew, but I told him I’d heard you were dead, so even for you it would be a tall order. That’s when he showed me a photo of you, said it was recent.’
‘Taken where?’
‘I couldn’t tell. Don’t worry, it was your good side.’ He flashed a grin. ‘Aniskovach wanted you for Banarov though; the others didn’t matter. He was just trying to track you down through one of your other jobs.’
‘He told you that?’
‘He didn’t have to.’
Victor nodded.
‘So,’ Norimov began, ‘was it you who killed Banarov?’
Victor’s expression remained blank. ‘I don’t remember.’
Norimov’s face was serious. ‘But they do, Vasily.’
‘Then I’ll be careful to do nothing to jog their memories.’
‘And have you thought about me in all this? They don’t like me as it is. What do you think they’ll do if they find out I helped you?’
‘When have I ever asked you for a favour?’
‘Never.’ Norimov paused. He looked at Victor for a long time before speaking. ‘You’ve changed.’
‘I’m thinner.’
‘No, not that.’
‘I’m older.’ He didn’t like saying it.
The Russian shook his head. ‘It’s something else.’
Victor stopped himself shifting in his seat.
‘One thing I know,’ Norimov said, ‘is that people like us don’t change. We adapt.’
‘Necessity.’
‘Remember when I told you about what makes you special?’ He didn’t wait for Victor to respond. ‘People like you, like me, we either take that thing inside ourselves that others don’t have and make it work for us, or we stand by and let it destroy us.’
‘I still believe that.’
‘If I do this for you, then we are even for Chechnya.’
‘Naturally,’ Victor agreed without hesitation.
Norimov nodded slowly. ‘I’ll do what I can.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Don’t mention it.’
‘You’ll need a copy of the drive.’
Norimov smiled. ‘Why, don’t you trust me?’
‘No.’
Norimov’s smile disappeared, and he stared hard at Victor.
Victor stared back.
Norimov looked away first and plugged the flash drive into his computer. ‘Will it allow me to copy the contents?’
‘The information on the drive is encrypted, not the flash drive itself.’
It took seconds for Norimov to copy the data onto his computer. When the transfer had finished, he pulled the original out of the laptop and handed it back to Victor.
‘All done. I’ll copy it onto a disk and give it to my contacts. I’ll delete it from my laptop afterwards, don’t worry.’
‘I don’t worry,’ Victor said. ‘And it’ll be safer if we don’t meet here. Somewhere busy instead, somewhere public.’
There was a glow in Norimov’s face. ‘Like the old days?’
‘Exactly like the old days.’
‘How do you want to do it?’
‘I’ll call your bar, give them a time and place for you to meet me. How long will it take?’
Norimov stroked his beard for a long moment. He looked away. ‘If the people I know can do it, it won’t take them long.’ He looked back. There was something in his eyes Victor couldn’t read. ‘Forty-eight hours at the most.’
Victor downed his drink and stood.
‘Then I’ll see you on Monday.’
CHAPTER 39
Central Intelligence Agency, Virginia, USA
Sunday
06:05 EST
Chambers’s expression was dour. She was perched elegantly on her chair, leaning slightly forward, elbows on the table. ‘I know it’s Sunday and I know it’s early, but I’m sure everyone appreciates the gravity of what we’re doing. Somebody we very much don’t want to see better armed could be recovering those missiles as we speak. This goes beyond arms superiority; this is about global safety. If this technology gets into the wrong hands, our ability to protect our interests as well as our capacity for peacekeeping will be critically diminished. I don’t think anyone around this table wants that to happen.’