“You mean they hacked your computer? Sure you didn’t just leave it for them on a silver platter?”
“Of course not. I formatted the drive before leaving.”
“Formatted huh? Guess you didn’t overwrite the drive with zeros.”
“I am sorry, I did not know. I am not a hacker. I did not want to hurt anybody.” Anna tugged at my elbow trying to move me away from the door. “Maybe my mother is not as bad as it looks from all those photographs. I am sure she will explain to me everything when we meet.”
“Meet! You are going to meet…”
Anna cut me off. “I have a right to know. This is my family, my own mother. It will be safe. We will meet in a public place with nobody but her, I promise. She wants to make sure I will be alright.” Anna took a breath. “She is taking the train back to Russia tomorrow and wants us to meet her at the station. We will make sure that she is truly alone before approaching.”
“We? Both of us?” I was floored. “And why in hell does she need to take a train when she’s got Sergei? Something’s definitely not right.”
“She said you can be with me when I meet her so that you can make sure nothing happens.” Anna said.
“I’m a bloodthirsty killer of poor and simple villagers, but I can watch over you and Mama to make sure everything is okay? What a joke!” I turned the knob and pulled the door toward me.
The swollen red face of a drunk, inches from mine, blathered something like, “Come on, let’s drink!” before Anna shoved the door closed against my grip. Her strength surprised me. “I told her you are my friend and not the criminal she has been told about. I do not know what those people are saying but I can see for myself what you are, who you are, and I want to be with you. I told her that. I am living my life now. As for Sergei, he will not be there. She tells me he has left Kiev already. She is going home without him. It will be just her. Please, let me see her before she goes back to Russia. It is important to me. Trust me, Jess.”
“No way! Can’t you see it’s a setup? You go to the train station, see your mother and after what’s happened you’ll never see daylight again. I’ll go to the airport and get out. I’m not sticking around to watch you self destruct.”
But Anna stuck to her guns, “Don’t leave me. I need your help now. It all will return to normal after I see her off. We will escape. I will be useful. I will identify people. I promise you, Jess. Do not leave me in the middle of this. I want to go with you and I can not go back to Russia, not now. But please understand, she is my mother and I need to talk to her. Who knows what they are doing to her.”
“Nobody does anything to her. The reason she’s so chummy is because she’s likely under some pretty significant pressure to stop the damage, tie up loose ends — like you, for instance.” I let go of the door knob and dropped my pack. “Vladimir will have a gun to her head to shut you up, especially now that he knows I’m on his trail. If that judge you interrupted the deal with this afternoon knows about the surveillance, Vladimir himself will be under an even bigger gun to make the problem go away.”
“Oh god, my head is bursting from all of this! I understand nothing anymore. I don’t want to know about all this. I don’t want to see any guns. I just want to help my mother and I want to start a new life.”
“You don’t have a choice. It’s happening and you’re in it — now. You can’t switch it off, you have to deal with it, we both do. We’re in serious danger here. By that, I mean we can die, Anna! Stone cold dead, and you are telling me you want to see your mother. Can you really have no idea what kind of people we are dealing with? Vladimir and his goons will kill anyone he even thinks is in his way, you, me, your mother.”
Canisters of exposed film came to mind. I stopped talking. They would definitely kill for the film I’d taped to the back of the cupboard before leaving. They would kill for the documents and photos in my duffel bag, for that matter, but those were copies. The originals were already in the wrong hands as far as the syndicate was concerned. But that film, actual tamper-proof film… that was the evidence that could salvage the mission, maybe I could bargain for our lives with it, maybe I could barter it for protection and a way out. It was the only thing I had left that could make a difference.
Anna was going on about her mother and how nothing would go wrong. I’d stopped listening, turned inward and started to formulate a plan to get the film and get us out.
TEN
Anna was hell bent on seeing her mother. It was a trap for sure, but she just didn’t get it. “This is my mother. I know her, she only wants the best for me. You’ll see.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Afraid of what? That my mother will see that I am happy, making my own decisions, living my own life?”
I rolled my eyes. “Well… yes! I don’t think your happiness is her primary concern. She wasn’t exactly happy to see you at the Prokuratura. Can’t we just get out of here and call her from, say… Minsk?”
“Nyet! The Prokuratura wasn’t her fault. She was forced into that. She is innocent. I know her. When she sees us and knows I am okay she will even help us. Maybe she needs our help. Would you deny my own mother that?”
I tried to convince myself I could handle whatever came up, but the reality was, I had no idea what I was doing. My common sense screamed at me, “This is wrong!” but the irrational part of me wasn’t going to abandon Anna. I counted on channeling my inner Gavin to pull her ass out of whatever fire she was about to get it into. That’s how, knowing it was crazy, and wanting with every fiber of my being to get out, I agreed to go along.
We were up and out of the hotel before first light. I was antsy to get going and feeling really exposed by my idiotic credit card blunder. At a barely open cafe, I inhaled coffee and punched the first speed dial on the phone Galina had given me. I wasn’t expecting anything, so Luda’s “hello” caught me off guard.
She still didn’t know what had happened the day before. I filled her in and set up a meeting to pass on the documents. My thinking was, if Luda didn’t know the operation was wiped out, neither did our various employers. I might still have support or, at least, options.
Using my Canadian cell phone as a modem, I sent an encrypted email to my contact, good-ol’ Roger. I pointed out that although the operation had ended abruptly, I had the photos, reams of data, and Anna’s promise to act as a witness if I could get her out. I was grabbing at straws and desperate.
When we met, Luda was dressed to the nines and completely cool. In the meantime she’d made contact with her and Galina’s employer and told me, rather curtly, “The investigation is now closed and they want their phone back.” I handed over the little Motorola and watched her try to snap the SIM card in her teeth.
“Allow me.” I said, guillotining the card with my Swiss army knife and handing back the pieces. “Can I call you?”
“Not a good idea, but if it is an emergency, maybe.” On a sheet of paper from the documents bag, she scrawled a number using an eyebrow pencil. “Only in an emergency, okay? You should go home. It is very dangerous in Kiev.”
“Funny, I’ve got that feeling too.” I mumbled.
Anna was convinced she could trust her mother while proving that I was plain paranoid. Reminding her she had to effect an elaborate escape to visit Kiev didn’t undermine her conviction that beneath it all, her mother loved her and wished her only the best. I, on the other hand, was hoping The Skater’s biological programming was stronger than her desire for power.