“How are you going to get paid?” Chechnik asked.
“That and… They’re going to want to know what I got,” Mike pointed out. “If I turn up empty handed, there are going to be lots of unpleasant questions.”
“We will give you two nukes,” Chechnik said. “If you destroy the smallpox and… ”
“Keep my mouth shut,” Mike finished for him.
“Yes.”
“So… ” He started to chuckle and just couldn’t stop for a second. “So what you’re telling me is that you’re going to hand me nuclear weapons? Atomic bombs? Da Big Ones?”
“Well, we’re pretty sure you won’t use them,” the Russian pointed out. “And then you can sell them to the Amis and everyone is happy. Also, they will be very small nukes,” the intel officer added with a grin.
“Four,” Mike said. “For this op, I’d better be paid a pretty penny. And it’s not like you don’t have a shitload lying around.”
“Now that was mercenary,” Chechnik said, frowning.
“I’ve got a very high overhead,” Mike replied. “Welcome to capitalism.”
“Four,” the intelligence specialist agreed.
Mike suspected by the quick capitulation that he could have gone higher. But, hell, he was going to get that damned shipment even if it meant expending every last Keldara and no payment. On the other hand, if the Russians stiffed him they weren’t going to like the repayment. That assumed that he wasn’t being handed another bill of goods.
“We will get the nukes to you, here, as soon as you send word that the material has been captured and eliminated. The Georgians have agreed to let an American team pick them up. We can sneak the nukes in easily enough.”
“Got it. Do I need anything special to destroy this stuff?” Mike asked.
“There are various ways,” Chechnik said with a shrug. “But I would suggest carrying some carboys of acid. Very strong acid.”
“Great,” Mike grumped. “Just what I need to be carrying on a combat op.”
“Katya,” Anastasia said with a slightly malicious smile, “this is Mr. Jay.” She’d called Katya into her office to introduce the Kildar’s newest associate.
“Just Jay, please,” the man said, looking the girl up and down. “Just… Jay.”
“Hello, Jay,” Katya said, looking the apparent Keldara up and down. She was smiling and ducking her head, coquettishly. “I’m Katya. How are you?”
“English, please,” Jay said in British accented English. “Anastasia, could I borrow your office for a moment?”
“Certainly, sir,” Anastasia replied, getting up and going to the door. “You two have fun.”
“Could you say that for me again?” Jay said, walking up to the girl and starting to circle her from just beyond arm’s reach.
“Who are you?” Katya asked, still smiling pleasantly. “And could you stop circling me? It’s making me nervous.”
“Then you need to learn to use more than your eyes to track me,” Jay replied. “Say it again. In English. I will choose the language, you will reply. And you are my padwan, and I am your Jedi Master. You may call me Jay.”
“I do not have a master,” Katya said, somewhat less coquettishly. But it was in English.
“Well, in this case, it’s an honorific,” Jay replied. “And we’ll need to work on the accent. You should be able, at your age, to learn to turn it on and off. After nineteen, for some reason, it becomes nearly impossible. Sprechen Sie Deutsch?”
“Nur Bisschen,” Katya said. She’d taken to looking straight ahead rather than following him in his circling.
“Definite accent there,” Jay said in Russian. “Try something a little longer.”
“Gottverdammte teilzeit schmierfink,” Katya said, smiling pleasantly.
“Yes, we’re definitely going to have to work the accent out,” Jay continued, ignoring the rather personal curse. “There are only three major remaining regional dialects in German. At least in Deutschland. Austrian and Swiss German are slightly different. We’ll see how many you can absorb. And Arabic, well, there are so many variants of that it’s funny.”
“I can’t pass in Arab countries,” Katya said, lifting up her hair. “Blonde, see?”
“There are some blondes to be found,” Jay replied. “And there’s this thing I don’t think you’ve ever heard of called ‘hair dye.’ Oh, no, I take that back. You’re not nearly as light a blonde as you would like to appear. Closer to dishwater than platinum, babe. Your dye job’s showing through at the roots. Nice touch making sure the carpet matches the drapes, though.”
“You’re a spy master,” Katya said in English, dropping the coquettishness.
“No, I am a master spy,” Jay replied. “There is a difference. A spy master runs multiple spies but is not necessarily a good spy. A master spy is a master spy. Part of my job will involve training you. Part of that will be teaching you to see what is really in front of you instead of what you want to see. There are two main purposes to that; reporting accurate information and developing the ability to recognize and assimilate every detail of a culture so that you can disappear into that culture in an instant. You’d like to learn to disappear in an instant, wouldn’t you, Katya?”
“Yes,” Katya admitted.
“So I’m not going to threaten you with anything but this,” Jay continued, leaning in from behind so he was right by her left ear. “The moment that I think your attention waivers, the moment that you don’t give me every particle of your being, I will simply stop teaching you. When you know it all, feel free to leave. Please. Because it will no longer be worth my time and I will no longer waste my time. There will be no threats, there will be no warnings, there will be no appeal and there will be no more lessons. Do you understand me?”
“Perfectly,” Katya replied.
“Then let us begin… ”
Mike had arranged a meeting with the rest of the command group after the private meeting. He could tell that Adams, Nielson and especially Vanner were alive with curiosity about what had been discussed. But he was still trying to figure out how to handle the information so he ignored their curiosity.
“Baseline:” Mike said as soon as the group was assembled in his office. “I trust Colonel Chechnik with any information we give him. On the other hand, he’s also required to report it to his superiors. And since we got burned by leaks in the Russian military one time, you can ask him any questions you’d like but we’re not giving him our mission plan. You okay with that, Colonel?”
“Perfectly,” Chechnik replied.
“So, besides what you gave me, which is not open for discussion at this time, why are you here?” Mike asked.
“My job is to find out what you need to improve the likelihood of this mission’s success and then get it to you,” Chechnik said. “I have the full support of the Stavka as well as the office of the president. We want these nuclear weapons stopped. But we ask that it be quietly.”
“Also, Arensky is no longer to be considered a bad guy,” Mike noted. “And we need to raise the profile of recovering his daughter. It’s now believed that she was kidnapped to force him to defect with the… materials.”
“Okay,” Nielson said after a moment’s pause. “You realize you just said we’re going to have to do a split mission. And it was already hairy as hell.”
“I’m aware of that,” Mike said. “For various reasons I’m going to handle the side with Arensky and the WMD. Adams will lead the strike team to try to recover Marina. So what do we need, want or desire from Colonel Chechnik.”