And Then You're Dead

by Dan Latus

  ‘Takes you back to the MAD days, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Mutual Assured Destruction.’ George nodded. ‘It sure does.’

  ‘So what are we going to do?’

  George thought for a moment and then said, ‘Make sure them things get used on nobody – ever!’

  ‘Good.’ John nodded with approval. ‘And I think I know how we can do that.’

  ‘Before we get to that, though, John, there’s one or two other things I’d like to take care of first.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘There’s Yugov, for one. Then there’s who set him on to you.’

  ‘The leak in Washington, you’re thinking about?’

  George nodded.

  ‘Any ideas about that?’

  ‘Some,’ George said, nodding again.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  George Riley was troubled. The chemical weapons were one thing, a very serious thing, but in some ways he was more troubled by what was going on generally. Yugov’s involvement was part of it. How had that happened? There had to have been a leak. Somebody, somewhere, had told Yugov something. Somebody in Washington? Increasingly, he thought that pretty likely.

  It could have been somebody in Slovakia, but when Olsson’s body was returned to the US authorities, the Slovaks couldn’t have known whose body it was. Just an American citizen, so far as they were concerned. A body to get rid of after ten years.

  Besides, the Slovaks couldn’t have known about the depot in Ukraine. Surely not? Even if they had got wind of it, they couldn’t possibly have known exactly where it was, or of Sirko’s involvement. No-one outside of Washington could have put all that together. Even in Washington, there wouldn’t have been many in the intelligence community who knew what was going on. Hardly any at all, in fact.

  As for the guys who created and built the depot, they did it but they wouldn’t have known where the hell they were when they were doing it. Just another depot, somewhere in Eurasia. Flown in at night, and lifted back out again on another night when the job was done. They would have known it wasn’t Africa, but not much more than that. Its location would have had to be kept secret.

  Special Forces people, even the back-up guys who handled logistics, were used to that kind of secrecy. It wouldn’t have bothered them. Hell, they’d created much bigger bases than that all over the Asian republics of the former Soviet Union without knowing much about where they were. Give ’em a job to do, and they got on and did it. That’s how it was.

  No, it had to be Washington where the leak had sprung. So he’d better talk to Ted Pearson again.

  ‘How’s it going, George?’

  ‘About the same as last time we spoke, Ted. But I’m afraid one or two of Yugov’s guys didn’t make it.’

  ‘That’s a real shame, George. How about Yugov himself?’

  ‘Oh, he made sure he got out in good time. I’m not sure where he is right now.’

  ‘And Tait?’

  ‘Still around. He says he didn’t take Olsson down, and I believe him.’

  ‘Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? Follow the evidence, George. That’s all I can say.’

  ‘Yeah. I’m still thinking there’s a leak back there in DC. How else could Yugov have homed in on Tait?’

  ‘Who knows, George? A guy like him will have paid informers everywhere, even in Slovakia, I wouldn’t be surprised. That’s probably where you need to look, George, not back here. I haven’t seen or heard anything to justify your suspicion. I’ll keep looking, of course.’

  Of course, George thought. Of course you will. But your heart’s not in it, is it? I can tell that.

  ‘Ted, you ever hear anything about an arms depot Sirko was involved with, a secret arms depot?’

  ‘Where? In Ukraine?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  There was a long pause before Pearson answered. ‘Just wracking my brains here, George. There was something, back then. Difficult to recall the details, but we did build one somewhere, I believe. Hell, we built them things all over the goddamn place! Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and all the rest of the Stans, as well. Ukraine and Poland, too, I wouldn’t be surprised. Why do you ask?’

  George was equivocal, not wanting to admit to too much. ‘Tait said something. It made me wonder.’

  ‘I’ll look into it. See if you can find anything more from him. Knowing the location would help. I could take a look out there myself. Might be interesting.’

  ‘Yeah. Right. I’ll see what he knows. One more thing, Ted. Just why would Yugov be interested in something like that? Any ideas?’

  ‘Well, Yugov got burned in the east, where all this conflict is going on. That might have something to do with it. A lot of the factories and works he took over from Sirko have been obliterated in the fighting, I believe. So I guess he must be looking for ways to find compensation. The money Tait took from Olsson would be a help, if he could get it, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘Yeah. If it’s still around, I’ll find it.’

  ‘Take care, George. Don’t go out on a limb for a couple of million bucks, not at this time of life.’

  Sonovabitch, that was an odd concluding remark, George thought afterwards. A couple of million bucks, when he knew the number was ten? In fact, the whole damned conversation had been odd. He was beginning to wonder if Ted knew more than he had said, a lot more. Well, of course he did. It was his job.

  All the same, it rankled that Ted had held back on him. Having coaxed him out of retirement, on what was essentially an old pals together act, he should have been more forthcoming with him. The depot, for example. Of course he knew about it. There was no doubt about that. He seemed to know a lot about Yugov’s current financial circumstances, as well. Was that just guesswork?

  As for Tait, well, he was beginning to wonder if Ted had known all along that Tait wasn’t the man who had killed Jack Olsson. He hadn’t been surprised by anything he had told him. In which case, he thought sourly, what the hell am I doing here – or in England, where I’m supposed to be?

  Perhaps Ted knew who Tait’s wife was, as well? Maybe that was even the reason he had sent him to England, to see what he could find out about her, after he’d decided Tait wasn’t Olsson’s killer? Hell, anything was possible. There was nothing new about the operative on the ground being given only part of the story. He’d just forgotten how it was always like that. Chopping firewood in his own back yard had slowed him down. Made him sentimental about the old times. Maybe Ted had even been counting on that.

  If all this was true, though, if Ted really had told him only part of the story deliberately, the question was why? What game was he playing? What was he really after?

  Something was going on. That much was clear. Something had made dragging an old warhorse like himself back out of retirement seem a good idea. He wondered what it could be.

  Then he grimaced as he thought about it realistically, objectively. One good possible reason was that whatever Ted was up to, he wanted full deniability if it went wrong. How better than to use a retired operative who was no longer on the department’s books? Surely not? Well, Ted was capable of it. He knew that from old.

  Mind you, he thought with a wry smile, he was nearly as bad himself. Why hadn’t he told Ted more about the depot? And why hadn’t he mentioned that he was here in Ukraine, right now?

  Natural caution and self-defence, he told himself bleakly. Experience. A gut feeling. And the old rules applied still. You never had been able to trust anyone in this game.

  Having said that, he also wondered if Ted already knew where he was. Maybe he had somebody keeping tabs on his sat phone? That, too, would be natural, and so would be not admitting as much.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  They decided to crack on with their plans for the depot. Early next morning they left the room in a village some miles away from where they had stayed overnight. They headed back to the cave, to see what explosives were available. There was no shortage.

  ‘This may be more your game than m
ine,’ George suggested. ‘Guns, yes. But I’ve not had a lot to do with explosives.’

  ‘Well, it’s been a while,’ John said with a wry grin. ‘These days, I build things up instead of knocking them down. But I’ll see what I can do. Hopefully, things haven’t changed too much.’

  The crates of explosives were all in one section of the depot.

  ‘Sweet Jesus!’ George said, wincing as he scanned the racks. ‘What were they thinking, the guys that piled all this stuff here?’

  ‘Not health and safety,’ John said grimly. ‘We can be sure of that. But it’ll make things easier for us – if it doesn’t blow before we’re done.’

  ‘What are we looking for?’ George asked as John ranged along the stacks. ‘Anything in particular? There’s enough here to blow up half of Europe!’

  ‘Bear with me, George. I’ll know it when I see it.’

  ‘Lots of C4, I see. That’s what the US Army likes. Not to mention the SEALs, and probably the rest of the military.’

  John shook his head. ‘I wasn’t trained to use that stuff. So I don’t much like it. I’m looking for something I’m familiar with.’

  It didn’t take them much longer.

  ‘Ah! Here’s what I want – Semtex.’

  They had stopped before a stack of pallets holding containers marked with the usual emblems: skull and crossbones, fire hazard, flammable, etc. And helpfully labelled Semtex-10.

  ‘Here it is!’ John said with satisfaction. ‘This is the version they’ve been producing since 1987.’

  ‘The old Czechoslovak stuff, eh?’ George mused.

  ‘You’re right. It is old. First manufactured in the early 1960s, but I seriously doubt if anybody has come up with anything better yet – if you want things that reliably go bang but are safe until they’re set up.’

  They worked quickly, John deciding where best to place the plastic charges, and George helping him move and position them. Then they collected some reels of detonating cord and started carefully stringing them all together. The aim, and the hope, was that the det cord would ensure a simultaneous explosion from all the charges.

  It was demanding work, and it took time. Despite the sub-zero temperature outside, inside the cave they were soon sweating heavily.

  ‘One thing’s for sure,’ John said after a while. ‘When this lot goes up, there’ll be plenty of fuel for the flames. There won’t be any doubt about how effective the incineration is.’

  George straightened up for a moment and looked around. ‘Gives me the creeps, this place. I won’t be sorry to see the back of it.’

  ‘Oh, it’s your neat and tidy instinct coming to the fore. You just don’t like seeing explosives and bullets all mixed up with chemicals and trucks and stuff. Offends your sense of propriety and order.’

  ‘Damn right,’ George grunted. ‘I’d like to hear what a twenty-year Quartermaster would have to say about it. He’d blast our ears off.’

  ‘Well, with a bit of luck, no-one like that is going to have to give an opinion.’

  The work took all day, and it was a hard day’s work. As well as the physical labour, there was a lot of thinking and working out mentally to do. John didn’t bother about calculating the size of the charges. They were not short of explosives and he jammed stuff together extravagantly. They wanted, needed, a very big bang, and then a raging inferno. With this lot, he thought grimly, there was little danger of falling short.

  More tricky was rigging a fuse system. They had to have a safe detonation, when they were well away from the site – a very long way, given the nature of the cave’s contents. Using mobile phones seemed the best bet.

  He opted to detonate the blasting cap by using one of their mobile phones to phone a modified phone that they would leave at the entrance to the cave system. In turn, that would fire off the det cord. And that would set off a chain leading to the very big bang and raging inferno they required. That was the theory.

  George nodded approvingly, and with interest. ‘I did wonder how we could trigger the blast, yet be far enough away to be out of harm’s way. Cell phones, eh? You know how to do it?’

  ‘If I can remember,’ John said tersely. ‘It’s been a while.’

  ‘There won’t be any reception inside the cave, but you’ve figured that out, haven’t you?’

  ‘Yep. We’ll leave the trigger outside, and start the chain there.’

  ‘You’re a smart guy, Tait.’

  John shook his head. ‘If I was smart, I would never have got involved with this stuff in the first place. I wouldn’t be here now, either.’

  ‘True enough,’ George said ruefully. ‘I’ve often thought that myself.’

  ‘It’s ready to go,’ John said wearily at last.

  ‘OK. That’s good. But we’re not going to blow it yet.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘Let’s leave it for now. We’ll fire it off soon, but first we need to talk, and I need to make a phone call or two.’

  John stared at him for a moment and shook his head. ‘You’re looking to do more than just blow this lot up, aren’t you?’

  ‘Damned right,’ George said. ‘Before we do that, we need to find out what’s been going on – and who’s been responsible for it.’

  Chapter Forty

  Back at the vehicle, they warmed up some soup on a little gas stove they had picked up in Kiev, along with some other camping gear. They tore apart a loaf of rye bread and a length of salami. Boiled a kettle of water to make coffee, and refill the flask.

  ‘We should have bought a tent, as well,’ John said.

  ‘Don’t need a tent. The SUV’s good enough.’

  ‘One tent for you, and another for me. That would have been better. You can’t hear somebody snoring through tent walls, can you?’ John said with a grin.

  ‘That your problem, huh?’

  ‘Not mine. It’s yours.’

  ‘It shouldn’t bother you tonight, not after a day’s work like we’ve just done.’

  ‘True enough.’

  They sat in the vehicle with the doors closed. It was cold out there, and getting colder. The ground was frozen hard and covered with a fresh dusting of snow.

  ‘Maybe more snow to come tonight,’ George said, wiping a clear patch on the windscreen so he could look up at the sky.

  ‘You’ll feel it in your bones, eh, an old hunter like you?’

  ‘That’s right. I do. I wouldn’t have taken kindly to sleeping on the ground tonight. Feel grateful we’ve got this nice big, warm vehicle, and those nice big, fluffy sleeping bags.’

  ‘Yeah. I do. I’m grateful.’

  John gazed out into the blackness all around them. He was restless, impatient, eager to get on with it. He resented the delay. They could have finished the job and been out of here tonight. Across the border, like last time he was in this country. Or back at the airport, ready to board a plane to London. They could have been out of here, the damned cave blown to smithereens. Instead, they still had it all to do. He wasn’t best suited.

  ‘Tell me again, George, why we’re stuck here in this godforsaken spot that maybe is very pleasant in summer but right now is the shits. Remind me. I seem to have forgotten the rationale. Just tell me why we’re sleeping in this fucking car tonight!’

  George chuckled. ‘You young fellas! No staying power, have you? No patience. No memory!’

  John grinned reluctantly.

  ‘It’s not that. I just don’t have your training and your experience of Machiavellian thought processes. I was a soldier once – not a bloody assassin! And even that was a long time ago. Mostly now I’m a builder. Or I was, until you and Yugov arrived on the scene. I’m kidding,’ he added. ‘Don’t mind me. I’m just sounding off. Thinking we could have been out of here, job done, and on the way home by now.’

  ‘Not really done,’ George said slowly, patiently. ‘Yugov would still be out there somewhere, remember? You and your wife would still be at risk from him. And someone back in Washington would still be
lining his pockets.’

  ‘That what you think is happening?’

  ‘I’m not sure. I need to talk to Ted again.’

  ‘Your boss?’

  ‘Used to be all the time. Now he is just for this one job.’

  ‘Which was supposed to be shooting me?’

  George nodded. ‘And might be again,’ he warned, ‘if you don’t stop bitching!’

  Laughing, John said, ‘Maybe he’s been doing the leaking?’

  ‘Ted? Yeah. It’s possible. I don’t like the idea, though. Ted and me go back a long, long way. But I need to check.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I’ve been thinking about that a lot. I had to do something to distract me while we were in that damned cave. I decided the quickest way to do it, and satisfy myself one way or the other, is to tell Ted the precise location of the depot.’

  After a stunned pause for thought, John said, ‘How the hell would that work?’

  ‘Simple. If nobody arrives here in the next twenty-four hours – or maybe a bit longer – Ted has nothing to do with the leaking. If somebody arrives here hotfoot, well, then, the story is different.’

  ‘So when do we blow the cave? Do we blow it at all?’

  ‘Oh, yes. There’s no doubt about that. We’re gonna blow her sky high. Ain’t nobody going to get their hands on them chemical weapons.’

  ‘A lot of good stuff, useful stuff, is going to go with them.’

  ‘Yeah. But there’s a price to be paid for everything. I’m sure the people of Ukraine – whichever side they’re on in this battle in the east – will thank us for sparing them what’s happened in certain places in Iraq and Syria.’

  True enough, John was thinking. They would survive another Russian occupation, if it came to that. Maybe even in the long run all would be forgiven, if not forgotten. But huge numbers of people would not survive the release of the contents of that cave. And many more would suffer the effects of it for the rest of their miserable lives, as would their children and grandchildren.