The Grey Falcon

by J. C. Williams

  So, this is what was in the porcelain vase. This is what the thief had to retrieve. This is what was missing from Mika Pajovic’s photo files. This is what his son Christoph tried to use for blackmail and cost him his life. So this scene, this photo, that took place over twenty years ago, claimed another victim in Dresden, and another in Liverpool, and another in Welton. Will it claim more?

  “Why?” he asked aloud.

  “Why what?” Harry asked.

  Chad forgot that Harry was not aware of the other case. “Why is this picture important?”

  “Look closely at the faces. Is anyone familiar to you?” Harry asked. “I just stay on this road, to get back to A1?”

  “Yes.” Chad looked closer at the faces. He saw it. “Brajkovic?”

  “Yes,” Harry replied.

  “Can’t be. This was from 1993. If this was him, he’d be what? This man looks forty. Maybe thirty-five. That would make the Minister fifty-five or sixty.

  “Unless?” Harry prompted.

  “Unless this is his father or an uncle that looks like him.”

  “Exactly,” Harry let it sink in.

  “So the Minister’s father is a war criminal? That can’t be good for the Minister, but some of the Serbian Nationals won’t see that as an issue. In fact his attempts at peaceful co-existence might be well served by this revelation. Man overcomes father’s bigotry. Good press.”

  “Look at the young men. The teenagers,” Harry instructed.

  Once again, Chad looked at the photo. “I wish I had the photo. This would be easier.”

  A moment later, Chad uttered, “Wow. This one has features that could be a younger Brajkovic. Is that what you see? The son? The Minister? That would be a game changer.”

  Harry allowed himself a small chuckle. “Changed game. Yes.”

  Chad looked at the photo again. The Minister as a teenager. A face with pride. Hands holding an automatic weapon. Men standing a half step behind him. The boy was a leader. He recalled the words of the priest on the plane – Davo Decak, the Devil Boy.

  “So the Minister is behind the retrieval of these photos. I need to tell you about this other case,” Chad said and proceeded to give Harry the details of the blackmail, the murder, the hiding of the photographs, and the museum thefts.

  At the end of the story, Harry asked, “Do you think the Minister knows you are the one with the photos?”

  “I didn’t at first but I think he does now. What does nadi ga mean?”

  “Find him.”

  “Well then, unless he has a concern for my well being and a desire to protect me, then he knows.” Chad shared the partial conversation he overheard earlier.

  “There is another issue with the photograph,” Harry brought up.

  “What?”

  “The uniforms and insignia. They are Bosnian Serbs. Para-military. Minister Brajkovic claims he is Croatian. He isn’t,” Harry explained. “Another game changer,” he added.

  “How do you know this?” Chad asked suspiciously. “Wouldn’t have something to do with MI6 friends, would it?”

  “I am a student of history,” Harry explained.

  “Right. However, wouldn’t someone have checked his birth record, or wouldn’t someone had discovered this, or if he took someone else’s name, I would think some neighbor in Croatia would realize it.”

  “One does wonder about that,” Harry agreed.

  They reached the A1.

  “North to Belgrade?” Harry asked.

  “They’ll look for me there. Let’s go to Niš,” Chad suggested.

  “Why Nis?”

  “It’s the only city I know in that direction. We were there with Valmir. It looked big enough to disappear in.”

  “Oh yes. You’ll be hard to spot there,” Harry chided.

  “We’ll see. Pull over. I’ll drive. You need to watch the recording that I made of the meeting and translate it for me.”

  Chapter 68

  Harry commented on the photos first. “I recognize only two of the attendees. One is in the financial world. He runs investment firms. The other owns Serbia’s biggest construction company.”

  He played the recording. Then translated.

  “I will give you the summary of it, Chad. Later we can get it word for word. His opening speech talks about a Greater Serbia, the future Serbia. He says it is a future where Serbia controls the Balkans. He specifically mentions Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Kosovo. He says Albania and Slovenia will also be dominated by Serbia. This is not a multi-generation plan. It will not take seventy years. It happens in our lifetime, he says. Twenty years.”

  “Is he talking about another Yugoslavia?”

  “Sort of. He mentions a Sjedinjene Države Srbije or SDS. It translates to a United Serbian States.”

  “Interesting,” Chad commented. “It fits the nationalist spirit in Serbia. This should not be a surprise. It also fits events and nationalist trends in the rest of the world like the UK and Brexit campaigning on high immigration and the economy. Or like in the states and the 2016 presidential election campaigns. In the Balkans, you have high unemployment, displaced people, history, religion, immigration and struggling economies. Bob’s your uncle.”

  Harry turned his head toward Chad. “Really. You are doing the Uncle Bob thing? Do you do this around Sandy? I am surprised she doesn’t chuck your cheeky arse out.”

  “I think it helps me fit in,” Chad defended himself.

  “You’re daft.”

  Harry went back to listening and watching.

  “Year one of the plan has bullet points. Government transition. Recognition of other states. Foreign investment. Internal investment. Year two is military increase. Montenegro construction. Employment. Health care. Education. Technical training. It goes on. It sounds like a set of election promises, not a plan on how.”

  “What does he mean government transition?” Chad interrupted.

  “He didn’t say, yet.”

  A moment later, Harry exclaimed, “Oh, bloody hell.”

  “What? What?” Chad asked.

  “Brajkovic says when the president and prime minister are gone.”

  “Gone where?”

  “I don’t know. He says that he’ll stop the retaliatory invasion of Kosovo after occupying the north, the Serbian area.”

  “That’s it?” Chad asked. “That sounds like they are dead. An assassination.”

  Harry went back to the phone recording.

  “The Minister says that he will recognize Kosovo, if it separates from Serbian northern Kosovo. With stability he will get the foreign investment. It is lined up.”

  “When, Harry? When will these things happen?”

  “I don’t know. He goes onto a financial slide.”

  “Damn, Harry. We need to stop this. We need to tell someone.”

  “Who, Chad? Who do we trust? Who do we tell?”

  “The president. We show him this.”

  “How do we get to him? I’m sure Brajkovic will prevent it.”

  “Call MI6,” Chad suggested.

  “I’m not MI6.”

  “You know people,” Chad protested.

  “I know people in low places, Chad.”

  Chad drove in silence. “I think I know when, Harry. The most significant date in Serbian history – June 28, Vidovdan. And, I think I know someone to call.”

  Chapter 69

  Max Alton argued with Jovan Zevic over the burner phones. “You bring all the money, I’m not putting in anything.”

  “You’ll get it right back, Max. Millet’s a loose end. We pay when you get confirmation. I leave. You two have a beer. You take care of him. You get your money back. We meet outside and you give me the video.”

  “I don’t like it. Killing Millet wasn’t part of my deal.”

  Zevic tried another tactic. “If I bring all the money, then why are you even there. I need you to be a buyer so you can have your people take over the merchandise when he tells us where it is.”

&n
bsp; “I have a better idea. You bring all the money. Give it to me before we go in. In fact you don’t need to go in to the pub. I pay when I know where the goods are. I do him, I come out and give you the video.”

  “That won’t do,” Zevic said. “He does not know you. Maybe this. I bring all the money. I tell him we are in for half each. He tells me where merchandise is. I give him money. He gives me the address. I kill him. Then I give you the address. You give me the video. We are done.”

  Alton thought about making it more profitable. “Okay, I like it, but I tell you what, mate. I’ll do him for another twenty-five.”

  Zevic paused for effect. “I can do my own killing. But in this case, you do him. That way, I only have to worry about my people finding the warehouse. We’ll meet him at the Beagle. It’s in an alley off Clerkenwell. There is no CCTV. Be careful. Meet at ten tomorrow morning.”

  That went just as Zevic wanted. He made Alton feel he called the shots. The Beagle didn’t open until eleven thirty. Zevic paid the owner a good sum every month to hold things for him, take deliveries, and such. She would disappear for an hour once he was inside.

  The next call was to Luc Millet.

  “I have it set up for tomorrow. Alton will be there. He thinks that he and I are going together to buy your merchandise. The money will be on the table. You give me the address. I will have my people nearby. They verify. I get up and leave the table. You be ready then. You kill Alton. I take the money with me.”

  “Where? When?”

  “The Beagle. Off Clerkenwell. Ten-thirty tomorrow morning. It’s a dumpy pub. The owner will let me in and leave. It opens at eleven thirty. This arrangement okay?”

  “Yes. The warehouse is in the West End. Have your people near Shepherd’s Bush.”

  They were done. Zevic was satisfied. Two loose ends tied up, a quarter million in merchandise, and then catch the early afternoon plane back to Serbia.

  Luc Millet called Sandy. “Let’s meet. Bring a Crown Prosecutor . I can give you Alton and the man behind it all. I want immunity. You may be followed.”

  Sandy said to herself, I know who is behind it but I can’t get him on anything more than B&E. She was looking at the picture on the computer screen in front of her – Jovan Zevic. Interpol had his picture. Suspected arms dealer. Multiple arrests for assault and battery. Charges always dropped. Witnesses and victims could not make positive ID. Interpol’s notes said he has been quiet for the last few years. She downloaded the picture and texted it to Chad with a message.

  -----

  It wasn’t easy for Sandy to get a prosecutor so late in the day, but a little flirting worked. Dickie rolled his eyes as she did it.

  Now the three of them waited on a side street in a small town between London and Welton. Dickie drove the circuitous route to reach the destination, confident he was not followed.

  Ten minutes later a car pulled up facing them and blinking its lights twice. Dickie blinked back. They watched a man emerge from the vehicle and walk to them. He climbed inside next to Sandy in the back.

  After introductions, Sandy asked, “What can you give us?”

  “I will get Alton to admit to the two murders.”

  “How will you do that?” she asked.

  “I know men like him. Pride. He will want to tell me he did it.”

  “Okay. So you want us to wire you? To record this?” Sandy asked.

  “No. No wire. They will be careful.”

  “Then you want us there? Where will ‘there’ be?” Dickie asked.

  “No,” Millet said. “You have to stay away. It will be in a pub. Before it opens. I will record it.”

  “I don’t like that,” the prosecutor said. “It is out of our control. Your recording may even be challenged in court.”

  Dickie disagreed, but kept it to himself. Of all the prosecutors to get, they got one that wants all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed, one that wants no risk of a cock-up.

  “What about this other person that you mentioned?” Sandy asked.

  “Off the record?” Millet asked. “No recording, no incrimination?”

  The prosecutor looked to Sandy. She nodded.

  “All right,” the prosecutor said.

  “The other man is the one who arranged for the museum robbery. And, he hired Alton.”

  “He hired Alton to tie up loose ends?” Sandy asked.

  “He says no. He hired Alton to find the American. I give you this for nothing. For your trust. The American has something they want. Something he found at the robbery.”

  Sandy already knew it was the photos. She had them now. She noticed that Millet had not said he committed the robbery and he only referred to one, when they knew there were several. Immunity for the ones in the UK was a maybe, but they did not have the authority to cover any in Europe.

  “And how do you give us Zevic?” she asked.

  Millet was taken aback that they knew Zevic was involved. “When we meet, arrangements will be made for him to take possession of the items from the museum robberies.”

  Ah, he mentioned more than one, she thought.

  “We’ll need the location where you are storing what you nicked. In case something goes wrong at your meeting,” Dickie said.

  Millet replied, “I have not said that I stole anything. But this is a good time to discuss my immunity. I want immunity for all museum robberies, in case I happened to be involved.”

  “Provided that we get both Alton and Zevic and recover the stolen merchandise, then I can agree to that,” Sandy said looking at Dickie. He nodded. The prosecutor nodded as well.

  “The remaining stolen merchandise,” Millet inserted.

  “Okay, what remains from the robberies, but we need the names who bought the other items.”

  Millet pondered this. “It is my reputation.”

  “I don’t think you want to tell us this is still in your future plans for employment, you blinkered arse,” Dickie scolded.

  Sandy looked at the prosecutor. “It’s worth it.”

  The prosecutor wrote a note on a legal pad. Millet read it and agreed. The prosecutor wrote a copy of it. They both signed each copy and Sandy signed as a witness. Millet told them the pub, the warehouse location, and the time. He took a copy and opened the door. Pausing, he looked at the back of Dickie’s head.

  “Monsieur Williams, I tell you once more. Stay away tomorrow, you blinkered arse.”

  “Cheeky duff,” Dickie muttered. Sandy laughed.

  “What do you think?” she asked. “Do you trust he can get all of that done?”

  “No,” Dickie said. “Where can we get a judge tonight to give us a warrant for the Beagle?”

  Chapter 70

  “Another five miles to Niš,” Chad said. “You know, Harry, in a general sense the Minister’s plan could be a good plan.” Harry had translated the recording in more detail.

  “Except for the assassination and the invasion of Kosovo.”

  “Well, yeah. But think about it. If Serbia would just recognize Kosovo for a start that would stabilize the region and investments would come. His idea to make Serbia a financial and prosperous power that would attract participation from Bosnia and Montenegro is a good goal. He plans to pay for the internal highway and railroad through Montenegro and in return Serbia would receive the tolls. That is similar to the toll roads around Chicago that are owned by other nations. Serbia would no longer be landlocked.”

  “What about the United Serbian Sates, the SDS?” Harry asked.

  “With a strong economy and foreign investment, low unemployment, good healthcare, Serbia would attract other countries and states. It would be logical for Montenegro and the Bosnia Serbian state to vote for annexation into the SDS. If he didn’t invade Kosovo and instead requested that they create a state within Kosovo that could vote their own path, it is likely the new state would also join Serbia. If he could take positive steps to alter the culture that currently rejects Muslims and even Croatians, perhaps they may consider joi
ning as well. That would include the rest of Bosnia and Kosovo. I know this is oversimplified.”

  Harry argued, “It’s a nice theory, Chad. However, that is not his plan. His plan is to make Serbia strong and then expand Serbian influence by setting up Serbian businesses and industry in Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Croatia. Once established and achieving those countries’ dependence on Serbia, he will threaten removal if they don’t politically bow to Serbia and join.”

  “Yeah, that’s not cricket,” Chad said.

  “Have you even seen a cricket match?” Harry asked.

  Chad ignored him. “And, he plans to use the military as the big stick under the guise of protecting Serbian interests.”

  “The worst part,” Harry said disgustedly, “is that he uses his presumed heritage of a Croat and Serbian to outwardly preach tolerance of all faiths, nationalities, and ethnicity while he secretly plots Serbian and Christian dominance. Not only that, but in his speech at the end of his meeting, he declares his intention and requires agreement of the other eleven in the room.”

  Chad commented, “That timeline he showed accomplished a lot in just this year and we are halfway through it. He must have supporters in the military, the intelligence community, and the police.”

  “I think you are right. In fact, one of the attendees was in the military, out of uniform.”

  Chad thought about this. He has military and intelligence contacts? As if on cue, a helicopter buzzed low over them and continued down the road.

  “Harry, this is a rental, right?”

  “Right.”

  “With GPS location, which the police can track?”

  “Bollocks. I didn’t think of that,” Harry said.

  “Me either,” Chad said.

  “Then we better get rid of this car,” Harry said. “Soon.”

  Chad stopped suddenly. Ahead the road curved and wound down to the Nisava River. There was a military roadblock.

  “Like now,” Chad said.