Darya was nervous. She had only ever reported to Blain, she had never met Letitia; the head of Soteria. She had carried out her role without question. She knew what she was doing was wrong, she also knew that it would mean her old school friend possibly losing his life. It was for the greater good, for a greater Russia... a less corrupt Russia. If she thought there was a better way she would have taken it. Soteria had approached her after she had been promoted to the role of personal assistant to the Finance Minister after the sudden death in a car accident of her predecessor. They had known about her passion for a better Russia for the people and said they could help get the right person in the Presidency. She had strayed from the mission by falling in love with her target. He was married and so the affair she had started would have ruined him if it became public, she had used this to persuade him to go along with the plan. It hadn’t been difficult. He was an ambitious man who wanted to make a difference to his country.
She walked through the hotel doors, found the lift and pressed the button for the tenth floor; executive suites. The lift doors opened. She followed the signs for room 1012 and knocked. After a few moments the door opened. The space left by the door was now filled by a man. There were no spaces around him, his large frame and obvious muscle build had completely filled the open space.
“Are you Darya?” the man asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m Blain. Come in.”
She followed Blain into the room. It was larger than her flat. She looked around in awe. How could there be hotel rooms this large when hard working Russian people are living in poverty and flats smaller than a luxury hotel room. She was disgusted.
“I am guessing you have never seen a room this size before,” commented Letitia.
“No,” Darya replied as she tried to focus back to the reason she was here.
“It is rather extravagant.”
“Yes, my flat is smaller than this.”
“We will have to find you a new one once we complete our mission. Now sit and give me an update.”
Darya focused onto Letitia and sat on the sofa next to her. She wasn’t how she had imagined. She was a beautiful woman. Her slender figure accentuated by the black dress she was wearing. The small smile on her face made Darya feel at ease but as she looked at her more closely she could see a coldness in her eyes that betrayed her true character. The eyes alone sent a shiver down Darya’s spine. Had she made a mistake, she assumed Soteria had the best interests of the Russian people in mind when they recruited her but now... now she was worried. Darya explained that the article would be released into the Russian news cycle in a few hours. She had arranged to meet with Andrei an hour before the article was released. She explained that he was planning on hiding out in his fathers cabin until the whole situation was resolved. He had no idea about her role with Soteria.
“Good, it looks like you have everything in hand,” Letitia said once Darya had finished her update, “Blain.”
Blain took a small envelope from his pocket and offered it to Darya. “The envelope contains a small tracking device,” said Letitia, she could see the look of confusion on Darya’s face.
“What do you want me to do with it?”
“You need to place it on Andrei, in a bag or a pocket. It looks like a coin. If he finds it he will have no idea that it’s a tracking device.”
“Do we really need to track Andrei?” Darya was having second thoughts about killing him.
She looked at Letitia, her face and demeanour had changed. The coldness in her eyes seemed to have spread to the rest of her face. The facade of softness and caring had been dropped and her true nature was now showing.
“When you were recruited for this mission you knew what was needed,” Letitia said. She looked directly into Darya’s eyes. Darya was scared. “We can’t leave any lose ends. He has principles and if he ever discovers your true role in this he would very likely make it public and you would find yourself in some gulag in Siberia.”
“I just... I just think that maybe I could persuade him not to. If I explained why we are forcing a presidency change.”
“No, he has to die. If you can’t do this then Blain will...”
“NO. I will make sure the tracker is in place.”
“Good,” Letitia said as she stood, “You had better make your meeting with Andrei. You can leave now.”
Darya stood and was ushered out of the room by Blain. He had seen the apprehension in Darya’s face as she had realised what was going to happen to her friend. Up until today it hadn’t been real. They reached the door, Blain followed her into the corridor.
“Darya,” he said quietly, “Don’t worry, I will make sure that Andrei stays alive. Plant the tracker as you have been told or she will come after you.I will put plans in place to get Andrei out.”
“Why?”
“Like you, I don’t like what is happening.”
“But how can you help?”
“I work for British intelligence, they will make sure both of you are kept safe. For now continue with the plan.”
Darya nodded, turned and walked away towards the lift. The walk to the lift was short but it still gave her the time to realise what was happening.
She was working with British intelligence.
* * *
Blain returned to the room and closed the door behind him.
“What took you so long?” asked Letitia.
“I was reminding her what she needed to do.”
“Good. Once we have killed the journalist, you can kill her as well. It will act as deterrent for the muppet who we are going to make president.”
“Of course,” Blain replied, hoping Letitia couldn’t hear the sound of betrayal in his voice.
“We can’t afford any loose ends or for Renat to think he can just forget about his commitments.”
“I’m sure he won’t.”
“It will be your job to make sure he doesn’t.”
“I will make sure he doesn’t. Do you need anything else?”
“No.”
“In that case I am going to get some fresh air and take in the sights if you don’t mind?”
“No, be back here for lunch. By that time the news article should have been picked up by the international news outlets and we need to make sure we are in a position to act when we need to.”
Blain nodded, turned and left the hotel room. He made his way to the lift and took it to ground floor. He needed to get away from Letitia for a while so he could make contact with Ian to get him up to speed.
Nine
The helicopter had landed at a heliport in central London, where two standard black Range Rovers and Police out riders had been waiting for the occupants. Jane and the girls had been in one with Alexa and Ian in the other.
“Why does this Russian want to speak to me,” asked Alexa as the cars sped through central London.
“Your guess is as good as mine. He said he worked with your father on the experiment that you survived but killed your sister.”
“I have no recollection of him.”
“I imagine you were very young. We will have to see what he says. But Letitia must want him for something. She went to a lot of trouble try to kidnap him.”
Alexa turned to look out of the window as the London streets flew by. The Range Rovers were cutting through traffic as the Police out riders alternated, with one speeding ahead to clear junctions as the cars approached. As she continued to watch the shops and people fly past she realised she hadn’t missed the bustle of London at all in the last year. She wouldn’t choose to come back again.
* * *
Rosarita and Sofia couldn’t hide their excitement as everyone from the cars filled the lift. They had never been to a hotel and they were looking forward to exploring.
“We have the whole floor blocked out,” said Ian as he pressed the button for the twelfth floor. “Jane, the girls and of course Copper can go to the suite that’s been prepared for you all while we go and see Vladimi
r.”
“Okay,” replied Alexa.
“Jane, here is a key card,” Ian said as he handed a room key to Jane. “Tony will show you to the room. He will be outside the door while you are in there. If you go anywhere he goes with you and if you want anything from room service, just order it.”
“Can we get ice cream,” Rosarita said while looking at Jane with a pleading look on her face.
“You can order what ever you like,” Ian said. “Get some burgers and fries to go with that ice cream.”
“Yes... yes... can we,” the two girls shouted in unison.
“Of course you can,” Jane replied, “But not too much that you are going to be sick.”
The lift pinged as it reached it’s destination and a disconnected voice announced that they had reached the twelfth floor. The doors opened. Alexa, Jane and the girls followed their respective guides out of the lift in separate directions down the corridor. Alexa and Ian reached a door that was being guarded by a mountain of a man, a Sig MCX automatic rifle in his hands. He acknowledged Ian and knocked on the door. A few moments later the door was opened by another guard, this time carrying a pistol. He moved aside as Ian and Alexa entered the suite. Alexa looked around as she walked into the large open space that was the lounge, connecting doors off it she assumed led to the master bedroom, bathroom and maybe even a second bedroom.
“Alexa.”
She turned in the direction the questioning voice had come from and saw an old man sat on a sofa.
“Yes, who are you?” she replied.
“My name is Vladimir Sokolov. I was a friend and colleague of your fathers. Please come sit with me so we can talk.”
“I don’t know you but you seem to know me. What do you want from me?”
“I want to help you, protect you.”
“You had better start at the beginning then,” she said as she sat on the sofa opposite Vladimir. Ian sat himself next to her.
Vladimir explained how he had been brought into Soteria by Alexa’s father to work on human experiments to create a super soldier. They had worked to perfect chemicals that altered the DNA of the test subjects. They had experimented on various volunteers with not much success. They were about to give in and call an end to the experiment when they had a breakthrough in laboratory conditions. They needed new test subjects.
“So what made you decide to test on my sister and me?” Alexa asked as she interrupted Vladimir’s story.
“It was Giles that suggested it.”
He continued with his story. He explained that Alexa was a year old at the time. Giles had suggested testing the new chemicals on both the young Alexa and her older sister Sarah. At first Alexa’s father had been against it but Giles had slowly worn down his resistance.
“My father agreed with the experiments.”
“Yes. I can’t say he was ever happy about it but he agreed and your sister and you were given the chemicals.”
“And you killed my sister.”
“Yes,” Vladimir sighed. “Everything seemed to be going well. It was years later that your sister took ill and when we investigated it looked like the chemicals she was given had altered her DNA and blood so much so that later in life it made her susceptible to leukaemia. I am so sorry. It destroyed your father... as you know.”
“I remember.”
“He wanted to go public, own up to what we had done. It would have destroyed our careers but we were both ready to accept the consequences.”
“And that is when Giles killed him?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he kill you?”
“Because we both had another secret that had been kept from you and your sister.”
“What sort of secret?”
“You have a twin brother.”
Alexa sat in stunned silence. Had she heard him correctly. How could she not know about a brother. Her father had never mentioned him, she had no memory of him.
“I have a question,” said Ian. “Who does know about the brother?”
“No one. No records where kept that would identify him as Alexa’s brother. He was born at Soteria head quarters.”
“So where is he?”
“Russia.”
“What is he doing in Russia?”
“When Alexa’s mother became pregnant, she soon discovered she would be having twins. She was ecstatic and devastated at the same time. She struggled to cope with one child and so the thought of twins left her petrified. She was a fragile woman with some serious mental health problems at the time. At the same time my wife and I couldn’t have children. We came to an arrangement. When the twin boy was born, we smuggled him into Russia and registered him as our child. This is going to devastate him.”
“You should have thought about that before lying to him.”
“We had no choice... we just wanted a child to look after.”
“I don’t remember him,” added Alexa.
“You wouldn’t. We made sure you never met in case anyone made the connection.”
“We have a problem then,” interjected Ian. “Your son is a journalist?”
“Yes.”
“It would appear that he is being used by a Soteria agent to release a story based on fabricated evidence that will unseat the Russian President. My source tells me he is planning to hide out in a cabin once the story breaks.”
“I have a cabin in the Russian wilds. It’s off the grid.”
“My source tells me that the Soteria agent has been given a tracking device to plant on him so they can hunt him down and kill him. Knowing Letitia she won’t want to leave any loose ends.”
“We have to help him,” Vladimir urged.
“We will. My source will keep us up to date. In the meantime I suggest we get some rest tonight. I need to brief SiS in the morning, we are going to need some help. We meet up here late morning and we can formulate a plan.”
“SiS?” enquired Vladimir.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t assume you know who they are. SiS is the Secret Intelligence Service here in the UK, used to be called MI6. Now like I said, lets get some rest.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. Alexa stood from the sofa and followed Ian out of the room. She was still dazed, she had been bombarded with so much information today she needed time to take it all in.
* * *
Alexa lay in bed staring at the hotel room ceiling. It wasn’t particularly interesting, the standard magnolia you find in most hotels, but it wasn’t the ceiling she was thinking about. She hadn’t slept, she had spent the night thinking about how she felt about having a brother. A brother she had never met, a brother she knew nothing about. She couldn’t understand how her mother had given away a child; she wasn’t the real mother to Rosarita and Sofia but she couldn’t imagine giving them up. She would fight to the end to make sure she looked after them and they were happy. How could her mother do it? She looked over at Jane, she was fast asleep. They had spent hours talking before Jane couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. She had tried to help, tried to rationalise what Alexa’s mother and father had done. It hadn’t really helped but it was nice to be able to talk to someone about how she was feeling, she had never had anyone that close to her before. She swung her legs out of bed and went to the bathroom. By the time she had showered and exited the bathroom Jane was up, she was cleaning up all the plates, glasses and cups from the room service they had had the night before. There was no sign of the girls, they were more than likely still fast asleep in their room.
“Morning, did you get any sleep at all last night?” asked Jane as she scurried around the room.
“Not really, I may have dozed a few times but my mind was all over the place last night.”
“So what do you want to do now?”
“I need to see my brother. From what Ian was telling us last night he is probably in trouble.”
“You need to get him out of Russia, before Letitia sends in her henchmen to kill him. She won’t want to leave any loose ends.”
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“I know. I will see what Ian is planning once we have had some breakfast.”
* * *
Ian wasn’t looking forward to this meeting but the recent events had forced his hand. He had taken the underground to Vauxhall station and walked the rest of the way to the SiS building on Albert Embankment, much to the annoyance of his bodyguard who had advised against using public transport. He had ignored his protestations. He walked into the main reception and showed the guard his identification. After going through the airport scanners he introduced himself to the receptionist.
“I have an appointment with Martin Cooke.”
“Of course sir and you are?” she asked.
“Ian Monroe.”
She picked up the telephone, spoke for a few seconds and then put it down. “If you would like to take a seat sir, someone will be down to collect you.”
“Thank you,” he replied as he left the desk and took a seat opposite.
He knew full well that they could have let him go straight up but he knew Martin would be playing a game. Making the point that Ian was now in his domain and he would call the shots. The two agencies had to work together with their own remits, MI5 was tasked with ensuring domestic security and SiS worked internationally. Each agency was territorial and what Ian was about to tell Martin would not go down well. Eventually a SiS guard escorted him upstairs to Martin’s office. Martin was sat behind his desk and didn’t get up to greet Ian. Ian wasn’t surprised. Martin had history as an SiS operative, operating in war zones and hostile countries. The hostile conditions he had worked in had taken its toll on his body and now he was head of SiS he had let himself become lazy. He was a portly man with greying hair that sat atop his round face. He had served his country well but it had robbed him of a pain free old age. Martin eventually looked up from his desk.
“Morning Ian, this is an early meeting. Must be important.”
“Yes, sorry for the late notice and early start.”
“No problem, coffee?”
“Yes please.”
Martin turned to the guard that had escorted Ian in and asked him to fetch two coffees and waited until he had left the room.
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