Saul, unsurprisingly, he had been dead set against it.
"I will be visiting you in a fucking gulag!" had been Saul's somewhat colorful response. It was a statement that Mikhail, who had been sitting the room at the time as well, had also agreed with the CEO of TLH on-that in itself was rare as snow in a desert, for they hardly ever agreed on anything!
When Thomas had explained why he was taking such a risk only then did Saul reluctantly follow his orders to shut down the pipeline. That was not sufficient to stop Mikhail from accusing him of playing a metaphorical game of Russian roulette. Yet, because Thomas knew he that needed political protection he had pressed head.
Thomas's relationship with the Mayor could only be described as complicated at the best of times. Although they had known each other since the man had been Mayor of St. Petersburg, it was very much one of the 'Master and the Serf,' despite the wealth Thomas had accumulated over the following years.
During one of their private dinners in the early years Putin had once told him about how he had learned to fight hard and ruthlessly from an early age and was a "hooligan, not a pioneer."
"But I learned to fight intelligently," the Mayor had lectured. "Through training and self-discipline, mixed with cynicism and watchfulness of the street kid."
In sharing the information that Krivets had given him that his Media network was receiving briefings from the State Department to be used against Thomas was a gamble. If the Special Services of Russia were already aware of this information then that meant the Mayor already knew about it. If that had been the case that would have meant the Mayor was ready to cast Thomas to the wolves because he had decided that he had no further use for him. Fortunately he was not and because of that, Thomas had been able to appeal to the Mayor's self-confessed street kid mentality.
In the game of statesmanship, this meant utilising all of the Mayor's cunning tactical finesse, brutality, and uncompromising belief in the cause of protecting himself, just as he would protect Russia.
So when Thomas had passed the information along about the briefings, the Mayor had looked at him impassively and had not said anything. The fact that he had remained silent told Thomas that the Mayor had not been aware of it and the intelligence agencies of Russia had missed the trick. His gamble had worked. Information and the knowledge as to what your enemies were up to was everything to a man who prided himself and his cult of personality on having the ability to find about everything that happened in the world.
Encouraged, Thomas had continued with his scene setting, informing the Mayor that Russia and TLH were about to be accused by the Americans of forcing Japan into taking more gas from Russia at inflated prices, rather than less. The Mayor's response indicated to Thomas that although he had been briefed on some of the issues he was facing, he certainly had not anticipated where they were coming from.
"They're accusing you of profiteering and stealing their natural resources, not Russia," the Mayor had said keeping his stare firmly on him. Thomas had kept his nerve.
"Young's minions will be shifting the agenda in the coming days to include Russia as a precursor to build up support for the new government position in the Japan Sea," Thomas had replied firming laying his cards on the table and laying the bait for the man.
"By calling you my instrument, I assume," responded the Mayor, right on cue.
If the Mayor hadn't bought into the pot, so to speak, then TLH was going to be left to play a hand with the Americans and the Japanese. There would be only one winner in that game. To Thomas's relief the Mayor did put his chips onto the table.
"That explains why Sergey Viktorovich said that negotiations in relation to finally signing the peace treaty have stalled unexpectedly in the last few days," the Mayor had said, referring to Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, and the long disputed islands of the Southern Kurils that were still held as World War II booty by Russia.
During the reunification process of Korea two years ago, one of the side agreements that came out of the new pipeline was the will to finally close the matter of the ownership of the islands as part of the Russian pipeline opening up access to new gas markets for them. In the last few days, though, the new right wing government had suddenly pulled out of those discussions. Thomas had thought that couldn't be a coincidence. It was something he walked the Mayor through when sharing the information of the Japanese financing of the purchase of a LNG Plant in Ukraine by the Turkmenistan President's wife's family. Their underwriting indicated the purchase of ten super tankers each with a capacity of 200,000 m3 and another order of five new tankers to be built in Japan at a cost of US$200,000,000, each to service the expansion of the LNG facility at Kawagoe LNG Terminal in Japan.
"They would only carry out this level of investment if they were planning to move away from their over reliance on Russia's gas in the near term," Thomas had continued, planting his seeds of doubts in the Mayor's mind.
Five minutes later after Thomas had finished with analysis of the gas market's future, the Mayor sought to close their meeting by way of a hand signal to indicate he wished to Thomas to be quiet for a moment.
"I agree with you that this business in Turkmenistan is a match that lights the powder keg!" the Mayor had offered once he had processed the intelligence synopsis of Thomas.
Inwardly at the time, although Thomas had fought desperately hard not to show it, he had breathed a sigh of relief.
"I will not have Americans interfering on our borders!" the Mayor continued, now on his soapbox buying into Thomas synopsis. "In the meantime, you will immediately reopen your pipeline," he had ordered forgiving Thomas for his staged rash and foolish reaction of shutting down the pipeline in effort to force the Turkmenistan government to back down.
"I will call Agamyradov to let him know my feelings on matter regarding the nationalization of your interests," the Mayor further added, telling him he was on his side for the moment.
"Thank you, Mr. President," Thomas said to the 'Devil' before the man had responded that next time he would not be so forgiving and he was to come to him before he made such a foolish decision in the future.
The sounds of singing in Mandarin coming from the bathroom returned Thomas's mind to the present and feeling his body stir, he decided it was time to join China's fifth great beauty in the shower.
Roughly 5,000 personnel serve in the Turkmenistan Border Guard. Commanded jointly by Turkmenistan and Russia, the unit's role is to patrol the wild, mountainous Afghan and Iranian frontiers.
It is dangerous work and over years many have died from unreported battles with either smugglers or members of the Taliban. Originally of Azerbaijani descent, twenty year-old Elman Tagayew was a Turkmenistan Border Guard
Elman possessed a unique talent; he was a crack shot. Six Taliban kills under his belt, because of this talent he was considered one of the unit's best snipers and had been personally selected by the President's wife, however it had been the promise of a US$100,000 payday on his return to Turkmenistan that had persuaded him to agree to the mission.
Once Elman had arrived in Moscow he had thought that he would be able to use the cover surrounding his target's residence for his kill but he had quickly dispensed with this idea once he had assessed the professionalism of the man's bodyguards. Snipers have to be calm, composed, and comfortable in their own company. The key to survival is not allowing the enemy to identify their position. It was one thing to kill, but to kill again snipers have to be able to retreat without the enemy pinpointing them. He had quickly summarized he had no chance of doing that with the Englishman's men. That meant Elman had to be patient and wait for his chance.
Then he had caught a break. He was told by his MNS contact that the target would be at the hotel he owned at approximately 10:00 a.m. tomorrow for a meeting. Having conducted reconnaissance of the area, he quickly realised that the only way he was really going to have a chance to escape undetected was to choose a position on top of a building that was at least 2,700 feet
away.
"RAM acquired," said the voice of the MNS spotter in his ear, informing Elman that the target's vehicle was just about to pull up outside the entrance.
In a sniper's training he is told to aim his lasers as carefully as they aim a rife. Steadiness is an essential must. The other prerequisite is a camera spotter tripod to enable a sniper to "thread" his aim. Elman checked and then rechecked that his beam, which was pinpointed on a spot located at a side entrance of the hotel that the porters used. Satisfied it was, he cleared his mind of the questions that snipers always had up right up until the last moment of the taking aim, known as the "what ifs," gently stroked the Savage .38 Lupua Magnum rifle he was using, and then moved his finger to the trigger.
The only question that remained for Elman now was-would he hit the right target? As it takes a .338 bullet 5.7 seconds to reach its target at a distance of 2,700 yards, this meant he had to anticipate the physical movement of his target. Simply put, he had only one chance.
In addition to that particular problem were three other factors he had to consider: the "plunging angle of descent" (a term snipers use to describe the distance a bullet plunge it has to travel from the firing down), the wind compensation because he was attempting to hit a target in an urban
The Devil's Playground Page 32
