They all left the station together and drove back to check the cottage once more. Just as the second search was about to be abandoned, Geraldine muttered something to herself and then shrieked, “Oh my god, it’s the other jewellery box that’s missing.”
“Which other box?” said Elise, “you have more than one?”
“The one for the keys. I’m sorry, Elise.”
“Sorry for what? What was in there? Expensive family heirlooms or something?”
“No, no, nothing like that. It was my key box. It had all my keys for everything in the cottage, but it also had the spare key for your house. I should have kept it in my purse.”
They jumped into the car and drove the quarter mile to the family house. There were no signs of a break-in until Julien checked his safe. It had been jemmied and there were documents missing.
Chapter 27
Ivan Kolorov was surprised but not deceived by the warm welcome he was offered by Julien. He didn’t recognise the third person in the office, Eugene. This was important, and Julien was very happy about the perplexed expression on the Russian’s face.
“Please, take a seat, Ivan. I’ve asked for coffee to be brought before we begin reminiscing. I take it that you have no objection to a double espresso?”
“Certainly not. Just what I need, lots of caffeine to keep me alert.”
Turning to Eugene, he introduced himself. “Hello, Ivan Kolorov, I don’t think we have met.”
“No, at least I don’t recall having seen you in the flesh, but I couldn’t pretend that I don’t know who you are.”
“Well, do not believe everything you hear, uh… Mr…” Julien interjected.
“Mr Christopher, Paul Christopher. He’s my right hand man for all things information technology. You know how limited my capability is in that department.”
“Aha, so you are the man who advised my friend not to wipe the data from the revered flight deck of Volker Brandt?”
“Yes, I guess you could say that,” conceded Eugene. Kolorov was first to get down to business.
“Are you going to enlarge on that decision, and then tell me what happens next?”
“All in good time, Ivan,” said Julien, “don’t be so anxious, the espresso is on its way. Anyway, I want to wait for our other guest to make an appearance. Don’t worry, we can’t let you leave today without all of us knowing exactly where we stand.”
*
The process of clearing up after the break-ins was not yet under way. The police had insisted on taking away certain items to check for fingerprints and DNA, and said it was still a crime scene. Sophie was overtly unhappy with the law enforcement squad, berating them over their apparent lack of urgency, especially as the two households were denied a date when they would be allowed to get on with restoring their respective properties to normality.
“These people are just going through the motions of finding the bastards who did this. They want us to believe they are actually doing something, but all they are really after is covering their own arses.”
Geraldine had never quite got used to Sophie’s tendency to resort to profanities when she couldn’t influence a situation in which she wanted control. Elise tried to lower the tension.
“Listen, darling, your father has told the police that only a few papers were taken and they are of no value. When the police said they would need to file a report, he agreed because it will be needed if he wants to claim on the insurance for structural damage and breakages of things which are dear to our hearts, including some of your paintings and sculptures. Just let it go and spend more time with that young man of yours.”
“I suppose, but Mum…you must have noticed Dad’s horror when he realised those papers were gone, and how quickly he pretended they weren’t important. For Christ’s sake, the thieves took nothing else. Dad wants the police out of here even more than I do. I’m going to ask him to front up when he comes home tonight.”
*
The coffee arrived and Julien asked his personal assistant to show their other visitor into the office. As he walked through the door, Kolorov stopped in mid-sentence and became hostage to an involuntary double take. He recognised the man but couldn’t actually believe his eyes.
“It can’t be…is that really you, Alexei?” Turning to Julien he forfeited his calm demeanour. “How did you find Bondarenko and why have you brought him here?”
Alexei Bondarenko was almost unrecognisable, the thick black hair was gone, his head shaved down to the wood, he was completely bald. What had thrown Kolorov most was the massive ugly diagonal scar across the entire width of his forehead. The surgical treatment he’d undergone had been administered by amateurs and caused significant distortion of his facial features.
“Sorry, Ivan, but I didn’t bring him here, he contacted me out of the blue. He has a story to tell, he convinced me this would be the safest place on earth for him following his recent near-death incident. Maybe you should ask him yourself.”
Bondarenko needed no further encouragement.
“I contacted Mr Delacroix because I had no one else to turn to. You talked me into taking the blame for the Soyuz disaster to get yourself out of the firing line. I have participated in a lot of these kind of things, Ivan, all of them being to protect your reputation. When you asked me to shoot Malenkov and yourself, I expected that to be the last such request in which you would involve me. Then, when you promised me a sum of money which would mean I no longer had to work, I complied. You cleverly convinced me that after my confession over the missile cock up, I should disappear and nobody but you would know the whereabouts of my safe house. This time you have set a trap and walked into it yourself. The thugs who did this to me, left me for dead, and I would have been if an old lady hadn’t called for an ambulance and the police. That’s why you could not believe it was me when I entered the office just now. So, my honourable comrade, the tables are turned. You never delivered the money you promised me, and you had this coming. I have seen the archive content which has been preserved by Mr Delacroix and Mr Christopher. It has now, with my recommendation, been etched on to a new indelible surface material which can only be accessed by Julien Delacroix. It can’t be copied, erased, transmitted or altered in any way. I am now working for Mr Delacroix, and in that capacity, I am the custodian of information which will cause your downfall and perhaps your death. It would seem that it is now your turn to look for a place where nobody can find you, but I believe my real friends here have some questions for you.”
Kolorov was visibly shaken by the vitriol in his former friend’s voice, even though he could visualise the horror suffered by the man. Nevertheless, he felt he had to deny any involvement in the attempt on his life.
“Alexei, do you really believe I was in any way connected to this brutal attack? Ask yourself, why would I do that? You are correct when you stated that only you and I knew the location of the safe house, but that was before you actually got there. You had to hook up with someone to get the keys for a start, maybe others, cleaners, gardeners, delivery boys with food; you know you should really think back about such people and how they behaved. I know we have both previously carried out some pretty unsavoury acts in order to survive, but I would never have allowed anything like this to happen to you if I had known about it. Whatever else comes out of this meeting, including my own fall from grace, you have to believe that. In fact, I am not going to participate any further unless you tell me so.”
Quite a protracted silence was finally curtailed by Julien.
“Well, Alexei, what do you think? Do you trust his word that he had nothing to do with the attempt on your life?”
“I find it difficult to trust him yet again, but I suppose it is possible that there could also be people who were in Soyuz when I left who were in a position to extract my approximate whereabouts from travel information, passport checks and stuff like that. Now I work for you, and that comes with around the clock protection, so I guess I can put personal matters aside, at
least until we know whether any of us have a future to worry about.”
Julien looked at Kolorov. It was a long time coming, but he eventually nodded his acceptance of Bondarenko’s conciliatory gesture. The discussion agenda could be revealed.
“Very well, then let’s get started. Ivan, what I’m proposing is a yes or no offer, there can be no if, maybe, or taking time out to think about it. You are either part of the solution or you have to face a return to Russia, after publication of everything you were involved with in our Mars mission, then Soyuz’ abandoned mission to that planet, and finally, the failed attempt to nuke the asteroid to safety. Between us – Paul Christopher, Alexei Bondarenko and yours truly, we have amassed a pretty damning bundle of evidence to show you have lived a life of lies, corruption and sabotage. There is more than enough to incarcerate you for the rest of your life, even if it’s only got two more years left on the clock.”
“Also, Ivan,” added Bondarenko, “do not rely on being safe in prison. Over the years of covering your arse, I have run into many unsavoury characters who would gladly see your ashes scattered into a sewage farm. It should be no surprise to you that I have retained copies of every detail of your little deal with Malenkov’s son. Remember, it’s what I have always done for you. So, do not pretend that you are merely the chief executive of Soyuz now. You acquired the entire stock of the company for a paltry sum of electronic money. We are your best option to avoid personal extinction.”
“Well, well, so you broke cover to get to me and then accuse me of grassing you up. Anyway, your information is incomplete. The second part of the deal with Malenkov’s son requires me to sell the shares I acquired to the Russian state, for only a modest profit. So, I will not be the owner by the time I return. That is unless your offer is so attractive that I do not return. Are you ever going to tell me what it is?”
Bondarenko could not help stop himself from filling the room with raucous laughter.
“Ivan, do you seriously think that the remnants of government will be interested in taking on such a controversial company, after our revelations. They are already sandwiched between the legions of citizens loyal to oligarchs and the hatred of the anarchists. They need another battleground like a mistimed nuclear explosion, and you know all about them.”
Julien intervened. “As I wasn’t aware of this deal regarding the fluid ownership of Soyuz, I think we should put our offer on hold until the picture becomes less obscure. That is unless you want to sell your stock to me, Ivan.”
“Very astute, Julien,” snapped Kolorov. “I’ll sleep on it, but I still need to hear your offer.”
Eugene, trying to remember his fake name, could hardly believe what he was hearing, and made his first real contribution to the gathering.
“If you don’t mind, I’m having some difficulty with this kind of scruffy bargaining when the species is living on borrowed time. I’m comfortable in the knowledge that Julien, Alexei, and I have the evidence referred to earlier, it is locked away in independent safety deposit boxes. The key codes to these individual boxes are known only to the owner, not to each other. This at least serves as a brake on any one of us striking obscene deals with untrustworthy people. I’m leaving now, I have important work to get on with. Please do not involve me in such immoral nonsense again.”
The meeting broke up and Kolorov declined a lift to his hotel. The other three met at the Delacroix residence. Eugene smiled and said, “Well, how did I do, Dad? Was the timing right? I don’t think I would ever make it as an actor.”
Both Julien and Bondarenko patted him on the shoulder and reassured him that he’d passed the test, primarily one of creating doubt in the mind of Kolorov.
Chapter 28
It had been a really long day and Julien was utterly fatigued when he got home. He wasn’t expecting an interrogation. He quickly figured out it was all down to Sophie.
“Don’t you think you owe us an explanation, Dad? I mean, both houses trashed but nothing of value taken other than a few papers from the safe? There’s something you aren’t telling us. Come on, someone could have been badly hurt.”
Julien looked at Eugene, who shook his head.
“Sometimes we just have to move on, Sophie. Geraldine and your mum went for a short stroll, but they admitted to the police that they didn’t think it was necessary to set the security alarm. You did the same when you went to see them with your shopping list. The intruders would never have had time to take anything if the systems had been armed.”
“Oh, I see, stupid me, it was our fault. Well, that explains it then. How could we be so naïve? What about the CCTV cameras? Did we black them out so that there would be no useful footage? No, I didn’t think so. What’s wrong with everyone? This was obviously an inside job of some kind. They knew exactly when to enter and how to switch off the cameras, they even knew how to get into your bulletproof safe, all in a matter of minutes.”
Julien was becoming exasperated, and Eugene finally spoke up.
“Stop it, sis, there are some things you just don’t need to know right now. Get off dad’s back, it’s me you should be moaning about. The papers which they took are mine. I asked dad to keep them in his safe because we’ve made a breakthrough in our research and it had to be protected. There are two aspects to this; first, the intellectual property side, and then the countdown to 2039. Whether you like it or not, there are people out there who aren’t interested in helping the species as a whole, they only care about themselves. And this ticking time bomb of uncertainty has exacerbated this trend. You have pestered me to begin your treatment even though all side effects are not yet known, but our latest project has yielded the most effective corrective therapy so far. However, even within my own team, I have overheard conversations which worried me. Certain individuals have got wind of an opportunity to make the next two years really count for them. Some of my most trusted staff could be involved in pirating the new process, purely for personal gain. I asked dad to store some papers in the safe for me, and made sure people knew that the key research data were no longer stored at the technical centre. It was a necessary, if unfortunate, means of weeding out these opportunists. The papers were substitutes for the bona fide ones. At the very least, the perpetrators can do no harm now, as all they have is a bunch of failed experiments to ponder. However, they will now know we are on to them. So, let’s guillotine the red mist for a while, and get on with your treatment. The ethics people are also in disarray over what they want to try to enforce in the next two years, so I have finally accepted that I can begin with my first human guinea pig. I’m sorry about the stress this has caused to the family, but we had to know where to wield the axe with these selfish sods who were only working on our research programme because of their unfathomable greed.”
“Jesus, I never had you down as a spook, Eugene. Surely you could have trusted us, you could have warned us about your little scheme.”
“You aren’t listening, Sophie, these people are extremely cautious but clever. It wasn’t some dickheads who broke into our homes because they needed to feed their habit, they are probably working for prodigiously wealthy people. This latest breakthrough affords us the chance to suspend all further research until the purge is complete. We can start your treatment tomorrow. It will be quite invasive, not so much in a surgical procedure respect, but certainly with regard to your mental recuperation. You need a good night’s sleep. Well, go on then, off to bed.”
Even though the three women weren’t entirely happy that they’d been kept in the dark, it was more than a palliative that Sophie’s treatment could begin at last. Elise walked Geraldine back to the cottage and Sophie headed for her own space. Julien turned to his son.
“You didn’t mention the direction our enquiries will take now that the burglars took the bait, and their handlers realise why you have fired some of your most trusted staff.”
“I think I’d like to see how Sophie responds to her procedure before we dig further into who the real movers and
shakers are. Thanks for your patience, Dad, I hope the next steps with Kolorov go well for you. That is, after all, the most important project for all humankind.”
*
Having slept fitfully, Ivan Kolorov was no nearer being able to piece together a cogent analysis of his predicament. His greatest concern was his former ally, Alexei Bondarenko. This man had not only been his go-to Mr Fixit, the man knew virtually everything he knew himself. Whatever else, he had to tread carefully if confronted with allegations from his fellow Russian. He settled for humility and pragmatism.
“Well?” said Julien, “can we assume you are prepared to engage in further discussion, or am I reading too much into your attendance this morning?”
“I am always happy to explore ideas or requests, so I need to know precisely why you think I can be of use to you when you patently do not trust me. Of course, if you believe you have an effective means of blackmailing me, you could coerce me to do things I would otherwise reject out of hand. But, that will not restore any trust on your part, so I am confused as to how I can answer your call for help, unless you familiarise me with details of your plan. I assume you do have a plan.”
Bondarenko was about to speak when Julien pre-empted him.
“Very well. I want chapter and verse on events since you identified Nina Knudsen as the saboteur on our Kepler mission, all the way through to your abject failure to affect the course of the asteroid. Is that going to be difficult for you?”
“Not difficult, perhaps foolhardy. However, as my loyal friend here is prepared to sell out on me, I am willing to speak to you off the record, and perhaps you could ask questions rather than me giving a boring monologue. It would be a lot quicker and you have Alexei the lie detector sitting in your corner.”
“Fine,” agreed Julien, “so Nina Knudsen was working for Soyuz, just like her sister?”
“In a way.”
“Not a promising start, Ivan. Why would she sacrifice her life for a bunch of bastards like yourself?”
“She had a young son who was diagnosed with terminal leukaemia. There was a new drug which could reduce his suffering and extend his life by a few years, but the cost was out of her reach. As a single mother she took the view that life was of no interest to her without him. She agonised over killing innocent people to help her boy, but finally made peace with herself, believing that everyone was going to die in a few years, years which would be his whole life.”