Chapter 18
Valentina watched, still trembling with shock as the catamaran pulled anchor and, swiftly gathering speed, turned back towards the coast. In the interval during which the horror had played out, a haze of autumn cloud had formed in the transparent sky. There was a noticeable chill in the air as Valentina watched the sleek fibre-glass catamaran. A starkly graceful craft, driven by the swirling zephyrs, she rapidly picked up speed and slipped into memory. Valentina contemplated giving chase but the Falcon would never be able to match her speed... In any case what would be the point? More senseless killing? Instead she made the last call to Boris Koch that she would ever make.
"Prime Minister its Valentina Gussev again, I believe you have been waiting for this call."
Koch had indeed been waiting, his secretary had brought him coffee and he sipped at it while she sat demurely waiting nervously for further instructions. Koch could hardly imagine there would be a problem; the money had been transferred as requested, the girl was well... Even so it had been fifteen long minutes since Gussev's last contact. He spoke with an uncharacteristic falter in his voice despite the staccato delivery:
"Tell me the news Valentina we've been on tenter hooks since we authorised the transfer of the money... Do you have the child safely aboard?"
"I'm afraid not Prime Minister..."
"For God's sake what's happened."
"I am sad to report that Natasha Kashinka was shot."
"What?... How is she?"
"She did not survive... It was a shot to her head."
"How?... Who did this abominable act?"
"It was the man you placed with me to help protect her. Captain Andrej Kowalski."
"What? Kowalski?... He was recommended as someone trustworthy. Damn his eyes; the man is as good as dead."
"There's no need to trouble your agents Prime minister... He is already dead."
"Indeed... Was it you Valentina?"
"No, it was the woman he was working with, the one who tricked Natasha from her escort. I doubt Kowalski understood how dangerous she was. Her name may be Sophie, probably not. I believe she will be in sole possession of the ransom money now. I very much doubt you will ever find her, from the little I saw of her I believe she was a highly trained professional, probably disillusioned and turned to crime to fund her exit from a perilous life."
"Mm so... This woman killed the captain for the ransom money?"
"I have no idea of her motivation Prime Minister, but it seems a reasonable assumption."
"But you saw what happened; could you recognise her if you saw her again?"
"Oh yes but I think that is very unlikely... Neither of us would walk away unscathed if that were to happen. I would prefer to draw a veil across her shooting of Kowalski; in my view Prime minister, she did us all a favour in that act at least."
"I'm not sure I agree... However the money is gone... that at least is of little consequence. Why did Kowalski do this?"
"I cannot say... It was clear to me that the man was only driven by self interest; once the money was transferred, Natasha no longer had any value for him. The man was full of hatred, I see that now. Maybe Natasha became the focus of his anger; the kindest conclusion that I can draw is that he was unbalanced by what he had done. In truth I suspect it was a simple act of mindless violence, maybe a payback for the way he felt he had been treated... I am no psychiatrist Prime Minister."
"This is grave news. Was there nothing you could have done?"
"The shootings were from the other vessel...I was just an impotent observer, we were separated by fifteen metres of open water."
"I expected more of you Valentina Gussev... What of my plans now?"
"Natasha will never now be queen of Sachovia... It was never her wish to do so. If you cared for the girl that might be some consolation."
"I never cared for the damn child it was what she represented that mattered, don't you understand that?"
Koch's mind was already searching for a way to salvage something from the situation. "A state funeral... We will bury her with all the pomp and ceremony due to the Queen she should have become. It will rally the people round the flag bring the rebels to their knees. But the search will go on there must be someone else who carries a trace of the royal blood." Even if I have to invent one he thought. "We cannot let my dream for Sachovia die along with this pathetic child."
"With respect Prime Minister I feel it is time to abandon your dream. I believe you should look towards the salvation of your country, try forging peace with the rebels before it is too late."
"I will never do that... Gussev. I order you to return the dead Queen to her native soil at all speed so that she may be afforded a funeral befitting her status."
"I cannot do that Prime Minister... Natasha Kashinka is lost to the depths of the ocean along with her assassin."
Koch slammed his fist against his desk and his secretary who was already shrinking into her chair, jumped visibly. Koch turned to her.
"Are you still here... GET OUT!" He watched as the poor woman scuttled away clutching her notepad. Koch turned back to his phone call, his face dark and filled with menace.
"Come home Valentina... I need to gather people with your skills round me. Sachovia needs you again if we are going to crush the uprising."
"I can never return Prime Minister... There is more I have to tell you, something concerning me. When I tell you, you will see that my returning to Sachovia would now be impossible."
"I can hardly believe that Valentina, not from a woman with your history, but go on. Nothing you can tell me can be any more shocking than what I have already heard."
"Let me first explain the reasons that led me to my act of treachery..."
"Treachery?"
"Let me continue please, all will be revealed. I am telling you this for my sake in an attempt to ease my conscience. I expect and want no exoneration from you. Prime Minister I have grown to despise you and what you stand for. As much as I have always despised Adam Prochniak."
"You seem to be falling apart at the seams Gussev... I doubt whether I should waste my time listening to this self pitying ramble?"
"That is for you to decide... I will continue in any case. I was rather cruelly manipulated over my brother Sascha. I was led to believe that Adam Prochniak was holding him and unless I complied with his wishes he would be killed."
"If anyone is capable of blackmail and kidnapping then it's Prochniak. What did he want you to do?"
"He wanted Natasha dead. Dead without any suspicion falling against him or his Republik Party. The details now seem trivial, I won't bore you... The fact is I agreed and sent Natasha off to meet her death."
"What? Surly you were working tirelessly to find and save the last heirs of the royal family."
"It appeared that way, in fact I was working under Prochniak's direction to prevent Natasha from ever reaching Sachovia. There was to have been a staged terrorist attack on the journey to Sachovia but the kidnapping foiled the plan."
"Well thank you for revealing this to me... In the end your wishes were granted... Natasha was killed just as you intended."
"Not as I intended... It was a choice I made in an effort to save my brother. But long ago, before I learned the truth about Sascha, I realised that it was the wrong choice."
"You will understand my difficulty in believing you Valentina... In any case you must realise that by making your admission of treason, you have just signed your own death warrant?"
"I know you will try to have me assassinated. But I feel unwilling to abandon my life just yet; I still have atonements to make to people that matter."
"I can assure you Gussev that you will find no peace while I still draw breath."
Valentina dropped the satphone over the side. She watched for the few seconds that the phone took to sink out of view through the clear water. It took with it any last links to her homeland but more importantly it marked the first step on the long road to her salvation.
She felt Katrina at her side and turned into her embrace.
"Are you all right?" Valentina asked. She saw the tears in Katrina's eyes... "Did you hear all that?"
"Is it true what you told him Valentina?"
"I had hoped to tell you to your face Katrina but I struggled to find the courage. I still needed to have one friend left in the world."
"The war drove us all to do things that we shouldn't... I understand your feelings for your brother but I struggle to see how you could have meant for Natasha to be killed. I know you Valentina and that is not what the Valentina Gussev that I love would ever do..."
"I can no longer believe what I did myself."
"I can see you regret it now... I can't abandon you Valentina, not now. If I'm your only friend then you are surely mine."
"I don't deserve you as a friend Katrina... But I'm going to do what I can to put my life back on the tracks... Is everything in order below decks?"
"Yes."
"Good I'm going to need your help darling, I'm sure Koch will not forgive me as easily as you seem to have done."
"He doesn't know you like I do."
"Maybe not... In any case I need to disappear and there are things that need doing that it would be safer for me to be well clear of."
"OK...you'll need to explain."
"Katrina, I'm going to sail the Falcon through the Straights, we'll stop off at Capo d'Orlando just along the Sicilian coast. We need to re supply the Falcon and I need to send a message to someone else that I care about."
"OK..."
"From there I'm going to resume our coarse to France. Marseille is probably the closest landfall. I'm going to need you to be strong Katrina. I'll leave you there while I put some distance between me and Koch's assassin."
"Leave me?"
"I'll explain later Katrina, there's something I need you to do..."
"Will he really send assassins after you?"
"He's a vengeful man, of course he will."
"Where will you go?"
"You remember me telling you about the Channel islands?"
"Yes you talked of an Island a little off the French coast... Guernsey was it?"
"Yes... it's a place I love, a place where I think I can hide out until its safe for me to surface. It's a place you would be safe too Katrina. I have a little cottage there..."
...
The morning following his dinner with Jane Freeman, Colby sat at his breakfast and flipped through his emails, among the usual dross he found a message from Valentina. It had been sent from some internet café in Capo d'Orlando Sicily.
What the hell is she doing in Sicily? he thought. He was expecting another plea for forgiveness but nothing of her past transgressions was mentioned. Did she assume the matter was now closed and they could continue as before? What he read was a call for his help Help? He thought: Does she expect me to drop what I'm doing and rush to her aid after everything she's done?
He closed the lid of his laptop and bit into his toast. He needed more coffee and drained the plunger into into his cup. His mind danced back to what Jane had said about Valentina... There was nothing he could disagree with in her opinion, or her advice. He opened the lid again and read on to the end of the email then again until Valentina's request was etched onto his mind.
...
Still fuming Prime Minister Koch called his head of the SSB to his office. Of late the SSB had lost the honour that Valentina had known. It had developed a formidable reputation of violence and torture. The Sachovian security bureau had become a feared arm of the government and their actions were thought by many to have been the provocation that sparked the current unrest.
General Pyotr Smivit head of the SSB stood framed by the heavy architrave of the door. He had lost his usual swagger and looked drawn and worried. The ill fitting military uniform he wore looked entirely out of place on a man who's battles were waged behind a desk; primarily against the innocent civilians of his own country.
"Come in Pyotr, take a seat."
Smivit seemed eager to vent his own frustrations:
"They've barricaded the Trivolli bridge Prime Minister; its the only easy access to the city. And there's talk of a missile emplacement being established on the Dostrovich hills. We need to get heavy armaments down there... The army seems to be sitting on its hands."
"Yes, yes. It will be dealt with soon enough, a handful of rebels is not my immediate concern. Sit down man and tell me, who is your best agent at the moment?"
"In what capacity?"
"I need a traitor assassinating."
Smivit's attention was diverted – this was an area of personal expertise for him.
"Ah... Covertly or were you thinking of a public spectacle?"
"Frankly I just want her dead, but she may need finding first. But now you mention it, a public execution might be an interesting distraction for the rabble. We've not had one since before the war."
"I think that might be seen seen as provocative in the present climate."
"You could be right General... So is there someone who may be able to despatch a traitor covertly."
"Vanessa Klimentovà would probably be ideal for the job but I can hardly spare her in the present emergency."
"Let me worry about the home front. I want this person traced and eliminated, if your agent Klimentovà is the best for the job then unleash her; I'm not concerned about cost, requisition anything she might need on my authority."
"As you wish Prime Minister... Does this traitor have a name?"
"Oh you know her well Pyotr... Valentina Gussev."
"For God's sake why do you want her killed?"
"She was working undercover for Prochniak and his fascist party."
"I really find that hard to believe Prime Minister."
"I'm not looking for your belief General Smivit; if you wish to maintain your elevated rank then I need immediate compliance with my wishes."
"Very well Prime Minister, is there any more information you can give me?... A recent location perhaps?"
"She made a rendezvous with Captain Kowalski a few hours ago... Off the coast of northern Sicily."
"Kowalski? Are we in contact with him?"
"If you were thinking of utilising the captain then think again, the man is dead. He would never have been a match for Gussev in any case... She's on her ketch... You should be able to spot her from recent satellite imagery."
"I'm afraid the Americans are reluctant to assist us with satellite reconnaissance at the moment..."
"For God's sake why?"
"They feel a little ill at ease over the prospect of a new war in Sachovia. All military cooperation has been suspended until the situation is resolved."
"There will be no war... The damn idiots. Don't they know I have the situation in hand. Just do what you can then... I'll need to talk with the American Ambassador urgently."
"I'm afraid the Embassy has been evacuated Prime Minister. The last members flew out this morning."
"What?... Why was I not informed about this?"
"Several memos were sent to you I signed them myself."
"I can't waste my time reading everything that crosses my desk. In future I want you to come and tell me personally if anything needs my urgent attention... this is a most grave situation. The Americans are supposed to be our allies."
"Hardly that Prime Minister a memorandum of understanding does not make an ally."
Koch slumped in his chair. "Well man don't just sit there get hold of this Vanessa Klimentovà and bring her to me; I wish to brief her personally."
...
It was under cover of darkness that the Midnight Falcon left the coast of Sicily. She was fully provisioned for the ten days or so it would take to reach Marseille. Despite the recent events Valentina felt on the edge of a rebirth. She breathed in the crisp autumn sea air, it seemed to cleanse her ravaged soul, not for a long time had the clear night sky seemed so tranquil, so full of hope.
Valentina Gussev,
the real Valentina Gussev was finally back, her moral compass reset. Once more a woman worthy of love. Those who now chose to stand in her way, those whom Koch had sent after her would need to be very careful indeed. At last there was no longer any internal conflict about what she must do. All that remained in her box of wishes was for a simple life to enable her to put things right, and from the very few that she loved, forgiveness or if she could not ask for that then at least a measure of understanding.
As she steered the Midnight Falcon to the unseen horizon, Valentina lifted her face up to gaze upon the eternity of the universe. Her eye sought the pole star, a fixed point in the heavens that had guided navigators since men had first left the shelter of land. She wondered if Colby might be looking up at the same star, her hand involuntarily lifted searching for his arm but all she found was sadness.