Zero Hour Part 4

7

We sat back down. The gentle hum of the air-conditioning replaced Tresillian's growl.

I pointed at the now vacant chair below the screen. 'He seems a lad. I bet he's changed more than just the carpet.'

Julian carried on extracting sheets of paper from his folder and lining them up on the table. All I got from him was a wry smile.

'She attends Moldova State University in Chisinau, the capital. Do you know Moldova?'

Not much. Particularly with a splitting headache. I'd never operated there. 'Only bits and pieces. It's best known for arms smuggling and people trafficking. What about the police - is anybody liaising? Is there someone in the British emba.s.sy I can rely on?'

'Out of the question, on both fronts. The local police are either useless or corrupt. If it turns out she's been kidnapped they might even be part of the problem.'

'When did she go missing?'

'Ten days ago.'

'Who's been looking for her?'

'Only the father. He's frantic, according to our sources. He's hoping he either gets a ransom demand or she'll be back in touch. Kids that age drop off the radar all the time without thinking of the implications.'

I pointed up at the screen and the green-glossed T55, its barrel facing forward, ready to attack. 'He's an "industrialist", right? The tank outside the factory provides a bit of a clue. Any known enemies in the arms world?'

'None. He manufactures for the Federation so he's one of the bad guys but, as I understand it, he's our friend and we want to keep it that way.'

I focused on the picture of the girl. 'She speak English?'

'Probably of the cable-TV variety, same as any other kid anywhere.'

'And you have nothing at all from the networking sites?'

'She closed her Facebook page two weeks ago. She's not on any other site.'

'You've checked flight manifests out of Moldova?'

Julian nodded. 'And visa applications that come into the Hungarian emba.s.sy in Chisinau - they deal with all applications for Schengen countries.'

'Tell me about the name.'

'Edinet was her mother's maiden name. She died when Lilian was little. It helps her keep a low profile. We don't think anyone at the university knows who she is - it reduces the kidnap risk.'

'Can you give me addresses?'

'We don't have her latest details. Like a lot of students, she's floated from flat-share to flat-share. The last sighting was at the university a couple of weeks ago.'

'What about Tarasov himself?'

'He can't go to the police, of course, because they're too corrupt. Alert the Mafia and all of a sudden he's facing a ma.s.sive ransom demand if they find her. He's bound to be looking. But stay away from Tarasov, Nick. He's strictly off limits - Tresillian wasn't joking.'

Fair one. 'What's she studying?'

'Sociology.'

'Does she have any medical conditions?' If she needed insulin injections or whatever, I had to know. And if she'd been kidnapped, she might be dead already.

Julian shrugged.

Something else really puzzled me. 'Why is this an MI5 job and not the Firm's?'

'With Tresillian at the helm of both, the demarcation lines are blurring.'

I swallowed another couple of Smarties as he glanced back down at Lilian's picture.

'As Tresillian said, nothing must stop you finding her. Of course we're going to deny anything to do with the operation, but you will have secure comms with me at all times. I'll help you as far as I can, but we cannot be seen poking around in-country. It wouldn't help our relationship with Lilian's father, and certainly not with the powers that be.' He gathered up the paperwork. 'Why don't we get some coffee while I give you the lowdown?'

I followed him to the door. Bright light flooded into the room.

I couldn't help smiling to myself. I was back at work. One last kick at life.

And I now had a really good reason to phone Anna.

PART THREE

1

Monday, 15 March

10.47 hrs

The International Airport Chisinau is the biggest in the Republic of Moldova. It's a member of Airports Council International (European region), the ma.s.sive posters in the revamped terminal proudly proclaimed, as well as the Airport a.s.sociation of CIS Civil Aviation and the ALFA-ACI (L'a.s.sociation des Aeroports de Langue Francaise a.s.socies a l'Airports Council International). What was more: The main priorities of the personnel's activity consist in providing a high-level of flight safety and qualitative services The main priorities of the personnel's activity consist in providing a high-level of flight safety and qualitative services.

But for all its fancy new a.s.sociations with the West, old habits died hard. I was held by three Customs guys in a side office ten seconds after they saw a European pa.s.sport and no mates tagging along. There was a special tax I needed to pay. Since I was only carrying a day sack, they pegged it at thirty dollars.

I'd now been waiting for Anna's flight from Moscow Domodedovo for close to five hours - the last two because her Air Moldova flight was delayed. This was probably the eighth time I'd gone back to the coffee shop in Arrivals, treated myself to a milky Nescafe instant, and soaked up the propaganda as I sat and sipped it.

I'd even resorted to reading the warnings on the packet of Nurofen I dug into occasionally. Long-term kidney damage wasn't high on my list of concerns, so I popped another couple out of the blister pack, grabbed some more Smarties and washed them all down with a swig of coffee.

I'd transferred my two-week supply of shiny red pills into a plastic Superdrug case. It was easier to shove into my pocket than a big f.u.c.k-off bottle. Also, the label had my name on it and I couldn't be a.r.s.ed to scratch it off.

It had taken me seven hours from Heathrow with a Munich connection. Normally that wouldn't have been much of a problem; I was used to living in airports. You just find some seats, lie down, read posters, drink brews. If you're lucky, you go to sleep. But that wasn't going to happen. My head was pounding - but I think it was mostly about seeing Anna again.

Fetch up in Moscow, with the biggest collection of billionaires on the planet, and you can't move for fancy foreign labels. Moldova's old split-level Soviet-era airport had had a major refurb, but Starbucks and all the high-end brands had still given it a miss. Jules had told me that its earning potential outside the small capital was the same as Sudan's, so I guess it was no surprise.

Despite Julian's briefing, I wasn't exactly sure where Moldova stood in relation to the rest of the planet. Some guys immersed themselves in demographics and GDPs and could tell you the ten most popular names for girls and boys wherever they fetched up, but I never saw the point. This place was land-locked, and had a population of five million. The industrial strip, whose name I kept forgetting, ran along its eastern border. That was all I knew, and all I needed to know. All I had to do was find the girl, grip her, and hand her over.

I took out my new BlackBerry and checked for messages. The Tefalhead at GCHQ who'd briefed me on the encryption system and then got Mr Lampard to sign for it had been very pleased with his toy. Apparently it contained both a hardware and software-based secure communications solution that protected GSM cellular communications with a unique authentication service and advanced end-to-end encryption software. I hoped it worked better than the one I'd been issued with three years ago.

'Combined with a secure mobile authentication solution it is capable of ensuring that all mobile voice and SMS communications, as well as data-at-rest within the device, are fully protected. It offers security against any attempt to intercept active communications both from inside a telephone network as well as over-the-air.'

That was all well and good. I just needed to know that, when I switched it on and pressed the security app icon, Jules and I could talk without anyone else listening in.

The security technology was based on encryption algorithms as well as a user/device authentication process, the Tefalhead explained. I could pretty much grasp that. But I got lost when he started talking ciphers and 128-bit block sizes.

'Your BlackBerry uses these algorithms simultaneously as well as a 4096-bit Diffie-h.e.l.lman shared secret exchange to authenticate each call/device/user, in order to provide multiple layers of security and an effective fall-back inside the crypto-system design.'

I'd nodded enthusiastically and his face lit up. 'So, to recap ... I press the app icon if I want secure speech. When a call comes in I wait for the app to give me the go-ahead, and both sides can talk in real time?' I can't have been the brightest pupil he'd ever had.

I took another sip and looked around. Moldova might be in s.h.i.t state but at least they were trying to get out of their hole. Most of the arrivals coming in from other flights were suited. Most of the guys with wheelies and mobiles stuck to their faces gobbed off in Russian, but I picked out a few European and American voices. A couple of the local papers sitting in the newsstands were English editions. They'd binned visas for people like me and I didn't even have to show a return ticket. Anything to get new money into the country. But for all that, the staff still mooched about like throwbacks to the old order. They'd brightened up the buildings and forgotten to refurbish the employees.

At long last the Moscow flight flagged up as landed. It was show time. I suddenly worried that I should have cleaned myself up a bit in the last five and a half hours.

I got up and walked over to the sliding doors that stood between Customs and the arrivals hall. I knew she'd be one of the first out. Like me, she travelled light. The rest she'd buy when she needed it.

I felt my stomach flutter. At first I tried to blame it on the drugs. But I couldn't escape the fact that I was excited - for the first time in as long as I could remember.

Then the real world kicked in. She'd agreed to come when I'd finally got round to phoning her, but only after I'd waffled and begged and lied about needing her help with a K and R. Perhaps she was only here to find yet another poor girl ripped out of her world, drugged up, beaten and f.u.c.ked on the other side of the planet. That was the sort of thing that made Anna get up in the morning. I just happened to be along for the ride.

As the first wave of wheelie bags swept past, I almost had to stand on tiptoe to look beyond them. The doors half closed, then pulled back again to reveal a blonde in a black woollen coat, with a haircut that looked like a German helmet.

I locked on to her eyes but she seemed to look right through me.

2

I tried to read her expression as she came through into the hall. She scanned the faces beyond the barrier, trailing a wheelie behind her. When she finally spotted me, there was no instant smile or greeting.

I blurted out the first thing that came into what was left of my head. 'You've had your hair cut.'

'I thought I'd ring the changes. More practical for my next job. Well, the one I was was going to take.' going to take.'

She'd been approached by CNN to cover women's issues following the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in some of the former Soviet republics. She knew the subject matter and this part of the world like the back of her hand. CNN must have liked the hairdo: they'd granted her a two-month deferment.

She let go of her wheelie and it toppled over. She left it where it was, finally treated me to the smile I was hoping for, and ran the last four or five paces towards me. She threw out her arms, wrapped them around me and held me tight. I did the same. I really couldn't get enough of this girl.

Her hair brushed the side of my face. 'Mmm ... Nice smell.' I took in another lungful of Bulgari. I'd bought her some in London during her last visit.

She moved her head a little so she could get her mouth closer to my ear. 'I love it.' She kissed me on the cheek. 'You know what, you idiot? I missed you ...'

The pain in my head leaked away, along with the tension in my shoulder muscles. Anna's perfume was more effective than any number of Kleinmann's Smarties. I hadn't been able to gauge her mood on the phone. She'd immediately offered to help, but didn't overcook things on the emotional front. I understood that. I was the same. Unlike me, she wanted to save the world. Maybe you could only do that if you kept yourself just detached enough from it to stop all the s.h.i.t stuff swallowing you up.

On past performance, I knew that anyone I got involved with wouldn't stick around too long. Now I also realized that a tiny part of me hoped she might be able to save me too - or at least give me the chance to avoid flushing the last couple of months of my life down the toilet as well as the rest.

She took half a step back and gave me a long, hard look. 'You have the picture for me?'

I righted her wheelie and she took my arm as we walked towards the coffee shop. I opened up my secure BlackBerry and clicked on the blow-up of Lilian. I left her studying the image at the square plastic table as I went and bought more Nescafe instants with hot, sweet milk. They cost twenty lei each, but the woman was more than happy with a couple of dollar bills. Hard currency still said more about you than the local stuff ever could.

Anna's eyes were still fixed on the screen when I came back to the table. 'Does Julian know I'm here?'

'What he doesn't know won't hurt him. And it won't hurt us.'

She turned the BlackBerry screen towards me. 'She's very pretty, beneath all that anger. Trafficking has to be the strongest possibility.'

'But she binned her Facebook account before she went AWOL. And she's a uni girl, switched on, not some pointy-head from the sticks who'll fall for the nearest scam.'

Anna smiled like a mother whose kid has just said something naive. 'You know nothing about this country and its people until you understand about trafficking. I'll take you to see someone who will help you understand.'

'Have you ever come across the name Hector Tarasov? He's her father. He has a factory in Transnistria. A factory with a tank outside.'

She shook her head and reached into her coat pocket for her iPhone. 'I can Google-'

'No need, mate. I've already had a look. Nothing. It doesn't matter, just background.'

She sat back, not touching her brew, and tilted her head to one side, studying me.

'What?'

'I'm still trying to work out why you're here, Nicholas.' She'd started calling me that recently - told me I deserved all three syllables, especially now I'd got a penthouse and a Porsche. I knew she was taking the p.i.s.s, but I rather liked it. 'You should be enjoying your life. You have no more reason to do this sort of work.'

I thought we were made of the same stuff: she wasn't going to hang up her Crusader's shield any time soon. I was surprised she felt the money might have changed things for me. 'I am am enjoying my life. But I don't want to just fade away.' I laughed slightly uneasily. 'I want to die with my boots on.' enjoying my life. But I don't want to just fade away.' I laughed slightly uneasily. 'I want to die with my boots on.'

She gave me a puzzled look. 'I know you've taken some punishment over the years, but you should be able to survive a straightforward K and R job ...'

I took another sip of coffee and decided that eight cups was already more than enough. I couldn't quite bring myself to look her in the eye.