The 14th Colony (Cotton Malone 11)

She could see that this man was genuinely afraid. Interesting what it took to jar the nerves of someone who dealt with people of no conscience.

“No one wants a new Cold War,” he said. “That’s bad not only for my benefactors, but also for the world. You consider those I represent to be criminals. Okay, they can live with that. But they don’t bother you. In fact, they do business with you. They have no armies and no missiles.”

“But they do export crime.”

He blew a contemptuous funnel of smoke skyward and shrugged. “Everything can’t be perfect. They would say that’s a small price to pay, considering the alternative.”

She was definitely intrigued. “Your people are going to take down all of the problems?”

“There will be many funerals across Moscow.”

The United States never officially sanctioned assassinations, but reality was far different. It happened all the time. “What do you want from us?”

“Stop Aleksandr Zorin.”

“You know what he plans?”

“We know what he wants.”

“Which is?” She wanted to hear it.

“To make the upcoming inauguration the most memorable in history. Don’t allow him to do that.”

Finally, confirmation of the endgame.

There’d been lots of talk over the past few years about a new Cold War. All agreed that if it materialized it would be fought with money, oil, and especially social media propaganda. Half-truths backed by just enough evidence to make them both interesting and supportable. Easy to do today. The Internet and twenty-four-hour news had changed everything. The old rules were long gone. Large closed societies were next to impossible to sustain. Look at China, which had failed miserably. The Soviets once believed that ruthless discipline worked best, that the West could be forced down simply by standing firm and never blinking. Unfortunately, that philosophy had failed, too, since communism only bred poverty and repression. Both tough sells. So eventually the USSR had been forced to blink. Then collapse.

Now parts of it seemed to want a resurrection.

She hated herself for asking, but had to. “When will they act?”

He finished the cigarette and flicked the butt away. “In a matter of hours. There are arrangements to be made. It would be better if this was seen as an internal power struggle, discrediting both the dead and the living. Done right, they will destroy themselves.”

“And you and your benefactors keep making money.”

“Capitalism at its truest. I can’t see how anyone here would have a problem with that.”

One thing she had to know. “Is Zorin on to something?”

“Those fanatics think he is. When he moved on Vadim Belchenko, that drew their attention. They watch archivists, and that one particularly. They sent the military to kill Belchenko in Siberia. They managed to get him, but your agent left five dead Russians, three of them soldiers, in that dacha beside Lake Baikal. I hope he stays that good. He’ll need to be to stop Zorin.”

“There are suitcase nukes here?”

He smiled. “We know Osin told you about them. That’s fine. You should know. And that was the thing about Andropov. For all his bravado, he truly believed the USSR would lose the ideological and economic war with the West unless drastic steps were taken. So he took those. He called it Fool’s Mate. Everyone thought both it and him forgotten. Now here he is, risen from the grave, to wreak havoc. So yes, there are weapons here.”

She felt a little numb, fatigue and the cold beginning to take their toll. Being part of an illegal conspiracy wasn’t bringing her any comfort, either. But the man sitting beside her was not bluffing. His benefactors had worked too long and too hard to have idiots take it all away, so they were going to do this with or without her. Oh, yes, there’d be funerals in Moscow. But there might be a few here, too.

Already, Anya Petrova had died.

How many more were to come?

“The SVR made a move on Zorin in Canada,” she said. “How much do these crazy people within the government know?”

“I’m told quite a bit. They have full access to classified KGB archives, including Andropov’s personal papers. These are records few have ever seen. When Zorin brought Belchenko east, then your agent was allowed into the country, that raised alarms. It seems they already knew of Fool’s Mate, but not its full potential. So they educated themselves and found out about Jamie Kelly. That’s when they decided to kill Zorin and Belchenko to keep it all contained. Your agent thwarted their attempt to take Zorin out in the air, which would have ended things. They were not happy. Now they’re here to tidy up all the remaining loose ends, which include Zorin, Kelly, and your agent. So be ready.”

“They know where the nukes are?”

He shook his head. “That’s the one thing we have going in our favor. They need Kelly to lead them, as does Zorin, by the way.”

She’d heard enough and stood from the bench. “We’ll handle things here.”

“Keep an eye on the television. The cable news channels will alert you when it starts on the other side.”

She started off.

“I can offer you a ride back to the hotel,” he called out.

The thought turned her stomach.

“Thanks, but I’ll find my own.”

And she walked away.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

Luke followed Sue Begyn out of the car. They’d driven two hours east to Annapolis, then south along the Chesapeake shore. Sue had said little on the trip and he’d left her alone with her thoughts. Instinct and training cautioned him against revealing too much to her. Instead he’d tried the bare minimum to see what she made of it.

Which had been nothing.

The White House assured him that all would be handled at the Begyn house, with no traces remaining of the bodies. Sue had changed from tight-fitting workout clothes into jeans, a long-sleeved twill shirt, coat, gloves, and boots. She was armed with both a hunting rifle and handgun, her father’s study stocked with weapons. Apparently, Lawrence Begyn believed in the 2nd Amendment.

The rain started about halfway along their journey, a cold steady drizzle that reduced visibility on the roads. She’d directed him along on a series of highways, ending up at the coastal village of Long Beach. Her father owned a house nearby, one where, she’d noted, he retreated from time to time. Luckily, Begyn had chosen yesterday to seek solitude, ahead of the uninvited visitors to his house. But Luke wondered about that timing. It seemed far too coincidental with Peter Hedlund’s call.

“I was headed back to the base today,” she said as they walked in the rain. Bare limbs rattled overhead, scattering drops of freezing water onto the nape of his neck.

“You goin’ to get in any trouble?”

“I’m not officially due back until tomorrow.”

Fifteen whole words. That’s the most she’d said since they’d climbed into the car. Before him rose a rambling white-framed house with long verandas, landward sides, and a cedar-shingled roof. A detached two-car garage stood off to the side. It sat nestled among bare maples and beech trees in the curve of an oxbow from the bay. Sue had called earlier and told her father the situation.

Waiting for them under the veranda was a tall pencil of a man with a square face and brownish-gray hair. He wore what looked like hunting clothes and carried a Browning bolt-action rifle. Luke and his brothers had each owned one, too. His father had also been a big supporter of the 2nd Amendment.

“You okay?” Begyn asked his daughter.

“She slit three men’s throats,” Luke answered.

The senior Begyn eyed him with a mixture of curiosity and contempt.

“My daughter is a soldier,” he said. “She knows how to defend herself.”

Luke stepped out of the rain onto the covered porch. “On that, we agree.”

“I just met you,” Begyn said, “but I don’t like you.”

“I get that a lot. But here’s the thing. Either we do this nice and e

asy, or we do it hard with a whole lot of federal agents around. Personally, I don’t give a crap which one you choose. But I need answers and I need them now.”

Begyn still gripped the rifle, its barrel pointed skyward, but the threat remained as the right index finger rested on the trigger.

“I assure you, Mr. Begyn, you’ll never get the chance to use that. I know how to defend myself, too.”

“There’ll be two of us,” Sue said.

He faced her down. “Bring it on, honey. I can handle you.”

She stood silent, studying him with marble eyes. Whoever trained this woman should be proud. She seemed to have taken every lesson to heart. Especially the one about listening, as opposed to talking, which he’d never been able to master. But Stephanie had told him to get answers with whatever method worked.

“What do you want?” Begyn asked.

“The 14th Colony. Hedlund said to ask you about that.”

The older man looked at him with a studied gaze.