The Whole Truth (A. Shaw 1)

“So you want revenge. That is all?”

“Isn’t it enough? I give you the information, you kill Benisti.” He paused. “And someone else,” he added slowly.

“Who?” Adolph said sharply.

“Benisti’s father. He cost me my father, I will now take his.”

Adolph sat back and considered this. “I understand that he is also guarded.”

“I have it all planned out. I have spent years planning it out.” He looked around at the skins. “These men can do it. It only requires a little courage and a steady hand.”

“And how did you come by this intelligence? That interests me greatly.”

“Why?”

“Because it has been rumored that Benisti is not above setting traps, that is why.”

Adolph motioned to his men. They seized Shaw, pulled off his jacket, and stood him up. Victor pulled out a knife and slit open Shaw’s shirt, checking for a wire. They pulled his pants off doing the same. After a search that would have made a proctologist blush with its intimacy, Shaw was allowed to put his clothes back on.

“I’m surprised you waited until now to search me,” Shaw said as he buttoned his shirt.

“What would it matter if you were a poseur and wearing a wire? You would be dead anyway. And I would be long gone before the idiots showed up here.”

“They could have surrounded this warehouse,” Shaw pointed out.

Adolph smiled patronizingly. “No, no, monsieur, they could not come within ten blocks of here without my knowing. The gendarmes, they control the parts of Paris where the tourists go, but not here I think, monsieur, not here.”

Shaw sat back down. “I am close to Benisti. He trusts me.”

“Why, after what he did to your papa?”

“He doesn’t know the man was my father,” Shaw said simply. “I left France, changed my name, assumed a new identity, and then returned. I do his dirty work behind the scenes. Oh, he trusts me, like a son. I think about the irony every day.”

“Your hatred is inspiring.”

“Do we have a deal?”

“Vive la revolution, monsieur.”

CHAPTER 40

ANNA FISCHER WAS IN HER OFFICE at The Phoenix Group building where she continued to pore over the documents that littered her desk. She actually now had more questions than answers about the Red Menace. And every day, sometimes every hour, a new revelation would burst to the surface like the aftershocks of a tsunami, and the earth would shake.

What bothered Anna the most was that there was no face, no name behind the R.I.C. Press releases were done over the Internet exclusively. No one had come forward and said I am the R.I.C. And with the murder of Petrov, and the attack on Afghanistan, Anna could perhaps understand why. Gorshkov had stated very clearly that whoever was behind this was going to be punished, and there were few nations on earth as good at punishment as the Russians.

Had this somehow backfired on the people who had perpetrated it? Were they running scared, unsure of what now to do? Anna couldn’t answer any of those queries. All she knew was that the effort had been extraordinarily well planned. Yet was it for benign or evil motives? She could understand the benign argument; Russia after all did not have an exemplary track record on human rights and there were many people and organizations out there that would love to put them in their place. The evil side Anna had a more difficult time conceptualizing. What purpose would be gained by turning Russia into an even more isolated and paranoid country? It would be akin to giving North Korea free nukes and telling them to fire away.

She rubbed her temples. She couldn’t spend all her time on this. Yet she was certain lots of other people across the world were doing the same thing right now. Someone had to find the truth at some point.

She checked her watch. It was nearly three o’clock. There was a firm-wide meeting today and all the staff was required to attend. She wasn’t looking forward to sitting through what usually turned out to be a boring discussion. But at least she had a half hour to work on something of importance. And then this evening she had something still more critical to do.

She was going shopping for her wedding dress. Her in a wedding dress? Anna smiled at the thought and her skin actually tingled. The only thing better would be seeing Shaw in a tux. She had no doubt he would carry it off wonderfully.

With the world in crisis, it seemed ludicrous to be thinking about dresses and weddings. On the other hand, if the world were going to blow up sooner rather than later, she had no desire to wait to legalize her relationship with the man she loved.

A few minutes later she was so intent on her work that she never heard what was going on downstairs.

At precisely the same instant the front and rear doors of the building burst open and twelve men wearing long coats swarmed in. From under their coats they drew silenced weapons, took aim, and started firing.