Black Ops (Presidential Agent 5)

"Come on, Colonel," Castillo said. "You know damned well what I mean."

"You just admitted you're CIA, you realize," Berezovsky said. "How else would you know about him, about them?"

"If you want to think I'm with the agency, suit yourself. But I just saw in Svetlana's eyes that I hit home when I asked about the Kuhls. . . ."

Berezovsky's eyes flashed to his sister.

And so did that look, Tom, ol' buddy.

"So, answer my question: How close behind you are they?"

Berezovsky gave him an icy look.

"We don't know that they are," Svetlana repeated evenly.

Castillo met her eyes.

"But the termination of the Kuhls makes it a possibility?"

"It is likely what happened to the Kuhls was intended as a message to somebody. It could be a message to us."

"Are you a believer in the worst-case scenario, Colonel?" Castillo asked, and then made a clarification: "Colonel Alekseeva?"

"Sometimes that's useful," she said.

"Do they know you're going to Vienna?"

She nodded. "The Hermitage is loaning to the Kunsthistorisches Museum Bartolomeo Rastrelli's wax statue of Peter the First. Do you know it, by chance?"

Castillo nodded. He had seen the early-eighteenth-century Madam Tussaud-like wax statue in the museum in Saint Petersburg.

"I'm surprised that the Hermitage would let it out the door," Castillo said.

"As a gesture of friendship and a hope for peace between old enemies," she said evenly. "Mr. Putin is now a friend of the West, in case you hadn't heard."

"I have heard that, now that you mention it."

She smiled at him again.

"It is very well-packed and traveling under heavy guard by road. From Vienna it will go to Berlin, then Copenhagen . . . and some other cities. This gives us a chance to see people we sometimes don't often get to see."

"The worst-case scenario being they will grab you at the Westbahnhof?"

"Or wait for confirmation of our treason when we meet our contact, or our contact tries to contact us. Both scenarios, of course, presume they know our intentions."

So this Let's Defect business didn't start last week, huh?

I should've known it didn't. . . .

"Who's your contact in Vienna?" Castillo asked.

"I've answered all of your questions," Svetlana said. "Now answer my brother's question about your airplane."

"Okay. What was it you wanted to know, Tom?"

"First, is it under your control?"

Castillo nodded.