Chapter 33

As promised the girl came with the tea tray at three-thirty. She set it carefully down on the end of the bed.

“Would you like me to pour, Miss?”

Meredith was hopeful that she had done something with the message, but the girl gave no hint of it yet. “Yes, a cup of tea with sweetener and lemon would be nice.”

“I know you asked for sweetener earlier,” she said and poured a cupful, her eyes caught Meredith’s, trying to say more. “Unfortunately, that kind has proven harder to find than I thought. The kitchen should have a packet for you to take with you when you go.” She looked hopefully at Meredith.

“That is most generous,” Meredith answered. “I should quite enjoy having that for my tea later.” The girl sighed, relieved, and handed Meredith a cup, bowed slightly, and left. Meredith didn’t know how she was going to get it, but at least it seemed the girl was working on getting the phone for her.

At a quarter until five, Meredith had packed her purse and her bag and was ready to walk out as soon as Vlasenko decided he was ready. Soon, one the guards entered. “I’ve been asked to restrain you until we reach the train.”

“Is this really necessary?” she complained. He pulled her hands behind her, causing her to wince. “I am going without a fight.”

“Not my call, Miss,” he replied and held the cuffs as he walked, pushing her in front of him, the other guard leading the way.

They approached the elevator and the first guard pushed the call button. As they waited, the serving girl came up from behind carrying a heavy tray of dishes, also waiting for the elevator car.

“Good evening, Miss. Sirs.” She nodded. The guards, recognizing her from earlier, grunted hello and turned to wait. When the car came, they all entered together. The girl, however, hit the tray on the door opening, dropping all her dishes onto the floor with a huge crash.

“How clumsy of me,” she cried. She knelt on the floor by Meredith’s feet to pick up dishes and the men bent down to help, too. While they scooped up dishes onto the tray, Meredith felt the strap on her purse pull as something was placed inside. She continued looking forward until all the dishes were returned to the tray. The first guard even lifted the tray for her.

“Thank you,” she said. “If my boss knew how clumsy I was, I would be in trouble.”

“Don’t worry. We won’t tell anyone,” the second guard said, winking at her. She nodded and smiled to them as she exited the car in front of them on the main floor. Meredith glanced at her purse. It was fully zipped.

They marched her through the lobby and out to a small blue sedan. The first guard opened the door for her to slide in back while the second guard entered the car on the other side. The first guard took the driver’s side and they sat and waited.

“What are we waiting for?” Meredith asked. The men stayed silent. She huffed and sat back in her seat. After several minutes, a black SUV pulled around them, and the guard driving followed on the short drive to the train station.

When they arrived, the guard sitting next to her took off her handcuffs. “I will be right behind you with a gun pointed at your back. You try to run, I shoot you. You make a scene, I shoot you. Am I clear?”

“Crystal,” Meredith said drily. There wasn’t any reason for them to be so crazy. She was being compliant.

They walked swiftly through the small station, to the platform for the train heading to Kiev. Meredith paid attention to every detail she could. It was the seven twenty-five train leaving at nine o’clock and arriving in Kiev at twelve-oh-two. Judging from the crowd at the platform, it was going to be a full train.

When the train arrived, they pushed their way to the economy section. The seats were crowded with little leg room, but they would only be on the train for about three hours. One of her escorts pushed Meredith into a row near the middle of the car by the window, and he sat in the aisle seat beside her. The other guard took the window seat in front of her, but placed a large bag in the aisle seat next to him to discourage passengers who still needed a seat. Loading took several minutes as passengers settled into their seats, but before long the car jolted forward and eased out of the station. Her two escorts relaxed slightly once they were underway, the guard next to her reading a newspaper and the one in front nodding off.

I need to see about the cell phone. Meredith held onto her purse, but didn’t dare open it no matter how distracted the guards were. She shifted in her seat and glanced around the car for ideas.

The guard next to her put down his newspaper.

“What is wrong? Why are you moving around so much?”

“I need to use the restroom,” she said. “I was looking for the lavatory.”

He sighed. “It’s in the back of the car in front of us. I’ll go with you.”

“For what reason? To listen to me tinkle?” Meredith rolled her eyes. “I can’t go anywhere. I’m on a train.”

“Let her go. She’s not going anywhere,” the second man said, roused by their conversation.

The first guard shrugged, and stood up to let Meredith out of her seat.

“Leave your purse here,” he commanded.

“Um…but I need it,” she said. “You know?”

The guard ducked his head and turned bright red. “Well, I guess so.” Meredith grabbed her purse and headed to the lavatory.

She shut and locked the door and opened her purse. The cell phone was an old-style flip phone, but it had SMS and that’s all that mattered. Switching the characters shown from Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet she punched in Will’s number and texted, “On the train to Kiev with Vlasenko. K. to silo.” She paused for a moment then added, “I’m okay.”

After sending, she made sure the phone was on silent mode but left it on. She stuck it in the back zippered pocket of her purse—which seemed to be invisible to male searchers, she reasoned.

Flushing the toilet and washing her hands, she emerged from the lavatory and stumbled back to her seat. She leaned her head against the window and pretended to sleep. She hoped Kostya had made it safely to the silo in all the snow.

****

The last part of the journey to the silo was dirt roads, but with a significant snowfall, they became treacherous to navigate. Kostya grabbed onto the roll bar of the Jeep more than once as they found their way to the silo. Finally, the road opened into the clearing Kostya recognized from just a few weeks ago when he and Bohdan had explored the silo.

Not the same as before, however, was the activity around the silo. There were several large trucks parked on the cement pads that were being kept clear of snow. With a launch expected in the next twenty-four hours, Kostya assumed some were delivering the rocket fuel that could be unstable if stored in the missile for too long. There were guards posted at the main entrance, and it looked like there was a tent set up across the clearing where the sliding silo doors were as well.

Kostya’s escorts took him to the main entrance, where the militia soldiers standing as sentry were wrapped up in thick military coats, gloves, and fur hats. The guards seemed to recognize each other, so Kostya was pushed through quickly.

“I guess you know where to go, don’t you?” one of his escorts chuckled. “Stupid rat, let’s get going.”

He pushed Kostya toward the rickety elevator lift. Barely enough room for two people, Kostya descended with the first guard, down twelve stories to the bottom of the test tube-shaped silo where the Control Center was located.

“You’re not escaping from here, eh?” The chaperone sent the elevator back up for his partner and unlocked Kostya’s hands. “Well, get on with it, Cossack. Fix the computers.”

Kostya found the encoder component, already pulled out of the rack and sitting on a bench behind the main control panel. Kostya pulled up a folding metal chair next to it.

“I’m going to need my tools,” he called out to the guard.

The custodian looked around impatiently. “They were supposed to be here for you.” He walked around. “Maybe they’re in the living quarters?”

“They won’t do me much good up there,” Kostya said. “Should I go up?” He started toward the narrow ladder in the corner of the room.

“No, I better be the one to go. Like I said, you’re not going anywhere.” He disappeared up the ladder. Kostya returned to the component and checked its connections to electricity and communications. Once he put the chip in, he’d be able to send a message on the radio waves. He went to his backpack and tore the seam, opening the pocket where he had hidden the chip.

God, forgive me for what I’m about to do, and help me to rig this right.

The consequences for enabling this component, if he didn’t figure out a way to stop the launch, were catastrophic. He would be to blame for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Keeping his breath steady, he set the encoder letters to the neutral position, and found the right casing for the chip.

The guard returned down the ladder with a toolbox on his shoulder. “The tools were there,” he said as he reached the floor. Kostya went over and took a hold of the box so he could more easily step off the ladder. “How long will this take? Vlasenko is going to call in later tonight and I’d like to be able to give him good news.”

“Yeah, join the club,” Kostya said. He set up the soldering iron and plugged it into the wall behind the bench. He was setting out the tools when he turned around. “Are you going to stare at me the whole time? It will be done when it gets done. What do you think I’m going to do down here?”

The guard backed off and found a seat behind the control panel. He swung back and forth in the wheeled office chair, and studied the lights and buttons on the panel.

“Hey Kostya, look at me push the button,” he said after a few minutes. Kostya glanced up and gave him a reproachful look. Deflated, he pulled a newspaper out of his jacket pocket and started to read.

Perfect. Kostya turned back to the component. Working without someone over his shoulder, he could start mapping out the code for a message packet for TRUST. Once the chip was installed, radio waves would carry his message, repeated over and over, in hopes that TRUST would eventually monitor the station.

There were still a lot of ifs. He would have to carefully code letter by letter. Then, anyone listening would have to scan the individual radio channels until they stumbled upon the looped code. But, the machine was ready for his input. All he had to do was get the message ready and hope that TRUST would think to communicate using Cold War methods.

****

Not far away from the silo, Serhiy Melnyk shuffled around the hidden room beneath the barn. Around him were all the components for a shortwave radio he had purchased as part of his survival gear. Excited by Dr. Nichols’s call, he was going to set the radio up and already be scanning when the two agents arrived. Imagine, him, Serhiy Melnyk, helping American spies.

He plugged in the parts expertly then scrambled to ground level to place the Yagi Wi-Fi antenna. Exiting out the sliding door, he scaled a wooden ladder propped on the side of the barn, seeking a place high enough to get the best reception. Brushing the new snow off the rungs of the ladder, he awkwardly climbed, barely balancing the long antenna while he stretched to hook it up. Almost there, he crumpled as a burst of red suddenly blossomed on his shirt. Groaning, he grasped for the rung to keep him upright, but missed. His body fell limply to the ground, staining the white snow with his crimson life.

A hundred yards away, the Assassin packed his rifle into his case and retreated, sweeping his tracks away until he reached the road.

****

Ben and Will landed in Kiev just before noon the day before the Day of Dignity and Freedom. They made it through Ukrainian customs in record time, thanks to the documentation that Hannigan provided. In the airport, cell coverage was spotty, so they stepped outside to wait for the driver who was picking them up. As soon as he found a cell signal, Will checked his phone for messages. Opening a text from an unknown number, he called Ben excitedly.

“Meredith got through! She has a cell phone.”

He looked over Will’s shoulder at her message. “I bet she’s being watched every minute,” Ben warned. “She’s probably really limited with how much she can use it. I wonder how she got a phone.”

“She can be resourceful,” Will said. “It looks like Vlasenko really is keeping her as leverage against Kostya.”

“See, I told you to bet on it.” Ben’s phone rang, so he stepped out of foot traffic to take the call.

While Ben talked, Will texted Meredith’s number to Ethan to start a location search, and then scripted a response back to Meredith: “Me & B in Kiev going to Cherkasy. E trying to find you. Keep phone on.” He pressed send, and turned back to Ben who was pacing while talking on his phone.

Hanging up, Ben looked at Will and gave a frustrated sigh. “That was Olena, Serhiy’s wife. Someone just shot him outside their barn. He was setting up the antenna for a shortwave radio.”

“Oh my God,” Will said. “Did they find anyone? Any clues?”

“Not yet, but it’s still early.” Ben turned toward the curb, watching for their ride. “Olena said we can still use their equipment if we need it.”

“Oh, wow. I hate to impose at a time like this, but we need it, don’t we?” Will shook his head. “He wasn’t even part of this. He was just helping a friend.”

A black SUV pulled up to the curb and the driver hurried out. After introductions and verifications, the driver loaded their bags and everyone got in the car.

“I know Meredith is here in Kiev, but I feel like we need to get to Cherkasy as soon as possible,” Ben said. “Meredith said she was okay. She’ll be all right for now.”

“She says she’s okay, but things can change in an instant.” Will glanced out the window at the city and stiffened his jaw. “Dammit! Why did Kostya let my sister out of his sight?”

“He may not have had much of a choice.” Ben spoke calmly. “He wouldn’t have let her go unless there was no other way.”

“I agree Vlasenko won’t do anything to her until tomorrow’s celebration, but Meredith hasn’t been trained for this. Anything can happen,” Will argued, mentally working out their best plan. “I know she’s capable, but she’s my little sister.”

“Meredith can handle herself,” Ben assured him. “The ten cities targeted by the missile may need some help.”

Will shook his head, knowing what their next steps should be. Riding the three hours to Cherkasy, he prayed they had chosen wisely.