58

 

Kell was the last to arrive at the eight o’clock meeting. The other members of the team had already gathered at a large outdoor table on the south side of Deribasovskaya, their seats partly screened from the street by a slatted white fence entwined with fairy lights and fake vines. Kell had chosen the restaurant because of several reviews on TripAdvisor describing it as “busy” and “extremely noisy.” Sure enough, there were several sources of music in the immediate area, including Russian pop tunes blaring from two speakers at the entrance to the restaurant and a folk band playing live across the street through a small, crackling amplifier.

“Nice and peaceful,” Kell muttered as he took his seat at the center of the table. He shook hands with Harold and Danny, kissed Elsa and Carol on the cheek. To the rest—Nina, Jez, Javed, and Alicia, a Russian-speaking SIS analyst brought along as a translator—he nodded and smiled. “How’s everybody enjoying their holiday so far?”

“I am enjoying myself very much,” Elsa replied, a sentiment echoed by Jez, who said he had spent the afternoon at Arkadia Beach with Carol.

“And you?” Kell asked Harold.

“I was just educating the masses on the history of this fine city,” he replied, brandishing a paperback book from which he began to read. Kell was glad for Harold’s icebreaking charm. It was good for morale. “Did you know that Catherine the Great had a one-eyed secret husband?”

“A one-eyed secret husband,” Kell repeated, ordering a beer from the waiter. “I did not know that.”

“Odessa was once the most vibrant port in the whole of the Russian empire,” Harold continued, flicking through the pages of the book. Elsa looked confused. His sense of humor had always baffled her. “Everything came through this place in the old days. Wines from France, olive oil from Italy, nuts from Turkey, dried fruits from the Levant…”

“The what?” Nina asked.

“The Levant,” Harold replied, without condescension. “Otherwise known as the Middle East.” Kell picked up a laminated menu on which every dish appeared with an illustrating photograph. “Then it all came to an end.”

“Why?” Danny asked, from the end of the table. “Soviet Union?”

“Suez,” Kell replied. “Canal.”

Harold flattened the book spine-up on the table. “Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams.” Kell looked at the sepia-tinted photograph of the Potemkin Steps on the cover and said: “What’s everyone eating?”

It was a ritual he had endured many times in his career. As usual, there was very little operational conversation until the food had arrived. Kell knew from experience that it was best to allow teams to relax in one another’s company before turning to business. The time also allowed him to assess each member of the team. Did anyone seem nervous or tired? Were there tensions between individuals, or particularly strong bonds of friendship? Though Carol seemed quiet and somewhat out of place, he was satisfied that there were no obvious problems and began with an overview of what was planned for the morning.

“The ship is due to dock at eleven o’clock. I’ll be keeping an eye out; Elsa has been tracking her progress across the Black Sea. There’s every chance the boat could be an hour early, an hour late, so everybody needs to be ready and prepared by eight, phones live from midnight tonight. Goes without saying, keep them charged.” The restaurant was now so noisy, and the activity on Deribasovskaya so unceasing, that Kell knew there was no chance of his remarks being overheard. “You’ve all seen photographs of ABACUS,” he said. “We have a pretty good idea of the clothes he packed, what he might be wearing. I assume all of you have seen those notes on Gmail?” Kell registered a series of nods and muttered affirmatives. “Myself, Danny, Carol, Nina, and Javed will be down at the port terminal with two cars. It’s vital that we identify ABACUS as quickly as possible. At the same time, we all need to be looking out for a welcoming party. If it’s substantial, if for example an advance team gets onto Serenissima and brings the package out, that’s the end of it. We walk away.”

Danny looked down at his half-eaten plate of food. He had lobbied hard for a military solution that would have allowed Kleckner to leave Odessa in an SVR vehicle that would be subsequently immobilized by Special Forces. Conscious of the diplomatic fallout from such a plan, quite apart from the constraints imposed by time, Kell had snuffed it out without even running it past Amelia.

“If, on the other hand, our friends in Moscow are trying to be discreet, if there’s just a car of heavies and Minasian to cope with, we’ve got a playable chance. Keep talking to one another, give me positions, keep everybody informed. Trust one another, use your experience.”

There was a sudden break in the folk music across the street. Kell paused, draining his beer.

“Could you just tell us where everybody’s going to be?” Carol asked.

Kell took out his camera and began to pass it around the table, showing each member of the team their starting positions for the morning. Harold would be waiting with Kell and Danny on the quayside, ready to touch Kleckner in a brush contact, attaching a tracker to his clothing. Carol would be positioned inside the terminal building, waiting for Kleckner to pass through customs. Javed and Nina would be fluid in the port, an extra pair of eyes watching for Minasian, for Kleckner, for any sign of SVR personnel. Elsa and Alicia were to wait in two taxis parked close to the main exit of the terminal complex. There was only one way into the port and one way out. If Minasian came out with Kleckner, they were to follow the SVR until Kell, Aldrich, and Jez could join the pursuit. Jez himself was to park in the Italianate square at the top of the Potemkin Steps, role-playing a Ukrainian cab driver. Kell explained to the team that he was hoping to drive Kleckner away from the terminal on foot. If there were no taxis passing on the two-lane highway outside the port, the American would have no other option but to continue up the Potemkin Steps. If he failed to take the bait from Jez and made it into the center of Odessa, they would be in a game of cat and mouse with an expert in countersurveillance. Hence the need for workable comms, several vehicles, and for Harold, Elsa, and Alicia pulling information from the ether.

“And how do we get Ryan into one of the cars?” Nina asked. “What if it’s just me and him and an opportunity?”

“It won’t be,” Kell reassured her. “The only people who are going to physically interact with Minasian and Kleckner are myself, Danny, and Jez. Nobody else is to take that risk. Understood?”

“Understood,” Carol muttered.

“And how exactly are you going to do that?” Nina asked. Kell didn’t much like her tone. “How are you going to physically interact with him?”

“Leave that to us,” Danny told her.