CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
After the mission briefing, the group split up and headed in different directions. For this charade to work, they needed to make it look like an actual transaction was taking place on Suomenlinna. That meant they had to arrive at the island complex in different boats at different times in case Volkov’s men were monitoring things from afar.
Dressed in green camouflage, Payne, Jones, and Jarkko left the airport in a bulletproof SUV with heavily tinted windows. With most of their preparations focused on the islands, Payne was concerned that Volkov might stage an attack before they even reached the water. Thankfully, this was where Jarkko’s local contacts came in handy. He had them positioned throughout the region, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious along the route from the airport to the city.
Helsinki sits on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, which is the eastern arm of the Baltic Sea. Approximately two hundred miles from Russia, the capital city is flanked by thousands of small islands that protect its natural harbor. Sprawling for blocks along the scenic waterfront is the world-famous Kauppatori Market. It comes alive with tourists during the warmer months, attracting a wide variety of vendors who sell everything from fresh fruits and grilled salmon to fancy jewelry and animal pelts.
As the SUV headed behind the marketplace, memories of their last visit came flooding back. This was where Payne and Jones had met Jarkko for the first time. The three of them briefly reminisced about their initial encounter while they kept an eye on the road ahead. At this time of day, most of the vendors were packing up their brightly colored stalls and loading them into trucks. The sun would stay up for a few more hours, but the workers were calling it a night.
A few blocks later, Jarkko’s driver pulled up to the gate of a private marina and punched in the appropriate code. The mechanical arm lifted, and he drove the SUV into a small parking lot next to the water. Payne and Jones climbed out of the back seat and surveyed their immediate surroundings. As they did, their attention was drawn toward the large building behind them.
On a hill to their west was Uspenski Cathedral, a spectacular red-bricked church with thirteen green-and-gold onion domes, representing Christ and the twelve apostles. Modeled after a sixteenth-century church in Moscow, its bricks came from the Bomarsund fortress in Aland, Finland, which had been destroyed during the Crimean War in 1854. Regardless of its beauty, the largest Russian Orthodox church in western Europe somehow filled them with dread, as if Volkov himself was peering down at them.
Despite their confidence, they were suddenly unnerved.
It was a feeling they weren’t used to.
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Although Volkov wasn’t at the cathedral, one of his goons was. He was posing as a tourist and pretending to take pictures of the church’s central dome and monolithic pillars.
When the tinted SUV drove past on the road below, he shifted his focus to the vehicle and snapped several pictures with his telephoto lens. He took several more when the three passengers exited the vehicle and walked toward a speedboat in the marina.
Using the camera’s zoom, he inspected the faces of the men and compared them to the photos on his phone that he had been sent that morning.
They were a definite match.
The Finn and the Americans were in town.
And they were heading toward Suomenlinna.
He quickly sent a message to Volkov, who forwarded the news to his other goons. They were patiently waiting to make their move but wouldn’t do it until Kaiser arrived.
Once he did, they would launch their assault.
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Unable to turn off the security cameras at a major airport, Kaiser’s men smuggled him from the briefing room in the private hangar to a terminal on the other side of the facility. That way if Volkov’s men were monitoring the airfield, it would appear that he didn’t come in contact with Payne and Jones prior to their meeting at Suomenlinna.
To continue the ruse, he also took a different route into Helsinki and launched his boat from a different marina. Instead of departing from a marina near the cathedral, his driver took him to the West Harbour on the opposite side of the city. His voyage to the island complex would be slightly longer, but that was all a part of their plan. His friends wanted to get there first to make sure everything was in place for his arrival.
For this to work, their timing needed to be precise.
◊ ◊ ◊
Jarkko parked his speedboat in the guest marina on the north side of Island 2, where he was met by two burly men with rifles who worked in the nearby Suomenlinna Dry Dock. The facility was massive and occupied the northern third of the island, but thanks to a narrow channel that separated it from the southern part of the isle, it would be kept out of harm’s way.
Over the years, Jarkko had brought his boats to the dry dock for repairs and had stored them there during the cold winter months when the Gulf of Finland was clogged with ice. On several occasions, he had also utilized the workers’ expertise to hide certain contraband in the gaps below his decks, so he was more than just friendly with the staff.
They were on his payroll.
In Finnish, these men assured him that they had spread word amongst the civilian population on the island about the upcoming battle and everyone had departed on the earlier ferries. The men had also flipped the circuit breakers for Island 1 and 2, which knocked out all of the security cameras in the warzone. Jarkko thanked them for their efforts by slipping each of them an envelope stuffed with cash before they headed back to guard the marina.
No one would be docking there on their watch.
Payne glanced at Jarkko. “We good?”
Jarkko nodded. “No people. No power.”
Jones smiled. “Glad to hear it.”
The trio hustled past the shipyard on their right toward the lone bridge to Island 3. As promised, Kaiser had positioned a man with an assault rifle on the southern side of the channel. Payne chatted with him briefly to make sure he understood his importance to the master plan. The guard seemed nervous, but that was perfectly normal before a major battle.
Thanks to the fortified bastions along the water, there were limited places to dock on Island 1 and 2. Unfortunately, there were plenty of docks on Island 3, 4, and 5. But as long as Volkov’s men couldn’t cross this bridge, the trio wouldn’t need to worry about a rear assault.
Unless, of course, the Russians decided to swim for it.
If they did that, then all bets were off.
But Payne and Jones doubted they would.
They were facing henchmen, not frogmen.
Based on experience, they knew goons tried to stay dry.
◊ ◊ ◊
Because of his limp, Kaiser ordered his boat to drop him off at the narrow isthmus between Island 1 and 2. It was as close to the rendezvous point as possible. From the western inlet, he had a short walk up the bank to a well-worn path that led to the center of the southernmost island.
That’s where the fake exchange was supposed to take place.
When he reached the top of the knoll, Kaiser noted that his guards were no longer patrolling the western flank near the massive cannons from the abandoned fort. Instead, his men had concealed themselves in the trees and foliage scattered across the verdant isle. Having traveled the world, Kaiser noticed the similarities to the rolling hills of Scotland. As the wind whipped in from the sea, the overgrown grasses danced in spite of the coming war.
If not for the gun in his hand, he would have stopped to admire the beauty.
◊ ◊ ◊
Positioned in the center of the island, Payne and Jones smiled when they saw Kaiser crest the hill. Ever since they had left his side at the airport, they had been concerned for his safety.
Obviously Kaiser knew his men better than they did, but Payne and Jones realized that loyalty only went so far. For the right price, they knew anything could be bought, and they were worried that this would be the perfect time for a guard to go shopping for a better deal.
Now that Kaiser was here, they could keep an eye on him.
Unfortunately, so could the traitor.