Ekaterina’s Story
Still dazed, Ekaterina took a seat at one of the small circular tables. She touched its edges to reassure herself that it existed. The other women and Bulatov were ensconced at one of the longer, oblong tables. Novak and Frank Harvey remained standing.
‘What just happened?’
Novak said, ‘We knew about your vault. Knew it would be impossible to break into. So we thought, why bother? You see, you’ve just witnessed a heist. And you didn’t even realise it.’
‘But how?’
‘Well,’ Novak continued, ‘the Colonel and I decided to join forces. When we were both seized, he had us carefully transported to this place. It’s a replica of Ipatiev House. Or, rather, parts of your Ipatiev House. Like you said, getting details of the original is fairly easy. The only snag was getting your office correct. When I visited you, I wore a tiepin that actually recorded the whole thing, so we got what we needed from the footage. The one problem, of course, was the desk drawers. We didn’t have a clue what was in them. When you opened them, I thought the game was up.’
‘That’s why they were empty . . .’
‘Exactly! There wasn’t time to recreate all the corridors, hence the sack cloth bags placed over our heads. Sorry about that. And you were injected with a low-level dose of Valium that made you a little fuzzy. Just another way of diminishing your perceptual awareness. The basement was good, though, wasn’t it? There was an extra step leading to it, though. Not going to lie – low-key annoyed by that, but, hey – nobody’s perfect!’
Colonel Bulatov took up the story. ‘I knew you would need, let’s call it an incentive to open the vault. Which is why we staged the deaths of Mr Novak’s friends. Pig-blood pellets detonated by remote control. Blank bullets. I’m sure you can guess the rest.’
‘I didn’t feel a pulse in any of their necks,’ Novak mused, as if to himself, ‘because I didn’t bother trying to find one.’
‘We bought out Pavel, which was easy, because you had him on minimum wage.’ Frank took a sip of his Platinum Punch. ‘That side of the sting was all organised and choreographed by an old friend of ours. Sebby Hughes. I’m just gutted he couldn’t hang around for the after-work drinks.’
Ekaterina, still in a state of shock, panned across their faces. ‘But I saw you shoot Bulatov in the head!’
‘No. You saw me and Maksim acting out a little scene that was later enhanced with some special effects. Looked good, though, didn’t it? When you switched on the monitor, we simply played the video. We shot the short film as part of the . . . Hold on . . . Cheers.’ He took a mouthful of his drink. ‘You know, this La Belle 1890 really is to die for.’
Sophie replied, ‘I think there’s already been more than enough dying for one day! Incidentally, Katty, you’ve probably worked it out by now, but when you entered the ten-digit sequence code into the replica vault, well, we rather had the number relayed to us.’
‘And in case you were worried,’ Frank chipped in, ‘we also recorded your voice verification, so we can go straight to your Ipatiev House, open the vault and take the Romanov Code.’
Ekaterina shook her head. ‘Helen won’t let you within a mile of it.’
‘Give over, luv!’ Stacey gave a brief laugh. ‘After we’ve shown her your video confession of how you’ve abused and misused the Foundation, I think she’ll do anything we ask.’
‘Your problem,’ Molly informed her, ‘is that you believed history always repeats itself. And it normally does. But once in every hundred times, we learn. We move on.’
‘What’s going to happen to me?’
Novak looked at his watch. ‘Jeremy Simmonds’ people should be arriving shortly. There won’t be any fuss. You’ll be taken directly to Moscow and handed over to an old friend of yours.’
Ekaterina looked at Colonel Bulatov and he nodded. ‘Don’t worry, my dear. We’ll find you a real vault in Russia.’