Fires of Kiev Read online

  “Officers of Fire of Dawn, please meet our guests: Mr. Kostya Dychenko, computer engineer, and Miss Meredith St. Claire, U.S. Senator’s daughter.” He gestured toward them as if he were a game show host introducing the prizes for winning. “Today we have a treat, because Kostya, the little Russian, Kostya, says he can offer us help. Should we see what the Cossack thinks he can do?”

  The other leaders in the room followed Vlasenko’s lead and laughed, their focus centered on Kostya. Vlasenko gestured to two chairs on the end of the table before he swept to his place at the head of the table.

  “It’s Dr. St. Claire,” Kostya said, still standing while everyone sat.

  Vlasenko turned his chair toward him, confused. “What?”

  “She’s a doctor. Meredith should be addressed as Dr. St. Claire.” Kostya stared Vlasenko down until Vlasenko blinked his eyes.

  “All right. I’m not sure what difference it will make.”

  “It will make a huge difference when she is the only thing keeping you alive after a failed attack. Or if she has to treat you for a gunshot wound,” Kostya annunciated clearly. “Dr. Meredith St. Claire.”

  All eyes in the room were on this exchange until Vlasenko deferred to Meredith and did a slight head bow.

  “My apologies, Dr. St. Claire.” Meredith nodded back politely. Kostya took the small win although he wasn’t pushing the issue for Meredith’s sake. Taking the upper hand against Vlasenko, even in this small way, would have a psychological impact on everyone in the room. By witnessing Vlasenko give in, they would, at least subconsciously, see Kostya as the dominant male—the alpha dog.

  Vlasenko raised his voice impatiently to Kostya. “Now that the details are squared away, can we get started?”

  Kostya had to stifle a smile. Vlasenko had asked his permission to start.

  “I’ll explain what I can do, and then I’ll leave it up to the officers to decide if Fire of Dawn can benefit from my work.” Now he was giving the officers instructions. Brilliant.

  Kostya carefully presented the details of his work to the officers. Then, he laid out his fictional reasons to join Fire of Dawn. In Kiev, Mik had lied to him about the job and convinced him he needed to destroy his work. When he fled to the U.S., Immigration refused him, but Meredith, who he knew from her work with Doctors Without Borders, left with him so they could be together. Kostya was disenchanted by the status of the Ukraine and the failure of the government to find the criminals who killed his parents.

  “Why should we believe you?” Vlasenko said.

  “What choice do you have?” Kostya replied. “If you want to get a missile in the air on November twenty-first, I’m your only hope.”

  “Why? Do you think we haven’t been able to fix it without you?” Vlasenko bluffed. “There are other talented computer engineers in the Ukraine.”

  “Not like me,” Kostya said. “I spent six weeks working on the systems, and I know them perfectly. I’m the only person who has mapped out the encoder chip. I can complete the puzzle and get the control center and the missile communicating. Without my help, you can’t launch.”

  Some of the officers starting whispering to each other. Vlasenko started looking a little uncomfortable. One of the men, wearing military-style pants and jacket, tentatively raised his hand. Both Kostya and Vlasenko recognized him and pointed to him to talk.

  “How did you know the date? The date has been secret, only known to this group.”

  Vlasenko looked at Kostya with a puzzled look. “I’d like to know that, too.”

  Kostya realized that the date was intelligence that TRUST had figured out, and not something the person he was portraying would know. He took a breath to try to give and explanation when Meredith jumped in.

  “Seriously? It’s the only day an attack like this could be made and be interpreted correctly. The attack would tell the world that The Day of Dignity and Freedom is a farce. It is celebrating a Ukrainian-created independence that doesn’t exist. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.” Meredith rolled her eyes.

  The officers laughed at her “rocket scientist” quip, and Kostya looked at her and discreetly nodded a thank you.

  Vlasenko walked behind Meredith and Kostya, and reached over and squeezed Kostya’s shoulder. “So the question remains, what can you do for us? You know, it’s the only question keeping you alive.”

  “That, and the fact that I still have the computer chip to the encoder component.” Kostya grinned.

  Vlasenko’s eyes flashed, and he looked greedily at Kostya. “You still have it. Where is it?”

  “Would that be smart of me to just hand it over?” His lips turned up into a mischievous smile. “I have it somewhere close. But you don’t need it if you have me.”

  “What do you mean? The chip is the key. It creates the code between the control center and the missile that opens the fuel valve and allows the launch.” Vlasenko was losing his patience.

  “I memorized the algorithm. If everything else is online and working, which it should be since I’m the one who reverse engineered the components, it will take me about fifteen minutes and a laptop computer to get the system communicating and predict the sequence for the next launch.” Kostya’s announcement was met with excited whispering by the officers.

  “Petro, we’ve been trying for two weeks, and nothing,” one of the officers, wearing a business suit and taking notes, said. “He said just fifteen minutes. Let him try.”

  The muttering and whispering continued until Vlasenko raised his hands in frustration. “Enough. Do you think that everything he said is truth?” Vlasenko spun and faced Kostya, causing several of the officers to jump in their chairs. “What is your motivation? You wouldn’t do this unless you had something to gain,” he sneered. “Tell us why we can trust you are serious.”

  Kostya had everyone’s attention. Now was the time to turn on the drama. “Because the bastards killed my parents to keep them quiet,” Kostya snarled. “My own people killed my parents, first by starving them with an economy so poor it forgot the people in its heartland, and second, by refusing to handle the criminals who continue to waste our country with vandalism, larceny, burglary, and arson.” He wiped the back of his hand across his eyes. “They burned my parents alive. For this I want new leadership. I want a powerful group who can bring liberty through a firm understanding of law.”

  The room was silent for a few moments. One of the officers, visibly touched by Kostya’s explanation, stood and came forward to shake Kostya’s hand. Others muttered things like, “Liberty will come through the fire of the missile” and “Justice through Novorossiya.” Meredith stood beside him dutifully, playing the role of a love-struck woman beautifully. Kostya had gone in the room a prisoner and was emerging a leader.

  During a short break, everyone stood and milled around talking, and many came up to meet Kostya. During the exchanges, one of the guards came in and whispered to Vlasenko. He nodded, and glowered at Kostya, the officers rallying around him. Aware of Vlasenko’s movements, Kostya felt him shift his gaze to Meredith. Their eyes met uncomfortably, Meredith shifting her feet and crossing her arm in front of her, as Vlasenko leered at her like he knew something. Meredith shook off the unspoken communication, but even when she turned away, his eyes followed her. This wasn’t good.

  Kostya moved to stand close to her in a purely Alpha territorial move.

  “Are you okay, dushen’ka?” He took her hand.

  “I’m fine, but I wish I knew why he was looking at me like that. It’s really creepy.” Meredith shuddered.

  “He’s a pretty creepy guy,” Kostya said. “We’re okay. Just stay confident.”

  Vlasenko called everyone to order again, and people shuffled to their seats.

  “I think we have all been impressed with Kostya and his promises to do certain things. While I agree he is a talented engineer, we know that it is human nature to work more effectively when there is something at stake.” With a curved finger, Petro
signaled to two of his men in the back of the room. Before Meredith realized what was happening, they flanked her, holding pistols at their sides. Petro smirked at the group and addressed Meredith.

  “Dr. St. Claire, will you join me?” He stood, pushing his chair away.

  Meredith exchanged glances with Kostya, who frowned and watched cautiously as the men escorted Meredith next to Petro.

  Vlasenko put his arm around her shoulder, and she shrunk uneasily. “Meredith—oh, I mean Dr. St. Claire—you also have value to this operation, you know. In economics they call it incentive—a carrot to encourage certain behavior.” Meredith tried to shrug out from under his shoulder, but his grasp just tightened. Kostya stood to move forward, but he felt a hand on his shoulder and the familiar pressure on his back—a gun’s barrel. Kostya raised his hands helplessly. “You, apparently, are quite an incentive to our little Russian, Meredith.”

  “Don’t do this,” Meredith mumbled. The guards nudged in closer, holding guns ready.

  “I have arranged for you to stay with me, and a few guards of course, until Kostya has successfully ensured the launch of the missile in Cherkasy.”

  “No, you can’t do this. Your issue is with me, not with her, Vlasenko. Threaten me. Leave her alone,” Kostya protested.

  Vlasenko continued, unfazed. “If Kostya is successful, Meredith, you will be given a free pass to leave my country and never return. If Kostya is not successful, well, I hate to talk about failure, but let’s just say that you will still be leaving, but in a box that will be sent to your father’s office on Capitol Hill.”

  “You son of a bitch,” Kostya said. “This isn’t part of the deal.”

  “Ah, that’s the beauty,” Vlasenko jeered. “We have no deal. What we do have is an impasse. You have something of mine and now I have something of yours. Take her away.”

  The guards, who had been standing by, grabbed Meredith and forced her into handcuffs. As she struggled and cried for help, Vlasenko waved her away like he was having the guards take out the trash. How could I be so naïve, so stupid?

  “Meri, I will come for you. I will stop this madness,” Kostya roared after her.

  “Kostya,” she pleaded, tears in her eyes. “Leap tall buildings.” Her words, spoken in English, would have meant nothing to Vlasenko even if he understood, but Kostya knew exactly what she was telling him to do: save the world first and then worry about her. His heart was torn apart as she was forced down the hallway.

  Chapter 31

  The two men behind Kostya pushed against him, preventing him from going after Meredith. Grabbing a hold of his upper arms, one held a pistol to his side, and one grasped a stun gun at his neck. Kostya forced himself to inhale slowly through his nose instead of relying on the shallow panicked breaths his body naturally reacted with. Meredith was gone, but he’d be damned if he would complicate things by freaking out.

  “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you,” he promised, sneering at Vlasenko.

  “Just fix the components so they’ll work and you can have your American princess.” Vlasenko waved off Kostya. “There’s a train to Cherkasy tonight. Your well-armed friends here will make sure you’ll be on it. From there, you’ll be taken to the silo where you will work until the missile is launched.”

  “And where will you be?” Kostya demanded.

  “Kostya, Kostya.” He stepped up to him so his face was inches away from his. Taking his hand, he lightly slapped Kostya’s cheek. “Don’t you know it’s rude to question your superiors?”

  “Go to hell.” Kostya spit in his face.

  Vlasenko spun away from him and then hauled back with his fist. Catching him in the jaw, Kostya’s head snapped, but he was held in place by the two guards so he didn’t fall. Vlasenko pulled a handkerchief out of his jacket pocket and wiped Kostya’s spit off his face while blood dripped down Kostya’s chin and onto his shirt.

  “See what your insubordination made me do?” Vlasenko sneered. “That’s why you failed at EuroMaidan and why you’ll never amount to anything.” As Kostya shook off the hit, Vlasenko rattled off some instructions to the guards, and he turned and exited down the hallway.

  The next two hours were muddled in Kostya’s memory as he was forced out of the hotel, into a car, and onto a train destined for Cherkasy. The guards shoved Kostya down an aisle between the economy seats on the train. The train was cheaper than driving, but it was a more roundabout route, so the trip was scheduled to take about six hours. Kostya was shoved up into the window seat, and one of his escorts sat in the aisle. The other sat in the seat directly in front of him and set his bag in the aisle to dissuade other passengers from claiming the spot.

  My bag has my cellphone in the pocket.

  The guards had kept tabs on Kostya’s bag ever since they plucked it from the car in front of the hotel, and there was little chance of accessing the phone without them noticing. So what if he acted like it wasn’t a problem?

  “I need to call my sponsor for Humanitarian Relief International. He’ll be expecting me at the clinic and if I don’t show, he will contact the authorities.” Putting the bag on his lap, Kostya pulled out his phone.

  The guards looked at each other, unsure of what to do. “I don’t think I can let you do that,” the one next to Kostya said.

  “Why not? Vlasenko doesn’t want a bunch of people hunting around. Besides you can listen in. I won’t say anything I shouldn’t.” Kostya tapped on the back of the phone. “If he didn’t want me to call, he could have taken my phone at the hotel.”

  “It can’t hurt to stop some problems before they happen, eh?” The second guard shrugged at the first.

  The guard sitting next to Kostya nodded. “Make it quick, Cossack. We don’t need trouble.”

  Kostya dialed the phone and listened to it ring. Right before he was going to hang up, a timid voice answered.

  “Hello.”

  “Serhiy, it’s Kostya. How’s is your wife?” Kostya gave the guards an animated thumbs-up.

  “Olena is fine. She is preparing for the upcoming visitors. You know her, always the hostess.”

  “Yes, of course. But, I’m calling with news. I wanted to tell you and ask you to get a hold of Dr. Nichols as well. Meredith and I have taken different paths, and we won’t be able to get to the clinic as planned.”

  Oh? That’s too bad. Dr. Nichols will be disappointed.” Serhiy, usually very animated, used a tremendous amount of control in his voice.

  “Yes,” Kostya continued. “The clinic may need to call in replacements. There should be a lot of action around Kiev, in particular.”

  “Hmm,” Serhiy said. “Are you going to be near Cherkasy? You know you are always welcome.”

  “Yes. Yes, thank you,” Kostya said. “My work will bring me to Cherkasy soon.”

  The men said goodbye, and Kostya hung up the phone. Guard number two nudged guard number one. “See, no problem.”

  ****

  At TRUST headquarters, Ben got off the call with Serhiy just minutes after Kostya’s call. Saying his work was taking him to Cherkasy could only mean that he had been successful being assigned to the silo, but his call indicated something had gone wrong, terribly wrong. He was pretty sure he knew what Kostya meant by calling in replacements—he was asking for help—but, what did he mean about Meredith and him splitting up? Kostya never would have left Meredith’s side voluntarily.

  He ran the GPS in Kostya’s phone. He was moving between Poltava and Cherkasy. Judging from his route that ran north, he was on the train. Running a quick search, he found that the train would arrive in Cherkasy around four p.m. If he alerted his NATO contacts, he could get eyes on the train station to be ready when they arrived.

  Next, he tried to run Meredith’s location from her phone, but he didn’t get anything. Either the battery was removed from her phone, or her phone was destroyed. He didn’t like this, especially if Kostya and Meredith were separated.

  Ben called Ethan, waking him up. He explained Serhiy’s call,
and Ethan whistled. “There’s no way we’re keeping Will out of this. We better call in the troops.”

  “I thought you’d say that. Let’s meet here at…” he looked at the clock, “…nine o’clock. I should have some idea what is going on with Kostya by then.”

  Ethan agreed to alert everyone and hung up the phone. Ben looked around the room. All the equipment in the world wouldn’t help Kostya or Meredith if they got mixed up with a rebel group that was set on making a statement with death and destruction.

  He sat at his desk and logged into the CIA information system and looked for any updates to the files on Petro Vlasenko and Fire of Dawn. There wasn’t much in the way of new information, but there were some surveillance pictures taken in the city of Poltava of Vlasenko inside the hotel Palazzo. Ben slowed down and studied the pictures carefully. There were a set of three photos, taken in front of an elevator where two people were facing Vlasenko with their backs to the camera. One was male with a short, military-style haircut, and the other, female, had shoulder length blonde hair.

  “Hello, Kostya and Meredith,” he said to himself. He didn’t like what else he saw, however. Several thugs, dressed in black suits surrounded the group, and it looked like at least one was holding a gun. He set an alert to let him know if any new photos were obtained and logged out.

  Ben was pretty sure that Kostya was on the train from Poltava to Cherkasy and from there would probably be going to the silo site. His movements were predictable, and therefore TRUST could take action to help him. Meredith’s location was more difficult to predict so Ben worried. So far, he had no clue of where she was past the hotel in Poltava, and her separation from Kostya put her at risk.

  Will was going to freak out.

  And the press would have a field day if they found out.

  TRUST would have to do everything it could to keep Meredith’s role in this operation unknown but still get her home. All they had to do was find her.

  ****

  After they left Kostya and Vlasenko, Meredith was taken to one of the smaller hotel rooms on the floor. The guard unlocked her handcuffs, but she was trapped inside the room and knew there was a set of guards just outside.