be quick about this. I will be glad to meet you for dinner at some time in the future.”
“I look forward to that. I suppose you need a computer unlocked.”
“I do. I have your device installed, but the computer is asking for a password.”
“It is no problem. Sit back and watch me work magic.”
True to his word, the password field suddenly filled in, then the computer booted up the rest of the way.
“What are we looking for?”
“Anything you can find involving the Russian military.”
Spaso was quiet for a moment, then when he came back on the line, he wasn’t quite so laidback. “You didn’t say whose computer this was.”
She didn’t want to hide the truth from him. He was putting himself at risk to do this. “General Cherkshan’s.”
“Ah. You are asking for trouble then.”
Anna watched the screen as pages flew by. “Not if we do not get caught.”
“This is true.”
42
Stadiou Street
Omonoia District
Athens
Hellenic Republic (Greece)
February 20, 2013
A man stepped out from one of the trees that lined Stadiou Street at night, but Linko refrained from drawing his pistol. It was a careless, almost amateurish, move, but he’d been expecting something like that.
Then the man lifted his hands away from his body to show that he was unarmed. “Mr. Smith?”
Linko wore a red and black hoodie against the wind. He had a 9mm pistol on his hip under the long tail of the garment. The hoodie had been his identification to the man he was meeting. “I am Smith.”
“Please stop there, Mr. Smith. Otherwise you will be shot.”
Linko came to a stop and didn’t look around for the sniper. Since there were no other people on the street, there had to be a sniper. The street was lined with multi-storied buildings. “I am simply here to meet. If I had meant anything else, I would have brought an army.”
“These are perilous times.” The man was older, in his fifties, with curly gray hair and an equally curly gray beard. He looked like someone’s grandfather, not the leader of a revolutionary group. He also looked like the photograph of Nicolos Aigle Linko had received on his tablet PC.
“I understand. What do you wish me to do?”
“Take a ride with me.”
Linko didn’t like getting into the car with the man, but he knew disagreeing would only create problems and increase the amount of time he’d need to pull the operation together. He shrugged. “Of course.”
Aigle waved and a taxi rolled forward and stopped beside him. “Join me.” He opened the door and climbed into the vehicle.
Linko walked over to the taxi and slid into the back seat with Aigle. A soundproof glass partition separated the rear of the taxi from the driver.
The driver pulled forward without looking back.
Aigle studied Linko. “We’re just going to drive around in this area for a time, if that is all right?”
“We could have met somewhere.”
“I prefer to do my business in the back of a cab, not in a public place. Too many people are looking for me.”
Linko disagreed with that but didn’t say anything. The 17N were still hunted, that was true, but not very aggressively. They had taken their last kill in 2000, and even that assassination wasn’t universally believed to be the work of the 17N. There were some who thought the CIA had performed it, even though the last man killed had been a British military attaché.
“Of course. But the man I represent—”
“You mean President Nevsky?”
Linko went on as if Aigle had not interrupted. “—will make sure you and your organization will become much more respected in this country.”
Aigle drummed his fingers on the hand rest. “I am not so convinced.”
“You only need look to the Ukraine to see that what I am telling you is the truth.”
“I have been watching the news with great interest, comrade.”
“What you are seeing there is the result of months of long, hard work.” Linko launched into his sales pitch. “Your country is being abandoned by the West, comrade. They do not care for this place any more. Your government has become too problematic and too expensive to support. The writing was on the wall when President George W. Bush supported the Republic of Macedonia as an independent country, as well as a member of NATO. The government here doesn’t have a strong ally anymore. But you can have one if you wish.”
Aigle studied Linko. “We have been promised this before.”
“Look to the Ukraine. See what is being done.” Linko spoke passionately, and—truthfully—he felt some of that. He