the Argonauts. One of the kraters, large vases used to mix wine and water, depicted images of warriors armed with spears. Lourds had helped validate the krater and translated the writing on the bottom. The engraving was simply a prayer to Poseidon, but it named two ships and a captain. Lourds still didn’t know the stories of those ships and that captain. They were just details swallowed up in the inexorable march of history.
Marias was a couple inches taller than Lourds and had a shaved head and a neat, trim goatee that was black as coal. He wore a suit that fit him well, but his jacket hung over one arm. His hazel eyes raked Captain Fitrat and the two soldiers with him.
Marias smiled at Lourds. “Military?” He knew military because he had been a soldier for a time.
He spoke in Greek. Neither Fitrat nor the soldiers knew the language. Lourds nodded. “They’re a personal security detachment. Layla sent them to watch over me.”
“You’re still seeing her?”
“I’d be an idiot not to be.”
“Upon that, we can agree. They speak English?”
“Quite well.”
“Good.” Marias stepped forward, offered his hand to Fitrat, and switched to English. “Dr. Adonis Marias.”
“Captain Jamshid Fitrat, at your service.” Fitrat pointed to the other two men. “Corporals Rahimi and Salih.”
The two young soldiers stepped forward and shook hands with Marias.
Marias turned to Lourds. “You said you had a document you wanted me to look over.”
“I do, but we’re going to need some space to work.”
“I have a rather large office in the back we can use. And some good Turkish coffee. Or wine, if you’re in the mood.”
Lourds smiled. “Coffee. I have missed that the past few days.” He looked at Fitrat. “Nothing against tea, but I have a preference for what I grew up with.”
Fitrat nodded and smiled. “Will there be tea?”
Marias strode across the room, dodging the displays. “Of course there will be tea. And cakes, if you’d like something to nosh on.”
***
General Anton Cherkshan Residence
Patriarshiye Ponds
Moscow, Russian Federation
February 20, 2013
“I have managed to go beyond your father’s computer, Anna. These things you are seeing now, they are from somewhere inside military command. I had to hack through more than a few firewalls to get this far, but I am nothing short of incredible. I have told you this before.”
Anna’s stomach knotted up at Spaso’s revelation. What she had seen so far was astounding. Evidently, the general had worked on the preliminary invasion of the Ukraine from his study, and he had drawn on sources within the military complex to do it.
“None of these files are on your father’s computer. In fact, I do not know if they ever were. I could find nothing of these on his hard drive.”
“Perhaps he used a portable drive.”
“It would not matter. There would still be traces. I would have found them. No, he was very careful about what he was doing there. The path I have found back into the military computers? That came from a program someone put on his computer to spy on him.”
“He was being spied on?” That frightened Anna. It was one thing to imagine the general as an unwavering force, but to know that he was vulnerable to someone outside was upsetting.
“This is Russia. I have told you. Everyone spies on everyone.”
“I do not.”
Spaso tsked. “Even if that were true before today, it is no longer true, is it?”
Silently, Anna admitted that it was not. Her guilt was overwhelming, but her need to know was stronger.
“Anna, I did not mean that. It was a jest. All in fun.”
“I know.”
“What you are doing is very brave. The fact that you are your father’s daughter is even more remarkable. No one I know could do what you are doing.”
“Betraying my father?”
“Do not look at it like that. This thing that is being done, Nevsky’s ‘reunification’ effort, must be stopped. Someone has to reveal all the treacheries the man has committed.”
“But my father—the general—has been the architect of the fall of the Ukraine.”
“He was a man simply doing his job, Anna. You have to understand that.”
“I am trying. But I cannot fathom why he would do this, knowing people were going to die.”
“I suspect he sees himself as saving a great many people. Perhaps he even imagines he is saving you by making the Russian Federation stronger.”
“He is taking away freedoms.”
Spaso was silent for a moment, then his voice got harder. “Do you see him as a monster, Anna? Is he a cold-hearted killer?”