Betrayed: (A Financial and Conspiracies Thriller – Book 1 in the Legacy Thriller Series) by William Wield Read Free Book Online

doubly certain.’
    ‘Our second main focus at present,’ said Komarov, ‘is the anti-Crimea and Ukraine dissidents. The President’s determined to get back control of these two and we must silence the internal dissent on this policy of his. How are we doing there?’
    ‘Funny you should mention that,’ said Rostov. ‘You know the automatic warning system we have when anyone on the dissident list tries to move money or assets?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Just minutes ago one of them, an old friend of the President’s, tried to move a large sum out of Spain and into the UK’, said Rostov. ‘It came up on our private link with the SVR.’ Komarov was particularly pleased that not only did he have a private link to the Russian Federation’s foreign intelligence, the Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki, the SVR for short, he also had virtually the exclusive services of one of its most dedicated operatives, Danil Morozov.’
    Komarov glanced at his watch and gave a sigh of relief, Danil Morozov would not be on duty at the moment – on this occasion he needed someone with no link to this office.
    ‘Do we have the SVR’s report on that yet?’ asked Komarov, ‘their 24/7 surveillance of all foreign internet and email traffic is sure to have logged it as well as spotting it.’
    ‘Yes, that’s where the SVR’s better than the UK’s GCHQ, we keep everything but I believe that thanks to their great democracy, they’re not allowed to keep everything without getting permission from their Courts. Can you imagine anything so ridiculous? So, to answer your question, the SVR will be sending it through shortly,’ replied Rostov, ‘though I know the outline of it now, if you’re interested.’
    ‘No, no, I can wait for the fuller report itself.’
    ‘Well, if that’s all for now, I thought I’d get off to lunch,’ said Rostov, ‘you coming too?’
    ‘No, I’ve got a couple of things to deal with, I’ll see you later’ said Komarov.
     
    As soon as Rostov had left, Komarov picked up the direct line to the SVR. He read off the code of the operative who had sent the most recent report and asked to speak to him. After that it was just routine investigative work and half an hour later he had the information he needed – a substantially enhanced report on what had happened after Boreyev had tried to move his money from the bank in Mijas. It was standard SVR’s practice, putting a bomb-scare down to a bank to close it if a dissident who was trying to move money. This had been automatically triggered when the Craithe team tried to move Boreyev’s money. But what interested Komarov was that a few minutes later Boreyev’s money had vanished. Even more interesting it was gone without trace after the bomb threat.
    An important addition in the new report was further information on Angus Macrae. This was brief but thorough. It covered Macrae’s career with the Towneley Bank, his secondment to the Vassilov Kapital Bank in Moscow and then his setting up of the joint-venture investment Towneley-Vassilov Bank on the Isle of Man. On the personal side, it also noted that he had married the daughter of the oligarch, Mikhail Vassilov. All the other standard checks on both him and the new Isle of Man bank were strongly positive.
    Komarov was delighted with these findings and put a call through to the said Angus Macrae. Although his English was good, he spoke in Russian. ‘Mr Macrae, this is Igor Komarov here; you don’t know me but I’m a friend of your father-in-law Mikhail Vassilov’.
    ‘Yes Mr Komarov,’ replied Angus in English, ‘what can I do for you?’
    ‘I am aware that you will be about to leave for the weekend, so I’ll be brief. I was most impressed with the way you were able to move your friend Mr Boreyev’s money for him from the bank in…’
    ‘Mr Komarov, I’m sorry to cut you off there, but I’m afraid that…’
    ‘My turn to interrupt you Mr Macrae, I’m on your side. I have it in my power to do you a great favour