From Russia Without Love by Stephen Templin Read Free Book Online Page B

Xander said to Animus quietly. “Make sure the rest of our people are standing by to back them up at a moment’s notice.”
    He nodded. “Yes, sir.”
    “Kidnapping Michael Winthrop has already caused concern among the other UKP employees participating in the pipeline project. I tried to milk this for all it is worth, but with these attachés snooping around, we may have to kill the kid sooner than I expected. We may need to move on to Phase Two.”
    “UKP headquarters in London, sir?”
    Xander nodded. “Go ahead and make reservations for our crew. Get us as close to the target as you can. I want to be ready to move in an instant. We can always cancel the reservations if we decide to begin Phase Two later.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “We may not be able convince UKP’s leadership to stop constructing TAP, but if we hit their employees hard enough, we should be able to slow construction down.” Xander patted Animus on the shoulder and smiled. “Striking fear in their hearts is key.”

5
    _______
    C hris, Hannah, and Sonny were back in Hannah’s hotel room when Chris’s cell phone rang.
    “Young,” he answered, “I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon.”
    “The computer hack Hannah initiated was terminated from the target’s end,” Young said, getting right to business.
    “What does that mean?” Chris asked.
    “Someone cut the power source and internet connection.”
    “Do you think he suspects we tried to hack him?”
    “It’s possible,” Young said. “I haven’t had time to analyze the data we were able to download, but a visual check is showing a lot of searches about Michael Winthrop and United Kingdom Petroleum.”
    “Hannah accessed the bathroom in the master bedroom, too,” Chris said, “and she took a hair sample from a comb, I assume it’s Xander’s, but she’ll send the samples to you by courier, so you can check the DNA and see if it matches anyone in our database.”
    “Will do,” Young said.
    “Can you get a cell number for Xander?” he asked. “And have NSA feed us the GPS coordinates in real time?” Xander’s phone wouldn’t even have to be switched on for NSA to track it.
    “I’m on it,” Young said.
    “Thanks,” Chris said. “Out.”
    He updated the others once he hung up, and Hannah requested an Agency courier to pick up the DNA sample. Within an hour, it had been picked up and was on its way. Soon after, Chris’s phone rang again, and he answered it.
    “NSA found a match for the digital recording of the first person in the conversation with you,” Young said.
    “The first person in the recording was Xander Metaxas,” Chris said.
    “NSA matched it with a Russian spy.”
    “Russian spy?” Chris asked, immediately sparking Hannah and Sonny’s interest in the conversation. He met Hannah’s eyes, then Sonny’s. “Are you sure Xander is a Russian spy?”
    “His code name is Bayushki Bayu .” Chris recognized the phrase as something Russian mothers said to their babies to put them to sleep, but there was no direct English translation for it. “NSA and the Agency’s code name for him is Lullaby. He’s an FSB officer, a Non-Official Cover.” After the USSR was dissolved, the KGB’s foreign operations were restructured into the FSB, Russia’s version of the CIA. “Rather than work as an official spy with diplomatic cover in an embassy, Lullaby operated away from embassies and trade missions. Although Lullaby didn’t have diplomatic immunity, he had more independence and could mingle more easily in Greece, go into deep cover.”
    “I suspected Xander of being a Greek terrorist, but I’m stunned to hear he’s a Russian spy. How sure are you about this?” Chris asked.
    “Given the quality of the comparison recording and the quality of your recording,” Young said, “it’s almost a seventy-five percent match. It isn’t one hundred percent, but these matches never are. Lullaby works under Directorate S, which handles illegal intelligence,