Arielle Immortal Journey (The Immortal Rapture Series Book 5) (9 page)

“And, why is that so strange?” he asked.

“Well, they both hold several degrees from distinguished
universities around the world. Don’t you think that’s a bit strange?”

Nikola rubbed his chin, a puzzled look on his face. “Indeed, that is something to consider,” he said. “But to come back to the more important issue at hand, why did we fail last time? The documents were of the utmost importance, and the scientists even more so. They were both within our reach, and we lost them. I had promised the
prime minister that we were going to deliver, and I failed. Why did we put inexperienced people in charge of such an important
assignment?” A twisted scowl appeared on his awkward face.

“Actually, Alexie Miroslav was one of our best agents, but something must have gone terribly wrong. Interpol showed up at the
exact moment
he picked up the briefcase that contained the documents at the
museum.
There’s no way anyone could’ve known the meeting place. There
must be a mole among us, and that mole set them up,” Hahn said.

Nikola walked around the huge desk, and then turned to faced
them. His brown eyes were cold as ice. The men shivered. They
remained
silent; they didn’t dare to make up a story. Nikola was skilled at
detecting deception and absolutely unforgiving.

His fist slammed on the desk, making the three men jump. “The prime minister is heavily funding our group, trying to restore the prestige we deserve, but we must deliver to prove ourselves. He was furious at the scale of our incompetence. We spent huge amounts of money to get our hands on those documents, and we didn’t only fail
miserably, we lost several agents because someone didn’t do their
job
right. I expect you three to find the mole and punish him or her in
the
appropriate way. If you succeed, I’m willing to forget this, but
there’ll be no more failures.” His look was venous.

“I want you to go back to your offices and come up with a plan that is foolproof. There will be no miscalculations and no slip-ups because this time a bad outcome will be devastating to you three. I want you back in this office tomorrow morning to lay out your plan right here on this desk.” He slammed his hand on the top of his desk one more time.

“I’m sure this Sebastian Gaulle has family or loved ones. I want
you to set up surveillance and find out exactly who is most
important to him. Use any means necessary to convince him that cooperating with us is his only option. We’ve got to have the IIRL documents and designs. I don’t give a shit how you go about it. It’s one of the most
important items on the agenda, and I want to have a firm plan on
how we are going to accomplish this by tomorrow.”

The men took deep breaths after Nikola finished, and then summoned the strength to get up and walk out after promising
they’d be there first thing in the morning.

Their faces were tense, but showed a small sign of relief as they stepped outside the building. Nikola’s crazy stare, full of bitterness and hostility, had terrified them. Nikola was the kind of man that had no conscience, no scruples, and who thought anyone outside Russian Intelligence was a potential enemy. He thought of outsiders as objects, not human beings. Making a commitment to work for him was a life sentence with no outs, no alternatives.

They knew they lived in a frantic world, and they were products of their own trials and tribulations. They used fear and torture to get power. Nikola was like a live grenade ready to go off in a matter of seconds. By the time anyone realized that being part of this group was a mistake, the only way out was the morgue. The three criminals
walked silently to the car and piled in. Rainer pushed on the gas as
Hahn let out a long sigh of relief.

“What the hell was all that about?” Larue screamed from the back seat.

“I guess Nikola didn’t receive the proper thank you gift from the
Prime Minister and he’s holding us responsible for sending Alexie
over there to do the job,” Rainer said abruptly.

“I don’t remember you negotiating with anyone on this
assignment,” Hahn said, bemused.

“Hell…I know that, and he knows that. I never met Alexie, and
never had anything to do with the last assignment. It was all his
doing,
and now he is throwing the blame on us. If it had been a great
success he would have taken all the glory and praise, but since it was a total failure he’s got to blame someone else.” He let out a loud growl and cursed angrily.

“You mean us?” Larue said.

“Yes, us, and we'd better come up with a better plan,” he said, and cursed under his breath again as he stared straight ahead. The
three
men pondered failure and tensed up absentmindedly. Rainer felt
anxiety
spread across his body. Fear made him shiver. He, more than the
other two, was familiar with Nikola's response to failure.

“He wouldn’t really hurt us, would he?” Larue’s voice was filled with anguish.

“Listen, Larue, I’ve worked for that son of bitch for fifteen years, and he shows absolutely no mercy. I think he would execute his own mother if he had to. He has no soul. He is the real d’yavol.”

The car moved down the busy streets without another word spoken until the men arrived at their destination, a building located on the south side of the Neva River about five kilometers from
headquarters.
They climbed out of the car and walked towards the entrance,
moving
through the revolving glass door and stopping inside the huge
lobby.

Rainer turned to face Larue and Hahn gazing at them for a short moment. He took a deep breath and ran his tongue over his dry lips with a twinge of annoyance.

“I think we should take this to the conference room and put our
heads together. Whatever plan we come up with will have to be strong, foolproof, no nonsense. Our lives depend on the outcome.” He turned and walked into the elevator. He hit the button for the
fourteenth floor. They rode the elevator in absolute silence. The doors opened into a large, elegantly decorated corner office. Two glass walls provided an
amazing view of the river and the city below. Rich mahogany paneling covered the other walls. An antique sofa covered in
gorgeous designs
and two beautiful antique chairs sat on the opposite side of the room from where they entered. Huge flowerpots occupied each corner of the room, and an awesome mahogany desk sat right in the center. Stylish curtains in dark blue silk with decorative valences and gold trim complemented the accessories on the small tables next to each chair. The
curtains were held open on either side of the glass walls by gold handles.

A very beautiful young lady sat behind the desk talking on the phone and taking notes while a couple of guests waited to meet with
someone on that floor. The woman looked up as the elevator doors opened. She put down the receiver and gave the men a delighted smile.

“Hello, Mr. Heinrich,” she said, in a soft voice. Rainer met her gaze and returned her greeting with a wide smile on his face. It was
clear to
everyone from his smile that he was happy to see her. He
approached the desk and laid his hand on top of the young woman's
hand, his eyes never leaving her beautiful green ones. His voice
transformed into something surprisingly tender.

“Georgiana, could you please bring some coffee to the three of us in the conference room?”

She nodded, never losing her beautiful smile as she turned bright red from the excitement of his touch. She had been his
secretary for six
months. He knew that she had feelings for him and they were both single, but despite their mutual attraction he hadn’t said or done anything to cross the professional line. He shook his head,
remembering that he was
in the middle of an important assignment here; he couldn’t lose
focus,
not for one moment. He suddenly turned and walked down the long, narrow hallway with Larue and Hahn on his heels. They
passed several
offices on the way including his. He stopped at the end of the hallway in front of a door with the sign, “Intelligence Security
Services Conference Room,” and flung the door open.

“I’ve an idea,” said Larue as soon as they'd entered the room.

Rainer took a seat and motioned for them to sit. “Let me hear it,” he said eagerly.

“How about talking to Jorrit Van Cleef in Brussels? He’s an
expert
in administering malware to a company's main systems. He can make those systems vulnerable to access, and get a hold of vital
information.
Or he could take control of their browsers and monitor their activities.”

“Can he do that?” Rainer asked, curiosity piqued.

“He sure can, he can infest their system with a virus that would create chaos in their company. I’ve seen him do it before.” His eyes were filled with excitement.

“We don’t want to destroy any of their documents, we need that information,” Rainer said.

“The spyware he uses isn't a virus that spreads and destroys their documents. It installs software that explores security holes and packs them with user-installed software.”

“I don’t understand what you mean,” he said.

“In simple words, he’ll install a malicious program to their main system that is completely concealed, a program capable of defending
itself against removal, and that'll allow him to gain administrator access, therefore gaining access to passwords and other sensitive
information in the system.”

Rainer got up from his chair and put his hands behind his back. He paced back and forth without saying a word. He finally stopped in front of Larue.

“Are you sure he can do that?”

“I know he can. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes.”

“All right then, I like it. We’ll go with that, but let's have a backup plan in case something goes wrong. Do we agree? We don’t want to take any chances at all.” Hahn looked at Larue and asked, “How is that going to help us?”

“He’ll take control and monitor their system, get complete access to every piece of information they own, including the details on the documents that Nikola wants to get his hands on.”

“All right, let's move to the backup plan,” Rainer said impatiently.

“What do you suggest?” Larue asked.

“I want tight surveillance on Sebastian and his family if he has
one. I want to find out who are the people that mean the most to him. I want a detailed daily schedule for his and his family’s activities. I want photographs documenting where they go on their daily routine.”

Rainer dragged in a deep breath, and then started pacing again. A moment passed in silence. He finally stopped pacing and glancing at the two men still sitting at the conference table, he said, “If Jorrit’s
plan doesn’t work, we’ll have to set in place a logical strategy that will terrorize Gaulle’s family and force him to surrender the documents.” Hahn and Larue merely nodded, but their heads remained filled with fretfulness. What did they really know about
Gaulle and his family?
What if they failed again? The fear of Nikola’s retaliation was
enough to cause panic throughout their bodies.

Chapter 8

A SOFT KNOCK
at the door startled them. Their heads swiftly
turned as Georgiana entered the room carrying a coffee pot and three cups on a small tray. She gave a polite nod to Hahn and Larue, and a sexy smile to Rainer.

“Thanks, Georgiana, just put the tray on the table,” Rainer said, letting his lips curve in a sensual smile. She walked into the room
looking a bit shaken from Rainer’s gaze, and glanced between the three men. She moved gracefully and placed the tray on the table without saying a word. She poured coffee into the cups. When she
turned
around she found Rainer standing directly in front of her. Her
cheeks flushed crimson. Rainer coughed to clear his throat. “Thank you, Georgiana, that’ll be all,” he said softly. She gave him a warm smile just before she walked out, shutting the door softly behind her.

Rainer caught himself staring at the closed door, trying to collect his errant thoughts. He slowly closed his eyes and groaned inwardly. Turning around, he met Hahn and Larue’s amused grins. He raised his hand to silence their statements. “I don’t want to hear it,” he said
firmly. “We have more important things on the table than
Georgiana.” He walked over to the huge window overlooking the river. He stood there silently trying to find a quiet spot in his mind to separate the horrible task in hand from the sensual feelings Georgiana aroused in him. Several moments went by before he finally turned around and
took a seat next to Hahn and Larue. He reached for a coffee cup and took a sip, muttering something inaudible. Larue waited a moment,
and
then asked, “What are you planning on doing with Jorrit’s
information?”