I Minus 72 (11 page)

“Okay, that sounds great. First I have to
unpack, hang up some things and freshen up a bit. I don’t want to
have to iron anything. You go ahead and I’ll join you in a few
minutes.”

“I’ll meet you there,” Grant replied and
went into the hall towards the elevators. It wasn’t wrinkled
clothes he was worried about.

Grant took the elevator to the first floor,
wandered around the lobby until he found the restaurant and took a
seat in a booth near the door. The man, still sitting reading his
paper, noticed him as he entered the lobby and watched him go into
the restaurant. From his vantage point, he couldn’t see where
Thurmond sat, but there was only one way in and one out. He knew
Thurmond wouldn’t be going out another door. The man waited for
about three minutes, didn’t want to seem too obvious, and entered
the restaurant. Without waiting to be seated, he took a table in a
place in the darkest corner he could find.

Grant casually looked around and noticed
that the seats were covered with a red plastic-like material and,
at least in his booth, there were several punctures in the plastic
where the stuffing showed through. He continued to look around,
checking out everyone in the restaurant. Since no one knew they
were in Poland, Grant was sure they weren’t being watched, but,
well, you couldn’t be too careful. After a few minutes, a waitress
approached his booth and asked, in Polish, what he wanted. He asked
if she spoke English, to which she replied, “Yes, some.”

“Enough that I can order in English?”

“Yes,” she said. “We have all learned
English because we have so many foreign visitors to serve. English
is the standard language for travelers, you know, no matter where
they are from.”

“Great. I’m expecting my companion to arrive
shortly and we’ll be having lunch.”

“Would you like anything while you wait?”
the waitress asked.

“
I think I’ll have a
beer.” Grant responded.

“What beer you will have?”

“Do you have Tyskie?” He asked. It was the
only beer name he could remember.

“Yes, of course,” she responded with a
smile.

“Then that’s what I’ll have,” he said.

The waitress soon returned with a full
pilsner glass of beer, topped by a generous head. Grant took a sip,
wiped off the foam mustache and thought, Man, that’s great. Better
than I remembered. Wonder if they’ve changed the formula since the
Soviets left?

He finished one glass and, breaking his
usual routine of only having one drink when on a mission, started
on the second by the time Sam arrived.

“What’re you drinking?” she asked as she sat
down across the booth from him.

“Tyskie, a local beer. I’ll order one for
you.”

“Thanks,” she smiled.

As this was happening, in the dark corner of
the restaurant Vladimir watched both of them as they talked. He had
not been informed that Thurmond would be traveling with a
companion. Again he thought, was she an agent? A girlfriend? No,
he’d never risk a girlfriend on a mission. Whatever, she was
certainly an added complication, but not an insurmountable one. In
handling her, though, he had to assume that she was trained and
could be dangerous.

After a very pleasant, local-style lunch of
sausages and potatoes, Grant suggested to Sam that they walk around
Warsaw’s downtown area, both to familiarize themselves with the
layout and to see the sights. Although he didn’t want to alarm Sam,
what he really wanted was to see if they were being followed. After
strolling along the main street for about half an hour, Grant
paused a moment to look into a store front window.

“You seem awfully interested in women’s
clothing,” Sam joked with a smile.

Grant replied in a low voice, “Just checking
on something.” He then bent over to retie his right shoe, taking a
good look around as he did so.

His tone got Sam’s attention. “What? Did you
see something?”

“I thought I saw someone
following us, but I don’t see him now. Wish I’d gotten a better
look at him. Didn’t see the face at all. It may be a coincidence,
although I’m not really a big believer in coincidences. We’d better
stay alert. Let me know immediately if you see
anything
out of the ordinary, no
matter how unimportant you think it is.”

“Will do. Now you’ve got me a little
nervous.” Sam was no longer smiling.

“Good. You’ll be more observant if you’re
expecting something to happen. Just don’t be obvious about it.”
Grant replied, then suggested they continue walking.

Grant didn’t notice anything suspicious for
the rest of their walk and when they arrived back at the hotel a
couple of hours later he told Sam he needed time to go over the
list and study the detailed map of Warsaw. He knew the markings,
the mark points and the meeting time and place for each of the
three people remaining in this area. He explained to Sam that his
plan was to try the marks this afternoon. He had no knowledge of
whether the contacts were still alive and, if so, if any of them
were still in the area. Nor did he know if they would follow up on
the marks even if they saw them. But, it was all he had.

Koslowski told him that although several of
the people in the network had moved, some back to Russia, he
thought these three were still in place. Grant felt he had no
choice but to go for it. Since the old scheduled meeting times were
hours apart, he could do all three in one day. Hopefully he could
wrap up the three interviews within two or three days and get onto
the next leg of the trip, wherever that might be. Who knows, maybe
he would get enough information to even identify the killer while
he’s here. He wasn’t counting on it, however. These things usually
didn’t work out that well.

I Minus 42

Vladimir

Vladimir watched as Thurmond and his lady
friend passed through the lobby on the way to their room. He’d
followed Thurmond and the girl when they left the hotel and when
Thurmond stopped to tie his shoe he was certain he’d been noticed.
That’s when he split off onto one of the side streets and returned
to the hotel. Better to lose contact than to be identified. He’d
been sitting in the lobby ever since.

He was sure that at some point Thurmond was
going to try to make contact with the three informants in Warsaw.
Koslowski, under the influence of a powerful truth serum, gave
Vladimir those names and with a little research he’d discovered the
address of one of the three on the list. A quick visit late last
night and that informant, who fortunately lived alone, was dead. Of
the remaining two, one was a more common name and there were
multiple choices of addresses listed in the phone book, so he
couldn’t pin down which one belonged to the target. With his
limited time on this trip, he knew he wouldn’t be able to try all
the addresses. Anyway, asking the kind of questions he needed
answers to would make some of them suspicious. He wouldn’t want any
of them left alive to alert the police and he couldn’t afford to
take out all the people at all the addresses. So, he needed another
plan for that one.

The third person had just one name, so it
was probably a code name, just like his. He didn’t have any idea
how to contact that person, so he’d decided to follow Thurmond to
the first meeting and identify the contact. His plan was to follow
the contact back home and, if possible, kill him there. If the
timing wasn’t right, he’d come back another time. At least he’d
know where the contact lived. He knew Thurmond would return to the
hotel so it would be easy enough to pick up the tail later. He
would then try to take out Thurmond and the third contact when they
met. If the woman was with Thurmond throughout this, he’d have to
find a way to eliminate her too.

He figured he’d have two or three days to
make the hits . . . plenty of time. He was also staying at the
Hilton. It was really expensive for him, but a great way to cover
the true reason for his loitering in the hotel lobby. He decided to
go upstairs to his room and check his US voice mail. All in all
this was turning out just fine. Maybe he’d have a vodka from the
mini bar in his room. Just one, though, he needed to stay sharp and
they were really expensive.

I Minus 42

Warsaw

Grant, with Sam in tow, headed out to the
first marking location. Just to be on the safe side, they exited
the hotel through a side entrance, rather than the lobby. He didn’t
have any hard evidence they were being watched, but it was always
good to mix things up a bit. He wanted to make sure he didn’t
unnecessarily endanger Sam, but she would be good cover as he made
marks at the three separate locations. Then, if all went well, the
first meeting would be tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. The other two were at
12:00 noon and 3:00 p.m. respectively. They had plenty of time
between meets to get answers to the questions he had for each of
the informants. If they didn’t show, the arrangement was that he’d
be at the meeting place at the same time for the following two
days. He’d have to assume something might have come up and they
didn’t see the mark the first day or couldn’t leave work at the
appointed time. A lot of things could happen, that’s why they were
allowed three days to make contact. If they never showed, Grant
would have to decide whether to try again, or just assume the
contact was no longer available and try something else. He wasn’t
sure what that something else would be.

When they got to the first location, Grant
said, “Okay Sam, you look casually around while I bend down to tie
my shoe. If all’s clear, just say ‘okay.’ Got it? Then I’ll make
the mark on the curb.”

“Let’s do it,” Sam replied.

Grant bent down with a piece of white chalk
concealed in his hand. Tying his shoe with the chalk in his hand
was a bit clumsy, but as he finished Sam gave the okay. He quickly
wrote ‘V/’ on the curb and stood up. They then walked away. So far,
so good. This was easier with someone watching for you. In the
past, he’d had to do most things by himself. For having no
experience in the field, Sam was working out just fine.

The next two marks, one on the corner of a
brick building and the other on a telephone pole, went well and
Grant and Sam returned to the hotel. Now came the part he hated
most—waiting. Not his best thing, especially since he didn’t know
the faces of the people he was trying to meet. They could walk
right past him and he wouldn’t know. They were supposed to approach
him with a code phrase. If he gave the right response, they would
nod and he would catch up with them as they walked away. Same
routine he used with Koslowski. Grant sure hoped this wasn’t a wild
goose chase that would waste three or four precious days.

The next morning, Grant and Sam were having
breakfast and exchanging pleasantries in the hotel restaurant when
Sam suddenly stopped smiling and became serious.

“This is going to be safe, isn’t it? I mean,
you’re not in any danger meeting these people?”

“No, this is a piece of cake. These are
brave people, but are low to mid-level bureaucrats in government
service. They’re not dangerous at all,” Grant said confidently.

Sam looked concerned and chewed on her lower
lip a bit before answering. “Grant, what if one of them is the
killer? Have you thought about that?”

“I have and I’d like to think that with a
little questioning, I could pick him out.” Grant replied.

Sam didn’t think Grant sounded one hundred
percent confident and she wasn’t reassured. “Well, you sure you
don’t want me along as lookout?” Sam asked.

“No, I’m afraid they might get spooked
seeing two people, and I’m not going to let you out of my sight
except here at the hotel.”

“I don’t feel like I’m helping much,” Sam
said. “And I’m worried about you getting into trouble and not
having a backup.”

Grant smiled slightly, reached across the
table to touch her arm and said, “Don’t worry about it. There’ll be
plenty of opportunity later for you to help. Let’s just see how it
goes with the first one.”

After breakfast, Grant set out for his first
meet. He left Sam at the hotel, promising to return immediately
after the meeting. The meeting place was a certain marker deep
inside the Mausoleum Kaukaski. It was an easy trek from the
apartments just across Mlynarska Street where he made his first
mark but quite a distance from the Hilton. Grant flagged down a
taxi and, with all the traffic around him, didn’t notice when a
non-descript car pulled out from the curb a few cars behind him on
the busy thoroughfare. Not that he was on high alert. No one knew
they were here, so he was pretty certain no one would be following
him. He was still cautious, just not as intense as he would be if
others knew he was here. He certainly didn’t see how the killer
would know.

Grant waited at the marker for over two
hours, but no one approached him. He returned to the hotel and
briefed Sam. He had the same lack of success for the next two
meetings that were scheduled that day. He was a little discouraged,
but was used to this activity taking more than one day. Tomorrow
he’d start all over. That was the way this job was . . . mostly
boring.

Meanwhile, Vladimir was elated. He had
successfully followed Thurmond to three locations, waiting at each
in one spot for more than an hour. No one paid Thurmond any
attention and no one talked with him. They must have been no shows,
but there were clearly three separate meetings planned. That made
sense since there were three names on Koslowski’s Warsaw list. But,
he was disappointed that he didn’t know how Thurmond set up the
meetings. Obviously Thurmond had slipped out without him noticing.
He’d have to be more diligent. His days were going to get a little
longer. He had to get up earlier and go to his room later, and he
needed a better vantage point in the hotel lobby—one where he could
see the elevator. The hotel was kind enough to have the elevator
ding when it arrived on the lobby floor. That would help him. He
would only have to look at the elevator when it dinged.