The Survivor

CHAPTER 54

Gadai shoved his prisoner through the door and watched him fall to the floor. Pavel Katdsyn curled into a fetal position on the warm surface, pulling his hands to his bare chest in an attempt to warm them. His feet appeared to be completely numb, making it unlikely that he would try to escape.

“Your computers,” Gadai said, scanning the room and finding only telephone headsets set up on desks piled with paper files. “Where are they?”

“Up…” was all Katdsyn could get out. His teeth were chattering audibly and his shivering had become so violent that he appeared to be in the throes of convulsions.

Gadai forced the man to stand. He couldn’t walk on his own, making it necessary for the Pakistani to support much of his weight as they ascended a set of stairs. Normally, he would have made his prisoner go first as a shield. In this case, though, Gadai would have to rely on his skill and the bulletproof vest beneath his parka. Until the Russian decrypted Rickman’s files, he had to be protected at all costs.

Despite the darkness, entering the second floor with any stealth was made impossible by the whimpering man. Gadai dropped him on the landing and slapped the light switch before stepping out with his Beretta held in front of him. The upper story was a single open space similar to the one below, but lined with computer equipment. He dragged Katdsyn to the nearest terminal and propped him in a chair.

“You’ve been decrypting and releasing a set of files sent to you by a law firm in Rome. Do you know the files I’m speaking of?”

Katdsyn managed only a weak nod and Gadai pressed his gun to the side of the man’s head. “Speak!”

“Yes!” Katdsyn said, his voice shaking with panic and cold. “I know them.”

“I want the encryption key.”

Katdsyn hesitated. “My people. You have to release them. Let them leave here and I’ll give you whatever you want.”

Gadai had been through this scenario already with Maxim Durov and his patience had run out. He reached for a letter opener next to the computer but then hesitated. While it would be a pleasure to ram it into the man’s leg and start making threats, Katdsyn was already compromised by hypothermia. If he lost consciousness, it would accomplish nothing but cause further delays.

He pulled Katdsyn from his chair and forced him to the window at the far end of the room.

“Look!”

The Russian tried to turn away but Gadai shoved his face into the icy glass. The people of the village were just barely visible through the falling snow. A few were still on their knees but most had collapsed at the feet of the men keeping watch over them.

“They’re dying, Pavel. Not an hour from now. Not in ten minutes. They’re dying now. And you can stop it. Only you.”

“I—”

Gadai twisted the man’s head around and stared directly into his eyes. “I don’t care about you. I don’t care about your people. Give me what I want and you can go to them. You can get them to shelter and care for them. But do it now, Pavel. Because it may already be too late for the children.”

Katdsyn pulled away and this time Gadai allowed it. He watched the Russian stagger back to the computer and peck awkwardly at the keyboard with dead hands. It took an excruciating two minutes before the screen suddenly filled with a solid block of nonsensical characters.

“That’s it,” Katdsyn said. “That’s the encryption key.”

Gadai shoved him to the floor and sat, peeling off his jacket as the sweat broke across his forehead. He pulled a thumb drive from a pocket in his vest and inserted it into the computer’s USB slot. When he tried to open one of the Rickman files it contained, the screen prompted him for a password. He pasted Katdsyn’s key into the window and held his breath. A moment later, the individual documents appeared on the screen.

Gadai opened one, skimming a dossier relating to a CIA mole inside the Chinese defense ministry. A second file opened with similar ease and contained a detailed account of the illegal rendition of a French citizen living in Yemen.

His mouth went dry and he leaned back for a moment, staring at the screen. It was done. With the proper cunning and the unwitting help of Carl Ferris, there was no limit to the damage Taj could do to the Americans.

“I’ve given it to you!” Katdsyn said. “Have your men take my people inside.”

Gadai ignored him and opened a browser, navigating to Gmail on the village’s satellite link. He typed in the address Taj had given him and pasted the key into it. After pressing the SEND button, he leaned back in his chair again. Katdsyn was struggling to get to his feet, pleading in broken English, but Gadai was consumed by the words on the screen.

Praise be to God.