Private Beijing

Chapter 101

“Easy, Phil,” Erin Sebold said.

He was a member of her six-man security team, and lowered his weapon after his principal gave the okay.

“Mr. Morgan, Master Gunnery Sergeant West says you have a gift for me,” Erin said.

She was standing by a black Ford Excursion SUV, one of a trio of such vehicles parked next to the two Volkswagen Transporters in the bay.

“Bring it in,” I said, waving at West.

He hopped into the driver’s seat and drove our Transporter inside, stopping near Erin’s security team. Dinara jumped out while West and Feo climbed in a more gingerly fashion. Both men were feeling their injuries.

“They’re wounded,” Erin remarked. “Why aren’t they in hospital?”

“You try telling them that,” I replied.

“I’m almost as stubborn as my American friend here,” Feo said, nodding at West, and Erin laughed.

“At least his sense of humor seems healthy enough,” she remarked. “And what about you, Master Gunnery Sergeant West? How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better, but the rest on the journey back did me good.”

Erin turned toward me. “So where is this gift?”

West moved to the rear of the truck and I joined him. I opened the back door to reveal Valery Alekseyev, bound and gagged, lying on his side between the equipment cases. He looked at us fearfully and tried to talk, but his words were nothing more than muffled grunts.

I climbed inside, grabbed him and dragged him out. West and I frogmarched him across to Erin, who was stunned.

“Valery Alekseyev, Director of the SVR... How?” she asked in disbelief.

“He made some bad choices,” I replied.

“We can’t...” Erin began. She hesitated. “Can we?”

“Director Alekseyev is going to defect to the United States,” I told her. “He’s worried that if he stays in Russia, his life will be in danger. Isn’t that right, Director?”

Alekseyev nodded.

Before we’d put him in the back of the van, Feo and West had made it clear there were dozens of people in Russia with motive and means to want him dead, most of them among the Private personnel he had abducted.

“Director Alekseyev isn’t asking for an expensive package,” I went on. “He’d like to share what he knows about Russian Intelligence in exchange for a simple home in the Midwest that might feel a little like a prison.”

“Director Alekseyev wants that?” Erin asked.

I saw him hesitate.

“Or we can bring him before a court the moment we get him stateside and he can rot in a supermax prison.”

Alekseyev shook his head.

“See? He’s got at least four of my colleagues’ murder on his hands, and he will answer for that one way or another,” I said.

Alekseyev looked sheepish and nodded.

Erin glanced from me to him and back again. She finally settled on me.

“Can I speak to you for a moment?”

I nodded and followed her, while Feo, Dinara, and West gathered around Alekseyev menacingly.

Erin and I stopped near the open door to the old kitchen.

“Are you seriously suggesting we abduct Valery Alekseyev?”

“Not abduct. Assist him to defect,” I replied.

Her skeptical look would have withered most people.

“He knows the alternative is death if he stays here.” I wasn’t exaggerating. Private’s Moscow staff was made up of former police officers, Special Forces, and intelligence operatives. Some of them would be far less forgiving than I was. “And he gets prison in the States if he refuses to cooperate and I manage to get him in front of a judge. Defection is the least bad option.”

“So you’re giving us the director of the SVR?” Erin asked.

I nodded.

“And you’re happy with him being allowed to live?”

I hesitated. “I’ll be honest — a large part of me wanted to kill him, but that wouldn’t have brought anyone back. And a man like this doesn’t fear death. But treachery, to be known as Russia’s most infamous traitor, to go from patriot to villain... that will make him suffer for the rest of his life.”

Erin gazed at Alekseyev whose eyes betrayed his fear and distress.

“Alright, Mr. Morgan,” she said. “We just need to get him out of Moscow before the Kremlin shuts down Russia to find him.”