The Atlantis Stone

CHAPTER 22

Valentina called General Vysotsky from Marsá Matruh. The connection over the satellite link was faint but clear.

"Two FSB agents?" Alexei said.

"I recognized one of them. She's a real bitch. Her name is Katerina Rostov."

"I know who she is. She's one of Volkov's favorites. What's Harker's team up to?"

"I don't know. They left their hotel and Rostov followed them. They headed out on the coast highway toward Libya. It's wide open along there and there's no traffic because of the threat from ISIS. There was too much chance of being spotted if I followed, so I waited near their hotel for them. It was hours before the Americans came back. Their car looked like somebody attacked it with sandpaper. Rostov and her partner were nowhere in sight. I don't know what happened to them."

"Where did they go?"

"The only thing between here and Libya is some old ruins on the coast highway. Maybe they were going sightseeing. It's a tourist attraction, there can't be anything important about it."

"I'll be the judge of that."

Valentina wanted to tell him to go to hell. Instead she said, "What do you want me to do?"

"What you have been doing. Observe. Watch Harker's team and watch Rostov."

"I can't watch them both all the time."

"You don't have to. Rostov will be watching to see what the Americans are doing, like you. You just have to be in the right place to see them both."

Easy for you to say, Valentina thought.

"Your sister and her comrades are looking for something. Volkov wants it, whatever it is. He will have instructed Rostov to get it anyway she can. Under no circumstances must she succeed."

"Do you want me to take her out?"

"Not unless it becomes necessary."

"It would simplify things."

"No, Valentina. You heard what I said. Only if necessary. Keep me informed."

Vysotsky ended the call.

Only if necessary.

Valentina was pretty sure it would become necessary. She knew Rostov by reputation. Sooner or later the woman would make a mistake that required stepping in.

Like threatening her sister.

Thinking of Selena was complicated. Where did her loyalties lie? On the face of it, it was simple enough. Selena was a spy for the main enemy. But she was also the only family Valentina had in the world.

Valentina remembered countless lonely nights when she'd wished for a family, for someone to hold her and care for her. Her mother had been an active KGB agent and was almost never home. Valentina had been brought up by KGB and SVR instructors. The curriculum didn't include family dynamics. The ideal operative had no family except the state. Until recently, that had been Valentina's norm.

Valentina was proud of her role, her uniform. She had respect. She knew people thought her cold but she didn't care what they thought. She'd found her place in the world as an instrument of Russian state policy.

Then her world had turned upside down. She'd learned she had a sister and that her father had been an American spy.

Valentina hadn't been prepared for the emotional shock that followed from the discovery. Emotions made her uncomfortable. She'd succeeded in suppressing almost everything that felt upsetting but when she discovered Selena, the brittle walls she'd built up to contain her feelings began to crumble. She'd been shocked by the sensations that surged through her when she first saw her sister in person.

Not long after that she'd kept Selena from being horribly murdered. She hadn't been prepared for how protective she'd felt, or how angry she'd been at the same time.

It was all very confusing.

Now here she was again, keeping an eye on her sister from a distance. Like before, there was a threat to the only family she had. Rostov and her companion meant no good. If the FSB wanted something, they were skilled at getting it. Valentina was under no illusions about what would happen if Rostov managed to isolate Selena and question her. Katerina Rostov was a sadist. The interrogation would be brutal. It would be easy to make the body disappear afterward.

It wasn't going to happen, not if Valentina had anything to say about it.