The First Billion

24

The raiding party assembled quietly and with precision. In all they were twenty-two men, divided among three vans and two BMWs from the prosecutor general’s office. Crack troops from OMON—the special militia created by Mikhail Gorbachev and now attached to the Ministry of the Interior—the men were dressed in black utilities with matching bullet-proof vests and Kevlar helmets. Nazis for the new millennium. Flash grenades were pinned to their waists and machine pistols dangled from their hands.

The assembly point was Mayakovskya Square, a kilometer from Mercury Broadband’s offices. Yuri Baranov moved among the militiamen, offering grunts of encouragement, pats on the back, the occasional grim smile.

“On no account are you to fire a shot,” he repeated time and again, until his gruff, tobacco-wearied voice grew sore. “We are all sons of the Rodina, the motherland, even if some of us have lost our way.”

He felt old and stiff and spent among such young men. He knew their simmering blood lust, their jacked-up bravado, and it left him uneasy and sad. He’d seen enough suffering in his lifetime to know what those emotions inevitably wrought.

“Move quickly. We must rush the entrance and force the door. We’ve come to gather evidence—nothing more. Treat the civilians with respect.”

On Baranov’s signal, the convoy moved out, advancing in tight formation through the serpentine alleys that combed the Moscow cityscape like fissures in a crumbling wall. The prosecutor general rode in the front seat of the lead BMW. His posture was forced, his back barely touching the leather bucket seats. Opulence, even in an automobile, made him uncomfortable. Checking his watch, he leaned forward further, so that his hands clutched the dashboard. The informant had alerted them that Kirov made his banking transfers each day between eleven and twelve o’clock—nine and ten in Switzerland, where the banks had just opened. It was Baranov’s goal that warm afternoon to obtain hard-copy proof of Kirov’s theft from Novastar Airlines.

One hundred meters from their destination, Baranov turned on the siren. A few seconds later, the sedan screeched to a halt. He jumped out. “Police,” he shouted, storming the building’s front stairs. “I possess a warrant to search the premises. You are to provide every cooperation.”

Jump boots slapped the ground as the troops rushed to his side. Baranov had pulled open the door and taken a step into the building when three hulking men picked him up and carried him back into the street. At once, the thugs were overwhelmed by the onrush of OMON troops and thrown spread-eagle onto the pavement.

Squirming free, Baranov saw a blue metal curtain falling in front of the door. “Quick!” he yelled. “Someone. Inside.”

Several of his men struggled to hold down Kirov’s security guards, searching them for weapons and giving them a few sharp kicks. The rest were blocked by the confusion at the door. No one could enter the building.

Without making a conscious decision to do so, Baranov charged up the stairs a second time. A single thought galvanized him. He had come for Kirov’s banking records, and God help him, he would get them. The barricade was three feet from the ground and falling quickly. Crouching to one knee, then to his hands, he threw himself beneath the metal curtain and tried to crawl inside. The steel curtain struck his back, driving him to the ground.

“Ah,” he cried out, feeling old and brittle, hating himself for his weakness. He was half inside, half outside the building, his cheek pressed to a white marble floor. “You will raise the barricade and open the door at once,” he called to a team of black-suited bodyguards running at him from across the reception area. “I have a warrant to search the premises.”

They were on him in a flash, hands grasping his shoulders, his head, shoving and pushing him back under the curtain. “Out, old man. You have no business here.”

“In!” yelled Baranov over his shoulder. “Push me in!”

From beyond the steel curtain, friendly but no less forceful hands took hold of his legs and waist and muscled him forward. He moved an inch one way, then two inches the other. Ferociously angered by such disrespect—for his age, his circumstance, and his office—Baranov gave a mighty grunt and pulled himself forward. The barricade crashed down behind him. He was inside.

“Bring me Kirov,” he shouted, climbing to his feet and setting off across the wide reception area. “Tell him he has a visitor!”

Seated in his customary chair in the far corner of Konstantin Kirov’s second-floor office, wearing his favorite houndstooth jacket, was a wiry, olive-skinned man with close-cropped black hair, a long, crooked nose, and a black mustache thick enough to sweep the floor. But one did not dwell long on the man’s features or his dress. What captured one’s attention were the eyes. They were dark and deep-set, twin orbs of unblinking obsidian framed by unusually long, luxuriant lashes. They were the eyes of a zealot.

To meet Aslan Dashamirov’s stare was to look into the abyss, to see death and life and know that they were separated only by the razor’s edge of his will.

“I understand we have a problem,” Dashamirov was saying. “Someone in our organization talking more than he should, being a bit too free with his opinions, taking papers from the workplace that are better left at his desk.”

Kirov did not know how Dashamirov had discovered the details of his sit-down with Yuri Baranov the day before, but he knew better than to be surprised. “Yes,” he replied. “Some confidential papers have found their way into the prosecutor general’s hands. Nothing to worry about in and of itself. What concerns me is how the papers slipped out of the office.”

“Any idea who the culprit is?”

“We’ve narrowed it down to someone in legal or administration. Unfortunately, our staff has doubled in the past year. Don’t worry—we’ll put our finger on him.”

“And is it the same one who has leaked the information regarding Mercury?”

“I certainly hope so.”

“And the American?”

“At the dacha. You may have him when he’s no longer needed.”

Dashamirov bowed his eyes, which was as close as he ever came to saying thank you.

Chechen by birth, a Muscovite by upbringing, Aslan Dashamirov was fifty-two years old, the same age as Konstantin Kirov, and the two had been in business since Kirov had first moved to Moscow—or “the Center,” as it was called—from Petersburg. Dashamirov had no pretensions of civility. He was a criminal born and bred, a Vory v zakone—a thief of thieves—a man sworn to conduct his life outside the pale of law and order. Still, he carried a title in the contemporary Russian business world, a position that was acknowledged by none, yet respected by all. Aslan Dashamirov was a krysha—or “roof”—and every businessman engaged in the pursuit of profit somewhere in the Republic kept a man like him on his payroll, whether by choice or not.

A krysha performed a variety of functions. He obtained permits, persuaded politicians, sweet-talked creditors, and harried debtors. He offered protection against racketeers, bargained with corrupt law enforcement officials, secured banking privileges at friendly financial institutions, and helped negotiate the treacherous corridors of the judicial system. His methods were crude but effective, and ranged from bribery and extortion to torture, kidnapping, and murder.

The fee for his services was 15 percent off the top of all Konstantin Kirov’s businesses.

“So you’re confident the deal will be a success?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” declared Kirov. “Absolutely.”

“I believed you the first time,” said Dashamirov. “Not the second. What is Baranov after?”

“Novastar,” volunteered Kirov. “He believes a hundred twenty million is missing from the company’s accounts. I told him he was crazy.”

“Dollars or rubles?”

“Dollars.”

Technically Novastar counted as one of Kirov’s private investments. As a long-running enterprise until recently 100 percent controlled by the state, it had never required any of Dashamirov’s subtle legerdemain. No scrupulous customs men to brain with a lead pipe. No stubborn inspectors to “bribe” with a blackjack and brass knuckles. No defiant board members to convince with the help of a slender glass mixing rod and a hammer.

“I’m certain Baranov is mistaken about the missing money,” Dashamirov said at length. “I know you would never skim a little cream from Novastar without sharing your rewards. We are brothers, nah? Such behavior among kin is unthinkable.” He scratched at his mustache, crumpling his brow as if pained. “Still, we cannot allow problems with one business to interfere with another, certainly not at such a delicate moment in our company’s history. That is why you hired me. To look after your interests, nah?”

“Why else?” agreed Kirov.

“First we will find our rat,” announced Dashamirov. “Then we shall ask him where he got the idea that someone is siphoning a little money from Novastar, and why he wishes to share such silly notions with the government.”

At that instant, a siren wailed, the keening so close, so loud, so unexpected, as to make Kirov bunch his shoulders and duck involuntarily. Another siren joined in. Tires screeched. Doors slammed. An entire Army corps was assembling on the pavement beneath his window.

“A raid,” Kirov said calmly, remembering Yuri Baranov’s veiled threat. And to himself, He will pay. This will not go unpunished.

Dashamirov remained immobile as Kirov moved in three directions at once. One hand depressed the internal alarm while the other found the phone. Dialing a number, he strode to the window and looked outside. Two sedans and three vans were parked by the entry. Soldiers were charging up the stairs.

“There’s a corridor beneath the building that will take you to the Arbat.”

Without a word, Aslan Dashamirov scurried out of the office.

Placing the phone to his ear, Kirov waited for an answer. The number he had dialed connected him to a modern office complex hidden in the forest just north of Moscow, a suburb known as Yasenevo. The sleek gray buildings housed the offices of the FIS, or Foreign Intelligence Service, one of the successors to the KGB, or Committee for State Security. An officious voice answered. “Da?”

“Leonid, listen and do not say a word. Yuri Baranov and his men are outside my offices. He’s come with his OMON brutes and they’re making a show of gaining entry. Send over some of your people immediately, a dozen young men with a little fire in their blood.”

Ten years his elder, Major General Leonid Kirov was the ranking officer of FAPSI, the Federal Agency for Government Communication and Information, an offshoot of the former KGB’s Eighth Chief Directorate.

“Calm yourself, Konstantin Romanovich. Tell me again what is happening?”

Kirov bit back an epithet, detesting his brother’s propensity to give orders and his own to follow them. “It’s a business matter,” he explained. “The prosecutor general has exhibited more independence than I gave him credit for. All we need is for him to bring in a tank and try to blast his way in. That would make the evening news, don’t you think? Where would that leave us?”

The mention of television and its promise of mass and biased dissemination of information sparked in Leonid Kirov a combustible fury. “I imagine that would leave us in the shithouse. Back to Lefortovo for you, retirement on a government pension for me. I don’t know which is worse. OMON troops, you say? How many?”

“Twenty, twenty-five. All dolled up in riot gear. If you’d be so kind, Leonid, I would appreciate your doing as I asked. Need I remind you we are five days from immortality? Once the offering is completed, they’ll be modeling a bust of you to put in Red Square. Right next to your old boss Andropov and Iron Feliks himself.”

Kirov pictured Leonid seated in his brightly lit office, desk immaculate, books and papers aligned at right angles to each other, the large color portrait of the new president hanging in pride of place opposite the door. Leonid would be wearing the navy suit he ironed himself each night, his white dress shirt spotless, silver necktie held in place by the tie clasp Chairman Andropov had awarded him on his twenty-fifth anniversary in the service. His white hair would be brushed and parted just so, his proud chin kept at permanent attention. A single cigarette would be burning in the ashtray, a filthy Belamor Kanal, the brand Stalin had enjoyed, and every minute or two he would allow himself a long, generous puff, then replace it fastidiously.

“Older brother, a response would be welcome.”

“Hold the fort,” ordered Leonid. “I’ll send some men over right away. Whatever you do, keep the press away. It might get messy.”

Kirov hung up the phone, only to hear it ring again almost immediately. “Yes.”

“Baranov is in the building.” It was Boris, and he sounded shaken. “I am sorry, sir. He managed to crawl in under the barricade. What shall I do? He is demanding we raise the barricade and let his deputies enter.”

Baranov. Of course he crawled in. The man was a worm. “Do as he asks. Open the door. Give me two minutes, then escort him upstairs.”

Flinging down the phone, Kirov fled his office. A minute later he reached the data center. “How long until the files are erased?”

An unshaven tech in a red Adidas T-shirt barked his reply. “Ten minutes, sir.”

Ten minutes. An eternity. He imagined the documents Baranov would find if he got into the data center before then. The government would see everything. “And we downloaded a backup last night?”

“Yes sir. At 1900 to our data recovery center in Geneva.”

“Very good. Go back to your work. Pay the siren no heed.”

Continuing down the hall to finance and administration, he found a dozen secretaries and accountants at their desks, diligently stuffing page after page of bank statements, revenue records, and payroll stubs into their shredders with a military efficiency. On the wall a red strobe light flashed in two-second bursts.

“Hurry up,” he said. “There, there, you’re almost done.” Watching them, pride warred with disbelief that one of them might be Baranov’s spy.

“Kirov! Where are you?” echoed a familiar voice outside in the hallway. “I have a warrant. I demand you open the doors at once.”

“Calm down, Yuri Ivanovich. We have nothing to hide.” Closing the door behind him, Konstantin Kirov came face-to-face with the prosecutor general. Behind him stood two of his deputies, breathing hard, pink-cheeked, and Boris. Discreetly, Kirov glanced at his watch. Eight minutes remained until the files were erased. He noticed his jacket jitter ever so slightly with the beating of his heart. “You don’t mind if I have a look at the warrant.”

“Afterward,” said Baranov heatedly. “Move aside. I wish to enter this room.”

“No need really. It’s only a—”

Brusquely, Baranov and his deputies pushed past Kirov and entered the accounting office. Seeing the men and women shredding documents, Baranov shouted, “Stop. You know who I am. Stop at once. Anyone who does not obey will be placed under arrest.”

Several clerks stopped shredding, but most continued. Baranov’s cheeks flamed red. “Anyone who does not stop immediately will spend the night in the Lubyanka. With your families. Your children, too.”

The shredding ceased at once. Baranov passed from desk to desk, picking up random papers, studying them. He dashed off instructions to one of his deputies, who immediately began gathering all the papers together.

Baranov had found a receipt that interested him. “And what business do you have with the Banque Prive de Geneve et Lausanne?” he asked, holding the paper in his hand with a victorious smile.

“A private matter. Nothing to concern so august an office as your own.”

“We shall see.”

Baranov spent another minute or two examining the shredders, digging his hands into the basket and coming up with wads of slivered paper. “We will take this, too. I know some people who can reconstruct these documents.”

“All yours,” said Kirov munificently. He was beginning to sweat. He could only pray that the most secret of his documents had already been shredded. Reconstructing them would take a year’s time. A year! Anything could happen by then.

“Now, I wish to go to your IT center,” said Baranov.

“Do you mind if I ask what it is exactly you want?”

“You know damned well what I want. Now let’s go. I believe it’s on this floor, just down the corridor.”

“If you know your way around so well, I’ll allow you to find it yourself.” Kirov had no intention of helping Baranov do his job. He had opened the barricade when requested. He had greeted the man cordially. No charges could be brought for obstructing justice. The rest the prosecutor could do on his own. Fuck him!

Baranov left one of his deputies behind in the accounting office and hurried into the long, airy corridor. Kirov followed. A few offices were open, windows raised to let in the warm afternoon breeze. From outside came the sound of car doors slamming, voices shouting, and footsteps entering the building.

Finally!

Kirov hastened to a window. A delegation of ten young spies from the FIS had confronted the OMON troops outside. Their leader was a handsome blond man in business attire. His deputies were similarly dressed, but were less handsome and had exchanged neckties in favor of Kalashnikov assault rifles. Shoving broke out between the two groups. One FIS man fell to the ground, pistol-whipped. Then it was the OMON’s turn, losing a storm trooper to more conventional means: a well-aimed kick to the balls. Voices rose, then fell.

“Good boy, Leonid,” said Kirov softly.

“What is it?” demanded Baranov, bustling alongside.

“See for yourself.”

Baranov looked down at the sparking confrontation. “Leave them,” he called to his men. “There is to be no fighting. We are all comrades. Let them be.” He stormed out of the office, looking this way and that before getting his bearings. He arrived at the entry to the data center as the delegation from Yasenevo poured out from the elevator nearby. Trying the handle, he found it locked. “Konstantin Romanovich, I demand you open the door.”

Kirov checked his watch. Fifteen seconds until the files were deleted. He took a breath, rummaging in his pockets for a key. “Ah, here it is.” He managed another delay fitting the key into the lock. “There.”

Kirov opened the door.

The tech in the red Adidas shirt sat at his desk, studying a manual. “Ah, Mr. Kirov. I have bad news,” he said, springing to his feet, his clever eyes taking in Baranov and his deputies. “Terrible, really.”

“What?”

“A bug has hit our computers. I’m afraid we have lost all our data.”

Baranov stared first at Kirov, then at the technician, and then at Kirov again. Without a word, he turned and left the room.

Kirov found Janusz Rosen waiting for him in his office.

“Yes, Janusz, what is it?”

“Good news, sir. Great news, even. I found him.”

After standing by impotently as Yuri Baranov had carted off two dozen boxes full of Mercury Broadband’s financial records, Kirov needed some good news. “Who?”

“‘Who?’” Rosen registered a look of gross disappointment, his glasses falling to the tip of his nose. “Why… him.”

“Him,” of course, was the Private Eye-PO. “About time. What is his name? Where does he live?”

“His name is Raymond J. Luca. An American, naturally. A resident of Delray Beach, Florida. I found him trawling the web early this morning. Another investor invited him into a private chat room and I was able to sneak in.”

“Don’t look so proud of yourself,” said Kirov. “That’s what I pay you for, remember?”

Minutes later, Kirov stood alone in his office, phone to his ear. He had banished Rosen with a handshake and the promise of more shares in the Mercury IPO. He had told his secretary to hold all calls. The room was silent, a quiet compounded by the absence of sirens and army boots.

“Damn it, girl, answer.”

Five rings. Six.

“Da? Allo.”

“Tatiana, you don’t know how happy I am to hear your voice. I hope you haven’t any pressing plans for the evening.”

“Konstantin? Is this you? I am tired. I have had a long day. What is it, please?”

Rude, wasn’t she? Sometimes he found it hard to believe she was a convent girl. Then again, he hadn’t hired her for her good manners.

“Tatiana, I have a trip in mind for you. A junket abroad, actually. Tell me, my little bird, how do you feel about Florida?”