Robert Tanenbaum - Counterplay

Sorry, I want this guy to pay as much as you do, but I think I better give this address to a friend with the FBI, she replied.

Yvgeny was visibly seething-not that she blamed him; she was angry, too. Angry about Jojola. Angry about Vladimir. Angry and sick to her stomach for the woman and her child and the young couple who’d been murdered.

Nyet! Nyet! NYET! Yvgeny had roared and threw his glass at the fireplace where it shattered. Who do you trust there? A friend with the FBI? He is going to go after these vermin by himself? No, he will have to tell others, and there are spies in that agency. No, I have tried it my father’s way and I have tried it your way, and it almost got my father and myself killed; a woman and a child…those young lovers…were butchered by animals. My father wanted to give you this address so that what needs to be done could be done the quote “right way.” But I am through with this right way. I will take this son of a bitch down to hell my way! And then I will hunt those two whores down and gut them myself like that young mother was gutted by their bomb!

Look, Yvgeny, Marlene said trying to keep the anger she felt out of her voice. I can hardly believe this is me arguing against taking the law into your own hands. I mean, I’m already in deep shit for leaving the scene without telling the police what I saw, and I’m ashamed to say I did it because I was worried that being connected to the Karchovskis might hurt my husband’s political chances. When Butch hears, he’ll drag me down to the precinct by my ear. But think about this: say you go to Aspen and kill Kane and foil his plot, no one will know the depth of this conspiracy. It will just be a gangland killing where, as far as the public is concerned, you’re all bad guys-somebody ends up dead, somebody else probably winds up in prison-and I’d be surprised if you do this without innocent people being put in harm’s way, too. But also, if you’re right about this conspiracy, won’t the Russian government and the terrorists just come up with a new plan?

And why wouldn’t they even if your FBI catches Kane and kills Azzam?

Because maybe Jaxon can get to the bottom of this and expose it for what it is, Marlene said, scrambling to come up with reasons that she didn’t necessarily believe. In fact, while her mind was debating him, her heart was telling her to go with Yvgeny and settle this score with Kane. But it goes beyond that. There needs to be a message sent that civilized nations don’t have to revert to lawlessness or to military rule to combat terror. The public needs the reassurance that the people with the duty to protect them are out there doing their jobs. Besides, if you kill Kane, the moles go deeper, the plans next time are better.

Yvgeny paced to the window. He smashed a fist into his hand, his whole body trembling in anger.

It’s what your father wants, Marlene had said not knowing what else to say.

She’s right.

Marlene turned and saw the old man in the doorway of the library. He looked somewhat worse for wear in his torn and bloody linen suit, a bandage on his forehead and another on his hand, but otherwise appeared to be okay.

Vladimir! she said and rushed over to hug him. Are you all right? What did you tell the police?

He patted her on the back. I am physically fine, he said. But my heart is broken for the innocent blood spilled because someone wanted to kill me. The police were hardly interested in what an old man who didn’t see much except sand had to say…. Now, I just want to clean up a little, then go to the hospital to check on Petre; it was his brother, Sasha, who was killed, and Petre may never walk again, though I believe he is too strong to die. He turned to address his son.

Marlene will carry the address to whomever she believes should take care of this problem, and you will do nothing in Aspen, he said. These savages follow no rules, they have no honor-even criminals such as we do not behave like these animals. If we fight them, and men like Kane, on their level, then we must stoop and become like them.

Then I will stoop, Yvgeny insisted as he walked over to plead his case. What do I care what people think of me, even though this would be for their welfare as well as my revenge. I will risk that the entirety of civilization does not follow me down this road to savagery, but sometimes only violence is capable of stopping the violent.

This is true, Vladimir had said. But there are differences in how violence is administered. Was it in compliance with the rule of law? A policeman who shoots a man about to kill someone, for instance. Or an army fighting to end slavery, which reminds me of a quote attributed to the great American president Abraham Lincoln: “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

Might for right and my duty is to kill Kane, Yvgeny growled, but his anger had gone from a hard boil to simmering.

And you may still be required to do your duty, Vladimir said. But first we will allow this system of justice to do its. However… he said, turning back to Marlene, …if your friend and his FBI are not up to the task, then I give my son permission to seek justice in his own manner with this zasranec, excuse my language, Marlene, but this zasranec Kane-an appropriate surname, as the mark of Cain, the killer of brothers, is upon him.

As Marlene turned to leave, Yvgeny’s scarred face had softened and, surprising her, he’d reached out and hugged her. Forgive my outburst, he’d said. You saved my life, killing the traitor Boris, and I repay you with a tantrum.

Marlene hugged him in return, then stood back and smiled. It’s okay. Kane has a way of putting everyone on edge and wondering who to trust. Maybe that’s part of his plan. But it won’t work with us, will it?

Yvgeny shook his head. No, not so long as cooler-and prettier-heads prevail.

Marlene punched him on the arm. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Everywhere? Yvgeny said, theatrically raising an eyebrow.

Well, how about a kiss on the cheek…between cousins by marriage, Marlene laughed.

Yvgeny sighed dramatically. I believe the saying is, “Beggars shouldn’t be choosy,” correct?

Close enough, Marlene said and gave him the promised reward.

On the way home, she called Jaxon and gave him the Aspen address and its importance without telling him the circumstances of its discovery.

That evening when Butch got home from work, she told him about what had happened. He’d wondered when Murrow came rushing into his office with news of the bombing if she was somehow involved. But seeing her face when she described what happened, he’d forgone any lectures on leaving the scene but won a promise from her to give her statement to Fulton, who passed it on to the detectives investigating the bomb.

She’d left out how and why she happened to be at the boardwalk other than “to meet an old friend,” and just happened to be “in the right place at the right time” to shoot one of the terrorists as he fired at members of the public. Her target had been identified as one Boris Nabakov, a Russian national in the country illegally. What his connection was to the terrorist bomb remained unclear, according to the press.

Citing safety issues for a witness to a capital crime, the police had refused to disclose the name or even gender of the armed civilian who’d shot and killed Nabakov. Witnesses had told members of the press about seeing an armed woman chasing two other women, possibly the terrorists responsible for the bomb. Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association had jumped at the chance to laud the mystery woman’s actions as a victory for the Second Amendment and urged all citizens to be ready to join the War on Terrorism by being ever vigilant.