Mark Burnell - Gemini

With each city, with each day, her suspicion hardened: that she was no closer to Mostovoi than she had been in Ostend. Or even in London, for that matter. Not that it made much difference. The pursuit might be pointless, but she knew that she would not be allowed to abandon it.

‘Petra Reuter.’

He’d lost weight. His hair was long, lank and greasy, greying at the temples. The whites of his bloodshot eyes were a sickly yellow, his skin waxy and loose. His red T-shirt hung limply from his skeletal frame, dark sweat stains marking points of contact. Creased linen trousers were secured by a purple tie threaded through the belt-loops. His fingers were trembling. Through cigarette smoke, Petra smelt decay.

She had only met Marcel Claesen twice before. The last time had been in a dacha outside Moscow. That had been less than two years ago, but the man in front of her appeared ten years older.

‘You look sick.’

‘Nice to know you haven’t lost your charm, Petra.’

‘Do you want to know what I really think?’

His feeble smile revealed toffee-coloured teeth. ‘It must be the water here. Or the food, maybe …’

‘Or the heat?’

He missed the subtext and shrugged. ‘Sure. Why not?’

‘What are you doing here?’

They sent me to make contact with you.’

Claesen, the Belgian intermediary. That was what he had been the first time they met. Then, as now, he’d radiated duplicity. He was a man who materialized in unlikely places for no specific reason, a man who didn’t actually do anything. Instead, he simply existed in the spaces between people. A conduit, Claesen was the stained banknote that hastened a seedy transaction.

He sat down opposite her and crossed one bony leg over the other. ‘Mostovoi thought it would be better to have a familiar face. You know, someone you could trust …’

Petra raised an eyebrow. ‘So he thought of you?’

He wiped the sweat from his brow with the heel of his hand, then shook his head and attempted another smile. ‘The things I’ve heard about you, Petra. They say you killed Vatukin and Kosygin in New York. They say you killed them for Komarov.’

‘How exciting.’

‘Others say you killed them for Dragica Maric. That the two of you are in love, each of you a reflection of the other.’

‘How imaginative.’

‘How true?’

‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you? The idea of me and another woman. Especially a woman like her.’

Claesen’s shrug was supposed to convey indifference but his eyes betrayed him. ‘You mean, a woman like you , don’t you?’

A black Land Cruiser Amazon with tinted windows was waiting for them at the kerb. Petra sat in the back, keeping Claesen and the driver in front of her. They headed for Palmeraie, to the north of the city centre, where extravagant villas were secreted in secure gardens. Most of the properties belonged to wealthy Moroccans, but in recent years there had been an influx of rich foreigners. At one of the larger walled compounds the driver pulled the Land Cruiser off the tarmac onto a dirt track. Ahead, heavy electric gates parted. Above them, two security cameras twitched.

Outside the compound the ground had been arid scrub between the palm trees. Inside it was lush lawn. Sprinklers sprayed a fine mist over the grass. Men tended flowerbeds, their backs bent to the overhead sun. On the right there were two floodlit tennis courts and a large swimming pool with a Chinese dragon carved from stone at each corner.

The villa was centrally air-conditioned and smelt like an airport terminal. There were two armed men in the entrance hall. Both were fair-skinned, their faces and arms burnt bright red. One carried a Browning BDA9, the other a Colt King Cobra. Without a word they led Claesen and Petra down a hall, the Belgian’s rubber soles squeaking on the veined marble floor. The room they entered had a thick white carpet, four armchairs – tanned leather stretched over chrome frames – positioned around a coffee table with a bronze horse’s head at its centre and, in one comer, an enormous Panasonic home entertainment system. Wooden blinds had been lowered over the windows. A curtain had been three-quarters drawn across a sliding glass door that opened onto a covered terrace. The door was partly open, allowing some natural air to infiltrate the artificial. Beyond the terrace she saw orange trees, lemon trees and perfectly manicured rose beds.

‘That’s far enough.’

He was sitting on the other side of the room, his back to the source of partial light, a man reduced to silhouette. Dark trousers, a white shirt, open at the neck, dark sunglasses. Petra was surprised he could even see her.

‘You want something to drink? Some tea? Or water?’

‘Nothing.’

There were two men to his right. The shorter and leaner of the two had a bony face like a whippet: a mean mouth with thin lips, a pointed nose, sharp little eyes. His hands were restless but his gaze was steady, never leaving her. With Claesen and the pair behind her, the men numbered six, two of them definitely armed.

‘Where’s Mostovoi?’

The man in the chair said, ‘Max has been detained.’

‘Detained?’

Incorrectly, he thought he detected anxiety in her tone. ‘Not in that sense of the word.’

‘I’m not interested in the sense of the word. If he’s not here, he’s not here.’

‘He sent me instead.’

‘And you are?’

‘Lars. Lars Andersen.’

Her eyes had adjusted to the lack of light. Andersen had short, dark, untidy hair, prominent cheekbones and olive skin that was lightly pockmarked; a Mediterranean look for a Scandinavian name, Petra thought.

‘No offence, Lars, but I don’t know you.’

‘You don’t know Max, either.’

‘I know what business he’s in. Which is why I’m here. But I’m starting to think I made a mistake. I’m running out of patience. That means he’s running out of time. It’s up to him. There are always others. Harding, Sasic, Beneix …’

‘They’re not as good.’

‘As good as what? A man who never shows? What could be worse than that?’

Andersen appeared surprised by her contempt. He glanced at the short one and said, in Russian, ‘What do you reckon, Jarni? Not bad, huh?’

‘Not bad.’

‘You think she could play for Inter?’

‘No problem.’

‘Where?’

‘Anywhere, probably. That’s what I hear.’

Also in Russian, Petra said, ‘What’s Inter?’

Raised eyebrows all round. Andersen said, ‘You speak Russian?’

‘Judging by your accents, better than either of you.’

Andersen grinned. ‘Max said we should be careful with you. Watch out for her, he told us, she’s full of surprises.’

Outside, a lawnmower started, its drone as nostalgic as the scent of the grass it cut. It reminded her of those summer evenings when her father, back from work, would mow their undulating garden. A childhood memory, then. But not Petra’s childhood. The memory belonged to someone else. Petra was merely borrowing it.

‘What’s Inter?’ she asked again.

‘You don’t know?’

‘Should I?’

He shrugged. ‘Inter Milan.’ When she made no comment, he returned to English. ‘You’ve never heard of Inter Milan?’

She shook her head.

‘The football team?’

The name was faintly resonant but she said, ‘I have better things to do with my time than watch illiterate millionaires kissing each other.’

‘Inter is more than a football team.’

‘Is there any danger of you straying towards the point?’

Andersen looked as though he wished to continue. He leaned forward and opened his mouth to speak – to protest, even – but then appeared to change his mind. An awkward silence developed. Petra sensed Claesen squirming behind her.