Eric Lustbader - Last Snow

“We’ll make the arrangements for your mother’s funeral tomorrow and do the service early,” he said. “I promised Aaron a celebration.”

“You’ve changed.” Claire could not keep a touch of wonder out of her voice.

“Surprised?”

“Frankly, yes, Dad. I didn’t think you could, or rather that you might want to.” She sat in a plush, upholstered chair. “What happened?”

“I got older and wiser.” He perched on the corner of the coffee table as if to reassure her that this was her room, her space. “That may sound facile or a cliché, but in my case it’s true. I guess I had to get to be a certain age to understand what I was missing, to understand what I’d done wrong, but until today I didn’t know what to do about it.”

“You mean the president doesn’t need you twenty-four-seven?”

“No, he’s got Jack McClure for that.” Paull took a quick glance at the bedroom door, which was still slightly ajar. “Besides, even if he did I’m with my family now.”

This was absolutely true as far as it went; however, and most unfortunately, at the moment catching up with Claire and his grandson weren’t the only things on his mind.

“I think it’s time for you to get some sleep.”

“I’m not tired.”

“All right,” he said, “then tell me what your life has been like these last seven years.”

She sighed and put her head back against the cushion. “We’re living in Baltimore, which I don’t particularly like.”

“Then why are you there?” Paull asked.

“I have a good job—great, really—that pays really well. I create greeting cards that are sold over the Internet.”

“Surely you can do that anywhere,” Paull said. “You could move back here.”

The instant the words were out of his mouth he regretted it. Claire’s face clouded over and her gaze went to the closed drapes through which, at any moment, the first light of dawn would seep. “I’m not sure that would be a good idea, Dad.”

“Sure, stupid of me. You and Aaron have your own lives.”

“But we don’t have much family, do we?”

Both father and daughter looked at the little miracle of Aaron who, standing in the doorway, his pajamas emblazoned with the phrase TO INFINITY AND BEYOND! was apparently far too excited by the events of the long day to sleep or even to lie in bed. And now Paull wondered whether Claire’s self-imposed exile to a city she did not like was punishment not only for him, but for herself.

He thought she was about to respond, he wanted her to respond, but at that moment his cell phone vibrated. He wanted to ignore it, did his best to ignore it, in fact, but a moment after it stopped, the vibration returned, this time in a different pattern, and he knew that he had no choice. Excusing himself he padded across the carpet to the bathroom, but even before he got there he had his phone out and was reading the text message.

It was one of three that he had prewritten in the event of new information being picked up by any one of the three programs he was running on his laptop. This one was from the proprietary search engine he had a part in developing. Unlike others available to the general public, this one had the ability to dig through corporate filings and other ephemera to come up with answers to questions such as the one Paull had given it this evening: Who owns Alizarin Group?

It seemed the program had the devil’s own time plowing through a mountain of labyrinthine document filings, shell companies that led nowhere, phantom bank accounts, and the like. Nevertheless, it persevered, as he had designed it to do, but now he knew the privately held company was owned by seven partners. He had no idea what to make of that; he knew of only one man who could.

ORIEL BATCHUK, driving along an unfamiliar highway in the Crimea, would have been shocked if Gourdjiev wasn’t aware that he was being followed. He did not appear to care, which did shock Batchuk. He had no idea what his old friend and foe was up to, just as he couldn’t fathom what had motivated Gourdjiev to shoot Boronyov, a man whom Limonev had assured him was already dead. Gourdjiev had told Batchuk’s men that finding the fugitive oligarch was why Annika was in Ukraine, but Batchuk hadn’t believed that tale for a moment. Gourdjiev had a plan, that much was certain—not knowing what it was worried him.

Gourdjiev, always so mysterious, so circumspect, was nothing of the sort now. It was when people started acting out of character that the real problems started, Batchuk knew from cold, hard experience, the first instance of which appeared with Nikki. Through his twenty-minute talk with Gourdjiev he had become increasingly enraged first that Gourdjiev had deliberately blocked any possible meeting with her, and second that when it did happen, he made certain to push her impending wedding in his face. The cruelty of Gourdjiev’s actions was not lost on him, and the reverberations from that affront had never ceased.

That day Gourdjiev had acted out of character, he had indicated through deeds rather than words that Nikki was off-limits, that she was better than Batchuk and so deserved better than him, a man named Alexsei Dementiev.

Ahead of him the filthy Zil Gourdjiev was driving turned off the highway onto a secondary road that appeared to lead to the coast. Batchuk made certain that he never lost sight of the car; he was on the lookout for a quick switch, where a second car and driver waiting by the side of the road would allow the drivers to switch vehicles, thus throwing off any pursuit, but no such vehicle was in evidence.

Batchuk returned to his contemplation of the past. He was powerful enough even at that time to start an investigation into Dementiev’s life and, if necessary, manufacture evidence that would disgrace him or put him behind bars. But Batchuk quickly determined that neither of those outcomes would do him any good because Gourdjiev would know what he had done and would not only come after him but also put Nikki out of his reach forever. He would not have that. In his confused state he didn’t know what he felt for Nikki beyond a potent erotic attraction, but he did know that getting to her, fucking her until she couldn’t walk, was all he wanted, all he could think of now. How strong a component revenge was even he couldn’t say.

He could see the Black Sea through a sudden squall of rain, ominous clouds hanging low on the horizon. Not for the first time he considered the possibility that Gourdjiev was leading him into a trap, that either the shooting of Boronyov or Gourdjiev’s loaded remark to his men was the bait. This thought caused him to recall their most recent confrontation, when he had stepped out of the shadows of Gourdjiev’s building, confident that he had the upper hand, when their escalating emotions had driven him to lay down his ultimatum: “ I came to warn you, or more accurately, to give you the opportunity to warn Annika. I’m coming for her—me, myself, not someone I’ve hired or ordered to do a piece of work. This I do personally, with my own hands .”

And now, for the first time, it occurred to him that the trap might have already been sprung, that possibly it had clamped him in its teeth the moment he had gone to tell Gourdjiev that his—what had he called it?—his burnt offering would not save Annika this time. What if, he asked himself now, that entire heated conversation had been choreographed by Gourdjiev? He was more than capable of such a Machiavellian stratagem.

It was a stratagem that he had used himself with Nikki and Alexsei Dementiev years ago, in another, simpler world, driven only by emotion, pure or impure. He had been invited to the wedding and he had gone, taking one of his many women, he could no longer remember which one. He kept away from the couple of honor. Not surprisingly Gourdjiev’s eyes were upon him the entire night, but even if he hadn’t been under scrutiny, he had resolved to keep his distance as a first step in his stratagem. Patience was his ally when it came to Nikki, he knew this in his bones, though his flesh felt like it was on fire every time he caught sight of her. And when she danced, in the center of the ballroom floor, his heart nearly stopped.