Arctic Wargame - Страница 50

“I want to trust you,” Justin said. “But after trying to kill me and my friends, trust doesn’t come easy.”

The next few minutes they drove in silence, broken only by Joe’s occasional cursing at the slippery patches on the road. Justin looked out the window at the rolling ice hills, followed by short segments of flatland, and by more rolling ice hills. He kept the prisoner within the corner of his eye, and every so often observed Magnus’s behavior for any signs of surrender. He found none.

“You know what,” Justin said, “I don’t think I can trust you. Unless you give me some facts: names, numbers, places, you’ll keep wearing those handcuffs.”

Magnus grinned and kept staring ahead. “Tell the Americans I prefer to fly business.”

“Oh, no.” Justin shook his head. “You’re not going to the Americans. I’ll take you to one of our secret locations. Once we’ve arranged for your return back to Denmark, I’ll take you back to Copenhagen. Always wanted to see the Round Tower and the Latin Quarter.” He should start to feel trapped, now. I need to keep him worried and in panic, so that he’ll see the need to bargain with me. He doesn’t want to go back to Denmark.

“You’re bluffing,” Magnus said, but without conviction. “You need me, so you can learn what we’re up to, our next moves, our future plans.”

“Is Kronborg open at this time of year? You know, Anna,” Justin said and looked over at her, “Kronborg is a fascinating castle, right on the shore of this place… hmmm, I don’t remember its name…”

“Helsingør,” Magnus offered with an uneasy smirk.

“Yes, exactly. On a clear day, from atop the castle one can see all the way across the waters to Sweden. In one of the castle halls they have this statue of one of their great heroes…” Justin gestured at Magnus with his head for the name he was looking for.

“Holger Danske.”

“Yes, that one. According to the legend, his marble statue will turn into a human being, flesh and blood, if Denmark is ever in danger, and it will rise to fight for the country’s freedom.” Justin stared into Magnus’s eyes. “I wonder what would Holger Danske do if Denmark was the aggressor toward another country that is an ally and a friend?”

Magnus closed his eyes and shook his head. “I thought you were going somewhere there, you had a point or something,” he said, his eyes still shut.

“I have a point, which is I will enjoy Copenhagen’s best, while you, well, I’m sure your authorities will decide on how best to handle you.”

“You think they’re going to kill me, do you?”

“Oh, no, I think they’ll give you a promotion. Maybe they’ll give you the position of this Gunter character. You seem to know or at least pretend to know all about the Arctic Wargame mission. I wouldn’t want you to be unhappy and go around blurting out secrets to who knows whom. I would make sure you remained silent. For good.”

Magnus opened his eyes and stared at Justin. He seemed unsure whether Justin was being sarcastic or not. Magnus looked left and right, as if he were waiting for the right moment to make a run for it. But his face was calm, his breathing regular, and his overall composure quite relaxed.

“And who knows,” Anna said with a head tilt and a slight shrug, “maybe we’ll have better luck with Valgerda.”

“Oh, you want to talk to her?”

“Yes, now that you have placed all the blame on her in order to save yourself, of course we’re going to interrogate her.”

“I haven’t said… oh, I see, you’re trying to play us against each other,” Magnus said in a mocking tone. “She’s not going to take the bait.”

“We’ll see about that,” Justin said with a confident nod.

Joe’s cellphone rang. He glanced at the screen, checking the caller ID. “It’s Ned,” he said, handing the phone to Justin.

“Hi, Ned, what’s up?” Justin said.

“Not much, just cleaning up the terminal. Listen, we’ve finally got through to someone from the Canadian Forces. They’ve dispatched a couple of Cormorant helos to check things out here, after military officials from the US and Denmark began asking all kinds of embarrassing questions.”

Justin pressed the cellphone to his ear, so Magnus and the other passengers could hear only his side of the conversation. Ned’s unexpected call had given him an idea.

“Who’s aboard the helos? I mean from the Danish side?”

“Nobody, there are no freaking Danes in there, the bastards. It’s the Canadian Forces, our army, can’t you hear me?”

“Yes, I hear you. Anyone I may know?”

“They didn’t give me any names.”

“But they’re from the Ministry of Defence, right?”

“Yeah, they call it the Department of National Defence, the DND. But you know that.”

“Do you think they would be interested in picking up one of their own?”

Justin released his grip on the cellphone. He guessed Ned’s reply and wanted Magnus to hear for himself the words that could seal the deal.

“Of course, they will, when they go back.”

“OK, Ned. Tell them to meet me in Arctic Bay, and that I have something for them. The man for whom they came this far is sitting with me in the truck as we speak. Bye!”

Justin flipped his cellphone shut. Before he could say another word, Magnus leaned toward Justin.

“Hey, move back.” Anna shoved her pistol into Magnus’s side.

Magnus sat up straight.

“It’s OK,” Justin said. “I think he wanted to whisper in my ear.”

“I want a deal,” Magnus said, his voice low and unsteady. “Don’t hand me over to the Danish troops, whoever they may be.”

“What do you want?” Justin held Magnus’s eyes. Panic had begun to replace the courage in the man’s heart.

“Political asylum and a new identity. Both for me and Valgerda.”

“That’s a steep price. Your secrets are really worth that much?”

“They are. Trust me, you’re the one getting a deal here. I’ll give you everything about the Arctic Wargame, the players, the story, everything.”

“Start talking.”

“Do I have your word?”

“A lot of people will have to sign off on this, but as far I am concerned, I’ll do my best to get it done.”

“That’s good enough for me, I guess,” Magnus agreed with a deep sigh.

“OK, I’m listening,” Justin said.

“No, you said it yourself that talk is cheap, and I know you’re a difficult man to convince. Find me a computer, and I’ll show you everything. E-mails, photos, plans, coordinates. Everything.”

Chapter Thirty-two

Arctic Bay, Canada

April 14, 1:13 p.m.

Magnus’s watch looked like any other wristwatch. Its only remarkable feature was the black dial, which had four yellow dots representing the numbers three, six, nine, and twelve. There was nothing special about its leather band either. But as Magnus flipped over the watch, Justin noticed a small clasp in the casing, right next to the switch for setting the time. Magnus inserted the tip of his fingernail underneath the clasp, popping out the pin of a USB connector.

“It’s a jump drive,” Justin said. “What a great idea.”

Magnus shrugged, as he handed his watch to Justin. “Its capacity is 64 GB. I keep it as a backup for confidential materials. In this case, it turned out to be my insurance policy.”

Justin turned on the desktop computer and looked out of the living room’s small windows. Ned had allowed them to use his old Compaq.

“What’s in there?” Anna asked, pacing around the desk, waiting for the computer screen to light up.

Justin was sitting in the only chair in the room, in front of the monitor, while Magnus stood to the right of Justin, his back against the wall.

“You’ll see. Pictures, maps, names, numbers. The entire Arctic Wargame operation at your fingertips.”

“So, you just happened to be carrying around the operation’s database?” Justin asked, fumbling with the keyboard. The computer was still going through the stage of scanning the hard drive for startup errors.

“No, of course not. I planned it well in advance. I sensed at some point things were not as they seemed in this operation. I had this unsettling feeling that Gunter was not telling me everything, and I was being set up. Maybe he needed someone to blame in case things went wrong, like they did. I know Gunter is very close to our Defense Minister. Then, just before the beginning of our mission, I saw…”

Justin looked up at Magnus. “What did you see?”

Magnus remained silent. He wanted to tell Justin how he saw Yuliya kill in cold blood one of the recruits, how he ran a background search on her but could not find a record of a Yuliya Novikov ever working in the Danish Defense Intelligence Service or anywhere else in the security establishments of Denmark, about Yuliya’s slight trace of a foreign accent, and how Gunter was not really in charge of the Arctic Wargame. But Magnus did not trust the Canadians. Not yet. After all the paperwork was signed and he received his new identity, he would tell Justin everything he knew.

“Magnus, what did you see?” Justin asked again.

“Eh… I realized that… that most likely things were going to turn ugly… We had very few soldiers and against my better judgment, I still went on with this mission.”

Justin thought over Magnus’s reply for a few seconds. “Here. It’s working.” He pointed to the screen lit up by a Caribbean sunset picture set as the wallpaper.