Deep Sleep (Devin Gray #1)(65)

Pichugin could have attempted to outsource this work, but the GRU operatives had proved their loyalty and effectiveness for decades. He didn’t see any reason to risk the use of men and women whose sole allegiance rested in a bank deposit when he had an army of well-paid idealogues at his disposal.

Kuznetzov emerged indispensable. Even more so when Pichugin brought FIREBIRD and his revised plans for its use to Putin, a mutual confidant and partner in several enterprises at that point. Putin endorsed FIREBIRD’s repurposing without hesitation, ensuring them access to whatever resources they required to make it succeed. Once Putin linked Kuznetzov’s name and face so intimately to FIREBIRD’s success—the general became untouchable.

“Yuri!” said the general, eyeballing the spread. “You shouldn’t have gone to any trouble.”

“I figured I might need to settle my stomach during our chat,” said Pichugin. “This can’t be good.”

The door shut behind Kuznetzov, the security operative leaving them alone.

“Nothing we can’t handle,” he said, taking a seat opposite him across the table.

Pichugin poured two shots of vodka and handed one to the general.

“Za vstrechu,” he said, and they downed a premier version of Russian Standard. “So. Tell me about this problem we can handle but requires you to fly out from Moscow.”

“Devin Gray made some new friends over the past couple of days,” said the general. “Some very deadly and resourceful friends. Do you remember the name Karl Berg?”

“Vaguely,” he said. “CIA?”

“Ex-CIA,” said Kuznetzov. “Pegged to General Terrence Sanderson’s troublemakers.”

“Now that’s a name I’m more familiar with,” said Pichugin. “Never crossed paths with his people, but the name has come up at the highest level before. I thought there was some kind of understanding in place.”

“There is. But this would fall well outside of that back channel deal,” said the general. “For obvious reasons.”

“I suppose it would,” said Pichugin.

“And Sanderson is supposedly retired these days. Richard Farrington reportedly took over what was left of Sanderson’s black ops program. He has apparently rebuilt it to some degree.”

“What happened?”

“The illegals sent to the town house to grab Berg and Gray were killed at the doorstep. All of them dead within seconds. The only survivor was the illegal left to watch Gray’s apartment.”

“I want her dead as soon as possible,” said Pichugin.

“Already taken care of. She’s melting in a barrel of lye as we speak,” said the general. “The real problem is that the GRU team comprised of consulate and NOC operatives was wiped out several blocks away, attempting to intercept Gray. There’s going to be a little bit of a shitstorm at GRU headquarters. Frankly, I’m glad to be out of town right now.”

“There’s going to be a considerable shitstorm,” said Pichugin. “I hope you have your story straight.”

Kuznetzov shrugged. “The illegals team was expendable. I had used them as bait—just in case Gray was onto them. Apparently he was, probably with Berg’s help. The other group’s mission will pass scrutiny, because there will be no scrutiny. I gave it the ‘from the top’ label. I hope it won’t be a problem.”

“I’ll make sure he’s aware of that situation,” said Pichugin, slyly referring to Putin. “I don’t see a problem. But we can’t use any more Russian Federation assets moving forward.”

“Including the old illegals?” asked the general.

“For now. Especially in the DC area,” he said. “I’ll assemble a top-drawer mercenary crew and move them into position to strike when we locate Gray and Berg.”

“Shall I leverage a few of our more well-placed FIREBIRD assets to help expedite the process of finding them? Gray and his new friends obviously know better than to use their credit cards or cell phones.”

“Yes,” said Pichugin. “Devin Gray’s mother has obviously been working on this for some time. The fact that she uncovered Donald Wilson leaves more questions than answers. Like how many more did she discover?”

“I see three scenarios. None of them is good. Unfortunately, we’ll never know which one has materialized, so we have to assume the worst. Best-case scenario is that Kozlov only passed one more name to the Gray woman: Donald Wilson. We know she received at least two names from General Kozlov,” said Kuznetzov. “We deactivated both families six years ago after one of the FIREBIRD assets discovered that both families had been investigated by the FBI in 2003.”

“Remember how close we came to shutting everything down after Kozlov?” asked Pichugin.

“How could I forget?” said the general. “I don’t think I slept for the next two years, waiting for the whole thing to fall apart.”

The general poured more vodka, which they tossed back immediately. Followed by another round.

“Back to the Wilson scenario. If Kozlov indeed passed his name, he would have done it for the express purpose of exposing SITE ZERO. Wilson oversaw the program for most of its years,” said the general.

“But she never found it,” said Pichugin.