CHAPTER 74
Stephanie assessed the situation.
The two intruders were under close watch.
Monica, Sandra, and Aleks were still at ground level.
Their conversation so far had been more about the Vasa than anything else.
Aleks had been admiring the ship that towered up above them.
Sandra had stayed relatively quiet, as had Monica.
Aleks was clearly stalling, allowing time for his men to get into position.
“I think I will leave now,” Monica suddenly said. “You two can talk privately.”
“I would prefer you stay,” Aleks said. “As I am sure Ms. Koss would too. After all, she does not know me.”
“She does now.”
“I insist,” Aleks said.
And Monica had not challenged that.
“I wanted to personally meet you,” Aleks said to Sandra. “You have been a valuable asset. We appreciate your work.”
“Were you able to intercept the plane?” Sandra asked.
They’d intentionally not included Sandra in the need-to-know circle about what happened over the Baltic.
“Oh, yes,” Aleks said. “We located it.”
“May I ask what happened?” Sandra said.
Aleks motioned to Monica. “Tell her.”
“We were able to take the plane down,” Monica said. “Thanks to you.”
“Did you know that the creation of this ship is taught in business management schools,” Aleks said.
“Even in Russia. Its construction was a fiasco of inefficiency and error. One mistake after another was made, yet the builders continued on, never correcting a thing. The result was inevitable. The ship rolled over and sank twenty minutes out from where it set sail. Just a light gust of wind toppled it right over. All thanks to it being incredibly top-heavy. It is a lesson in how human problems in communication and management cause projects to fail. It even has a name. The Vasa Syndrome.”
“He’s still stalling,” Koger said. “With bullshit.”
“You think?”
“An organization’s goals must be appropriately matched to its capabilities,” Aleks went on. “Here there was an overemphasis on pleasing the king with elaborate ornamentation and firepower. Not enough on more critical issues such as stability and seaworthiness.”
“They’re going to take Sandra out, right here, in public,” Koger said. “And my guess? Monica too.”
“Hence why he wanted her to stay and why there are two intruders,” she said. “Monica is surely aware of this. She’s a pro.”
“But a trapped one, at the moment.” Koger hit the button on his walkie-talkie. “Okay, you two, take those men down. Now.”
“You want them alive or dead?” Cotton asked.
“Surprise me.”
Cotton shuffled through the possibilities.
Of course they would want to get these guys with minimal disturbance and the smallest possible amount of gunfire.
There were people below visiting the museum, not to mention their three targets whom they definitely wanted alive.
But the door was the problem. It opened the wrong way.
To get a shot he would have to swing the metal panel all the way out. Which would alert his target.
And the response would be immediate.
“You have door issues over there too?” he whispered into the mic.
“I do,” Cassiopeia said. “And it’s hollow metal. Not much there to stop a bullet.”
“I say kick it wide open and get the jump.”
“Ready when you are.”
John was unsure just exactly what he was supposed to do.
Monica had told him to stay in the car. But Aleks had not come alone.
Should she be told? Of course, but he was no operative.
Just a businessman who had the bad luck to be married to a woman with a big mouth who caught the attention of a foreign power.
Then he caught the eye of an SVR operative looking to protect her asset and things became really complicated.
“We have an opportunity, in Sweden, to rid ourselves of several problems at once,” Monica had said to him a few weeks ago. “I am going to give you the chance to be done with your wife, clear your name, stick it to the king of Sweden, and get me in the process.”
Hard not to admire her confidence.
He was told once about what confident people said to get what they wanted.
Things like, I value your opinion, but I trust my instincts on this one.
Or something a bit more negative. That’s kind of you, but I’m not interested.
I respect your beliefs and opinions, but I need to stay true to my own.
Or, I appreciate what you’re saying, but I see it differently.
Then there was the outright pushback, Your ideas are appreciated, but they are not a good fit in this situation.
He always preferred a more positive approach.
I am confident that I can do this, thanks. I have it under control.
He could have told Monica any one of those things.
He could have also rejected her offer. I’m not interested in trying that, but thank you.
That doesn’t sound like something I’d find enjoyable, but I wish you the best. Or something even simpler.
I’m sorry, I can’t do that. But he’d not said any of that.
Now he was beginning to wonder if he’d made a mistake.
But it was far too late to second-guess things.
He stepped from the car.
And headed for the museum’s entrance.
Stephanie continued to watch and listen to the conversation that was happening out on the museum’s ground floor.
“Once they make their move on the two shooters up high,” Koger said, “those three are going to make a run for the exit. I plan to be waiting for them outside.”
“Alone?”
“I just texted the two men who’ve been helping out here, the guys who went to Sigtuna with you. They are on-site now. I also have the other exits for the building covered, in case the two on the catwalks make a run for it. Nobody is leaving this place.”
“And the reason you did not have all that help on station twenty minutes ago?”
“You know the answer. I wanted to see how far the SVR is willing to go.”
“There are civilians inside that museum.”
“And the two men with guns are currently in our sights. Nobody else has a weapon. We’ve got this.” Koger headed for the door. “I’ll leave you the walkie-talkie. I have one too, in my ear. Keep a watch over everything and let us know what’s happening.”
The big man left the security room.
She refocused on the monitors and noticed the visitors milling about.
A small tourist group with a guide lingered on the second level.
Aleks, Monica, and Sandra were still at ground level about midship.
She could hear their conversation through the receiver’s speakers.
Some shop talk, mostly small talk, with Aleks continuing to compliment Sandra.
Then something caught her eye at the security checkpoint.
John Westlake. Passing through the magnetometer.
“Lazarus back from the dead,” she muttered.
But why was he here? Only one explanation.
He was with Monica.
A rage swept through her at his incredible gall, the kind that hammered home that she, and everyone else, had been played for a fool.
Westlake was guilty of everything they’d ever believed about him.
Koger had been right. Whatever happened in Sigtuna had been, as Cotton would say, a dog-and-pony show for Cassiopeia’s benefit.
Her initial instincts from a decade ago had been right.
No question.
Enough. More than enough, actually.
This had to be dealt with.
Now.
She grabbed a third pistol that lay on the desk and stormed from the room.