Moscow Rules

confiding rather than confrontational.
     
     
    “We know all about the Iglas, Arkady. We also know that you were against the sale from the beginning. It’s not too late to help us. Tell me where those missiles are.”
     
     
    Medvedev made no response, other than to lead Gabriel to an empty space in the center of the warehouse floor. The area was illuminated by a light burning high in the rafters overhead. Medvedev stood there, a performer on a stage, and extended his arms.
     
     
    “I’m afraid it is too late.”
     
     
    “Where are they now, Arkady?”
     
     
    “In the hands of a very satisfied customer.”
     
     
    Medvedev stepped out of the light and gave Gabriel a firm shove in the back. Apparently, there was one more thing they had to see.
     

 
    65
     
     
    KALUZHSKAYA O BLAST, RUSSIA
     
     
    She was secured to a straight-backed metal chair at the far end of the vast warehouse. Luka Osipov, her former bodyguard, was standing to one side, the bald giant on the other. Her blouse was torn, her cheeks aflame from repeated slaps. She stared at Gabriel’s damaged eye in horror, then lowered her gaze to the floor. Medvedev took a fistful of her dark hair. It was not the sort of gesture that suggested he intended to let her live.
     
     
    “Before we begin, you should know that Mrs. Kharkov has been very cooperative this evening. She has given us a full and forthright accounting of her involvement in this sorry affair, beginning with the night she eavesdropped on my telephone conversation with her husband. She has admitted to us that the operation to steal Ivan’s secret papers was all her idea. She said you actually tried to talk her out of it.”
     
     
    “She’s lying, Arkady. We forced her into it. We told her that her husband was going down and that if she didn’t cooperate with us she was going down, too.”
     
     
    “That’s very chivalrous of you, Allon, but it’s not going to work.”
     
     
    Medvedev tightened his grip on Elena’s hair. Elena’s face remained a stoic mask.
     
     
    “Unfortunately,” Medvedev continued, “Mrs. Kharkov was unable to supply us with one critical piece of information: the location of her children. We were hoping you might tell us that now, so that Mrs. Kharkov might be spared additional unpleasantness. As you might expect, her husband is rather angry with her at the moment. He’s ordered us to do whatever’s necessary to get the answers we need.”
     
     
    “I told you, Arkady, I don’t know where the children are. That information was kept from me.”
     
     
    “In case you found yourself in a situation like this?”
     
     
    Medvedev tossed a mobile phone toward Gabriel. It struck him in the chest and clattered to the floor.
     
     
    “Call the French. Tell them to deliver the children to Ivan’s villa tonight, along with Ivan’s passport. Then tell them to release Ivan’s airplane. He’d like to return to Russia immediately.”
     
     
    “Let her go,” Gabriel said. “Do whatever you want to me. But let Elena go.”
     
     
    “So she can testify against her husband in a Western courtroom? So she can publicly bemoan how Russia is becoming an authoritarian state that once again poses a grave threat to global peace? That would not only be bad for the country but bad for business. You see, Mr. Kharkov’s friends in the Kremlin might find it annoying that he allowed such a situation to occur. And Mr. Kharkov tries very hard never to annoy his friends in the Kremlin.”
     
     
    “I promise we won’t let her talk. She’ll raise her children and keep her mouth shut. She’s innocent.”
     
     
    “Ivan doesn’t see it that way. Ivan sees her as a traitor. And you know what we do to traitors.” Medvedev held up his Stechkin for Gabriel to see, then placed the barrel against the back of Elena’s neck. “Seven grams of lead, as Stalin liked to say. That’s what Elena is going to get if you don’t order the French to let Ivan get on his plane tonight— with his children.”
     
     
    “I’ll make that call when Elena is safely on the ground in the West.”
     
     
    “She isn’t going anywhere.”
     
     
    Elena lifted her gaze from the floor and stared directly at Gabriel.
     
     
    “Don’t tell him a thing, Gabriel. They’re going to kill me regardless of what you do. I would rather those children be raised by anyone other than a monster like my husband.” She raised her eyes toward Medvedev. “You’d better pull the