Read Online Arctic Gold by Stephen Coonts - Free Book Online

joining Rubens.
Rubens looked up at Dean, then back to the big display.
One of our agents, Rubens said with cryptic understatement. He in charge of the backup team for Magpie.
Where the hell are they, anyway?
At a commercial dock in St. Petersburg, Vasiliev Island. They’ve been detained by MVD guards at a customs checkpoint
I thought you said they were safe
?
Comparatively speaking. Mercutio is moving in now to get them through to the safe house.
Safe house?
A cruise ship tied up at the dock. Lia and her partner are posing as tourists. They’re close enough to the ship now that we’re getting their personal com transceiver signals boosted through from a satellite dish on the ship. He shook his head and sighed. It was a close one tonight, Charlie.
Tonight
. Dean smiled at that. It was, in fact, just past five in the afternoon. Rubens was so attuned to the mission in St. Petersburg right now that he was thinking in terms of it being past one in the morning.
So why did
they decide to use a Raptor?
My call, Rubens told him. We’ve been having real problems with communications in high latitudes lately. Sunspots. A live pilot gave us better flexibility.
Dean nodded. It was as he’d suspected. Desk Three often used unmanned drones like the F-47C to relay radio communications and datanet streams from operations on the ground, but sometimes you needed the human element.
Do we have an ID on the opposition?
Rubens gave him a sour look. Hardly. Lia and her partner weren’t exactly in a position where they could stop and take pictures. Best guess at the moment is that they’re Russian mafia.
Oh, joy.
Dean first op with Desk Three had been in Siberiathat had been where he’d first met both Lia and Tommyso he knew a little about the Russian mob. Any intelligence agent inserting into modern Russia had to know at least a little about the Organization, if only because he was
going to find himself working with them, one way or another.
Tambov group? he asked. The Tambovs were the largest and arguably the most dangerous of the Russian Mafia groups in St. Petersburg.
You’re going to tell us.
Oh?
I’m sending you to St. Petersburg, Charlie. I want to know who set us up and what they were after.
When do I leave?
ASAP. Briefing tomorrow morning, ohnine hundred hours, Green Room. You’ll get your legend then. We’ll have a commercial flight booked for you by tomorrow afternoon.
Then I guess I’d better pack. He looked up at the large display. Cruise ship, huh? Sounds great. I know Lia could use a vacation.
She won’t be there for long.
Oh? Why not?
Because the Russian Mafia tried to take her down tonight, Charlie. She managed to get away, but the opposition is tough tough, capable, and determined. He turned a cold gaze on Dean. I want to know exactly what the hell going on over there. And I want our people safe and out of there. You hear me?
I hear you.
Good.
Dean listened to the concern in Rubens’ voice. The old man didn’t usually show his worry, not this clearly, at any rate.
Dean wondered just what it was he was about to get himself into.
Operation Magpie
Waterfront, St. Petersburg
0101 hours
Akulinin considered his optionswhich weren’t many and weren’t good. Every sector of life in modern Russia was dominated by corruption, from ordinary citizens on the street to the highest ranks of government and industry. These two customs guards, almost certainly, were engaged in a bit of opportunismshaking down a couple of rich American tourists who happened to be alone on the waterfront in the middle of the night.
It was just possible that something more was going on here, that the guards were part of the ambush back at the warehouse and that Akulinin and Lia were about to be turned over to the mafia. That didn’t feel like the answer, though. These two, he was certain, were just looking for a little graft.
But why did they want to take the Americans someplace else?
They couldn’t afford to be taken out of sight. If these guys