Read Online Yalta Boulevard by Olen Steinhauer - Free Book Online Page A

, said Brano. The embassy wasn’t secure .
    Maybe you were afraid Major Romek would listen in on your schemes?
    I thought nothing of the sort .
    Kaspar .
    One of the guards struck him across the back of the head.
    Don’t be impertinent, Brano .
    Working back from the Lieutenant General’s questions, Brano could piece together Lochert’s inventive report. He claimed not only that Brano had attacked him in the Volksgarten the night of the Richter murder but also that over the previous month he had been trying to sabotage the investigation into the identity of GAVRILO . Brano had undermined security at the embassy, consciously casting doubt on the abilities of their head of security, Nikolai Romek, by planting electronic bugs. Why? Because Brano needed an excuse to run his operations outside the embassy, where he could not be watched, at the Hotel Kaiserin Elisabeth. From there he could meet with whomever he wanted.
    Lochert, his report claimed, was confused about the why of Brano’s treachery. Only after the incident in the Volksgarten was he able to piece together the details. Brano arrived late because of a liaison with a certain Dijana Franković, Yugoslav national, who, besides being the girlfriend of Bertrand Richter, was known to have entertained KGB agents in her apartment on Döblinger Hauptstraée. Brano, Lochert finally realized, was working for the Russians—who, for their own reasons, wanted to hinder Yalta Boulevard’s investigation into the source of their Vienna leak.
    This was all, of course, a lie, and two weeks later, after he’d been released from his Yalta cell and given his new labor assignment at the tractor factory, he and Colonel Cerny took a walk together in Victory Park. But why? Brano asked him. Why did he do this?
    Cerny had thought it through over the last weeks. Lochert’s lived in Vienna almost a decade; he knows the city and its networks better than anyone. We sent him to Vienna because he grew up in one of those Saxon villages in the Carpathians; we felt he understood the Germanic mindset. And then Kristina Urban was killed .
    He expected promotion .
    But he’s a simpleton , said Cerny, because the Ministry never planned to promote a hired gun—a half-educated Saxon thug—to the level of rezident. Then you arrived, with only minor Austrian experience, and Lochert’s pride … well, he couldn’t take it, could he?
    If the Lieutenant General believes his story, why aren’t I in prison?
    Why aren’t you dead, you mean . Cerny gripped his arm and whispered, Because you’ve got me, Brano. I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve .
    He wiped the sweat off himself with a hand towel, and as he finished dressing, Mother stumbled to his bedroom door. She rubbed her bloodshot eyes. “Where were you last night? Did you get any sleep?”
    “Some. I’ve got to run.”
    “Where?”
    “To meet Captain Rasko.”
    She leaned against the wall, stifling a yawn. “Why on earth are you seeing him this early?”
    “There was a murder last night.”
    “There was … what? ”
    “I’ll tell you about it later.” He kissed her forehead.
    Captain Rasko had not yet dressed. He asked Brano to make some coffee, then sprinted back to the bedroom. Brano picked through piles of dishes for the coffeepot and cleaned it thoroughly. There was a bag of ground beans in the cabinet.
    Rasko straightened his tie as he drank. “This is better than my coffee.”
    “I cleaned the pot.”
    “Oh, is that the trick?”
    Brano set down his cup and used a rag to wipe the counter clean. “You told me you hadn’t dealt with murder before. What kinds of crimes do you usually deal with?”
    “Petty stuff. Fistfights and drunkenness. Thievery. Gambling—the boys here like Cucumber best—but I only become aware of gambling when it leads to fistfights or thievery. These guys are serious about their card games.”
    “I’ve heard.”
    “Had your breakfast yet?”
    “I don’t usually eat breakfast.”
    “Good.