Deadly Impact--A Richard Mariner nautical adventure by Peter Tonkin Page B

are these,’ snaps the director of investigations, his deep voice forthright and forceful. ‘We – our agencies – have been fighting the drugs war on two fronts. The Eastern Front against the Afghans and the Chechen
Mafiya
gangs who import their heroin through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan then across the Caspian Sea into Georgia, the Black Sea and all the way up the Volga. And the Home Front against the local gangs who hit pharmacies and pharmacy supply companies for painkillers, iodine, lighter fluid, industrial cleaning oil, with which they make—’
    â€˜Krokidil,’ spits the federal prosecutor.
    â€˜The drug that eats its addicts,’ nods Ivan. ‘I’ve seen the pictures. And of the victims … what’s left of them, once the drug rots their flesh away. From the inside.’
    â€˜Indeed,’ shrugs Oleshko dismissively. ‘But now we have a Western Front towards Italy and Eastern Europe with a new enemy opening up. And one cannot win a war on three fronts. Hence our reliance on espionage. A reliance that has resulted in this situation, and our request that you attend this meeting. Do you know this man?’
    The newspaper on the overhead is replaced by a passport photograph. It shows a lean, dark-eyed Mediterranean face. ‘Yes,’ answers Ivan, surprised. ‘That’s Leo Gatti. He’s one of our senior men at Bashnev Oil and Power …’ He pauses, his mind racing as he fights to recall the details of Leo Gatti’s position and responsibilities. ‘His main job is as executive liaison up in St Petersburg. He’s our man overseeing the docks, the cargoes, containers and so forth. Which makes him our chief liaison officer with Heritage Mariner Shipping up there.’
    â€˜He was also,’ the federal prosecutor interrupts his son’s sudden flow of information, ‘working for us.’
    Ivan doesn’t pick up on the past tense at once. But he picks up on the rest of the words. ‘For
you
?’ he snarls, swinging round to lock his gaze with his father’s, making full eye contact for the first time.
    â€˜He was our eyes on the Third Front,’ explains Oleshko.
    â€˜Keeping us as up to date as possible on what was coming in. Especially from the Italian port of Gioia Tauro,’ adds Ivanov.
    â€˜Have you heard,’ demands the federal prosecutor, ‘of the ’Ndrangheta?’
    â€˜Of course I have!’ snaps Ivan, his mind a whirl of speculation. Were these people telling him Leo Gatti was some kind of Mafioso? No. Ivan had read his personnel file and recalled some of the details now – Leo had been a member of the anti-Mafia ‘
Now Kill Us All
’ group. He had joined it years ago while visiting his father’s parents in Calabria before the whole family settled in his mother’s home town of St Petersburg.
    â€˜He was shot this afternoon,’ explains Oleshko. ‘Automatic weapon. Fired by a man on a motorcycle as he stopped at the lights at the intersection between Nevsky and Sadovaya.’
    â€˜Shot,’ echoes Ivan, stunned.
    â€˜Eleven times,’ confirms Oleshko. ‘They weren’t pissing about.’
    â€˜But, and this is the point,’ rasps Ivan’s father, ‘he didn’t die …’
    Ivan’s mind reels.
    â€˜Or rather, he didn’t die
at once
,’ the federal prosecutor continues brutally. ‘He was able to say a few words to the first officer on the scene, who seems to have been sharp and reliable, in spite of being a GAI traffic cop. Gatti was able to dictate several words and phrases to him, but he was dead by the time the paramedics arrived.’
    â€˜OK.’ Ivan nods. ‘So what did he say?’
    â€˜He had some information. Apparently, we’re not the only ones under attack. Bashnev Oil and Power is too. It’s being targeted for some sort of illegal takeover. Or so the scuttlebutt in