Sure Fire by Jack Higgins

enough. There was nothing the man had said that made him want to trust Ardman – assuming that really was his name.
    â€œWe’re not staying here to listen to your lies,” Jade added. “Come on.”
    â€œYou’re in danger,” Ardman’s voice came after them. “You really should listen to what I have to say.”
    â€œWe really should go,” Jade hissed as Rich hesitated in the hallway.
    Ardman was standing in the door to the living room, but he made no effort to follow them any further.
    â€œWe can look after ourselves,” Rich called to him.
    â€œMaybe you can,” Ardman agreed. “But whatever you do,” he shouted after them as they left, “don’t even think about going after Viktor Vishinsky on your own. That really would be dangerous.”

11
    The internet café up the road had opened now. Jade and Rich found a table at the back where they could not be overheard by the other early morning customers.
    â€œWhat was that name again?” Jade asked.
    â€œViktor Vishinsky,” Rich said. He had a good memory for facts and details. Something he had perhaps inherited from his father, he realised, remembering the way Dad had immediately memorised their mobile phone numbers.
    Jade typed into the search field on the computer: victor vishinski . It came back a few moments later with a list of web pages. Most of them were about someone called Victor but with a differentsurname. One was for a comic called The Victor . Some were about victors of sporting events. Not hopeful. The Victor.
    But at the top of the page there was a line of text:
    Did you mean: Viktor Vishinsky?
    â€œMaybe we do,” Rich said. “Try it.”
    The results this time were very different. There was a lot of information about Viktor Vishinsky.
    â€œLook,” Rich said, pointing to one of the first items in the list. “That’s the KOS website. KOS was the oil company Magda mentioned.” He clicked on it and they waited for the page to load.
    â€œMaybe we should have stayed and talked,” Rich said. “To Ardman, I mean.”
    â€œHe was lying,” Jade said. “They’re all lying. Except maybe Magda. No one else has told us the truth since Mum died. Not even our own dad.”
    They examined the page. It was a company profile. KOS, it seemed, stood for Krejikistan Oil Subsidiaries, and Viktor Vishinsky owned and ran the company. There was a picture of him – a confident-looking man with hair that was almost white. He could be in his sixties or his late forties, it was difficult to tell.
    â€œSo what’s he got to do with anything?” Jade wondered.
    â€œIf Magda’s right, he’s the guy that Dad was spying on,” Rich said. “Here, look at this…” He had scrolled down and was now reading more about the company and the country where it was based.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œInteresting, that’s all. I’ve never heard of Krejikistan but it looks like it was part of the Soviet Union before everything broke apart there. Now it’s got its own government, but the economy is dominated by this one oil company – KOS.”
    â€œDo they have much oil there?” Jade wondered.
    â€œNone at all from the look of it,” Rich said, scrolling down the screen to a map of the country. The map showed a long thin country running down the western side of Russia. “Looks like it’s the position that’s important rather than what they actually have there.” He read quickly through the text. “Yes, look at this. KOS makes almost all of its money by leasing pipelines so that oil can flow through the country.”
    â€œSo everything has to come through Krejikistan.”
    Rich had finished skimming through the text. “Yep,” he said. “If the Ukraine wants oil or gas fromRussia, it has to pay for use of the pipeline it comes through. The same for any of Russia’s