The Pakistan Conspiracy, A Novel Of Espionage by Francesca Salerno Page B

Federation without the scrutiny sometimes invited by a passport.
     
    Without leaving the station for the open air above, Al-Greeb traveled six miles north by underground to Komsomolskaya Square, an historic central nexus of the city now seedy with pickpockets, the homeless, and the poorer visitors from the steppes of central Asia. He inhaled the familiar smells of poverty, less pungent here in the cooler summer climate of Moscow than they were in Pakistan and Jordan, yet recognizable and welcoming. He blended in.
     
    Al-Greeb purchased green onions and a crust of unleavened bread from a street vendor and sat for a time by the fountain, eating. He found a hostel catering to Kazakhs and residents of the eastern regions of Russia, rented a bed in a garage-like dormitory ripe with stinking men, and made arrangements by pay telephone to meet with Colonel Marchenko the following day at the Slavyanka Hotel.
     
    Yasser al-Greeb was 34 years old. Though 5 feet 9 inches tall, he was somewhat above average height in the crowds of vitamin and nutrient-starved Russians. His skin was a darker olive than that of most natives of the southern Mediterranean and he had a lean, muscular build, weighing in at 160 pounds. His thinning jet-black hair was slicked straight back from a sloping forehead, a crooked, bony fin of a nose, and sunken cheeks. His irises were so dark that his pupils were almost invisible. Though he was a natural boxer and could adopt an aggressive posture when challenged, he was generally not the sort of person whose demeanor suggested that one give him wide berth on a sidewalk. Yet there was something about him that invited caution; dense as it was with thieves, no one bothered him in the precincts of Komsomolskaya Square.
     
    The following morning was a fine one, sunny, the crisp Moscow air warmed to a balmy 70 degrees. Though he could have taken a short subway ride to reach the hotel, Al-Greeb began walking west from his hostel just north of Moscow’s inner ring road. He made the three-mile trek in less than an hour. Colonel Marchenko and Simon Wantree were waiting in the same corner of the lobby where they had shared coffee the previous morning.
     
    “May I suggest some privacy?” Al-Greeb said in the accented English he had picked up in Amman. He had recognized Marchenko and Wantree instantly.
     
    “I have a room here,” Wantree offered.
     
    Wantree led the way to an ancient brass-framed lift. In his dim cubicle on the fourth floor, Wantree apologized because he had only one chair, a narrow wooden one. The three men stood.
     
    “This need not take long," Al-Greeb said. “Only to satisfy myself that everything is in readiness.”
     
    “I arrived only yesterday myself,” Wantree said. “I have not had an opportunity to examine the device, nor to perform certain tests...”
     
    “But Colonel Marchenko, you told Jacques LeClerc that everything is in order, and that if this transaction is consummated the device will function as promised?”
     
    “That is what I have always maintained,” the colonel said flatly. “All these ‘tests’ are a waste of time and a risk to security.”
     
    Al-Greeb studied both men.
     
    “I’m not sure that any test, short of detonation, would prove anything.”
     
    “Exactly!” Marchenko barked.
     
    Wantree held his tongue. Surely these were discussions LeClerc should have held with Marchenko before he was called to Moscow.
     
    “I will make some inquiries,” Al-Greeb said. “Meanwhile, I suggest Mr. Wantree that you enjoy your visit to Moscow for another day until I have had a chance to talk to your employer Jacques LeClerc. Then we will reconvene.”
     
    Yasser al-Greeb said good-bye to Simon Wantree in his hotel room and asked Colonel Marchenko to accompany him downstairs to the hotel lobby.
     
    Once the elevator doors were closed, he said, “You saw the laptop next to the bed?”
     
    Marchenko nodded.
     
    “You must seize it today, and you must