Cipher (12 page)

Boris Medviek climbed back onto his
yacht after a lengthy battle to evade the Turkish police. But, he also returned
to the glistening superyacht after having accomplished precisely what he had sought
out to accomplish. He had the list. Not only did he have the list,
but
he still had the cipher drive. No one could take that
away from him. No one else in the world held the power that he did as long as
that cipher drive was in his possession. He could infiltrate any database,
private or public, in the whole world. He could take what he wanted from whom
he wanted and no one could stop him. However, there was one thing that he still
didn’t have. There was one piece to the puzzle that still wasn’t solved –
the doctor.

When he arrived back on his yacht, his brother Dmitry
greeted him like any other self-respecting Russian would: with a bottle of
vodka. Dmitry poured two glasses of the triple-distilled and perfectly aged
elixir, into two ice-filled glasses. When he was finished, he handed the other
glass to Boris and raised his own glass to meet his.

“
Ura
,” Dmitry said, which meant
cheers in Russian.

“What are you celebrating about?” Boris asked.

“We have the list now, right brother? We can celebrate now.
The money will be ours very soon,” he said.

“I have the list, but I don’t have the doctor. I want you to
call Viktor. I want you to call him, then I want you to put me on the phone
with him,” Boris barked.

Dmitry walked over to grab his phone and returned to the wet
bar at the stern of the boat where he had fixed his brother a drink. The shiny
chrome and white marble finish of the bar glistened in the sun. But as Boris
swiveled around the black leather barstool at the front of the bar, and his brother
stood behind it, he shook his head. Dmitry dialed the number and handed the
phone to Boris.

“Da?” said the voice on the other end.

“Viktor?” asked Boris.

“Da? Boris?”

“Yes.”

“Hello boss,” Viktor said.

“Hello? You idiot!” Boris yelled into the phone. “You greet
me with hello? You are worthless! I pay you for a job and you can’t even finish
it!”

“I’m sorry. Really, I’m sorry. I will make it right.”

“Where are you?” Boris barked the question into the phone.

“I’m here. I’ve located them. I am following them right
now,” Viktor said into the phone. Boris could hear the man breathing heavily.
He knew that he was in a panic.

“Where are they?”

“They’re in a car, on the other side of the Bosporus,”
Viktor said.

“Where are they going?”

“I don’t know boss but I’m following them. They’re with two
others. What should I do?” he asked.

“Don’t do anything!” Boris yelled back. “Don’t do a single
damn thing you idiot! You’ll just screw it up again!”

“I won’t. I’ll make it right. I promise,” Viktor said in his
most apologetic tone.

“Listen,” Boris yelled into the phone, “All I want from you
is to trail them. Follow them and let me know where they’re going. When they
stop, I want to know where they stop. Do you understand?”

“Yes, boss. Loud and clear,” Viktor said.

Boris clicked the phone shut and stared at his brother,
shaking his head again. He held the highball glass and jingled the ice cubes
around by shaking the glass back and forth in his hand, and then he took one
last swig of the vodka, polishing it off.

“What?” Dmitry asked. “What did he say?”

“Where did you find this idiot?” Boris asked. “He’s
following them. At least the idiot found them again. They can’t be too smart if
Viktor keeps finding them.”

“What’s the plan?” Dmitry asked.

“It’s time to call Sheik Abdullah,” Boris said. “It’s time
to unload this list.”

“What about making a copy?” Dmitry asked.

“Let me worry about that. For now, we need to get him here
for the exchange. We need to let him know that we have the list.”

Dmitry grabbed the phone back and dialed the phone number
for Sheik Abdullah, listened to the phone ringing, then handed the phone back
to his brother. “Here you go,” he said.

Boris grabbed the phone and listened to the tone as it rang
on the other end. Sheik Abdullah promptly answered.

“Hello Boris,” said the Sheik.

“Hello Sheik Abdullah,” Boris said. His telephone demeanor
was a 180-degree turn from that with which he spoke to Viktor with.

“Has it been a week yet?” asked Boris. He smiled to himself.
He knew he was early.

“You already have the list?” the Sheik asked.

“Did you not think I would get it so fast? Maybe not at
all?” Boris asked.

“I had my doubts,” the Sheik said slyly over the phone.

“Well, the list is ready. When can we meet?” Boris asked.

“How many names?”

“All of them,” Boris said very slowly.

“You have all of the names?”

“3,486 field agents. That’s three billion four-hundred
eighty six million dollars,” Boris said.

“Done,” the Sheik said almost mater-of-factually. “I will be
there in 36 hours.”

“We’re at the Istanbul port,” Boris said.

“I expect that I will arrive by helicopter again, which
won’t be a problem, will it?” asked the Sheik.

“No problem at all.”

“Good, I’ll see you in 36 hours,” said the Sheik.

“See you then.”

Boris clicked the phone shut and smiled at his brother. “Are
you ready to make almost four billion dollars brother?”

Dmitry smiled. He finally
got
to
see his brother happy. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” he
said. “Glad to see you happy.”

“I’ll be happy when our little problem is taken care of,”
Boris said. “No more loose ends. Do you understand?”

“Yes. We’ll take care of it. Don’t worry… we’ll take care of
it.”

*****

Jonathan and Jennifer sat in the back of the dark sedan
helmed by Agent Steiner. In the front passenger seat was Agent Jenkins. They
were enroute to a rendezvous point in the heart of the city where they could be
debriefed further on what they knew, and receive training for what was to come.
Little did they know that the man who had failed twice to kill them was tailing
not too far behind; little did they know what else was in store for them. They
sat through the early afternoon traffic and quietly spoke to one another. They
looked around at the scenery as they made their way past the front of the Aya
Sophia and back towards the city center.

Looking out onto the ocean and the islands on the horizon
beyond, Jonathan was still mesmerized by the beauty of Istanbul. “This place is
beautiful,” he said to Jennifer.

“I’m glad you like it,” she said smiling.

“What do you guys think of it here?” Jonathan asked the two
agents in the front.

“Mesmerizing,” said Agent Jenkins. “I’ve been here before
and so has Agent Steiner, but it never ceases to amaze me. But, I’ve also seen
other parts of the country. We were on an assignment down in Antalya, which is
a prime vacation spot in the country. You should see it there,” Agent Jenkins
said.

“I love Antalya. We used to take summer vacations there when
I was a little girl,” Jennifer said.

“So, where exactly are you guys staying?” Jonathan asked.

“A part of town called Nisantaş. Not too far from the
first hotel you stayed in when you first arrived in town, Jonathan,” said Agent
Steiner. Jonathan looked at them with suspect. They apparently knew about that
too. He wondered what else they knew about that they weren’t disclosing.

They arrived at the new hotel that Jonathan had checked into
in the city center, and the two agents bid them farewell and told them they
would meet again in the morning. Jonathan and Jennifer walked into the hotel
and headed back towards the room. They both hadn’t eaten and were feeling
hungry, so they decided to head to the restaurant inside the hotel. They had
checked in under assumed names – something that was easy to pull off in a
city like Istanbul with a small bribe – so they felt relatively safe.

They sat down in the restaurant inside the hotel, which was virtually
empty because it was partway through the lunch and dinnertime rushes. “So, how
do you feel about tomorrow? Are you ready?” Jonathan asked.

“To be honest, I’m really nervous,” Jennifer said. “What
about you?”

“I am too but I trust the agents. I don’t think we can pull
this off without their help.”

“Yeah, you’re right. But
what if something
goes wrong
? What if something really bad happens?” she asked.

“We’ll deal with it. If something
really
bad
happens, we’ll just have to deal with it.
There’s
nothing else we can do.
If we don’t get these
guys
,
we’ll have to watch our backs forever. I really don’t want to have to be on the
run, being chased by shadows, do you?” Jonathan asked.

“No, of course not.”

“So, it’s settled then.”

“What’s settled?” she asked. She picked up the menu and
looked at it absentmindedly.

“That we’re going to do it. That we’re going to go through
with it. We don’t have any other choices.”

“We always have choices, Jonathan,” she cooed.

“I know that. What I meant is… oh never mind…”

“I know what you meant. You’re trying to be supportive.
You’re trying to make me not worry. I appreciate it. I really do,” she said.
Her blonde hair fell in front of her eyes as she looked down at the menu.
Jonathan wanted to reach over and brush it aside. He wanted to reach over and
pull her face close and kiss her, but he didn’t.

“Why did you really come back here? Why did you come all the
way back to Istanbul? I know you grew up here, but it’s so far away from
everything you once knew. It’s so far away from your entire life the way you
once knew it. It’s so far away from Virginia. Don’t you miss it at all? Don’t
you miss being back in the states?”

“Sure I do. But there were
a lot of
reasons why I came back. Aside from family, this is where I grew up. The
states was
home, but it was temporary, and I was burnt out.
I was really burnt out. I worked my butt off for two years on this research
project, and now it’s come around to haunt me. Now I’m running from my past,”
she said.

The waiter appeared and took their drink menu. They decided
to order a bottle of white wine to start with, along with some appetizers. She
ordered for the both of them. She spoke
way too
fast
and her Turkish was impeccable. Most of the conversation was lost in
translation for him, but he was happy she was there to order for the both of
them.

“What do you mean running from your past?” he asked. He
looked at her as though he didn’t understand.

“Jonathan, there’s so much that… so much that you just don’t
know… that you just wouldn’t really understand.”

“Try me?” he said.

“Not now.
Maybe another time.
I
really just don’t want to get into all of this right now. I really don’t…”

“I understand. It’s been stressful. I know that. It will be
okay. Things will get better. We’ll get through this. We’ll get through this
together,” he said with conviction. He reached over and grabbed her hand after
the waiter poured off the first couple of glasses of wine.

“I know,” she said. “One way or another, we’ll get through
this.” She squeezed his hand and it sent electricity running through his body.
He couldn’t profess just how he felt about her; he couldn’t believe it himself.
In such a short
period of time,
he had managed to
develop these feelings for her. Now, he didn’t want to leave her side. He
didn’t want to let her go. He couldn’t let her go.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” she said. “What is it?”

“I guess I’ve been wanting to ask you this, but haven’t
really gotten around to it. I guess I didn’t really find it appropriate
before,” he said, taking a big swig of the white wine in his glass.

“Yes?” she asked curiously.

“Why did you take that job? I mean
,
did you realize what you were actually doing? I know we talked about this, but
when I was thinking about it in my mind, it just didn’t make a whole lot of
sense. Was it only for the money?”

“There were a lot of reasons, money was one of them. Yes. I
can’t deny the fact that the money was very alluring. But algorithms and
applied mathematics is a passion of mine. Imagine being paid really well for
what you loved doing in life. Could you imagine that?” she asked.

Yes, Jonathan certainly knew what that was like. He was
living it at that moment. “Okay…”

“Imagine that for a moment. Wouldn’t you jump at it?
Wouldn’t you jump at the opportunity to do that?” she asked.

“Yes, of course. Being here right now is exactly that, but
didn’t you think for a moment that what you were doing could be used to harm
people? I mean not directly, but indirectly. It’s essentially a hacking device
or a universal key that could give you access to any system in the world.”

“Of course I thought about it, but it wasn’t just my work,
it was also the chipset. It was
cutting edge
stuff;
the wave of the future. In 10 or 20 years from now, those chipsets are going to
be the foundational CPUs used in artificial intelligence. I guess that even
though I knew what I was doing might be used for some bad, that the allure of
working on a project like that just drew me in. Does that make sense to you?”
she asked. She took a big swig of her wine and polished it off before Jonathan
could even finish his, then she topped both glasses off.

Jonathan looked at her as she topped off the wine and her
hair fell in front of her face again. That blonde hair that he wanted so badly
to just move to the side away from her face. Her pale blue eyes locked with his
soft brown eyes as soon as she looked up. She caught him looking at her with
intent and it didn’t bother her.
There was something about
him that drew her in as well.
She knew she was being sucked in. She
didn’t want to be; she didn’t want to develop feelings for anyone else, but
neither did he. They were both damaged, but in different ways.