“The rest of the club?”
“No, just your office. We did have one in the green room which was accidentally removed by your odd-job man—I don’t think he even realized he’d done it—but the intelligence had been so poor we didn’t bother replacing it.” He could tell Karasek was rocked, all the more so because of the complete confidence he’d held until a few moments before. “My advice would be to do a thorough sweep of your office once a week, strip it down once a month.”
Karasek nodded, lost in thought, then concentrated again. “Why are you telling me?”
“You needed to know why I didn’t want to talk in there, and given what I’m about to discuss with you, I don’t think it makes much difference for me to tell you about the bugs.”
Karasek looked smug, his calm restored as he sensed the power balance moving back in his favor. This was one of the things Finn liked about Naumenko, because Naumenko, in the same situation, would have assumed he was being double-bluffed and that the room they were in now was also bugged. Karasek didn’t think that fast.
“What do you want to discuss?”
“I’ll tell you in a moment, and I’m going to place my trust in you, because I can give you something you want, but before I speak, I want an assurance from you that this will not be shared.”
“I share with my closest people, no one else.”
“Mr. Karasek, we know one of our people is working with you. I know who he is, you know who he is, we don’t have to mention his name, but under no circumstances can you tell him that we’ve had this conversation. If you do, it’s all off. And I have to say something else—before you have any more conversations with him, ask yourself why he never told you about the bugs in your office.” Karasek didn’t respond. “Likewise, I’m sure he always had a plausible explanation, but he never met you here at the club, did he, not when it was private business?”
“I’ll make my own decision on that, but thank you for pointing it out.”
“It’s nothing,” said Finn. “I won’t ask you to give your word, I’ll just reinforce to you that if you repeat any of this to Perry, none of it will happen and we’ll both be the losers.”
Karasek thought about it for a second before nodding his assent. Crucially, he hadn’t been surprised by the casual dropping of Perry’s name. It probably wasn’t enough on its own, but it was a start, something to work on over the coming days.
“Good. You know Demidov was arrested. I received some intelligence just this morning from somebody who only deals with me. Usually, I would pass this up the chain, but I’m leaving and I know a retirement fund when I see one.”
Karasek laughed and said, “Why are you leaving if you have no money?”
Finn ignored the question.
“A ship is due into St. Petersburg next week, and a reception committee will be waiting for it, but the ship will have made a stop beforehand. One of Demidov’s men and a couple of associates will meet it. Some cargo will be off-loaded, around enough to fill one shipping container—just over a ton of uncut cocaine, worth almost half a billion dollars on the street, and there’ll be no one there to fight you for it, just three guys, four at most. I want a quarter of a million dollars in exchange for the exact information.”
“Let me guess, you want half up front.”
“No. You’d be a fool to trust me, and you’re no fool. This is a onetime deal. If you want in, I’ll give you the details as soon as I get them. You pay me once you pick up the shipment.”
Karasek stared at him, a noncommittal smile playing on his lips. He knew something was wrong, but it was taking him a while to work it out. It was taking him so long, Finn was almost tempted to give him a clue.
Finally, though, he said, “You’re no fool either, Mr. Harrington, so why would you trust me to give you the money afterward?”
“Because you’re a man of honor, Mr. Karasek.” He didn’t like that, didn’t like the fact that Finn was teasing him with something Karasek probably believed to be true. “And because when the deal is done and I have my money, I’ll tell you where the girl is.”
“You know where she is?” He sounded frantic. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“What if I’m lying? You get a ton of cocaine for a quarter of a million dollars. But think about it—why would I lie? This is just a neat way of us all getting what we want, and all getting out safe.”
Karasek was only half listening, his mind snagged by the final part of this deal, and he sounded distracted as he said, “So you must also know the man in the photograph—why did you ask me?”
Finn shook his head, saying, “What I know and what we know are two different things, and for the sake of our private arrangement, should you decide to take me up on my offer, it’s best if you still ask around about the guy in the photograph.”
“Why are you doing this?”