The First Billion

The man pulled his jacket tight around him. "Of course not," he answered defiantly. "I am a clerk. This is a misunderstanding. If you want my job, you can have it. Fifty dollars a week is not enough for-"

The Chechen advanced three paces and clubbed the man viciously in the head with a ball-peen hammer. The man collapsed without a sound. The woman next to him screamed, and kept on screaming as the Chechen fell to a knee and hit him again and again with the hammer.

"Christ Almighty," murmured Byrnes, something inside him twisting in grief and bewilderment. Somehow he guessed what it was all about, that this was a show for his behalf. Slumping to the ground, he buried his face in the crook of his knees, covering his ears with his hands. Yet, he had to listen. To bear witness. To accord Kirov's victims a last measure of respect.

"Name."

"Ludmilla Kovacs."

"Position?"

"I am a secretary at Mercury Broadband. I work in the finance department for Mr. Kropotkin."

"Do you know Detective Vassily Skulpin?"

"I do not."

"Are you stealing papers from Mercury to give to Prosecutor General Baranov?"

"No." The screams were gone. In their place came crisp emotionless answers. The dialogue went on for some time, and it seemed like the Chechen was pleased with her, that she would not suffer her fellow worker's fate. Then came the horrible thud, the rushed outflow of breath, the slack, undignified thump of the body as it fell to the ground. The blows continued, merciless and mundane, and Byrnes could hear the Chechen's labored, rhythmic breathing above them, greedy, excited, ambitious.

"A ghastly business."

Byrnes jumped at the voice. Looking up, he saw Konstantin Kirov standing at the back of the shed. He was smoking one of his black cigarettes, and he looked pale and unsteady.

"A legal matter," Kirov explained. "Someone has been slipping information out of our offices, giving them to individuals unfriendly to the cause. We're adjudicating the matter in-house."

"Your questioning methods are very efficient."

"They are hardly my methods, but, yes, they are efficient. We can't be certain which of the three stole the information, only that it was one of them. People are so adept at lying these days."

"So you kill them all," said Byrnes without irony. "Clever."

Kirov paid the remark no heed and went on smoking. "Would it surprise you to know that I was once in a position similar to yours? Mr. Dashamirov recruited me in the same manner. More roughly, actually. He put a bullet in my best friend's head, then asked if I wanted the same."

"Is that why I'm here? For recruitment?"

"We're long past recruitment. 'Retirement' might be a more appropriate word."

Again, Byrnes was left to wonder why the deal hadn't been canceled. He was certain Jett had understood his message. He'd heard it in his voice. It came to him that Gavallan had to have a reason not to have canceled the deal, and that he, Grafton Byrnes, might be it. He looked over his shoulder. The woman, Kovacs, lay motionless in the dirt, her blond hair matted with blood. He knew what lay in store, if not today, then soon.

"Doing business in this country's so damned difficult," Kirov complained, dropping his cigarette to the ground, grinding it with the tip of his shoe. "You think I want to be Mr. Dashamirov's partner? I have no choice. What do you think would happen if I gave up? Would Mercury exist? No. Two million legitimate subscribers would lose their connection to the world. Thousands of intelligent men and women would be out of a job. And Russia? What about it? Have you thought what might happen to my country if I threw in the towel just because of Mr. Dashamirov's unsavory methods? Would my country have independent television? Unbiased journalism? The answer is no. It is a question of priorities. Of recognizing what is achievable and doing the necessary to see it through. Of rolling up your sleeves and getting a little dirty in the kitchen."

"Of the greater good?" Byrnes offered.

"Yes, damn it, the greater…" Kirov stopped mid-sentence. His eyes burned with a fervor, an inner fire Byrnes had never seen. More than ever he looked like a crazed monk. "It is too bad you will not see it come to pass."

The whip-crack explosion of three heavy-caliber bullets fired in close succession snapped Byrnes to attention. Glancing over his shoulder, he made out Dashamirov holstering a pistol as he stepped over the corpses. The coup de grace had been administered. Kirov's spy was no longer.

Grafton Byrnes watched Kirov rejoin his partner. After a few words, the two disappeared from sight. An engine fired and one of the vehicles departed. Sickened, Byrnes wondered why he was still alive. The answer came at once. He still needs you.