After three hours of waiting, Borodin could wait no longer and hit the dial button on the phone that had been staring at him silently. Pushkin answered after one ring.
“General, I’m sorry no update,” he whispered.
Borodin hung up. He had never been a patient man but he couldn’t let his inability to control himself interfere with a mission.
“Vasiliy!” he shouted.
Vasiliy entered the office and thought twice of reminding the General of the small intercom button that negated the need to scream his name.
“Yes, General?”
“Any word from Surkov?”
Vasiliy could have said of course not, I would have told you if there had been but again went with the far less confrontational. “No, General, nothing yet.”
“Has the President called?”
Vasiliy was beginning to struggle. “No, General, sorry, he has not.”
“OK, thanks,” he waved dismissively for Vasiliy to leave.
Surkov had assured him things were in action that would necessitate his greater involvement imminently and to ready his assets. Either himself or the President would be in touch to discuss the next steps of their plan. Until then, he should sort out the Sean Fox problem and relax.
Ever since he had found out about what really was happening at Grebnevo, the one thing he most certainly couldn’t do was relax. It was not until then that he fully understood why Sean Fox was such an issue. As far as Surkov was aware, the other Sean Fox had died in a light plane crash five years earlier. The news that another Sean Fox had died three months earlier had therefore not fazed him in the slightest. However, news that another Sean Fox had risen from the grave was a very startling prospect. As far as Surkov knew, there were only two! Which meant there was every chance that the live one could have been his. Whatever the case, the danger was too great. Sean Fox had to be killed. If he was Surkov’s Sean Fox, he knew too much. Depending on which one was which, they may have told the wife and as a result that was why she also must be eliminated. After that, it had all got a little confusing, his Sean, the other Sean, Borodin began to lose track.
As he drummed his fingers on the table the satellite phone sprung to life. He grabbed it.
“Done?” he asked.
“Da!” was the succinct reply before the line went dead.
He hit the redial but nothing happened, the line was down.
“Vasiliy!” he screamed.
Vasiliy rushed to the General’s aid.
“This damn thing has cut out!” he shouted, throwing it at Vasiliy, clearly expecting him to fix it.
Vasiliy tried for a minute before calling in proper technical assistance. The chief designer of the system was rushed into Borodin’s office, from the technical department two floors below. He brought another sat phone just in case the problem lay with the General’s handset. It did not. Neither handset could connect to Pushkin’s.
“Well?” boomed the General pacing the office in an attempt to prolong his patience.
The chief designer called back to his office and had every system component checked and triple checked.
“Everything is working correctly, General…”
“Obviously fucking not!” he blasted, not allowing the designer the chance to finish his sentence.
“… so the problem must be with Major Pushkin’s handset,” he offered timidly.
“And?”
“We have sent an update to his handset. The next time it is switched on, it will connect instantly to us and if it is a software fault, we can fix it from here. If not, I’m afraid there is little I can do.”
Borodin turned and looked out of the window.
“Vasiliy get him out of here before I do something I might not regret!”
By the time Vasiliy had turned to the designer, his back was already disappearing out of the door.
As Vasiliy shut the door behind the designer, he asked what Pushkin had said.
“I asked him 'done?’ and he answered yes. Then the line cut.”
“So Sean Fox is dead?” clarified Vasiliy.
“Yes, I suppose he is,” smiled Borodin,
“Will I get Dr Surkov on the phone?” suggested Vasiliy.
Borodin’s mood turned full circle as he realized Vasiliy was absolutely right. Now he had an excuse to call Surkov.
“Excellent idea Vasiliy. Best use the old fashioned land line though,” he laughed.