Dancing with Shadows by Churchward Adrian

Author:Churchward, Adrian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SilverWood Books
Published: 2017-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Day Thirteen: 7am

Scott woke to the sound of three raps on the door. He rubbed his eyes.

There was daylight in the room; he’d forgotten to close the curtains. The TV was broadcasting a news report.

He opened the door and a lad brought in his breakfast on a trolley. Scott tipped him, collected a buttered croissant and an orange juice and lay on the bed looking blankly at the TV screen.

He was thinking about Trench’s no-show and Pravda’s fear for his well-being when a newsflash on the TV caught his attention.

Reports are coming in of an armed attack on a cargo ship in the Baltic Sea yesterday evening…

Scott perked up as the screen split in two: half showing the ship, piled high with containers and surrounded by smaller vessels, and the other half with a map highlighting Vyborg and the border with Finland in conjunction with the geographical location of the ship.

Two raiders and five crewmen were killed. Another raider was captured and flown by helicopter to the Finnish mainland, where he is being held for questioning…

Scott stared at the screen; it cut to a building in Finland. He turned up the volume.

Armed guards stand outside the injured raider’s room in this hospital in the island town of Kotka. Nothing is yet known by the authorities of the reason behind this rare act of piracy in the area, a scenario more frequently played out in the Indian Ocean than in the Baltic…

A further cut to an aerial view of an industrial estate.

The containers began their journey at this complex in Vyborg, northern Russia, near the Finnish border. It belongs to a charitable organisation called the World Preservation Foundation. It was set up by Russia’s wealthiest oligarch, Konstantin Gravchenko, to promote a green lifestyle.

Scott moved closer to the screen as the ship came into view again.

The Polar Dawn was on its way to Amsterdam…

What was that?

The camera was jerky, bobbing in the sea on one of the smaller vessels. It homed in on the ship’s name: Polar Dawn. The two words lingered in focus, as if the camera had heard Scott’s question.

He checked the article on the net about the Portuguese customs raids that Kaskin had dismissed as press hyperbole; was there a connection?

A call came in; number withheld.

‘Yes?’ he said in Russian as he continued to watch the TV for more “breaking news” intercuts.

‘Scott, it is Stephen Trench. Have you seen the news? The attack on the cargo ship, Gravchenko’s distribution complex at Vyborg? Your life is in danger. You must return to the UK without delay.’

The TV screen was showing world weather patterns.

Was Trench somehow a party to Pravda’s revelations?

‘Why am I in danger? I don’t understand. And where were you last night?’

‘Just accept that you are. You need to get out of Russia as soon as possible.’

This wasn’t a sufficient explanation. It was no explanation. ‘You’ll have to do better than that.’ He was determined not to let Trench control his decision-making. Still, he didn’t want to shut

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.