The Dam Keeper by Andrew Turpin

Author:Andrew Turpin [Turpin, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788750462
Published: 2023-11-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Cape Idokopas, Russia

The entrance to the Russian president’s expansive estate and palace on Cape Idokopas forked off the blacktop highway that wound its way through the village of Praskoveevka to the beach a couple of kilometers farther south.

Jayne peered out of the passenger window as Neal, at the wheel of their black Toyota Hilux twin-cab pickup, followed a somewhat newer Volkswagen Amarok in which Nikolas Kamov and one of his sculptors, Oleg Uglov, were traveling.

The entrance area was shielded by impenetrable heavy gray steel fencing that was over three meters high and ran alongside the highway. The fence itself was further protected by freeway-style crash barriers.

The road into the complex was blocked by a set of heavy steel booms. Kamov’s Volkswagen pulled to a halt in front of the booms, and a security guard in a black uniform walked at a purposeful pace toward them from one of several buildings beyond.

Jayne watched as Kamov lowered his window and held a lengthy conversation with the guard, showing him papers and passes.

Eventually, the guard, an unsmiling, heavily built man wearing a peaked cap, walked to Neal’s window, which he had already lowered.

“Your identity documents and your accreditation, please,” he said in Russian.

Neal passed him the forged German passports and the accreditation that Suslova had sent to Kamov.

The guard studied the papers, then looked at Neal and bent down so he could properly see Jayne in the passenger seat.

“You are both German?” the guard asked.

“Da. Yes, both of us,” Neal said in Russian.

“Who are you here to see? What are you here for?” This time, the guard turned his gaze to Jayne.

“As it says on the paperwork, we are designers of chess pieces,” Jayne said, also in fluent Russian. “We are guests of Kira Suslova, and we are working on a project to build a large chess set to stand next to a swimming pool on this site. We are here to develop the designs. Then the sculptors will make the pieces.”

The guard nodded, removed a walkie-talkie radio from his belt, and stepped away from the pickup. He clicked a button on the radio and began to speak in a low tone.

The passports had stood up to scrutiny at the Checkpoint Lars border crossing into Russia, as Jayne had expected they would. Therefore, it seemed highly likely that they would pass inspection here too. The Office of Technical Services at Langley, which had forged them, was a top-class unit and had never yet let her down.

Eventually, the guard returned to Kamov’s pickup, said something through the window, and pointed through the barrier, which rose to allow the truck through. The guard then strode to Neal’s window and instructed him to follow Kamov to the vehicle search area beyond the barrier.

It emerged that Kamov was correct about the handguns. They likely would have been found, because the vehicle inspections included a giant airport-style X-ray scanner, sniffer dogs, and a manual search team. Jayne and Neal stood with Kamov and Uglov,

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