“Dziekuje. That is ‘thank you’ in Polish.”
“You’re welcome.”
Lesnik rose from the table.
“Do you have a phone where I can reach you at?”
He smiled wearily. “I have no phone. I be at hostel. Powodzenia!”
“That’s ‘good luck’ in Polish, right?”
His face brightened for a moment. “How did you know?”
“Just a guess.”
As he walked off Katie slumped back against her chair. “Now what the hell do I do?” Part of her couldn’t believe that any of this was true. A Polish guy speaking passable English walks up to her on the street. Her! And starts to tell her the story that everyone in the world is dying to hear. A story she had just been assigned to work on. No one was that lucky, certainly not her.
And yet, taking the facts as she knew them into account? His story was plausible. He had details of the inside of the building, details Katie would have to verify. He seemed legitimately scared, and if he was telling the truth he should be scared. And why would he lie to her? Because he was a nut looking for fifteen minutes of fame? But this guy didn’t want his name used. He didn’t want fame. What if he was telling the truth?
Katie jumped up and dashed back to The Phoenix Group building. There was one man who could help her verify the man’s story. And that was Shaw. She did not relish this encounter, but all her journalistic instincts were on fire, propelling her forward to that most elusive of quarries: the truth.
CHAPTER 56
THE ITEMS WERE NEATLY LAID OUT on the table. Next to them was a compu
ter terminal. Royce had just been showing some things on the screen to Shaw and Feng. Feng sat in a chair with a stunned look on his face while Shaw slowly perused some of the written materials.
“So you’re saying you weren’t aware of any of this?” Royce said, the disbelief in his voice ricocheting around the room like a stray slug.
Feng wagged his head. “That is correct,” he said firmly. “I knew nothing.”
“Mr. Feng, let me make this clear to you. There are paper records all over this building which show quite clearly that The Phoenix Group was part of the propaganda campaign against Russia. And they have the fingerprints of your employees all over them. The computer hard drives here also have thousands of files on them chronicling everything from the creation of the so-called ‘Tablet of Tragedies’ to the details of this Konstantin fellow to composite ads that were circulated in connection with said propaganda campaign. There are over thirty thousand names of Russians on your hard drives, the same names and backgrounds that were slung across the Internet along with claims that they were all victims of the Russian Red Menace.”
“I have no idea how any of that got here,” stammered Feng. “None!”
“Do you not oversee the work that is done here, sir?”
Feng said indignantly, “We let our people explore what they wish to explore. Our involvement is minimal. I have never even been to this building before.”
“Well, it appears that your employees’ exploration got a bit out of hand. Do you understand the magnitude of the situation we have here?”
Feng looked at Royce questioningly. “I do not understand what you mean.”
“Do you have any ties to the Chinese government?”
“I fail to see what that has to do-”
Shaw interrupted. “Gorshkov has sworn that whoever was behind the smear campaign would be viewed as having committed an act of war against his country. If you have any ties to the Chinese government, then you might just have started a war between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation.”
Feng sprang to his feet. “That is preposterous!”
Royce exclaimed, “It will hardly seem preposterous to the rest of the world, sir.”
Shaw added in a quieter tone, “Do you have any ties to the Chinese government? Better it come out now rather than later.”
Feng suddenly looked uncertain and sat back down. “It could be construed, that is to say, some people might…”
Shaw leaned down into Feng’s troubled face. “I’m sure you understand that telling us the truth is really your only option.”