“My father worked for the kingpin you’re after. Grigoriy Yegorov. I don’t know if you’ll believe this, Stevens, but I hate that man more than anyone could ever appreciate.”
“You were under his protection though. Right?”
“Yeah. But that doesn’t come without a price. Nothing Grigoriy does comes without a hefty price tag attached.”
“Indeed. Does your sister know about the drugs? And don’t worry. It’s not a trick question. She’s not on trial here,” he added quickly.
“Inessa knows. I had to tell her. You know, in case something happened to me. Grigoriy wouldn't think twice about hurting her.”
“Max, I can see that you’re not a criminal. I’ve been doing this long enough to recognize someone caught up in an impossible situation.”
“How long have you been watching me, Stevens?”
“A while.”
“What about Vlad? What’s your plan for him?”
“I assume he knows you’re talking to us.”
“Yeah.”
“Again, your cousin isn’t on our radar either. We want Yegorov. Besides, if you were out of the picture, he’d find another way to smuggle his product into the US.”
“I guess. So, where to now? I’ve watched enough television to know that I should be signing some sort of paperwork, securing my immunity.”
“Yes, the crime channel seems to be educating criminals on the law in all sorts of creative ways,” he smirked.
“So it seems.”
“Yes, we’ll draw up the paperwork. But there’s a lot to investigate, so it will take time. In the meantime, I don’t want you to change anything about your routine. I’m assigning an undercover agent to your case. I want you to tell Vlad about him.”
A man appeared at the desk. He was dressed like a dock worker. He looked out of place in the office.
“Agent Collins will be our man on the ground.”
“Hello, Max,” the man greeted me and shook my hand.
“Hello.”
“Collins will report to me directly. There won’t, for obvious reasons, be any contact between the two of you outside these walls. It’s important.”
“Yeah, I get it.”
“For all we know, Grigoriy has his own men working for you, Max. Men like him don’t get to where they are by playing the game without a few aces up their sleeve.”
“I have no doubt you’re right,” I admitted, having long suspected the same.
“Okay,” Stevens said after the three of us had been discussing the logistics of the plan for about an hour, “I think that’s all we need for today.”
“I guess I leave through the bathroom?”
“We were hoping for a trap door that led to the alley, but accounting wouldn’t play ball,” Stevens grinned.
“Funny.”
33
ANGEL