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“Yeah. The Russians are one hundred percent behind the new captagon formulation. I was taken to the facility where they’re developing it. Care to guess who’s running the operation?”
“I have no idea.”
“Semenov.”
There was a lengthy silence over the phone. “Are you sure? How do you know?”
“He and I had a long conversation about his work and his plans to distribute it in the West.”
“But you’re safe now.”
“For the time being.”
“And this is why he’s interested in Losa?”
“Yeah.”
“But if Semenov’s involved, this has to be about more than just making money.”
“It is. The drug he’s selling is heavily engineered. It’s not just incredibly addictive, it seems to cause permanent psychoses in its users. This is an outright attack on the Europeans and eventually on us. Money’s irrelevant. He’s selling it at a loss.”
“I’d hoped the man was dead. As much as I hate to admit it, he’s a visionary. The cost of defending against his programs and repairing the damage when we fail is astronomical. If there’s anyone more dangerous in the world right now, I can’t think of who. He’s not just constantly reinventing asymmetrical warfare; he’s actively waging it.”
“Agreed,” Rapp said. “In the beginning, I didn’t take him all that seriously. A scrawny Russian asshole who thought he could end democracy with a few mean-spirited Facebook posts. I was wrong to underestimate him.”
“As was I.”
“So, what do we do about it?”
“Your tone suggests that you’ve already answered that question,” Kennedy said.
“I say we go after him. He’s vulnerable here.”
“There’s no way. The president inherited his position when Anthony Cook stepped down. He has no mandate and courting a confrontation with Moscow isn’t in his plan.”
“Screw him and screw Moscow. The Russians have no economic power, no military power, and they’re not going to use their nukes because they’ve got young mistresses and dachas that they don’t want tosee incinerated. The threat is Semenov. And if he gets his hands on the Kremlin, that threat gets multiplied by ten.”
“I don’t disagree, but I answer to the president.”
“Yeah? Well, I don’t. I work for a drug cartel.”
“I’m not sure that’s going to provide as much political cover as you think.”
“Then screw that, too. Look, I agree there are risks, but think about the rewards for a minute.”
“I’m not arguing that they wouldn’t be substantial.”
“The way I see it, getting people out of Syria is hard. But getting them in is easy. Send me my guys. After that, wash your hands of the whole thing. It’ll be purely a cartel operation.”
“If you’re identified, that isn’t how the Kremlin’s going to portray it.”
“Then I won’t get identified,” Rapp said, glancing at the sky again. Still nothing, but that didn’t mean much anymore. “We both know that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. At least let my team assess it from the ground. If it doesn’t look good, we’ll abort. But if it does, we’ve got a chance of putting a knife in the Russians that they’ll never be able to pull out.”
She sighed quietly. “Let me see what I can do.”
CHAPTER 33
PRAGUE
