“I can’t think of anything,” he said.
“If I have further questions, may I contact you?” the commander asked Stella.
“Of course. Do you have my cell number?”
“Is it the same as the one you provided when you gave your statement?”
“It is.”
“Then I do.”
Chapter 30
Around the same time Stoneand Commander Choi set out to question the survivingAmanda Jaecrew members, Leonid Bronsky quietly slipped into the U.S. as part of a bus tour group, crossing from Canada into Michigan, just south of Lake Huron.
At the first stateside stop, he exited the bus and found the used Honda Accord he’d arranged to be waiting for him. It was far from the luxury vehicle he preferred, but it had the advantage of being forgettable. That was more important at the moment.
Three hours later, the Honda had been ditched in a Detroit Metropolitan Airport parking lot, and Bronsky was on a flight to New York, using a forged Argentinean passport.
Upon landing, he took a cab into Manhattan, where he checked into the InterContinental Hotel, this time pretending to be a businessman from Estonia.
The last time he’d checked his email was before his flight. There were no new messages then. Now, however, there was one from Pryce, telling him he had more information to pass on.
Bronsky made the call.
“Hello?” Pryce answered tentatively.
“Where are you?”
“I-in my office.”
“For God’s sake! Go for a walk. I’ll call in ten minutes.”
Bronsky hung up. No wonder MI6 had never given Pryce a field job. The man was clueless when it came to spycraft.
After exactly ten minutes, Bronsky called him back.
“What about now?” he asked.
“I don’t understand the question,” Pryce said.
“Are you an imbecile? Your location!”
“Oh, right. Um, I’m at the park beyond the train station.”
Bronsky was very familiar with the area around MI6 and knew Pryce was referring to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.
“No one followed you?” he asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so or they didn’t?”
“Uh, they didn’t. No one would suspect me of anything.”
That was true, Bronsky knew, and was a large factor as to why the Russian had chosen to turn Pryce into an asset.
Pryce breathed hard into the phone. Bronsky guessed he was walking at a brisk pace.
