“I’m observing dry January.”
“It’s August.”
“Already?” Gabriel surveyed the unlived-in room around him. “I love what you’ve done with the place, Graham.”
“I don’t get here often.”
“When was your last visit?”
“The summer before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
“And what brings us here today?”
“The recent drone incidents at airports across Europe,” said Graham. “It turns out they all have one important factor in common.”
“And what’s that?”
Graham took up his glass. “Captain Yuri Ivanov.”
Helsinki was the most aggressive of the lot. Eight drones in all were involved, eight drones that relentlessly circled the airport for nearly two hours. Seven of the drones eventually departed Finnish airspace, but the eighth did not.
“It was lying in pieces near the end of the airport’s main runway,” explained Graham. “Apparently it got caught up in the wash of an inbound Lufthansa flight.”
“If memory serves,” said Gabriel, “the Finnish president said that none of the drones were recovered.”
“That’s because the Finnish president was lying through his teeth. Rather well, I might add. By the time he issued that statement, the wreckage of the drone was already in the hands of a team of technical analysts at the Finnish security service. And they came to a rather startling conclusion.”
“Which was?”
“That it was no ordinary over-the-counter commercial drone.”
“Military-grade?”
“Without question.”
“Russian?”
“The drone’s provenance,” said Graham, “could not be established with any degree of certainty. It was an FPV drone with a high-resolution camera and satellite connectivity, which means it was probably operated by someone sitting at a computer terminal. What’s more, it was powerful enough to carry a significant payload.”
“A kamikaze drone?” asked Christopher.
“That was the conclusion of our friends in Finland. They believethe Kremlin was trying to send them a clear signal to mind their own business when it comes to Ukraine. They’re also convinced the Russians used the incursion to probe Finnish air defenses. The Dutch reached the same conclusion after the incident in Amsterdam. But unlike the Finns, the Dutch actually tried to prove it.”
“How?” asked Gabriel.
“As you no doubt recall, the Dutch intelligence service punches well above its weight. They were the ones who hacked the GRU when it was meddling in the 2016 American presidential election. They burrowed their way right into the room at GRU headquarters in downtown Moscow where the Russian hackers were working and recorded everything they were doing. It was a remarkable achievement.”
“Am I to understand the Dutch have made a return visit?”
“They’re inside GRU headquarters as we speak.”
“Have they seen anything interesting?”
“A room with twelve stations for Russian drone operators, or so it would appear. They’ve also been reviewing CCTV video recorded in Amsterdam at the time of the attack. And you’ll never guess who they found.”
“Yuri Ivanov?”
Graham opened his attaché case and removed a large manila envelope. Inside were a dozen still images of the Russian intelligence officer. “The Finns have confirmed that he was in Helsinki too. It seems that wherever Yuri goes, the drones are sure to follow.”
