Chapter 48: Alliance

“He told me that during my search in Russia I’d come onto the intelligence service’s radar, and that they’d discovered Johanna wasn’t my real name. The Cold War may officially be over, but a foreign woman with a fake passport is still a red flag there. And from then on, I’d been under observation until they’d learned my real name and my story. After that I was considered unimportant, until he, Holger, had the idea of using me for their purposes and helping me at the same time,” I finished my report to Rebecca.

She had listened attentively the whole time, even nodding slightly when I described my show. Now she looked entirely satisfied.

“You had absolutely no reason not to believe him. Who else, besides an intelligence service, could have found all of that out? I would have believed him too, in your place,” Rebecca confirmed sympathetically.

“But if he isn’t with the FSB, how could he have gotten information about you at all? The mafia didn’t know your new name,” I asked.

I shook my head.

“Nadine didn’t know it. I only took that name after she was kidnapped. And the mafia would have found me long ago if Nadine had told them everything about me. They still don’t seem to know what I really look like. I was even in Russia looking for her. Only a capable intelligence service could have uncovered all of that about me.”

“I explain it like this,” Rebecca said, almost guessing. “Holger tailed me when I visited Club Hydra. That’s easy enough, since plenty of people there wear masks. And he must have noticed my interest in you. But then I lost track of you. After the show you’d suddenly vanished.”

I nodded.

“I had trouble with Gerold. When I threatened legal action, he started stalking me and making threats. So I moved without registering a new address. All the more surprised I was that Holger found me.”

“He’s a successful investigator. He probably trawled through cam sites with image searches. Or bribed someone to give him your cam name. At the time I didn’t consider it very important. If I’d run into you again somewhere, I would have approached you.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that remark, so I chose to ignore it.

“In any case, the idea probably came to him to plant you with me. But since he isn’t entirely free to make those decisions, he asked his client first. And of course he also needed information about you. He probably struggled with your background just as much as my detective agency did. By the way: impressively forged papers. They must have cost a fortune.” She watched me with a predatory look, but since I said nothing, she simply continued.

“Then a picture of you must have fallen into Nadine’s hands. And that gave him everything he needed to bait you.”

It sounded plausible enough, even if I didn’t understand why Nadine would do that. Why hadn’t she contacted me as soon as she could, once she knew about me?

“That can’t be right. Nadine would have contacted me the moment she had the chance.”

Rebecca studied me thoughtfully.

“You forget what she’s been through. That kind of thing changes people. It’s almost a miracle she survived a kidnapping by the mafia and still has all her limbs.”

She didn’t have to remind me. Thousands of times I had imagined what Nadine must have endured in my place, what the mafia had done to her. And more often than not those thoughts ended in a drinking binge.

“So where is Nadine now?” I asked at last.

Rebecca shrugged.

“I can’t tell you exactly, but I strongly suspect she’s living on Vladimir’s estate in Cyprus. He can hardly keep a mistress at his home in Moscow. Not that his wife doesn’t know he keeps mistresses, but she wouldn’t tolerate a provocation like that.”

Cyprus. That matched what Holger had told me.

We heard the front door open. Aaron came back in.