Chapter 42

"How did that Ivan character know to show up at the mansion just in time for the festivities?"

We were on a conference call with the intelligence people who worked for the Judge. There were at least four others, besides Winnie, the Judge and me, plowing through hours and hours of info they thought we'd need as the Hussein mission continued.

"According to two of the thugs, Ivan was bragging about having popped Miss Khodorovsky's cherry, and when he was challenged to prove it, he invited them to come with him to crash the party and watch the shock on Uncle's face when he discovered that flower had been plucked." The voice belonged to one of the Judge's many reports, and he seemed to be able to answer any question from a compendium of information at the tip of his fingers.

"Of course," he went on, "Ivan did not survive to tell us his side of that story, but if it was true, then that young woman was in deeper trouble than even we knew. Our interrogations differ in content as to what the end result of Miss Khodorovsky's rape was intended to be. Some say she was to be raped by Uncle, then filmed in vivid color as she was passed around to all his thug friends. Afterwards, she would be sent home to daddy so he could fully experience the shame and degradation they'd visited on her, and by extension, him.

"The other story was that she was to experience all of those things, then be tortured to death, also on film, as a message to Khodorovsky as to what they intended to do to him next. Either way she dies in the end, because we are told her father would certainly have killed her to avenge the insult she caused him."

As the analyst spoke, I could feel white-hot anger coursing through me. I HAD to have a shot at what was left of that pack of dogs, and I HAD to put them down exactly as they intended to do to Desi. My anger was so all consuming that I missed the next statement and had to ask him to repeat it.

"Ok. But how did he get into the mansion, if he was working for the 'other side?'" I was worrying at that one niggling fact and trying to fit it into the known circumstances.

"Sometimes, Carl, I have to tell you what I know, then follow it up with what I think and what I suspect. This is one of those times. I think Ivan Krekonovich was working both sides of the street, and to survive the coming purge, was changing sides permanently. My reasoning is this; Ivan, I was told by a person with no ability left to resist, wasn't outright welcomed when he arrived, but he was acknowledged, so the hosts had some knowledge of who he was, and who he worked for. Inviting, or accepting his presence, which is the same thing, says that he had some kind of arrangement with them, and our source told us that the arrangement would have included delivering Khodorovsky to be taken out. Ivan was supposed to be his driver at the time of the shooting, but we are told that he never would have stepped out of the armored vehicle, and that the shooters would have had no interest in taking him out. No matter how we look at it, Ivan had crossed over, and it would follow that he was there to take some kind of psychotic, sexual revenge on Miss Khodorovsky

"As for Desdemona, at the present time, Miss Khodorovsky has returned to her father's home, taken control of the properties and several legitimate, small businesses that her father owned, and seems to be without enemies. Our conclusion is that anyone that had a reason to want her dead is already dead, and that she is not in any danger."

The Judge turned our briefing back to Hussein and caught me up on what they discovered in the file Hussein had given us. "This deal has more kinks than a whorehouse on New Year's Eve. Our legal section is dissecting it, point by point, and we think they can reconstruct the proposed stock buy up in such a way that your investment is actually sound. When the payout comes, you get your fortune, and Hussein gets stiffed, which will assuredly end in a bullet to the back of his head. Once his benefactors discover they're out over two billion dollars with nothing to show for it but a black eye, they will come for him, Massoud, and Fahs like wolves after an injured doe.