"The final checkpoint has been established, Lieutenant."
"Thank you, Lev," replied Lev Arigov. "You know who and what to look for."
"Yes, Lieutenant." The radio then crackled back to static.
"That does it," said Lev. "The trap is set, the hunter is waiting for his prey."
"Let's see those rebels try to get through that," Vyacheslav Klimov added, leaning back on his chair.
"I don't think it's time to celebrate," said Carter. "I mean, we haven't caught them yet."
"Don't worry, my American comrade," said Lev, "the Chechen insurrection is as good as dead tomorrow, what with its biggest plot ever being foiled."
"You do know that insurrections don't end overnight," Rosie added. "Especially one now so deeply rooted into the culture of the local populace."
"Oh, come on, they're about to gain independence anyway," said Vyacheslav. "What's a few more weeks of Russian oversight to them? And why can't they just wait to elect themselves into office so they can turn this country into an Islamic state legally all that?" He tossed back his glass of vodka after saying that.
"Fine. Whatever you say." But something deep inside Carter told her that this op would blow up right in their faces.
An olive green Ural-4320 truck drove up to the checkpoint on Great Patriotic War Avenue, having been directed to it by a patrolling policeman. A young woman stepped out of the cab and was directed to a full-body scanner by a female Russian soldier. Meanwhile, two more troops, Chechens this time, inspected the truck. The soldier in the back shouted something and threw an orange to the soldier in front, who laughed and began peeling off the skin of the fruit. Finally, after a few minutes, the soldiers seemed satisfied that the woman was bringing nothing more dangerous to the Chechen Republic than oranges, and they let her go her way. The soldier eating the orange watched silently as the truck moved away, and then he picked up his radio and thumbed the microphone switch. "Sergeant Zabayev to Lieutenant Arigov," he said.
"This is Lieutenant Arigov," was the reply. "What is it?"
"The subject has passed by my checkpoint one minute ago. It looks like our mutual friends have hired a woman to do their job." By mutual friends, he meant the rebels.
"Huh. Do you have pictures?"
"Da, tovarishch. I am sending them over now."
"I have them. Arigov out." To Rostislav Abramov, he said, "Send these pictures to all of the checkpoints. Now!"
"Have you arrived at your destination?"
"Not yet. What is it that I'm doing, Idris? What do you have piled onto this truck?"
"It doesn't matter, sister. You do your job, and I'll do mine."
"If we both make it through this, I am going to kill you, Allah forbid."
"I love you too, my dear sister."
Nobody paid the young man running through the Capitol any attention, and although he told nobody this, he was glad for it. He had a very important piece of intel to tell the powers-that-be in Chechnya, and he couldn't afford any delays at all.
"Excuse me," he asked a receptionist. "I'm looking for Lieutenant Lev Arigov of the Krakozhian Expeditionary Force."
"His office is on the third floor," the receptionist replied, "between General Yevin and their technical staff."
"Spasiba, gospodin." The boy then ran for the stairs, taking the steps three at a time, bumping into a lot of people in the process. He reached the third floor in record time, and he scanned the rows of doors for the right one. Leave it to bureaucracy to complicate even simple things like doors, he thought. He finally located the proper door, and without even bothering to knock, barged into the room.
"Yevgeniy!" a startled Arigov managed to say. "What are you doing here?"
"I have something important to tell all of you," replied Yevgeniy Leninsky. "It's bad news."
"Okay. Tell us."
The woman turned the Ural-4320 truck onto Dzhokhar Dudayev Road heading for the Capitol, but she found her way blocked by Russians and fellow Chechens armed with rifles, shotguns, machine guns, armored personnel carriers, and tanks. She slammed her foot hard on the brakes, and the wheels of the truck screeched in protest. One of the soldiers shouted through a megaphone, "Remove your hands from the wheel and slowly get out of the truck." The woman had no choice but to comply, and as soon as her foot ventured out of the safety of the cab, she was roughly hauled out by a muscle-bound female Russian soldier armed with a TOZ-194 shotgun and brought down to the ground.
"Check the cargo hold!" shouted the checkpoint commander.
"Nyet!" shouted Arigov. "That's impossible!"
"Trust me, comrade, sir," replied Leninsky, "I, too, wish it were not so. But I heard it straight from the Idrisovs' mouths themselves."
"But how?" Arigov asked the young man. "How could they have done such a thing?"
The soldiers inspecting the back of the truck opened crate after crate of oranges, and lots of the fruit were now scattered on the road, attracting a small crowd of curious onlookers, which were quickly shooed away by machine gun-toting individuals. "There's nothing in here, Comrade Sergeant," one of the inspectors finally said. "Nothing but oranges, obviously."
"Nichevo," the sergeant muttered. Then, turning to the captured woman, he asked her, "What is your name, rebel?"
"Fatima bin Musa al-Idris."
"I thought so." The sergeant then asked for a radio.
"What are they talking about?"
"The rebels have somehow stashed their explosives in another truck, different from the one that we saw a few nights ago," replied Rosie. Of course she had to translate for Carter, she thought. She considered teaching her the basics of Russian, along with Spanish, French, German, and Filipino, as soon as this mess was over. "The one we saw will only be carrying fresh oranges."
"That means that—"
"The real bomb is still loose!" Lev and Carter said at the same time.
The radio on Lev's desk crackled to life. "This is Arigov. Who is it?" he said.
"This is Sergeant Torbunov at Dudayev Road," the sergeant replied. "We've captured the driver of the truck. She claims to be Fatima Idrisov, Comrade Lieutenant."
"I knew it," Arigov muttered through gritted teeth. "Take her to custody."
"Who's Fatima Idrisov?" asked Carter.
Rosie and Yevgeniy opened their mouths and almost spoke at the same time, but Rose decided to give way to the young man. "Fatima Idrisov is just one side of the Idrisov Three," Yevgeniy said. "They're the ones that lead the Romanov Prospect cell that you guys reportedly documented some time ago. She's their planner, more or less; she's never been much of a doer herself. She probably did this only because Idris told her so."
"Now, I'm confused. "Who's Idris?"
"He's the leader of the Idrisov Three. Idris Idrisov leads them all. Darood Idrisov is most probably their messenger boy. And Fatima Idrisov, you already know. That's the way they roll, and has always been ever since they took over for the great Musa Idrisov, Allah bless his soul."
"What do we have on them?" asked Arigov.
"Enough to build a file, but that's it," replied Klimov. "Shit!" He immediately dialed a number. "Rostislav, put out broadcasts for both Idris and Darood Idrisov, Idris and Darood Idrisov. Add a priority heading for Idris, da? Remember, our priority is on Idris Idrisov!"
"Yes, Lieutenant," Abramov's tinny voice replied on the phone.
Idris Idrisov, thanks to some very good luck, advanced planning, and an intimate knowledge of Groznyy's back streets and alleys, had managed to avoid all the checkpoints erected by the Russian and Chechen forces. After passing through a tight one-way street, he finally laid eyes on his target: the Groznyy Shopping Mall and Convenience Center. He paid the parking fee of twenty rubles with cash, and then searched the parking lot for an open slot before finally parking in the middle of a cluster of cars. He then got out, went into a fast-food store, and ordered a burger and fries. As he ate, he recalled the words that his contact had told him: detonate the bomb in a place where it will cause maximum physical damage but minimal loss of human life, and do not blow it up until it is within sight of the Army, but make sure that no soldier is within the danger radius of the bomb. Let them think that they have come so close, and yet still so far. Well, he thought, if that's how you want to play, then that's the way I'll play too.
Unknown to him, the parking attendant had already recognized his face, which was being shown on television all over Chechnya. The attendant immediately dialed a secure phone number in the Capitol and told the people at the other end as soon as Idrisov left his sight.
"We've got him!" Lev shouted gleefully. "Idrisov has been spotted in the Groznyy Mall! This may be our only chance to nab him. Let's go!" To Leninsky, he said, "Stay here until this shit is over."
He, Vyacheslav, Carter, and Rosie jumped into a UAZ-469 jeep with miniature flags of Russia, Krakozhia, and Chechnya flying on the hood as ornaments. Lev placed it in second gear as soon as he got in and started the vehicle, and soon, they peeled out of the Capitol's underground parking lot and into the street.
"Why did you say…" Carter tried to say through the many twists and turns of the jeep, "that this… is the only chance… to grab Idrisov?"
"Idris Idrisov is like a ghost," Lev replied. "Sure, we heard the rumors about him when we first got here, and we were able to build a file around all that, but we had nothing much in the way of real, concrete facts. Those pictures of him that you took a few nights ago were the first recent ones that we got. Before that, our latest picture of him was his high school yearbook photo."
"Dump truck!" shouted Vyacheslav.
"Whoa!" Lev made a tight right turn away from the truck. "Damn. As I was saying, we had nothing much on the Romanov rebels until you two came along and took all those photos. I'll have to congratulate you two for that. Maybe I can wangle some Order of Zorkin, Third Class medals for you two."
"Car!"
"Also, they managed to change their plan soon after we captured Cotton. We know it can't be Kodudov; he supplied them with the C-6 bricks and not much else. It can't be Beykurovich too, for almost the same reason as the Vice Governor. The way I see it, only one of two things could have happened: either Idrisov automatically became the new rebel leader of the Groznyy cells, or someone else has taken Cotton's place and is manipulating the rebels to his or their wishes."
"That is fast," said Rosie. "In the PPP, it takes a week or more to properly set up a new network in a new country; three days or so if it's urgently needed."
"Well, these rebels made a new one in two days," said Lev. "I'm telling you, these guys aren't just beyond professionals. It's like they've planned for every conceivable thing that could happen, and have a contingency plan for each scenario."
The radio suddenly crackled and beeped. "This is Lieutenant Klimov," Vyacheslav said as he took the microphone. "What is it?"
"This is Sergeant Glaser, Comrade Lieutenant. We've captured Darood Idrisov and his buddies in their home in the Romanov Prospect. They didn't put up much of a fight."
"That's good to hear, Ervin. Anyway, we're investigating a possible sighting of Idris Idrisov in the Groznyy Mall. I would really appreciate it if you and your men came along to back us up. Also, call Lieutenant Barbayev and his bomb squad down here. Okay?"
"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant."
They arrived at the Mall some time later. Lev flashed his identification card at the attendant and asked him, "Where is he?"
"He's in the fast food store," the attendant replied. "He hasn't moved anywhere for the past half-hour."
Lev nodded and motioned for the others to follow him. But just as he had taken a step forward, the single truck in the middle of the car-dominated car park exploded, sending up a huge fireball that consumed the truck and the two cars beside it, scorched the paint in others, and set car alarms ringing all throughout the lot.
"Damn it!" Lev shouted, just as Lieutenant Lev Barbayev's bomb squad arrived in their own truck, too late to do anything but wait for the firemen to do their job, so they can finally examine the wreckage and determine what the bomb was and how it was detonated. As the written-off truck burned, the four of them could see Idris Idrisov, who gave them all a salute before he disappeared once again.
"We were so close to capturing Idrisov," Lev muttered. "We were this close!" He held up his thumb and index finger, which were almost sticking together, to emphasize his point, and then he slumped back in his chair. He turned to face the two ladies and said, "I guess I owe you two some drinks."
"In light of recent events, I don't think I'm obliged to accept," replied Carter.
"Thank God. I think Vyacheslav and I just went through the last bottle of vodka in Groznyy. But seriously, guys, we need to know what went wrong. How did Idris Idrisov manage to slip through our security nets and escape our clutch when he detonated his bomb?"
"Well, you said it yourself," Carter replied. "Idrisov's a ghost; disappearing right after an attack would be like child's play for him."
"But why did he stick around to watch his masterpiece before leaving? If I recall correctly, he gave us a salute before his disappearing act."
"He doesn't strike me as someone who takes unnecessary risks. The salute was probably to taunt us, knowing that we know that we can't ever possibly catch him."
"Hey, comrades, haven't you noticed something odd?" asked Vyacheslav suddenly, surprising everyone in the room. "Forget about Idrisov and focus on the attack itself. Wasn't it supposed to be in the Capitol? Why did the rebels suddenly decide to attack the Groznyy Mall?"
"You said that it's possible for the rebels to have set up a new network with their controllers," Rosie suggested, speaking up for the first time since the attack. "Maybe their plans changed as soon as they realized that their first ones were compromised."
"Hold on," said Lev. "Are you telling me that everything that we have on them, all of the computer files about their plans, all of them should be considered invalid?"
"Yes, Lieutenant Arigov, as a matter of fact, I am. And, if I can read the situation correctly, every piece of intel we have captured from the Romanov Prospect members must be considered invalid as well. They will surely change their plans again once word of their arrest reaches their contact."
"So we're back to square one on fighting these frigging rebels again," muttered Lev. "That's a comforting thought."
"It is the truth," Rosie said emphatically. "No one can ultimately deny the truth." She then stood up and left, and Carter followed her soon after.
"She's right, you know," Vyacheslav said as soon as the two women left.
"Oh, shut up."