Page 55 of Jacob

“Yeah,” Emma said, frowning. “We suspected something like that. He still kept a really low profile even after the Soviet Union collapsed. We couldn’t find a trace of him until he opened Teknolab in Zelenograd ten years ago. But here’s the thing. Teknolab was a run of the mill pharmaceutical company, producing knock offs of popular drugs when the patents ran out, until about five years ago. Then it was bought by a company called Viralogics, which bought 54% of the company shares, effectively becoming the owner. Lazlo didn’t have a significant number of shares but… oddly enough, he went on a spending spree. I found four deluxe apartments in his name in Montecarlo, Rome, London and Moscow, for a total of twelve million dollars. He has a fleet of four S-class Mercedes Benzes and has just shy of five million dollars in Credit Suisse.”

“Wait.” Alex blinked. “You found out how much money he has in a Swiss bank? How did you do that? Switzerland has bank secrecy it takes very seriously.”

Emma gave a mysterious smile and said nothing. Alex gave an internal sigh. Clearly Emma had used unorthodox—if not illegal—means. But given what they suspected was going on, that was nothing.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “Forget I said that.”

Emma nodded briskly. “So, we’ve established that, as of five years ago, Dr. Georg Lazlo has become extremely rich. Even though he doesn’t have controlling ownership of the company he runs.”

“Who does? Who is the owner?”

The three women looked at each other, but it was Emma who answered. “A Russian. And trust me when I say I had to dig deep—practically to the earth’s core—to get this name.”

“Okay.”

A dramatic pause. “Ilya Topolev. Colonel Ilya Topolev.”

Silence.

Alex was baffled. “Should that name mean something to me?”

The three women looked at each other again. “Clearly you don’t work for a security company.”

“No, I work for a research institute. So who is this Colonel Ilya Topolev?”

“He is head of the Russian Federation’s FSB.”

Alex still looked blank.

“It used to be known as the KGB. And Felicity says it is still almost as dangerous as the KGB used to be.”

Alex sat back, the breath whooshing out of her lungs. “Oh, my God.”

“Yep.” Hope nodded briskly. “This is bad news. Very bad news.”

“Did you tell Jacob?”

“Just now sent the message. He’s going to be pissed.”

* * *

“The informant didn’t show.”Nick’s voice was grim. “And I’d offered him enough money to salivate. No way he was giving that up.” Nick met his eyes.

Jacob knew exactly what that meant. Someone had gotten to the informant first. The informant was no doubt six feet underground, or in the river, or cut up for parts. Maybe on a meat hook somewhere.

There was silence in the vehicle as they chewed over that thought.

“What?” Nikolai asked, as they parked the vehicle two blocks away from Teknolab. They’d both heard the ping of an incoming text. Jacob’s eyes widened and Nick stared at him. Jacob never showed emotion on the job. This was the second time today. The first time was leaving Alex.

Nick said he’d looked as spooked as a wild pony. Nick had had to go over the security arrangements twice, reminding Jacob there were two of their best men on guard duty. Plus, Alex had promised not to leave the suite and Jacob admitted that Alex could be trusted. She was a serious woman and would keep her word.

But—he was leaving her alone, unarmed. Jacob squelched that thought as soon as it popped in his head. He had been about to go back up to hand her a spare Glock 19 he had when Nick had gently pushed it away and asked whether Alex had ever held a gun in her hand.

He’d asked Alex before and she’d said no, she’d never even touched a gun. Nick just gave him A Look. There was no way Alex could defend herself with a gun if she’d never even held one before. Nick knew that, just as he knew that there were two men outside her hotel suite who had probably shot over a million rounds between them, and definitely knew how to use a gun.

Jacob had never gone on a mission with his attention split. In the field, he was like a laser beam, tightly focused on what needed to be done. And now he was completely poleaxed by Alex and the thought of her vulnerability. The thought of leaving her behind, which upset him. Though taking her with him was out of the question. But he wasleaving her behind.She had two bodyguards, but they weren’t him. He’d just found her and he was terrified at the thought of losing her.

And now this.

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