Page 63 of Shadow of Doubt

“How can I believe you when you don’t trust me?”

“I trust you implicitly. If this all goes according to plan, you can knock me afterward for being overly cautious. But, if anything goes wrong and we can’t contain it, you don’t want Norway needlessly getting dragged into this. I’ll only be gone a few hours. Once I’m back, you can ask me whatever you want.” Winking, he added, “Within reason.”

Though she didn’t want to, Sølvi surrendered. She could have fought a bit harder and maybe have extracted a bit more information from him, but at what cost?

They needed to trust each other—and not just when it was easy. It was when things were difficult that it mattered most.

She took his hand again. “Just promise me one thing.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“That you won’t make me a widow before we’re even married.”

Harvath smiled at her as his phone chimed. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Looking down, he saw it was a text from Staelin. He and Haney were about to arrive with the Ukrainian commandos and would meet him at the caretaker’s cottage.

He leaned over and gave Sølvi a kiss. “I’ve got to get going.”

“What’s up?”

“The package I ordered has arrived.”

CHAPTER 29

Stopping to grab Nicholas and the dogs, Harvath drove down to the caretaker’s cottage to greet the new arrivals. He had decided to keep them out of sight from Sølvi and from Grechko. There was nothing to be gained from either of them being read in on this part of the operation.

As he and Nicholas entered the cottage, he could see that the dining table was stacked with the commandos’ equipment.

“Why don’t you just swim into the harbor and stick a mine to the bottom of his boat?” Haney asked, examining the men’s gear.

“Because his hull is a composite of fiberglass and carbon fiber,” the first commando, whose name was Max—short for Maxsym, replied. “Magnetic mines won’t work.”

“Why not use suction cups?”

“Too much drag,” the second commando, named Petro, answered. “Once the boat gets underway, the attachment to the hull begins to fail. Even before the boat pops out of the hole and gets on plane, the mine will be ripped away.”

“Huh,” Haney replied, as he went back to looking at their kit.

“Thank you for coming,” Harvath said, as he and Nicholas introduced themselves and shook hands with the commandos.

“Thank you for the opportunity,” Max responded. “Arkady Tsybulsky has been a priority target for us since the war began.”

“With the support we receive from France,” Petro added, “I always assumed that taking him out here was a nonstarter.”

“It still is,” said Harvath.

Both men looked at him, uncertain as to whether they had heard him correctly.

“Everything’s going to happen next door, in Monaco,” Harvath explained. “And I can’t stress this enough—territorial integrity is key to this operation. Monaco has the world’s shortest coastline, only 2.38 miles, so our timing has to be perfect. If we pull this off, your country is not only going to get massive international headlines, but every single Russian oligarch, no matter where in the world they are, is going to be terrified to even so much as stick a toe outside their front door. Most important, Ukraine won’t risk losing French support for carrying out an unsanctioned operation within their territory. That’s why this has to happen in Monaco.”

Max and Petro nodded. That was all the clarification they needed.

Staelin, however, had a question. “I’ve been wondering something,” he said. “Why not just wait until Tsybulsky comes back to his boat from the casino and take him out, along with his whole detail? We’d have the element of surprise. We could do it right there at the dock, hose down any blood, and then drive the boat and the bodies out into the Med and sink them.”

“We might have the element of surprise,” Harvath replied, “but we’d also have an audience. That boat draws too much attention. We’re going to have to wait until it leaves the harbor in Monaco.”

“And you’re convinced there’s no way we can smuggle some sort of bomb on board?”

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