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“No, not a cave,” Vadisk said, at the same time Montana said, “Yes.”
“It’s a set of connected caves. A cave is a dead end. This isn’t.”
There was a beep from Montana’s direction. A second later, he said, “Sinaver is making a call. To that same contact. To Spain.”
“Any chance you’ll get reception inside the cliff?” Vadisk asked.
“No. We need to wait and get the recording.”
“We’re blind here,” Vadisk said. “I can’t see anyone coming, and the ocean means we won’t hear anyone until it’s too late.”
“This is our chance to figure out who or what Spain is,” Montana countered. “We just have to wait for him to finish the call and access the recording.”
“Two minutes,” Vadisk said. “Then we move.” He hustled them into what felt like a small alcove in the cliff wall.
Montana’s phone beeped again. “I’ve got it.”
“Play it, quick,” Dahlia said.
“Once we’re inside,” Vadisk said. “Let’s go.”
Dahlia shook her head. She’d been thinking fast, running through scenarios. “If we wait to listen to it until we’re inside, we won’t be able to send out a message. If…if our odds of getting out of this aren’t good, at least we can send our people every bit of information we can on the enemy.”
The reality of that settled over them. Vadisk cursed, but Montana hit play.
The conversation was brief, terse, and in Russian.
“I said not to call me unless you had someone for me,” an unfamiliar voice said, a distinct Spanish accent flavoring their Russian.
“I have them,” Sinaver replied.
“Both Americans too?”
“Yes. Are they part of it?” Sinaver sounded eager.
“Maybe. And that’s why I want to talk to them. The Ukrainian… The Ukrainian will know things.”
“Things you don’t know?”
There was a brief moment of silence. “Don’t forget who I am.”
“Yes, Spaniard.”
There was a brief pause. “I’m close. I’ll be there by afternoon.”
The recording ended.
“Translation?” Montana asked.
“Sinaver’s arresting us so he can turn us over to this Spaniard for questioning. He’s mostly interested in questioning Vadisk, but wants to talk to us too, and when Sinaver got too familiar, he said ‘Don’t forget who I am.’ That’s when Sinaver called him Spaniard, like it was a name or title,” Dahlia summarized.
“And he’s coming here, to Crimea, today,” Vadisk added. “I’ve messaged Nik to tell them to look for someone who uses the code name Spaniard.”
“We could—” Montana started, but Vadisk cut him off.
“I’m sorry, but we have to go in.”
ChapterFifteen
