Scene 5

It was only about noon, unfortunately a bit too soon for him to make preparations for the evening meal. Maille telephoned Jelena Goncharenko, the liason officer in the Moscow «bureau». He also emailed the lady a photograph of the blue chit with the circled letters and fixed an appointment with her for 3 p.m. They chose the Cathedral Square in the Kremlin as their meeting place – «as it's always milling with people and there's no risk of sticking out like sore thumbs.» Like her colleague in Dakar, Jelena Goncharenko was also the perfect example of the secret agent in camouflage.

Hektor was at the meeting place on the dot. As they had expected, there were hordes of people at the square, standing around in groups and listening to their tour guides, who were holding forth in all possible languages on the architectural history of Russia, the symbols of the orthodox world, or the glories of the great Catherine. A woman detached herself from one of the groups and walked towards him. She was incredibly young.

«Hektor», she asked a bit breathlessly.
«That’s right», he replied, noticing that his voice sounded somewhat higher than normal.
«I think that I can solve your problem.»
«I am very glad to hear that», said Maille, although he felt a bit bad about it.
«I’m giving you a slip of paper. Please take it as inconspicuously as possible.»
«I’ll do my best», he answered. She picked out a slip from her handbag and handed it to him in a nervous gesture. The trace of an enigmatic laugh crossed her face and with a polite nod, she turned and went back towards the tour group she had been with.

Only when Maille had the wall of the Kremlin behind him did he unfold the piece of paper: written in a beautiful handwriting and double underlined was the word «Dinosaur», under which was scribbled something that was probably a code word and at the bottom of the page in tiny letters: «Best of luck». That brought Maille to his knees, what usually only happened to him in royal casinos like London.

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