Maria casually swung round on her bar stool. It took her a while to locate Viktor. He was sitting at a table in the far corner, wreathed in blue cigarette smoke. Maria felt a thrill when she saw he was talking to another man while his girlfriend sat looking gloomily bored. There was something about Viktor’s body language that suggested Maria had hit the jackpot: Viktor’s companion was clearly someone he was more than a little afraid of. The man had his back to her but she could see enough of his profile, build and hair colour to be confident she could ID him when he left the bar. She drained her glass and got up.

‘What about your friend?’ asked the barman.

‘Sod him. His loss,’ she said with a grin and left the bar.

3.

It was Wednesday the twenty-fifth. Buslenko had been able to give his team three solid days of briefing. It still wasn’t enough, but he knew that Vitrenko had so many informers and double agents in place across the Ukrainian security apparatus that moving quickly and surprising him was their one advantage.

Buslenko was impressed, however: Sasha had done well with his choices. After only three days, it seemed as if the eight members of the team had worked together for years. The only slight exception was Olga Sarapenko. Her background as a Kiev city militia policewoman set her slightly apart from the others. Sasha had recommended her and Buslenko had agreed. There was no doubt that she was tough enough but Buslenko struggled to see her that way, continuously pushing aside the way he felt attracted to her.

But the team had to contend with another enemy that was even more unpredictable than Vitrenko. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and more snow had made the track impassable. Buslenko had always known that choosing such a remote location in the middle of the Ukrainian winter carried the risk of this happening. He had allowed himself a couple of days’ leeway in setting the start of the mission. That said, they were going to have to start digging their way out if it snowed any more.

Buslenko decided that the third evening should be free of talk of the dangerous mission they had to undertake. Stoyan, the Crimean Tatar, reheated the leftover varenyky. They ate and played cards, taking turns to take lookout duty in the cold night air. Buslenko always felt more secure when Vorobyeva watched their backs. He was one of the team members personally selected by Buslenko and was going to handle the security for the mission. Vorobyeva’s background in a specialist Titan unit meant that he could read any environment and identify exactly where threats were likely to come from. It was as true in an otherwise unknown German city as it was here in a snow-covered forest. Vorobyeva had been out on a two-hour duty and was a couple of minutes late.