Zero Day, стр. 27
“Up to two years,” Dario corrected him.
Two years of reduction in his sentence meant Kelvin could be out in eight years. However, the things they wanted him to do didn’t justify such a small compensation.
He prayed silently for wisdom to negotiate. Somehow he wanted them to do something for him with regard to Reuel, in addition to reducing his prison sentence.
He glanced over at his not-so-silent multilingual attorney, whom Dmitri had sent. She was writing something on her tablet.
“What are you asking my client to do for you again?” Barbara Nováková asked.
Dario listed it.
Leonid added a few more to the list.
By the time they finished, Kelvin’s attorney had swiped her tablet at least twice.
Kelvin mulled over the situation. He was surprised that the CIA needed him for this. And that. And then some.
“Why didn’t you ask Binary Systems to help you?” Kelvin asked Dario.
“They are busy. You’re closest to the fire.”
“That’s how you get third-degree burns.” Kelvin looked at Leonid, who didn’t reply. Surely he had known Kelvin’s history with the FSB.
The fact that Leonid did not say anything so far told Kelvin a lot. It seemed to him that they would rather not have asked Kelvin for help at all.
However, he was the only one who knew more about Ulysses’s operations than anyone else alive today. Reuel might know, but he had been missing for three years.
“Please think about this,” Dario said. “Ulysses won’t talk. We believe he’s still in control. He has got to have someone on the outside running the show on his behalf. As long as he’s still operating, we’re all still in danger, including Leland, Cayson, Yona, you.”
Yona.
Kelvin tried not to freak out. He’d do anything to protect Yona. And Dario knew that.
“I need to confer with my client,” Nováková said. “Could you wait outside for ten minutes?”
The agents nodded and left the room.
“Five more years. Can you handle it?” Nováková asked.
“They’re asking a lot. If I succeed, Ulysses’s people will come after me and I could lose my life. So two years off are insufficient.”
Nováková nodded.
“Even though the Telemachus network is shut down, and both Ulysses and Aspasia are serving time, along with Molyneux, there are others willing to take their places. Those are the people I fear more.”
Kelvin knew he should only fear God, but the threats of Ulysses’s successors were a big unknown at this point. His life could be in the balance.
“So we need them to set you free sooner.”
“What about house arrest?” Kelvin asked. “With an ankle monitor, they’ll know where I am at all times.”
“Right. So maybe one more year in here and two years of house arrest. You probably can’t leave Prague.”
“I don’t mind that,” Kelvin said. “However, I want to be allowed out once a week to go to the theater or walk along the river.”
“They’ll probably have to send a guard. All that costs money.”
“Make the CIA and FSB pay for it.” Kelvin was confident they’d agree.
Nováková nodded. “They really need you, don’t they?”
“Yes. If they won’t let me out in four years, what then?”
“Technically, you won’t be out. You’d still be in prison—if house arrest is a form of prison. They might even require you to work for the CIA and you can’t do anything else.”
Kelvin realized they were discussing his freedom. How far had he fallen! When he had been a kid, he hadn’t realized how precious his freedom was. Now that he had lost it…
“I’d rather stay here one more year if it means I can get more freedom afterwards,” he said.
“Perhaps if you stay here for five years—another two years—and they let you out for two years under a modified house arrest in which you will be allowed to walk about within the city, with no access to the internet except when you’re working for the CIA or FSB.”
“Or for Dmitri Proskouriakoff. His company is a contractor for the CIA, and he was former FSB, although he defected to the USA a very long time ago. Find out if I can work for him while under house arrest.”
“In Prague.”
Kelvin nodded.
“That’s a lot of freedom. You’re supposed to be a prisoner.”
“Do they want Ulysses’s cohorts or not?”
“Good point.” Nováková smiled.
“One more thing.” Kelvin decided to play his trump card. “On top of all that, I want them to promise to do whatever they need to find Reuel.”
“Who?”
Kelvin told his attorney about Reuel. “He has disappeared three years ago, as far as I know. As long as he is still out there, a person dear to me could be in danger. I want the CIA and FSB to find him and get him out of the way. In return I will do whatever they ask me to do related to Ulysses.”
Eliminating Ulysses’s threat would also protect Yona.
“Is this person still alive?” Nováková asked. “You said he’s been missing for three years.”
“Oh yeah. He’s still around.” Kelvin produced the envelope from his pocket. He tore it and handed the card to his attorney.
“It’s just a card.”
“To you it is, but to Dario et al, it says that Reuel knew which prison I’m in—even though nothing was said in the news—and he was able to get a message to me. The note is benign on the outset, but he wants me to know he is still around.”
“So? You’re safe here.”
“He also knows that the woman I love is out there.”
“Then we do whatever we can to get a win-win situation.”
“Thank you. That’s all I ask.”
Irony of ironies. Thanks to Ulysses, Aspasia, and Molyneux still being alive, their presence in this world meant that Kelvin was still useful to the authorities who wanted to destroy their terrorist organizations.
He was still needed by the governments who had once abandoned him to the wolves.
“You’re tougher than I thought,” Nováková said.
“I’ve had three years to toughen up. If I am not tough, I’d perish in this prison.” Kelvin looked at his attorney kindly. “Thank you for letting me get solitary confinement.