Dorothy and
Tom arrive at
Arkady's flat to discuss recent developments regarding the
Institute for Progress and Development. Arkady's niece and
Dot Chan intern
Katya is also there. Arkady starts by revealing that - as suspected - his friend
Sergei removed the
Vavasor Papers from the briefcase given to Tom at the climax of the events described in
The Truth About Archie and Pye, thus saving them from the subsequent explosion. However, Sergei did not, as anticipated, manage to return the papers to
Isaac Vavasor as he was forced to go into hiding. After this, Sergei became increasingly worried that he was being followed by someone, as it turned out, from the Institute for Progress and Development. After this, Sergei left the country, not saying where he was going. Three days ago, Arkady hears from Sergei's girlfriend
Carla saying that Arkady has disappeared and that the papers have been stolen. The team conclude that the Institute is behind it and that they must break into their headquarters and steak them back.
Dorothy, Tom, Arkady, Katya and Balvinder, the other Dot Chan intern, break into the Institute for Progress and Development, aided by Balvinder's lock-picking skills. They fail to locate the Vavasor Papers, although Tom does find a file on Sergei Kravchenko, as well as someone called Dominic Bilston, who seems to have been killed in suspicious circumstances. However, it now turns out that they are not the only people there, as Helen Matheson and one of her cronies are also spying on the Institute. Helen kidnaps Tom and takes him to a safe house in Margate with the intention of blackmailing him into working for her. In the course of this, she uses his phone to give Dorothy the impression that Tom has been having an affair with her. Matheson's plan is for Tom to impersonate the chaotician Rory Milford, who has apparently been hired to do some work by one of the Belarusian mafia gangs, in order to find out what has happened to one of her agents: Sergei Kravchenko.
Tom is to travel to Minsk, pretending to be Rory Milford, but travelling under the name of Wilberforce. He will be met on arrival by Yevgenei Smirnov, who will take him to the Minsk Metropole where he will meet his client Nikita Petrov, head of the Petrov family. In the event, he is not met by Smirnov - instead he is picked up by Anya, who has apparently already disposed of Smirnov. Anya takes Tom to a camp in the forest near to the border with Ukraine, near Pripyat. This turns out to be the rural headquarters of the Gretzky family. Here he meets their current leader Yuliya Gretzky and the young prodigy and heir apparent Alexei Gretzky. It turns out that Alexei met the |Vavasor twins when he was very young, and is something of an enthusiast for their work. Apparently Rory Milford also knew them, which is news to Tom.
More to come.
