The Scorpions Nest

The Scorpions Nest. Chapter 2

2. Russia

Moscow, The Kremlin

14.30 GMT/17.00 AFT/18.30 MT

The Kremlin, a fortified complex over looking Red Square just north of the Moskva River stands strong against the bleak pale blue sky, the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation. Protected by the Kremlin guard this building should be impenetrable to any unofficial visitor.

Head chef Dimitri is barking out the orders to the many hands he has helping him. Dimitri now in his 30th year as head chef still likes to have a full hands-on approach to the meals his kitchen prepares, although most of his staff are more than capable of organising, preparing and distributing them. A strong faced plump man Dimitri befits his role very well, he takes great pride in the food he serves and of his own presentation a man of authority in the kitchen his clean, pressed white uniform looks impeccably smart on him despite his portly stomach, also his Dodin Bouffant hat must always be clean and to attention on his head, even his neckerchief is clean and crisp, unlike most chefs, he refuses to wear the more common Houndstooth trousers, preferring the original hard to keep clean white ones.

The large modern kitchen area is a bustle of activity, Deep brass pots and pans hang above various preparation spaces, "No No No you use only the yolks with the butter, not the whole egg, how many times have you made Paskha Boyarskaya with whole eggs" he says to the new kitchen hand starting to show signs of annoyance, although lots of top chefs let their anger boil over to profanity and bullying, Dimitri prided himself on being courteous to people no matter where their social standing was.

"This is the way I was taught at University" Peter Thomaz replied "I have made this dish numerous times this way"

"Well not here, it is never made with the whites, look at the way the whites have started to cook, how can you really have ever made this dish like this?"

"I am sorry Chef, I will start again."

"No, go see Andrei; you can help him with presentations."

"Yes chef" mutters Thomaz placing down the towel he had just wiped his hands on.

Andrei is the Maitre d' he deals with everything before it is passed from the kitchen through to the staff of the Kremlin, this man is meticulous to the finest detail, and perfectionism is a must. "Yes" he doesn’t even look up as Thomaz approaches, he continues to straighten the plates of food on a tray and tick off a scribbling from his notebook as he goes along "come on what is it?"

"Chef Dimitri has sent me over to help you sir."

"Balls something up for him did you?"

"My method of cooking a dish and his method were different."

"Yep that's the same thing, so he sent you here to get you out of his way."

"Regrettably I feel that maybe true sir."

"Well firstly you don’t have to end every sentence with sir, secondly you need to get changed, if you're going to help the waiters here to serve, you need to look the part, lucky for you we are short staffed or I would be sending you back to Chef"

Sitting in conference room nine is Oleg Zuykov the Russian minister of foreign affairs, he is talking to General Nikulin Head of Russian Ground Forces, and they are alone in the room sitting side by side but facing each other, looking through some documents and aerial photographs. Zuykov pulls another aerial photograph from a binder and puts it on the table in front of them "look you can see them much clearer here" he says prodding an area on the photograph. Nikulin leans forward to get a closer look, he removes a pair of glasses from inside his jacket pocket and puts them on, and adjusting his seat he stares down at the image.

"This is impossible! I would know about it if this many of my troops were moving around the border countries."

"Well clearly you don’t!"

"Don’t take me for a fool Oleg" he says staring Zuykov square in the face, his face changing to one of rage, and his voice increasing in volume "there is no way these troops are mine, what is this the border of ?"

"Ok calm down, this here is...." he pulls out an overlay transparency and places it on top of the original photo ".....Latvia!"

"Latvia? When was this photograph taken?”

"This morning about at 11.30 a.m."

"Could they be Latvian Troops?"

"What in Russia? Why? why would they enter Russia ?"

A knock at the door interrupts their conversation "Come in" Shouts Zuykov, in walks Peter Thomaz carrying a silver tray, now looking a lot smarter than he did in the kitchen earlier, he walks over to the two gentlemen and places the tray on the table next to them, on the tray are two meals hidden under silver cloches

"Do you want me to lay places for you?" Thomaz asks whilst removing the first cloche from its dish filling the air with the aroma of Seared Steak.

"No that’s ok just take them off the tray and take that away with you" replies Zuykov.

As he removes the dishes and cutlery from the tray Thomaz notices the photograph and transparency, he stops what he is doing for a split second while his mind calculates what he has just seen, Zuykov notices this moment’s hesitation and covers the images up with his binder "Are we done" he shouts angered by the nosey waiter.

"Not quite" replies Thomaz, grabbing a steak knife from the tray and spinning round in a fluid motion swiping across the throat of the Foreign Affairs Minister, Zuykov falls backwards in his chair, the chair tips over driven by the force of Thomaz's thrust, lying still in a seated position clutching his throat as blood spills from between his fingers as he gasps for air.

Thomaz seizes on this moment of Nikulins shock at what just happened and lunges at him driving the knife deep into his torso and then twists it to ensure maximum damage to the internal organs, and as he stands up straight he attempts to drag the knife upwards whilst it’s still embedded in Nikulins chest, but it snags after a moment on a rib and slides up out of his body, without hesitation he plunges it in again, and finally he pulls it out and sticks it in Nikulins neck. The old man was probably already dead but he wanted to be sure, turning and looking at Zuykov he noticed the blood appeared to of stop flowing and the gurgling noise he had faintly heard earlier had also stopped.

Acting quickly he gathered up the documents from the Table, and put them inside his jacket and fastened it tight. Backing away from the corpses he checks his own appearance. No signs of blood or untidiness he smiled to himself, a job well executed, grabbing the empty silver tray he goes to the door and removed the key that is in the door, exiting the room he sees the hallway is empty, he turns and locks the door and places the key in his pocket before heading back to the kitchen.

Now back at the preparation area Thomaz places down the silver tray on the table and grabs a note from in front of another two meals 'Vetrov (Salad) and Bezrukov (Fish) Floor two office 29' it read, he put the note back down and carried on reading the rest of the notes, till he found the one he was looking for, it simply said 'President Mager', looking around he could see everyone was too busy to even notice he had returned, Andrei was moaning about something or someone to Dimitri, everyone else was still concerned about the time and how long they had left to prepare these meals. Pulling a small vial from his pocket, he slowly unscrewed its top whilst looking around ensuring he wasn't being watched, he lifts the lid on the President's meal and liberally scatters the liquid over it. Putting the vial back in his pocket he lowers the lid.

"Hey" a voice yells at him, he spins round to see Andrei walking over to him, "with his hands behind his back hidden from view he fumbles on the table until they make contact with the cutlery tray, quietly feeling the edges he picks up a knife.

"Come away from there, No one takes in the President's meal except one of his bodyguards" Andrei points to a set of meals on the opposite end of the table "here get these down to the admin staff on floor one" As Andrei turns and heads back to Dimitri to finish his conversation a wave of relief washes over Thomaz, he releases the knife from his hand and continues to serve the meal as requested.