‘Yes and no. Backhouse's comment about Baryshnikov being finished with Ptarmigan was spot on. I spoke to Quartano last night, after Yegor's defection.’
‘You’re sure that Baryshnikov would know Quartano's likely response?’
‘Oh God, yes. He’d know he was finished with Quartano; the Big Man is renowned for having a less-than-zero tolerance of disloyalty. But Andy's point about his career with other teams is unquestionable. His career is buggered. I take it you know what the top F1 drivers get paid?’
‘A fair amount?’
‘Millions a year, which he's now lost. But Backhouse's other point is probably the more significant. Apart from the money, drivers wouldn’t willingly give up as good a shot as this to win the Championship and – let's face it – achieve immortality. For any of those reasons, therefore, Baryshnikov's actions have to be a surprise. So why's he done it? Why? … The sacrifice is huge. Hang on a minute; I take it he hasn’t been subpoenaed by the courts or something, has he?’
McMahon shook her head. ‘Not that we know off.’
‘For Yegor to give up what he's given up, then, means he must have got something substantial in return – he must have got the authorities to make it worth his while. Either that or they’ve got some serious hold over him.’
McMahon said nothing in reply.
‘Do you remember Yegor's tone and body language during his defection press conference?’
‘When he seemed to be stumbling over his words?’
‘That wouldn’t have been noteworthy had he been speaking in English – but he was like that in Russian … that isn’t like Bary-shnikov at all, is it?’ Straker groaned again. ‘Can we get hold of a recording of that conference? I want to give it another look.’
McMahon made a note in her phone.
‘I think we should also look into the mechanics of Baryshnikov's defection.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘How was the defection handled? Who contacted whom? When? There may be something in that process that could offer clues as to why he's ratted us out.’
‘Like what?’
‘When was the first contact made between him and the authorities, for instance? If it was yesterday afternoon, that would tell us one thing. If contact had been made – say – before we ever got to Moscow, that would tell us something different entirely.’
‘You think this could have been set up that far back?’
‘Doctoring that circuit didn’t happen overnight, Sandy. Who knows how long all this has been in the planning?’
‘How could we ever find that out, though?’
‘Contact with Baryshnikov would have to have been discreet. He's far too well known around here for anything to have been done in public, or by him walking into a public office somewhere. There must have been communication, though – probably by email? Phone? SMS texts?’
‘I suppose that's possible, except we don’t have powers of intercept. How do we get hold of that sort of information? We’d never be able to subpoena the Russian Postal Service, the telephone companies, or any ISP here.’
‘Baryshnikov has a Ptarmigan phone. That means he has a Quar-tech phone … email address and email account. He uses our comms and internet platform.’
‘To which Quartech – Ptarmigan – would have access?’
‘Precisely.’
‘Can we get at those records easily?’
Straker looked at his watch and worked out the time difference in London. It was late enough to make a call. ‘My hyper-efficient researcher back at Quartech's HQ will be able to.’ Pulling out Sabatino's phone, Straker dialled a number from memory – his office in Cavendish Square. Karen was in and answered immediately. Straker chatted briefly with his research assistant for a few minutes, their not having caught up since Straker's departure for the Arctic.
Three minutes on he reported: ‘Karen will download all Baryshnikov's comms records into a spreadsheet and send it over.’
McMahon was impressed.
Straker exhaled painfully as he tried to get himself into a comfortable position. ‘The next strand I want us to research,’ he breathed, ‘is the Zhar-ptitsa Autodrom. We need to know everything about it – and everyone involved with it from the very beginning.’
‘Why? What's your interest there?’
‘We now know the crash wasn’t an accident, so we have to conclude there was an intended outcome? An intended victim.’
‘Okay?’
‘So, then, who do we think the victim was meant to be?’ asked Straker. ‘We currently have a number of victims. The spectators – who were injured and killed. Remy – who nearly died. And now, after the crash, Ptarmigan is a victim – corporately, along with its most senior director.’
‘Okay.’
‘What's the likely effect of this crash going to be on the Zhar-ptitsa Autodrom, though – to its business and standing?’
‘Crippled it, I’m guessing.’
‘It certainly has been seriously damaged. Might that have been someone's intention? Perhaps it was meant to hurt someone who's involved with it? So, let's find out who owns it? Who runs it? Who's invested in it? Who wants to make money out of it? And, now, who might be losing money because of it? Any one of those people could have been the intended victim.’
‘So are you suggesting that Ptarmigan may not have been an intended victim at all?’
Straker shrugged.
