Synopsis
DAN STEVENS is an American business executive in charge of European Operations for a large American corporation. After years of dedicated service, his company fails, leaving him without a job. Shortly thereafter, his socialite wife leaves him for another man. In one stroke, Dan finds himself a single father with two young children, forced to embark on a new career.
As the book opens, Dan has just landed a job in Geneva, Switzerland, as a top-level executive with American Ballistics International, where he oversees the sale of multimillion-dollar weapons systems to the military in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His move to this exciting global city promises a welcome new beginning. But while the city headquarters multinational corporations and a myriad of United Nations agencies, it also harbors secret bank accounts, espionage, smuggling and money laundering operations.
After settling into his new apartment, Dan meets Michelle Sardou, a seductive and enigmatic younger woman, who lures him into a passionate affair. His increasing attraction to her, overrides his growing suspicion that she may have ulterior motives. Does her work as a consultant for a Swiss investment bank conceal a more sinister role? Is she involved in a dangerous undercover operation or some other perilous activity? Hopelessly in love, Dan casts reason to the winds as he becomes ever more driven by his overwhelming need for Michelle.
Their whirlwind romance is cut short when Michelle suddenly vanishes. Bewildered by her sudden disappearance and concerned for her safety, Dan won’t rest until he finds her. In the process, he not only discovers some shocking secrets about her, but his relentless pursuit of her imperils his career and life.
The Geneva affair offers a complex tale of psychological intrigue, as Dan learns that falling in love with the wrong woman can be fatal.
Prologue
Back in Brooklyn in his high school days, he was known as Big Alex. Even then at six feet three inches, he towered over his classmates. His two passions were football and ancient Greek history. In his senior year he was voted BHM (big handsome man) of the year. Girls were betting on who’d be the first to be asked for a date. But he was seldom seen dating, and it was even rumoured that he was gay.
Years later, in his apartment in Geneva, Switzerland, Alexis Papadopoulos received the phone call he was waiting for. He took a deep breath, checked his SIG-Sauer P220 semi-automatic pistol to be sure it was loaded, dropped it into his anorak pocket, and drove into the night. It was New Year’s Eve, but festivity was the furthest thing from his mind. Little did he know that it was to be his last New Year.
Bleeding profusely, Papadopoulos remained conscious just long enough to make a confession.
Two years earlier, Dan Stevens was staring at the window of his London apartment. Winter was at last coming to an end and spring was in the air. Across the street, the trees in Belgrave Square were turning a pale green in the bright sunshine. It should have been a pleasurable moment, full of hope and promise. But Dan only felt numb. One single devastating truth was slowly dawning on his overwrought consciousness, although you’re on top of the world one moment, everything can suddenly descend into chaos and you’re left bewildered, trying to pick up the pieces of what used to be your life.
Downstairs, Genna, the children’s nanny, was keeping an eye on Dan’s sons and the suitcases, when the moving van arrived. They all watched as piece by piece their furniture, their paintings and a myriad of cartons were loaded onto the van. As it pulled away, the cab took its place in front of the door. Dan’s gaze lingered one last time on the house that had been their home for more than ten years, as he, the boys and Genna piled into the cab.
On the way to the airport, everyone was silent. Dan sighed. He looked at his sons and at Genna. There was palpable tension in the air. Genna, he thought, was probably looking forward to the trip abroad, but it also meant that on her return to London in two weeks, she would be out of a job. Jack, his fifteen-year-old, would be going back to England where school would have to provide him with his only real sense of security and belonging. His mother would not be living there anymore, and there would be no more weekends at home with his dad, his mom and his brother. Even Mike, his eight-year-old, even he who normally never stopped talking was quiet. Dan wondered if his son was aware of all the momentous changes that were about to take place in his life. And as for Dan himself, he was facing a new job with new responsibilities, a divorce and the daunting task of being a single dad.
Excerpt from Chapter 26
Bill Bailey walked over to the conference table and addressed Dan,
“Mr. Stevens, please follow me. I’d like to ask you a few questions in private.”
Dan got up and followed him into a small office that contained a desk with an executive chair, two visitor chairs and a filing cabinet. Bailey sat in the executive chair, put the heavy briefcase he was carrying on the floor next to him, and directed Dan to one of the other chairs. The door opened and the tubby guy entered.
Dan, surprised, said to Bailey, “I thought this conversation was going to be private.”
Bailey smiled. “It will be, just between you and the CIA.” He took a tape recorder out of his briefcase.
Dan was losing patience. “If this questioning is going to be on-the-record, and I don’t even know what we’ll be talking about, then I want to have a lawyer present.”
Bailey gave him a hard stare in return, and said flatly, “I’m afraid there’s no time for that.”
Dan got up. “Well, in that case, I’m out of here. I know my rights. You can’t . . .”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence. Bailey’s sidekick, who had stepped behind him, pushed him unceremoniously back down into the chair.
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” sputtered Dan. For a moment, he was tempted to hit the guy, but he got hold of himself just in time. This isn’t some ordinary goon. I’m dealing with the CIA. He looked grimly at Bailey.
“Mr. Stevens, please,” the agent admonished him, “let’s try to be reasonable about this. You’re not dealing with the police and you’re not in a court of law. Now, we can continue with this right here and now, or we can handcuff you and continue our talk at headquarters. It’s your choice.”
Dan couldn’t believe this was happening to him. He took a deep breath to calm himself.
“Okay, what is it you want from me?” he asked.
Bailey nodded, and while his potbellied friend set up the tape recorder, he pulled a dirty, tattered brown envelope out of his briefcase, slid out a document and tossed it onto the desk.
“Do you recognize this document, sir?”
Dan frowned. Pulling it closer, he stared at it in utter disbelief. It didn’t take him long to identify it. The drawing he was looking at read:
American Ballistics International
AN/APW-954 DWG AB3005-001
MAR/MSR Computer Interconnection Schematic
And diagonally, across the page, it was stamped TOP SECRET.
He pushed it back to Bailey, as he said, “Yeah, I recognize it.”
It was a bad copy of a document that was in his briefcase the night he and Michelle made love for the first time. Now, his worst fears returned to haunt him.
“Good.” Bill Bailey put it back in the envelope.
Dan watched him closely as he asked, “May I ask where you found it, Mr. Bailey?”
“I was hoping, Mr. Stevens, that you would shed some light on that very question.”
Dan wasn’t ready to let the CIA in on the connection between the briefcase and Michelle. After all, he reasoned, there could be other explanations.
“All I know is that it looks like a very bad copy of a document that I carried with me to Brussels to hand over to the U.S. Navy delegate at NATO. That was a long time ago. Let me see, at least a year, a year and a half ago. I haven’t got the foggiest notion about who made that copy.” He paused while Bailey and his sidekick both studied him. Dan was trying hard to keep his face as expressionless as possible, while his thoughts were flashing on Michelle.
“Now, maybe you can tell me when and where you found it, and why I’m being third-degreed about it today. Believe me, I’m as interested in finding that out as you are,” Dan insisted.
“Let me do the asking for the moment, Dan, will you? Are you sure that you have no idea who might have copied this document, if it wasn’t you?”
“I’m sure. I certainly didn’t copy it. Why would I, anyway?” countered Dan.
“Where were you during the film we showed in the conference room?” Bailey asked.
Dan shook his head. “Are you accusing me of spying?”
“We’re not accusing anybody yet. We’re only trying to get some facts.” Bailey leaned forward.
“Dan, you’ve been seen socializing with some Russians and Bulgarians recently. What was that all about?”
“Oh, that. So you’ve been following me.” Dan’s heart was beating faster and he felt his chest constrict with anxiety.
Bailey said nothing.
Dan told him about the night at La Macumba where he met the Yarchenkos. “And that’s the extent of my socializing with Russians and Bulgarians, as you put it,” he added defiantly.
“You said that it was your woman friend, Michelle Sardou, who introduced you to Yarchenko. Do you know how she happened to know him?”
“Mme. Sardou has a strong interest in languages, and she studied Russian at a University in Moscow, where Yarchenko was her professor. In fact, as I remember, she looked astonished to see him in Geneva at La Macumba,” explained Dan.
Bailey nodded. “Very interesting and did you know that Dimitri Yarchenko is a KGB operative? ... “
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