CHAPTER 10

Basel, Switzerland

December

THE LONDON FINANCIAL MARKETS, barely recovering from the sell-off that followed the attack at Kingston Market, plunged deeper into recession on the news of the second terrorist attack in the span of a few days. The hysteria of fear affected holiday shopping across Europe and even in the United States, with nearly every Western market plunging deeper into the red.

Vasili Andrenov had learned early in his career that access to information meant access to wealth and he parlayed the strategic information at his fingertips into financial power. When a Marxist revolution was planned in a key oil-producing nation, he had surreptitiously invested in oil futures, knowing that the price of crude would soon spike. As he rose in rank and influence, he moved on to crafting specific intelligence operations for their potential market impact. The Colonel had built a fortune creating chaos, prolonging conflicts, and disrupting regional commerce. If the world economy demanded lithium, Andrenov would use his men to stoke the flames of hatred among the tribes that occupied areas rich in that resource. Drop in some Soviet-made weapons on either side and sit back and watch the prices rise.

Commodities and currencies were his focus in those days, but now, unable to manipulate the strategic assets of a superpower, he’d shifted his focus to more basic events. Nothing spooked investors like terrorism and, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it had become his bread and butter. The Islamists were easy to influence and, with an investment of a few hundred thousand dollars and a few martyrs, he could move markets single-handedly. The latest string of attacks in Great Britain had earned him hundreds of millions of pounds, euros, and dollars while serving the greater purpose of keeping the Western leaders and their budgets focused on chasing Muslim ghosts at home instead of pursuing worthwhile strategic goals abroad.

At age sixty-seven, Andrenov had a level of prosperity that ensured his fortune would outlive him, and without a wife or children to inherit the fruits of his labor or a business that would move forward bearing his name, he would be a mere footnote outside classified channels. That wasn’t entirely true. He did have one illegitimate son in Russia that he knew of and probably a few more from postings around the globe that he didn’t. He kept tabs on his son, more for the security implications to Andrenov’s organization than out of any real concern for his well-being. His legacy wasn’t flesh and blood, though; it was Russia. The moderates were killing his homeland and he was finally in a position to do something about it. It was time to start investing in Russia, investing in her people. He would continue to profit, of course, as that gave him freedom, but he would use his puppet strings to move his motherland back to its rightful place in history. Just as he’d single-handedly built and destroyed nations and economies, he would now rebuild imperial Russia.

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