Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist Aftermath Read Online Free Page B

companies work with American government. Executive orders by your past presidents
     provide exchange of data between private sector and government. Your Homeland Security
     regulates critical infrastructure, same as we do. We’re very happy in this marriage.”
    He took a long pull on his vodka, then tipped his head and led them across the balcony
     to his office door. He ushered them inside, and they gasped over the mementoes of
     his past and world travels: an African lion mount from one of his safaris; thousands
     of rare artifacts and gem stones meticulously arranged in glass cases; walls of software
     boxes written in German and Chinese; Persian rugs splayed across the floor; a basketball
     jersey from the New Jersey Nets in a glass case, the NBA team owned by a Russian billionaire
     friend; photos of himself with celebrities and world dignitaries, including American
     President Patricia Caldwell and the pope; and finally, his dark green dress jacket
     from his tenure as an intelligence officer with the Soviet Army. His desk, which was
     loosely copied from the one located in the reception area of the British House of
     Commons building and cost more than a three-bedroom house in Liverpool, had an opaque
     glass top and a limestone front. On it sat a picture of himself with his parents before
     their house, a meager shack on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.
    He gestured toward a sprawling leather sofa that, when the reporters sank deeply into
     the cushions, made them look like dwarves. Kasperov gesticulated more wildly now as
     he spoke: “Welcome to my life. A poor boy from St. Petersburg. I got lucky. But you
     know story, right?”
    One of the reporters glanced at his notes. “At sixteen you were accepted into a five-year
     program at the KGB-backed Institute of Cryptography, Telecommunications, and Computer
     Science. After graduation, you were commissioned as an intelligence officer in the
     Soviet Army.”
    “Yes, but reason I’m here is because one day, I’m like on my computer, and it’s virus
     there. This is long time ago, 1989. Every time I find new virus, I get more curious.
     I spend hundreds of hours thinking about them, working on them. This is how I made
     name for myself in Soviet Army.” Kasperov glanced to the doorway, where, in the shadows,
     a man appeared, a familiar man whose presence suddenly dampened his mood.
    “Mr. Kasperov, you’ve been touted around the world as a generous and remarkable businessman,
     but you have to admit, you’re surrounded by others in your country who might not be
     quite as honest as you are. Oligarchs, mafia . . . How do you keep yourself above
     all the corruption?”
    Kasperov glanced once more at the doorway and tried to keep a happy face. “I keep
     pictures of my family close to my heart. I keep pictures of children all over the
     world I’ve helped close to my heart. I know they need me and believe in me. I know
     this company can help me do great things because I believe in it.”
    “Do you think your company can help foster better relations between our nations?”
    “Oh, I think it already has.”
    “I can see why you say that . . . Your girlfriend’s an American. Any talk of marriage?”
    He blushed. “No marriage yet. Now, gentlemen, you’ll have to excuse me, I have another
     visitor. If you’ll go downstairs, one of my best managers, Patrik Ruggov—we call him
     Kannonball—will show you exactly how we work with customer.”
    The journalists rose and Kasperov escorted them to the spiral staircase, then he returned
     to the man who’d been waiting for him in the shadows.
    “Hello, Chern,” Kasperov grunted in Russian.
    “Igor, I see you are massaging your ego again.”
    Kasperov ignored the remark and stormed back into his office. Chern followed.
    “Shut the door,” Kasperov ordered him.
    Chern smirked and complied.
    Kasperov knew this man only by his nickname, “Chernobyl,” aka “Chern.” Leonine, with
     a prominent