Free Black Ops: The 12th Spider Shepherd Thriller by Stephen Leather Page A

Dutch campaign to force the Russians to accept responsibility for the incident, but he recently fell out with them,’ said Button. ‘According to the AIVD, Jansen has decided to take matters into his own hands.’
    ‘In what way?’ The AIVD was the Algemene Inlichtingen en Veiligheidsdienst, which translated as the General Intelligence and Security Service, the Dutch equivalent of MI5.
    ‘He wants to hire an assassin to take out Putin.’
    Shepherd laughed out loud. ‘Oh come on, he’s delusional.’
    ‘He’s got the money. He’s got all the money he needs. He set up a software company that Microsoft paid millions for in the nineties and he used that to launch a video games and app developer that is now one of the biggest companies in Holland.’
    ‘Never heard of him.’
    ‘You won’t have heard of most of the really rich,’ said Button. ‘Not the smart ones, anyway. They keep a low profile. You wouldn’t find Jansen buying a football club or building a super yacht. But trust me, he’s worth billions. And he’s in the market for a contract killer.’
    Shepherd smiled and shook his head. ‘You don’t take out a man like Putin with a contract killer,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t work like that. He’s better protected than the US President.’
    ‘US presidents have been shot,’ said Button.
    ‘And the Secret Service has learned lessons from it. But Putin is …’ He shrugged. ‘He’s untouchable. He knows how hated he is and he does what’s necessary to make sure no one dangerous gets anywhere near him. He and the rest of the men who run Russia are protected by the Federal Protective Service. There are thirty thousand men and women in the FPS and their only mission is to protect Putin and about thirty others. In contrast there are about five thousand in the American Secret Service and they have to protect the president and the vice-president and their families, every former president and their families, plus visiting heads of state. Literally hundreds of people. And they have to deal with currency counterfeiting. But it’s not just about the numbers, Charlie. Putin runs Russia with an iron fist in a steel glove. A hired killer can’t just ride into Moscow and take a pot shot at him. I’d say he’s probably the best protected man in the world.’
    ‘Putin’s coming to London next month,’ said Button. ‘It’s a long-standing fixture, a meeting with the prime minister.’
    ‘Ah,’ said Shepherd.
    ‘There will be an FPS unit with the delegation, of course. But slimmed down from what he’s used to, and unarmed of course.’
    ‘If the threat is real, cancel the visit.’
    ‘The threat is real, but cancellation isn’t an option. How would it look if we had to admit that we couldn’t protect a visiting dignitary?’
    ‘A darn sight better than if a visiting dignitary was assassinated here.’
    Button flashed him a cold smile. ‘We’re hoping it won’t come to that, obviously. Holland isn’t exactly choc-a-bloc with assassins, so he’s looking further afield.’
    ‘Looking how, exactly? Advertising on Craigslist?’
    Button didn’t bother smiling this time. ‘He’s using a middleman in Amsterdam. Guy by the name of Lucas Smit.’ She handed him another photograph, this of a slightly plump man in his forties with sandy hair. ‘Smit’s an underworld fixer. He’s been asking around in Berlin and Paris and recently he approached a contract killer in London who apparently turned the job down.’
    ‘How do you know this?’
    ‘Which bit?’
    ‘The fact that the job was turned down.’
    ‘The AIVD have a surveillance team on Smit. He’s very careful but someone in London slipped up and left a message on his voicemail, saying they weren’t interested.’
    ‘Who turned the job down?’
    ‘The AIVD don’t know. Smit was calling a throwaway mobile in London. They have a voice but voice-matching hasn’t come up with anything.’
    Shepherd exhaled slowly. ‘There’s not many would