The Hidden Vector: A Spy Thriller

by Mathew Snyder

  “Okay,” Wade said, “say she gets us in there. Then what? Seda’s smart. She’s not going to say shit to us until she knows she’s out of there for real. And then what? They’ll be right in there with us. It’s not like we can just ask to take her for a ride.”

  “Well, first of all, it won’t be us. It will be Maria and me.”

  “What about me?”

  Ethan reclined his chair with is hands locked behind his head. “Well, you’re right about GIS not letting her out of there. I think we could change their minds with a little persuasion, and that’s where you come in. You can provide a little external influence on our negotiation.”

  “Like what?” Wade asked.

  “Like, do you still have those M83 grenades in your bag of tricks?”

  Wade shook his head with an incredulous grin.

  “You know, what I like about you is you’re crazy. What I hate about you is you drag me into your crazy shit.”

  Chapter 8: Critical Weakness

  Tbilisi, Georgia

  11:30 p.m., Friday, May 9

  Ethan left Wade in the embassy and wandered outside into a broad yard surrounded by a tall fence topped with razor wire. Clouds roiled overhead, electrified by the city night. With some hesitation, he dialed Maria’s number.

  “That didn’t take long. I’m glad you called,” she said. Her voice wound into his ear, simmering and less playful than her flirting banter from earlier. She had waited for him to call.

  “It’s not what you’re thinking, but how’s your weekend looking?”

  “Better now. That sounds exactly like what I was thinking,” she said.

  He paused and pressed his fingers against his forehead. “Can you meet us tonight? We need to talk in person.”

  “Us? Sounds serious.”

  The sultry act disintegrated. Good, he thought. Neither of them needed the distraction.

  “Never a dull moment,” he answered. “Wade and I will pick you up. The corner just down your street, to the east.”

  “See you then,” she said.

  They found her on the street standing across from a bus station where revelers waited for midnight rides to the downtown bars. Ethan sat in the rear and opened the door for her while Wade drove, his window open just a few inches.

  “Get in,” he said and motioned at her.

  She tossed in a beige overnight bag and climbed into the car.

  “Let me introduce you to our driver for this evening,” Ethan said.

  Wade shook his head as he eased into the stream of cars.

  “I want to make it clear this was his idea,” Wade explained. “Not much of a cover, but it explains the black guy driving Miss Daisy here. Wish I could say it was the first time.”

  Ethan shrugged. “Don’t take it personal. You can drive me around anytime.”

  Maria seemed amused. “You two always like this?”

  “Only on Fridays,” Wade said. “By the way, I hear you’re a good shot.”

  “When I need to be,” she said, now clearly enjoying herself.

  They drove south and east along the river where the city became at once its own and like all cities, a blur of lights and passing cars and people walking along in groups. The light rose up into the hills where the old Soviet era TV tower perched above, overlooking all like the night watchman.

  “Now is when you tell me what’s going on,” she said. She turned to Ethan in the seat next to her.

  “We need you to arrange a meet with Seda Alaskhanova. As soon as possible. Tomorrow.”

  “That’s Alan’s call, not mine.” She cocked her head. “You don’t want him to know.”

  “That’s right,” he said.

  “And that’s why you need me.” Her amusement lessened with a frown.

  “You have contacts in GIS, right?”

  “Giorgi Gelashvili was my main contact.” She said his name with flourish, her Georgian accent rolling perfectly in Ethan’s ears. “But I know some others.”

  “Others who can arrange for you and me to interrogate her?”

  “Maybe so. What’s this about?”

  His hesitation returned. He looked out his window as they cruised along the river and approached the bridge. Involving her had become inevitable to meet Corso’s orders. But his instincts resisted. Something about her made him waver. It wasn’t a matter of whether he could answer her question. He had passed that point, and turning back meant failure. Failure meant more people would die, starting with Seda.

  The uncertainty surprised him, and he wondered if it was his attraction for her that made him uneasy. This was dangerous work that could end their careers. Or worse. Her eagerness was his liability, and he made it worse welcoming her into his hotel room. Maybe it was something else about her and all those masks she talked about. Something he questioned about her, distant and subtle.

  “Ethan, what’s this about?”

  “We need to get her out of there,” he said. “Before whoever wants her dead makes good on their intentions. She’s the only real link to the hijacking at this point, and I’ll be damned before I let that go.”

  “Look, I understand where you’re coming from here. Really, I do. And I want to help. But GIS is not just going to let her go. Do not underestimate these guys.”

  “Underestimate who, exactly? It’s not GIS I’m worried about. It’s whoever Rezo was working for.”

  “But you don’t know anything about them, right?” she said.

  Wade looked into the rearview mirror as he drove. “That’s exactly why we’re doing this thing.”

  “This is crazy. I don’t know what you have in mind, but …”

  “I’ll tell you if you give me a chance to explain. We have a plan. I wish it was one we had more time to develop. I wish we had more help. But this is the hand we’ve been dealt. It’s not the first time we’ve made the best with some lousy cards.”

  “Roger that,” Wade said, head rocking as he drove.

  “So, right now, we’re going to take a look. We need you to get us there now. And then get us in the door tomorrow. We know what we’re getting into here.”

  “I don’t think you do.” She said it quietly. She lost focus on him, fixed on thoughts tumbling in her head. In two short days he had seen so many facets of her, but it was the first time he had seen her uncertain.

  “Well, you said yourself. You understand where I’m coming from. I need to know right now. We need you. Are you in?”

  At once her posture straightened and she locked her eyes with his.

  “I’m definitely in.”

  She didn’t seem happy about it, but he lost any doubt that she was committed.

  They crossed the river and found the Kakheti highway where hotels and shabby gas stations flanked the roadway for several miles. Past the airport, they turned north into a modest neighborhood that devolved into decaying junkyards and rows of rust-eaten metal buildings that glowed dimly white in the night.

  Maria leaned between the forward seats guiding Wade to the site. She pointed her long-nailed finger past his ear toward a fenced compound to their left a few hundred yards away. Wade slowed as they observed the place. The fence was chain, but well covered by vinyl strips that concealed the yard and building from the road. Behind the fence was a squat and sturdy brick building with small windows. It was a three-story fortress among the other prefabricated metal buildings around them, towering well above, but still concealed by a long grove of cedars growing at the fence line. Whatever industrial purpose it once served was long obscured. Nearer the building sodium lights still bathed the yard in amber.

  “This is the place?” Ethan asked.

  “That’s it. The entrance is on the west, down that alley ahead.” She pointed again past Wade’s view.

  “What do you think?”

  Wade turned his head as they passed the building slowly.

  “Can’t tell if anybody’s home. Let’s turn around and take another look,” Wade said. He followed the road until they passe
d the site, then found a place to turn around. He waited several minutes before he pulled back onto the road.

  “It’s bigger than it looks,” Maria said. “GIS put quite a bit into the place since the Gulf War. They had a little trouble with the Gldani prison scandal a couple years ago. Sanger seemed to think GIS was using Gldani at the time on the sly, but they quietly moved the operation here. I haven’t been there in almost three years now, but one of my contacts says they installed strong security. Rewired the whole place. It’s not the gulag hellhole you’re imagining.”

  Wade eased the Toyota along the curve of the road. The tires crunched and popped as he drove half on the shoulder where Ethan spied the entryway from a gap in the fence. He caught the flicker of a lighter and the silhouette of a man smoking near the fence gate. The fence blocked his view of the yard, but he counted six cars parked in line along the lane. Most of the building’s tiny windows were dark specks on the brick facade, but some glowed like old gas lamps with panes long covered with smoky grime. He looked for doors, but he saw only an entrance facing the fence gate and the top of a vacant loading dock with a pair of sturdy rolling doors.

  “Someone’s home,” he mumbled. He tapped Wade on the shoulder. “Look, there’s a sentry down the lane. If he hasn’t noticed us already, he will any second. Let’s roll.”

  Wade drove on and picked up speed as he passed the lane. He navigated the back roads of the area, sniffing out an alternate route on the far side of the facility for himself. He needed an approach and seemed content as he drove around gravel lots and dirt alleys for a quarter hour. Ethan thought through his plan again, picturing in his head the steps he and Maria would take to talk with the guard and the walk to the entrance. He had committed the shape of the building to memory, with help from a map on his phone. He guessed where other exits might be to the east and south. He hoped for east, where they could break away into the cedar trees once they cleared the fence line.

  Ethan turned to Maria. “Make the call.”

  “Now?”

  “This late at night, they’ll know it’s urgent. It buys us an excuse not to wake up Sanger. Get us in there as soon as you can. Tonight, if possible. Tomorrow morning, if not.”

  Wade said, “Bad move, man. Let’s get her back to the office in case they get fancy with a trace. Who knows?”

  “Okay, you call when we get back,” Ethan said.

  Maria offered no protest. She fidgeted with her phone as they reversed their route through the city. Along the way, they all shared observations, exhausting every detail they could and repeating them again. For Ethan, it was a practiced procedure with Wade, and part of every operation they had run together. The careful planning, the repetition, the contingencies. They discussed the alley approach, the lamps above, and the likely placement of cameras. Wade had identified vents on the roof and another near the loading doors. But Ethan marveled how quickly into that rhythm Maria situated herself. She came to it practiced and ready. Again he saw in her a subtle change, another facet.

  At the office she made the call while he and Wade examined a pixelated satellite image of the building and the grounds and roads nearby. Maria’s voice rolled with the lilt of her fluent Georgian. He understood none of it, but he heard her at once urgent and then contrite. She listened briefly then shouted a string of profane syllables into the phone that seemed to startle even Wade into attention. Just as abruptly, she ended the call.

  “That didn’t go well,” Ethan said, crossing his arms.

  “Not tonight. He’s calling his supervisor now. We get inside tomorrow.”

  “When? Every delay, every call up the ladder is a chance for one of two things to happen,” Wade said. “Either they get wise and call Sanger, or someone else gets to her first. And I don’t like either option.”

  “No. We’re in,” she said. “Trust me. I know this guy well enough, and I know he’s already convinced.”

  Wade glowered, then went back to studying the satellite map. The plan was crude and simple, which explained Wade’s affection for it. Ethan wondered who had the worse task. He and Maria would enter the place to question Seda. That much the GIS would expect from their CIA allies. He might even run into a familiar face to help ease any doubts. For the two of them, it was a game of confidence. They couldn’t let the Georgians sense any trace of trepidation. Wade had to rely on their timing. His task was simpler to the point of absurd, and more brutish. He had to enter the perimeter unseen, scale the building, and drop smoke grenades into air vents they’d seen while scouting the building.

  They went over it again. Wade nodded. His demeanor calmed as they talked through the plan, focused on the rote that he committed his attention to in full.

  “We have to get her out of there before they have time to think about it. That’s the tricky part. We’ve got to shake them then. Whatever it takes,” Ethan said. “Understood?”

  With that, he eyed Maria intently, awaiting her acknowledgment. This was the critical weakness in his plan. At best, the two of them would face at least a couple GIS officers. Armed and trained men who knew a different, harsher world. No, he realized the worst was that these men could kill Seda and would not hesitate with either of them getting in the way.

  “I get it,” she said, without any sign of worry.

  As they ran through the plan a third time, Maria got the call. She spoke only in assent, her responses brief. She ended the call and rubbed her lips pensively.

  “We’re in. Tomorrow morning. 0700 hours,” she said.

  Maria picked Ethan up before sunrise. He stood in the building entrance waiting out of sight but exposed to the cold damp that clung to the ground. He had dressed the part, but the too-snug sport coat he’d borrowed did little to keep out the morning chill. He climbed into her Outlander, and she smiled a morning greeting.

  “Wade already left, I take it?” she said.

  “Three hours ago,” he said with a shrug. “You ready for this?”

  “Are you?” She gave him her playful smile.

  She awaited adventure. She was here for the thrill of it, which made things more difficult. She’d ignore the subtlest of threats, and he would have to watch their GIS counterparts even closer. Every move, every expression spun into variations he couldn’t predict, let alone control.

  They arrived at the old brick building as the cloud-filled sky warmed pink and gold. Fewer cars lined alley lane, though the sentries remained just near the gate. Maria approached them, and Ethan followed.

  “Dila mshvidobisa,” she said warmly. Good morning. “We are here by appointment. With Davit Kodoshvili.”

  The guards wagged their heads and waved them closer. She fanned out her passport for them to inspect and nodded at Ethan to do the same. The guard eyed him warily, then Maria, barely noting their identification. These were not men to underestimate. They had learned to be loyal to different leaders and survive the sudden upheavals that came with them, all with a careful eye on neighbors who sharpened knives at their border. They knew what to look for.

  The other GIS officer escorted them to the building where they stood before double doors. Bolted into the brick above the door was a camera in a long white casing, and somewhere at the other end was an officer recording their faces.

  With a buzz and a click, their escort opened one of the doors and another man greeted them. Ethan recognized his dark buzz cut and heavy eyeglasses from the house in Batumi. This was Davit.

  Ethan shook his hand and hurried into the building. “Davit, we met the other day.”

  He entered the front office, an old brick-walled space where guards watched monitors from behind a high desk.

  Davit bowed his head. “Yes, I recall you, Mr. Pierce. We have you to thank for securing our asset. I know you had some help,” he said with a smug expression meant to impress Maria.

  She missed nothing. “You’re kind to say so, Davit. Thanks for arranging this meeting on such short notice. We have some pertinent questions for Seda Alaskhanova. Things tha
t can’t wait. You understand.”

  “I do, though I do not think you will get her to talk. She has been uncooperative. But these things done properly take time, no?” He sighed. “Now, please. You sign in here, then I take you to our visitor. Your mobiles, please.”

  The veteran officer produced a small plastic basket, and they placed their phones within it.

  “Are you carrying any weapons?”

  Ethan nodded. He held up his gray sport coat to reveal his sidearm. Davit smiled weakly as he gestured to receive the weapon. Ethan expected this, and he unholstered the gun and eased it into Davit’s hand. Davit took it and frisked him from the ankles up to his shoulders. He felt the empty weight at his hip and with it a sense of insecurity. He harbored no hope of retrieving the Beretta, which he bought eight years ago in Virginia on Wade’s advice. Now he relied on Wade to begin a reckless distraction that would make sure GIS had no interest in returning the firearm. It was his sacrifice for authenticity, a small means to gain the trust of the Georgians. There was always another gun.

  “Miss Hessler?” Davit said.

  Maria shook her head. “Not my style, I’m afraid.”

  “May I?” Davit asked as he approached her.

  “Of course.”

  She raised her arms as Davit frisked her lean legs and hips. He moved up her ribs and armpits. Maria turned her head away while he ran them along her belly and up toward her breasts. Ethan watched her face tense as the Davit’s hands rose up. She held her breath until he shied away. She glanced at Ethan and looked away. She had to know they would do this. She’s acting too anxious. He needed her calm or everything would come apart.

  He got Davit’s attention. “Well, where to?”

  “This way please,” Davit said.

  They followed down the hall to an open bay and into a freight elevator. The contraption shuddered as it rose to the third floor with a grinding racket. Davit opened the accordion doors and gestured to the dim hallway beyond. To Ethan’s right, doors secured with magnetic locks and steel bolts interrupted the old brick wall. On the left, doors with frosted glass cast a faint light into the hall.