by David Archer
The drive to Heathrow took slightly less than an hour, and was made mostly in silence. Decker was concentrating on his driving, while the other three were trying to mentally prepare themselves for the mission they were going into.
Decker dropped them off at the terminal entrance and they checked in at one of the self-service kiosks, then started through security. Because each of them only had a small carry-on bag, the process went more quickly than it normally does in the US, but since their flight was leaving from the B satellite, they had a long trek ahead of them just to get to their gate.
It was while they were making that journey that Sarah suddenly grabbed hold of Noah's arm and pulled him down so she could whisper in his ear. “Look at your eight o'clock,” she said. “It's Pendergrast. He's seen us, but he's pretending not to.” She made a little giggle, so that onlookers would think she was whispering something romantic.
Noah didn't even look back at the man. “He's doing exactly what he's supposed to do,” he whispered back. “And we're supposed to do the same, not notice him. Remember, there's no connection between us.”
“I know that,” Sarah whispered. “Just thought you'd like to know he showed up.”
Noah caught a slight disappointment in her manner, and suddenly realized that she had been trying to please him. He quickly kissed her cheek and whispered, “And you were right. Thanks, babe.”
Sarah smiled up at him, and continued to hold onto his arm as they walked the rest of the way to their gate. Moose, staying in character, walked slightly separate from them. He got to the gate about a minute before they did, and took a seat by himself. Noah and Sarah found a pair of seats together, and continued to keep up the act of a happy little couple.
Pendergrast arrived a moment later, and also took a seat. He had a magazine tucked under his arm that he opened and seemed to be reading while he waited for the flight to be called.
Boarding commenced about fifteen minutes later, and Sarah and Noah were among the first to board. Their seats were toward the back of the plane, and they found them with no trouble. Moose took his own seat, four rows ahead of them, and then they watched for Pendergrast. He was one of the last to board, with a seat near the very front of the aircraft.
The flight to Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport took only four hours, most of which was spent sleeping by the team members. They were all awake for the landing, of course, and were up and ready to disembark as soon as the plane stopped taxiing at its terminal.
Getting off the plane was quicker and easier than getting on it, since it wasn't done by section. Everyone simply got to their feet and into the aisle as quickly as they could, and there was a fair amount of pushing and shoving. Sarah stayed close to Noah, who stopped to let Moose step into the aisle in front of him. They walked right past Pendergrast, who caught Noah's eye for a split second and gave him a barely discernible nod.
Once they were off the plane and in the terminal, the three of them slowed to wait for Pendergrast to come back into view. It took only a couple of moments, and then all four merged into the line that formed up at the customs desk. Customs in Russia was fairly relaxed, and since none of them had any items to declare, they queued up in what was called the “green corridor.” Bored customs inspectors accepted their declaration forms, which indicated that they were not carrying any restricted or taxable items, and simply waved them through, not bothering to open their bags and check. Moments later, they joined the crowd that was headed for the street outside.
Moose stopped pretending to be separate, and walked along with Noah and Sarah as they approached the entrance. They watched Pendergrast as he was greeted by a portly gentleman, and then Noah spotted the young man holding the sign he was looking for. He veered off toward the fellow with Moose and Sarah in tow.
“I'm Colson,” he said to the man.
The fellow broke into a big smile. “Good to meet you,” he said in perfect American English. “I'm Larry Carson. Can I help with your luggage? Come on, the car's right outside.” He reached out and took Sarah's bag from her, then turned and led the way through the milling crowd to an exit. “I got you a Land Rover, I hope that's okay. It's a brand-new one we had on hand, because everybody else is driving Russian-made vehicles. We got the Land Rover a couple of months ago, but the ambassador felt that if we use it too much, it might send the wrong message.”
“I'm sure it'll be fine, Larry,” Noah said. “So, you're with the embassy here?”
“Yes, I'm a data analyst. That's my official job, and it keeps me out of the spotlight so that I'm here when you need me.” He placed Sarah's bag into the back of the Land Rover, and stood back as Noah and Moose added their own. “Incidentally, I've got a couple of helpers watching your subject, so that we'll know what car he gets into, and I got everything on the Christmas list that was sent to me, as well. It's all in the storage space under the back seat.”
Noah nodded. The “Christmas list” referred to the list of weapons Noah had requested. Since he anticipated a hostile environment, they would be a necessity. “What about extraction? Is it set up yet?”
“It is,” Larry said. “I've arranged a Gulfstream five, chartered as a diplomatic flight. It's sitting out on the tarmac right now, waiting for delivery of some important files. In reality, of course, it's waiting for you and whoever you're bringing with you. When you get back to Moscow, you just call me—here's my card, by the way—and I'll meet you here to make sure you get onto the plane okay.” He suddenly reached up and touched his left ear, where Noah could see an ear bud in place. “I just got word, your pigeon just got into a Mercedes limousine. It should be passing us in about a minute, so here are the keys, and she's all yours.”
Sarah snatched the keys out of his hand, causing his face to register surprise as she jumped behind the wheel. Noah slid into the passenger seat in front, while Moose got into the back seat. Larry stepped back up onto the sidewalk as the Mercedes limo slid past, and Sarah let the clutch out. They were the second vehicle behind the Mercedes as it made its way toward the M2, the loop highway around Moscow.
“I'm gonna let one or two more cars get between us,” Sarah said, as they merged onto the A130 toward Kubinka. “We don't want the driver to pay too much attention to us.”
Noah nodded. “Sounds like a good idea,” he said. “Just don't lose them. We know where Kubinka is, but we don't have an exact address.”
“I won't,” Sarah said with a smile. She slowed a bit to let a couple of vehicles come around her, then resumed her speed. The limousine was still in plain sight, and the intervening vehicles were keeping up with it.
In the back seat, Moose slid to his knees on the floorboard and lifted the seat up to look underneath. He gave a low whistle. “Man, we got some toys here. Three Glock 45s, four Uzis, and enough ammunition for a small war. There's a sniper rifle, too, looks like a .30-06, but I only see two magazines. They all have sound suppressors on them.”
“That's everything I asked for, and it ought to be good enough,” Noah said. “We want to hit them hard and fast, don't want to give them a chance to see what's coming before it's on them. I want to get them while Pendergrast is still inside, and we've got to leave him injured, but not seriously. That means we need a couple of the others to survive, as well, so that it doesn't look fishy that he's still alive.”
“You think we're gonna find that many of them there?” Moose asked.
“Even if the girl really did run away on her own, she's being used as a pawn in a major international political game. Russia is going to have some kind of security on her, you can bet on it. I'm guessing there will be at least two bodyguards inside, plus two or more watching the grounds, and then there's the boyfriend. She met him at the Russian embassy, so it's quite possible that he's a Russian agent. Wooing this girl might have been his entire assignment, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been trained in combat. We'll need to watch him, and if possible, leave him alive.”
“So we fire to incapacitate, rather than
kill, right?”
“On the inside, anyway. Anyone on the outside who tries to get in our way is fair game. We need to eliminate them as quickly as possible, because they will alert the guards inside whatever house or structure we're dealing with.”
Moose chuckled. “There's a very good silencer on the sniper rifle,” he said. “If we can spot external guards, I can take them out at a distance.”
“Good, then that's another option. Let's wait till we see the lay of the land, then I'll decide how to handle it.”
“Then, what I'm going to do is cruise past wherever they stop,” Sarah said. “I don't want them to pay a whole lot of attention to us. Once we see where they're at, I can circle the area to give you a better chance to look things over.”
Noah nodded his head. “That'll be perfect,” he said. “We want to get out of the car some distance away from whatever house or building they go to, so that we can approach from an unexpected direction. This is the kind of situation where stealth is key.”
They rode in silence for a few minutes, and then Sarah glanced over at Noah. She turned her eyes back to the road. “Does it get to you, when you know you're going into a situation like this? Does the adrenaline start pumping?”
Noah turned his head to look at her. “No,” he said. “I know what you mean, because I've heard other people talk about it, but I've never experienced it.” He held out his left wrist to her. “Check my pulse if you want to. Strong and steady, and I've had doctors who have gone crazy trying to figure it out. I guess it's part of my disorder, but I don't get excited or apprehensive before I go into a conflict situation.”
Sarah swallowed hard. “My heart is racing,” she said. “I'm sure my blood pressure is probably up, too, even though I'm not the one who's going to be shooting people or getting shot at. I get—I don't know, I get all swelled up inside, whenever I know you're going to…”
Noah watched her for a few seconds. “Going to what?”
She made a nervous smile and shrugged. “When I know you're going to kill someone. It gets me all—pumped up, excited…”
“It turns her on, man,” Moose said from the backseat. “Sarah, don't let it get to you. That's perfectly normal. I guarantee you, as soon as this mission is over, Elaine and I are going to lock ourselves into my place and not come out for a week.”
Noah glanced at him, but then looked back at Sarah, who was blushing. “He's right about it being normal, at least for anyone but me. I don't have that reaction, for some reason. I just go in and do my job.” He reached his hand up then and caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingers, then leaned over and whispered in her ear. “The only thing that ever gets me that excited is you.”
Sarah's eyes went wide, and her head spun to look at him for just a second before it snapped back to the road. Noah saw the smile that she was barely able to suppress, but said nothing.
He hadn't lied to her; she definitely did get him excited, especially in the night. Noah had had girlfriends in the past, though he’d never had a relationship that lasted more than a few weeks. He had learned long ago, back when he and his best friend Molly were teenagers and casual lovers, that his libido was just as active as any other male's, but the truth was that he would find himself aroused and excited whenever he was in the company of a willing young woman.
As she’d told Allison, Sarah had decided that, since E & E operatives could not have normal relationships, a “no-strings” relationship with Noah would be the next best thing, and his body certainly enjoyed the physical pleasures she brought along, but he occasionally wondered if she expected more from him that he was able to give. The way his mind worked, he would willingly do things to make her happy, but if the situation required him to walk away or abandon her, Noah would do so without a moment's remorse. It wasn't that he didn't care about her, it was just that he was incapable of having such feelings, for her or anyone else.
“We're getting close,” Sarah said. “Kubinka should be coming up within the next five miles or so.”
“All right, then keep that limo in sight, but try not to be too obvious about it.”
Sarah smirked. “Chill out,” she said, “this is my specialty, remember?”
EIGHT
Kubinka owed a lot of its history to the Soviet Union's military. It had once been the home of the USSR's tank proving grounds, now housing the Russian tank museum, and had a fairly large military airbase. Most of the current town was made up of former barracks, many of which had been converted to homes or apartment buildings, combined with a number of small villages that had cropped up around the area. In fact, it had not even been known as a town until 2004.
Since then, however, there had been an influx of citizens, as jobs opened up due to manufacturing facilities coming into the area. As a result, there were some very nice homes in town, several of which were just off of the main road in town, known as Naro-Fominskoye. This was a broad street that ran north to south, and led into a more affluent area.
The interesting thing about the town was that it seemed to be built within a forest. Many of the houses and buildings were surrounded by trees, with dense foliage that made it almost impossible to see one house from another.
The limousine turned left onto a side street, but then immediately turned into a driveway of the house on the corner. Sarah cruised past as if uninterested, but then turned left herself on the second street after that one. She took the first left she came to then, and circled back around until they could see the limo still parked at the same house.
“This is amazing,” Noah said. “The trees are thick enough to cover our approach, but they've almost certainly got security in there, as well. Sarah, go up another block and let us out. Moose, give me a Glock and an Uzi, and you bring the rifle and a pistol. I'm hoping we can spot them before they spot us, and we’ll see just how good you are with that sniper scope.”
Moose handed him the weapons he asked for, then picked up his own. Sarah came to a stop at the next corner, which was hidden by trees from every direction, and the two men slipped out. Noah looked at the girl before he closed the door, and said, “Park somewhere that lets you keep an eye on the house, and I'm pretty sure you'll know when to come pick us up.”
“Stay safe,” she said as he shut the door, and then she drove away.
Noah and Moose stepped into the wooded area beside the road, moving slowly and quietly toward the house where the limo had stopped. According to Pendergrast, that would be the location of President Habib's daughter. In other circumstances, Noah would have preferred to make this assault at night, rather than in the middle of the afternoon, but there wasn't time to wait. It was possible, probably even likely, that the Russians would decide to move the girl after this visit from Pendergrast, so Noah had decided to take her immediately.
Each block on the road was approximately a thousand feet long, and while there were a few houses scattered around the one they were crossing, they were far enough away that Noah wasn't concerned about being observed. The two of them moved stealthily through the woods, and finally came to the street that divided one block from another. The house they wanted was across that street, but when they went to cross it they would be completely exposed for a few seconds.
“Boss,” Moose said, “I'm thinking the best way to do this is for you to run across first and hit the ground. If anyone fires on you, I should be able to spot where they're shooting from and take the shooter out.”
“That'll work,” Noah said. “Set yourself in position, and signal me when to go.”
Moose put himself beside a tree and braced the sniper rifle's barrel against it. He leaned left, then right, checking his field of vision, then said, “Go!”
Noah rushed out from behind the trees that were concealing him, and hurried across the road. As soon as he got into the cover of the woods on the other side, he dropped to the ground and watched for any motion in the woods around him.
There was nothing, which surprised him. He had been sure that the Ru
ssians would have security in the woods around the house, but it was possible that they were keeping it closer to the building. He held up a hand and hooked a finger at Moose, who came running across the road a second later and dropped down beside him.
“No motion, no activity,” Noah said. “If they got anybody in the woods, they're keeping them close to the house. Let's move, slow and quiet.”
The two men began leapfrogging, with Noah going first and moving forward five yards, then letting Moose pass him by an equal distance. After each dash, they would stop and wait, watching and listening for any activity that might indicate security had seen them.
They reached the point where the house was barely visible through the trees, with Moose in the lead. He stopped and listened, and then suddenly held up a hand to tell Noah to wait. Noah watched as Moose carefully and quietly adjusted his position, and then pointed with two fingers in two different directions.
Looking carefully, Noah saw what Moose was trying to show him. Two men, dressed in camo fatigues, were crouching beside a couple of trees, about fifty feet apart. Each of them held what looked like an HK MP5, and Noah had no doubt they knew how to use their weapons.
Moose held up two fingers, and then made a gun with his hand and dropped the thumb twice, signaling that he was going to take out both of them. Noah stayed put as Moose carefully lined up his shots. The rifle coughed once and the nearest of the two men fell over backward, obviously hit in the forehead. The second man suddenly rose, but he didn't have the sense to duck behind a tree. Moose's rifle coughed again, and that fellow simply dropped where he stood, a large part of his head suddenly missing.
Moose and Noah held their positions for a moment, waiting to see if anyone had realized what had happened. When there was no activity after a few seconds, Noah moved up beside Moose.
“Good shots,” he whispered. “I think we might want to go around the south side of the house, because there might be one or two more of them there. We're far enough from the house with these two to make me think it's worth checking out.”