Daughter of War

by Brad Taylor

  She turned from the window and said, “Before I met you, I’d never been in an airplane at all.”

  I had no answer to that. She returned to the window, and we lifted off. As soon as we were airborne, I went to the front, pulled out a headset from a hatch next to the coffeepot, and dialed up the Taskforce. I got Kurt on the line and told him what had transpired, saying, “They’re going to hit the UN. I don’t know where, and I don’t know how, but that’s the target.”

  “What’s the timeline? How much breathing room do we have?”

  “They left Amena’s safe house at least three hours ago, maybe more. But it takes at least an hour to drive from the house to Geneva, and I can get there in fifteen minutes by air, so I’d say they have a two-hour head start.”

  “Wait, are you saying the attack is today? They aren’t staging in Geneva, but are going straight in?”

  “Yes, sir, that’s exactly what I’m saying. They dressed in business suits, have official accreditation to enter the United Nations, and the ransom demand I got this morning was to take my team and sit in the hotel for a day. One day.”

  He said, “How confident are you that you can find them?”

  “If I can get within sight of them, one hundred percent. But that building is huge.”

  “You have photos I can use? Something I can get into the security apparatus? We can get the UN guys to round them up.”

  “No, sir. I’ve got Amena. She knows them on sight. No photos, but I have a bird dog.”

  “Amena? Pike, what’s she going to do?”

  “Pinpoint them for me.”

  “That’s it? Our entire operation is based on a child refugee? Jesus. I’m going to have to alert the UN. Get them to round up all the North Koreans. Shut down operations.”

  I said, “Sir, these guys aren’t going to be on any list. They might have the badges, but they aren’t part of an official delegation. You’ll round up the wrong guys, and they’ll slip through. The only way to stop this is to evacuate the building completely, but if you do that, they’re gone, with the Red Mercury.”

  I heard him sigh, and he said, “My idea’s not going to work anyway. The diplomatic shit storm alone would take two days to wade through. Arresting an entire diplomatic crew from a foreign country? I won’t get anyone to sign on to that.”

  “Get me in. Give me some badges like they have. Give me the freedom to roam, and I’ll hunt them down.”

  “That’s going to take time as well. It’s nine a.m. here. The people at State are just rolling in. I’ll have to go to the Oversight Council, convince State to call their people in Geneva, and get them to meet you. Look, you get on the ground and stand by. I’ll give you the linkup procedures when I’m done.”

  I felt the plane begin to descend and said, “We don’t have that sort of time. I’m already a couple of hours behind. I think they’re going to attack today, which means it’ll be before the end of business.”

  “Then we’ll have to pull the trigger on a complete evacuation. We’ll have to insert a generic bomb threat and evacuate the building.”

  “We do that, and we’ll lose them.”

  He snapped, “I’ve got nothing else! I can’t get you in without wading through two hours of red tape, and you just said that’s too long.”

  I looked at Knuckles in the back and said, “Make sure Creed’s on the security cameras. I think I know how to cut through the red tape.”

  “How?”

  “I’ll call you if it doesn’t work out, and you can pull the trigger on the ground-zero evacuation. Give me fifteen minutes.”

  “Okay, work it from your end, but leave the child out of it.”

  I said, “Gotta go,” and hung up without agreeing to his demand.

  We hit the ground and began taxiing to the general aviation section of the Geneva airport. I said, “Knuckles, get up here.”

  He came forward and said, “What’s up?”

  “We need to get badges into the UN headquarters as official US representatives, and the Taskforce is going to take too long. We need to cut through the bureaucracy.”

  “Yeah? Why are you talking to me?”

  “I need you to contact your booty call.”

  72

  Hwang Pyong-so tepidly poked at his noodles in the small conference room of the North Korean delegation to the United Nations. Most of the other country delegates either ate in the cafeteria or out in town, but the North Koreans never did. It worked out for him and his two compatriots, because, while they had badges, they didn’t need anyone questioning their reason for being in the building.

  The other two men seemed to have just as small of an appetite. Given what they were about to do, it was understandable.

  He didn’t even know the true names of the men he was with, but he didn’t doubt their dedication. They had been disciplined since birth for absolute loyalty, and had proven fanatical in their training, rising as members of the elite Airborne Sniper Brigade of the DPRK Reconnaissance Bureau, the highest level of special operations forces within the General Staff. Eventually, they each had been handpicked for the ghost teams of the State Security Department—an elite within an elite, designed for external operations in the absence of hostilities—their past erased from the records.

  The team knew him as “Scar,” and he knew them as “Crane” and “Lynx.” If any one of them were caught, they couldn’t say a thing about the rest of the team no matter what pressure was brought to bear. Because of this, they knew better than to try to bond on a personal level. Everything was the mission. Only the mission.

  An older, distinguished-looking man entered. He took one look at Hwang—aka Scar—and said, “So you’re still here. I would have thought the delay would have made you impatient to get home.”

  Scar stood up, two inches taller than the older man. He said, “I’m on a mission of utmost importance for the Supreme Leader. Don’t forget that. I will only go home once the mission is successful.”

  The older man shrank away, his bluster dissipating. Scar said, “When will the conference begin again?”

  “The Syrian delegation is still making demands before they’ll agree to come to the meeting. Maybe an hour. Maybe less.”

  Scar said, “It’s their council. If they don’t defend themselves, nobody will.”

  “That’s what I thought we were doing. That’s my job.”

  “They need to be in the meeting. Period.”

  “I honestly don’t understand any of this.” He pointed at Crane and Lynx, saying, “Why do you need security? I don’t even have security and I’m the head of the delegation.”

  “It is just prudent.”

  “They cannot come with you on the floor. If you want to be with me, they stay behind.”

  Scar nodded and said, “I understand, but if you have any more questions, I suggest you call your supervisor in the DPRK. I’m sure he can explain.”

  The man’s face soured at the mention of his higher command. There was no way he would question Scar. He’d appeared out of nowhere with orders from the very top, and he would disappear the same way.

  He said, “I’ll tell you when to come. If it takes longer than an hour, you’ll need to move to my office to hide. We have a delegation from Cameroon asking for our help, and my staff has scheduled this conference room. I can’t have anyone see you.”

  Scar nodded and said, “Don’t forget your role at the conference.”

  “I won’t. And I don’t need you here to do it.”

  “My role is to ensure you do yours.” Scar turned his back to the diplomat, letting him know the conversation was over.

  * * *

  —

  We rolled up to the visitors’ entrance of the United Nations headquarters complex, and Knuckles turned into the drive, saying, “Going right to the gate. She’s supposed to be waiting for us.�
�

  It had taken significant effort on Knuckles’s part, but eventually Amanda Croft had agreed to use her office to facilitate a Taskforce operation without going through the Oversight Council—though she’d called Kurt first to make sure this wasn’t Knuckles going insane. Even with that, it had cut our reaction time from hours of hand-wringing to minutes of telephone calls.

  By the time we’d reached the Geneva FBO terminal, he’d hung up, a grin on his face, and I’d said, “Maybe I should start sending out other members of the team, Red Sparrow style, to bed Oversight Council members.”

  He said, “She’s the only female there.”

  I’d looked at Jennifer and raised an eyebrow. She smacked me in the shoulder, and I said, “Okay, okay, you have your morals. You think Veep would be willing to bat for both teams? If I ordered him to?”

  Amena saw Jennifer’s face and said, “I don’t think she finds this funny.”

  The aircraft stopped moving and I stood up, saying, “She has no sense of humor. Why don’t you take Jennifer to the rental cars and get us something big? Like an SUV?”

  Amena said, “Why don’t you do it?”

  Jennifer smiled at me and said, “Because Pike and Knuckles have some packing to do.”

  Jennifer led her out while Knuckles and I gathered the surveillance kit and weapons. We met them in the rental lot standing next to a Range Rover. I said, “Seriously? They didn’t have anything besides a luxury SUV?”

  Jennifer said, “Nope.”

  Amena beamed and said, “Jennifer told me this was payback.”

  Jennifer said, “Hey!”

  I let it slide. I said, “Knuckles, you get the wheel. Jennifer, show me what you know about the building.”

  Knuckles had taken the longer, looping route of the A1 instead of cutting through the city because of traffic. During the drive, Jennifer showed me the building, and it was huge. Comprised of the original structure created for the now-defunct League of Nations following World War I, it had a new building to the north that was just as large, the modern one grafted onto the stone of the old.

  We drove by the Red Cross headquarters Amena had visited just days ago, and Knuckles turned into the vehicle lane leading to the complex, all of us straining to see an American face. Soon enough, we reached the gate with nobody waving an American flag. We were at a loss because we didn’t even know the name of the person we were to meet.

  The guard approached the window, and a young, portly woman of about twenty-five followed him, holding lanyards with badges. The guard asked our business, and the woman said, “They’re with me. It’s the people I told you about.”

  He said, “The vehicle can’t stay here.”

  She held up a pass and said, “I have parking.”

  We spent five precious minutes showing identification, waiting for him to write in his official log, then waiting again as the vehicle had a mirror run underneath it. Finally, the woman stepped into the car and said, “My name is Sonya Harden. I guess I’m supposed to give you guys a tour or something?”

  The gate opened, and Knuckles pulled through. I said, “Sure, let’s go with that.”

  She glanced around and did a double take when she saw Amena, saying, “I can’t give a child a badge. Nobody will believe it’s real.”

  I said, “That’s fine. She’ll be with us the entire time. Do we need to go through any type of security to enter the building?”

  “No. You just passed through the diplomats’ entrance. Why are you asking that? I thought this was a tour of the facility. I was told you were friends of the secretary.”

  Knuckles entered a numbered lot on the modern side of the compound and said, “Where do I park?” Sonya pointed to a space and I said, “We’re more like coworkers. There is a threat inside this building, and we need you to help us find it.”

  She became alarmed, saying, “A threat? You want me to take you to security? Alert them?”

  “No. Security raising an alarm will cause the threat to become active. We need them to believe they are safe. There’s no way uniformed security can prevent this attack. Trust me.”

  Knuckles turned off the engine and she said, “What kind of threat?”

  I exited, saying, “An imminent one.”

  73

  I started walking to the building and she scurried to catch up, saying, “What are you talking about? Imminent threat where? Who are you?”

  “Not out here. Take us to your office, quickly.”

  We entered a steel building, a large LCD screen on the wall displaying various rooms and conference times, and a bookstore deeper in. Milling about was a tour group waiting for their start time. Sonya walked by them down a long hallway, then went up a flight of stairs. A few turns later, and we were inside her office. She closed the door and said, “Okay, what’s this about? Tell me right now, or I’m calling security myself.”

  I pulled a map of the building off the wall and said, “I told you, there is a threat. It involves the North Korean delegation. I need to know where their office is located, right now.”

  “Why do you have a little girl with you?”

  I slapped the table and said, “Do it! Right now.”

  Her hands started to tremble and she said, “They’re two floors above us, but we don’t ever go there.”

  “Show me on the map. Point to where we are, and point to them.”

  “That’s the old building. It doesn’t have the new side. The side we’re in now.”

  I nodded my head, saying, “Okay, lead us there.”

  She didn’t move, and I showed her the pistol on my hip, saying, “Please.”

  * * *

  —

  The ghost team sat in silence, picking at their food. The diplomat had been gone for thirty minutes, but none of the team felt the need to talk. Finally, the one called Crane looked at his watch and said, “What if this rolls into tomorrow? Do we leave the briefcases here, or take them with us?”

  Scar said, “We take them with us. I know there’s a risk of a random search coming and going into the compound, but I don’t trust the cell here. You heard the conference room is being used by Cameroon. Who knows who else will come in. We can’t risk someone opening the cases, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. When we leave the United Nations today, it won’t be with the canisters. There is too much riding on this conference for the Syrians. They’re making a show of force, but they’ll attend.”

  Lynx said, “If we can’t travel with you on the floor, where do you want us?”

  “At the back. Lynx on one side and Crane on the other. When you see the head of our delegation stand up and begin banging his fist at the shameful partisan treatment of our Syrian friends, prepare the cases.”

  “And you? Will you do the same?”

  “Yes. When he begins to walk out of the room in protest, I’ll release mine. You do the same. We’ll have coverage of the entire chamber.”

  They both nodded. Crane said, “And we wipe out the United Nation’s ability to target us with their insane punishments.”

  Lynx smiled and Scar brought them back to the danger. “That’s the goal, and the Supreme Leader will remember everything we do, but only if we return. Get it into the air, but don’t get any on you. It kills by contact with the skin. Thirty minutes after we leave, the agent becomes active. If it’s on you, you will die.”

  They sat in silence after that, returning to picking at their food. The door opened, and the diplomat stuck his head in.

  “It’s time. The Syrians have agreed to the terms of the meeting, but it won’t start for another ten minutes or so. The Cameroon delegation will be here soon, so we’ll go to the chamber early.”

  * * *

  —

  At the sight of my weapon, Sonya stood, now with her arms trembling. Jennifer gave me the stink eye, then put a hand on Sonya, calmin
g her down and saying, “We’re the good guys. Trust me. This is extremely urgent.”

  Sonya nodded, saying, “Okay, okay, the North Koreans are upstairs. I can show you the office suite, but I’ve never been inside.”

  “That would be fine. Lead the way, but do it quickly.”

  We followed her to a stairwell, raced up two floors, then went down a long hallway, the doors left and right adorned with various flags. She stopped next to a flag that I recognized as the so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. I waved her to the wall, set my backpack on the ground, and dug around inside it until I found a flexible endoscope cable camera. I passed one end to Jennifer, and she plugged it into her tablet.

  Knuckles pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the door, causing Sonya to gasp. I held a finger to my lips and knelt down, putting the small camera under the jamb. On the screen I saw a female at a front desk, a blond woman of about thirty. I turned to Sonya and said, “There’s a blond receptionist?”

  She said, “Contract worker. There are a lot in this building.”

  I nodded, returning to the screen. Behind her were two Asian males sitting around a table near a watercooler. I flicked my head to Amena and she scampered over. She peered intently, then shook her head, whispering, “That’s not them.”

  I withdrew the cable, made sure my badge was visible, and nodded at Knuckles. He stacked behind me and said, “What are we doing?”

  “Gonna ask them where they are. Might be in an office in the back.”

  “We’re going to take over a diplomatic post?”

  “No, damn it. I’m just going to ask the receptionist. Jennifer, knock on the door. Let her see you first. Sonya, Amena, flatten against the wall.”

  Jennifer scowled, not liking the plan, and I said, “Anybody got a better idea?”

  Nobody said anything, so I flicked my head to the office. Jennifer knocked, and the receptionist opened the door. She saw Jennifer, with me behind her, both with our official UN badges. Her eyes narrowed, and I said, “Sorry for the bother. You had three unescorted visitors today. We’re just trying to locate them.”