The Korean Gambit

by Charles DeMaris

  “Pretty much.”

  “Then finding Pavel is our immediate priority. Let the folks in the States track down leads on that end.”

  “Pavel could be anywhere in Europe by now, or anywhere in the world for that matter.”

  “Wherever he is, he’s the key to the whole thing right now.”

  “Well, guys, I’m headed to the kitchen. Anyone else thirsty?”

  “As much as I’d like a beer,” Hank said, “better stick with something tamer. It could be a long night and we need to keep our heads clear.”

  “In that case, I’ll get some coffee going.”

  Rachel went to the kitchen and got the coffee maker going, then went to use the restroom. On the way to the restroom, she heard a beep from her pocket, her cell phone complaining about the battery being low. She went to the sleeping area to plug the phone in and noticed her Canadian passport sitting out on the table. She chastised herself for leaving it out and stuck it in her pocket on the way to the kitchen.

  “Leon, you check on your buddy lately?” Hank asked.

  “I left him pretty sedated, but Rachel will be a minute with that coffee. Be right back.”

  Leon was back in thirty seconds.

  “Come with me, let me know what you think.”

  “What’s up?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  They both went to Grigory’s room and Leon pointed toward his leg.

  “Look there, back of his thigh. I almost didn’t notice it.”

  Hank looked and there was a faint glow coming from under the skin.

  “What do you make of that?” Leon asked.

  “Bugger all…subdermal implant of some kind. Why didn’t we notice it earlier?”

  “It wasn’t glowing earlier.”

  “Probably a bloody tracker. We need to move. Who knows how much time we have?”

  They didn’t even get out of the room before the explosion. It sounded from above them.

  “What the hell,” Leon said

  “We’re under attack.”

  Leon withdrew his pistol and thumbed the safety off.

  “I’m headed to the armory. Need to upgrade to something a bit stronger.”

  “Okay, I’ll cover you.”

  Leon sprinted out of the room into the hallway and there was an immediate burst of automatic fire before Hank could even get to the door. He tried to steal a look out and there was another burst, two of the rounds hitting the door frame inches from his head. He ducked back in, but not before he saw Leon sprawled in a pool of blood on the corridor floor.

  “Bastards, those filthy bastards,” he said through clenched teeth. He pulled his pistol, made sure the safety was off, and rolled out the door, pointing the pistol in the direction the automatic fire had come from.

  He couldn’t see a thing through the smoke that was filling the corridor. He saw a muzzle flash through the smoke and felt the kick of the round hitting his shoulder. He raised the pistol with the other hand and fired three rounds in the direction of the muzzle flash and the grunt of pain told him that at least one round had hit home.

  There was another flash and a sharp jolt of pain from his leg. So, he hadn’t killed the guy at the other end of the hall. He tried to stand, but the pain in his leg made that difficult. A quick look at his knee, just a graze, but it hurt like hell. He leaned up against the wall and leveled his pistol down the hall, preparing to fire, when there was another loud crack and another round hit him in the arm, causing him to drop the pistol. A black clad figure emerged from the smoke, one arm hanging limp and a pistol in the other hand. The figure raised the pistol, stepped closer, and leveled it at Hank’s head.

  Hank looked the man in the eyes and steeled himself for what he knew was coming. If this was the end, so be it. He was going to go out like a man and not begging for his life. He heard another shot ring out and felt nothing. No way he could miss at this range. His attacker stood there for a moment, then dropped the pistol and sank to his knees before toppling dead to the floor.

  “Come on Hank, can you get up?” Elijah asked

  “Only got one good leg.”

  “Looks like a scratch. You’ll walk again. We need to get you out of here. There’s more of them in the building. I shot one near the kitchen and now this one here, but there are more.”

  Elijah got on Hank’s left side and Hank put his arm around Elijah’s neck and the two of them hobbled down the hallway toward the living areas and the armory beyond. Another figure emerged in the next corridor, but Hank managed to drop him with his pistol, but not before he was able to fire off another round that struck Elijah in the shoulder. They made it the rest of the way down the hall and into the living area, where they found Ken with four assault rifles and several magazines of ammo.

  “Grabbed these from the armory when I heard the explosion.”

  Elijah set Hank down behind the makeshift barricade Ken had made from the furniture and grabbed one of the weapons. The three of them got into position and waited.

  Rachel was in the kitchen when the explosion went off and she cursed herself for not having a weapon with her. She never expected to get attacked here. She checked three drawers and finally spotted a knife block on the counter next to the stove. She grabbed a knife and threw the block into a cabinet, then ducked behind a food prep cart. She could hear gunfire in the other rooms, but she stayed crouched where she was. She heard footsteps and saw a man enter the kitchen, dressed in black tactical gear with a balaclava on his head. The man was holding a rifle at the ready and scanning the room, but so far, he hadn’t seen her. If she could take him and get his gun…

  She was trapped. The man would eventually see her and she had nowhere to run. She would have to move fast. The man turned slightly and at that moment she was behind him. She sprang out from behind the cart and came straight at him, plunging the knife into the back of his neck. The man struggled for a few seconds, hands clutching at his throat, but he only made a slight mewing sound as he collapsed. Rachel rolled his body over and wiped her bloody hands on his shirt. She removed the weapon and started to search the pockets of his tactical vest for extra mags when she heard a footstep behind her. She started to turn when she felt a prick at the side of her neck and everything went dark.

  Jenny came downstairs and walked to Ahmed’s desk.

  “Have you spoken with Rachel lately?”

  “Gave her an update a few minutes ago, why?”

  “I can’t reach her, can’t reach anyone there. Sent a couple emails and no response, and nobody’s answering the phones.”

  “That can’t be good. Let me try again.”

  He dialed the number for the safe house in Paris, Rachel’s mobile, Ken and Elijah’s mobiles, and Hank and Leon’s mobiles, no answer at all.

  “Nobody picking up,” he said.

  “I can’t think of any good reason why nobody would answer there. I’ll give it a few minutes and then we’ll call Avi and see what he thinks. See if you can catch any chatter in that area.”

  “I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

  “I’ll be upstairs in the other office.”

  “We need a name for this place,” Ahmed said to Miriam after Jenny was gone.

  “A name?”

  “Yeah, we’re always just calling it the office. The office upstairs, that has a name. It’s a company with a name and everything, but down here, it’s just the office.”

  “The one upstairs is the one on our paychecks. Seems good to me.”

  “I don’t mind that part. Just think this part should have a name as well.”

  “It’s not like we can advertise. Fox is the part that makes this possible, and it’s a successful company in its own right.”

  “With Jenny doing most of the work. She needs to fill more of those desks up there.”

  “She's training your friends from UC.”

  “That’s why I haven’t seen them down here much.”

  “They’re going to learn both and rotate back an
d forth, depending on the workloads.”

  “I guess that makes sense.”

  “What doesn’t make sense is Paris. Why has everyone gone dark?”

  “Don’t know. We need to look for anything out of the ordinary.”

  “Got the computer on it. So, we just sit and wait?”

  “Pretty much. Shouldn’t be long before we see something. Place like that doesn’t just go dark.”

  Ten minutes later both of their computers chimed at the same time.

  Miriam stared at the data for a moment.

  “What do you make of that,” she asked.

  “GPS ping?”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “They wouldn’t. How much gear did they bring back from the Russian house?”

  “Some busted up computer parts and a prisoner.”

  “And a tracker that got in under their noses. That explains a lot.”

  “They’re probably not in a position to answer the phone right now, not if the Russians know where they are.”

  “We should monitor everything in Paris and keep trying to reach them. Might want to give Casey a heads up too. I’ll tell Jenny.”

  Ken, Elijah, and Hank stayed at their makeshift barricade for ten minutes before Hank voiced what they were all thinking.

  “I think they’re gone.”

  “Why not try to finish us off?” Ken asked.

  “Maybe they got what they were after.”

  “Which was?”

  “I don’t know. We should see what’s missing.”

  They split up to search the house, weapons at the ready. Hank found Grigory still alive in his bed and choked back a wave of grief at the site of Leon’s body in the hallway. He found the computer room intact and was approaching the kitchen when he saw Elijah standing there staring at the floor. When he got closer, he saw what he was staring at, one of the attackers lying face down on the floor with a knife sticking out of the back of his neck.

  Elijah approached a minute later.

  “Whole house is clear. Buggers didn’t take a thing,” he said.

  “No, they got exactly what they came for,” Ken said.

  “What was that?”

  “Rachel.”

  14

  Casey disconnected the call from Miriam and put his phone in his pocket.

  “You got everything you’re taking from here?”

  “Yep. Got a couple things at my mom’s,” Jefferson replied.

  “You sure about coming to Ohio?”

  “Wherever I have to go to help you take these assholes out.”

  “That could be anywhere. You sure you’re up to it? How’s your neck?”

  “Probably as good as your knee was when you started this.”

  “You’ll need to see a doctor when we get there. I don’t suppose any of your records survived?”

  “The doc that did the surgery wasn’t there. He has an office in town.”

  “Well, if you have everything you need, we need to be rolling. Things are getting more complicated.”

  “The call you were just on?”

  “Yes,” Casey said as he put the car in gear and pulled out,” that was Miriam. Rachel’s been taken.”

  “Rachel? Girl you told me about?”

  “Yeah. She went to Paris to get away for a bit. Russians came after her there, now she’s missing. Hit the safe house she was staying at.”

  “Must not have been that safe.”

  “I don’t have all the details yet. Miriam’s gonna send everything to my other phone. That one’s more secure.”

  “That weird looking one I saw you packing?”

  “Yeah. It runs off satellites, encrypted like crazy.”

  “No encryption on the one you have here?”

  “Not as good as the other one.”

  “You trust all this tech stuff?”

  “You should see some of the goodies we have there. State of the art. Ahmed can listen in on the FBI and the CIA without them knowing.”

  “How in the hell—”

  “I don’t have a clue. Jenny’s a computer whiz, maybe more than that. She can hack anything out there and then there’s Nathan, dude that designed the whole system. He develops video games for his day job. The two of them put together a system that can gather intel from anywhere.”

  “So when they find something about to happen?”

  “We try to figure out how it’s going down and stop it.”

  “And you stopped two big ones.”

  “Three actually. Rachel stopped one in Milwaukee, but she set it up for the police to take credit. I think they kept the details out of the media. Only one we didn’t stop…one that killed Keisha.”

  “You didn’t get there in time?”

  “No. Jenny had the idea that we would turn intel over to the government and they would stop attacks. We gave them everything we had and it still went down. We didn’t know that the Russians had moles in the CIA and the FBI and that they let the attack happen on purpose. Rachel’s dad didn’t play ball and they whacked him.”

  “So you think it’s the same dudes behind this?”

  “My gut tells me it is. The last attacks were set up to look like Muslims and it was this Russian guy behind it all. We never caught him. Anyway, you ever talk to your mom?”

  “Got her voice mail, told her we were coming.”

  “Might want to try her again. We’ll be there in a couple hours or so.”

  Jefferson called his mother again, and again got voice mail, but a minute later got a text.

  I can’t talk now, getting my hair done. Don’t eat on the way. Love Mom

  “Mom know’s we’re coming, and she’s gonna cook.”

  “Your mom a good cook?”

  “Is the Pope Catholic?”

  “What you figure she’ll make?”

  “Maybe fish, maybe pork chops, collards, beans, cornbread—”

  “Stop right there. You keep going I’m gonna get a speeding ticket.”

  “My mouth’s watering already. Nobody cooks like mama.”

  “Except maybe my mom.”

  “Awful quiet in here. Got any tunes?”

  A few seconds later Darius Rucker was singing Southern Style and Casey was turning up the volume.

  “What in the world is that?” Jefferson asked.

  “You don’t like country?”

  “Never listened to it long enough to see if I do. How you get into that?”

  “Mom wouldn’t tolerate any music with cussing. Shopped around a bit and took a liking to a lot of different stuff. Darius is my favorite.”

  “Just never knew a brother liked hillbilly music.”

  “He’s a brother and he sings it. Saw his show last year. Saw a few black folk there.”

  Jefferson picked up the iPod and looked at the album cover.

  “Well…I’ll be…”

  “I got satellite in the car. You get sick of that, we can change it.”

  “I’ll give it a bit of time. It’s not bad. You listen to any hip hop?”

  “Not much. Mom got on me big time about the language.”

  “I think we got the same mom.”

  “Maybe. You know how black women are. Mess with them at your own peril.”

  “Your mom ever do the head thing?”

  “Head thing?”

  “You know, neck gets real loose and the head starts moving like a chicken?”

  “Oh…I know that. That’s your signal to get the heck out of there before she kills you. If there’s a finger wag with it…you’re dead already.”

  “Yep, we got the same mom.”

  Two hours later they pulled in the driveway and Casey shook Jefferson’s shoulder.

  “Earth to Jeff. We’re at your house.”

  “Huh…how long was I out?” Jefferson asked as he brought the seat back to an upright position.

  “Last 80 miles or so.”

  “Didn’t know I was that tired.”

  “It’s been one of those
days. It will do it to you.”

  They barely got out of the car before Jefferson was enveloped by a woman half his size. Laverne Braxton could barely get her arms around her son, but she was squeezing for all she was worth. Finally, she took a step back, wiped a tear from her eye, and looked at her son.

  “Oh Jeff, Lord knows how happy I am to see you. When I saw about the hospital…”

  She put her arms around him again and clung to him, not bothering to hold back the tears. Just then the front door opened and a gangly teenage girl ran out of the house and joined the group hug.

  Jefferson managed to pull away for a moment.

  “Mom, sis…this is Casey. He’s—”

  “Oh, pardon me for being so rude. I didn’t even notice you standing there,” Laverne said.

  “No problem, ma’am.”

  “Call me Laverne…and this is my daughter Monica.”

  “I’m glad to finally meet you both. I’ve heard so much.”

  “Well, we can stand out here all evening, or we can get in and eat while it’s still warm. You boys hungry?”

  “Jeff talked about your cooking all the way here. How could I not be?”

  “Get on in and sit down then. You can get your things later.”

  They sat down to a table already set and filled with more food than Casey had seen in one place in a long time. There was everything Jefferson had mentioned and more.

  “No ma’am, I absolutely can’t eat another biscuit,” he said thirty minutes later, “I thought nobody could cook like my mom, but you can give her a run for her money.”

  “So, why don’t we all retire to the living room and you can tell me all about your day.”

  Jefferson started at the beginning and told his mother everything from when he woke up that morning to when Casey arrived and they left for lunch right before the explosion. He was discreet enough not to mention any of the phone conversations he had overheard.

  Laverne wiped a tear from her eye.

  “So, Casey, we have you to thank for saving my son’s life.”

  “Just good timing.”