The Korean Gambit

by Charles DeMaris

  “You little bitch,” he said, slapping her face with his right hand and moving his other knee on top of her. He had her pinned to the floor and she stifled a sob as she knew what was coming. He saw the tear flow from her left eye and heard her sigh as she resigned herself to her fate, and this excited him more. He reached down with one hand and tore at her top as he frantically undid his pants with his other hand. It didn’t take him long to get his trousers down to his knees and, keeping his weight on her, he moved a hand down to her waist in an effort to pull her pants down. What he never noticed was the subtle movement of her right hand.

  “Don’t worry, it will all be over soon,” he said with a grin as he moved his hand toward her pants.

  “You’re right, it will be,” she said as she moved her right hand up in one swift movement and rammed the metal rod deep into his left eye. Oleg rocked back in pain and reached for his ruined eye just as Rachel rolled out from under him and rammed the rod into his other eye. He swung his fists where he thought she was, but she dodged the blows and hit him with two quick punches to the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him. He rocked back clutching both hands to his face and whimpering in pain.

  Rachel knew the other man would be in the room any minute, so she couldn’t waste any time. Seeing no other weapons, she kicked Oleg hard in the face, sending him flat onto his back. She was on him in an instant, still clutching the metal rod, and this time she pulled his hand away and drove it into his ruined eye socket, straight into his brain.

  When he stopped twitching, she rolled him over and searched his pockets for anything useful. She found a small pistol in a holster at the small of his back and a suppressor in one of his pockets. He didn’t have any ammo on him, but the pistol had a fresh clip. She then heard a sound at the door and moved to the side, pistol in hand, threading the suppressor on the barrel as she went.

  Gennadi came through the door a second later and the first thing he saw was Oleg’s body on the floor in the middle of the room. He two two steps toward Oleg and those were the last two steps he took as Rachel calmly fired a round into the back of his head and closed the door.

  16

  Earl Grant and Clyde Jackson waited at the baggage claim at CVG. Clyde held a sign with the name Brock Thompson on it as they stared toward the escalator and the stream of arriving passengers.

  “What you grinning about Clyde?”

  “Don’t know. Always seen in movies folks holding these signs. Reckon it feels kinda cool, like we’re waiting on someone important.”

  “Mr. Thompson is someone important. Twenty years in the Marines. Two tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan.”

  “Why’s he want to come work with us?”

  “Don’t know. Thad said he was having issues, needed to work.”

  “What kind of issues?”

  “Kind of issues guys get when they’ve seen things in combat.”

  “You know what the dude looks like?”

  “Why you think you’re holding the sign?”

  “Good point.”

  “He hasn’t been out long. Look for a Marine.”

  “Like that one,” Clyde said, pointing out a man just getting off the escalator. The man still had a crew cut with a slight tinge of grey, but had the body of a man half his age. His T shirt barely contained his muscled torso and had the letters USMC emblazoned across the front. His easy gait and erect posture made him seem taller than his 5’ 10” frame. He saw Clyde’s sign and came straight for them, sticking out his hand.

  “Hello there. I’m Brock.”

  “Hi Brock, I’m Clyde, and this here’s my friend Earl, “Clyde said as he shook Brock’s hand, “Let me be the first to thank you for your service.”

  “Thank you for the kind words. I just did my part.”

  “That your bag there?” Earl asked, pointing to a green duffel coming around the carousel.

  “Yep, sure is, “Brock said as he hoisted the bag onto his shoulder, “Where we parked?”

  Five minutes later they were in the car leaving the airport.

  “So, you know Thad?” Earl asked as they pulled onto the highway.

  “We were stationed at Okinawa together back in the 90s.”

  “He spoke highly of you.”

  “He was always happy to see me, especially around the billiard tables. I saved a lot more money after he left.”

  “Well, he said we’d never find a better man for the job.”

  “About the job…what does it entail?”

  “You’d best talk to my wife about that, she and Avi. We put people in the field and we need to make sure they’re trained up. I reckon that will be your job, you and the professor.”

  “People in the field? Like spies? I’m afraid I don’t know much about that.”

  “Avi knows the spy stuff, but they still have to be in shape and they have to be able to shoot straight.”

  “That I know something about.”

  “So, you were in Iraq?” Clyde asked.

  “Went to Afghanistan first, right after 9/11. Did a couple tours there and a couple in Iraq after that.”

  “Wow…this job will be easy after that.”

  “Anything is…saw some crazy stuff…lost some good friends.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “So, how far is this compound we work at?”

  “North of town a bit. Where you staying?”

  “Haven’t got a place yet. Figured I’d find a motel room for a bit while I’m looking.”

  “Nope. I figure you’ll be staying with me and Jenny while you’re looking.”

  “I’d hate to impose—”

  “You wouldn’t be. We got the extra room and we ain’t got kids. We’ll drop your bag there and then head to the office.”

  “The office?”

  “It's what we call the place. Haven’t figured a better name yet. Got a legit company running upstairs and the James Bond part is hidden. Got something going on right now, might be a bit crazy around there.”

  Casey parked near the obstacle course and he and Jefferson walked through the secret tunnel straight into the operations center.

  “The cyber security company operates upstairs, in the part you can see from outside, but we can use this entrance so we don’t have to go through there. Best not to startle the people who work up there,” Casey said.

  “They don’t know what’s going on down here?”

  “They might. I’m not sure what Jenny’s told them and what she hasn’t. She wants everyone up on everything, but she’s doing very thorough background checks. We’ll go up there in the evening and show you the facilities. Got a good work out room and a pool.”

  “What was that whole setup where we came in?”

  “The obstacle course? It’s like something you’d see in boot camp, and there’s a great gun range with targets that pop up at random. You’ll spend a lot of time out there once the doc clears you.”

  “I got to tell the doc what I’m doing here?”

  “Not exactly. You just have to be cleared for enough physical activity to begin training properly.”

  “What kind of training can I do now?”

  “Oh, there’s plenty. We should talk to Avi.”

  “You should probably talk to me first,” Jenny said.

  Casey jumped and spun around. “You’re getting too good at sneaking up on people.”

  “Good skill to have around here. I take it this is your friend Jefferson?”

  “Yes ma’am, pleased to meet you,” Jefferson said sticking out his hand, “You can call me Jeff.”

  Jenny took the proffered hand. “Casey said you might be coming. I’ll let him show you around the place. Give Avi a bit. Earl just arrived with Brock. They’re in with Avi right now. Might be a while.”

  “Brock?” Casey asked.

  “Retired Marine. Needs some busy work. He can help train field agents.”

  “Well, we can never have too much training. Might have to go easy on Jeff for a bit.”


  “Easy on the neck, not on the mind.”

  Casey went to his workstation and booted up the computer.

  “This is where I work when I’m not in the field. The one over there is empty. They’ll probably give you that one.”

  “Do I have to use it?” Jefferson asked.

  “The computer does most of the work. We just tell it what to look for, or sometimes it just filters the intel and sends us the interesting parts. Ahmed and Miriam handle most of the work and we spend more time out on the range or the course. Avi will probably have you on the range before the day’s over.”

  “Range?”

  “Shooting range. You need to be able to shoot straight, and then you hope you’ll never have to.”

  “You’ve had to.”

  “Yeah, a few times. It’s not easy. Well, physically it’s easy enough, but mentally it bugs you.”

  “Even if they’re bad guys?”

  “They’re people. Even if a dude’s trying to kill you and you get him first, you still think about it after. Hard to explain unless you’ve been there.”

  “I ever catch the guy who blew up the hospital…”

  “I hear you, brother. That’s what we’re here for. Grab your chair. Let’s go over and say hi to Ahmed and Miriam.”

  “Anything new?” Casey asked when they sat down at Ahmed’s workstation.

  “Miriam made an interesting discovery. Care to fill Casey in?”

  “Ashraf Zaman, the man you saw entering the garage, was an Uber driver,” Miriam said, “He dropped off a fare right before entering the garage. Here’s the funny part. I took a look at the Uber account for the passenger—”

  “You can hack Uber?” Jefferson asked.

  “We can look at just about anything. Wait until you’re trained. Anyway, I looked at his Uber account and he canceled several drivers before accepting Zaman. I thought that was weird, so I looked at the other cities where hospitals were bombed. In every one, the passenger canceled several drivers before settling on one with an Arabic name. These passenger accounts all appear to be dead ends, probably false personas set up for this operation. Each passenger was dropped off at the hospital minutes before the explosions, each time by an Arab driver.”

  “So, when the names hit the media—”

  “The public outcry will go through the roof, all aimed at Muslims.”

  “So, we need to find one of these passengers,” Casey said.

  “Like finding a needle in a stack of needles,” Ahmed said, “The bank accounts were all set up months ago, but when I look at the names on the Uber accounts, there’s not much in the way of history. These are people who either recently entered the country, or people who have been here a while and are operating under a fabricated identification. My bet is the latter. The only way we’ll find one is through facial recognition, but the video feeds are dead from each hospital. We have nothing. We’ll need to get lucky with an eyewitness.”

  “Maybe we should have stayed in Tuscaloosa. Someone had to have seen something,” Jefferson said.

  “Maybe not,” Casey said, “If the guy was a pro, he would have blended in like anyone else. He wouldn’t have done anything to draw attention to himself.”

  “We’re monitoring everything, in case someone comes forward with any information. If anyone talks to the police, I’ll have it within minutes,” Miriam said.

  “Well, you find anything, we’ll be at Avi’s shop, or at the range.”

  They met Avi and Brock halfway to Avi’s shop.

  “Dr. Zielinski, we were just coming to see you,” Casey said.

  “I was just showing Mr. Thompson the facility. You can join us if you like.”

  “Mr. Thompson, I’m Casey and this is Jefferson. So, you’re the guy who’s going to help us train?”

  “I suppose so. Just call me Brock.”

  “Okay, Brock, nice to meet you.”

  “I’ll tell you what,” Avi said, “You show Brock around and I’ll take Jefferson to the shop and start getting him equipped. Meet us back at the range.”

  “Your friend there? He looks familiar. He play football?” Brock asked.

  “He played for ‘Bama until a couple weeks ago.”

  “Wait a sec…now it makes sense. You’re Casey Reddick.”

  “Last time I checked.”

  “That's Jefferson Braxton. Funny you should become friends.”

  “Weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here. Funny how things work out sometimes.”

  “Yeah, I watched that game. You seem to have healed okay.”

  “It was rough for a bit, but I’m pretty much recovered. Still gets sore sometimes.”

  “Know what you mean. Got a couple wounds that bug me when it’s cold. Guess it gets cold here in the winter?”

  “Might be a bit nippy if you’re not used to it, but it changes all the time. You don’t like the weather in Ohio, just stick around. It’ll change.”

  “You have quite the setup here.”

  “Yeah, Jenny did most of it. Nathan designed all the software. It’s just the other side of being completely legal if you ask me.”

  “How illegal is it?”

  “I’m no lawyer, but we can spy on darn near anyone from here. We uncovered a mole in the CIA and the FBI by intercepting communication from both. Jenny even called the president’s cell phone.”

  “How did she manage that?”

  “It’s all over my head. We saved a lot of lives with that information though. We’re here to protect innocent lives. These two are the best. This is Ahmed and Miriam. Ahmed, Miriam…this is Brock.”

  Ahmed and Miriam both shook Brock’s hand and went immediately back to their computers.

  “Would love to chat, but we’re kind of busy,” Ahmed said.

  “These four gentlemen over here are…darn…I got these names…Kalil, Mohammed, Abdullah, and Omar.”

  They all got up and shook Brock’s hand.

  “Nice to meet you,” Brock said, “So you’re also working on the intel side?”

  “They’re going to train for field work as well, depending on where we need them most. Ahmed and Miriam put in a lot of hours, so giving them a break would be good.”

  “How about the facilities?’

  “Right over here we have restrooms, a break room, and a bunk room where you can grab a nap if you need it. The last crisis we had, Ahmed and Miriam never even went home, just slept there and went back to work. In the back of the bunk room, there's a door leading to the showers. Did anyone show you the training areas yet?”

  “We came in that way, but we didn’t look around.”

  Casey took Brock outside and showed him the obstacle course and the tactical shooting course, then came back in to meet Avi and Jefferson at the indoor range.

  “That is impressive. When do we start training?”

  “Jefferson needs to be cleared medically, but you and I can start today. Jeff’s never handled a gun before, so he’s going to need all the range time he can get anyway.”

  17

  London

  Ken, Elijah, and Hank sat in Hank’s basement, having moved everything from the now compromised safe house in Paris.

  “You gents want another beer?” Hank asked.

  “Sounds good to me,” Ken said.

  “Is water wet?” Elijah said.

  “So, you trust the DGSE with Grigory?” Ken asked.

  “I trust Jacques. He is discretion personified. If Grigory has any more information, they’ll get it out of him and we’ll get all the details.”

  “How about Leon? Hated to leave him like that.”

  “Jacques again. He sent Leon to his family in Southampton. Funeral’s tomorrow.”

  “I’m glad that was taken care of. He seemed like a good chap, didn’t deserve to go out like that.”

  “He was…won’t find a finer bloke. God knows how much I’ll miss him.”

  “How secure is this house?”

  “I’d like to think it’s secure
, but after recent events…”

  “So how do we go about finding out where Rachel is?”

  “We’ll have to leave that up to your friends in the States. If anyone can track down where she is, it’s them.”

  “My money’s on Russia. It’s Yuriy sure as anything.”

  “How much time do you figure she has then?”

  “You know Yuriy as well as I do. He’s not letting her go, no matter what she tells him. And you know she’ll talk eventually, if she hasn’t already.”

  “Doesn’t he have a big compound not far from Moscow?”

  “Possibly. We had some intel years ago that there was an old house north of Velizh that had been fortified. We’ve never gotten anyone close enough to confirm it for certain.”

  “Our place is secure,” Elijah said.

  “With all the crazy stuff going down in Kenya right now?” Hank asked.

  “We’re on an island and we have as much security as you could hope for, and it’s pretty tame where we are.”

  “How soon could we get there?”

  “We can leave tomorrow, take us a day with the fuel stop.”

  “Sounds like a plan. Let our American friends know what we’re up to.”

  Rachel searched the two bodies and found another pistol, a combat knife, two spare mags, another suppressor, two mobile phones, and security badges with electronic key cards. She checked the time on one of the phones, 2:33 a.m. That was good. Maybe there wouldn’t be too many people awake in the house. As much as she wanted to get out of there, she had no idea what kind of security measures were in place and how to get past them.

  She crept to the door and opened it a crack, taking a peek into the corridor, clear. The door had a key card reader, as did all the others in the hallway. She shut the door behind her and tried the key card on some of the other doors. The other rooms were similar to the one she had been held in, but vacant. She went to the end of the hall and was about to turn down an intersecting corridor when she heard footsteps. The footsteps were not hurried, but the measured cadence of someone walking an often- repeated route. She ducked into one of the rooms and kept the door open a crack. Sure enough, a man walked past the hallway opening and continued his patrol.