The Korean Gambit

by Charles DeMaris

  “Does the part upstairs really exist?”

  “Oh yes, and it’s quite successful. Jenny’s a whiz at system security because she can hack darn near any system out there.”

  “Like hiring a thief to design your home security system.”

  “Something like that, but that part of the company is highly successful.”

  “And this part?”

  “We’ve had our successes, mostly.”

  “Mostly?”

  “The bus station bombings. We had the intel beforehand.”

  “And you couldn’t stop it?”

  “We were operating differently then. We turned over the intel and the government did nothing.”

  “So now you put people in the field, like secret agents?”

  “Not many agents yet. Anyway, looks like the gang’s all here. I’ll introduce you around. This big oaf over here is my friend—”

  “Jefferson Braxton. I’d recognize you anywhere.”

  “Good to see you again, Ms. Reynolds. How you doing?” Jefferson said.

  “Still trying to process everything. An hour ago, I didn’t know this place existed, and nobody had tried to kill me.”

  “You two know each other?” Casey asked.

  “She interviewed me last year, something about probable first round draft picks.”

  They walked over to Ahmed’s workstation and gathered around.

  “You’ve already met Miriam. This is Ahmed, the brains of the organization,” Casey said.

  “Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” Ahmed said, and to Casey, “You want to fill me in on what happened tonight?”

  “You get a hit on the photos?”

  “Nothing on facial, guy’s a complete ghost…or was…or is now too, I guess.”

  “Another one of Yuriy’s thugs?”

  “Looks like it.”

  “He was careless. He could have planted the car bomb and not hung around.”

  “Good thing he hung around then.”

  “Yeah, I spotted him trying to hide.”

  “You said he had a detonator?”

  “Yeah, I always thought car bombs were rigged to go off when you started the car.”

  “Maybe he didn’t have enough time. He just found you or just got the word from his boss what to do. Not enough time to rig a proper car bomb, but enough time to toss something into the back seat and then wait for you to get in the car.”

  “I guess that makes sense. Other question. How did he find me? I’ve kept a pretty low profile.”

  “The guys that tried to nab me at the dock in Sweden,” Rachel said, walking over and sitting down, “You didn’t kill them. You think one of them could have gotten a look at your face before you knocked him out?”

  “That’s possible, but I thought I was more careful than that.”

  “Even a slight look and he could have described you to someone else. Yuriy has agents everywhere.”

  “Still, that’s rather disturbing if he found me that fast. I wonder what kind of network he has.”

  “It has to be big. You guys just got back. How did he track you that fast?” Ahmed asked.

  “The plane,” Rachel said, “That stunt Ken pulled to take out our pursuers. How many planes like that are still flying around?”

  “Ken filed false flight plans. The guy in Sweden probably got a composite done and they sent it to all their agents. But the only time I’ve been away from here since I got back is when I picked up Kathy earlier tonight…and I stopped at my mom’s house…that has to be it.”

  “Has to be what?”

  “If they got a good enough composite…Yuriy has access to some good computer people. They probably ran my face and got my identification and everything. There have to be a ton of photos of me all over the internet.”

  “You would have noticed someone following you.”

  “I should have, but…”

  “You let your guard down. Someone followed you, maybe from a distance, maybe swapping out cars. You have to be vigilant even at home, which is why we told Miriam to pick up your mother. We don’t know what kind of network Yuriy has here.”

  “Speaking of his mother,” Wilma said, “I need some sleep. Someone want to show me to a bed?”

  “I’ll take you there,” Miriam said.

  “Guys, someone want to let me know what’s going on here?” Kathy asked.

  “Come with me,” Casey said, and to Ahmed, “Let me know if you find anything interesting.”

  “Where’d you stash your luggage?” Casey asked.

  “Right over there, why?” Kathy asked.

  “Grab a bathing suit.”

  “At this hour?”

  “You need to relax. Grab a bathing suit and follow me.”

  Five minutes later they were sitting in the hot tub and Kathy was starting to relax.

  “You going to tell me what’s going on now?”

  “It all started when I got injured and Jenny recruited me to work here…”

  Casey went on to tell her everything, from the death of his sister in the bombing, to the training by Dr. Zielinski, to the field ops he had been involved in, leading right up to the hospital bombings and Jefferson joining them. He didn’t leave anything out.

  “So…the guy in Miami zooming away in the wing suit?”

  “Yep.”

  “I watched that on YouTube a dozen times. And the NBA arena? News said a local cop was a hero, but didn’t give a lot of details.”

  “The cop was dead when I got there and the terrorist was a few seconds away from pulling it off. The cop’s gun and mine were the same caliber, so you position the bodies a certain way and people will see what they want to see.”

  “And your trip to Stockholm? You got that other girl out of there…what was her name?”

  “Rachel. She’s the other field agent.”

  Kathy was trying to think through everything Casey had just told her.

  “Her parents were killed, the house you went to after Detroit?”

  “Right.”

  “Wow, this is a lot to digest. It doesn’t scare you a little?”

  “You feel it before an op, and sometimes after, but when stuff is happening, it’s like I’m back on the football field. Everything kind of slows down. It’s hard to explain. The first time, when I was with Ken in Kenya, I was shaking like a leaf after that one. It was my first time getting shot at, and the first time I killed somebody.”

  “Is that hard to deal with?”

  “Well, it’s not like the movies. I still see some of the faces, and every time the other dude was trying to kill me and I got him first, but when I’m going to sleep or have time to think, sometimes I see them. I mean, don’t get me wrong…each time it was justified…and in Detroit it probably saved thousands…but taking a life isn’t easy, not something you get used to.”

  “Back in the garage, I was scared to death and you just looked so freaking calm, like you were in complete control. How do you do it?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. It was like that playing sports too, but Dr. Zielinski trained me well.”

  “Will I get to meet him too?”

  “He’ll be back in the morning. He probably went home.”

  “How many other people work here?”

  “There’s Jenny. She runs the place. She spends most of her time upstairs with the cyber security staff. There are six people who only work that side. They never even see what’s down here. She has her office up there and comes down here to check on things occasionally. Then there’s her husband Earl and his friend Clyde, but they don’t really work here. They just come around from time to time, and they pick us up from the airport or from the lake when we come back from an op. Ahmed and Miriam you’ve met. Ahmed has four friends who work here…Kalil, Mohammed, Omar, and Abdullah. They’re all Arabs. They’re training for field work too. And you know Jefferson.”

  “It’s still a lot to take in. I don’t know what to think. Why did you hide all this from me?”


  “Oh, I don’t really know…just didn’t know where things were headed. This isn’t something you can just tell everyone.”

  “I suppose not, but by tonight it seemed things were headed somewhere.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but you understand where I’m coming from?”

  “I think so. You guys are kind of off the books and all, but a girl doesn’t like a guy keeping secrets. You have any other secrets?”

  “Yeah, I don’t listen to rap…I’m actually into country.”

  “You don’t like any rap?”

  “The beat’s okay sometimes, but not the content. I can’t relate. My mama didn’t raise me that way.”

  “But country?”

  “I can relate to it. They sing about things an average dude can relate to…you know…real stuff…not gang stuff and disrespecting women and disrespecting yourself.”

  “I saw your bio before I interviewed you. The part of town you grew up in…it’s kinda rough, right?”

  “Walnut Hills? There are some rough spots and some nice streets. You saw when we picked Mom up. You take a wrong turn and you can go from good to bad real fast, but just because you live in the hood doesn’t mean you have to act like it. Lot of guys never figured that out. They’re the ones you hear about, or see in the obituary.”

  “Now I feel like the reporter again, but we covered that all in the interview.”

  “Don’t need to go through that again. You got any secrets?”

  “I don’t know how to say this, but I really don’t care much for football.”

  “You sure know a lot about it.”

  “It’s my job. You want to get anywhere covering sports, you’d better know football.”

  “What sports do you like?”

  “Just to sit and watch? Basketball and hockey.”

  “Didn’t figure you for a hockey girl.”

  “My dad’s nuts about it. Used to take me to Rangers games when I was little. It’s fun to watch, even if you’re not rooting for anyone.”

  “There’s a minor league team here. I went once. Seemed fun, but I haven’t gotten into it.”

  “Season’s around the corner. We’ll have to catch an NHL game.”

  “Deal, it’s a date then?

  “Yeah.”

  “You still giving me another shot, even after how tonight turned out?”

  “Everything was great until someone tried to blow us up. But you saved my life. I owe you one.”

  Casey’s phone was buzzing and he reached back and grabbed it.

  “Yeah, Ahmed, whatcha got?”

  “Still waiting on the files, but I’ve been listening to the cops. They know it was your car that blew up and they’ve picked up the dead guy from the garage. They don’t have an ID on him, and they won’t find one either, so it’s a huge mystery as far as they’re concerned. Oh, and when the cops want to know why you never came back for your car? You took an Uber home. Had a couple drinks, didn’t want to drive…got it?”

  “Yeah, except I didn’t take one.”

  “Check your app. It’s all there.”

  Casey checked and there was a record of a ride home, Miriam listed as the driver.

  “Miriam?”

  “She has an approved account that she never uses. We used it when she picked you up from Arnold’s.”

  “Quick thinking. Basically, you hacked my phone.”

  “Hope you don’t mind.”

  “Nah, anything else?”

  “Hold on a sec…uh…yeah. You might want to get down here.”

  29

  Yuriy was up and having breakfast when Pavel walked in and sat down.

  “News from the States?” Yuriy asked.

  “Nothing good. Our agent was found dead lying next to a blown- up car. The American wasn’t in the car.”

  “How the hell did that happen?”

  “I can only get the information their media has released. The police responded to an explosion in a parking garage and when they got there, they found an unidentified dead man lying next to the burning car. The man had been shot.”

  “Are you sure the dead man was our agent?”

  “A white man with no identification wearing tactical gear? Probably our guy.”

  “What do you figure happened?”

  “Our man planted a car bomb and didn’t get out of there before the American showed up. They exchanged gunfire, and our man got hit. He detonated the bomb before he died, but the American wasn’t close enough to the car to get killed. The police aren’t taking credit for shooting our man, so that makes the most sense.”

  “Now we know where one of their men is, or at least where he was recently.”

  “And we know his name.”

  “You do?”

  “Turns out he was a well- known athlete at an American university. It was reported that his car was destroyed. His name is Casey Reddick and he lives in that city.”

  “Does he have any other family there?”

  “I did some digging. His mother lives there. I sent another agent and she wasn’t home. They probably got her out right away. He had a sister, but she’s deceased, killed in the bus station.”

  “That explains a lot. His sister died and now he’s been causing us trouble ever since. He’s probably working with the Prescott girl.”

  “I think we can surmise that they’re part of the same private organization we spoke about earlier.”

  “You’re sure about that?”

  “Positive. We still have ears in Washington. If this was part of their government, we’d know it.”

  “Unless it’s buried deep.”

  “I don’t think so. I think it’s completely private. How else do you explain how they took us completely off guard when we had highly placed agents who should have been able to tip us off?”

  “What do you think we should do?”

  “Stay with our current timetable, and move some more agents into Ohio to try to root these people out.”

  “Do what you have to do, and keep me posted.”

  “What else you got there?” Casey asked as he sat down at Ahmed’s workstation.

  “Rachel brought back a gold mine. There’s still a ton left to decipher, but we have all of Yuriy’s known agents and where they’re deployed. This guy is running a whole network separate from Moscow. We have the name of the guy you killed, and all his other assets in the States and Europe. We’d never be able to roll them all up without them alerting the others. We might have to involve the CIA on this one.”

  “You know we’d have to run that by Jenny. You’re still monitoring them, right? You see any signs of any more moles?”

  “Nothing so highly placed as before. A couple people on this list are federal employees, but not that high up.”

  “Is Jenny still around?”

  “I think she and Earl ran home for a bit.”

  “I’m gonna grab some shut eye then. Let me know if anything else pops up.”

  “Sure thing. Where’s your girlfriend?”

  “She’s not…well…actually I’m not sure.”

  “The way she was looking at you?”

  “We had a pretty good date until someone tried to kill us. She’s stressed out right now. I don’t know.”

  “If she hasn’t dumped you after that, she’s not going anywhere,” Miriam said, “have you showed her where she’s sleeping, where the showers are?”

  “Well…”

  “I didn’t think so. I’m on it. Where is she right now?”

  “Still sitting in the hot tub when I came down.”

  “I think we should all hit the bunk,” Ahmed said, “I set the system to alert me when the deciphering is done.”

  Ahmed was back up at 5:00 a.m. when the alert went off, but he left Casey sleeping and went straight to his desk. Miriam was heading that way with two mugs in her hands.

  “Thank you,” he said, taking one of the mugs, “you could have stayed in the bunk.”

  “Couldn�
�t sleep.”

  “My computer called me. I think we might have something to look at here.”

  Ahmed looked at the files that were deciphered, realized they were all in Russian and ran them through the translation software.

  “We’ll have something to look at as soon as it’s translated. Forgot about that detail last night.”

  “We had a lot going on.”

  “Yeah, but I should have remembered that.”

  “The translator doesn’t take long.”

  “It shouldn’t. You know, if Yuriy’s people know who Casey is, who knows what else they know?”

  “Casey and Rachel have been in the field. There’s no reason the rest of us have been exposed.”

  “Still, I think it would be best if everyone just stayed here for the moment, until we sort things out.”

  “Well, I’m going to try to turn in for a bit. Wake me around 7:00. You should think about doing the same. The translation should be done by then.

  7:00 found Ahmed and Miriam back at their workstations, and Jenny pacing nearby waiting for him to sort through the recently translated files. Earl and Clyde were sitting with Brock, drinking copious amounts of coffee, while Rachel, Kathy, and Marlene were in the kitchen seeing what kind of breakfast they could conjure up.

  “Uh…boss…this is big,” Ahmed said.

  “How big?” Jenny asked.

  “Let’s take it in the conference room, and can we get Nathan in here?”

  “He’s already on the way. I called him when I left the house.”

  “This is all hands on deck. We need everyone, and I mean everyone in there.”

  Ahmed went back to sorting through everything so he could present it to everyone, and by 8:00 Nathan and Phoebe had arrived, along with Abdullah, Kalil, Mohammed, and Omar. Dr. Zielinski walked in and shut the door behind himself.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said as he sat down.

  “I’ve just deciphered and translated the contents of the drive Rachel brought back and what is on there is big. For starters, Yuriy has a huge network of agents all over the world, and we have their names and biographical information. Obviously, we need to act on that, but that’s not even the first priority.

  Yuriy has another attack planned, and it appears this one was already in the works when we stopped Miami. Pavel Venetsianov is Yuriy’s resident computer genius. The guy is an extremely skilled hacker and appears to be the brains behind Yuriy’s attacks. He set up the Miami attack, the bus station bombings, the ones we stopped in Detroit and Milwaukee, the hospital bombings, everything. He set up the Wolf and played him skillfully. Yuriy wants to pull something off and he goes to Pavel to set it up.