Firewall (The Firewall Spies Book 1)

by Andrew Watts

  They got their key and walked upstairs without saying much, and Colt saw that the “two beds” were really two single mattresses pressed up against each other.

  He felt her hand tug on his as she drew him close. Tension welled up inside him. A decade of daydreaming about her, lusting after her memory, and wishing back the days. The door was barely closed when Ava was pressed up against him. Open-mouth kisses were exchanged as they shuffled toward the bed. Then her arms were up as he helped her squirm out of her shirt, a black bra underneath tantalizingly full. Colt felt adrenaline coursing through him, and she slipped her arms tight around his torso as they continued to kiss. Her bra was unstrapped and fell to the ground. More clothes came off and soon they were in bed, gliding and sliding, sweating and moaning.

  Mount Vesuvius loomed in the distance, silently approving of the new seismic activity.

  They rose afterward, showering before venturing out for an early dinner. The instructions from Trinity would have them up well before dawn the next day. They walked along the crowded Naples street, horns honking and scooters zipping along. Arriving at a pizzeria, they sat outdoors and split a bottle of red wine. The pizzas arrived steaming hot. Fresh basil atop a simple sauce and fresh mozzarella, the crust charred from the brick oven. Ava ate with a fork, Colt with his hands. They got some gelato in cones afterward and ate while walking along the Via Caracciolo, with nice views of the Mediterranean Sea. Colt wondered if the CIA was getting pissed at his vacation as they monitored his purchases from Langley.

  Ava said, “There’s something we should discuss.”

  “I’m not seeing anyone right now, if you were concerned.”

  “Stop joking.”

  “Okay. But I’m not.”

  “We need to discuss what to do tomorrow.”

  “What about it?”

  “Trinity will try to sell us Pax AI’s AGI technology. All of us, at the same time. We don’t know what to expect. We may be forced to bid against each other. Other buyers may coordinate and form factions. They may move against us.”

  “They’re all competitors. And they don’t trust each other.”

  Ava said, “They trust you and me less, I think.”

  “Given our recent history, do you think we can trust each other?”

  Ava looked hurt. “You didn’t seem to have a problem with that a little while ago.”

  “You mean when you were eating your pizza with a fork? It was a challenge for me.”

  She punched his arm. “I trust you now. And don’t forget, you were lying to me in San Francisco too. But I understand why that is. I understand what you were fighting for. This AI revolution . . . it’s going to change everything. I’m not sure you even know how dangerous a weapon this thing is.”

  “Everyone keeps saying that. Talking about this thing like it’s a doomsday machine.”

  “It might be.”

  “It’s hard to fear. Not like a nuclear bomb, which you can see vaporize whole landscapes on a slow-motion reel.”

  “It could do that, just like in the movies. Not yet, but someday. And that day can approach rapidly, if we don’t monitor the technology’s use carefully.”

  Colt had stopped walking. He stood at a corner in the cobblestone walkway, taking the opportunity to scan the streets in either direction.

  “You see that man with the white short-sleeve shirt two blocks down?” Colt turned away so they wouldn’t both be looking at the same time.

  “Yes.”

  “I recognize him from the hotel in Rome. He was in the lobby when I came in.”

  Ava said, “Let’s keep walking.”

  They began heading up Via Carducci, picking up their pace. The man in the white shirt stayed with them, two blocks back.

  “We can’t let him know where we are staying. We might be his mission. If he finds out where we are sleeping, they’ll come there at night and take us off the buyer list.”

  Ava motioned to a small church off to their right. “Let’s go in here.”

  Colt could see several doors that appeared unlocked. They went in the main entrance and waited. Inside, a few people sat in the pews up front, praying silently. One held rosary beads. It was deathly still, and Colt could feel his heart pounding as they stood near the entrance.

  “Now what? Exit out to the other street?”

  “No. Let’s wait here.” She pointed to the confessional booth, a small wooden space about the size of a broom closet.

  “Are you crazy? What if he comes in?”

  “I want him to.”

  Colt frowned. “No, that’s nuts. Come on, we need to move. Let’s go out—”

  Commotion outside. Someone was talking in Russian.

  Ava placed her finger over her lips, signaling Colt to be quiet. Her movement was quick and graceful as she maneuvered behind the main entrance door, her footsteps silent and steady as a ballerina’s. Colt’s every instinct told him to flee, and that he shouldn’t put himself in this vulnerable position.

  The towering main church door creaked open. Ava was still behind it, out of view.

  Through a crack in the confessional, Colt saw the man who had been following them appear in the doorway, his eyes bloodshot and wild. The eyes of a predator who had just seen dinner. He stepped forward, a glimmer flashing from a blade in his hand.

  One step.

  Another.

  And then he paused. Looked confused.

  His left hand held his neck.

  “Shh. Shh. Down you go,” Ava whispered behind him, helping him down. “Colt!” she whispered. He came out of the confessional and glanced toward the front of the church. One of the people saying the rosary turned toward them but didn’t make eye contact, and was soon back to praying.

  Ava, Colt, and the Russian body were hidden from view on the floor behind the rear row of pews. Ava was nodding to get the man’s collapsing body into the confessional booth. They heaved him inside and sat him in the corner of the dark room, then stepped outside and shut the door.

  “What did you do?” Colt whispered, still not understanding what he had just seen.

  Ava held up a small, pen-like object.

  “What is that?”

  She placed the object back in her purse and then nodded for them to head out the side door. Colt agreed, and they started moving in that direction. The Russian might have one or more conspirators out on the street.

  As they walked out the side door, Ava put on sunglasses and Colt a ball cap. They walked apart for two blocks, away from the scene of the crime, before meeting up again and heading toward their hotel. When they got back to their room, Colt again asked, “What was that back there? What did you do to him?”

  Ava again took out the pen-like object. “It’s made to look like an e-cigarette. But when you press this button here, it will inject a pressurized burst of chemical solution into the bloodstream. Enough to do the job.”

  “Is he dead?”

  “No. He’s probably already up. But he’ll be suffering from some unpleasant side effects for the next few hours. Bad headache. Still, we should probably sleep lightly tonight, in case any of his friends followed us.”

  Colt nodded. “Sounds smart.” He took out his phone. “I need to check in.”

  “Me too.”

  Colt felt sheepish as he moved to a chair in the corner of the hotel room. Ava sat on the bed. Both were on their phones typing away, updating their handlers through encrypted satellite comms.

  Colt sent his update to Wilcox, trying not to think too hard about the suspicion Liu had cast on him. He finished typing and then sat waiting for a response.

  He looked over at Ava on the bed and found himself wondering what she was typing and reading. Had she accomplished part of her mission earlier that day by sleeping with him? It went back to the fundamental question . . . could he trust her? Was she telling him the truth? Did Ava really plan to collaborate during Trinity’s deal tomorrow? Colt wasn’t sure what to believe.

  He felt his phone vibra
te and looked down to see a response from Wilcox.

  COPY ALL. KIM IS MISSING AND PRESUMED OUTCONUS. POSSIBLE ENEMY KIDNAPPING. WATCH YOUR BACK.

  “What is it?” Ava asked. She’d been watching his face.

  Colt looked at her, sitting cross-legged on the bed, her back to the headboard. She’d placed her phone on the nightstand and was applying moisturizer to her legs, the smooth skin glistening under the strokes of her fingers. Her cleavage was accentuated due to the way she was leaning, and he again found himself wondering if he was being manipulated.

  “Nothing. Just a warning we should be careful.”

  “A little late for that.”

  37

  The next message from Trinity came at 0400 local time.

  Sorrento docks. 0530

  With admirable foresight, Ava had arranged for a car to pick them up at dawn. The drive from Naples to the coastal city of Sorrento was a little more than an hour. They arrived only a few minutes early.

  As they stepped out of the car near the ferry docks, dawn began to creep over the horizon, and Colt marveled at the old city. Its walls of dark gray stone rose up from the coast like the boundaries of a giant castle. Colorful multistory Italian city homes lined the cobblestone streets, which were wet and empty at this time of morning. The docks, however, were alive with the sound of diesel motors rumbling and seafarers preparing for their day.

  “Excuse me, Mr. McShane? Ms. Klein?”

  They turned to see a woman in a stylish white business suit, her blonde hair wound back into a tight bun.

  “Yes?” Colt said.

  “You may call me Irina.”

  Irina was flanked by two bodyguards. They were Caucasian, but Colt couldn’t tell their nationality.

  Irina said, “I’ve been hired to serve as the broker for the Trinity transaction.”

  “Who are you with?” Ava asked.

  “My organization prefers not to have its name involved.”

  Colt noticed the Chinese and Russian buyers twenty yards down the dock. A man Colt recognized from the hotel in Rome stood next to them, as well as a tall brunette he’d never seen before.

  “Are those the other buyers?”

  “That’s right,” Irina said, and she began leading them in that direction.

  “Some of them have more than one buyer from the same nation?” Colt asked, noticing that the Russians had two representatives. One of them was the man Ava had jabbed in the neck. She glanced at Colt. The look on her face said, “Oh shit.”

  Irina said, “Correct. Some of our buyers asked for certain conditions, and they were approved.” She spoke in short, terse sentences. She was all business.

  They boarded a hydrofoil ferry boat, and Irina gathered them in the aft section. There were sixteen buyer representatives in all. Colt counted seven armed guards who were working for Irina the broker. Each had on Kevlar vests and wore earpieces. That likely meant more security men were stationed in the vicinity, ready to provide support.

  Irina said, “A few days ago, my firm was contacted by the organization you each know as Trinity. They hired us to facilitate this meeting. Before you ask, the answer is no. I don’t know who Trinity is. So please don’t ruin your chance at participating in this sale by attempting anything . . . impolite . . . toward me. You’ll notice my bodyguards. They are the best. And there are many more that you won’t see. Rest assured, we’ve taken all the proper precautions, knowing the size and capability of each of your organizations. I hate risk. I’m a lawyer, by trade, and somehow ended up in finance.” She smiled. No one smiled back. “I’ve received specific instructions on how we are to conduct this event. From here we are to travel to Capri. We’ve made special arrangements that will ensure no other ferries will leave this port for the next six hours. By that time, the lines will be so long it will be very challenging for any of your support teams to travel that way. Not that any of you have support teams here. The airspace around the island has also been reserved for military training today. So, any attempt to send in a helicopter with members of your team will face resistance from the authorities.” She sighed. “But I really hope it doesn’t come to that. Let us all agree to provide mutual respect to each other, and we’ll be all right. When we arrive on the island, we’ll walk to a small hotel that we’ve rented out for the day. My agency will confiscate all unauthorized items, including weapons and communication devices. We will then provide a briefing, which I’ve yet to see. After the briefing is over, we will return your communication devices, which you may use to contact your superiors. My firm will help facilitate payment and communications, should you need assistance. Each party will have a three-hour time period to decide whether they want to participate in the purchase of the technology. When it’s all over, we’ll return your personal items and be on our way. I’m sorry, but I’m not able to answer any further questions at this time. Now, if you’ll please have a seat and put on your safety harnesses. This boat travels fast, and sometimes the waves get bumpy. My assistants will be going around with a bag to collect all weapons and electronic devices.”

  They each sat down, and the vessel departed the pier, slowly at first, motoring at just above idle in the marina’s no-wake zone. The sea was a bit choppy, and they were rocking as they strapped into the seats.

  After they were two hundred yards from the pier, one of the Russians began arguing with the security guard trying to collect his belongings. He was the same man Ava had subdued yesterday, and he was sitting next to Petrov.

  “What’s he saying?” Ava asked.

  Colt’s Russian wasn’t great, but he got the gist of it. “He doesn’t want to give up his phone.” Colt found this amusing since he’d handed over a pistol without complaint. That was what spy craft had come to, nowadays.

  The guard looked up at Irina, who said something to the two SVR men in perfect Russian. Petrov frowned, but said something to his subordinate, who relented, handing over the phone.

  The guard moved on. But two seats later, he encountered another resister. This one was a man in a business suit.

  “Who’s he?”

  “Tech company out of Germany. One of Pax AI’s main competitors in machine learning.” This man spat on the floor, irate at the guard. Irina nodded to one of the guards standing at the bulkhead fifteen feet away. Colt saw that guard flip a switch and heard a snapping sound echo throughout the seating area, then felt a jolt in his seat harness.

  Irina said, “We don’t want anyone standing up when the boat gets moving fast, so we’ve taken the liberty of locking your harnesses in place for the duration of the journey.” She nodded to the guard standing in front of the resisting businessman. Two other guards had joined him. One reached out and grabbed the metal handles near the top of the seat, depressing a latch.

  “What the . . .”

  The guards had picked up the man’s seat with him in it. He was locked in place by the fastening straps. They walked over to the aft end of the ship and heaved him into the ocean. Several of the passengers let out cries of alarm.

  Petrov looked at his Russian colleague and made a face.

  Colt felt sick as he watched the poor man go underwater, strapped in and weighed down by the heavy metal seat. Irina’s eyes were staring coldly at her passengers as she sat in a seat herself and strapped in.

  Ava whispered, “Well I guess we now know what type of people we’re dealing with.”

  Soon they were speeding to the south, the sun coming up over the horizon, illuminating the island of Capri.

  As the boat motored toward the island, Colt realized the logic of Trinity’s meeting location. They had sequestered the buyer representatives for the next few hours. There were only a few ways onto Capri. Choke points that could easily be monitored by Trinity’s security. If the SVR or CIA or anyone else wanted to send a team onto the island, they would immediately be spotted. The meeting could be called off and attendees dispersed. And as far as he knew, no one from Trinity was actually here. Irina and the guards were hired
guns.

  The peril of the situation was contrasted by the beauty of Capri.

  Multimillion-dollar yachts were anchored off the coast. Beautiful homes and hotels were scattered throughout the island’s greenery and surrounded by deep blue water. Stone cliffs rose one thousand feet over the sea.

  “The cliffs of Tiberius,” Ava said.

  They pulled into the island’s pier and began walking up steep stone steps. No one spoke. The competitive tension was palpable, each player sizing up the others.

  After several minutes of climbing, they reached the top of the stairs, now several hundred feet above the water and out of breath. A courtyard with restaurants and shops awaited them, the beginning of a maze of winding city paths.

  As they walked, they passed countless ocean-view homes and boutique hotels tucked between stone and cypress trees. Ancient ruins and luxury shops and five-star restaurants. The old mixed with the new. Crisp mountain air, colorful flowers, sunlight, and expansive, incredible views of the Mediterranean now lit up in a full golden sunrise, illuminating the faraglioni, the one-hundred-foot-tall rock stacks that jutted out of the sea at the foot of the island. Yachts and tourists on small rentals sailed around the island’s rocky shore. Everywhere Colt looked, the island was serene and beautiful.

  After walking for twenty minutes, the group was shown through an arched gateway of a private hotel. Tables and chairs were set up for them under the shade of towering cypress trees and a scattering of Mastics. A dark blue swimming pool, thin and rectangular, lay off to the side.

  Irina stood on the patio, the sea to her back. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you’ll have a seat. We have coffee and a light breakfast for you. We will begin soon.”

  One of the guards came around with a metal detector, zipping it around each buyer’s body and limbs. Another security check, just to be sure. Everyone was in compliance. Colt noticed that Ava’s e-cigarette hadn’t set off the warning. It made him wonder what other deadly weapons might be hidden among this crew.