The Forgotten Soldier

by Brad Taylor

  Nikos saw the anger flash, Khalid leaning over the desk. “She set up my men. She set you up. She is the catalyst for the American interdicting our meetings. He’s here, and she’s going to meet him. Right. Now.” The last two words were punctuated with a stab of a finger into the desk.

  The men at the back of the room released their hands, freeing the pistols. Nikos waved, telling them to back down. Khalid saw the action and turned, eyeing the men. He said, “You think your security can help you? Haider lives in a world of giving, where money gets what he wants.”

  He turned back to Nikos and said, “I live in the world of taking. You will find this American. You do, and you get the money. More than enough to live out the rest of your days with whores and wine. You don’t and you get me. If the American doesn’t find you first.”

  Nikos was a bit unnerved at Khalid’s complete lack of fear of the two men at the door. But he still owned the room. He chuckled, playing down the threat. He said, “Okay, okay, Khalid. I see you are afraid of him, but I am not. Here’s the deal. You want me to commit to the woman, and it’ll double the price. The American was tied to the United States somehow, but the woman is CIA. I know this for a fact.”

  “She is our only link to the killer. I need to interrogate her.”

  “And is this from Haider?”

  “Don’t worry about him. As I said, I speak for him.”

  “Maybe I should call him first.”

  “Maybe you should get some men moving toward the woman.”

  Nikos showed anger for the first time, saying, “I can’t snatch her off of the street! This isn’t Qatar, where you can run over whoever you want if you’re a citizen. We have laws here.”

  “She’s not working on CIA business. This man we’re after is rogue. She’s trying to contain it. Anything that happens to her can be blamed on him.”

  “How do you know this? Where is your information coming from?”

  “From the highest levels of the United States government. It’s valid. And so is our money.”

  The phone rang again, and Nikos answered. He listened for a moment, then said, “No, don’t follow her inside. Get the men ready.” He hung up, saying nothing.

  Thinking.

  Khalid said, “Well?”

  Nikos toyed with the letter opener for a moment, then said, “I want half up front. If I move on her, I want the money right now. And I won’t do anything else. The woman is my final operation. If it goes bad, I leave, taking your money with me. Nonnegotiable.”

  “What’s she doing?”

  “She’s acting strange. You may be right.”

  Khalid smiled, and the sight was unsettling, reminding Nikos of a cat toying with a mouse long after the creature was dead. Khalid dialed his phone and spoke in Arabic for a moment. He hung up and said, “The money is transferred to the account you gave.”

  Nikos nodded, realizing he was crossing a void from which there was no return. He picked up his own phone and spoke a few words. He placed the handset slowly on the desk and said, “Okay. It’s done. She will be brought to a warehouse. I’ll turn her over to you, and we are through. You find the American on your own after that.”

  Khalid said, “I go with your men. And that’s nonnegotiable.”

  55

  After giving everyone thirty minutes, we met in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel. I handed out bumper locations for the countersurveillance effort and gave them a chance to look and ask questions. There were none.

  Initially, I was just going to take myself and Jennifer, but Brett and Knuckles were having none of that. And then Nick decided that he had enough balls to tell me he wanted to go as well.

  I thought about ordering them to stand down, but I knew they wouldn’t get any sleep until we returned anyway, and I wasn’t worried about Carly compromising anything. If she were going to do that, it would have already happened regardless of whom I brought to the meeting, and she wouldn’t have scheduled the meet in the middle of the National Gardens. She would have brought us inside the embassy, where she could control any outcome. Clearly, she wanted to hide this as much as we did.

  We exited the hotel in two-minute increments, moving in singletons and pairs, with Jennifer and I going last. The countersurveillance effort would take the metro, but we would walk, giving them time to set up.

  The National Gardens was really a park, similar in style to our own famed Central Park but without the scope. It was crisscrossed with footpaths and various attractions like an aviary and a central lake, and Carly had picked a gazebo near the very center. Nick would come in from the west, Brett from the south, and Knuckles would position on the east edge, watching us enter. They’d pick up bumper locations that would allow a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the meet location, keeping eyes on anyone who passed to see if they were interested in what we were doing.

  Jennifer and I would be the stationary element. Carly would come in last.

  The texts with her were unencrypted, so I had to be circumspect when coordinating the activities. I’d asked her if she was bringing her friend for Knuckles to meet—meaning was she coming with a security package—and she’d said no. I trusted her—to a point—and told her that was good, because Knuckles had his own date, and I didn’t want to see a catfight. Meaning I’ll have security, but I don’t want to end up spiking on some hidden CIA clowns crashing the meeting.

  She’d sent back a smiley-face emoticon. I’d chuckled at the absurdity of planning top secret meetings in the age of Apple. Honestly, I didn’t feel there was any threat from the meeting, but it was good to be prepared and it gave me a chance to train Nick in our way of operating.

  Jennifer started walking south, and I followed. We went past the war museum, then cut west, down a road next to the presidential palace. We hit the park right next to a Greek soldier standing guard in what looked like a wooden phone booth. Wearing traditional Greek attire from what appeared to be World War I, his fez made him look a little bit like a Shriner waiting on a miniature motorcycle for a parade.

  We entered the park and consulted a large map behind glass, like we were just a couple more tourists. We found the gazebo on the map, confirming what our overhead imagery had already told us, then wound our way through the trees and rocks, passing the bird sanctuary and the lake, waiting on a call. Knuckles finally said, “Good track. Nobody on you. Moving to my bumper.”

  I nodded at Jennifer and said, “Roger all. Blood, Veep, give me an up.”

  “East side is clear. Nobody of interest. Meet site is clean.”

  “Roger.”

  Brett came on, saying, “Pike, this is Blood. South is good.”

  The area opened up a bit into a clearing, and I saw our gazebo. I tried to spot my team but could not, which is exactly what I wanted. The shelter had four separate tables with bench seats surrounding each. None was occupied. We took a seat, and I put a Texas Longhorns ball cap on my head. I said, “In position,” and heard “Standby.”

  Carly was coming from the south, so I knew she’d bump into Brett first. It happened five minutes later. “Pike, this is Blood. Spook is inbound.”

  —

  Guy heard the door open upstairs, then the pounding of feet coming lower. He vaulted over the bar, landing on the body of the man he’d killed earlier. He crouched in the shadows, weapon ready. He heard a shout in Greek, someone looking for the bartender or the girls. He heard a man approach and flattened against the edge of the bar, sliding as much as he could into the shelving while keeping his weapon available for instant use. He held his breath, catching shadows against the walls.

  The man above picked up one of the cell phones of the girls, and Guy cursed himself for not bringing them over the bar when he leapt. The man said something else in Greek, then Guy heard another voice speaking English. With an Arabic accent.

  “I need to leave now. What are we waiting on?”
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  The other man said, “Your car. Unless you want to run.”

  The Arab voice said, “What do you mean? Are you not coming?”

  A third voice said, “No. Our driver will take you to the park. We aren’t foot soldiers. We stay here with the boss, in case you decide you want to return.”

  Guy saw a flash of light against the wall, the outside door opening, then heard more Greek. Finally, one of the men said, “Go. He will take you to the other men.”

  The light splashed again, then he heard muttering in Greek, followed by a laugh. He waited, and heard two sets of feet going back up the stairs.

  He remained still for a full two minutes, then slid quietly out, climbing over the chipped wooden top. He dropped lightly to the other side, noticing that the two cell phones were gone.

  He had no idea what had just transpired, but knew he was running out of time. Sooner rather than later, someone else was going to enter the slut shop and he didn’t want to kill anyone who didn’t deserve it.

  He found the stairs, thinking of the noise the men had made coming down them. He went to the rail, spreading his legs until each foot was as close to a support beam as possible, and began waddling up the staircase.

  He reached the top and paused, looking down the narrow hallway. Illuminated by a single bulb midway down, most of the hallway was in shadows. According to the women from below, Nikos’s office was the last one on the left side of the hall, adjacent to the only fire escape attached to the building. Which made sense, as he’d want a way to flee if raided.

  The problem was that in order to reach it, he had to pass other rooms, and he didn’t want to leave an uncleared area behind him. It was asking to be attacked from the rear.

  But he had no team with him, and couldn’t possibly assault each room without alerting his primary target. He needed speed and surprise, which he would lose the minute he engaged anyone, whether it was a noncombatant or not.

  He counted down the hallway, seeing three doors on the left and three on the right. Only two had light spilling out from the threshold. The target’s door at the end of the hall and the one closest to him.

  Decision time.

  56

  I acknowledged the call from Brett, glancing to the south. I saw a family of four about a hundred meters away, then saw Carly wandering through the trees, looking for the safe signal. My ball cap. She saw it, then sauntered over to us. She sat down and raised her eyebrow. I held up a finger, then heard, “She’s clean. Nobody’s on her.”

  I said, “Roger. All elements stand by.”

  Carly said, “So you didn’t find my secret agents?”

  I said, “No. They must be very, very good.”

  She stuck her hand across the table and said, “You must be the infamous Koko. Decoy told me all about you.”

  Jennifer took her hand and said, “Well, clearly not all about me, or you’d know I hate that callsign.”

  Carly’s face froze for a moment, like she’d made a faux pas, and Jennifer let her off the hook, saying, “Decoy was a good man. Even when he was trying to get my clothes off. I miss him.”

  Carly said, “I do too. Believe me. And I don’t want to lose Guy the same way.”

  I said, “So what’s up with the contact? Did you tell him we’d talked?”

  “No, no. Not at all. I thought about it, but I believe it would have only spooked him. He asked for information.”

  “What information?”

  “He asked about Nikos. I’d set up a meeting between them initially, but this time he didn’t want that. He asked for specifics. Where Nikos worked, how deep his connections ran, what were the limits of his turf, and where he spent most of his time. Basic bio-data stuff we keep on all the members of organized crime here in Athens. The same dossier you wanted.”

  That’s not good.

  “Did you give it to him?”

  She slid a piece of paper across the table to Jennifer and said, “I did. And before you say it, I know he’s not using it for a sanctioned operation, but I had to give him something or he would have become suspicious. I offered a few crumbs. Not nearly as much as you got, so he’s going to have to work a bit to develop a pattern of life to use Nikos as a link to whatever else he’s doing. I texted you right after.”

  She saw my face and said, “Pike, I had to make a decision. You asked me to help you bring him in, and this was the best way. I get him busy chasing his tail, and you develop actionable intelligence to bring him in.”

  She finished the statement by pointing to the paper in Jennifer’s hand.

  Jennifer held it up, and I saw a complete breakdown of the handset he was currently using. IMSI, IMEI, make, model, where he’d purchased it, how much it cost, and the cellular plan it was tethered to. She’d obviously been using government resources at great risk to herself. Getting such data would be a significant breach, involving more than just the CIA.

  But it might not be enough. I said, “Carly, someone attempted to capture Guy in Crete. Someone with significant host-nation assets and capability, and no restraint about violence. It wasn’t the guys from Qatar.”

  She took that in, drawing the lines between the dots and beginning to look nauseous. She said, “Nikos?”

  “Yes. I think so. Well, I can guarantee that Guy thinks so.”

  She put her head in her hands, saying, “Jesus Christ. Every time I help you guys, I end up doing more harm than good.”

  Jennifer put her hand on Carly’s shoulder and said, “You didn’t know, and we needed this information. You just cut our search time by an order of magnitude. If you hadn’t played out your hand, he would have ditched this phone as well.”

  I said, “Did you give him enough to find Nikos? If he wasn’t trying to use Nikos as a lead for follow-on operations, if he was using it as an end itself, could he do so?”

  She deflated, like a pet that had been scolded, looking for support from the very person who had punished her.

  “Yes. He could.”

  I said, “Okay. No biggie. We’ve still got time. Don’t worry about that right now. You made a call, and it was correct. I need everything you gave him.”

  She said, “Pike, if he kills Nikos, it’ll rupture some very tightly wound alliances. It’ll be a disaster.”

  “I got it. I’m more worried about the guys from Qatar because of international repercussions. A dead mafia guy is the least of my concerns.”

  She didn’t look convinced, and I said, “Was Nikos a valuable source for you guys?”

  She shook her head. “No. He’s a shitbag. We can’t prove it, but he’s into child prostitution, gunrunning, and false identification to a host of bad folks. We used him more as a hedge to prevent stuff from going down. You know, have a meet, ask some pointed questions in such a manner that he’d back off from certain things. I always got the impression he’d kill me if it suited him. The only reason he didn’t was because he knew I was with the US government.”

  “Then quit worrying about him. Worry about Guy. I’m going to need your help to bring him in. He trusts you. Can you take a few days off? For ‘personal reasons’?”

  She shook her head, saying, “Bad timing. I have to go to a high-level conference tomorrow with the secretary of state. He’s meeting some schmucks here in Greece one-on-one and the National Command Authority doesn’t think he’s capable. I’m hand-holding.”

  That made no sense. I said, “They need CIA talent for a state meeting? You don’t even speak Greek.”

  She said, “Yeah, I know. That’s not why they want me. It’s a back-door thing involving a contact from another country. I can’t really tell you more than that. I’m just not available.”

  I started to reply when Nick came on the radio, saying, “Pike, this is Veep. I have some activity. Two men coming your way, and they’re acting strange.”

  Veep was in the west
position. Neither Carly nor I had come from that direction, so they couldn’t have pinged on us. It was nothing, but I didn’t want to stifle his willingness to report. I said, “Keep eyes on. Almost done.”

  Brett cut in. “Pike, Pike, this is Blood. I got one coming your way as well. Not a tourist, and I got a printing on his clothes.”

  Meaning he could see the outline of a gun.

  I looked at Jennifer, seeing her begin to slide her own hand down to the hidden Glock in her purse. Carly saw the movement and said, “What’s going on?”

  “You armed?”

  “No. We don’t carry in Greece. What’s happening?”

  Knuckles came on. “Pike, I got two from my side. One of them is an Arab from the target package. He’s not here out of coincidence. Someone must have seen Carly enter, but didn’t follow. Now they’re hunting. Beating the bushes.”

  My eyes narrowed at the words. I looked at Jennifer and said, “Get her out. You’re her PSD. Take her to the north, toward the parliament building.”

  There were no northern exits from the park, but there was a slew of security around the parliament building. Carly said, “What the hell is going on?”

  “You’re being hunted. They’re trying to find Guy, and they’re using you to do it.”

  Jennifer stood, putting her hand on Carly’s bicep and pulling her to her feet. Carly said, “Wait, what are you going to do?”

  I unholstered my own weapon and said, “Fight.”

  57

  Guy slid to the closest door with light spilling out and gently put his ear to it. He heard a woman and a man talking. At least two.

  There was a sign in Greek on the door, complete with a silhouette of a nude dancer. A dressing room. Hopefully . . .

  Each of the offices had a large window looking into the hall, which the club had painted flat black. In places, the paint had chipped away, letting light through and, hopefully, giving Guy a way to confirm his thoughts.