by David Archer
“I considered suggesting polygraph tests, but most of the people in our line of work could probably beat one. What about a deception expert? From everything I’ve read, it’s impossible to prevent the minute facial expressions and body language they watch for.”
Allison frowned and ran a hand over her face. “It’s difficult, but not impossible, and especially not for anyone with psychopathic or sociopathic tendencies. Unfortunately, the people best suited for this work display some of those. Donald and I have both been trained in deception detection, but we’ve been fooled in the past.” She turned to Jefferson. “Donald? Any suggestions?”
Jefferson chewed his cheek for a couple of seconds, then nodded his head. “The thing to do is keep whoever betrayed us unbalanced. We’ve got the situation in Pyongyang that we need to deal with right away; it’s complicated and dangerous, so my thought is to tell Jenny that Cinderella and Camelot work so well together that we’ve decided a joint operation between them is what we need for that mission. Put them back together and in the field again, with no time to rest, and give Noah a better chance to observe them.”
“Then you’re convinced Noah is not the one who sold Sarah out?”
“I don’t think he could possibly have done it unless it somehow benefited the mission, and it certainly did not. As of this moment, Noah is the only one in this group that I trust completely.”
“Good,” Allison said. “We are agreed on that.” She turned to Noah. “Noah, there are four CIA agents in North Korea who have been captured, and unfortunately they possess a great deal of knowledge regarding certain Top Secret plans that the president has authorized in dealing with the little madman who runs the country there. CIA says rescue is impossible, so they have requested immediate termination of all four in order to maintain National Security. We were about to brief Hercules on the mission today, but I’m going to accept Donald’s recommendation. Because the mission will be difficult and dangerous, we’re going to send you and Jenny and your people on this one.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Noah said. “May I ask a question?”
“Go ahead.”
“Sarah has been captured, and she also possesses secret information. Will she be sanctioned?”
Allison leaned forward and looked him in the eye. “How long do you think she can hold out under interrogation?”
“Sarah is tougher than she thinks she is,” Noah said. “She’s loyal to the organization, but she’ll regard any demand to give up information about our organization as being forced to betray me as well as E & E. Combined, both of those factors will keep her from any betrayal until she’s subjected to enough pain to make her willing to die to escape it. Once that happens, the thought of dying will mean she won’t have to face any of us if she betrays us, so she can give up something in the hope of getting what she wants, which at that point will be death. Depending on the level of torture, we could be talking anywhere from three days to a week.”
Allison paused for a second then went on. “The most damaging information she could give up would involve the secret areas around Kirtland, and perhaps a few of our proprietary procedures or some of the inventions Wally’s kids come up with. The world intelligence community already suspects that we exist, and neither my name nor Donald’s is any secret in those circles. She might compromise your team, but we could simply switch up identities again and put you right back in the field.” She leaned back and put her elbows on the arms of the chair, steepling her fingers in front of her face. “Noah, I won’t authorize a sanction on Sarah. I don’t think she knows enough to do us any real harm, and frankly, I want her back. That means you’ve got no more than a week to identify the traitor and find out where Sarah has been taken. I’m going to authorize unlimited resources for you on these two missions.”
She sat forward again. “Go home. Tell Neil and Marco that you’re being briefed on an urgent new mission at one o’clock this afternoon, and will be flying out tonight. I’ll explain that to Jenny during her debrief this morning, so you’ll all be here at one.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Noah said, as he rose and started toward the door.
“Noah?” Allison said.
He stopped and turned to face her. “Yes?”
“When you identify the traitor,” she said, “your orders are to terminate with extreme prejudice.”
Noah nodded once. “Yes, Ma’am,” he said. He walked out the door and was on the way home a few minutes later. As he drove, he took his phone out of his pocket and called Neil.
“Mmpf,” the boy said, trying to rouse himself from sleep. “Wassup?”
“Emergency mission,” Noah said. “Get yourself awake and head over to the house. We’ve got an emergency briefing at one, and we're going to be flying out tonight.”
“What?” Neil sputtered, and Noah heard Lacey’s voice in the background asking what was wrong. “We just got in!”
“As I said, it’s an emergency mission. I’ll call Marco now, so he’ll know to make the briefing. And just so you know, Team Cinderella is going with us on this one. The Dragon Lady likes the way we work together.”
“Oh, God,” Neil mumbled. “Jenny scares the crap out of me. That woman is just plain evil.” He let out a long sigh. “Okay, boss, whatever you say. I’m getting up.”
Noah ended the call and punched the icon for Marco. Unlike Neil, Marco was already awake.
“Hey, boss,” he said. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“We’ve got an emergency mission,” Noah said. “Briefing at one o’clock.”
“Geez, already? Doesn’t that break some kind of rule, sending us out again this quick?”
“The Dragon Lady thinks it’s necessary, and she makes the rules. See you at the briefing.”
“You got it,” Marco said, and then the line went dead.
Noah drove on to his house, deep in thought. No matter how many times he went over what he remembered of the snafu’d mission, he couldn’t make the facts line up enough to identify a particular traitor. Until he had some idea of who had sold Sarah out, it was going to be hard to find any leads on where she’d been taken, unless he retraced his steps and went back to Pattaya.
The problem was that trying to find out anything from Pak would still be likely to result in a bloodbath, and Noah couldn’t go after Sarah if he was dead.
* * * * *
Sarah was driven to the dock in the back of a van with no windows, but it wouldn’t have mattered if she had been able to see out. She didn’t know anything about the area, and had no way to signal anyone. If Lom had been correct, there was no one to signal in any case.
At first, when Lom had told her that Noah was leaving her behind, she had refused to believe it. Later, however, it dawned on her that if he truly believed she was dead, his logical mind would see no reason to remain. He would go home, and go on with his life without her.
That was the hardest part for her, the knowledge that he wouldn’t even grieve for her loss. It wasn’t his fault, she knew that, but still…
When they arrived at the dock, she was quickly taken out of the van and hustled onto a large motor yacht. The boat was big enough for her to think of it more as a ship, but she only saw its stern. She was hustled down a flight of stairs and pushed into a room. She heard the door lock as soon as it was closed.
She seemed to be in a stateroom, a nice one with its own en-suite head. She had only showered a short time earlier, and she remembered what Noah had always told her about resting whenever she could, so she lay down on the bed and tried to relax.
Her mind was racing, though. Just the thought of someone betraying her, someone she had worked with and trusted, was more than she could take, but if it was anyone close to her, she was convinced it had to have been Marco. Noah would never do such a thing, and it was impossible to even entertain the thought that Neil might.
Of course, there were other possibilities. The local station chief was going to be aware of their mission, and who knew how many others? That tho
ught made her feel a little better, at least; perhaps it wasn’t someone she knew, but a perfect stranger who had done this to her.
The huge diesel engines started up and the big vessel moved away from the dock. Wherever she was going, she was on the way. Between the vibration of the engines and the rocking motion, Sarah’s thoughts finally wound down and she drifted off to sleep.
She woke suddenly and found herself in her own bed, with Noah, and the relief that it had all been only a dream washed over her like a wave fifty feet high. She rolled over and wrapped her arms around him, and he turned his face toward her.
It wasn’t Noah! The man she had wrapped her arms around was Lom, and he was laughing as he saw her pulling back. “Where is he?” she screamed at the thin old man, but he only laughed harder.
She tried to get up out of bed, but the sheets and blankets were tangling around her, pulling her back down, and then they were wrapping themselves around her face so that it was hard to breathe...
TWO
Jenny Lance walked into Allison’s meeting room precisely on time, and sat in the same chair Noah had used earlier. Allison smiled at her as she took her own.
“Report, Cinderella,” Allison said.
“My team and I arrived in Hanoi on schedule, and I made contact with the target that evening. His reputation as a ladies’ man proved to be quite accurate, so I had dyed my hair blonde and dressed in the youthful styles he seemed to like. He invited me to a party and I agreed, then pretended to be drunk when it was time to leave. He took me to his home, and as soon as I was sure that we were alone, I cut his throat, disemboweled him, then removed his penis and put it in his mouth. I then signaled my team for pickup and returned to my hotel.”
“Perfectly executed, as always,” Allison said. “You’ll be interested to know that his associates in the heroin trade are all accusing one another of the killing. The bit with his pecker was a nice touch; two of his partners were known to have done exactly that with American soldiers during the Vietnam War. There is so much infighting in the organization now that it will probably be defunct within a few months. Good job.”
Jenny smiled at her. “I enjoyed it,” she said. “Of course, as we were preparing to leave Hanoi the next morning, I got the call telling us to join Camelot in Bangkok. You remember that when you told me the situation, I suggested I pose as the sister, and that seemed to work fairly well. As I anticipated, the prison officials notified the Nay Thas, and they attempted to abduct me as well. My team worked with Camelot and his to extract me, and we were able to ascertain that Sarah and the other girl were taken to Khram Yai, an island in Pattaya Bay. We all went together to Pattaya and I contacted Maggie Lightner, our station chief there, and arranged for her and another woman from her staff to accompany us on a rented yacht. While most of us stayed on the yacht or played in the water around it, Camelot and Marco swam to the island to reconnoiter. They were able to confirm the presence of the two girls, so we returned to Pattaya and planned a night attack. The whiz kid, Neil, came up with an electric boat that was almost silent and we used it to reach the island in the dark, and were able to retrieve the other girl, but Sarah had already been taken away. I interrogated a few of the men from the island and was told that she had been sold to a man named Pak, but did not seem to be breathing when she was taken, so we returned to Pattaya. Neil located Pak, so the next day, after making sure the girl we rescued was sent back to the states, we paid him a visit. I posed as a fight promoter to get access to him, then explained that we were really looking for the girl he had bought from the island. He informed us that she was deceased, and we were taken to the temple where locals’ funerals and cremations take place. A monk there confirmed his story verbally, and we were shown a place in a flower garden where the monk said her ashes had been scattered. He also said that in order to honor her, they had cut off locks of her hair and spread them with her ashes. Camelot confirmed that he recognized the hair, and that he accepted their story. We returned to our hotel and made arrangements to leave the country.”
Allison smiled at her again. “Concise and to the point. Now, give me your opinions.”
“There’s something not right about the whole mission,” Jenny said. “First off, it seems awfully funny that we send an agent into a prison to set up the rescue of another inmate there, and then both of them are kidnapped out of it by known slave traders. Strikes me as an awfully big coincidence, you know? Then there’s the fact that Sarah got sold to Pak, but the other girl didn’t. If he was into pretty Americans, I’d expect him to want them both. I can definitely tell you that he lit up when he saw me; the man had a bulge in his pants the whole time I was near him. He didn’t go to that island looking for sex toys, he was looking for Sarah.”
Allison narrowed her eyes as she looked at the young woman in front of her. “And your conclusions?”
“Someone involved with Pak found out that Sarah was an American agent. That tells me that somebody on our side sold her out. After watching Camelot, I can’t believe he would do it, so I suspect it was one of the two men with him. There are other possibilities, of course, including the possibility it was someone on my own team, but I don’t think so. Also, after watching Camelot in action, I’m fairly certain that he has also figured this out. If I’m right, then I’m probably his number one suspect. After all, I spent a lot of time inside that prison demanding answers. From his point of view, I had the best possible chance to sell or trade the information that Sarah was one of ours.”
“That’s very astute,” Allison said. “You are correct in that Noah came to the same conclusions, and even mentioned your time in the prison as being a good opportunity, but he does not suspect you above anyone else. Have you shared these opinions with your team?”
“No,” Jenny said. “As I said, there is at least a slim possibility that one of my guys decided to capitalize on the chance to make some big money. God only knows how much somebody like Pak would pay to get his hands on an American secret agent, but there is no doubt he’d know how to turn a profit from her.”
“I agree,” Allison said. “Anything else?”
“The girl isn’t dead. And Camelot knows that, too.”
“Why do you say that?” Jefferson asked. “Both.”
Jenny turned her face toward him. “If she was actually dead, Pak wouldn’t have bothered trying to convince us, he’d simply have dropped her body somewhere it would be found. That way, there wouldn’t be any doubt. The fact that we were taken to the funeral temple and shown ashes and hair means that he wants us to give up on her, but he still intends to make a profit. He couldn’t do that if she was dead.” She shrugged. “As for why I think Camelot knows it? That guy has a mind like a computer, he can see things nobody else would. There is no way he wouldn’t figure out exactly what I just said, and he probably even saw things I missed that confirm it for him.”
Allison watched her face while she was speaking, and sat in silence for a moment after she finished.
“Once again,” she said, “you are correct. Camelot is aware that Sarah is alive, but he could not see any reasonable path to being able to retrieve her at that time. His mind, more like a computer than you can imagine, led him to the conclusion that identifying her betrayer was of paramount importance to our organization, and probably the only chance he has to get whatever intelligence it will take to get her back alive. Like you, he considers our local people in Thailand as suspects, but I keep them on a much tighter leash than any other agency does, and it’s virtually impossible for one of them to have done this. CIA has gone over each of them with a fine-tooth comb for the last nineteen hours, and we’ve found nothing to indicate that any of them has made any improper contacts.”
“So that means the traitor is either on his team or mine,” Jenny said. “If it turns out to be one of my guys, I want the pleasure of killing him.”
“I suspect you’d have to beat Camelot to it.” She looked at Jefferson. “Donald?”
“Jenny’s smart, b
ut she’s not as smart as Noah. If she were the one who had betrayed Sarah, she wouldn’t have shared her suspicions with us so readily. Also, I observe that every time she mentions Pak, her eyes contract slightly and the corners of her mouth turn down for a split second. Together, those micro-expressions indicate that she is controlling feelings of anger, disgust. If she had secretly profited from whatever deal he made to get his hands on Sarah, that little sign of anger wouldn’t be there; I’d expect to see something more like satisfaction, or pleasure.”
“I agree,” Allison said. “Jenny, I’m sending your team back out with Camelot on another mission, today. Have your team here at one o’clock for briefing. This is a very serious and important mission, so I expect it to be carried out successfully, but the real reason for teaming the two of you up is to identify the traitor. Camelot will have lead on this mission, and you’ll all be subject to his orders.”
She leaned forward and clasped her hands together on her knees, looking Jenny straight in the eye. “You will not share your suspicions with any of your team. I’ll let Noah know that we consider you eliminated as a suspect, but be certain that you don’t even discuss it with him if there’s any possibility of being overheard.”
Jenny smiled brightly. “Okay. See you at one o’clock.”
She got up and walked out of the room, still smiling, but by the time she got to the elevators the smile had vanished. Unlike Noah, Jenny was a creature of emotions, and the strong suspicion that one of the men she had worked with during this last mission had betrayed one of their own had her blood boiling. Before she reached the parking garage in the basement, Jenny had already figured out how she wanted to kill the traitor if he could be identified.
She got into her classic '65 Mustang and took out her phone. It took her only a moment to text all three of the men on her team.