by Steven James
It would make it easier to transport someone.
It wasn’t ten o’clock yet, wasn’t even nine. He was early. So as soon as he’d left the garage, using the cell phone one of the officers had been carrying, Richard put a call through to the number Vanessa Juliusson had given him to verify the location of where he should go to meet her employer.
77
While he was working on Keith, Valkyrie got word from Richard that he was free.
Valkyrie told him about the change of plans, about meeting on the boat instead of at the warehouse, and then gave his attention once again to the man who’d tried turning him over to the FBI.
++
Between songs Tessa asked Aiden about the speech.
“So this whole graduation talk deal,” she said, “I mean, I wanted to bail on it, I was going to bail on it, but from the start I could tell you wanted me to do it.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
He got a text and glanced at his phone. He happened to hold it at an angle that didn’t allow her to see the screen.
“Why?” Tessa asked. “Why did you want me to?”
“I’ve been watching you for a while.” He was staring at his phone. “I thought it’d be cool to date a girl who was smart, who was the best at something.”
“How am I the best at giving a speech?”
He tapped in a response to the text. Only then did he look up at her. “You’re the smartest person in the school, I don’t care who the valedictorian is. I like dating people who are the best at whatever it is they do.”
“Oh.” For a moment Tessa wondered what Tymber was the best at. “I see.”
He slipped his phone back into his pocket. “Come on. Let’s get some punch. I need something to drink.”
++
Ralph and I had left the warehouse and were in my car on I-395, where I thought we’d be able to get to any quadrant of the city fastest if we needed to. He’d been on the radio with the guys in the Blue Whale and now ended his transmission. “Still nothing at the warehouse. So what are you thinking, Pat?”
“We know one person who could lead us to Alexei.”
“Who’s that?”
“Nikolai Demidenko, his old contact at the GRU.”
“But why would he give up Chekov’s location?”
“Bribes are always a good place to start.”
“The five-million-dollar reward.”
“It would motivate most people. Maybe we could even up it a little if he gives us something that helps us zero in on Alexei tonight.”
“Can we locate Demidenko?”
“The CIA can. From the case files we know—”
“Yeah. They keep tabs on him.”
He put the call through.
++
On the deck of the yacht, Richard Basque met the man who’d arranged for his new lawyer.
He could hear wet, strangled sounds coming from belowdeck. There was also the sound of two men talking in another language. It might have been Russian, Richard couldn’t be sure.
A body lay on the boat’s deck. Male. Broken neck.
Vanessa, the woman who’d met with Richard in the interrogation room at FBI Headquarters, sashayed up the stairs and stood beside the dark-haired man who’d been waiting for Richard when he arrived.
“Thank you for the information about the layout of headquarters,” Richard said to Vanessa. “It came in handy.”
“You’re welcome.”
“And for the paper clip.”
“Of course.”
“So”—now he addressed the man—“who are you?”
“Just call me Valkyrie.”
Basque looked at him doubtfully. “Valkyrie?”
Valkyrie didn’t answer him and for a moment they simply locked eyes with each other, then he said, “Come on belowdeck. It’s better if we talk down there.”
“Here is fine.”
“There’s a lot going on tonight. Being out in the open isn’t the best idea.”
They descended the stairs and Richard saw two other burly men standing quietly in the corner. He also saw the condition of the man who’d been making the awkward sounds. He was tied to a chair and was still conscious, which Richard found impressive, considering the extent and nature of his wounds.
“You have skills,” he told Valkyrie.
“I have experience.”
Richard gestured toward Vanessa. “When we met earlier, she told me that you wanted me to finish what I started with Agent Bowers.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he caught me once. He vowed to come after me. And he appears to be a persistent man.”
“He is.” Richard thought for a moment. “Can you track a cell phone?”
“I can. Who do you want to find?”
“One of Bowers’s sheep.”
Valkyrie offered a guess: “Agent Jiang or his daughter?”
Richard told him his preference.
“Good choice. Give me three minutes. I’ll find her. In the meantime, I’ve heard about what you do. Feel free to help yourself to the man in the chair.” He pointed toward the knives. “His name is Keith. Do whatever you like. He’s yours.”
“Actually, I think I’m going to save my appetite.”
Valkyrie nodded. “I completely understand.”
He pulled out his laptop, used the hacked password his GRU contact, Nikolai Demidenko, had provided him with, logged into the Federal Digital Database, and then set to work finding the person Richard had requested.
“You should know that if I can find her,” Valkyrie told him, “the Bureau will be able to as well.”
“I’ll take care of that when I get there. Just get me to her.”
“That, I can do.”
++
Ralph and I received a call from the CIA that they were cutting Nikolai Demidenko a deal.
Ten million dollars.
And immunity.
And a new identity if he would move here to the States.
But only if his intel led us to Alexei Chekov tonight.
Otherwise they would leak information to his associates that he was a double agent.
It sounded like a pretty persuasive offer to me.
They expected to get back to us in a couple minutes.
While we were waiting to hear from them, we got word that the HRT had finally breached the warehouse and found that it was clear. They were going to keep searching the area, but if they found nothing, they planned to leave a small contingent of agents at the site for the night and move the rest back to Quantico.
++
Richard Basque left the marina.
Valkyrie had given him just what he needed.
He had the location, as well as Valkyrie’s number so he could confirm that she was still there when he got closer.
He would pick her up and head to the third and final apartment that he had rented earlier and saved for a special occasion, the place in Fort Hunt, south of DC.
++
Keith wanted nothing more than to die. He would have done anything to make all this end, but he had no way to move, no way to get free, no way to kill himself.
And he knew it was going to go on for a long time before he would finally get what he wanted.
++
Demidenko informed us that Valkyrie had a boat in the DC area: the Diversion. That was all, but it was enough.
Lacey found it for us.
Unless Valkyrie had left the dock, the boat would be at Seaboard Marina.
Ralph and I called it in to get some cars dispatched, but we were close, only a couple of minutes out, and since Valkyrie had apparently gotten wind that we knew about the warehouse meeting, we didn’t want to wait at all before checking the marina.
I directed the car toward it.
Game on.
78
I pulled to a stop in the marina’s parking lot.
The yacht Demidenko had told us about was there with the name painted distinctively on the prow. The boat’s lights were on, no one was on deck.
Guns drawn, Ralph and I edged forward, trying to avoid moving through the pools of murky light cast down by the vapor lights perched high on the weathered telephone poles in the parking lot. Ralph took the lead. I studied the shadows for any movement, but saw nothing.
The night held a slightly fishy odor, that lingering smell of inlets and bays where there isn’t quite enough wind or current to ever clear it away.
Only three vehicles sat in the marina parking lot: two cars and a black SUV with diplomatic tags. Ralph checked the cars while I approached the SUV.
It was unlocked. A suicide vest lay in the backseat.
Okay.
So that’s where things were going.
“Cars are clear,” Ralph said quietly. I pointed out the vest to him and then memorized the identification number on the front of it.
At first, the night held no sound except for the anxious slap of water against the wooden supports holding up the pier, but when we were maybe ten meters from the boat I heard muffled cries coming from somewhere belowdeck.
My heart was beginning to slam hard against the inside of my chest.
We eased closer.
The cries were getting softer and weaker, but also more desperate, and I didn’t like that at all.
Then I heard voices on the boat, muffled by the ripple of water against the hull. Male. Impossible to make out the words or tell how many people were there.
No sound yet of sirens or backup.
Ralph and I proceeded, and when we were nearly to the yacht, a man emerged from the stairway to the area belowdeck.
Valkyrie.
“Do not move!” Ralph commanded.
Valkyrie stood motionlessly in the muted light, then slowly lifted his hands to the sides.
Ralph and I both had our guns directed at him. “On your knees.”
He knelt and we approached him, accessing the yacht quickly but cautiously.
“Lie down,” Ralph told him. “Hands to the side!”
Valkyrie said nothing, but complied, and as he did, the red-haired woman who went by the alias Deborah Moss emerged from belowdeck.
“Federal agents,” I yelled. “Hands out!”
She obeyed.
It struck me that they were giving themselves up too easily. Something else was up. There had to be more people hiding somewhere nearby or waiting belowdeck.
Not good. We needed backup and we needed it now.
Ralph was covering Valkyrie, I had my gun on the woman.
Two cell phones were on the deck’s control console, a dead man lay nearby. The angle of his neck told me all I needed to know about his condition. His jacket was untucked enough for me to see that he had a suicide vest on as well, although this time I couldn’t read any identification number.
Two phones, two vests.
As I approached, I could see that each phone had an ID number on it and one of them matched the number I’d seen on the vest in the SUV. So if there were only two phones it might be a good sign. Maybe no one else on the boat had a vest on.
“Get down,” I ordered the woman. “Keep your hands to the sides. Lie on your stomach.”
“Who else is belowdeck?” Ralph asked.
“You’ll have to find that out by going down there,” she replied.
“Glad to.” Whoever was down there cried out again, his voice choked with pain. Ralph said, “Cover ’em, Pat. I’ll be right back.”
Before I could suggest a plan B, he disappeared belowdeck. I wanted to pat down Valkyrie and the woman to make sure they had no weapons, but if I started on one of them the other could fire at me. It would be best to wait for Ralph, then cuff these—
A shot rang out.
“Ralph!” I cried.
No reply, just the thick sound of a body slamming to the floor, and while it momentarily distracted me, it was all that Valkyrie needed.
He was on his feet in an instant and as I shot him in the chest, one of the world’s top assassins went for my gun.
79
The bullet didn’t stop him.
We struggled, and he angled my arm out of the way before I could empty the barrel into him. The woman leapt up to help him, but he didn’t need her. He was good at what he did and was able to get the SIG, but he didn’t shoot me, instead, once he had it, he just stepped back beside the red-haired woman.
The sound of a fight continued belowdeck.
“Two against one.” She nodded toward the stairs. “Not such good odds.”
“You don’t know who they’re fighting against.” I had my hands up and was calculating how to get my gun back—or how to stall long enough for Ralph to get up here or for backup to arrive.
I’d never known Ralph to lose a fight, but I remembered how thrashed his forearm was from the pit bull and I wasn’t sure if he could take on two guys with only one arm. It would depend on the guys. I had a feeling that, based on the brutish size of the dead man on the deck, whoever the men were who were down there, they were not going to be pushovers.
And if they were anywhere near as good as Valkyrie, Ralph might be in trouble.
Finally, sirens cut through the night from perhaps half a mile away and the look in Valkyrie’s eyes changed, not to fear, but to careful prudence. He was forming a plan.
“Come here, darling,” he said to the woman. “It’s time we moved along.” A widening stain of blood spread across the right side of his chest. A little too high, though. He would need treatment, but it didn’t look immediately life-threatening.
He picked up the phone from the console, the one that had the identification code that would correspond to the suicide vest on the dead man near my feet.
Oh.
Not good.
He slipped it into his pocket, then said to me, “Sometimes, Agent Bowers—”
“This isn’t you, Alexei,” I said, “remember what you—”
“I’m not Alexei anymore.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No. Alexei is dead.” He tossed a set of keys to the woman. “Vanessa, we’ll take the SUV.” Then he addressed me again. “As I was saying, sometimes you have to adapt when things don’t go as planned.”
She had only taken a couple steps when Alexei called to her, “Actually, my dear, I changed my mind. I have something else I need you to do.”
She faced him. “Yes?”
“Die.”
Her eyes widened with shock as he raised the gun and shot her in the forehead.
The same shot placement he’d used to kill his wife.
She dropped heavily onto the deck.
He calmly appraised the body, then looked my way. “A loose end. You understand.”
I tried to think like him.
Distractions and contingency plans—
The fight continued downstairs. Fierce grunts and heavy pounding.
There was a suicide vest on the dead man nearby me.
Valkyrie’s gonna blow that vest. He has the phone. He—
“Toss the key to your handcuffs over the railing,” he told me.
I did. Thankfully, my car keys and my lock pick set were on a separate key ring.
“Handcuff yourself to the console.”
I pulled out my cuffs and without hesitating at all, slung them violently toward his face. It takes about half a second for a person to respond to physical stimuli, and as he instinctively raised his arm to block the cuffs, I rushed him, brushing my hand across the console. I tackled him, went for the gun with one hand, his pocket with the other
, and he wrestled away as we hit the deck, kicked me fiercely in the abdomen, and then grabbed the cuffs and my arm, yanked me toward the console, and before I could stop him, cuffed my wrist to it. Gasping to draw in a breath, I laid my free hand on the console, pulled myself up, and then held my hands off to the sides.
It hadn’t been easy, but I’d done what I needed to do. Hopefully, I’d played this right. Hopefully.
“Where do we go from here?” I said.
His gaze flicked toward the dead man on the deck. “We all go home.”
He left the boat and strode toward the SUV while I whipped out my lock pick set and went to work on the cuffs.
The sirens were drawing closer but they weren’t close enough.
“It’s time to go, Ralph!” I hollered. I couldn’t be sure things were going to work out in our favor here, not certain at all.
I finished with the cuffs just as Chekov reached the SUV.
Ralph came bounding up the steps, gun in hand, and saw the dead woman. “Where’s Chekov?” he shouted. I pointed. We had no clear shot. Together we ran toward the dock, but hadn’t even made it to the edge of the boat when Alexei Chekov paused by the driver’s door, lifted the phone, tapped in a number, and I hoped he wasn’t—
The SUV exploded violently, blowing the doors off, enveloping Chekov in a harsh mushroom of flame and flying debris.
Ralph and I turned and ducked as a rush of consuming heat enveloped us.
After it passed, we both faced the fire and the charred and burning corpse of Alexei Chekov. Ralph said, “I don’t understand. Why would he want to kill himself?”
“He didn’t.”
Ralph looked at me curiously, then at the dead man on the boat’s deck. “But how did you switch the vests?”
“I didn’t need to.” I pointed to the phone I’d gotten from Valkyrie in our scuffle. “I just needed to switch the phones.”
“Nice move, bro.”
“What about the guys belowdeck?” I asked him.
“Not gonna cause us any trouble.”
Metro and FBI Police cars came screaming around the corner and into the marina parking lot.