Deadline

by L. T. Ryan

  Taking those data points, I figured the drug they used on me lasted anywhere from four to six hours, which meant it was currently closing in on midnight. We could be anywhere along the coast of France. It’s possible they reversed course and traveled back north to the Netherlands, but I didn’t think so. For starters, it was warm. And humid.

  The warehouse had windows ten to fifteen feet up and they were open. The breeze rarely made it down to me. Sweat coated my body from sitting there fighting the restraints.

  My best guess was that we’d gone south of the Bordeaux region near the border of Spain, possibly even crossing over into the country.

  Soft footfalls descended from the only place I hadn’t managed a visual yet. Behind me. Ahlberg appeared to my right. She walked along the vertical strip of flooring at the edge of the boat slip. Halfway to the wall she turned toward me and approached. Her dark hair was draped over her shoulders. She had on a pair of short black athletic shorts and a plain white tank top.

  She strode directly up to me, standing tall with her shoulders pulled back. Full of confidence and without a hint of fear on her face. She jammed her thumb into my eye and forced my upper eyelid open. With her other hand she shone a bright light in my left eye, then repeated the process on my right. Her Moroccan-oil-scented hair spilled out and brushed against my lips, cheeks and neck. The sensation was not lost on me even in my current predicament.

  Her hands grazed my back. The restraint on my head loosened. It hurt to straighten my stiff neck, but I forced it up and back and dropped my head to the edge of the chair back. I was temporarily blinded by the pen light but felt the slight vibrations under my feet as she stepped back. I blinked away the lingering starburst and found that she had moved out of my line of sight.

  The restraint around my chest fell to my waist. My wrists were freed. The only thing holding me down was gravity. But the thing keeping me in place was the wires that bound my ankles to the chair. I figured I could break those or the chair easily enough.

  “Stand if you wish to stretch out,” she said. She stood in front of me again with her hands at her side and in full view. There was no needle, unless she had it tucked in her waistband or inside the pink bra that peeked out from the edge of her shirt.

  I tightened my core and rose. My knees nearly locked as I straightened my leg. I almost forgot they’d been bent for at least twelve hours now. It became even clearer that I could easily snap the legs away from the chair. Ahlberg knew it, too, which was why she had retreated a few steps back. Her glance rose over my head and then she nodded at some unseen man. I looked back, but the man had concealed himself well enough that I couldn’t locate him.

  Glancing down, I saw the tattoo in its near entirety. Only the very top of the piece was hidden by her shorts. They didn’t conceal much else, either. She moved toward me. Close enough that I could have reached out and strangled her. She figured I wouldn’t with the threat of an unseen person waiting in the shadows to neutralize me. I only had to give them a reason. I told myself not to do that.

  “I’m going to ask you a series of questions and you only get one shot at answering them.” She stared me in the eye. Her gaze was unwavering. Her eyes were like cold, lifeless steel. “If you lie to me you’re going under again and I can’t promise that you will come back from the drug-induced sleep this time. And if that possibility doesn’t scare you because you think you can lie convincingly, consider the fact that I probably know most if not all of the answers already.”

  I clasped my hands behind my back and arched in a quick stretch then rolled my head to the right and left. The combination of the accident, the fight with her men, the car ride, and being bound with my chin locked to my chest had left my spine and every supporting muscle stiffened.

  “Do you understand?” she said.

  I looked her up and down. A tinge of doubt entered my mind. Something was off and I didn’t know if there was any way for me to survive the interrogation. A purposeful glance around the room revealed no instruments of torture, so she clearly was going to rely on the threat of the drug and what I assumed was drowning following it.

  “Yeah, I got you.”

  “Where were you last week?” she asked.

  “The USA.”

  “Be more specific.”

  I played along. “Texas.”

  “Why?”

  “Why does anyone go to Texas?”

  She glanced over my shoulder. I resisted the urge to look back.

  “Did you think I was kidding?” She snapped her finger and I heard the man ready his weapon. The threat had elevated. How much did she know?

  “My Jeep broke down. The rest was coincidence.”

  “The rest?” She leaned her head to the right. “What else happened while you were there?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “I said what else happened when you were in Texline?”

  She’d slipped up. Someone had fed her intelligence, and as far as I knew only two people knew of my location last week, and Brandon wasn’t about to sell me out.

  “Get to the point,” I said. “Texas has nothing to do with any of this. How’d you find me? Who turned you onto me?”

  Her smile was even colder than her stare. She leaned in close to me. “That part was easy. You’re a sloppy operator these days, Noble.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s probably because I should have retired three years ago.”

  Her breath was hot on my face. “Why didn’t you?”

  I shrugged. “Trouble just happens to find me.”

  She walked past me, shoving her shoulder into my chest as she passed. “As it does to me.”

  A stream of cool air enveloped me from behind. I turned in time to see a cone of orange light on the floor fading away as the door fell shut. I hadn’t heard her open it.

  Minutes passed. I stood there looking around the room, watching shadows waver, wondering who, if anyone, was in there with me. The smell of her hair faded and the dead fish returned. The water continued to lap against the edges of the boat slip. The room was quiet otherwise.

  I felt the breeze hit my back again. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Ahlberg’s slender silhouette followed by a man about the same height and three times wider than her. The area went dark as the door fell shut. Ahlberg approached. The man remained behind.

  She kept a safe distance from me this time. That confirmed that I had been alone. If someone was in there watching me they would have let her know whether I had attempted to arm myself in some way. All I had to do was break off a piece of the chair and I’d have a club and possibly a stabbing weapon.

  Standing in front of me, she gave nothing away. “Why are you here?”

  I’d give her what she was after. “To fix a mistake.”

  She arched her right eyebrow. The smooth skin on her forehead wrinkled. Looked more like what I expected in a forty-year-old. “What mistake?”

  “I killed the wrong person ten years ago.”

  “Who were you to kill?”

  “You.”

  She crossed her arms tight over her chest. Her breasts swelled over the lacy edge of her bra and the tank top. “On whose orders?”

  I said nothing.

  She dropped her arms and stepped up to me. “You think your government gives a damn about you now, Noble? That the man who issued the command cares what happens to you after this? Any idea what he’s been up to today?”

  “You already know the goddamn answer, lady.” We were chin to nose. Her hot breath intertwined with mine. I fought the urge to strangle her there and be done with it. My strength hadn’t returned and I might not kill her by the time the guy lingering in the shadows got to me.

  She didn’t back down. “So who did you kill?”

  “Birgit,” I said pushing my face forward. “And you damn well know it because you provided the false intelligence to the turncoat. You set your sister up to take that bullet and now you’re going to receive yours.”

  She took a few steps back, hel
d her arms out, smiled, and glanced down at her outstretched leg. “Are you as good as I’ve heard, Noble?”

  I followed her gaze to the tattoo adorning her skin. It really was an impressive piece.

  And on the wrong leg.

  I wasn’t looking at Katrine Ahlberg.

  CHAPTER 51

  Complete darkness had overtaken the sky by the time the bird touched down on a remote airfield. Given the direct southeast heading of the flight, Bear assumed they were somewhere near the French-Belgium border, approximately fifty miles from the coast. Woodlands surrounded the location. A small one-lane road weaved through the landscape and emerged from the forest just a few feet from the tall chainlink entrance gate. A large rusted chain wrapped around two thick steel rails. The entire strip was enclosed with eight foot high fencing topped with barbwire. This wasn’t the kind of place that was open to the public.

  Everyone had exited the helicopter except Sasha and Bear. The men in black gear stood watch outside with the door closed. Occasionally Bear would see the woman passing. Her hair glowed in the moonlight.

  The whomping of the rotors and whine of the turbine faded, leaving them in silence. The couple decided against engaging in conversation. No one had remained inside with them but that did not mean they were not listening. Anything they had to say to each other could wait. There had to have been a reason why they were brought here. As far as Bear was concerned it would have been easier to kill him back at the house than put him on a helicopter and cross the channel with him on board.

  What did they want?

  His thoughts turned as dark as the slice of sky he saw through the window. What if Ahlberg knew that Bear was activated to kill her? And perhaps, instead of preemptively killing him, she instead had decided it would be better to torture him first. He swallowed hard at the thought of enduring having his head dunked in tubs of water, his fingernails pulled from their beds, the non-stop beatings. Any of it. All of it. Depended on how far and hard each party was willing to go.

  Bear refused to be soft because screw them that’s why.

  “What’re you thinking about?” Sasha whispered.

  “Mandy graduating from college and then going to law school.” There was no reason to let her into his dark world.

  She squeezed his forearm. “Must have been a grueling ceremony. Your muscles are tensed. Hard as a rock.”

  He dropped his chin to his chest and sighed. “We should keep quiet.”

  Several minutes later they heard the first faint buzz of an approaching craft. Bear leaned toward the window and scanned the sky. He saw the lights coming at them from the southwest.

  Friend or foe?

  “You have some way for your boss to track you?” He glanced at Sasha.

  Sasha shook her head as she squeezed his wrist. “Nothing on me at this time.”

  He doubted the savior option held much water at this point. The craft passed close enough that Bear could tell it was a small jet. It circled overhead a couple times after reducing speed, finally coming in for a landing starting at the opposite end of the rural airstrip. The Gulfstream stopped close enough that Bear read the tail numbers out loud to Sasha.

  “That sounds familiar,” she said.

  “It should,” he said, nodding. “It’s CIA owned. I’ve been on that jet before.”

  She leaned over him, planting her hand on this thigh. “Who do you suppose?”

  He brushed her hair away from his face and pulled strands out of his beard. “I don’t suppose. I know exactly who’s on that plane.”

  As if on cue, the door opened, stairs dropped down and two men emerged dressed eerily similar to the security detail who had occupied the helicopter during the crossing. To make matters worse, the tactical teams met in the middle and exchanged greetings.

  Frank Skinner weaseled through the opening carrying a small duffel bag in one hand and his pistol in the other. Hunched over, he descended the narrow steps quickly and ran past the four operators standing out in the open. Frank looked back and said something to the men. They all nodded and simultaneously slipped from sight.

  Bear and Sasha leaned toward the opposite window to see if Frank had continued past the helicopter. Ahlberg stood with the Saudi near a waiting sedan. Bear noted that he had not seen or heard the vehicle approach. They must have come in without their headlights on. Why? Who would be watching out here? Maybe the French DSGE, but they would’ve needed advance warning. He considered that maybe the vehicle was already here.

  Frank embraced the blonde in a quick hug and shook the Saudi’s hand. They exchanged smiles as though the three went back some years.

  A decade, maybe?

  Bear had dozens of questions and had yet been afforded an opportunity to ask a single one of them. As long as Sasha’s life was threatened, he found himself at odds over what to do. Exercising restraint was not in his usual bag of tricks. He wished Jack was there. Not that either of the men were on the cerebral level of Einstein. They often preferred to use strength in such a situation, but Jack was the tactician of the duo and would be plotting thirteen steps ahead opposed to Bear’s six.

  “What is the head of the CIA’s SOG doing meeting with a known terrorist supporter?” Sasha said.

  Bear looked around.

  “Right there.” She pointed at the Saudi. “That’s Khalid Awad.”

  Perhaps it was the repeated blows to his head, filing a job well done away in his mental cabinet, the way the Saudi had aged in the past decade, or a combination of it all, but Bear hadn’t put it together. It made sense. The first thing Katrine Ahlberg would do is reunite with her husband upon making a break. Had he been in on the switch ten years ago?

  “If you know that he’s funneling money to those assholes, why haven’t you done anything?”

  “Because of his family relations. My hands have been tied.” She turned to him, brow furrowed, fire in her eyes. Bear knew the look and it was not meant to invoke positive feelings. “And your excuse?”

  He pulled away from her. “I don’t make policy. Only follow orders.”

  “Coward.” She shifted in her seat to stare him down. In the dark he noticed the glimmer of the sweat on her brow. “What kind of excuse is that? You had the opportunity to kill him ten years ago, did you not?”

  He said nothing.

  “Yet you didn’t, correct?”

  He refused to answer her when she talked to him like a new hire at Legoland.

  She continued her tirade. “Maybe we wouldn’t be in this goddamn position right now if you had aimed the gun at the right person when you pulled the trigger.”

  “Sasha, I’m only gonna say this one time.” Bear took a breath deep enough that it hurt his chest. “When the situation dictates it, I operate outside of the rules established for me. The Ahlberg hit was by the book. Executed perfectly. Perhaps too much so, now that I look back and understand some of the dynamics here. But we had no way of knowing who and what, and we were told under no uncertain circumstances that Awad was to survive.”

  Several seconds passed. The tension on Sasha’s face abated. “I’m sorry. This is slightly stressful for me. I know you’re used to busting out of situations like this, but I’ve been relegated to a desk with minimal recess time for too long now.”

  He squeezed her hand. “We’re a team. In more ways than one. We’ll get through this.”

  The door whipped open. The Gulfstream’s engines wound down to a low drone. Two black-clad operators stood in front of them.

  “Who’s getting it first?”

  CHAPTER 52

  Frank avoided the piercing stare of the woman he might’ve been in love with ten years ago. He wasn’t one to mix his feelings. Hell, his own ex-wife doubted Frank’s intentions toward her on their wedding night. When it came to Katrine, things were different. Had been different. They’d seen each other in secret for five years prior to him finding out that someone in the Pentagon had an issue with the woman and wanted her eliminated. If anyone knew how he felt abo
ut Katrine Ahlberg, they might have questioned how he could jump at the opportunity for the SIS and himself personally to spearhead the mission to assassinate her.

  He lifted his gaze up to hers. She smiled softly. The gesture looked foreign on her cold face. And it was then that he recalled the thoughts that raced through his head as he sat in on the private committee’s meeting and heard the words, “Ahlberg has to be eradicated before she spurs Awad into action.” The old farts all shot Frank an odd look when he immediately offered to take the job. It wasn’t typical of the SIS to run such a mission, though they often were part of the team for foreign assassinations.

  Frank smiled at Katrine, recalling the real reason he acted so quickly in that meeting.

  He did it so that he could keep her alive. And at the same time, it would break her and Awad apart. Or so he thought. Their relationship apparently had survived Katrine’s ten year journey of living life as her sister.

  Frank had prided himself on the setup and how he’d passed off the falsified documents as the real thing. The intelligence flew up and down the chain and the assassination plan was approved. If things went wrong, it would have been Noble who took the fall. Frank would have immediately pointed to the fail-safes he placed within each piece of evidence he submitted that would then illustrate how Jack had gone rogue. He even had a plan worked out that would point to Noble working in secret with Awad. This might have been enough to get the order to remove Awad as well. And it would have been the last Frank ever heard from Noble.

  Things didn’t work out that way, but the end result was acceptable. They passed off the murder of Birgit Ahlberg as the assassination of her twin sister Katrine. Frank buried the case afterward, and it hadn’t been reopened until Jack was brought to the old SIS building a few days prior due to some rookie in Langley noticing some chatter that should not have been present. Frank managed to keep the guy quiet and he started digging.