The War Stage (The Blackout War Book 2)

by Andrew Watts

  The prisoner’s eyes were streaming with tears. Through the mask he said, “Please let me go.”

  Lena tilted her head, smiling under her mask. “The process is much more effective if you can heat the lye to at least three hundred degrees Fahrenheit. We are heating up gallons of it. After all, we don’t want this to take all day.”

  She held her hand out to the boiling vats. The Iranian men stood staring back at them, their eyes impassive. Pakvar looked at his watch.

  Lena’s heart beat faster. She enjoyed the chase, but it appeared that this would be a quick victory. This man was clearly broken. “Do you work for the Americans?”

  He nodded and whimpered. “Yes.”

  “What were you going to give them?”

  “An external hard drive. With data from the Dubai Financial Exchange. Where I work. It would give them access to transactional data, so they could see where the money is flowing.”

  “Who were you going to provide this information to?”

  “I don’t know him by name. I just know the time and location where we were supposed to meet.”

  “Where is this hard drive now?”

  “It is in my apartment. Under my bed, in a box.”

  “Is it locked?”

  He nodded. “Yes. The key is on my key chain.”

  She looked over at the Iranian men. One of them walked behind the set of hot plates and grabbed one of several duffle bags. Inside the bags were all of the contents from his apartment, which they had removed in the early morning. The Iranian man came back with the box and a key.

  Lena said, “This is it?”

  The prisoner nodded. He yelled, “It burns my feet! Please make it stop burning!”

  She peered over the top of the drum, seeing his feet, red and slimy. The basic solution was eating through his skin. His toes were a bloody mass.

  “Please listen. Is this all of the information? There are no copies?”

  He said, “Yes. That’s everything. The Americans didn’t want me to make any copies.”

  She looked at Pakvar. He opened the small wooden box. It looked like a jewelry case. He removed the lone object inside, the external hard drive. Then he walked fifty feet away, near an open window, and removed his mask. He took out a laptop from his pack and booted it up, then plugged in the hard drive to the laptop.

  Pakvar held his phone to his ear. He said, “It’s me. I’m logging in now. I need you to check something out. Let me know if it’s everything we need, or if you think there is more.”

  Lena looked back at their prisoner. This was everything. She could tell by the fear in his eyes. He was giving them all that he knew. He would sell his own mother right now.

  They waited in silence. Pakvar holding the phone. The other two Iranians cooking the lye. Everyone wearing gas masks. The prisoner crying, naked—his fat hairy chest heaving. Bloody toes swirling in the pool of reddening hot sludge below.

  At last, Pakvar said, “Okay. We’ll call you if we need anything else.”

  He pressed the screen and placed the phone back in his pocket. He looked at Lena. “Natesh thinks we’re good. He said that this should be it.”

  “That was quick.” She smiled and looked back at her prey. “As much as I would love to stay, I have to leave.” Then she turned to Pakvar. “Please take the bags of his belongings and burn them. Not here. Finish questioning him and don’t leave any evidence.”

  Pakvar looked at the man and grinned. “Time to finish our work here. The nice lady is leaving.” The only noise in the room was the sound of the boiling liquid and the sobbing man.

  He looked at Lena and said, “Please, will you let me go? You said that if I cooperated, you would let me go.”

  She smiled and tilted her head. “Yes, I did say that. But you see, in my position, sometimes I have to tell lies in order to tease out the truth. I am most sorry.”

  He cried harder. He said, “Why are you doing this?”

  She took a deep breath. She looked thoughtful. “To help forge a better world.”

  Then Lena winked at the soon-to-be-dead man and walked out.

  A part of her wanted to stay and watch. The part of her that no one could understand. The next pot would get the liquid up to midcalf. It would be excruciating pain. But pretty soon after that the blood would begin to drain from his upper extremities and he would lose consciousness. All the fun would be over. Alas, she just didn’t have the time.

  Chapter 8

  “Are you alright?”

  “I will be.”

  Chase took another sip from his glass. Lisa had arrived at his hotel fifteen minutes ago. They were done with work for the day, and he was in need of something to take his mind off what he had seen.

  He stood in the pool, the water chest-high, his arms laid out over the white-and-gold mosaic tile on the edge. He held his glass with both hands. She sat down on the rim of the pool next to him, wearing a black halter swim dress and looking great in it.

  They sat there for a while, not saying anything. He directed a thousand-yard stare into the ocean. Chase was glad for the quiet. He was disturbed by what he had seen today and needed to be with someone. But he wanted to let the alcohol and the cool pool water do its work on him a little while longer before they talked about it.

  She saw that his drink was done. “What’s your room number and what are you drinking?”

  He told her the room number and said, “I’ll take an old-fashioned. Get yourself one too, if you want. It’s better to drink with company.” He offered a weak grin.

  She returned from the pool bar and set the glasses down on the tile. Then she gracefully plopped into the water next to him. She went under, wetting her long black hair, and threw it over her shoulders. He watched her swim back up to the side of the pool. She was very well put together. More than just sexy. She looked like a natural athlete. That was probably what had first attracted him to her.

  She saw him checking her out and smiled. Then her look changed and she took a sip from her drink. “You can tell me about everything now. The counterespionage team cleared me today. You can check with Elliot if you need to.”

  The look in her eye suggested that she was hoping he would trust her.

  He was drained, and a little drunk. He decided to trust her, so he told her the gist of it. He’d spent most of his day at the crime scene. Waleed had received a call earlier from one of the Dubai police detectives who had been told to inform him of any violent crimes, and they’d arrived at a skyrise that was still under construction.

  “Pakvar and his goons had him strung him up from the rafters.”

  “Who’s Pakvar?”

  “An Iranian that we’re after. Connected to this Abu Musa business.”

  “The Navy stuff?”

  “No, not that. Something else. We had a source that we were going to get information from. A man that Elliot had planted within the Dubai Financial Exchange. When we got to him, he was hung over a plastic barrel and…it was sickening.” Chase looked out over the water.

  She said, “If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s alright.”

  “They used some type of acid, I think. The lower half of his body had melted away. You could actually see the bottom half of his skeleton in places.”

  Her hand went up over her mouth. “Oh my God.”

  “He had something he was supposed to give us that would let us monitor the new exchange. We had given him some software to load into their system. It was going to help us monitor any bitcoin-backed currency. They carved something in his chest, too. It looked like it might have been an American flag. They were sending us a message. It was just a bloody mess. I don’t know what kind of people would do something like this.”

  “That’s awful. Were you able to get what you needed from the man before they killed him?”

  “No.” He realized he was being a bit too loose-lipped. “We probably shouldn’t talk about it anymore.”

  “Alright.” She rubbed his back muscles and around
his neck. Then she took his glass and placed it down on the edge of the pool. She took his hands and wrapped his arms around her. They kissed in the pool, oblivious to the world around them.

  She asked, “Am I helping you get your mind off it?”

  Chase said, “It’s certainly helping.” He reached for his drink and took a final swig, crunching one of the ice cubes in his teeth. “Let’s stay out here all night.”

  She laughed. “Fine by me.”

  A poolside servant came by and they asked for two more drinks and a menu for food. An hour later, the sun was setting and they had finished off two more rounds of drinks, as well as a platter of appetizers. They stopped talking about work. Well, about their current work anyway. They traded stories about their past. About old assignments and duty stations. Funny stories and interesting events from previous missions. Chase realized that her work and attitude were very similar to his own. She was a warrior, driven by a sense of duty and honor. He admired her very much.

  A custodian lit tiki torches on the perimeter of the pool as night crept closer.

  “Would you like to take a walk on the beach?” he asked.

  “Sure.”

  They bumped into each other as they stepped, giggling drunk as they walked along the sand. About a half mile down, Lisa sat down in the light surf and Chase came up next to her. A handful of people swam in the beach in front of them.

  Lisa said, “Tell me about your family.”

  So he did. Chase told her all about their Navy history and his father being the admiral who had just been relieved of command. He suspected that she already knew that, but she seemed to be surprised and impressed. He also told her about their mother dying and Victoria being deployed and David…

  “What do you mean, he was on the list?”

  Oh shit. He shouldn’t have let that slip.

  “It was…” He tried to find the right words, but he had consumed too many drinks. Plus, it was just so much easier to tell the truth. “I met with Gorji’s man. He said he had a list of people that were going to give information to them on the island.”

  “What island?”

  “Abu Musa. What other island is there?”

  She shrugged.

  “Anyway, so apparently this list of Americans contains the names of informants. Traitors or something. So then before he leaves he gives me an envelope. He says that the reason they wanted to speak to me is because I know someone on the list. That I can verify that the list is real, because the person I know will be able to prove it or something.”

  Lisa seemed much more sober than he did, which was both extraordinary and concerning. She said, “And you are saying that your brother David was on this list?”

  “He handed me the envelope, and the name David Manning was written on it. Yes.”

  “Hmm.” She looked down at the sand for a moment and then said, “And what did Elliot say when you told him this?”

  “He said not to talk to David. That he had to run it up the chain or some bullshit. I feel like such a traitor. He’s my brother. He would never do anything like that. I have no idea if there really is a list or why he would be on it. Even Elliot knows that it might be some misinformation play. But I’ve got to keep quiet for now. It was either betray David or my country. I guess I’m just too well trained.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “I see.”

  “What do you think I should do?”

  “Well, legally I would suggest that you obey Elliot.”

  He sighed. He knew that she was right.

  “But personally,” she added, “I wouldn’t leave it alone, either.”

  He said, “What would you do, then?”

  “Do your homework and gather more information. But I wouldn’t say anything to David. Whether he is or is not doing something that he shouldn’t be, you talking directly to him would not be appropriate. Where did you say he works?”

  “A company called In-Q-Tel.”

  “Right. Okay, I’ll tell you what. I’m headed to D.C. in a few days for work. I’ll be there for a couple weeks.”

  “Really?”

  He was surprised. She hadn’t said anything to him until now. Not that she had to. It wasn’t like they were dating or anything.

  “I know someone at Langley who interacts with In-Q-Tel. I could have him discreetly check up on David for you. If he turns anything up, I’ll bring it back to you and we can talk about next steps. If my contact doesn’t find anything, then there is probably nothing to find. Either way, I don’t agree with the Elliot’s suggestion that you leave it all to him. I couldn’t do that, if it was my family.”

  Chase nodded. “I mean, after Elliot runs it up the chain, I think that we’d be doing this sort of thing anyway, right? Doing our due diligence on him and anyone else on that list.”

  “Exactly. Consider this a professional courtesy. If Elliot finds out, I’ll tell him that we didn’t want to bother him with it since he’s got so much going on.”

  He felt a wave of relief spread over him. “Thanks, Lisa.”

  She leaned forward and kissed him. “No problem.”

  She pulled him up from the sand so that they were standing again, and then into the water. Chase hoped that Lisa could bring him good information, which would clear David. As they floated in the waves, buoyant in the high-salinity Gulf Sea, he tried not to think of the horrors that he had seen earlier in the day.

  Chapter 9

  Chase took another painkiller and guzzled water down before getting out of Waleed’s car. He was just about over his hangover from the drinking he’d done with Lisa the night before, but he needed to be completely clear-headed now.

  As Chase followed Waleed into the Mall of Dubai, he could hear the Muslim call to prayer echoing over outdoor loudspeakers from a temple a few blocks away.

  It was his first time here, and the mall was every bit as impressive as he had heard. As they walked inside, he passed by an indoor ice rink, a hundred-foot-high indoor waterfall, multiple luxury hotels, a train station, movie theaters, and a long line that led to tours of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa.

  Tourists were everywhere. The place was packed. Lines were long, but the diverse crowds were smiling for the most part.

  “Where is this meeting spot?”

  Waleed pointed up ahead. “There. Let us go.”

  Chase looked down a long blue tunnel. It was part of the indoor aquarium, which lay on the other side. The tunnel was all glass, rising up around him in a circle of aquamarine. Small sharks and schools of tropical fish swam over and around him.

  Chase walked into the middle of the thirty-foot-long tunnel. Gorji’s assistant waited at the far side. He indicated that they should follow.

  Coming out of the aquarium tunnel, the three men walked along the giant glass aquarium wall. To their left, a two-level metallic grey observation deck wrapped around the giant fish tank, the throngs of onlookers illuminated by the blue light. Those observation decks were just a part of the mall, extending from the stores nearby. To their right, the glass wall of the aquarium rose up at least fifty feet. It radiated a dancing spectrum of beautiful blues. Exotic fish, rays, and the occasional shark swam by large sections of bright coral. It was a loud scene, with children hollering and tourists talking and snapping pictures with their smartphones.

  Gorji’s man walked into one of the stores on the lower level. It was a slender cigar shop. A custodian had been standing at the door, and he shut the entrance behind them, locking the door and flipping over a closed sign.

  He directed Chase to the humidor room, where a skinny man with curly black hair and a rich suit perused the most expensive cigars. Gorji.

  “I thought it would be just you,” Gorji said, not yet looking at Chase or Waleed.

  He spoke in polished English. His assistant had closed the door behind them. Waleed, Chase, and Mr. Ahmad Gorji of the Islamic Republic of Iran stood alone in the humidor room. Cigar boxes were stacked up in rows, four high.

 
; Chase said, “Mr. Waleed Hajjar is working with me on this.”

  Gorji turned to look at them. “He is UAE intelligence. They can’t be trusted.” He selected a long, thick cigar and held it up to his nostrils, inhaling deeply.

  Waleed was smiling widely. So was Gorji.

  Chase said, “What’s going on?”

  Waleed and Gorji embraced and then began speaking rapidly in Arabic. It was too fast for Chase to follow.

  Waleed looked up at Chase. “Now you know. And you are one of a very few who do. Ahmad is a dear friend. We grew up together.”

  “Grew up together? Where?”

  Waleed said, “In Iran. I was born there. My father died when I was young. My mother immigrated to Dubai when I was just a boy. She had relatives here. She remarried. For many years, Ahmad and I kept in touch. But recently, we have been forced to be more discreet with our friendship.”

  “Does Elliot know about this?”

  Waleed shook his head. “I do not want to risk anyone knowing about this.”

  “And that’s why you had him approach the CIA instead of you?”

  Ahmad Gorji said, “This is how I knew where to approach the CIA. I decided that this was the best course of action. I am privy to intelligence documents in my country. I knew that you were stationed in the UAE, and that your brother was on the list. It was the only way I knew of to prove to the Americans that my information was legitimate. I assume that you have examined your brother’s communications?”

  Chase frowned. “I’m looking into it. But we are taking your claim seriously based on the Dubai leak that you uncovered.”

  Gorji said, “So you haven’t evaluated your brother’s activities?”

  “Not personally.”

  “Why, may I ask?”

  “You may not.”

  Gorji looked at Waleed, then back at Chase. “I can tell you with certainty that he was on the list I saw. I don’t know your brother, but I understand your loyalty to him. Based on my knowledge of the situation, however, I strongly believe that he will be giving information to the men on the island. That is what I was told by my source on Abu Musa.”