The Missing Spy

by J A Heaton

  “Don’t laugh. They’re from high school. I lost my real ones at Rex’s place.”

  Jenny pursed her lips as if to say oops, but it was too late.

  Before Daniel could tease her, Jenny said, “Rex claims that his training will give you a body that women will die for.”

  “Did Rex tell you that last night?” Daniel asked.

  “I don’t remember,” Jenny said innocently. “He just said it sometime.”

  Daniel gave Jenny another glance. They both knew that she and Rex had a thing, but it wasn’t something to talk about in the land of cubicles.

  “Daniel!” Officer Carter called out from a nearby conference room. “Get in here.”

  Daniel gave Jenny the why-didn’t-you-tell-me-she-was-here? look. Jenny went back to the algorithm crunching on her computer, chewing away at some arcane linguistic analysis of chatter between the countless dialects of global terrorists. Daniel carried himself to the conference room, guessing Officer Carter was not happy with him. His suspicions proved correct when he plopped down into a chair opposite her.

  “You still don’t have the language specialists that we need for the MDF team,” Officer Carter said. “I expected you to have at least one on the team by now, especially if they will need field training like you.”

  “It’s not so easy,” Daniel explained. “Once we do find people who speak all the languages that we need, it’s tough to get them cleared to do anything. I’ve interviewed and talked with nearly every Arabic speaker at every college and university within three hours of Washington D.C., and I’ve flown to many more universities to interview their linguists. But the fact is, none of them strike me as the perfect fit. And that’s what we need. We need a perfect fit. Also, I’ve discovered that even if somebody knows a language or dialect one million times better than any of us, they’re often children of immigrants, and so they can understand basic communication, but when it comes to the deep intricacies of the language, they would be useless in the field.”

  “Spare me your linguistic babble,” Officer Carter said. “Because you turned down a golden opportunity to be mentored by Edwards, I figured you must be swamped with recruiting and training. It looks to me like you’re working out some and piddling away at translations.”

  Daniel knew that Officer Carter always had his back, but he sensed something was up when she started pushing him like this. And she knew exactly what Daniel was thinking.

  “Yes, your piddling translations prevented the Taliban from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Officer Carter continued, referring to his first field mission in January. “But I wonder if you didn’t get lucky. If you are going to be an intelligence professional, you need to work at all aspects of the craft around the clock. You can’t train in the morning, translate in the afternoon, clock out, and then go flirt with Tina.”

  Daniel felt his face turn red, but Officer Carter wasn’t done yet.

  “The terrorists work on attacking us tirelessly, and that’s how you need to be working against them. Otherwise, you’re just a government employee at worst, or an amateur spy at best.”

  Daniel held Officer Carter’s gaze, refusing to look away.

  “I wonder if you will be able to keep up,” Officer Carter said. Daniel remembered that Officer Carter was probably over fifty.

  “I’ve decided to focus on recruiting for Arabic for now,” Daniel explained, hoping the lecture was over. “The best lead that I have coming down the pipeline is a relatively young Iraqi man who fled Saddam’s regime. It’s interesting. He is a Sunni Muslim, like Saddam himself, but that also makes him the minority in the country. He fled Iraq for his life, so I’m wondering how he got on Saddam’s bad side. He’s fast-tracked for security clearance, but they can’t afford to take any shortcuts. He’s the best hope for now.”

  “What about Russian? How are things with Max?”

  “I’d put that aside,” Daniel explained. “Do you want me to pursue him again because of what Edwards said?”

  She didn’t answer the question directly but said, “Get Max on the team, and I’ll keep an eye on him.”

  Daniel nodded his head but decided not to ask more.

  The woman from three cubicles down knocked on the door and stuck her head in.

  “Check out the news,” she said. “It’s on in Daniel’s part of the world.”

  Like most Americans, they all feared a terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11.

  Officer Carter turned on the TV in the conference room and went to an online news source for Daniel’s part of the world: Central Asia.

  An Arabic news site was reporting a bomb blast in Uzbekistan. More accurately, it was in the capital city of Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

  “Our old friends are up to nasty business again,” Officer Carter said. “Will you go with Edwards now? This should be an easy first mission for you guys.”

  “I’ll take the team and go with Edwards,” Daniel said, “but only because of this new development in the War on Terror. And I’m sure I’ll learn a few things from Edwards along the way.”

  As Daniel left the office, he remembered the pile of unfinished translations sitting on his desk. He would send it down the line to another translator. They were all swamped, but he now had something more important to do. He and Rex would get on a plane to Central Asia in the next few days.

  But Daniel wasn’t looking forward to it. As far as Daniel was concerned, death and bloodshed marred his once positive memories of the region. Not to mention the one person he knew in Tashkent who had warned him to never return.

  The next morning, Daniel caught a taxi to the CIA headquarters in Langley. He planned to recruit Max to the MDF team so he could leave with him and Rex for Tashkent.

  After Daniel swiped in with his pass, he headed up the elevator to Max’s floor. The blinds on his office were drawn, and Daniel gave his door a knock. Max’s door was usually open. There was no answer, so Daniel knocked again.

  Daniel reached for the door handle, but then he had second thoughts. Max was the kind of guy who might have an office romance while on the clock. Daniel did not want to walk in on that. He knocked on the door louder and said, “It’s me, Daniel.”

  Daniel tried the door handle, but the office was solidly locked.

  Daniel found the closest office nearby that was open and asked if they knew where Max was. One man merely shrugged, but a courier delivering a package to the next office said he heard that Max had called in sick. Daniel figured this guy would probably know. He could see the younger guys taking a liking to Max.

  Daniel got an idea. He went back to the man’s office and asked if he could borrow the phone. He begrudgingly gave permission, and Daniel soon had Jenny on the line.

  “So fun, right?” Jenny said with her normal perky attitude. “I can’t believe we’re still working together. And I’ll be using my computer ninja skills while you and Rex are—”

  Daniel interrupted Jenny. “This isn’t a social call.”

  “That’s too bad. I don’t get enough of those,” Jenny said.

  “I’m serious now,” Daniel said. “Check the CIA records and search for Max’s security pass.

  “Why are you sticking your nose into Max’s business?” Jenny asked as Daniel heard her typing.

  “Just a hunch,” Daniel said. “I need to know if he came into work today.”

  A few seconds later, Jenny answered, “He swiped in really early this morning, like at 5:07 AM, and then he swiped out and left the building thirteen minutes later.”

  “It doesn’t seem like he’s sick,” Daniel concluded. “If somebody were sick and couldn’t come to work, they wouldn’t come in that early in the morning to get something to work on at home. Can you trace his company phone?”

  “That’ll take a few minutes,” Jenny said. “Hold on.”

  “I’m going to get Officer Carter on the line,” Daniel said.

  Moments later, Officer Carter joined the call, and Daniel explained the situation.

&nb
sp; “That is suspicious,” she agreed. “I will notify the proper people. It’s out of your hands now.”

  “Okay,” Daniel said. “This is messed up.”

  “I got it,” Jenny interjected excitedly. “The location of Max’s cell phone. It’s right where Daniel is. Well, almost. It seems like it’s sitting on his desk.”

  “He left, and he wasn’t planning on coming back,” Daniel thought out loud.

  “I’ve got to check some things out, boss,” Daniel said into the receiver before hanging up.

  Daniel rushed out of the room and repeatedly pressed the down button on the elevator. When he finally swiped out of the CIA headquarters, he ran to Max’s favorite spots. He went by several coffee vendors and bakeries without spotting Max. He decided to go to the final stop after they all turned up empty.

  After a short taxi ride, Daniel got off in front of one of Max’s favorite establishments. The Russian bathhouse.

  Daniel rushed into the lobby and asked the receptionist if Max was there. She appeared as if she had been working there since Khrushchev was in power.

  She paused several seconds before answering and said, “Our whole facility is reserved for a private party all day, sir. Our normal business hours will resume tomorrow.”

  Daniel cursed under his breath, and he turned to run into the sauna facilities.

  “You can’t go in there!” the woman yelled after Daniel as he barged in.

  “Max!” Daniel yelled. Daniel looked about the marbled room that was filled with steam, but nobody responded. Relieved, he saw that it was not filled with overweight old men disturbed by his presence. Instead, he discovered that the sauna was empty.

  Daniel rushed into the next room filled with steam, and there he found what he feared. He spotted a man about the size of Max, slumped back with nothing but a towel around him.

  Daniel hurried in to see if the man was alive. Once closer, he confirmed it was Max and felt for a pulse. He was about to go call for an ambulance when he realized he had been sloppy. There were other adjacent sauna rooms, and he hadn’t cleared them first. He wasn’t alone with Max in the sauna.

  Daniel spun away instinctively, narrowly evading the garrote the attacker attempted to twist around his neck.

  The attacker had another weapon, though. A baton cut through the steam and smash down on the marble, narrowly missing Daniel who continued to roll away.

  As Daniel lunged at the attacker to engage him in close quarters, he cursed himself for his carelessness. Officer Carter would chide him for his sloppy tradecraft. Daniel had rushed in without bothering to check for a trap.

  Or, had Daniel nearly made it in time to save Max?

  Daniel put his grappling training with Rex to good use and brought the attacker down onto the hard floor. The attacker, dressed in black, a ski mask covering his face, was stunned momentarily. Daniel bridged his legs over the upper body and grasped one arm for an armbar. In a competitive match, the man would undoubtedly pass out. In a fight for life or death, Daniel knew he might have to break the arm.

  But as Daniel braced himself to lean back to apply the maximum pressure on the arm, something made Daniel hesitate.

  Though the attacker was powerful, he lacked the broad shoulders Daniel was accustomed to grappling with.

  It’s a woman, Daniel thought to himself.

  The surprise gave the attacker the opportunity she needed.

  She countered the armbar and slipped away. Daniel managed to grab her and yanked at her mask.

  She pulled off her mask and sprang to her feet. Her blond hair fell to her shoulders, and she fled from the room.

  “Who are you?” Daniel called out as he rose to chase her.

  Daniel proceeded through the steam as quickly as he dared.

  After hearing a crash, he came upon a heap of hot stones next to a searing hot electric prong. Steam poured forth as the toppled water pail spilled its contents onto the heating element.

  Daniel stepped over it, but he slipped slightly and oddly bent his knee. Though he avoided serious injury, it allowed more distance between him and the woman.

  When Daniel entered the back rooms, he paused and looked about. Steam no longer obscured his sight, but the laundry rooms and staff locker rooms formed a maze.

  Daniel took a few quiet steps towards what he guessed was the shortest way to an exit.

  The click of a shutting door lured Daniel through the maze until he reached the rear exit of the Russian bathhouse. Daniel pushed the door open and threw himself into the alley and looked both ways.

  He caught a glimpse of the blond hair and black shoes turning into another alley about thirty yards away.

  Daniel took a step to go after her, but his tweaked knee protested.

  If I can’t get her, I need Max alive to find out what happened, Daniel thought to himself.

  Daniel stumbled back into the sauna, his knee hurting more with each step. When he found Max, he was breathing, but barely. Unable to calculate the possibilities of what Max had planned or expected in the sauna, he hurried back to the receptionist to call for an ambulance.

  After making the call, Daniel turned to the angry receptionist and said, “I think you’re going to need to close the sauna for the day.”

  As Daniel waited, he felt convinced that Max was a traitor. Perhaps Max had been expecting to meet with his handler, but the woman had been sent to tie up loose ends.

  5

  “I heard from your father,” Daniel’s mother said later that night over dinner. She had made his favorite. Fettuccine Alfredo.

  “That’s unusual,” Daniel said. “Let me guess: he couldn’t tell you where he was, what he was doing, or when he would see you next. Which would be about never.”

  After being attacked in the sauna earlier that day, hearing about his father was the last thing Daniel wanted. Officer Carter had sent Daniel home from the sauna to get ready for his late flight to Uzbekistan with Rex. After she questioned him for most of the afternoon, she assured him she would handle the follow-up and that he had to focus on tracking the terrorists in Uzbekistan.

  “It’s not as though you’re forthcoming about what you do,” Daniel’s mother chided.

  “Come on. You know why that is. I can’t talk about my work. Besides, I’m here, aren’t I? You can’t say I’m like Dad.”

  “No, I guess not,” his mother conceded. “But aren’t you leaving tonight? Have you seen Tina recently? You’ve talked a lot about her.”

  “I have?” Daniel asked defensively. “It’s work stuff. She’s joining the team. She’s got some great skills.”

  “Skills?” his mother asked suggestively.

  “Come on,” Daniel said again. “Mom, you’re incorrigible. We’re just acquaintances, and hopefully coworkers. Dating a coworker can be a bit odd.”

  “It’s working for Jenny and Rex.”

  “Who says they’re dating?” Daniel asked.

  “Just because I’m not in the intelligence business like you and your father doesn’t mean I’m blind and dumb. I see how those two interact, even if they aren’t dating, or going steady, or whatever you kids call it these days.”

  “Okay, so they like each other. That doesn’t mean everybody on our team needs to date each other.”

  “As long as it’s not Officer Carter,” his mother said. They both laughed at that.

  “You don’t want me dating a woman your age?” Daniel said jokingly.

  “What I want is a woman who can give me grandchildren, not an old lady like me. Of course, I would support anybody you decide to love.”

  “As long as they give you grandchildren,” Daniel corrected her. She didn’t argue with that.

  “All joking aside, I’ve already lost your father. He’s still alive, but I just wish I had family nearby that I could see and hug.”

  “Thanks for dinner, Mom,” Daniel said as he got up from the table.

  “I know you can’t tell me what you will be doing overseas, but can you at least tel
l me you should be okay?”

  “Yeah, I should,” Daniel said.

  “Don’t be so carefree about it. Will you continue flying off like this mysteriously, and then look back years from now and regret not settling down? And hardly ever see your mother?”

  “Mom,” Daniel began to counter. But Daniel wondered if family life was compatible with his work on the MDF team. Officer Carter never married and didn’t have children. Daniel’s father had, and Daniel hated him because of his career.

  “Do you absolutely have to go tonight? Why doesn’t Rex go without you?”

  “Yes, I have to go tonight.”

  His mother gave a pleading look. Pepper, the dog laying quietly in the corner, emitted a soft whine as he yawned.

  “I’ll give it some thought,” Daniel promised. “And if it makes you feel better, Tina and I do have a date planned…”

  “But now you have to cancel it because you’re leaving tonight, don’t you?”

  Daniel couldn’t argue with that.

  “After this trip, I’ll think this all through seriously,” Daniel said. “But now I have to go pack. Pepper will keep you company.”

  Daniel’s mother began cleaning the kitchen, and Daniel went upstairs to his room. His clothes fit easily into one bag, and he saved the gun for last. After unlocking his father’s gun safe, he removed the well cared for Glock. Its weight and balance felt perfect in his hand. It was his father’s favorite. Daniel packed it for the trip.

  Daniel pulled out a file on Edwards and began studying the man who would be his new mentor in Uzbekistan. To his disappointment, most of the text was blacked out, even for somebody with Daniel’s clearance.

  About an hour later, Daniel’s mother called up to let him know Rex was there to go with him to Dulles airport.

  Daniel came down with his bag in time to hear Rex reassure his mother with bravado, “Don’t worry, Mrs. K., Daniel will take out the terrorists and become a spymaster himself.”