The Missing Spy

by J A Heaton

  A door clicked as somebody came into the shooting range.

  “Daniel?” Tina’s voice gently said.

  “I’m here,” Daniel said, trying to control his voice. He both desperately wanted to see her and avoid her at the same time.

  “Why aren’t you sleeping?” Tina asked as she approached Daniel. When she came into the light, he saw that she was wearing her favorite jeans and her Georgetown sweatshirt. Her ponytail made her appear deceptively sweet.

  “I can’t,” Daniel responded. “You should be sleeping, too,” Daniel said before Tina could dig more.

  Tina gave a questioning glance to the rifle resting nearby.

  Daniel remembered his last time at a shooting range with Tina and said, “Sorry about Saturday night. Work.” He hoped Tina would allow him to joke.

  “I understand the job,” Tina replied. “Your aim still no good?”

  But Tina’s jab made Daniel’s heart crumble. He looked away and could barely stand.

  “I’m sorry. What’s the matter?” Tina said as she took a step towards Daniel, sensing there was much more going on.

  “I shouldn’t be in the field,” Daniel confessed as his throat tightened. “I missed, and an American is dead because of it.”

  He shut his eyes to hold back the tears.

  Tina wrapped her arms around Daniel in an embrace. He lowered his head to her shoulder and began sobbing as he tried to explain to Tina.

  “I shouldn’t have left him… I should have found a way to get him out… I should have been able to make the shot…”

  Tina didn’t reply. She only held Daniel and reassured him it would be all right.

  When Daniel finished crying after several minutes, Tina finally said, “Even the best don’t win every time. What matters is that you get back up again and stay in the game. That’s how you become the best.”

  Daniel gave a nod of understanding, stepped back and said, “Thanks.”

  He felt embarrassed, almost naked, in front of Tina.

  “For what it’s worth,” Tina continued, “I think you have what it takes.”

  She stepped towards him and gave another hug to comfort him. Daniel took several deep breaths as she held him.

  “Oh, and Jenny sent this for you,” Tina said. She pulled out a folded note and handed it to Daniel. The paper was folded into a square, origami-style.

  Daniel took it with a grin and said, “It’s like she’s passing a note in third grade. Why didn’t she…?”

  Daniel opened the note and understood immediately. The note read: “Billy and Carter connected??!!”

  “What does it say?” Tina asked.

  “I can’t explain now,” Daniel said as he refolded the note. Tina accepted his answer and didn’t pry. Daniel realized Jenny must have uncovered something at least one day before. That allowed time for Tina’s travel to Uzbekistan to hand-deliver the note. And Jenny didn’t have another way to communicate her suspicions about Officer Carter to him without Carter becoming aware of it.

  But Daniel’s mind refused to work anymore, and he said to Tina, “I need to sleep. I’m exhausted.”

  Daniel and Tina walked hand-in-hand to Daniel’s sleeping quarters where he immediately fell asleep until 7:55 AM.

  “I was about to ask where the hell you were,” Officer Carter said over the video feed in the briefing room at the K2 Airbase. Daniel entered just as the clock ticked to eight in the morning.

  “Sorry, I—”

  “No apologies necessary,” Officer Carter said. “I’ve been briefed on what has transpired. Jenny has several items to report on first.”

  “Hi, guys!” Jenny said as she enthusiastically waved at the camera. Daniel, Rex, and Tina waved back. Daniel thought he saw Rex wink at Jenny before she began her report. Everybody in the room sipped on coffee and munched on donuts.

  “First, that prison-facility thing you encountered in the mountains. It was originally built to support the Soviet-Afghan War. The Soviets would send key POWs there for interrogation, torture, and possibly execution. It also became a convenient place for a few high-level KGB men to put their political opponents, anybody who crossed their path, or anybody else they wanted to make disappear without a paper trail. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the prison remained a convenient place for Russian oligarchs to put their garbage. It was also used by the president of Uzbekistan to get rid of his own political enemies in ways that he knew the general population wouldn’t approve of, especially when it violated his newly enlightened and Western-friendly Constitution that came about after the fall of the Soviet Union. The prison facility continued to exist because of an uneasy alliance between the Russian FSB and the president of Uzbekistan and his own cronies. The president’s political opponents, however, at least those who had so far avoided imprisonment, suspected that such a place existed and wanted to do away with it.”

  “How did you learn so much about a place we just learned existed?” Rex asked.

  “A lot of help from that detective, Jahongir, in Tashkent,” Jenny answered. Despite how surprising this was to Daniel, he decided not to interrupt.

  “Whoever controlled it recently,” Officer Carter said, “must have realized that the facility’s days were numbered and has been trying to close shop. Daniel entered during its last hour.”

  “And about what you found at the facility,” Jenny continued, keeping up her rapid-fire pace. “We have nothing on a man named Vasyli Fedorov. However, it matches the name on a report Daniel took from Dmitri’s safe. Our translators are working on it now, but our preliminary guess is that Vasiyli had betrayed the Soviet Union. Dmitri hid the evidence in that report, and then set him free.”

  “Keep digging on Vasyli,” Daniel said. “Dmitri may have told him something. Maybe even who the mole is.”

  Daniel looked to Officer Carter over the video as he mentioned the mole, but she didn’t react visibly.

  “Muhammad and I will keep looking into Vasyli, but I’ve still got lots to tell you,” Jenny said. “The bald man Daniel encountered at both the prison facility and the Intercontinental hotel was in the CIA database. There’s a file on him from Tashkent. Basically, he was a Spetsnaz soldier late in the Soviet-Afghan War, and then things get murky. There’s speculation he was in prison, with the KGB and then the FSB, but he mostly disappears. Now, he’s suspected of being connected to the Russian mafia. He goes by Pavel.”

  “And when he shot Michael Devers,” Daniel began, “that confirmed he’s a bad guy.”

  When Daniel mentioned Michael, he did see Officer Carter’s eyes look down.

  “Oh, and I almost forgot,” Jenny said as she flipped through some papers. “The other document you found in Dmitri’s safe was a birth certificate. For his son. Like I said, they’re still translating all that was in the safe, so there could be more.”

  “I just think it’s odd he would keep a birth certificate of his deceased son in his office safe,” Daniel pondered out loud.

  “Any news on that code you guys are trying to crack with computers?” Rex asked. Daniel had nearly forgotten about the coded message they had found in Dmitri’s apartment.

  “That’s why Muhammad isn’t here,” Officer Carter said. “Basically, no, he hasn’t cracked it.”

  “He wasn’t able to find an old Russian edition of The Communist Manifesto to use as the key, so he’s doing the best he can,” Jenny added.

  “I wonder… Never mind,” Daniel said.

  “So what’s our next step, given all this information?” Tina asked. “We don’t seem any closer to solving Dmitri’s murder—or Patrick Riley’s, for that matter—and finding the mole.”

  “The last thing I was going to mention,” Jenny said, “was that the detective, Jahongir, told me more about Zuhro’s first husband.”

  “Is he in Tashkent?” Daniel asked.

  “Yes,” Officer Carter answered. “And he’s connected to the SNB in Uzbekistan.”

  “Who isn’t a freaking spy in this mess?” Re
x said out loud.

  “And his expertise was explosives and bombs,” Officer Carter finished.

  “He would have the motive and the means to bomb Dmitri,” Tina observed.

  “You guys get back up to Tashkent to track him down,” Officer Carter ordered, “and you also need to keep an eye on the International Security Conference. I don’t trust Billy, Fitzpatrick, or Edwards.”

  Daniel noticed it was the first time she had mentioned Edwards as a potential mole. Previously, she had been eager for Daniel to leave and work with Edwards.

  “Okay,” Rex said. “All we have to do is solve multiple murders, take on the Russian mafia, and catch this mole who has evaded capture for decades. I think the three of us can handle it. We’re the pros, after all.”

  Officer Carter added something that surprised Daniel.

  “I want to tell the three of you that I knew Michael Devers before he disappeared. Honestly, I try not to think about him. It was a tough time for me and the CIA. But I can tell you that he was one of the best. Get up to Tashkent, and if nothing else, find justice for Michael Devers.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” was the response in unison.

  Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

  US Embassy.

  About 10:30 AM.

  “Up yours, Daniel,” Tina whispered angrily as they walked down the quiet hallway in the embassy.

  Daniel had feared this reaction his whole flight back up to Tashkent. It was why he hadn’t slept as much as he had wanted to.

  “You need me with you when you pound the pavement,” Tina protested. “That’s what I’m best at.”

  “No,” Daniel responded. “I need you to keep an eye on Billy, Fitzpatrick, and Edwards at the conference.”

  “You want me to babysit?”

  “Rex can’t do it,” Daniel said. “He’s a knuckle-dragger. You, however, are savvy enough to keep an eye on those three. Besides, I suspect they will underestimate you. And I need Rex with me on the streets. Me, with a woman like you, trying to ask tough questions wouldn’t work here in Uzbekistan.”

  “Why the hell not?” Tina demanded.

  “I’m sorry, it’s just how relatively young and good-looking women are regarded,” Daniel said. “Rex and I might need to get tough, and—”

  Tina quickly veered into an empty conference room and shut the door after Daniel followed her inside.

  Daniel was surprised she managed not to yell at him.

  “I watched my partner get gunned down in front of me, and I got pretty damned tough in the toughest neighborhoods of D.C., so I think I can handle it.”

  Daniel knew Tina was right about that.

  They each took a few deep breaths, and Daniel said, “I know you can handle it. I have to hit the streets because I can communicate in Uzbek. Rex doesn’t fit in at the conference. Those guys won’t do a thing if Rex is within ten miles. Those lonely old guys will open up to you.”

  “I’m not going to flirt with those dirty old men,” Tina protested. “When I joined, I said I would never whore myself out.”

  “I’m not saying you have to do that,” Daniel said. “I just meant that—”

  The door swung open, and a man wearing a tweed suit entered.

  “I thought I saw you go in here,” Ambassador Fitzpatrick said as his eyes went back and forth between Daniel and Tina. “Am I interrupting anything between you two?”

  Not now, Daniel thought to himself.

  “Hello, Ambassador,” Tina said with a smile. “And, no, you were not interrupting anything between us two. I look forward to seeing you at the conference. Perhaps you could show me around.”

  Tina brushed by Fitzpatrick and left him alone with Daniel.

  Daniel wished he could have explained more to Tina, but he couldn’t avoid Ambassador Fitzpatrick.

  Daniel paused and wondered why Ambassador Fitzpatrick had followed him down the hallway.

  A man who wears a tweed suit surely can’t be the Wolf, Daniel thought to himself. And surely he wouldn’t do anything within the US Embassy.

  14

  “About that Land Cruiser you abandoned in Samarkand,” Ambassador Fitzpatrick started to say. Daniel stepped by him and exited the conference room, relieved that was all he wanted to talk about. Daniel continued down the hallway towards Patrick Riley’s office.

  “I forgot about that car,” Daniel apologized. “It was necessary for the security of the mission.”

  “But it clearly violated regulations of the vehicle’s use,” the ambassador countered. Daniel ignored him as he listed all the infractions.

  “And what are you doing here, anyway?” Ambassador Fitzpatrick asked when they arrived at Patrick’s office.

  Daniel opened the door and said, “I’m looking for a book Patrick said he would lend me.” He studied the ambassador’s face as he entered the office to see how he would react to the lie. But his face was still red from agitation over the Land Cruiser.

  “And now I should expect you to fetch the vehicle personally so as not to waste valuable personnel from here. But I fear I should never allow you into another US Embassy vehicle. You amateur intelligence officers. I was once in the CIA, you know? And back then…”

  Daniel only half listened as he looked around the barren office while Fitzpatrick rambled on.

  Patrick had said he hadn’t unpacked the boxes at his home. Only two boxes sat on the desk. Daniel opened one and rummaged through it. He soon found a book and went to leave the office.

  “The Communist Manifesto?” Fitzpatrick asked with disgust when he saw the cover and translated it. “You don’t know Russian.”

  “I might try to learn. Actually, it’s needed to crack a code.”

  With a wink, Daniel walked away and left Ambassador Fitzpatrick in frustrated silence. Patrick had the exact same edition as Dmitri, strengthening Daniel’s hypothesis that it was for a code.

  Ambassador Fitzpatrick stepped out of the office and called after Daniel.

  “Do you know where Billy is? He’s supposed to go to this conference, but he hasn’t been seen since yesterday. He ought to stay in better touch than this. Edwards is already at the conference.”

  “Sorry. I have no idea where Billy is,” Daniel answered over his shoulder. He wondered if Billy’s disappearance was something to be worried about, or if Fitzpatrick was being uptight about his rules.

  Minutes later, Daniel dropped off Patrick Riley’s old Russian edition of The Communist Manifesto with a secretary and gave clear instructions. He told the secretary to scan the whole book and send it to Jenny and Muhammad at the CIA in Washington D.C. Then, he was to notify Daniel when they confirmed receipt, or, more importantly, if anybody interfered.

  Ambassador Fitzpatrick studied up on me enough to catch that I don’t know Russian, Daniel thought to himself. Let’s see if he gets in the way of my team cracking a code that could identify the Wolf.

  “Bad news,” Rex said to Daniel as they drove away from the US Embassy. Gunner and Walters rode in the backseat. “I got a message from Detective Jahongir. Zuhro, Dmitri’s widow, was murdered last night. He said the Russian mafia is suspected.”

  “Maybe the Wolf is getting desperate and trying to tie up any potential loose ends,” Daniel said.

  “I challenged Jahongir on why his men shot the man who stabbed Patrick Riley, and he said they were dirty. Compromised by, guess who, the Russian mafia.”

  “Jenny said Jahongir had been very helpful in tracking down information about Zuhro’s first husband,” Daniel said. “Maybe he is a good guy, trying to clean out corruption.”

  “Let’s hope so and that he’s not leading us into a trap. And from now on, you need to keep these with you.” Rex patted the satellite phone and Glock in the holster that rested on the console. “But hopefully, we won’t need them, or Gunner and Walters.”

  “Aww, come on,” both Gunner and Walters complained from the back.

  Minutes later, Rex pulled off into a neighborhood.

  “It looks like o
ur man, Shahriyor, still has some power,” Daniel observed as their black Embassy vehicle pulled up at the last known address of Zuhro’s first husband.

  Like most houses in Tashkent, the front of the property was a wall with a gate. But in this case, the wall was two stories high. The ornate gate was wide enough for two cars, and security cameras rested on the upper corners of the wall. A guard booth stood in front of the gate. An armed guard stepped out.

  “Well, let’s go knock on the door,” Daniel said to Rex as he got out of the car. He left the satellite phone and gun behind. Gunner and Walters got out and stood by the car with their arms crossed.

  The guard approached Daniel and Rex and said, “You need to leave. You can’t park there.”

  “Tell Shahriyor that the US Embassy wants to talk with him. Let him know that getting on our good side can be very beneficial and profitable,” Daniel said.

  The guard hesitated. Daniel hoped the embassy vehicle and the extra show of muscle would sway the guard-and Shahriyor.

  “Wait here,” the guard said before going back to his guard booth and speaking into a radio.

  “What if he tells us to get lost?” Rex whispered to Daniel.

  “We’ll let Shahriyor know he’s implicated in the bombing from last week.”

  “Hopefully hardball will work,” Rex said.

  “If we can’t talk to this guy, Tina is going to be pissed at me,” Daniel said.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Daniel said. The guard was still on the radio. “Hey, Jenny sent a note with Tina that she had uncovered a connection between Officer Carter and Billy.”

  “You don’t think Officer Carter is involved with the Wolf, do you?” Rex asked. “Man, this guard is taking all day. Is Jenny in danger? Somebody already got to Max.” Rex’s last statement set in, and Daniel saw panic creep into Rex’s eyes.