by J A Heaton
The pieces began to fall into place for Daniel.
“Riley is dead, Max is here in D.C., and so it must be the Wolf getting one last intelligence dump before he flees and disappears forever,” Officer Carter said just as Daniel figured it out.
“I was with Fitzpatrick in Riley’s office just before lunch earlier today,” Daniel thought out loud. “Fitzpatrick was then at the conference. Tina was keeping tabs on him and Edwards. We need to let her know one of them is probably going to disappear.”
“And you need to help her watch those two,” Officer Carter ordered Daniel.
Daniel gave Rex a look and knew he wouldn’t be joining Rex on the raid to Isaac’s home.
“I don’t like us being spread so thin,” Daniel said.
“It will work,” Rex reassured Daniel. “If you and Tina can keep your eyes on Fitzpatrick and Edwards, we’ll learn from Isaac who the Wolf is soon enough.”
“I just hope it is soon enough,” Daniel added. “And I hope Tina stays on her toes. The Wolf could kill her in order to get away. I didn’t make her too happy about babysitting at the conference.”
“She might not have liked your orders to be at the conference,” Rex said, “but she’s a pro and will handle herself.”
“You’re right,” Daniel conceded. “By this time tomorrow night, the Wolf—”
Several hard knocks came at the door.
“Daniel? Daniel?”
They recognized the voice. It was Edwards.
Rex abruptly ended the call and shut the laptop.
Daniel opened the door a foot.
“What’s up?” Daniel asked. “How has the conference been going?”
Edwards squinted as he briefly tried to look past Daniel and into the room.
“Uneventful,” Edwards said. “I was looking for you to see if you wanted to grab a drink. I could tell you my newest theory about the Wolf. Besides, Ambassador Fitzpatrick and Tina were going out for dinner and a drink together, and I didn’t want to feel like the third wheel. Hopefully, Tina knows what she’s doing.”
“Tina can handle herself,” Daniel said. “But yeah, sure, I’ll join you for a drink. I think Rex was just going to bed, though.”
Daniel looked back to Rex as he left the room to go with Edwards.
He hoped Rex was right about Tina and that she stayed alert.
“Let me grab a few things first,” Daniel said as he went to get his Glock and the satellite phone.
I think that either Tina or I is having a drink with the Wolf tonight.
“I think you know why I wanted to talk to you,” Edwards said to Daniel. They sat at Edwards’ favorite Western restaurant, which was next door to the Intercontinental Hotel. “You’ve been busy.”
“I’m just an analyst,” Daniel said sheepishly as he picked at his food.
“Come on,” Edwards said with a slight smile. “While I’ve been sitting at a conference and listening to politicians blow smoke up everybody’s ass, you have uncovered Michael Devers at a secret facility, and you caught Billy with his hand in the cookie jar.”
Daniel shrugged nervously, as if it had all been luck.
“How close are you to solving the bombing?”
“You know I’m not really supposed to talk about the bombing, even with you,” Daniel said.
Edwards shrugged and took a sip from his beer.
He said, “I’ve been hearing that one for years. It seems like nobody can ever talk about anything. But I know where you’re coming from. I hunted the Wolf for years. It was kind of my obsession for a long while. I wish you luck with him. But after this conference, I’m rethinking things. There has been absolutely zero suspicious activity at the conference. And I’ve thought a lot about what you said. Maybe I am a bit dated in this business. I must let you know that, honestly, I think the Wolf might be a ghost, a concoction made up by the KGB during the Cold War to intimidate us. Most likely, my feeling is that the Wolf is really just a combination of a few sources that are made to look like one mighty powerful spy to frighten us.”
“Really?” Daniel asked. “You thought the Wolf was more important than the War on Terror about a week ago.”
“Yeah, but the Wolf’s information has been from all over the place. It could be a bunch of lower-level sources all over the world. If one occasionally hits the jackpot, it can make the Wolf look like a highly placed spy. If we clean up all the little leaks, we’ll discover that the mythical Wolf may disappear - because he never existed.”
“Hey, I’m the one who argued that last week,” Daniel reminded Edwards. Daniel wanted to keep Edwards talking. He gave the senior officer an opportunity to gloat. “You’ve been around the block a few times, and you’ve been with the CIA since the Cold War. If you’re so sure now that the Wolf is fiction, what did it feel like when you got closest to him?”
“I’ll never forget the defector we were bringing across the Berlin Wall back in the day,” Edwards said as he swallowed a mouthful of beer. Daniel mimicked Edwards and sipped his drink. “The defector said he would deliver the identity of an agent code-named Wolf. ‘The time has finally come,’ I had thought. The Stasi and the KGB have been kicking our asses all over Europe, especially in Berlin, for years. They were always one step ahead of us, it seemed, and we could never get one over on them. When this man said he could hand us the Wolf, we thought we were about to get rid of all our problems. But first, we had to get the defector across the Wall. He wouldn’t talk until he was safely in the West.”
“What happened?” Daniel asked.
“All the defector had to do was go to a deserted warehouse. We had uncovered an unused utility passageway that would lead him near one of the subway stations where we would pick him up.”
“That doesn’t make sense. It couldn’t have been that easy.”
“This wasn’t just any subway station. This was one of the ghost stations. You see, when East Germany put up the Berlin Wall, it’s not as though the Wall was a perfectly straight line. It wound its way through the general center of the city, but parts of it even ran east and west, not north and south. More confusingly, some of the subway lines, while underground, would pass from West Berlin into East Berlin and then back into West Berlin. Obviously, the Stasi couldn’t allow East Berliners to board the subway on one side of the Wall, ride, and then get off on the other side. So, they shut down the subway stops that were in East Berlin on Western subway lines. These stations were called ghost stations.”
“But you found the utility passageway for the defector to get into a ghost station, and then you just had to use the Western subway line to get him out?” Daniel said.
“Basically,” Edwards confirmed. “There were guards at the ghost stations, but they hadn’t covered all the secret passageways. I never had any problems before that night.” Edwards stared off into space as he said, “God, those were the days. So much happened in those tunnels.”
Daniel wondered what Edwards was thinking about before he continued.
“But when I got there, the defector was dead. They had killed him and cut off his lips. Rigor mortis had not set in, and his body didn’t feel cold. They had recently killed him.”
“Did you think of going through the passageway to chase the killer?” Daniel asked.
“I thought about it. Believe me, I wanted to run and kill whomever I encountered. But my orders were clear. Get the defector and bring him back. If I had given chase, I would’ve been on my own. Even if I did catch the killer and kill him, I would’ve gotten in big trouble for disobeying orders. And worst-case scenario, the Grepos or Stasi would’ve captured me. Who knows what they would’ve done with me? I was in East Berlin, after all.”
“So that was the closest you ever got?” Daniel asked. He began to lift his glass, but he froze.
Daniel thought he saw Ambassador Fitzpatrick enter the restaurant with Tina.
But he was mistaken. The man’s suit was brown, but the woman was too tall.
Daniel brought his glass
to his lips and took a sip.
Wherever Tina is, I hope she’s safe, Daniel thought. If one of us doesn’t make it out of this alive…
“The defector was dead with his lips cut off,” Edwards said, seemingly unaware of Daniel’s break in concentration. “The worst part is that the Berlin Wall came down just a few days later.” Edwards finished his beer and placed it on the table. He leaned towards Daniel and said, “If he had just lain low for a couple more days, he could have walked under his own power into West Berlin, entered any NATO building and yelled at the top of his lungs who the Wolf was, and he would have been fine.”
“Or, maybe, the Wolf was never real, and that was all part of the KGB’s plan to inflate the Wolf’s legend,” Daniel suggested.
“I’m beginning to think that is likely,” Edwards agreed. “The conference has been a bust in terms of uncovering the Wolf.”
“But Billy seems to be cover for the Wolf. Did you ever suspect anything was wrong with Billy?” Daniel asked.
Edwards waved his hand, calling for another drink, and then answered. “No. Sure, he wasn’t perfect, but he did do a lot of good things, most of which I can’t even tell you about.”
“It seems Billy hoped he was getting really close to the Wolf’s identity in St. Petersburg,” Daniel said.
“Leningrad,” Edwards said, almost as if to himself, mentioning the city’s name before it was changed in 1991. “That whole Devers affair was messed up.” Edwards pulled out a lighter and began lighting up a cigarette.
Daniel’s mind raced as he tried to decide if Edwards should have known about Devers in St. Petersburg.
“I guess it shouldn’t surprise me,” Edwards continued. “Everybody in this game deals with the stresses differently. Some of them turn to alcohol, drugs, women, and gambling. And I know that some of the agents we’ve had from the Soviet Union were like Jekyll and Hyde. They were straight-laced military guys by day, but by night, they could crave some bizarre stuff. But Billy was smart enough to keep his binges outside of working hours to conceal them. Perhaps Billy was just one of those little leaks that contributed to the myth of the Wolf.” Edwards shrugged as he shook his cigarette over the ashtray. “There’s a lot of secrets I won’t know the answers to in this life. The dots don’t always connect so nicely like they do in the movies. Lots of dead ends. Lots of uncertainty.”
“Lots of uncertainty,” Daniel agreed.
“But let me be straight with you,” Edwards said, pulling Daniel back into their conversation. “I need sharp men. Hell, I won’t be around forever. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m an old hand, and now I’ve lost Billy.” He paused for a moment. “Tell me about yourself.”
“Well,” Daniel started nervously, “You know about the MDF team that I’m heading up. In reality, I’m a linguistic analyst, and Rex does most of the fieldwork. And Tina was with the FBI, so she’s usually in the field too. My adventure here in Uzbekistan is making me think I belong behind a desk.”
“Can I talk you into becoming a field guy in my unit?” Edwards asked. “I have better funding than Officer Carter, which means more pay for you. And I have the best unit, so we get the best missions. Maybe you do belong behind a desk, but I think you have potential.”
“I’m just a linguist and an analyst,” Daniel said. “It would be a waste if I was doing anything other than that.”
“I understand,” Edwards said. “Not everybody is cut out for the field. Amateurs in the field only get people killed. Believe me, I’ve seen that too many times.”
Daniel sheepishly agreed. He thought as he chewed. Edwards wants me closer to him in the future, he realized.
But before he could think about it more, he felt the buzz of his satellite phone.
“Hello? I’m just enjoying a drink with Edwards—”
They have to know I can’t talk openly, whoever it is.
Officer Carter’s voice sharply replied: “Tina hasn’t checked in, and we can’t get in touch with her.”
“Edwards said Fitzpatrick and Tina were having dinner and a drink,” Daniel said. He gave a momentary smile to Edwards.
“I think Fitzpatrick is making a run for it,” Officer Carter said. “Find him and Tina.”
“Okay. I’ll go back to the embassy and start working on it,” Daniel replied. He ended the call.
“Duty calls,” Daniel explained to Edwards as he rose to leave.
“I understand,” Edwards said. “I might as well come with you.”
Daniel forced himself to remain calm and purposeful as he exited the restaurant. Inside, Daniel wanted to run to find Tina, but his instincts told him to not fully trust Edwards yet. He continued to act as if he was heading back for another extremely late night at the office.
Please God, don’t let anything happen to Tina…
“What time is it, anyway?” Daniel asked Edwards as the driver slowed for a U-turn that would take them to the US Embassy.
“It’s about one in the morning,” Edwards said after a glance at his watch. Daniel knew Rex planned to start his raid at one in the morning. “Are you sure you don’t want to be a field spook in my unit?”
Daniel was about to answer when his satellite phone buzzed again.
“Jenny?” Daniel said after he answered the phone.
“No, it’s Muhammad,” came the reply as Daniel gave a smile to Edwards as if to apologize for taking the call.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Muhammad continued.
As Daniel listened to Muhammad’s report, a roaring engine and squealing tires turned Daniel’s attention to another large SUV that was accelerating on a perpendicular intercept course.
The large SUV smashed into the front driver’s side of the US embassy vehicle carrying Daniel and Edwards. The last thing Daniel remembered was the disorientation of the car repeatedly spinning and then flipping over from the collision.
Pavel had made his move.
17
Rex checked the time. It was just before one in the morning.
Rex knew he and Gunner and Walters wouldn’t have to wait much longer.
I hate waiting, Rex thought to himself as he gazed at Isaac and Nigora’s fortress-like home from a block away.
As if on cue, a gray car with license plates from the British embassy pulled up to the guard tower in front of Nigora and Isaac’s house.
“The party is getting started,” Rex told Gunner and Walters quietly. Rex was anxious to put their elite skills to use. He ran through the plan one more time in his head. Satellite imagery had revealed a large courtyard inside the walls, with a pool surrounded by decorative vegetation in the back. A second-floor balcony was probably connected to the bedroom in which Isaac was sleeping. Rex hoped Nigora had followed Daniel’s advice to not return home. Rex didn’t trust her; she was too much of a wildcard.
Rex watched as the guard in the booth exchanged angry words with the man at the steering wheel. A man got out of the backseat of the car and took a few stumbling steps. Rex chuckled at the sight of his MI6 buddy playing drunk.
The guard barked an order at the Brit.
The drunken man stepped aggressively towards the guard and began yelling at him.
“Pretty good acting,” Rex observed.
Two more guards came to the front gate to assist the first.
The show of force didn’t make the drunk back down. Instead, he lunged at the first guard and swung dramatically with a looping haymaker. The guard dodged easily and doubled him over with a blow to his midsection.
The drunk backed away and reached into his pocket as he straightened up.
All three guards drew their weapons and pointed them at the drunk and began yelling more orders.
“You’re going to owe your MI6 friend big-time for this,” Walters said to Rex.
“Nah,” Rex disagreed. “Jeremy owed me from before. He’s doing a good job, though.”
Jeremy raised his hands into the air, revealing a cigarette and a lighter.
T
he guards stood steadfastly and motioned with their weapons towards the gray car. Jeremy complied and climbed back into the British embassy vehicle. Moments later, it backed away slowly. The guards didn’t stand down until the gray car was out of sight.
“Hopefully that’s enough excitement for them for one night,” Rex said. “Now we know there are at least two men inside. We just need to wait for them to lower their guard. They can’t stay on high alert forever.”
“I’m glad Jeremy didn’t get himself shot,” Walters said.
“He played it perfectly,” Rex said. “I reckon I owe him a pint now.”
Rex rechecked the time.
I hate waiting, Rex thought to himself. But I need to let them stew a bit longer.
About fifty minutes later, Rex thanked God it was finally time.
“Go time,” Rex said to Gunner and Walters. “But remember, we can only use lethal force on Isaac, and that’s only if necessary.”
“We always appreciate a challenge, sir,” Walters said with a grin.
Their dark camouflage concealed them under cover of darkness as they exited their observation post and approached Isaac and Nigora’s house. They crouched behind bushes and Rex pulled out the radio detonator.
Rex pressed the button.
An explosion boomed about a block away. The electric transformer for the whole neighborhood exploded, and the street went black.
There wouldn’t be much time until backup generators in Isaac’s mansion kicked in.
Rex and his men dashed to the back wall of the house and tossed up their grappling hooks. They scaled the wall in less than thirty seconds and looked with their night vision goggles down into the courtyard.
Rex counted several more than the two guards who had helped greet Jeremy earlier. All but one of them left, presumably to examine the exploded transformer elsewhere in the neighborhood. The one guard remained near the pool, smoking, but he was facing the front of the house and the activity in that direction.