Hit For Hire

by David Archer

  “But that would only affect England, right?”

  “From the standpoint of Royal influence, yes,” Noah said. “However, and especially after Brexit, it’s likely the EU’s policies that are already getting pretty strict about Muslim immigrants would cause them to rally behind that attitude. They would point to England as setting a standard they should follow. That might cause problems for organizations like IAR that use Islamic extremists as pawns in their own political games.”

  Sarah waggled her head and grimaced. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. But if he gets taken out, who would take his place?”

  “Prince William would be the next in the line of succession. There have even been rumors for the last year or two that the Queen wanted him to be next in line, anyway. He’s a little more liberal than his father, so I’m assuming they think they’d have fewer problems out of him. It’s likely that IAR is using terrorism to advance some sort of agendas that are more about manipulating markets than politics; if that’s true, then all they’re really after is keeping the immigration routes open, so they have plenty of willing pawns to sacrifice.”

  “So now what do you do?”

  Noah shrugged. “I go to this meeting tomorrow and try to figure out who sits on this council so I can take them out. I doubt I’m going to get the opportunity while we’re there, so we need to identify them. After that, I can start making plans on how to eliminate them.”

  Sarah rolled her eyes. “Oh, is that all? Gee, I thought it was going to be something difficult.”

  TWELVE

  They got back to the hotel—with Sarah certain that they weren’t being followed—at just before four thirty, and Moose and Neil arrived a half-hour later. Moose dropped a big bucket of fried chicken onto the table in Noah’s room while Neil set up his computer.

  “Broussard called another sat phone in Italy,” he said. “I managed to get its ESN as well, so I’ve got a little surprise for you. The woman he called started making calls of her own as soon as she hung up from talking to him, and I’ve got those for you, too. Here, listen to his call while I stuff some chicken down my throat.” He tapped a key on the computer and the reporting began to play.

  There was ringing, and then a woman’s voice, with a slight Italian accent, could be heard: Hello?

  Broussard: Hello, this is B. I am with the man we discussed for the special assignment, and he is not comfortable with the fee we had offered.

  Woman: And I presume he has made a counteroffer?

  Broussard: Yes, he says the fee would be twenty.

  Woman (apparently shocked): Twenty million dollars? And if we agree, can it be done by the deadline?

  Broussard: Yes, one moment and I will ask. There was a rustling noise and then his voice came through somewhat muffled. There is a meeting scheduled in three weeks. Can the assignment be completed before that time?

  Noah could hear his own voice in the background, but could not make out the words.

  Broussard: Nevertheless, it is necessary that the assignment be completed prior to that meeting. Several EU member nations will be gathered to discuss future relations with the United Kingdom, and the impact of this assignment will greatly affect the outcome of that discussion.

  There was silence on the line for moment, and then Broussard’s muffled voice went on: The Council is comprised of individuals whose identities cannot be compromised. They have never agreed to a meeting with anyone.

  Once again Noah could hear his own voice muffled in the background, and then Broussard continued. The contractor will not agree to complete the assignment by that deadline without meeting with the Council.

  Woman: Meeting? We have never revealed ourselves before.

  Broussard: Yes, yes, I explained, but those are his terms.

  Woman: Unfortunately, he is probably the only one who could accomplish it. We will agree to a meeting, but it shall be on our terms, and only if he will agree to a meeting this very night. Have him with you tonight at ten and we will arrange to bring you both to the place of meeting. If he objects, simply allow him to leave and we will explore other options.

  Broussard: Very well. I shall tell him. There was another rustling and then Broussard’s voice was muffled again. The Council will meet with you, but only if it can be done tonight. You and I would meet again here tonight at ten, and will be taken by limousine to the meeting place sometime after that. I am afraid your current appearance would not be acceptable to them. The mask, you would not be able to wear it.

  Noah heard his own muffled voice again for a moment.

  Broussard: I understand completely. Shall we conclude our meeting for now, then, and meet again tonight as scheduled?

  More of Noah’s muffled voice in the background, and then Broussard returned to the line. He is gone. He agrees to your terms for the meeting.

  Woman: Very good. He undoubtedly has you under some form of surveillance, so do nothing to draw any attention or arouse any suspicion. If it is possible to engage him for this assignment, we must do so. The money is of far less importance than the assignment itself.

  Broussard: I understand. I shall remain in the room and use room service for dinner, rather than going out.

  The call ended then, and Noah looked at Neil. “Any idea who she is? The woman he called?”

  Neil shook his head while he chewed and swallowed. “Not entirely,” he said. “But she made three other calls right after that one, and I had already tagged her phone for recording by then. Listen to this one.” He reached over and tapped another key.

  There was ringing again, and then a man’s voice answered: This is François.

  Woman: Broussard has met with Adrian, and you were right about the fee. He demands twenty million, but he also refuses to accept the assignment unless he meets with all of us. We are flying to London this evening. Be at the airport at six PM.

  François: I expected as much. You don’t suppose this is some sort of trap, do you?

  Woman: Of course not. Adrian is undoubtedly the best, and he would never have gained that reputation if he ever betrayed a client.

  François: I suppose that is true. Mais oui, I shall be there. Are you arranging security?

  Woman: Yes, I will have security in place when we arrive. I will see you at the plane.

  The call ended, and Neil reached over and tapped a key again. “Next!”

  The familiar ringing sounded three times, and then another man’s voice answered. “Yes?”

  Woman: We are meeting with Adrian tomorrow in London. He requires it as part of his agreement to take on the contract. I shall have the airplane ready at six o’clock tonight.

  The man grunted and hung up the phone. The woman’s voice could be heard muttering for a moment and then her line went dead, as well.

  Noah looked at Neil, who only reached over and tapped the key again.

  This time the call was answered on the first ring.

  Man: Hello?

  Woman: James, this is Deanna. Broussard met with Adrian, but he insists on meeting with all of us on the Council before he agrees to the contract. I’ve set the meeting for tonight, in London. We’ll be flying out tonight at six.

  James: Do you think that’s wise? We have never exposed ourselves before.

  Deanna: The Muslim immigration conference is in only three weeks. We can achieve the outcome we want, but only if the members are certain they will never have to deal with Charles on the throne of England. As unpopular as he has become in his own country, his security is heightened to the point of making him almost invincible. We all agreed that Adrian is the only one who could possibly accomplish this task, so if meeting him is the only obstacle in the way, we must accommodate him.

  James: I suppose so. All right, I’ll be at the airport.

  The line went dead and Neil swallowed. “That was it,” he said. “Just those four calls. All of them went to sat phones in Rome, which is where she was at, too, by the way.”

  “So there are apparently only four on this c
ouncil: this woman Deanna, François, James and one other man we have no name for. Are there any clues that can help us identify them further?”

  Neil shook his head. “There are more guys named Francois and James in the world than I could possibly ever go through, and there are enough women named Deanna that it would take months to figure out which one she might be.”

  “What about tracking them when they fly here? The way Deanna talked, they’ve got a plane of their own. How hard would it be to figure out what private jets are flying out of Rome this evening?”

  “Already thought of it, Boss. There are only two airports in Rome, Leonardo da Vinci and Ciampino, but both of them handle an awful lot of private plane traffic. By the time I started checking, there were already half a dozen flight plans filed for London, and I don’t even know if their flight is one of them. It’s not terribly likely that I could spot the right one in time to get any kind of finger on who would be on the plane.”

  Noah sucked in his cheek and chewed on it for a second, then took out his phone. He hit a couple of buttons and then put it on speaker.

  “Brigadoon investments,” said a feminine voice. “How may I direct your call?”

  “Allison, please,” Noah said.

  The line was put on hold, and they listened to some old pop tunes for a few seconds. The music ended suddenly, and Allison Peterson’s voice came on the line. “This is Allison.”

  “Camelot,” Noah said. “I’m wondering if we have any assets in Rome at the moment.”

  “Rome?” Allison asked. “What do you need?”

  “There are two airports in Rome, and one of them is launching a flight toward London tonight. There will be four people on the flight, although I expect more because they’ll be bringing security with them. Those four people comprise some sort of Executive Council that runs IAR.”

  “Seriously? An Executive Council? Organizations like this are usually run by one person, a sort of dictator. Do we have any names?”

  “There’s a woman named Deanna, speaks with an Italian accent, who may be the main person in charge. Everybody else seems to jump when she yells frog. Then there are three men, one whose name we don’t have, another who calls himself François, and one more named James. All four of them are currently in Rome, apparently, since they are meeting at the plane at six o’clock. Neil checked on flight plans, and there are already several of them aimed at London. Just thought maybe you could get someone to those airports to try to get a lead on who we’re dealing with.”

  “I can call in a few favors, get some eyes out there. So why are they coming to London?”

  “To meet with me, or rather, with Adrian. Their target is the Prince of Wales. Apparently they want to make sure he’s not going to ascend to the throne when his mother finally retires or dies.”

  “Prince Charles? Holy crap, I didn’t see that one coming. Kind of makes sense, I guess, if you think about how hard he’s hammered the Muslim countries in his speeches about immigration and cross-culturalism.”

  “Right. They say the EU might follow his lead, even after Brexit, and they want him out of the way before some big meeting scheduled in three weeks.”

  “Okay, okay, that makes even more sense. The next big meeting in the EU is the Muslim immigration conference in Vienna. Even with the UK out of the EU, they’ll still have some influence over a lot of political issues. Charles is dead set against allowing any kind of Muslim culture to take root in the UK, and while his own people don’t think much of him, a lot of European leaders admire the man.”

  “That’s the way these people see it,” Noah said. “They want him shut down before he can exert any influence over this meeting, or maybe just to make sure his ascension to the throne is off the table. I pleaded out the way Adrian would, demanding a lot more money than they were offering and insisting on meeting with the principals involved. Because they want this done before that meeting, they wanted to set our face-to-face up as quickly as possible. It’ll happen sometime tomorrow, but I don’t have a specific time or place.”

  Allison grunted. “That’s a little unsettling,” she said. “I’m guessing they’re going to take you somewhere to meet with these people?”

  “Yep. I’m meeting with Broussard again tonight at ten, and they’ll apparently send a car after us sometime during or after that.”

  “That means you’ll be going in unarmed. Camelot, I want you to understand something. You have my approval if you decide to call off this mission. If anything smells funny to you, I want you to get yourself and your team out of there.”

  “I’m probably going to go ahead and ride this out,” Noah said. “I could have tapped Broussard today, but we need to know who’s behind him. These four people seem to be the top level, so my goal tomorrow is simply to find enough identifying information to let us track them down. Once I get that, I can take them out quickly, before they have time to react. If we can take out everyone from Broussard up, IAR might self-destruct. Isn’t that the objective?”

  “Of course it is, but that doesn’t mean I want to risk my own best asset. I’m telling you, if anything smells fishy, don’t go. Be ready to get yourself out of that situation, by whatever means necessary. Meanwhile, I’ll get CIA checking into private flights out of Rome tonight. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get an ID on these people without you having to go nose-to-nose with them.”

  “All right. I’m planning to leave my phone in the car with Sarah tomorrow morning, so you won’t be able to reach me after about nine forty-five my time. Let me know if you want me to abort, but my gut says we need to ride this one out.”

  “Your call,” Allison said. “What do you think would be the chance that your team could follow you?”

  “Pretty slim, probably. They’ll be looking for any kind of tail, I’m sure. If I had a half-dozen more people we might pull it off, but not with just Moose and Sarah.”

  “What about one of those camera drones, like the Delta force guys were using?” Neil asked. “Any way we can get our hands on one of those?”

  “Camera drone?” Allison asked. “Oh, I know what you mean. Delta used one on your last mission, right, to keep track of you? I can make some calls, see if there’s one available in England somewhere. Neil, would you know how to use it?”

  Neil snorted loudly. “Does a fish know how to swim? It’s an electronic gizmo, of course I know how to use it.”

  “All right, then, let me see what I can do. I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.” The line went dead.

  “I’m with Allison,” Sarah said. “I don’t like the idea of you going off with them all by yourself, with no kind of backup. If anything goes wrong, they could blow your head off and we’d never know what happened.”

  “I don’t expect anything to go wrong,” Noah said. “I’m pretty sure the way they see it is that Adrian simply wants a little insurance. They’ll figure that by meeting him face-to-face, he could always track them down if he needed to. Their goal is to convince him to do the job and that he’ll get paid for it, so there won’t ever be any reason for him to want to. I seriously doubt they would actually try to eliminate him, even if their business doesn’t turn out the way they wanted to.”

  “I don’t care, I still don’t like it. It’s bad enough I know you walk into life-threatening situations all the time, but at least I’m usually close enough to know what’s going on. This time I won’t have any idea where you are or what’s happening.”

  “She’s got a good point, Boss,” Moose said. “You know, if we round me up a motorcycle, I could probably keep whatever vehicle they use in sight.”

  Noah shook his head. “No, I don’t want to give them any reason to wonder who’s following them. If Allison can find Neil one of the drones, then he might be able to use it to keep track of me, but nothing else.”

  Sarah, sitting on the bed, crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “What about a bug? Something Neil can track, so we know where you are all the time?”

 
; “No, they’ll almost certainly check me for any kind of signal transmission. I think that Adrian, if he found himself in this position, would simply go along with it. That’s what I’m gonna have to do.”

  Sarah closed her eyes. “Fine,” she said angrily, “but if you die in there I’m going to kill you!”

  “Then I’ll do my best not to get killed.” He turned to Neil. “If everything goes well with this meeting, they’re going to be giving me ten million dollars, and I’ll need an account to have it transferred into. What can we set up in a hurry?”

  Neil leaned toward the computer and began tapping the keys. “We’ve got access to an account in Panama that passes any transfers straight out to the Cayman Islands. That’s the kind of thing they’ll be expecting, so let me give you the transfer instructions for it.”

  “Ten million dollars?” Moose asked. “What happens to that money after it gets transferred?”

  “It goes from the Caymans to another account somewhere in the US, one that becomes part of E&E’s funding. Kind of ironic that the money they pay you to kill for them ends up helping us take them out, right?”

  THIRTEEN

  The four of them gathered around the table and ate chicken, with Noah vetoing different ideas they each presented on how to keep track of him while he was with the IAR Council later that night. No matter what they suggested, he saw a flaw in it that made him refuse to agree. They had been at it for nearly an hour, and Sarah was getting even more upset with him.

  “If you’d only...” she began, but Noah’s phone suddenly rang. He pulled it out and looked at it, then answered and hit speaker.

  “Camelot,” he said.

  “Camelot,” came a familiar voice. “This is Wally. How’s it hanging?”

  Noah’s eyebrows went up just a bit. “I suppose it’s hanging the way it’s supposed to,” he said. “What’s up, Wally?”

  “The boss lady called and told me to find a way for your team to keep track of you while you’re out of touch. She wanted to know if there was any way I could set you up with some kind of a remote drone, something with enough range that it could follow you wherever you go and let us see where you’re at. I talked to some of my whiz kids and we came up with an idea. Is Neil handy?”