by DAK
Chapter Twelve
I didn’t have to wait long. Even in the wee hours of the morning Naim was prompt. We tossed a tarp over the BMW, loaded my Pelican case into his Mercedes and headed off. His house was nearby and after an abbreviated SDR we made our way there. I needed to plan and catch some sleep in case things went sideways. If that happened, sleep would be a distant memory until the music stopped and someone was missing a seat. We sat in Naim’s small kitchen, drinking coffee with healthy slugs of vodka. Naim, of course, added cigarettes to the bill of fare.
Breakfast of champions.
I explained the recent turn of events. There was no point in trying to conceal anything about the firefight from Naim as he’d piece it together anyway. We’d had a couple similar events during my last visit. I trusted him to keep the faith. That constant loyalty is a big part of the Albanian national character, yet another reason I love Kosovo and its people. They call it besa and it is to their national character what a John Wayne sort of honor is to us Americans. Albanians have plenty of asshats and fools, like any other group of people but they also have a higher than average number of people who mean what they say when they call you friend. Our conversation transited rapidly from a recitation of recent history to arrangements for future operations. High on the list was my need for a new safe house.
“Why not use the first floor of the garage?” Naim asked. He meant, of course, the second floor but being European thought the first floor was called the ground floor. “It’s got a bed and a toilet that works. The place is closed until the petrol storage tanks get repaired. No one will be around, it doesn’t have any houses overlooking it and there are two good footpaths that take you away in different directions to main roads.”
I raised my eyebrows slightly and Naim grinned. I doubted if the storage tanks would ever get repaired as the usefulness of the garage, like Lao Tsu’s pot, seemed to lie in its emptiness. Still, if Naim wasn’t into a number of business endeavors which required flexible ethics he wouldn’t have been as much help to me.
“Cool. Sounds good. Let’s drop my shite there before it gets light. I think I’ll catch some sleep then too because if this breaks bad it’ll be the last chance in a while. Does the place have electricity?”
“Yeah, ska problem. Just keep the lights off at night.”
I nodded. “OK, that’s settled then. Now for the tough part. I need to work out how to protect my asset.”
It was Naim’s turn to nod. He knew roughly what I was up to, namely the running of a source which was inside the Serbian mafia. He also knew things were coming unstuck. My issue now was to figure out how to see disaster as it happened and to be able to react as quickly as possible. I’d learned the hard way long ago that it’s best to prepare for things going pear shaped before it happens rather than making it up as you go along. Better to have a plan and not need it than need one and not have it. So I wanted to be ready in case the worst should happen. Aferdita might succeed in placing the trackers without being detected. She might also get caught doing so or with them in her possession. The most likely locations for either event were her home, Enver’s home or his main place of business, a room in the back of a strip club/brothel that rejoiced in the name of the Hollywood Club.
He was apparently a traditional kind of gangster.
“Naim, would you be able to scare up a few people who wouldn’t mind backing me up if I need to go noisy again to extract my asset?”
I paused and waited for his response.
“That is too easy. I’ll have a couple guys from the old team help out if you need them. It’ll put some other things on hold but I can do it for you.”
“Thanks Naim, I appreciate it. It is literally a matter of life and death. You know what these fuckers are like.”
Naim nodded again, this time abruptly. The habits and actions of folks like this, especially those who had used the cover of patriotism in order to enhance their criminal opportunities, was a very sore point with him and many other UCK vets who felt betrayed when they saw criminals profiting from the sacrifices they had made. The savage treatment meted out to those who displeased the mafia and to women especially also rubbed them the wrong way. My Albanian friends had definite and largely traditional ideas about the relative roles in society of men and women but none of them would stand for the mistreatment and torture the mafia used to control and degrade the women they trafficked. It was a sore point for them as they saw it as dishonoring Albanians in general. Knowing an Albanian woman was at risk here would only mean they took the assignment with all the seriousness they had brought to the war. And that, as I and the MUP, the former Serbian dominated internal security force, knew first hand, was pretty damn serious indeed.
I returned his nod, reaching across the table to touch our coffee mugs in salute to what neither said but both understood.
‘The bad guys are going to be very jumpy not to say pissed off after tonight’s festivities. I don’t know what will happen but if my asset is taken I’ll need to move fast once I find out. I hope it doesn’t come to that but if it does, I’ll appreciate the help. It’ll just be watching the perimeter and providing transport, maybe throw a few rounds to discourage pursuit. Any problems with that mission set?”
“Ha.” Naim gave a short bark of laughter. “You haven’t changed at all. You just want to be in on the action. Don’t worry, we’ll be happy to watch your back and help you and your friend get away.”
I grinned and tossed back my coffee. I really would need to assess the situation and our options if something happened but Naim was also right. If an op is going to go noisy, I always want to be there. It is, after all, where the person running things ought to be, n’est pas? I know all the reasons the person exercising operational control shouldn’t be going through the door and even believe they are, in a general sense, correct. It’s just a character flaw of mine to not ever send people into harm’s way without leading the way myself. Never ask people to do what you aren’t willing to do yourself and all that.
Probably one of the many reasons why I wasn’t working on an official level anymore. I kept putting personal loyalty and mission accomplishment ahead of organizational and career equities. Oh well, I could have worse faults.
We worked out the cost for the additional support. I wouldn’t have wanted Naim and his people to work for free and putting off whatever he had going on was a serious extension of friendship on his part. I was running through my operational funding pretty quickly but then again, that was what it was for. I still had more than enough for the extraction and a few minor emergencies. With any luck Aferdita would keep her head down, draw no attention, make good notes in secret and place the trackers in a week or so when the dust was settling. Then we’d meet, bundle her into a vehicle and get her over the border to the Embassy in Skopje.
It could happen. I really, really, really hoped it would. But I was mentally preparing for it to all go sideways.
The next week went very slowly. I stayed in the upper floor of the garage, reading and waiting. In the evenings when darkness provided an additional layer of security, I’d head into the city to access the internet and check for comms for KVSWALLOW. I was usually on foot and bundled up in second hand clothing Naim had provided. On occasion, especially when it snowed as it did a couple of times, he’d give me a lift. I varied my locations and routes, watching carefully for incidental compromise like I’d encountered at KP. It wasn’t likely to happen again. Pristina is a large very crowded city and if I took care to avoid the main routes and places where either the members of Enver’s crew or internationals were generally found then it was a very low risk event. I did need to vary the locations of the internet cafes I used as I wouldn’t want to set a pattern or have anyone remark on the foreign guy who kept using an older out of the way place frequented only by locals. This also presented little problem as there are a lot of internet cafes scattered throughout Pristina.
Aferdita communicated once during the week via the regular comms to say she was ok
and would wait for a better opportunity to emplace the trackers. She had already collected most of the information in the tasking for Luli to pass through HANNA but would now seek to confirm it and include any changes. According to her, Rat Face had called one of Enver’s lieutenants, Agim Bebiri, to tell him he’d seen me and thought I was up to something. Bebiri had told him to watch and report. When I’d attempted to evade them the directions had changed to catch me and bring me in for interrogation. That would have been unpleasant in the extreme. The Serbian mafia was now convinced that some branch of European law enforcement was watching them, perhaps seeking to penetrate their network. According to Aferdita, Enver was surprisingly relaxed about the issue. He had lately announced he was going to get assistance from “an important friend”. Aferdita didn’t know exactly what that meant but advised that she would attempt to find out. We discontinued the text checks after the second day since they would, if done too often, pose a threat rather than provide security. If her status was known or suspected her treatment would be dramatically different. Since she was being treated no differently now than before, too many texts ran the risk of creating suspicion if her phone was checked and she hadn’t been able to erase the log. Or even if she had. Not having to erase the logs meant everything would look normal to anyone doing an impromptu check of her phone calls and messages. An empty log could be seen as suspicious in and of itself.
It’s always a balancing game.
Through Naim’s contacts in the KPS I learned that the investigation had gone pretty much as I had anticipated. The elderly driver and passenger of the Lada had sworn there were two men in the BMW, both “Mafioso” looking and this misidentification added useful obfuscation to the case. The evidence showed one shooter using the M57 I’d dropped. The mafia connections for both victims had been established and the general consensus was that a rival group had brought in a professional hitter, probably former Spetsnaz. The chase and one sided firefight were now seen as the imported expert taking out two members of the competition for reasons unknown. This wasn’t far from the truth but fortunately it pointed the investigation in a direction away from my operation. The Organized Crime guys would pump their sources, put in more hours of surveillance and wiretaps and find nothing since there was nothing there to find. Eventually the case would get filed away as just a mob on mob incident.
Eight days after the chase and shooting, Aferdita reported that she had succeeded in planting all the trackers. Enver had called a meeting of what functioned as his HQ network. It was held at his house and, as was often the case, once the meeting ended the bacchanalia began. Aferdita was thus required to be there on display which gave her the chance to place the devices which in any case were small and magnetically affixed. She had also obtained the remaining information which detailed a Chechen connection and drug route which ran from Afghanistan to Germany and transited Serbia and Kosovo. This route was also being used by an Islamic terror group to bring people and weapons into Europe. Of almost equal interest to me was her information on Enver’s important friend. This guy was also at the meeting. He’d been kept segregated from all but Enver’s most trusted lieutenants. Aferdita had been assigned to keep him company while the meeting took place. She was assisted in this effort by none other than Billi. It looked from her reporting as if Enver was throwing Billi at this friend in order to see if he could get an inside view. The friend was an American, gave his name as Eric and spoke fluent Serbian. Aferdita suspected that Eric was somehow connected to Enver’s response to my presence as well as HANNA’s previously. She was able to take a cell phone picture of Eric and Billi together which she included in the report.
Eric looked like a middle aged professional type. Clean cut, lean and wearing business casual clothing. He had wire glasses and a wedding ring but those could be deceptive. I’d be interested in seeing what DIA would turn up on him. Most likely I’d never know since Aferdita had completed her tasking and we’d need to extract her as soon as possible. Once she was safely away my job would be completed and I’d move on to the next one. This was typical as there was no need for us to know the results and continued stories of the missions we were handed. We were contractors, given a job to complete and disposable once it was accomplished. I’d be tempted to check in a few months and see that Aferdita had been relocated but aside from that I wouldn’t expect to hear about this assignment again.
I downloaded the last KVSWALLOW communication, encrypted it and passed it on the Steve with my additional comment that I would appreciate any info on Eric which might impact our extraction. The extraction itself would occur in two days once Aferdita was able to work out her cover story of visiting a girlfriend in Peja. This type of thing, a visit to a female friend or a shopping trip or similar activity, was a fairly routine part of her lifestyle and wouldn’t raise any suspicions. Enver would maybe check with the girlfriend but since Aferdita had in fact made arrangements to spend a few days before the next weekend with her that part of her story was covered.
My last day in Kosovo was spent refueling the BMW, double checking that the magazines were full while doing the whole, clean, oil, wipe, load and make ready routine with the M57. I couldn’t take it across the border but would need it until then. I’d be leaving it in a temporary hide from which Naim would retrieve it on his way back. My Pratchet book was long gone but I had others to which I turned my restless attention. Having an ebook reader certainly made passing down time easier. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to wrapping this one up. Naim and I had a final dinner of pizza which he brought from his favorite restaurant. We huddled in the second floor safe house, drank some excellent pear brandy and remembered the good times. We reviewed the extraction plan and the various actions on in case of compromise. It was a good night of early celebration, something we wouldn’t get to do at the mission’s end. I’m careful not to drink much when down range. It’s never a good idea but a number of situations will arise where drinking is required. Doing so in moderation and especially knowing your limits and sticking to them is essential. Few things will screw an operator up faster than immoderate use of alcohol at inappropriate times and places. My request for any info on Eric had been received but I’d had nothing back. It seemed unlikely that his effort on Enver’s behalf, whatever it might be, would negatively impact the extraction and I decided to forego a move into the city proper simply to do a last minute comms check.
At 1800 hours, I received a text from Aferdita confirming that she was en route. I pulled the tarp off the BMW, fired it up and headed out for Airport Road. This was also the route to Peja and if my memory served me we’d be making our switch fairly close to the scene of the shooting. I guess the reason we have the word coincidence is for situations like that. I timed my arrival onto Airport Road for 1815, the time Aferdita was to be passing the ramp from which I’d enter. Her red Cabriolet was easily visible a bit further down the road. She was alone and I fell in behind her, keeping in the traffic flow and watching for anyone else also keeping an eye on her. A quick call to Naim verified that he and one of his guys were somewhere behind me doing the same thing. We kept on in this fashion, Aferdita occasionally slowing down which caused traffic to flow around her and at other times speeding up to pull away from surrounding vehicles. I watched for anyone matching her actions or being seen too often but found nothing. Sweeping off the KP route, we drove through the same streets where I’d been chased by the Four Runner ten days previously. The shooting wasn’t even in the news anymore. It had been superseded by the latest flare up at the border and the political posturing on all sides.
Just short of the site of the shoot, Aferdita turned onto a small side road and followed it over one of the low hills that covered the region. I drove past, watching for anyone who slowed, turned or returned. Naim, a couple of miles behind me would be able to see anyone turning after I was out of sight of the intersection. Once again, we saw no one and on his all clear I whipped through a U turn and joined them on the side road. Naim’s guy, whose na
me I never got, drove off in the Cabriolet, heading back to Pristina. It would end its days in a chop shop, never to be seen again. Aferdita loaded her one suitcase into Naim’s Mercedes. She was excited, apprehensive and in an extremely good mood. This was first evident when she took a quick step forward as I approached and gave me an exuberant hug followed by a quick kiss on the check.
“I am so happy. Finally I am to be free. It is almost too much to believe. I must thank you for all you have done for me. Falimenderit shome. Shome shome.”
I gently disengaged, holding her by her shoulders and giving them a slight amount of pressure. It was impossible to avoid smiling at the joy on her face, especially considering the extremes of horror to which she had been subjected for the last year. Her ability to bounce back, to survive with her inner self intact and finally able to show through impressed me far more than her obvious physical beauty. Strength of character and intelligence are always more attractive than incidental physical traits. Still, we weren’t clear yet and the celebration should wait until we were.
“Hey, we owe you. Without your bravery and help we’d not be in a position to put Enver and his crew away. They will have a run of very bad luck and a long time in prison thanks to you.”
Aferdita shook her head, smile still present but changing subtlety.
“I’d rather they got what you gave the other two,” she said, nodding with her chin in the direction of the spot where I’d shot Rat Face and his buddy. “That is what I want for him. But I will settle for what is possible and believe you when you say more will happen. I trust you because you have done what you said so far.”
“Thanks. That means a lot to me.” I let my sincerity show and then pulled her in for a hug. That also let me turn her toward Naim, who was waiting patiently. “Let’s get you safely away and we can talk more later, ok?”
Aferdita gave me another dazzling smile followed by another kiss. She turned to Naim, slid into the Mercedes through the door he was holding open and then twisted to look back at me through the rear window. I gave her a thumbs up and turned to Naim.
“Good to go? Same routine we’ve used before. I’ll be the hate wagon and break off when you make your turn for the hills.”
Naim tossed aside the butt of the cigarette he was currently smoking, gave me a slapping handshake accompanied by a grin and an eye roll toward Aferdita in the car behind him. “Yeah, same as always, boss. I’ll stop at the break point for a few supplies and then we’ll see you on the other side.”
I returned to my vehicle and followed Naim and Aferdita at a slight distance which would allow me to respond to problems without being caught up in the initial event. I kept this relative positioning until we reached a small town near the Macedonian border. There Naim made a stop for fuel before heading deeper into the mountains to make use of a route much favored by private entrepreneurs who wished to avoid undue official scrutiny of their cross border endeavors. This was one of many routes he’d used back in his UCK days and it was likely that despite the longer distance and rough roads, they would be at the rendezvous site before me. A warm spell the past few days meant the roads would be snow free but still hard enough for quick travel. My own route took me through the regular border crossing on the Pristina/Skopje highway. I had a small delay to stash the M57 and magazines under a trash can at the back of a petrol station owned by a friend of Naim’s but arrived while the crossing was still open. The crossing went without incident like the many before it. I drove as quickly as conditions permitted in the winding, narrow mountain road, eventually reaching the plain outside Skopje by late evening. The RV point was at a small restaurant a mile past the regular police checkpoint. I found Naim and Aferdita already there, seated at a table and finishing dinner.
Naim and I hugged, slapped backs and confirmed for each other that we’d seen nothing of concern during our separate routes. A minute or so later, he headed out, promising to let me know if anything interesting happened. I ordered a coffee and drank it while listening to Aferdita discuss the different options she wanted to explore for her new life. I knew nothing about being a buyer for a fashion chain and even less about designing but it was evident that she more than made up for my lack. It was pleasant to simply sit, still in Yellow but not at a fever pitch and hear her enthusiasm. Sometimes I get to do good in this job and those moments, rare though they are, make up for a lot of the shit I wade through to get to them.
I finally finished my coffee, acknowledging privately that I was delaying just because I was enjoying myself and paid the bill. Aferdita climbed into the BMW and we drove through the night into Skopje. During a previous exchange with Steve he had provided the address of a safe house in the Ostrovo neighborhood. I was to take Aferdita there and keep her secure for the night of our arrival. Once she was in place, I was to call the DIA contact from the Embassy, a guy named Mark who had taken over for the lame ass I’d dealt with before. Mark would arrange to meet her there the next day and begin the debriefing process. That alone would take a few days during which I’d be required to hang around, provide context to various questions and responses and generally make myself useful. After that, my assignment would be complete. I would most likely return to Greece, turn in the BMW and take a ferry to Venice. Then again maybe I’d just fly to Barcelona. Or Bruges. I would probably decide during the next few days.
The safe house turned out to be an apartment in a four story walk up near the city center. It was on a side street with a lot of privacy, several routes in and out and on the top floor with a good view on two sides. All to the good. I called Mark, who wasn’t too grumpy at being woken at that hour. He agreed to take the handoff in the morning. I did a sweep of the neighborhood, found nothing out of place and returned to find Aferdita in the bathroom, apparently taking a shower. I took the couch as the apartment had only one small bedroom. After a while, the shower stopped and Aferdita crossed the living room toward the bedroom. She looked at the door with the lock in place and then turned toward me, blew a kiss and disappeared. I flipped onto my side and tried to find some sleep. A few more hours and this assignment, like me, would be put to bed.