by Cliff Ryder
“No, that is it. You think I should stay in my safe little cubicle and crunch data and not stick my head out at all, don’t you?”
“Being concerned about you and thinking you can’t do something are two very different things, Tracy.”
“If you’re trying to seriously talk me out of this, you’re doing a piss-poor job,” she shouted.
“It’s hard to do that when you’ve practically made up your mind already. Jesus, why discuss it with me in the first place if you’re just going to go off and do it anyway!” He crossed to the window and stared out at the drops gathering on the glass. A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, the silver-white light revealing the emotions on his face— anger, concern and fear all warring with one another. At that moment, Tracy felt closer to him than ever before.
She got up and walked behind him, slipping her arms around his waist. “Paul, nothing’s going to happen to me.
Most likely they’ll set me up in an office to crunch data on a computer, but I doubt I’ll ever be in any physical danger.”
Even as she spoke, she realized the ludicrousness of what she was telling him—after all, if that was the case, she could have conferenced in from D.C.
He stiffened at her words, but turned and enfolded her in his arms. “Come on, Tracy, I’m your fiancé, not an idiot.”
“Then I’d appreciate you treating me as such, and not like a child. I’m telling you not to worry, I can take care of myself.”
Paul sighed. “Just like talking to a brick wall. You’re going to do whatever you damn well choose, aren’t you?”
“If by that you mean I’m going to make the decision I feel is best, then yes.”
“Of course, it’s not like I’d be able to change your mind, but I do wish you wouldn’t take this.”
“Duly noted, and I haven’t decided one way or the other yet. I’m surprised you’ve thrown in the towel so early.”
He leaned back and looked at her. “You’ve got that scrunched little line at the bridge of your nose, which means you’ve already dug in your heels. I recognized that by our second argument.”
“I’ll have to work on that. I don’t want to give you any more tells. Look, would you mind if I borrowed your car?
I’m going to head home tonight—get some time to think on the way.”
“You know you can stay here. I could run you back in the morning.”
“No, staying here will just give me more reasons not to go.”
“So much for my cunning plan,” Paul said.
“Yeah, and don’t think I hadn’t noticed. Look, if I decide to go, I’ll stop by and say goodbye, and if I stay, then our own trip is still on, so don’t let Jennifer know about this just yet, okay?”
He held up his keys. “All right, all right. You’d better go before I try something really silly, like keeping you here against your will until the feebs find someone else.”
Tracy snatched them out of his hand. “In that case, I’m gone.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, holding on to the moment for as long as she could. “I’ll call you regardless.”
He hugged her again, holding her to him before letting go. “You’d better get a move on if you plan on getting any rest tonight.”
“It’s a foregone conclusion I’m not going to get much anyway.” She walked to the door, opening it and letting the crisp night air in, redolent with the fresh smell of the rain.
“I’d certainly miss this down south.”
“Hopefully that’s not all you’d miss. Tracy, just—give me a call later, will you?”
“I will.” Tracy walked to the car and got in, adjusting the seat to fit her smaller frame, and pulled out of the driveway. She navigated the maze of suburban streets around his condo, breathing in Paul’s unmistakable scent in the car. Only when she reached the highway did she allow herself to think about their conversation.
She hadn’t been lying to Paul. The decision still wasn’t clear in her mind. The practical choice would be to take the assignment, but practical didn’t count for much when staring into the eyes of a little girl and telling her you were going away for a while. Indeed, a part of her couldn’t believe that she was this wrapped up in making the call, and all because of a little girl. All her life Tracy had prided herself on being able to make rational decisions, unclouded by emotion, unlike so many other women. Yet from the first time she had looked into Jennifer’s big blue eyes, she had been lost. And even stranger—she actually enjoyed the feeling of being depended on, of having someone in her life who needed her. Not like Paul—their relationship was different. Jennifer was a force unto herself, one that could divert Tracy from the goals she had set for herself, and the direction her career was heading.
And ultimately, that is what it is all about, she thought as she reached into her jacket pocket for the sleek black cell phone the FBI agent had given her. Flipping it open, she listened as the phone automatically dialed a contact number. Oddly, the small screen remained black, the phone not showing the number it was calling.
The phone rang once before it was picked up. “Special Agent Cassell.”
“Stephanie, this is Tracy Wentworth.”
“Yes, hello, Tracy, how are you?”
“Fine, thank you. I’ve thought over your offer and decided to accept. When do I leave?”
“Very good. We have tickets held for you on a morning flight.”
“That will be fine. Thanks very much for the opportunity—I’m looking forward to working with you.”
“Same here. You’ll be taking a company laptop down with you, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ll send your itinerary, as well as that file over to your address at DHS—a little light reading on the way down. The phone will connect you directly to me anytime you need to make contact. I suggest daily reports unless something breaks earlier. Good luck, Tracy.”
“Thank you.” She closed the cell phone and tossed it on the seat next to her, then stared straight ahead, putting off the conversation with Paul until she got home. Might as well let him hope for a little while longer.
Kate switched over from Stephanie Cassell’s cell line to the next incoming call, from her agent in Pakistan. “Alpha, this is Primary, go.”
Robert Lashti’s voice sounded winded, as if he had been running. “I’ve been made, Primary. After initiating contact using the disposable asset, she lured the subject back to the room. However, she was caught administering the drug, and gave me up under duress. Subject terminated asset after getting my description, then swept the room and located our surveillance equipment. I’ve left the hotel, but the town isn’t that big, and they’re looking for me.”
“All right, Alpha, time to pull out. Can you make it to your vehicle?” As she spoke, Kate pulled up a window on the touch-sensitive screen that allowed her to juggle multiple projects, conferences and data streams at once.
She contacted the Room 59 hacker on duty and requested a satellite map of the town of Panamik, as well as the quickest route north to China.
“Negative, subject’s men are watching it. They’re good, too—I almost walked right into them,” Lashti said. “Probably ex-military, more Spetsnaz if we’re really unlucky.”
Swearing under her breath, Kate opened a new window to Pai Kun in Beijing to apprise him of the situation. She never liked bringing in more Room 59 operatives to assist with an extraction, but since their Asian director was only half a continent instead of half a world away, he needed to know what was happening to carry the ball when she handed it off.
“I’m attempting to procure another vehicle. However, everything around me seems to be limited to tractors and oxen—hardly suitable for the trip.”
“How did subject and his men arrive?” Kate asked.
“I had thought by SUV, but I am currently unable to locate it.”
“Okay, just keep your head down for a moment.” Kate brought up the overhead view of Panamik, finding it to be indeed a one-ox town, altho
ugh the largest in the area.
There was a main road that bisected the sparse business section, and off to the northwest was a military base, which was of no help to her operative at all. He needed reliable wheels, and fast.
Kate opened a voice channel to her hacker. “Can you run a thermal scan on the buildings around that hotel? I’m looking for a still-warm engine,” she said.
“I’m on it,” came the reply.
“Damn, where’d they come from!” she heard a muffled shout in her headset, followed by the thuds of several running feet.
“Alpha, what’s happening?”
“They spotted me…kids ratted me out…gonna try to… lose them—”
“Hold on, I’m going to visual.” Kate popped open a third window, this one showing her the view through Lashti’s glasses camera, the rough walls of the buildings on either side of him bouncing up and down as he pounded down the dirt road, trying to outdistance his pursuers.
A soft chime announced that Pai Kun was online, as well. As usual, he wasted no time on inconsequential matters. “Alpha will have to get himself out of town at the very least before we can extract him. I can do a lot, but I don’t have anyone that close at the moment, and the region is volatile enough without anyone thinking the Chinese may be involved in covert activity there.”
“That would be the last thing we need,” Kate replied, then switched to the hacker. “Got anything yet?”
The words “It’s coming up now” appeared on her screen. The regular street map disappeared, and an eerie blue-and-black thermal view of the dark town appeared instead. Kate saw a tiny red-orange figure running down a narrow alley. He was chased by two others across a street and into another alley. She quickly scanned the buildings around the hotel, looking for the telltale heat bloom of an idling car. There!
“Alpha, turn left at the next intersection, and head back toward the hotel. Their SUV is in a building approximately twenty-five yards south of it. I’ll guide you to it.”
Kate drew on the monitor, tracing the route her operative would have to take. As she plotted the route, the computer used the satellite imagery to give her the precise distances of each leg, as well as visual points to lead him through it. “Move forward ten yards, then turn left again.
Circle around the hut you’re near…cross the road ahead of you…they’re about thirty yards back. Checking cross alleys, looks like you’ve lost them for now.”
Lashti had stopped in the deep shadow of an overhang-ing hut roof. “Dawn’s going to be breaking soon, and there won’t be any place to hide. Primary, if I don’t make it out of here, you need to know that all of the data I’ve collected indicated that our subject thought he was selling a live device. He had no idea it was a fake.”
Kate didn’t let this revelation slow her down for a second. “Good. Now let’s get you out of there so you can debrief properly. You’re close to the shed containing the SUV—you might even be able to hear it idling now.”
The camera view of Lashti panned left, then right as he scanned the area. “Not yet. Where to next?”
“Go to the front of the hut you’re near right now, then go two more buildings down on your left. The SUV should be behind the second one.”
“Affirmative.” The operative skulked from hut to hut while Kate kept an eye out for trouble, both of them aware of the glimmers of sunlight brightening the eastern horizon with every passing minute.
“Alpha, freeze right now!” Kate ordered.
Lashti flattened himself against the wall as two men walked out of the hut, dressed in heavy coats against the chill mountain morning. The two men showed up as small moving blue dots on Kate’s screen, with tiny red dots for their faces. They turned left, away from Lashti, and walked down the street.
“Give them a few seconds.” Kate split her attention between the receding pair of men and the approaching Russians, who were searching the narrow alleys and squat, one-story buildings with precision. “All right, go to the back of the hut. Their SUV is inside the shed. There’s one man guarding it, but the others are only about forty yards from your position, so you’ll have to take him out silently.”
“It’s never just as simple as catching a plane out of the country, is it?” Lashti whispered.
Kate sent a quick text message to the hacker. “No, but I think I might have a way to speed this up.”
Lashti silently reached the double doors, and both he and Kate could clearly hear the SUV’s purring engine.
“I’m here. Now I just need a way to get him outside without getting me shot in the process.”
“Just wait another few seconds.” Kate kept an eye on the two Russians, who were now only twenty yards away and getting closer by the second. The screen flashed as the hacker uploaded a sound file and message to Kate: “I can’t guarantee the translation accuracy, but this should do it.”
“Alpha, turn the volume on your phone to maximum and set it down in front of the doors and go around the side.
Incapacitate your target when he comes out,” Kate ordered.
She watched Lashti adjust the controls on his lifeline to her and set the phone on the rough, stony ground, then walk around the corner of the shed, his pistol drawn, but held by the slide and barrel instead of the grip.
God, I hope this works, Kate thought as she played the sound file, broadcasting it over the phone. Several excru-tiating seconds later—even the state-of-the-art satellites could only transmit so fast—the low tones of Alexei Kryukov’s voice growled out from the phone’s speaker.
“Dmitri, come out here!” The Russian’s order was a bit choppy, because the hacker had cut the words from other conversations and strung them together in one file, but it should have been enough to attract the guard’s attention.
The only problem is that it might also bring those other two running, Kate thought.
Nothing happened for several seconds. The door remained firmly shut. Kate sent the wave file again, the lag time just enough that it seemed the person outside had been waiting for a response. The two men were only ten yards away now, and Kate realized they had coordinated their sweep to end up back at the SUV. If the driver didn’t bite soon, Lashti would be stuck with the three of them.
She heard a scrape of wood on wood, and one of the doors swung inward. Peering around the corner with her operative, they both saw a man’s dark form stroll out, a crooked cigarette dangling from his lips.
“Alexei, where the hell are you?” In the rectangle of light from the shed, he noticed the phone on the ground and walked over to pick it up, his free hand slipping underneath his coat.
With three large, noiseless steps, Lashti crept up and brought the butt of his pistol down hard on the back of the other man’s head, smashing him to the street. He picked up his phone, then frisked the unmoving man, coming up with a SIG Sauer 9 mm pistol, which he slipped into his pocket. “Commandeering the SUV now,” he whispered.
Kate was struck by a sudden brainstorm. “Alpha, take that man with you.”
“Already thought of it, Primary.”
Kate watched as he dragged the unconscious body inside the building, which was remarkably exhaust free.
Lashti spotted the reason why, and disconnected a hose that vented the exhaust to the outside.
“Get out of there—Kryukov’s people are less than ten yards away,” Kate said.
Securing the man’s hands behind his back with his belt, Lashti shoved him into the back of the SUV, then slipped behind the steering wheel. He eased the vehicle into gear, moving out of the shed slowly. As soon as he was free of the building, he gunned the engine, the wheels slipping on the rocks as they fought for traction. A shout echoed behind him, and Kate saw the two men running after the vehicle, shrinking in the distance as they pursued with guns drawn. They didn’t have the chance to shoot, since Lashti had quickly pulled out of range.
“Stinks in here—damn Russians, all of ’em chain-smokers. I’m going to reek like an ashtray by the time I get out of h
ere,” Lashti said.
“Worry about the clothes later—you’re not safe yet— you still have to make it out of the town and north, across the border. That military base isn’t going to look too kindly on you if they spot you trying to leave through Kashmir,” Kate said.
“Leave that to me—after this little escapade, getting into China will be the easy part. Thanks for the assist, Primary, I appreciate it.”
“Anytime, Alpha. I’ve downloaded your route to your phone. It should avoid all of the army patrols on both sides of the border. Be careful, and you should be in China by this time tomorrow, if all goes well. Turn over your captive to our operative at the border. I’m sure he’ll be able to extract any useful information from him. Report back in when you’re clear, or if you discover something. Primary out.”
Kate disconnected the call and sent a quick note of thanks to the hacker, telling her to keep monitoring Alpha until he got out safely. She also updated Pai Kun, who promised to have people ready to get Lashti across the border.
Leaning back in her chair, Kate tried to slow her heartbeat. Although her voice had never changed from a calm, modulated tone as she had talked Lashti through his escape, her heart and mind had been racing a mile a minute, always analyzing, planning and discarding several options and variables. Oversight was a part of her job that Kate simultaneously loved and hated. She loved it for the immediate, real-time access it gave her to the operatives, and hated it for the powerless feeling she got at the same time. Every time she slipped on her headset and Web-viewing glasses or opened those windows on her touch-screen, she couldn’t help feeling that although she was a powerful force multiplier for her people, at the same time, she was sitting in plush comfort in her New York City town house while the men and women of Room 59 were out there risking their lives every day. And if they got into inescapable trouble, there was absolutely nothing she could to do to help. She had watched operatives die right in front of her, and had accepted that as part of the job. But she absolutely hated that.
This time, however, was one of the good ones, she thought. With a sigh, Kate peeled herself out of the chair she had been sitting in for hours, took off the headset and went to take a shower, hoping nothing else came up for a while so she could get some rest before conferencing with Denny Talbot about the Texas operation.