SOUTHERN EGYPT—ABANDONED AIRFIELD
H ail and Kara sat in the sand under the shade from Kornev’s cargo plane. They had allowed Kornev to go inside to sit in his plane. There was nothing left to do but wait for the missiles to make their return trip from Batman. With Renner gone, the drone that was guarding Kornev was now being operated by Dallas, physically located in the security center on the Hail Nucleus. U2 had followed Kornev into the plane. It had set down at the top of the plane’s ramp, watching Kornev who was sitting in his flight chair, trying to sleep.
Kara was still noticeably upset, and Hail didn’t know how to explain his actions. That left them sitting in the soft sand. Kara was brooding silently. Hail was fidgeting, drawing shapes in the sand with a stick.
Hail broke the silence saying, “I would be lying if I told you that I didn’t mean to expose your role as a CIA agent to Kornev.”
“Really?” Kara shot back sarcastically. “Calling him on my cellphone served one purpose, and it cannot be explained as an accident.”
Hail fumbled for the right words before saying, “I guess I just didn’t want you to be in the position where you had to sleep with him. I mean, we have all the information we need from him.”
“No, we don’t,” Kara countered, almost yelling. “Kornev knows who he sold the missiles to that took down the plane that killed my parents. After your little breakdown in judgement, I’m pretty sure he won’t be willing to share that information with me now.”
“And you seriously thought he would have told Tonya Merkalov because she was sleeping with him?”
Kara looked at Hail as if she were contemplating slapping him across the face.
“Marshall, just because you’re a man, don’t think for a moment that you understand them. If men think they are going to get laid, they will do some of the stupidest things you could ever imagine. Don’t forget, I am an expert at getting information out of people, and particularly out of men.”
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I don’t understand men, but that doesn’t change the fact I don’t want you to have to sleep with that scumbag just to get information from him.”
Kara softened a little and asked him in a tone saturated with innocence, “And why is that, Marshall? Is it because you have developed a little crush on me? You like me, is that what you are trying to tell me?”
Hail didn’t appreciate Kara’s patronizing tone, but he told her, “I think you know that I like you.” In contrast to Kara’s insolent demeanor, Hail’s admission sounded more like submission.
“That is so sweet,” Kara said contemptuously. “But that doesn’t give you the right to put me in jeopardy. Do you realize what Kornev could have done to me in that plane if I hadn’t taken his gun from him?”
“Nonsense,” Hail told her. “Kornev was staring at the back end of a drone with two LOCO missiles. He didn’t have any choice but to do what I told him, and roughing you up or killing you wouldn’t have done him any good. Kornev may be a lot of things, but stupid he’s not.”
“But that’s not up to you to make those calculated decisions. I have a job to do. And not letting me in on your screwed-up plans goes against everything I have trained for and everything I have put myself through. Just because you have— you have—” Kara looked for the right words, “—feelings for me, doesn’t give you the right to mess with my life.”
Hail let out a big exasperated breath and then took in an equally deep one.
“Do you care about me?” Hail asked. This was perhaps the first time since the demise of his wife and children he had truly cared about the answer. It was important for this woman to care about him. Other than the fact that she was gorgeous, and he liked her, he didn’t understand why now it was so important to him that she return his feelings.
Just as Kara was getting ready to answer Hail’s question, off in the distance, she saw Hail’s Gulfstream approach.
“There’s Renner and Nolan,” Kara said, pointing into the bright afternoon sky. “Saved by the missiles,” Kara thought, relieved, but the irony was not lost on her.
Hail waited to see if Kara would answer his question. It became apparent she was now all business, so he walked toward the ramp of Kornev’s plane. Regardless how Kara felt about him, the mission, Kornev or the entire plan, it was time to get the show on the road.
*-*-*
The Gulfstream touched down with the grace of a ballet dancer on the unforgiving surface of the abandoned airfield.
Kara stood. Kornev, Hail and the flying drone emerged from the plane. As the Gulfstream rolled toward the group, Hail watched Nolan, who was flying the jet, do his best to steer the jet around the potholes in the runway. Thirty yards from the group, the plane came to a stop. The jet’s engines began to die away, and the side door of the Gulfstream opened. Renner disembarked, carrying a black missile case followed by Nolan with the other case.
The drone, U2, had been flying next to Kornev. However, it suddenly grew legs and set down, keeping its airsoft gun trained on the Russian. Kornev looked at the drone and rubbed the welts it had left on his throat.
Nolan and Renner reached Hail’s group. Hail asked, “How did it go?”
Renner responded, “Good. The programming bit heads on the Hail Nucleus came through with the guidance code firmware mods, and we were able to upload the new code into both warheads.”
“What type of mods did they make to the guidance code?” Kornev asked.
“Nothing you need to know about, dickhead,” Marshall told him. “We’ll tell you what you need to know, but only when you need to know it. Until that time, keep your mouth shut.”
Hail turned toward the drone. “U2: Fire two center mass.”
The drone snapped to life, and before Kornev could scream, “No!” the drone popped two plastic balls out its muzzle and into the Russian’s side.
It took everything Kornev had not to cry out in pain. He would be damned if he would give Hail the pleasure. He gritted his teeth and placed his hand over the two new welts growing beneath his polo shirt.
Hail turned back to Renner, who was smiling at Hail’s overtly callous actions toward the Russian arms dealer.
“Man, that’s gotta hurt like a bitch,” Renner said. “Five hundred feet per second and only three feet away. Hell, if it wasn’t for your shirt, I bet those pellets would be stuck in your skin.”
Kornev began to say something, but Hail waggled a finger at him.
“Remember, no talking unless I ask you something,” Hail warned.
“So, this is what you are going to do,” Hail informed Kornev. “We are going to load all the missiles back onto your plane, and you’re going to deliver them to Diambu. Remember, we will be watching, so no funny stuff. The next time you decide to get cute, those won’t be plastic BB’s.”
Kornev began to say something, but then he looked warily at the drone. He slowly raised his hand to be recognized.
Hail looked amused and said, “Yes, does the big, dumb Russian kid in the backrow have a question?”
Kornev, with his teeth still clinched tightly, asked, “I don’t suppose you are going to tell me what you did to the missiles?”
“Not now,” Hail told him. “But we have your phone number, and we will text you that information if we feel it is something you need to know. And by the way, don’t tell Diambu about the missile modifications, or I will kill you. Do you understand?”
Kornev nodded begrudgingly.
“Get the missiles loaded and get going,” he told Kornev.
Kara surprised all of them by saying, “I’m going, too.”
“What?” Hail heard himself ask before he realized he’d spoken.
“I’m going, too,” Kara repeated herself, saying each word slow and loud, as if Hail was hard of hearing.
Hail wanted to tell her, “No, you’re not,” but he caught himself before stepping into that bear trap. Instead, he sucked in an exasperated breath and ended up asking Kara, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
<
br /> “It’s my job, Marshall. I’m an undercover agent, and no CIA agent worth one’s salt would turn down the opportunity to get on the inside of a terrorist group like Boko Haram. And when I mean, on the inside, I’m talking being in the leader’s home.”
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea. We only have limited reach and obviously can’t have a drone like Milky Way or U2 flying around his home to protect you without attracting attention.”
Kara said, “God only knows what type of intelligence I can get on the organization. Remember, there is so little known about Afua Diambu. Hell, we barely know how many people are in his family, let alone much about his organization’s strength and locations. It’s too good of an opportunity to pass up.”
Hail gave Renner a look, letting him know Hail wanted the opportunity to speak with Kara, privately.
“Please make sure that Kornev gets the missiles loaded,” he instructed Renner.
“Let’s go guys,” Renner said, handing the black case to Kornev. They began walking towards the cargo plane with U2 tagging behind them.
Hail looked at Kara, shook his head and bunched up his face.
“I don’t want you to go, Kara. And I know that sounds corny and probably chauvinistic, but I really don’t want you to go.” Hail didn’t know what else to say.
He understood if he told her not to go she would only dig her heels in further, and she would want to go even more. She was wired that way.
Kara placed her hand along Hail’s strong face. She stood up on her tiptoes and gave him a soft kiss on his lips.
“This is what I signed up for, Marshall. It’s what I do - at least it’s what I do for now. Maybe in the future, things will change, or I will change and outgrow this need to avenge my parents’ deaths. But for right now, it’s really all I can think about.”
Kara smiled and took Hail’s hands in hers.
“Hell, look at us Marshall. We are standing in the middle of a desert in nowhere Egypt because revenge is all either of us can think about. If anyone in the world can understand my motivations, it has to be you.”
Hail released Kara’s soft moist hands. He placed his hand on the back of her neck and drew her in. He leaned in and gave her a hard, long passionate kiss. Then he released her and then let her go.
Kara looked surprised by Hail’s kiss.
Hail looked at her, his blue eyes as serious as Kara had ever seen them.
Hail said, “If you are going with Kornev, you need to know what we did to the missiles.”
WHITE HOUSE ROSE GARDEN—WASHINGTON, D.C.
J oanna Weston was sitting in the Rose Garden, which had been her favorite place to seek solace. But now, as she looked up at the hundreds of cloudy glass panels constructed over the top of the garden, she felt as if she were sitting in an expensive terrarium. Enclosed and on display like a turtle in a glass tank. In the back of her mind, she cursed Marshall Hail for his boisterous meeting with her, which not only freaked her out, but also sent her Secret Service team into a tizzy. They could not figure out a way to protect her from laser-shooting drones without putting some sort of top over the Rose Garden. The glass panels were irregular, which laser beams did not favor; thus, the engineers explained to her the beam would be scattered as it passed through the glass. It would be ineffectual as a data path.
The opaque glass would still allow light into the Rose Garden, and the roses would not suffer from the glass enclosure. It was apparent no one would suffer, except the president, who loved the warmth of the sun on her skin, the openness of the sky and everything one felt when outside.
Yes, it was Hail’s fault but, she understood he pointed out the security flaws that needed to be addressed. It could have been much worse. A drone flown by those meaning her harm could have breached the security protocol. She supposed it were best to learn a lesson with no fatalities, especially if that fatality happened to be hers.
Pepper had been escorted to the door leading to her sanctuary, and he stepped into the Rose Garden. He took a moment to disapprovingly look over the new tangle of glass and aluminum overhead.
As he approached the president, he gestured up at the new security implementation with a wave of his hand, “How do you feel about all of this, Madam President?”
“I hate it,” Joanna Weston told him flatly.
Still looking up, Pepper commiserated, “I can see why. Doesn’t really give one an outdoor feeling.”
Since Pepper had stated the obvious, the president didn’t feel she needed to expound upon his statement. Instead, she said, “Please sit down, Jarret. Tell me how Operation Hail Warning is going.”
Pepper pulled out a metal chair, and he sat at the glass table void of anything except for a single yellow rose in a clear glass vase.
“Would you care for something to eat or drink?” the president asked the head of the CIA.
“No, thank you. I need to return soon to stay abreast the mission.”
“Please provide me an update,” the president repeated, leaning back in her chair. She was dressed in a pink blouse with a white scarf tied around the collar like a short tie, and a pair of pleated white dress slacks. As usual, Pepper wore a gray suit.
Pepper said, “Everything is going as planned—at least as far as I have planned it. Victor Kornev was approached by my agent, Kara Ramey, who made it very clear to the Russian he had no other option other than to work for us.”
“Very impressive,” the president said.
“But shortly after her little pep talk, we discovered Kornev was still trying to sell shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles to the African Boko Haram terrorist organization.”
The president glanced at Pepper, shocked.
Pepper continued, “So we interdicted the missile shipment.”
“Oh, very good,” the president said. “And what did Marshall Hail’s team contribute toward this mission?”
“Not very much,” Pepper said, looking up at the glass ceiling above them again. Choosing not to look the president in her eyes, he added, “Hail is mostly providing logistical support—providing transportation to move people and parts around—that sort of thing.”
“It sounds like something we could have done on our own,” the president said. It was partly a statement and partly a question, allowing Pepper the opportunity to elaborate.
“Well, Hail has the advantage in having lots of business assets in areas where we have very little resources.”
The president absorbed the information. She then asked Pepper, “Have we lived up to our part of the bargain with Mr. Hail? Have we told him where he can find the next person on our Top Ten Terrorists list?”
“Yes, we have,” Pepper said directly.
The president didn’t respond. She appeared lost in thought. She looked at the glass above her, not bothering to mask her disdain for the enclosure. She said, “Thanks for the debrief. I’m glad you have given him his next target. I want to keep Mr. Hail on our good side.”
Pepper said nothing.
SNAKE ISLAND, NIGERIA
D uring the flight from Egypt to Snake Island, Kara hadn’t felt the need to keep a weapon trained on Kornev. He was either all in or all out. She would know, in short order, the decision he had chosen. After all, Kornev was now an actor in a very complicated play with lots of moving parts. Upon their arrival at Afua Diambu’s residence, they would have to pretend they were dating, and if it weren’t a convincing act, there was a very real chance they both might experience death at the hands of an extremely paranoid jihadi, Afua Diambu.
During the remaining hours of their flight, Kornev hadn’t spoken to her. He opted to sit in his chair, flipping through a book. It was quite apparent to Kara he was not really reading since he was holding the book upside down, a detail he had overlooked. If it weren’t for the brevity of their upcoming assignment, and her despising the man, she would have laughed aloud.
Kara was happy with the aphasiac flight. She had nothing to discuss with the Russian. They were both bril
liant actors and persons in distress. Kornev was now forced to adopt a completely different career. As opposed to an arms dealer, he would be a spy for the United States’ spooks. Kara was actively seeking justice for her deceased parents, and her world was much different than the one she had lived as a college student. One day she had been a college student. The next day, she was a student of horror. In her job with the CIA she interacted with people who did horrific things in the name of money, power or religion. The hardest for her to wrap her mind around was those who enjoyed inflicting pain upon others. Kara had been given two years to change gears. However, Kornev was expected to transition his thinking and acting within a period of days. He was now a former arms dealer and forced to play ball with those he had strove his entire life to avoid. Yet at the same time, he had to act like an arms dealer and actively betray his former clients.
Kara was certain Kornev was going through all the same emotional turmoil she had experienced during her changing of suits. She assumed Kornev was accustomed to quickly adapting and changing teams for the dictator or terrorists that were willing to pay him the most amount of money for weapons. Part of the arms dealer job was assessing risk versus reward. And, based on those calculations, Kornev would be prepared to put on any uniform necessary to keep the money flowing. Thus, the United States recruiting Kornev should not be an earth-shattering experience for the Russian. But this was a little different. Kornev had
been forced to change teams, but games as well, and that nuance was the only issue that gave Kara pause.
In this new game, all the rules were different. Now, Kornev had a boss, and for someone as solitary as Kornev, that new role could take a toll on him. If this new change in management knocked him off his game, the operation could go south quickly. The penalties for losing this mission—this game—was death. This was a huge transformation for a man as arrogant as Kornev. Kara hoped that he would play by the rules so Marshall Hail didn’t have an excuse to kill him. It was no secret Hail wanted the Russian dead, and Kara realized it wouldn’t take much to push Hail over the edge. This was the main reason Kara had decided to go to Snake Island. She wanted to accompany Kornev to make sure that he didn’t stray from the game plan or alert Diambu that the CIA had modified the missiles. If Kara was by Kornev’s side, she was certain that Hail would not kill him. He would not take a shot if she might get caught in the crossfire. Kara didn’t know how she was going to pull off her endgame, especially since Kornev now knew who she really was, and that she had betrayed his trust. Still, she was determined to get Kornev to divulge the name of the person responsible for her parents’ deaths, after which she would be happy to kill Kornev, without any hesitation.
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