Borodin bit his tongue. The prize was too great not to be part of it.
“Of Course,” he replied. “I will get clarification as soon as possible to you.”
“Good!” replied Surkov.
“I have not heard from the President, as yet?” added Borodin quickly.
“I told you, you would be contacted when the time was right. Under no circumstances do you discuss anything with anybody. Until you are contacted! And that includes the president!” instructed Surkov forcefully before ending the call.
Vasiliy who had witnessed Borodin’s side of the conversation had never before seen anything like it. Borodin was putty in Surkov’s hands. Borodin was the man that people feared, even the president dreaded a meeting with the over powering Borodin. Whatever Surkov had promised Borodin was something Borodin could only have dreamed of in his wildest dreams.
***
As Surkov considered the conversation that had just taken place, he began to worry. Sean Fox was a concern but General Borodin was slowly becoming a greater one. Surkov needed him. He needed the power that Borodin had within the military for the plan to work. There was no one more revered or feared within the military. Borodin was the modern Russian equivalent of Hoover. He knew all the secrets of anyone who was anyone in Russia. Surkov and Grebnevo had been under his radar. However, if it had fallen under his gaze, Borodin would have been dealt with.
Whatever the case, removing Borodin with so little time was going to prove troublesome. A suitable replacement would have to be found which might result in a delay.
As Surkov considered the options, he watched the secret courtyard that only his study had a view of. It was exercise time and two residents of Grebnevo were stretching their legs and catching some late summer sunshine. A generation in the making, it was not the time for indecision.
He picked up his phone and dialed a number that very few people on the planet had access to.
“Hello?”
“Mr President, Boris Surkov,” replied Surkov to Russia’s head of state.
“Ah Dr Surkov, you’ve come through on my private line.”
“Yes Sir, the day I briefed you on when you took office?” prompted Surkov without preamble, jogging the President’s memory.
The President did not need to be reminded; it was still the most intriguing briefing he had ever been given in the two years he had held office.
“Yes, I remember.”
“It has come Mr President. Are you free to visit us at Grebnevo?” inquired Surkov, knowing exactly how free the president’s schedule was for the next week. It was one of the quietest weeks in his diary in two years. Exactly as planned.
“We were due to meet in a few days anyway, I believe,” replied the President, referring to a presidential banquet arranged many months earlier.
“Yes, Sir. However, matters have become more pressing and this is not a matter for public consumption,’ alluded Surkov.
Surkov suppressed a laugh as the President made it sound as though he were squeezing Surkov in. Surkov even rejected the President’s first offer, two days away. The Borodin issue couldn’t wait that long.
“You couldn’t squeeze us in tomorrow, first thing, could you?” asked Surkov, adding. “It is really quite urgent!”
After a minute or so of humming and hawing. “I’ll shift a couple of things around and see you at eight?”
Surkov was hoping for later. He had a lot to organize in a very short period of time but didn’t want to push it.
“I look forward to it!” he replied sincerely.
“As do I Dr Surkov, as do I,” said the president.
Surkov very much doubted he’d feel the same when he found out what he had planned. He picked up his phone. He needed to let one very special person know that the timeframe had been changed.
Chapter 48
Sean knew instantly. The scream was Katie’s. He bounded down the stairs and screamed for the CIA team to follow suit.
“Our packs!” one of them shouted, looking up at the loft space.
“No time!” shouted the team leader. Sean was off and running and their job was to back him up. Sean had heard the initial shout and recognized the voice. Somebody would be getting a lesson in priorities as soon as he had the chance.
Sean crashed into Luis as he rounded the staircase. Luis had himself reacted to the scream by running into the house. Sean threw him aside, shouting “He’s with me!” to ensure the CIA team didn’t shoot Luis by mistake.
Sean burst out of the house and onto the street. Katie was surrounded by another three of the Russians. She had obviously surprised them as much as they had surprised her. All looked somewhat bemused as to what they should do, until that was, that they caught sight of Sean charging towards them. They all then had only one thing on their mind. As Sean raced towards them with the silenced Gyurza pistol raised in his hand, they raised their AS VAL rifles. Sean was woefully out-gunned and out of range and a good twenty yards ahead of the CIA team who were struggling to catch up with him. Continuing headlong towards them was suicide. As soon as their weapons were up, they would start shooting. They, unlike Sean and the CIA team, had no Katie to worry about. All that lay ahead of the Russians were hostiles.
Sean dived across the grass and rolled just as the Russians dispatched their first round of bullets. With Katie frozen to the spot in abject fear, there was little return fire either Sean or the CIA team could offer. Sean took aim as he rolled and sent a bullet a foot to the right of one watcher. It was as close as he dared aim as the three Russians crowded around Katie. The watcher didn’t flinch. They were very well trained.
The second burst of bullets came even closer to hitting Sean but a roll in the opposite direction caught them off guard and Sean narrowly escaped the second burst of fire. He wouldn’t avoid a third.
The CIA team had two options: charge headlong into the fire or stop and take aim. Their H&K MP5’s offered significantly better accuracy than Sean’s handgun. Sean was also offering an excellent target for the Russians to concentrate on and as such, he gave the CIA team an ideal opportunity to press home their advantage.
“If you have the shot take it!” screamed the Team Leader.
Four shots rang out and the two Russians farthest away from Katie fell. Again, the Russian didn’t flinch. Two of his team had just been taken out and he remained 100 percent focused on the job in hand. He grabbed Katie and using her body as a shield, he worked back towards the main door that Katie had come out of. Whoever the Russians were, Sean seriously doubted they had anything to do with the mafia.
“We don’t have a shot!” shouted the CIA Team leader, alerting Sean he was the only one with an angle.
Sean aimed at the fraction of body the Russian exposed from behind the much smaller Katie. He fired off a few rounds which barely missed Sean as his aim was hampered by holding Katie with one arm. Sean remained rock still as he waited for his chance. As they neared the house, he had all but given up hope when Katie winked at him as she slammed her foot into the Russian’s tibia. The Russian was caught by surprise but recovered almost instantly. Just not instantly enough. Katie’s wink had Sean ready. He knew she was going to do something. Sean fired and his bullet hit the Russian in the center of the forehead and he slumped to the ground, taking Katie with him.
Sean rushed to the house and pulled Katie from the dead arm, checking she was not hurt.
“You OK?” he asked breathlessly.
“I’m fine thanks,” she smiled and wrapped her arms around him.
“Thank God,” Sean breathed a sigh of relief. It was the most nerve-racking shot he had ever taken. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been in a similar position before. In fact, he had been in worse and had taken many more difficult shots.
“Sean?” interrupted the CIA Team Leader as he walked towards them. “Does she know if we are all clear?” he asked.
Sean turned to Katie for the answer, an action that saved his life and ended the CIA Team Leader’s.
<
br /> Chapter 49
Vincent Black couldn’t sit still. They still had not been able to reach either the team or Sean. Jane had spoken to the base at Corpus Christi and they knew about the helicopter dropping them off but that had been hours ago. Vincent walked out of his office and over to Jane’s desk. “Any news?”
A short shake of the head had him walking back into his office. Another few seconds killed.
Jane followed him in. “You need to try and relax. Remember what the doctor said?” At times, she was the wife he never had. She knew everything about him, probably more than most wives. Dentists, doctors, she handled all communications and she knew the doctor had been worried about him. His blood pressure had risen dangerously, three months earlier. The death of Sean had hit Vincent Black harder than anything had ever hit him before.
He nodded and waved her away back to her desk. He was most definitely not in the mood to be nagged.
He opened the report that was scheduled to be delivered by him to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that afternoon but the words just looked back at him meaninglessly. His mind was only on one thing, what the hell was happening in Laredo?
“Jane!” he shouted, throwing the report onto the coffee table. “Get me the fastest ride you can between here and Laredo. I’m heading to the airport.”
“But the Select Committee hearing?” she protested having worked on it for weeks. But he was already out the door and halfway to the elevator.
As she moved towards the phone, it rang. Despite having supposedly not heard Jane shouting down the corridor to him. Vincent turned and ran back as Jane answered the call.
“I’m sorry, I can’t understand you. Just calm down,” said Jane, flustered by the call and obviously listening as hard as possible. As Vincent heard what was being said, his heart began to race.
“Katie, please, I can’t hear what you’re saying,” repeated Jane, sounding as concerned as Vincent had ever heard her. Vincent wanted to grab the phone from Jane but stopped himself.
“Did you just say they’re all dead?” asked Jane, her voice breaking.
Vincent’s heart pounded harder as his stomach lurched into his mouth. Jane nodded her head to Vincent, a pain shot through his left arm and a sweat instantly covered his body.
“Oh my God, was that an explosion?” were the words that sent Vincent crashing to the floor.
***
The look of horror on Katie’s face was the first sign for Sean that anything was wrong. He had turned from the Team Leader and as he faced Katie, her face contorted. Sean reacted instantly, diving and body tackling Katie through the open front door. A barrage of bullets thudded silently into the doorframe as Sean, pulling Katie tighter and tighter towards him, rolled over and over down the hallway, away from the immediate danger.
“Do you know how many there are?” he asked as he rushed her towards the basement door.
Katie shook her head violently. “I only went to pick up the newspaper and noticed a man hiding by the side of the house. I screamed and the next thing there were three!” Her voice trembled throughout as she struggled to control her fear and the shock of what she had just witnessed. Sean grabbed the phone from the hall table as he pushed her into the basement, he dialed the only number at Langley he knew off by heart, Vincent’s office number. He hit the dial button, gave Katie the phone and shut the basement door in her face, with clear instructions to lock it and only open it to him.
With Katie as safe as he could make her, he could concentrate on the remaining Russians. His major problem was he had no idea how many there were. The why would have to wait. He checked the Gyurza’s magazine, still 16 rounds left. As he realized Katie had seen what had become of the CIA team and he should have asked her, the Russian voices at the doorway gave him the answer. He checked the basement door was shut and fired two bullets into the doorway. If nothing else it would stall the ones at the front door.
Sean considered a number of options, making a break out the back of the house and circling round but there could be many more out there. Luis had seen six earlier. It would also leave Katie at the mercy of the guys from the front if they kicked in the basement door. Of course, charging the front meant again leaving Katie exposed to those who may come in from the rear. The one thing that seemed to be a common factor was that he wasn’t going to take the risk of leaving Katie. Which left one option, stand and fight. From the voices, he at least had one piece of information. There were at least two Russians left or one that talked to himself with different voices. Unlikely.
Sean rolled across the hallway floor and took up position in the living room which gave a slightly better angle to the doorway and protected him from the rear windows. It also offered him one of the most wonderful sights he had ever seen. One of Luis’ men’s AK47s lay propped against the wall of the living room. Sean reached over and grabbed the assault rifle, a little more firepower was never a bad thing in a tight situation.
He heard the first footsteps enter the hallway from the front door. He spun towards the doorway of the living room and prepared to enter the hallway selecting full auto on the AK47. Hopefully, one long blast would kill everybody in the enclosed space. Before he made it to the doorway, the back door crashed open and his position became completely exposed. He had no option but to change tactic and dive back into the living room as a hail of bullets raked the doorway. As the first of three flashbangs were tossed into the room all Sean could think, as he waited for the blinding flash of light and shockwave of sound that would disorientate and blind anyone within its range, was who the fuck was he up against?
Their maneuver had been timed to perfection and superbly done, entering a split second earlier from the front door had drawn Sean out and exposed him to the team from the rear. They were among the best Sean had seen and certainly had orchestrated the move quickly and effectively and with little time to plan. They knew what they were doing. The flashbangs also suggested that either they wanted Sean alive or evidence that it was definitely him that was dead. Otherwise, it would most certainly have been fragment grenades that had been thrown into the living room. Although Sean was under no illusion, he was aware of his ability to turn thoughts into actions almost instinctively. On tests of clicking the button when you see the item appear, he scored almost instantaneous times. Had his reaction times not been off the charts, they’d have already killed him twice over. They wanted him dead and they wanted proof.
Sean had practiced for years in kill rooms. As much as you prepared for a flash bang, without the correct equipment, you were going to feel the effects. He dropped the AK, placed his thumbs in his eardrums and covered his eyes with his fingers.
The bangs exploded milliseconds apart, one he could have coped with having experienced it so often before but three was overkill. Or exactly the amount you would use for somebody that had experience of flashbangs. These guys were exceptional.
Sean grabbed the Gyurza pistol, the AK47 was too cumbersome in the living room. He made out the image of the first Russian into the room, his weapon up sweeping the far side of the room. Sean tried to raise the pistol and aim at the mass but his balance had gone. The second Russian entered immediately behind his colleague, his weapon swept towards Sean. Sean’s mind screamed for his hand to move up and to the right but his body wasn’t really sure where right was. He pulled the trigger anyway. The gun went off and the Russian spun around. He had hit him. Sean’s gun wasn’t even aimed at the Russian. It didn’t make any sense. Sean watched as the Russian spun but didn’t fall, his weapon tracked back out the door. Somebody had come in behind them. Sean in his present state was not as pressing a threat. Sean screamed at his body to control its actions and for his mind to take control. They figured Sean would be out of it for a few seconds. A few seconds on a room breach was like a few minutes any other time.
***
Luis had pulled himself from the floor and rushed to the door of the empty house just in time to see the CIA Team Leader’s head explode next
to Sean. A fraction of a second later, three more CIA team members were down. Not one shot had rung out. They hadn’t stood a chance nor did the fifth and final team member. He stood up, caught in the middle of the driveway, desperately trying to see where the threat had come from. His body rocked one way then the other as two bullets landed one from either side a fraction of a second apart. Luis tried desperately to see what had happened to Sean and Katie but they were nowhere to be seen. They must have made it into the house he thought.
As Luis watched, two pairs of men appeared from either side of the house and congregated at the door. The four carried rifles with thick barrels which Luis assumed must be some type of silenced sniper rifle. Luis watched as they huddled and conversed while they swept their weapons covering every angle. Twice he moved away from the tiny crack in the door that he was watching them from, despite the fact he knew they couldn’t possibly see him from that far away. A few nods suggested they were doing something, two split off and went back around the rear of the house.
Luis pulled away from the door. Sean was a dead man, he thought. Whoever those guys were, they knew what they were doing. They were far better than anybody his uncle employed, that was for sure. Luis stood up with every intention of getting out of the slit in the back patio door and hightailing it as fast as he could to whatever border crossing he could get back into Mexico from. He stopped at that thought. He had promised his uncle the contacts; it was the only reason his uncle had stopped beating him when he gave him the rifle. Sean Fox was probably the only man alive that Luis knew that could get him the contacts within the timescale he had promised. Luis, without them was as good as dead. He looked back at the house, two men were ready at the front door and probably just waiting on a call from their colleagues at the rear. What could he do though? He looked around, nothing, no weapons. He ran up the stairs where the men had rushed down from and sent him flying and found the gun that looked like a MAC 10. Rushing back down he skidded to a stop as he neared the door. What in the hell was he doing? He’d never killed anyone before and these were the best trained men he’d ever seen. Well that wasn’t quite true. Sean Fox was at least as god as these guys. He peaked through the gap as the men moved in to the house across the street. He was running out of time.
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