Stabenow, Dana - Blindfold Game (v1

by Blindfold Game(lit)

  “Not bad, Hugh said, complimentary, and Kyle gave a curt nod. “They know how to do it well enough that theyve been exporting their expertise overseas, most recently to Iran. Ive been to the Korean DMZ, Kyle, and its not a pretty sight. Every now and then North and South shoot at each other across the DMZ, air to air, ship to ship, whatevers handy. The North has missiles in place targeting the Souths nuclear power plants. Instant dirty bomb.

  “Didnt our going into Iraq tone down their rhetoric a little?

  Hughs short laugh was without humor. “They figure the only way to keep us from doing the same to them is to keep building bigger and better and more weapons. And theyve been force-fed hatred of Americans with their mothers milk for going on sixty years now.

  “Ive read the reports, Hugh. I am the agent in charge of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Alaska.

  “Yeah, well, I just read a news release from the Korean Central News Agency which said, in part, and Im quoting verbatim here, that the U.S. is restless with its ambition to conquer the world.“

  Kyle had to smile. “Funny. I dont feel all that ambitious.

  Hugh shook his head. “Not so funny. That peninsula is a pile of kindling just waiting for a spark, and the first people who are going to have to respond to the fire are right now sitting up over there on Government Hill, warming up their F-15s.

  “Okay, Kyle said, “theyre pissed and theyre motivated. What does that have to do with terrorism? Is Kim Jong II sponsoring state terrorism? What are we looking at here, another Lockerbie? Another Cole?. Another 9/11?

  Hugh drank the rest of his now tepid coffee and set the cup carefully on Kyles desk. “I think the men responsible for the Pattaya Beach bombing in October are planning to launch a Scud missile with a cesium-137 payload at a target somewhere on the western coast of North America. Do you know what cesium-137 is?

  Kyles voice failed him. He shook his head.

  Hugh told him.

  “Jesus Christ, Kyle said, stunned. “Hugh, are you sure?

  He met Kyles eyes and said firmly, “Im sure, Kyle.

  “Then I dont get it. He aimed an exaggerated look over Hughs shoulder. “Where are the marines? Why arent you out at Elmendorf briefing the pilots so they can take these guys out? Why come to me?

  “Do you know anyone at Kulis?

  “The Air National Guard base? Sure. Why?

  “Do you know where Saras ship is?

  Kyles expression changed. “Hugh.

  “I know shes on the Sojourner Truth. I know the Sojourner Truths on patrol in the Bering Sea.

  “It was, Kyle said.

  Hugh looked at him.

  “The Sojourner Truth interdicted a Russian processor fishing on our side of the Maritime Boundary Line. The Coasties boarded them, arrested the crew, confiscated the vessel, and are now on their way with it into Dutch Harbor to turn it over to the authorities.

  “You sound like youre reading a press release.

  “I am. ActuallyKyle looked at the clock on the wall“theyve probably been and gone by now. I read all about it on District 17s Web site yesterday. Wanna see?

  “No time. But for the first time that morning Hugh couldnt stop a grin. “Thats my Sara.

  “Ride em, cowgirl, Kyle said, and sobered. “Seriously, Hugh, what are you going to do now?

  “I cant get my boss off the dime, Hugh said, his smile fading, too. “Ive got to find that damn freighter before I take another run at him. When I do

  “If you do. Theres the hell of a lot of water to look in, Hugh, and boats dont exactly leave tracks.

  “It was scheduled to leave Petropavlovsk on the seventhwhat day is it again?

  “The ninth. Was your source on the departure date reliable?

  Hugh thought of Noortman curled into a fetal position on his living room floor, his knee swollen up to the size of a basketball. “I dont know. He would have said anything to make us stop.

  “Stop what? Hugh?

  “Can you check to see if Saras ship is in Dutch Harbor yet, and if not, where it is?

  Kyle gave Hugh a long look. “Sure. I can do that.

  “And then could you call your buddy at Kulis, see if theyve got anything going in that direction, and ask if I can bum a ride?

  Kyle shook his head and reached for the phone. “Sure. I can do that, too. He began to punch in a number and paused. “You know, Hugh, when I suggested you figure out a way to spend more time with Sara, I wasnt suggesting professional suicide as a means of making that happen.

  Hugh looked back without smiling. “Where are Lilah and the kids?

  “At home. Lilahll just be getting them ready for Kyle stopped. “Yeah. I see what you mean.

  He hunched over the phone with a will. Hugh slid down to rest his head against the back of his chair and enjoyed the first slackening of tension in what felt like days.

  JANUARY

  ANCHORAGE

  KYLE WAITED UNTIL THE Hercules C-130 was in the air before he drove back to his office. He hung up his parka and stewed around a while before calling his wife.

  “Wheres Hugh? she said when she heard his voice.

  “Back on the road, Kyle said. “Listen, Lilah, I want you to take Eli and Gloria down to Seldovia for the weekend.

  There was a brief silence. “Kyle. Its Monday.

  “Oh. Yeah. Of course. Well, then take the week.

  “Ive got work, Kyle, as you well know.

  Lilah worked for the FBI, too. “Take some leave, he said. “If I have to Ill pull strings.

  “The kids have school.

  “Ill call their teachers and tell them theyll be back in a bit.

  Another silence. “Kyle. Whats going on?

  “I want you to take the kids to Seldovia, Lilah. Stay with the folks. You know theyd love to have them.

  “Kyle. We were there for a week over Christmas, if you recall, and I got the distinct impression that that was about six days too long for your father. Why this sudden urge to get me out of town? You got a girlfriend or something? She paused. “Has this got anything to do with Hugh showing up in the middle of the night?

  “No, he said, “nothing at all. Where on earth did you get that idea?

  “That response is so totally feeble Im not even going to comment on it.

  “Lilah. Kyle rested his forehead in the palm of his hand. “Just take the kids to Seldovia. Rent a bed-and-breakfast, I dont care. Just go. Today.

  When she spoke again her voice was softer. “Youre scaring me, Kyle.

  “Good, he said.

  The seconds ticked off while she made up her mind. “Ill take them to Seward, she said finally. “Is that far enough away?

  Seward was a hundred miles down the road, with the Kenai Mountains between it and Anchorage. “Yes. That should be far enough.

  “Ill call the Edgewater. At this time of year we could probably rent the whole hotel for fifty bucks a night.

  “That sounds good, he said, trying not to show his relief.

  “Kyle?

  “What?

  “Come with us.

  “Ive got something Ive got to do here first.

  He hung up and swiveled to look out the window. It was a pity he wasnt really seeing anything, because the window had a spectacular view of Denali and Foraker on the northern horizon. The day was clear and cold and icily bright for the measly five or so hours the sun was willing to poke its head up over the horizon. Theyd actually had snow this year before December and it was piled in four-foot berms between which traffic negotiated streets that had gone overnight from four lanes to two. If the weather didnt suffer a meltdown in the interim, there ought to be plenty of snow for the dogsled races.

  He loved this time of year, that fleeting time before the tourists came back and you could get a table at Simons without an hours wait. He was happy to be back in Alaska, too, a duty assignment hed been hoping for since hed joined the Bureau. Unlike the traitorous Hugh and Sara, Kyle had stuck loyally to the West Coast, graduating from the University
of Washington with a degree in criminal justice and then going to work for the Internal Revenue Service. Truth to tell, in spite of the grief he received from pretty much everyone when he admitted to his employers identity, hed gotten kind of a bang out of the work. He loved catching righteous citizensand they were always righteouswho insisted indignantly that the law didnt apply to them. In his own small way, he felt he was contributing to the reduction of the deficit, although the current administration in Washington was doing its enthusiastic best to keep that goal well out of his or anybody elses reach.

  Hed signed up to take Russian at a community college, because by then the Wall was long down and hed been headed for home from the moment he graduated from college. The borders were opening up between Alaska and Siberia and there was a future there for a Russian-speaking FBI agent.

  In Russian 101 he met Lilah, fresh out of school with a degree in accountinglarge, dark eyes, hair a downpour of heavy black, a body by Venus. He was sunk at first glance. After class he followed her into the parking lot and wouldnt let her leave until she gave him her phone number. When he walked her to her door at the end of their first date he knew she had a brain and a sense of humor to go with the looks. By Russian 201 they were engaged, and by Russian 301 they were married, and before starting on children they applied together to the FBI. Both had been accepted immediately. The Russian had helped, and it had also helped when they both requested assignment to Anchorage, as Kyle had known it would. Lilah was from Snoqualmie in Washington State and no stranger to snow and ice, although she didnt much care for the four and a half hours of daylight Anchorage was reduced to in winter. But then who did?

  Her picture smiled up at him from his desk, with Eli in her lap and Gloria leaning against her shoulder. Yes, he had one beautiful family.

  His thoughts turned naturally to Hugh and Sara, also part of his family. Not, at present, quite so beautiful. Odd, he thought now, how theyd all wound up in law enforcement. But perhaps not so odd, when he remembered the first time an Alaska state trooper had come to Seldovia, a tall man with a deep voice and an unshakable sense of authority. There had been a stabbing death in a community where if you werent related by blood you were related by marriage to everyone there. The town had been in a turmoil, which might very well have escalated into a lynching if the trooper hadnt flown in from Ninilchik to investigate. It took his calming presence half a day to bring people to their senses, and at the end of it he removed the perpetrator to Homer to be bound over for trial. There was chaos, and then the trooper came, and there was order. It had been a powerful example to three awestruck little ten-year-olds.

  Kyle straightened in his chair. His childhood buddy Hugh Rincon was not an alarmist. If Hugh thought there was a terrorist threat from the Far East presenting itself to a western American port sometime in the near future, then his buddy Kyle was going to take it seriously. All three of them, he and Hugh and Sara, too, had family in Alaska.

  He called the local Coast Guard member of his task force. “Joe? Kyle. Im headed out of the office. Can I drop by?

  He shrugged into his coat on the way out. “Im going down to the port. Ill be back after lunch, he told the receptionist. One of the joys of being the boss was, so long as your case file didnt back up, nobody looked over your shoulder.

  Eves eyes followed him all the way to the elevator. Inside, he turned and winked at her. She blushed. She was just a kid, barely twenty years old, fresh out of Charter College with an associate degree in computers. He was well aware that she had a slight crush on him. He worried all the way down to the garage that he should have told her to get out of town, too.

  Joes office was eleven blocks down the street from Kyles, in a handsome building erected right where Anchorage began a short slide into Knik Arm. “You know youre toast when the next big one hits, Kyle said.

  Joe Brenner shook his hand warmly. “Yeah, but Ill have a great view on the way down. Behind him the Knik was beginning to fill up with bergs of ice, created by the freezing temperatures and broken by the forty-foot rise and fall of the tide. A containership was nosing into the bergs on the far side of the Knik, its hull crusted with sea spray. It was riding right down on the Plimsoll line.

  Kyle thought of Hugh and wondered what the ship was carrying in its hold.

  He turned. Joe Brenner was a tall, trim, broad-shouldered, square-jawed man in Coast Guard blue, with brown hair, blue eyes, and a charming manner. He was a weather forecaster on a local television station. He was also a commander in the Coast Guard Reserve who had been called up after 9/11. He still made the occasional 10:00 p.m. newscast, and he was something of a local heartthrob, because for some inexplicable reason best known only to the great television audience weather forecasters got all the action.

  “Lately, he said to Kyle with an engaging grin, “the worst part of this job has been chasing people who watch me on the news away from the gate.

  “Any potential there?

  Joe shook his head. “Nah, he said, a little sadly. “All jailbait.

  “Shame.

  “Yeah.

  They communed together in silence over this grievous misfortune.

  Kyle jerked his head at the window. “I see the CSX Anchorage is on its way in.

  “Yeah, Joe said, and got to his feet to stand next to Kyle. “Riding low in the water.

  “I was noticing. Whatre they carrying?

  Joe cocked an eyebrow. “Whats up?

  Kyle shrugged. “Curious.

  Joe didnt believe him. “Well, youd have to ask the port about that.

  “Okay. Wanna go for a ride?

  “Down to the port?

  “Yeah?

  “You sure you want to do that?

  Kyles brow creased. “Why wouldnt I?

  Joe grinned at some secret joke. “Upon your own head be it.

  The Port of Anchorage was a three-story building painted beige with red trim, accented with oversized porthole-style windows. The manager was a large young man with the pink clear skin of a babys bottom and fine flyaway blond hair. Greg Wladislaw loved his job and he was a born cheerleader, anxious, even eager, to share every bit of this most wonderful job with anyone who didnt move fast and far enough out of range first. He was devastated not to have an answer for Kyle as to the contents of the containership docking behind him. “We dont have the manifests here, you understand. Thatll be over at Horizon with their agent. I can call, if you like. Or take you over and introduce you.

  Kyle said, “Can you tell me about traffic in and out of the port of Anchorage? When and what kind?

  Indeed Wladislaw could. “We get in two domestic ships a week, one Horizon on Sunday and one Tote on Tuesday. Weve just started getting a third carrier in. He dropped his voice, as if he were imparting a state secret to a select, trusted few. “Some are foreign carriers.

  If he was expecting expressions of awe and amazement he was disappointed. “Really? Kyle said. “How often?

  “Once a week, out of Asia.

  “Asia? Kyle said. “What ports?

  “Hong Kongwell, China now, I guessJapan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore.

  “Mmm, Kyle said. “That it?

  Wladislaw was shocked at the very suggestion. “Oh no, we have petroleum tankers coming in and out, too.

  “Any ships come in from Russia?

  Wladislaw made a face. “What do they have that we want to buy?

  “Point taken. How often do the petroleum tankers come in?

  “One tanker a month, Wladislaw said proudly.

  It wasnt exactly Long Beach, Kyle thought, and felt relieved. Not enough traffic to hide something the size of a freighter in. Maybe Hugh was wrong. He looked out the window at the dock, which appeared to stretch from the Knik River bridge to Turnagain Arm. The three men watched as three C-130s came spiraling in from the north to touch down at Elmendorf Air Force Bases runway, which ended on the edge of the bluff immediately above the port. A subsequent roar of engines indicated a takeoff immediately following. Aircre
ws doing touch-and-goes, to keep their skills sharp.

  “Man, I love those big old Hercs, Joe said. “Been flying for fifty years. No place they cant get into or out of. Ever cop a ride in one?

  Kyle nodded. “I got to go out to Savoonga with the Alaska Air National Guard. A fun trip. Noisy, though.

  “Yeah, I pack earplugs.

  “Ill remember that for next time. So, Kyle said, turning to Greg, “you only get one ship in at a time?

  “Oh, no! Wladislaw said, clearly appalled at the suggestion. He hustled Kyle and Joe to the outer office to where an aerial photograph the size of a tablecloth dominated one wall. It showed the port of Anchorage on a sunny summer day and every inch of the dock of the port used up by four ships moored bow to stern along it. “Two containerships and two petroleum tankers, all on the same day, Wladislaw said proudly.

  “Must have been a busy day.

  Wladislaw nodded vigorously. “You bet. You should come down on a ship day, Special Agent Chase. Its a real zoo. An organized zoo, he hastened to add.

  “Its Kyle, Greg, and Ill take you up on that. Next week, maybe.

  Wladislaw beamed. “Anything else I can help you with?

  “What kinds of goods move through here?

  Wladislaw spread his hands expansively. “What kinds dont would be an easier question to answer. He smiled widely at Kyle, and Kyle had to resist the temptation to scratch Wladislaw behind the ears. “The port of Anchorage supplies ninety percent of the population of Alaska. What do you drive?

  Startled to be asked a question instead of being answered, Kyle had to think. “Ah, Subaru Legacy.

  Wladislaw nodded approvingly. “Family man, am I right? But with style.