They were interrupted by Mina, who stuck her head into the kitchen. “I’m going to pick Melissa up. Want anything from town while I’m there?”
Gray looked at his friends and knew there was only one thing they needed. “A few more beers wouldn’t go amiss.”
CHAPTER 16
A pair of sea birds flitted across the water before arcing away toward the Washington Monument that dominated the far shore of the Potomac. Bill Sanders watched their flight until they were dots on the horizon, then turned his attention to the foot traffic on Mount Vernon Trail. From his bench near the Merchant Marine Memorial, he scanned the joggers and walkers for signs of the operative. He was looking for someone a shade under six feet tall, with short black hair and Latino features.
Carl Huff arrived a minute early. He was wearing beige chinos and a shirt with the top two buttons undone, revealing a tanned chest. He took a seat next to Sanders, who was pretending to read a newspaper.
“Since when does the director personally issue new assignments?” the agent asked, adjusting his Ray-Bans.
“Since it became necessary. I trust you remember Eva Driscoll.”
A smile crept onto Huff’s face. “She’s not the type you forget. Let me guess. She’s botched a job and you need me to pick up the pieces.”
“Hardly. I’ve been instructed to put a kill order on her.”
Huff’s face changed immediately. Sanders had trouble reading the new expression, which was one of the reasons why Huff was so good at his job. One minute he could be radiating ambivalence, then a second later he was sticking a knife through your eye socket.
“It’s a shame,” Huff said finally. “She was good.”
“She’s the best, so don’t underestimate her.”
Sanders was still unsure as to whether or not Huff would follow the instructions in the envelope nestled inside his jacket pocket, but he had to get the ball rolling or the next name on the kill list could be his own. The trouble was, he was still unsure about Huff’s feelings for Driscoll. A lot depended on whether the rumors about the pair that had circulated a decade earlier were true or not.
“Is this the first time you’ve had to take out one of your own?” Huff asked.
“Not personally, no, but I’ve given the order before.” Which probably explains why Driscoll took out her insurance policy, Sanders thought. “Twelve years ago, an operative was tasked with taking out a woman. He was waiting for her outside her home in the boondocks when she came out with her daughter. The kid was just a few years old. Blonde hair in a ponytail, waddling to the car with her schoolbag. The operative couldn’t do it. He was supposed to follow her and run her car off the mountain road, but instead he got out and told her that she’d been marked for elimination. He said he’d help her to escape and start a new life. Of course, the woman didn’t believe him. Who would?”
“So what happened to them?”
“The woman went straight to the police and told them about the crazy man who’d turned up at her home. The moment the complaint was recorded on the police computer, we knew about it. That night, her house mysteriously burned down, killing everyone inside.”
“And the operative?”
“After we got his side of the story—which I believe took several painful hours—he was buried at sea.”
“He must have been new to the job.”
“He was. It was his third and last assignment.”
Huff nodded ruefully. “And Driscoll? I take it she knows she’s being hunted.”
“She does.”
“That makes it tricky. She’s going to be on her guard, especially when she sees a familiar face.”
“That’s what I was saying. If you’re not up to the job, tell me now and I’ll find someone else.”
“I can handle it,” Huff said. “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why she’s marked for termination?”
Sanders hoped his silence answered the question. In the majority of cases, he himself had no idea why a person had to be eliminated. The orders came down from the ESO and his job was to provide the assets, period. A couple of times he’d been shown the bigger picture, but that had been some time ago, before the new chairman had been selected. These days, the most he was given was a name and a photograph.
A small sailboat passed by, a father taking his son out and teaching him the ropes. Sanders himself had never had children, one of the few regrets in his life. They’d tried, but his wife’s body was an inhospitable environment, according to the specialists they’d seen. The idea of adoption had never sat well with him or his wife, so they’d spent their lives alone. Christmas and Thanksgiving became particularly tough times. Sanders wondered if the lack of children had been one of the reasons for his dalliance with Driscoll. She hadn’t been the first, but she was certainly the last.
“Is anyone else involved in the hunt?” Huff asked.
Sanders took the envelope from his jacket and handed it over. “The details are in there. Your contact is Anton West over at Homeland Security. They got first bite at the apple but blew it, which is why you’re here. West will update you on the situation as it stands.”
“Am I expected to follow his orders?”
“No, you’re expected to follow mine. Everything you need to know is in there, including my direct line. Keep me updated on your progress.”
Sanders stood as Huff tucked the envelope in his pocket. His future was now in the hands of a killer, and there was no turning back.
CHAPTER 17
Colback nudged Eva awake as they hit the outskirts of Akron, Ohio. She had been sleeping soundly since the last pit stop, leaving him alone with his thoughts, which had mostly been about his tours in Afghanistan with Jeff Driscoll, Danny Bukowitz, and Ron Elphick.
His team had spent a total of twenty-six months in-country, with Colback serving as an 18 Bravo, the designation for a weapons specialist within an Operational Detachment Alpha. They had served in the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Group, tasked with various unconventional warfare missions in the Middle East area of operations.
Colback could recall every assignment they’d taken part in. Most were routine, but there had been plenty of fierce engagements too. They’d captured two Taliban warlords and killed four others, and there had been a few rescue missions, one of which hadn’t been successful. Could that be the reason someone high up in the political hierarchy wanted to take them out? Was the dead soldier somehow related to one of these mysterious figures, and they were now seeking revenge?
It was a tenuous link at best. Colback and his team had risked their lives to pull out the infantryman, but he’d been dead for at least an hour before they arrived. After-action reports had laid no blame at their feet. Still, it was all he could think of.
“Take the next exit,” Eva said, stretching in her seat. “Find a diner. I’m famished.”
“I may have the reason they’re after me,” Colback told her. “It’s not much, but it’s all I’ve got.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“It was a rescue mission. A unit from the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment had been caught in an ambush and lost contact with one of their men, a Private Leo Hurwitz. They sent up a drone that tracked the Taliban to a nearby village and we went in just after nightfall. We found Hurwitz, but he was already dead. Could someone close to the kid blame us for not bringing him home alive?”
Eva considered it, her face impassive. “Nothing else you can think of?”
“That’s the only thing that makes sense. The rest of the time was spent killing Taliban or guarding villages. Nothing to create enemies stateside.”
“I’ll get Farooq to dig up what he can on Hurwitz.”
Colback looked over at her. “Is this where you share your brilliant plan, or are you going to keep me in the dark?”
“Pull in here and get some gas,” she said, effectively answering his question.
Colback turned into the gas station and filled the tank while Eva remained in the car. Once he’d p
aid cash, he got back in but didn’t start the engine.
“If we’re going to work together, you’re going to have to start trusting me,” he said, gripping the steering wheel.
“Likewise,” she replied.
Colback gave her a look that said they weren’t moving until she opened up.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll find somewhere to eat, then I’ll drive us to New Lexington, where we’ll hole up until late. I’ll send him a message and we’ll go see him. Is that okay with you?”
“You’re just going to drive up to his house while they’re watching?”
“No, that would be plain dumb. My plan is subtler and involves a pizza delivery.”
Driscoll expanded, and a couple of minutes later, Colback was smiling as he cruised the streets in search of a suitable place to eat.
They settled on an old-style diner. Colback parked around the back with the car’s nose pointing toward the exit, just in case they needed to leave in a hurry. Inside the diner, they took a seat in a booth near the restroom. Colback saw no CCTV but decided against removing his cap.
A waitress sporting a beehive and a mouth full of chewing gum stood at their table and reeled off the specials with all the enthusiasm she could muster, which wasn’t a great deal.
“I’ll have coffee, a burger—hold the pickle—extra fries, and a slice of apple pie.”
“Just coffee and pie for me,” Colback said.
“You should eat more,” Eva said once the waitress had retreated to the kitchen. “Things are going to move quickly from here on in.”
“I filled up with potato chips while you were sleeping.”
“Still, you never know when we’ll get another chance. I’m hoping for a clean getaway tonight, but things don’t always go as planned.”
She took out her phone and opened a browser window. After a couple of minutes tapping at the virtual keyboard, she put it back in her pocket. “The message is ready to go. I’m not going to send it now because I don’t want to give the bad guys too much notice, otherwise New Lexington will be crawling with ’em.”
“Don’t make that face of yours, but I have another question. If that’s a burner phone, how can you send an encoded message to Farooq?”
Eva couldn’t help herself and her frustration showed. “The app can be downloaded from a Web server he manages. The encryption is built in, so all I have to do is type in the Web address and enter my password and it downloads automatically.”
“But what if someone else goes to the website and downloads it?”
“They won’t,” Driscoll said. “It’s not your typical Web address like Google.com. This is a subdomain of an IP address. You won’t find it in any search engine, and the chances of anyone typing the correct sequence of numbers and letters into a browser are infinitesimally small.”
“But let’s say someone did trip across it,” Colback persisted.
“They’ll just see a page that says the site is under development. One of the letters in the word is a clickable link to the login page, but once you get there you’ve only got thirty seconds to enter a valid password. If you don’t, a worm is installed on your device, be it a phone or computer. That gives Farooq complete access, and if it’s on a network, the whole thing is compromised.”
“Sounds like he’s got it all thought out. I’m guessing he’s not a janitor with the CIA.”
“He’s no longer with them. They kicked him out a couple of years ago. Biggest mistake they ever made, but it’s our gain.”
“Why get rid of him if he’s so good?”
“Because his supervisor was a useless prick,” Eva said. “Whenever Farooq came up with a brilliant idea, his boss kicked it upstairs with his name all over it. Farooq had enough and went over the guy’s head, but then got shit-canned on a trumped-up charge of drinking at work. Sure, he might have turned up hungover a few times, but it never affected his performance. They did a random inspection one day and found half a bottle of whiskey in his desk drawer. He was breathalyzed and tossed out of the building that same day.”
“Is he still on the sauce?” Colback asked. “That could be a problem.”
“He’s been sober for two years. I helped clean him up and now he’s working freelance as a security analyst.”
“If he’s out of the CIA, how does that help us?”
Eva smiled. “Because, like me, he realized that his usefulness had a finite shelf life. He’d been thinking of going solo for some time, and nothing would give him an edge in an ultracompetitive field than access to the CIA mainframe, so he created a back door.”
“Can’t they trace those?”
“Not this one,” Eva assured him. “Farooq wrote all the trace protocols years ago, and it would be a huge task to update them all. If you’re going to navigate a minefield, it helps if you’re the one who laid the mines.”
The waitress brought their order, and Eva tucked into a burger loaded with two juicy patties.
Colback picked at his pie as he watched her devour her food. Even with a mouth full of meat, she was the most captivating creature he’d ever seen. In another lifetime, he might have made a move on her . . .
“I’ve seen that look before, mister,” she said. “Don’t even think about it.”
Colback blushed and turned away, staring out of the window in an effort to hide his embarrassment.
Eva wiped her hands and handed him her phone. “If you’re not going to eat, make yourself useful. Look for pizza delivery joints in New Lexington.”
Colback took the phone and began his search. He soon had a long list to choose from and passed it back to her. “There’re dozens. Take your pick.”
Eva zoomed in on the area around Farooq’s house. “Three within a couple of miles of his home, all open late. Hopefully one of them will be suitable.”
Twenty minutes later, they paid cash and left the standard tip, so as to remain nondescript in the waitress’s memory. Eva took the wheel as the sun headed for the horizon. It would be dark within the hour.
“He looks ideal,” Colback said, pointing to the delivery guy who had just left the pizzeria laden with boxes. “He’s the right height and shape.”
“It’s about time,” Eva replied. This was the third outlet they’d visited in the hope of finding someone who was enough of a match to one of them in physique. The previous two pizza joints employed young white males as delivery drivers, likely college kids supplementing their tuition. Now, they finally had an athletic-looking African American who could be mistaken for Colback from a distance. She would have preferred to use a white female, but this would have to do.
“I’ll be right back,” Eva said, and got out of the car, which was parked thirty yards from Joe’s Pizza Emporium. She jogged over to Colback’s doppelgänger as he loaded his deliveries onto a rack on the back of his moped.
“Hey.”
The man turned, and his face lit up at the sight before him. “Hey to you too.”
She smiled. “I was wondering, are they looking for help here . . . ?”
He stuck out a hand. “I’m Orlando, but my friends call me Lanny.”
“I’m Sue,” Eva said, shaking his hand. “So, are they hiring?”
“Nah, sorry. Joe just took on a new waitress and he’s already got three delivery guys. It’s a shame. If I got to look at something as fine as you all day, it’d make coming to work worthwhile.”
Eva gave him a pout, then shrugged. “Some you win. Hope to see you around, Lanny.”
She walked back down the street, knowing Lanny’s eyes would be on her swaying hips every step of the way. She didn’t stop at the car, in case he took note of the plates. Instead, she walked around the corner and disappeared out of sight.
Two minutes later, Orlando rode past on the way to his first delivery. Eva waited until he was out of sight, then ran back to the store and went inside.
A man in his fifties stood behind the counter and gave her a practiced smile. “Welcome to Joe’
s. What can I get you?”
“I’d like to place an order for delivery.”
“If you care to wait, we can have a pizza ready in fifteen minutes.”
“Delivery would be better. My friends and I are having a party and don’t need it until later.” She chose three varieties from the menu and asked if they could be delivered at midnight.
“Sure. That’ll be forty-five bucks.”
Eva handed over a fifty. “Can you please ask Lanny to bring them?”
“Sorry, he clocks off at eleven.”
She gave him a wink and another twenty. “Tell him it’s for Sue and this is part of his tip. He’ll get more when he turns up.”
Joe gave her a knowing look as he took the money. “What’s the address?”
She gave him Farooq’s home details, then took her phone from her pocket as she walked back to the car. She opened the messaging app and hit Send on the missive she’d composed earlier.
“We’re all set,” she told Colback as she got in and started the engine. “Let’s just hope it plays out the way it’s supposed to.”
CHAPTER 18
Farooq Naser was about to turn in for the night when the cell phone on his desk chirped. The screen lit up and he immediately recognized the Taurus logo. It was the messaging app he’d created a few years earlier, and only a handful of people knew of its existence.
He knew it had to be Eva Driscoll before he looked at the message. The phone call he’d received from the CIA earlier in the day had warned him that she might be in touch, and they’d also spelled out the consequences of not reporting any contact.
Throughout the day, he’d wondered what she could possibly have done to incur the CIA’s wrath. As far as he was concerned, Eva was as patriotic as they came. Her job was her life and she wouldn’t jeopardize it for anything.
Farooq picked up the phone and walked to the window, easing the curtain aside and peering out through the one-inch gap. The car he’d spotted at lunchtime was still there, with both men still sitting inside. They were obviously waiting for Eva to turn up. Her and Rees Colback—the one they’d called a terrorist.
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