Sophia ran them through a quick list of the many threats discussed by the Akhana, then gave them a full run-down of Project Seraphim, including everything she’d read so far from Leoncjusz’s journal and online, and Schlosser’s involvement with the project, which was why Grace needed a team to collect him from Manila. She left out the part where DC had been a test subject in Project Seraphim, programmed but without the pseudogenes. They didn’t need to know that yet. Not that she knew much herself.
‘That’s pretty heavy,’ Jay said. ‘And they’ve tested this stuff already?’
‘Two test subjects that I know of. An ex-MI5 agent and a well-known Hollywood actor. Both were mouthing off on TV about 9/11 being an inside job. They were starting to annoy Denton so he gave Leoncjusz Adamicz the order to blast some focused ELF waves into their bedrooms. Easy to do when they lived alone in big houses. The Hollywood actor lost not only his job but also his grip on reality, and the MI5 agent underwent a interesting transformation.’
‘How interesting?’ Nasira asked.
‘He became a cross-dressing messiah.’
‘That is interesting,’ Damien said.
‘You mean the Fifth Column can turn me into a cross-dresser?’ Jay said. ‘I’m out.’
‘Since you apply moisturizer and pluck your eyebrows, you’re already halfway there,’ Damien said.
‘That was just one time. And it was a cover ID.’ Jay scratched his chin. ‘Not the best one, in hindsight.’
‘So you’re on Grace’s team?’ Nasira asked Sophia.
Sophia nodded.
‘Not without me, you’re not,’ Nasira said. ‘Someone with balls needs to watch your ass.’
She slapped Benito on the shoulder and laughed. It got a smile out of him.
Sophia turned to the boys. ‘What are your plans?’
Damien stood. ‘I don’t think Grace likes me.’
‘I don’t think Grace likes anyone,’ Jay said.
Damien glared at Jay, then said, ‘We’re catching a ride with you guys.’
‘Then we’re off,’ Jay said.
‘Unless you need us,’ Damien said.
Jay shot Damien an irritated stare. Damien shrugged.
‘It’s fine. I’m sorry for dragging you into this,’ Sophia said.
Damien nodded and walked out.
Jay got up too. Nasira glared at him.
‘I’d love to join you,’ he said, ‘but babysitting isn’t really part of my skill set.’
‘Are you this selfish with everyone you meet?’ Nasira said.
‘No, just my friends.’ Jay saluted them. ‘Ladies, a pleasure as always. But I have a beach that needs lying on.’
He lingered for a moment, as though waiting to be convinced to stay. When it was clear they weren’t going to object, he walked out. Sophia wasn’t going to force anyone to stick around if they didn’t want to.
* * *
Jay sat on the Chico Inn balcony nursing a cup of coffee. It was almost 2200 hours but the darkness wasn’t really darkness for him; he could still see the mountains and the houses below. Through his enhanced vision, their brightly colored rooftops shone in peculiar shades of grayscale.
He heard footsteps ascending the stairs. They creaked out onto the balcony.
‘Hey,’ Damien said.
‘I know what you’re trying to do,’ Jay said.
Damien slinked into view and took a seat nearby. ‘I’m on the team,’ he said. ‘The retrieval of that German scientist.’
Jay was sure he’d misheard. ‘What?’
‘I put myself on the team.’
Jay rolled his eyes. ‘You mean Grace asked you to jump and you said how high?’
Damien was staring out into what would be darkness for him. ‘She didn’t ask me,’ he said. ‘I wanted to do it.’
‘She got you under her spell?’ Jay said. ‘You’re doing it because of her, aren’t you?’
Damien chuckled. ‘That wouldn’t be very smart. She’s warming to me like a glacier. And not a melting one either.’
‘She’s different,’ Jay said. ‘I told you.’
‘I’m doing it because they need me, Jay.’
Damien turned to look at him. Jay pretended not to notice and sipped his coffee.
‘They’d never say it but they need us.’
‘And after that?’ Jay said.
‘I don’t know. I guess I could use a vacation.’
Jay smiled before he could suppress it. ‘Then I’ll see you on the beach.’
Damien nodded and stood. ‘I’m off to bed. Catch you in the morning.’
Jay waved him off with a goodnight and drank his coffee. The caffeine had no effect on his wakefulness and he relished the fact he could drink it whenever he liked. The mountain coffee here was especially good. He watched Damien walk up the hill under the balcony, his limbs blazing orange in Jay’s infrared vision.
Nasira suddenly appeared beside him. He almost spilled his coffee, but did his best to hide it.
‘Didn’t you hear me coming?’ she said. ‘What about your super hearing?’
‘That’s Damien. I have the vision.’
‘I never got the chance to thank you,’ Nasira said. ‘For saving me.’
Jay laughed, a little too loud. ‘After killing you.’
He looked at her. The tightness across her jawline and eyes was gone. Her lips were parted slightly as she stared out into the night.
‘I never got a chance to thank you for returning the favor,’ he said.
Her lips moved slightly. She smiled. ‘Yeah. I’m sorry for dragging you into this. It’s not Sophia’s fault, it’s mine.’
‘Needed a change in scenery anyway,’ Jay said. ‘And the extra training.’
‘You were getting a bit rusty. And fat.’ She laughed.
He wasn’t expecting that, and snorted coffee from his nose. He gave her a slight grin, then took a peripheral glance at his stomach to make sure it looked flat in the moonlight.
‘So I guess this is it then,’ she said.
‘Not really.’ Jay slouched back, reclining his legs over the balcony. He couldn’t believe what he was about to say, and he knew he’d regret it as soon as he’d said it. ‘You’ll have to put up with me a couple more days.’
Nasira stared at him as though his head had turned into a giant croissant. ‘What?’
He drained his coffee and smiled to himself. ‘I’m on the team. Couldn’t pass up another chance to irritate you some more.’
Nasira seemed speechless for a moment, which was rare. ‘I wasn’t coming here to ask you to join us.’
‘I know, right? I was offended. Grace asked. Well, she asked Damien to ask me, but still.’
Nasira stood suddenly. ‘I don’t want your help.’
Jay glared at her in disbelief. ‘Well, you know what? I don’t care. You got it anyway.’
‘Do you like a challenge, is that it?’ Her smile had long since faded. ‘Because I’m not the sort of challenge you want.’
Jay shook his head. ‘It isn’t about you.’
‘Really? Because it’s looking that way from where I’m sitting.’
‘Standing,’ he said.
‘Not everything’s about you, Jay.’
‘Not everything’s about you,’ he said.
‘Why do you want to help?’
Jay stood, frustrated, and faced her square on. ‘Do you need a reason? Because last time I checked, your team of operatives was down to two. I don’t think you’re in a position to be picky.’
She nodded. ‘You’re right. Because if I was, I wouldn’t be picking you.’ She walked inside, leaving him standing on the balcony.
He was hoping to do the dramatic exit first, but she’d beaten him to it.
‘See, this is why I wanted to leave,’ he said to no one. ‘Fuck.’
He sat back down and stared out into the night. Trees gleamed with orange flecks: birds sleeping until dawn. Why did he want to help? To look out for Damien, watch his back
? He shrugged that idea off immediately. It didn’t fly any more, it was more than that. And as curious as he found Nasira and her colorful social skills — tonight being a case in point — that wasn’t enough of a reason either. Truth was, he didn’t know why he was joining the team tomorrow. He just hoped it was the right decision.
Chapter Nineteen
Sophia watched as Grace placed the large ammo box on the table. Everyone gathered to look, hoping for the best. Sophia was surprised that Damien and Jay were still here.
Grace’s neutral expression was usually unreadable, but right now she seemed less than enthused. ‘I’ll be honest with you, we have plenty of medical supplies but not much firepower,’ she said.
‘What are you carrying?’ Sophia snapped.
‘Vector SMG with suppressor,’ Grace said. ‘It does the job nicely inside twenty-five yards.’
Sophia eyed the strange-looking weapon on the table beside the ammo box. The adjustable stock was folded over one side of the submachine gun; at only sixteen inches long, it looked like a staple gun on steroids. There was a bulb-shaped vertical grip under the suppressor and a trigger guard large enough to wrap your whole hand through. It had a generously large ejection port. Next to it, Grace had placed three additional magazines. They looked like pistol magazines.
‘And what about us?’ Jay asked.
‘Good news and bad news. Good news: we have a few MP7s. And for a bit more range, two bullpups: L22 carbines, four mags.’ Grace reached for a crate at her feet and lifted out an example of each weapon. ‘Bad news: the MP7 fires its own 4.6 by 30 mil rounds. We don’t have many magazines.’
Sophia had used the Heckler & Koch MP7 before, and it was DC’s preferred sidearm. It was even more compact than Grace’s Vector and was about the same size as the MP5K. It could be holstered and fired one-handed, not that she ever holstered it or fired without both hands. Like the Vector, it even had a retractable stock. But the MP7 Grace placed on the table before them didn’t have a suppressor.
‘None of these have suppressors?’ Sophia asked.
‘No,’ Grace said. ‘They’re not exactly easy to come by. But you can conceal them more easily.’
‘They’re a little big to shove down your pants,’ Damien said.
‘That’s what she—’ Jay shut up as Nasira stamped on his foot.
‘That’s only an advantage if we’re on foot,’ Sophia said. ‘This is a pick-up, right? How much foot work are you expecting?’
‘I’ll get to that,’ Grace said. ‘First, your load-out.’
Sophia bit her lip. Grace was being evasive.
‘How many MP7s do you have?’ Damien asked. ‘And mags.’
‘Four MP7s,’ Grace said, picking them out. ‘Seven mags.’
‘There’s nine of us here, mate,’ Chickenhead said. ‘You have your own gear, so that leaves eight of us.’
‘Two get the L22s,’ Big Dog said. ‘Four get the MP7s. That leaves three of us.’
‘I’m coming,’ Freeman said. ‘That makes ten.’
Sophia was the first to react. ‘No, you’re not.’
‘It’s part of the deal,’ Grace said. ‘Schlosser won’t make contact without him.’
‘In person?’ Sophia said.
‘Yes.’
‘Doesn’t that seem suspicious to you?’
‘Paranoid, yes,’ Freeman said. ‘Suspicious, no. Anyone could masquerade as us, so he has to be sure.’
‘Plus it avoids any risk of interception,’ Grace said. ‘Interception that isn’t against his will, that is.’
Sophia massaged the muscles along her neck. ‘Can’t we just do a video conference or a phone call? You can encrypt that, right?’
‘Not reliably,’ Freeman said. ‘We can’t close our comms because the Akhana in Europe are potentially compromised. And we’ve gone dark, don’t forget. The only contact we have is with Schlosser and his single bodyguard. Former Blue Beret, so at least he’s trained.’
‘One dude,’ Jay said. ‘Oh, this is getting better by the minute.’
‘Can you trust this bodyguard?’ Damien said.
‘As much as you can trust anybody,’ Grace muttered.
‘OK, that’s just increased the risk tenfold,’ Sophia said. ‘We have to extract a high-value asset and at the same time we have to protect the most important person in the Akhana.’
‘We have grenades,’ Jay said, poking through Grace’s ammo box.
Sophia glared at him. ‘I don’t think that will—’ She stopped when she noticed what was in Jay’s hand. ‘What is that?’
Jay didn’t have an answer. He held it up so everyone could see. It was egg-shaped and black with a thin silver strip around the middle.
‘EMP grenade,’ Grace said. ‘We have four.’
‘Grace and her team intercepted a shipment of Blue Beret kit a few months back in Hong Kong,’ Freeman said proudly. ‘We wanted ammunition, carbines, something with more range. What she also found was a few EMP grenades and flashguns. Prototypes.’
Nasira raised an eyebrow. ‘Flash what now?’
Grace leaned into the ammo box and collected a small pistol, only instead of a barrel it had a flashlight. ‘Flashbang without the bang,’ she said. ‘Like a dazzling laser, but short-range only. You can blind anyone in a fifty-degree radius for a good five seconds.’
‘And this?’ Jay rattled the EMP grenade.
‘No effect on the human body,’ Grace said. ‘But it disables all electronics inside a fifty-yard radius.’
Jay seemed disappointed. He put the grenade back in the box and walked away.
‘So between us we have only two carbines that can take someone down outside of twenty-five yards,’ Sophia said, ‘grenades that can’t hurt people, some flashguns — how many?’
‘Five flashguns. Spare batteries for each,’ Grace said. ‘They’re prototypes though, so they run dry pretty quick. Sixty seconds between shots, so make them count.’
‘Do we have a means of recharging the batteries?’ Sophia asked.
‘We have chargers,’ Freeman said.
‘We pack those too then,’ Sophia said.
‘This is my operation,’ Grace said. ‘I’ll tell you what to pack.’
‘At this point it seems like there isn’t much choice,’ Sophia said. ‘What else do you have?’
‘I’m afraid that’s our entire armory,’ Freeman said. ‘This is an auxiliary base designed to hide exiles, not mount offensive operations.’ He paused to think. ‘We could borrow pistols from the guards, but I don’t want to leave too many unarmed, and ammunition is scarce.’
‘Just take enough for yourself and Benito,’ Sophia said. ‘Nasira and I have pistols, so Damien can have mine and Jay can have Nasira’s.’
‘I have a half-full mag and no spares,’ Nasira said.
Sophia checked her magazine, disappointed. ‘I have a few rounds left.’ She’d used most of her magazine when they’d escaped the Akhana base in Australia.
Benito laughed nervously. ‘If I’m in need of more than one magazine then we’re in serious trouble.’
‘We aren’t expecting any trouble,’ Grace said. ‘But given the profile of Dr Schlosser and the sensitive nature of his work with the Fifth Column, someone could have a trigger on him.’
‘And someone could be waiting to see where he leads them,’ Sophia said. ‘Which would be right back here.’
‘Let me make this clear,’ Freeman said. ‘We don’t bring him back here without one hundred percent certainty that we are not being followed.’
‘No one could make that guarantee,’ Grace said. ‘I mean, no disrespect but there are always possibilities. All we can do is make it downright impossible for anyone to surveil us once we pick him up.’
‘How do we do that?’ Big Dog said.
‘We’ll be sure to visit decoy towns on the route back to throw them off,’ Grace said. ‘And the usual countersurveillance applies. It will make for a longer trip though.’
‘Whateve
r it takes,’ Freeman said.
‘So what’s the plan?’ Chickenhead asked.
‘Schlosser will be arriving at Manila International the day after tomorrow, at 1120 hours. It’ll take us half a day to reach Manila from here so I suggest we move tomorrow, lie up overnight in Manila, then get into position at 0800 hours. You have tonight to zero your weapons. We’ll be riding in two vehicles: one jeep, one van. In the van: myself, Freeman, DC as driver,’ she gestured to Chickenhead and Big Dog, ‘your men here. Anyone else?’
Damien volunteered.
‘That leaves the rest of you for the jeep,’ Grace said.
The jeep would seat Benito as the driver, Sophia likely beside him, and Jay and Nasira in the back.
‘We have encrypted comms,’ Grace said. ‘Everyone will be wired up. It’s warmer down south so we’re looking at T-shirt weather. You’ll need to conceal your radios and firearms carefully.’
‘We can forget about the MP7s then,’ Nasira said.
‘I’ll see to getting you Glocks from the guards here,’ Freeman said.
‘Give those to Benito and yourself,’ Sophia said.
‘I appreciate your input, Sophia,’ Grace said, ‘but you’re not commanding this operation.’
‘Your point?’ Sophia said tersely.
‘Is that we can discuss this all night but my word is final,’ Grace said. ‘Damien, Jay, Nasira, Sophia — you’ll have the MP7s.’ She pointed two fingers at Big Dog and Chickenhead. ‘Aussies, carbines are yours.’ Her gaze came to rest on DC. ‘You just have your pistol, which should be sufficient since you’re my driver.’
She explained step by step what everyone would do once they were in position at the airport. The van would be parked legally, in close proximity to international arrivals. She wanted people on the ground inside the airport to put a trigger on Schlosser as soon as he cleared customs. That task was assigned to Damien and Jay.
Once Schlosser was moving to depart, his bodyguard would turn his phone on — a cheap prepaid snatched in Germany — and check for any text messages.
‘The bodyguard will write a draft email in a newly created Gmail account before leaving Germany,’ Grace explained. ‘Freeman will log into the account tomorrow from an internet cafe in Manila, retrieve the email, which will contain the cell number in reverse, and use it to text the guard with last-minute instructions using a disposable prepaid bought the day before. This should minimize any risk of interception by hostiles.’
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