by Ethan Jones
“Do you?”
“What if it’s important?”
“She’d tell us tomorrow.”
“Time sensitive?”
Carrie shrugged. “She could have told you what it was…”
“I’ve got to go.” He checked his pistol, drank the last of his coffee, and reached for the jacket behind the door of the living room.
“Tell me where it is.”
He showed her the text message he had received from Ava.
Carrie said, “How long should I wait?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got to see her in ten minutes. Half an hour, forty-five minutes at the most.”
“Okay. Come here.”
She fixed the collar of his jacket, then tapped him on his chest. “Watch out, now…”
“I will. I’ll call, if there’s trouble…”
“Let’s hope there isn’t.”
Justin gave her a reassuring smile and walked through the doorway to meet the Russian team leader.
Chapter Twenty-three
Seven Kilometers North of the CIS Safehouse
Donetsk, Ukraine
“Just keep an eye on her,” Tiana said in a rapid voice, as she hopped out of her bed. “I’ll be there shortly.”
“What if she has figured things out?” said the low male voice.
“Give me a moment.”
She put on a pair of khaki pants, then a t-shirt, followed by a sweatshirt. There was no time to strap on the bulletproof vest, but she grabbed it from the back of the chair, where she had left it last night. She slid her Grach 9mm pistol in the small of her back and stepped out of her bedroom. “Elmir, we’ve got to go.”
Elmir sprang to his feet. He was a bear of a man, with a large head and a long, pointy beard. He picked up the rifle set next to him on the couch and walked in front of Tiana. “Now, what was that?” she said on the phone.
“What if Ava has learned what we’re doing?” The man’s voice was hurried, full of concern.
“How would she do that?” Tiana retrieved her jacket behind the apartment’s door and stepped into the hall. “Unless one of you squealed…”
“I’ll never betray this mission, or my country.”
Tiana shrugged. I wouldn’t be so certain. “And your friend?”
“He wouldn’t do that either.”
“Have you had eyes on him at all times?”
“Uh… no.”
“So, you can’t be certain, then?”
The man delayed his reply for a long moment. “Because I know him.”
“We can barely know each other. Stay close to him.”
“I … I can’t be glued to him all the time.”
Tiana ran down the staircase, following three steps behind Elmir. “This is your job. That’s why you are on Ava’s team. She can’t learn, or even suspect of the team’s real objective.”
The man rushed his reply, “I’ll do what I can—”
“Do more. Or you’ll be sorry.” Or dead.
The man said nothing.
Tiana ended the call and looked at Elmir. They were at the Land Rover. He opened the driver’s door and said, “Where are we going?”
“South, then east. Behind the Krasnaya Zvezda restaurant.”
“I know where that is. Do we need backup?”
“Let’s hope not.”
* * *
“What was so urgent that you had to drag me out at this ungodly hour of the night?” Justin stood two feet away from Ava.
The night air was cold and smelled like deep fried chicken and onions. The parking lot was empty and dimly lit. The nearest streetlight was about thirty feet away, and the next one across the intersection to their left. Two vehicles were parked on the street, by a café that was still open. Three patrons were drinking, smoking, and laughing inside the establishment.
“It’s about my team and our operation.” Ava stepped closer to him and looked around.
Justin cast a sweeping gaze around the area. Nothing moved. The intersection was clear. A distant car honk, followed by an engine rumbling. No one in sight.
“Can you be more precise?”
“I believe one of my teammates is trying to sabotage our mission.”
Justin frowned. Ava’s words caught him by surprise. “How did you find out?”
“I have nothing concrete at this point, only suspicions.”
“Based on?”
“A number of little things, coincidences.”
“No such thing.”
She smiled. “I think the same thing.”
“Who is it?”
“Dima. He’s the half-bald man. The one who didn’t say much.”
“Yes, and who swore allegiance to his motherland.” Justin nodded.
She snorted. “Better men have taken such vows only to betray our country…”
“How do we smoke him out?”
Ava cocked an eye at him. “What? Oh, you mean how do we determine if Dima is the traitor?”
“Yes.”
“I have a plan, but it involves you…”
“Me?”
She shrugged. “Well, perhaps not you necessarily, but someone from your team. Maybe one of the Ukrainians, since they don’t trust my team anyway…”
“I don’t think I follow.”
Ava glanced around.
Justin did the same. She’s almost as paranoid as me.
“I can’t be suspicious of my team and find no evidence. You, on the other hand, you can get away with that.”
“Are you suggesting we raid your safehouse, searching for evidence of betrayal?”
She grinned. “I’m not suggesting anything. You’ll be following up on a piece of intel you received from a trusted source. I wouldn’t object to or stop such a reasonable search.”
Justin studied Ava’s bright eyes for any telltale signs. He found none. She was saying the right things and showing the right emotions. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he and his team were being set up. He thought about his answer for a moment, then said, “Trusted source?”
“Yes, I wouldn’t do this just to mess with you, now, would I?”
“You tell me…”
“Come on, Justin. What’s my gain in charging my own teammate with treason?”
“I don’t know. I’ve seen a thousand of strange things in my time…”
“So have I.”
“What exactly did Dima do?”
Ava looked first to her left, then to her right, toward the intersection.
Justin did the same.
A black SUV had just driven through from the opposite direction. The steel barrel of a rifle glinted under the streetlight. A gunman, half his body out the SUV’s window, had aimed the rifle at them.
“Down, get down!” Ava threw her body over Justin.
Her move saved both their lives.
Bullets whizzed above their heads. If they had still been standing, they would have dropped down dead.
Justin rolled on the asphalt and aimed his Sig pistol at the SUV. It had climbed the sidewalk and was heading toward them.
Ava also pulled her trigger.
Their volley pierced the SUV’s windshield, but it didn’t stop or slow down the driver. The gunman was still firing from his rifle. Bullets stitched up the ground, flying dangerously close to Justin’s head.
One of his or Ava’s bullets blew up the SUV’s front left tire. The driver struggled to control the vehicle and keep it going straight. Then the other front tire erupted in a spray of sparks. The SUV swerved left, then right, before it slewed to the side.
Neither Justin nor Ava stopped firing.
Their bullets pierced the SUV’s undercarriage, lifting more sparks. One of them lit up the fuel spilling from the punctured tank. A moment later, the SUV erupted into a gigantic explosion. White and orange flames shot up thirty feet high.
Justin covered his head and rolled back as fiery fragments rained over the parking lot. He glanced at Ava, who was on her stomach. She hadn’
t withdrawn at all. A large piece of blackened metal had landed very close to her head.
Ava glanced at him. “Did they get you?”
Justin shook his head. “No. You?”
“I’m alright.” She sat up and dusted herself off.
“Who are they?” Justin stood up.
“Let’s see.” She stepped toward the burning SUV.
Justin glanced around, focusing on the two men who had burst out of the café. They had no weapons, but still Justin decided to keep them in his peripheral vision. He walked slowly and carefully behind Ava, covering her back.
She stopped when she was perhaps six feet away from the scorching hulk and took a close look.
The stench of burned rubber, fuel, and flesh assaulted Justin’s nostrils. He covered it with his hand and turned his head around.
Ava’s senses seemed immune. She shook her head, then spat on the ground. “It’s that fool, Dima.”
“The suspected traitor?”
“The confirmed traitor.” She cursed out loud.
“Was he the gunman?”
Ava nodded. “I don’t know the driver. Half his face is blown off, so identifying him will be difficult.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter who he was.”
Gunfire erupted in the distance, followed by a car engine rumble.
They looked around, but saw no one coming.
Justin turned his head toward the café. The two men who had been outside the café had disappeared. The café’s lights were turned off. “Ava?”
“Yes.”
“There were three guys in that café… They’ve vanished.”
Ava peered in that direction and shrugged. “Smart. We should do the same.”
“Could they be connected to this?”
“I doubt it. Dima wouldn’t use local talent. Not for something so important.” She holstered her pistol and stepped closer to Justin. “Look, whatever’s going on here, it’s affecting all of us, not just you and me personally, but our teams. If we’re to survive, we’ve got to work together.”
Justin nodded. He wanted to say that he didn’t have any traitors in his team, but that wouldn’t be helpful. Ava had come clean about what she knew and had saved his life. It was her teammate’s fault that he was put in that situation, but still Ava had done everything she could. “Yes. I’ll brief my team.” He looked deep in her eyes and thought he saw a glint of disappointment. He shrugged. “Let’s take off. I’ll call you in the morning.”
“I’ll let you know if I hear something about why exactly this happened.” She tipped her head toward the SUV. Flames had engulfed it, and the curtain of black smoke was spreading across the parking lot.
“See you soon, Justin.”
“Oh, Ava…”
She turned her head.
“Thank you… for saving my life.”
Ava shrugged and waved a hand in dismissal. “You’d have done the same for me…”
Justin smiled and thought, Would I?
Chapter Twenty-four
Behind the Krasnaya Zvezda Restaurant
Donetsk, Ukraine
Tiana peered through the darkness at the silhouette of a man. His shoulders were hunched, like a fighter, and he turned his head and looked behind and in all directions almost every twenty seconds. He kept his pistol next to his thigh.
“Do we follow?” Elmir asked.
“No,” Tiana replied. “He’d see us. He’s very vigilant, thanks to our moronic teammate.”
Elmir cursed Dima and his family out loud. “He acted stupidly…”
“Yes, how difficult is it to follow the simple order of ‘stand down,’ and don’t mess it up?”
“For some people, that’s a lot to ask.”
Tiana shrugged and shifted her body to her other leg. They were crouched behind the Land Rover out of Justin’s line of sight. Even if he happened to look in their direction, the distance of about sixty yards and growing, the dark alley, and the Land Rover’s tinted glass provided sufficient cover. So she decided to stand up and stretch her tight muscles. “Thanks to that idiot, we’re a man short, and we still don’t know how much Ava has discovered.”
“Our boss will make sure he’s replaced.”
She shook her head. “That may raise suspicions. We’ve got to do this with the crew we have.”
“What about Dima’s friend? Do you think he’s compromised?”
“I don’t know. Again, thanks to Dima, we’ve hit another dead end.”
Elmir grinned. “At least, he’s dead.”
“That doesn’t help. Now the Ukrainians will start to ask questions. They’ll blame the rebels and us. It’s the second incident in less than twelve hours.”
“The airport attack was unrelated to this.”
“They don’t know that. They’ll connect the dots even if they shouldn’t.” She sighed and switched to stretching the other leg. She leaned against the gray brick wall, placing her left hand against it, and reached back and grabbed her right foot with the other hand, bringing it closer to her backside. She kept that position for twenty seconds, while Elmir observed the parking lot. The SUV kept burning with an almost rhythmical crunching sound, the fire consuming everything.
“I’ve seen enough,” Tiana said when she finished. “Let’s go back to the safehouse. I’ve got to brief Kotov, and it’s going to be ugly.”
“He can’t blame you, us, for this.”
“He can do whatever he pleases.” Tiana slid into the front passenger seat. “The question is what do we do now to redirect his wrath?”
* * *
“I still can’t believe how this all happened…” Carrie gave Justin a look full of frustration and disappointment. “While not quite unexpected, it’s still surprising.”
Justin grimaced. He stretched on the couch, then ran his hand over his left leg. When he had rolled over the asphalt, he had banged his knee. He had taken two Vicodin pills, but the sizzling pain was only getting worse. He said, “Yes, how do you prepare for an attack from inside your own team?”
“Not exactly your own…”
“Partner team.”
“Yes, nothing prepares you for that. But you survived.”
“Thanks to Ava.”
Carrie frowned. “Are you certain that’s what happened?”
Justin returned the frown. “What do you mean? I was there; I saw what happened. If she hadn’t thrown herself over me, I would have been dead.”
“Would you?”
“Carrie, what are you saying?”
“What if that was the set-up?”
“What? No, no, no.” He shook his head. “They’re not pulling a Sokolov trick again.”
“Why not? It worked the first time around…”
“It didn’t.”
“They don’t know we’ve found one of the cameras the SVR’s teams in Helsinki missed. As far as Ava’s concerned, we’re still in the dark.”
Justin shook his head.
Carrie asked, “Do you think this happened at random?”
“Yes.” Justin nodded and walked closer to Carrie, who was standing near the kitchen window. “What most likely happened was that Dima grew suspicious of Ava. When you’ve betrayed your country, or your mission, you question everyone, and rightfully so. You have something to hide, and you’re worried others will find out about it.”
“Right, but don’t you find it a strange coincidence that the attack happened when you were with Ava?”
“Perhaps, but if this was the first time Ava was by herself, then it was the perfect time for the attack. Or perhaps that’s when Dima was fully convinced Ava knew something, since she was talking to me.” He sat on the couch.
Carrie shrugged. “I don’t know, Justin. Something deep inside is telling me Ava wants us to believe she’s the real deal. That the other Russians might betray us, but she won’t.”
“I don’t know about tomorrow, but today, she clearly saved my life…”
“Okay, let’s work on that premise,
that Ava is trustworthy. How does that change our plans?”
Justin shifted on the couch to find a more comfortable position for his back and throbbing leg. “Ava is as distrustful of her team as we are, especially now that her suspicions were confirmed. She’ll personally take care of all the details about the operation, especially the missile’s location and our infil.”
“She’ll still have to rely on her team, and Moscow may send in a replacement or more.”
“They might, but Ava will still harbor her doubts. Once burned, twice shy…”
Carrie nodded.
Justin said, “With the latest development, I’m not sure how much she’ll accomplish about where the Yars missile can be secured after we’ve retrieved it.”
“ If we retrieve it, which we’re not doing, right?”
Justin shrugged. “It will depend on the situation on the ground. But before we go that far, do we have anything new from the NSA or the CIA?”
Carrie pointed at her phone, then at the kitchen table. “I’ve received a few reports, but haven’t gotten to them yet. Once you called me, I came rushing…”
“Let’s go through them, and figure out where the missile is hidden. That will determine our infil plans.”
“I’ve talked to Ihor, who has a couple of contacts. They’ve agreed to help us cross the front line.”
“How?”
“Two options: oil tankers or live animal trucks.”
“Hmmm, bad or bad?”
“Ihor tells me the oil tankers are cleaner, but riskier. At least, we’re not claustrophobic…”
“These are smugglers, right?”
“Oh, yes. Some have been in operation since the Soviet times. They know the right people, and, if not, they know the best, safest routes.”
“How much is all this costing us?”
“Ihor is pulling in some favors, so not much. About ten grand.”
“Which doesn’t include exfil?”
“Are you kidding? Of course not. Depending on how much noise we make, it could be double.”
Justin shrugged. “The price of doing business…”
“Petro will secure us everything else. Explosives, grenades, AKs… Oh, on the topic of AKs, I’ve got to show you something. I meant to do so earlier, but it slipped my mind.”