Smoke Reactivated

by Cherry Laska

  “Only with an apple. That grocer got me in the back of the head.”

  They got back onto the street and crossed to the other sidewalk. Jessica took another left at the light. One of the cars didn’t quite make the turn and crashed hard into the corner building. The other car was still on them as they roared through an underpass. Two blocks up, she turned left by a university and navigated through a group of college students in a crosswalk. More obscenities and some hand gestures came their way. Flying at top throttle, they were pulling away from their pursuers. Jessica saw in the mirror that the car following them had to wait a few seconds for students to clear a path. The Iranian agents were waving their weapons, threatening anyone who blocked their way. She was nervous they’d hurt someone. When the car finally got through, it was much further behind the bike, but still kept coming. Jessica was zigging and zagging through some narrow streets when Joe figured out her plan. “Are you going where I think you’re going?” he yelled.

  “Yeah. They won’t be able to follow us out onto the plaza. We can cross and lose them on the other side,” she called back over her shoulder. She hoped the gunfire hadn’t drawn the police to the garage. They’d all been using suppressed weapons, but they still made noise and somebody might have seen something and called it in. Remembering the area, another idea came to Jessica that might work even better. One of her favorite sayings was, “Give yourself many ways to win.”

  The street she was about to take would be impossible for a car to follow. Jessica made the turn and put them going the wrong way down a one-way street. She felt Joe’s grip tighten. Cars didn’t really have a lot of room to swerve, so avoiding a head-on collision was all up to her.

  Horns blared as they slalomed at one hundred twenty kilometers per hour through oncoming traffic. She heard a crash behind them but didn’t dare take her eyes off the road and the potentially deadly obstacles in front of them. As they got closer to the busy Boulevard de Périphérique, she knew that there were only certain places to cross. Hopefully the guys chasing them didn’t know this, and they’d once again be unable to follow the bike. They’d be forced turn on the parallel street until they could access one of the underpasses. It gave Jessica another chance to put some distance between them and hopefully lose their tail completely. Coming to the intersection, she slowed the bike just enough to be safe, then took a right followed by a quick left.

  “I think we lost them,” Joe said, looking around.

  One block up, Jessica was able to turn left to cross back onto the other side of the busy boulevard. Unfortunately, they could hear sirens getting closer. They needed to get off the street without being seen. Jessica didn’t back down on the throttle. The safe house was only a mile and a half away. The entrance to the garage was from an alley behind the apartment building.

  “Keep going,” Joe urged. “Marshall will have it open.” He was right. Marshall and Mark both stood just inside the door. As soon as the bike crossed the threshold, they slammed it closed. She killed the engine. A rush of adrenaline had flooded her body. She put down the bike’s kickstand and got off bouncing.

  “Dang, girl. That was impressive.” Mark gave her a fist bump.

  “Yeah, that was fun!” Joe cried out. “I told you she’s awesome.”

  “Wow, Jessica.” Marshall handed her a bottle of water.

  “Thanks.” She chugged half of the bottle.

  “Where’d you learn to ride like that?” Mark asked.

  “When I was a kid, my brother and our family friends’ three boys all raced motorcycles. We were at the track on the weekends year-round. It was dirt in the summer and ice in the winter. I was only eight when I asked my dad if I could race too. He said no and that I was his little girl and he was trying to protect me.” She realized she was talking really fast. She took another drink and continued, concentrating on going a little slower. “My dad had always told me I could do anything I set my mind to with this one exception. It makes sense to me now, considering the boys suffered numerous broken bones and other injuries, but at the time, it crushed me and made me want to ride even more. I convinced Joey, the boy who was my age, to teach me. His family had a huge piece of land behind their house with a big dirt track. We would sneak off and ride just about every day.”

  “Well, thank you, Dad, and thank you, Joey,” Mark said, laughing.

  Joe turned to Marshall. “Go over every inch of this bike. See if we can find out something about this Zircone. We also need to find out the identity of the assholes who were chasing us.” Joe put a hand on Jessica’s shoulder. “Come with me. You’re bleeding. Let’s clean that up.”

  “I am? I don’t even feel it.”

  “I know you’re not feeling anything right now, and you’re a tough chick, but let’s make sure there’s no debris in there and just put a little something on that.”

  They were already in the next room away from Marshall and Mark. She smacked Joe’s butt, and said, “If you can catch me.” She was still flying on adrenaline and feeling a bit chippy.

  “Careful,” he said, raising an eyebrow at her. “Are you prepared to play that game to the end?”

  “No sir!” She laughed and followed him to get bandaged up.

  38

  ALEJANDRO ARRIVED A FEW MINUTES later. With the team together, they could collaborate on what moves to make next. Joe asked Mark to tell them about C-FC.

  “Well, I met with Marcella. She gave me what she said was a thorough tour, but compared to the blueprints and satellite images, she didn’t show me about twenty thousand square feet of the facilities.”

  Jessica interjected, “That’s enough space to accommodate a whole high-level separate lab and storage.”

  Mark nodded and continued, “The personnel I talked to didn’t reveal anything even with Jessica feeding me the right questions to ask. Of course, I was never out of management’s earshot and the whole facility is electronically monitored. The company has money, and they’re paying their employees well. There was quite a collection of expensive art on display, and the employee parking lot was full of luxury cars.”

  “Okay. What did you get, Jessica?”

  “From what I saw and heard, they have talented employees. Their facilities and equipment are the top of the line—the latest and greatest of everything.”

  “What’s your gut tell you?” Joe pushed, needing her to give them her educated opinion.

  “My gut is saying they are researching and manufacturing some chemicals off the books. Considering their facilities and researchers, C-FC is capable of producing anything, including chemical weapons.There are many possible buyers from the French government to Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Fatah, Haqqani, Hezbollah, ISIS, or any terrorist organization including Iran’s MEK. I still can’t believe they managed to fool former Secretary Clinton into removing them from the official terrorist organization list. C-FC could also be dealing with independent black market brokers and might not know where the chemicals are ending up.

  Black market in this area is huge. Iran and other countries under sanction by the U.S. pay beyond top dollar, absurd amounts, to any company willing to do business with them.” She thought for a minute. “The greatest likelihood is that C-FC is selling to more than one customer. It’s also likely many of their employees and management are in the dark, while others are turning a blind eye for a payoff. From what Mark and I saw today, C-FC is making a lot of money.”

  “That’s good incentive. Plus, I wouldn’t put it past the French government to permit illegal chemical sales for a percentage of the profits,” Joe said. “I’ll alert the local station that C-FC is a company of interest with a recommendation that they keep an eye on them.”

  He turned to Marshall. “In the meantime, see if you can pull up more on financials for C-FC and their employees and any type of shipments or transactions that seem fishy.”

  Marshall nodded. “I’ve already run additional background checks on C-FC’s managers and board members. There doesn’t seem to be any contact w
ith foreigners who raise any red flags, although C-FC employees do seem to get unusually large bonuses. I’ll dig deeper,” he said as he took a bite of a sandwich Alejandro had brought from the café.

  “One more thing about C-FC,” Mark said, “Marcella invited me to Lefèvre’s shindig tonight.”

  “It’ll be good to have you there. In fact, Alejandro, I want you close by as well. Be our driver. Anything on the waitress who served our boys?”

  “I went by her apartment. No one has seen her.”

  Marshall, who had a piece of lettuce on his cheek and a glob of mustard on his shirt, said, “I checked into her and ran her phone and credit card records. She seems clean, but there hasn’t been any activity on her cards since a charge for food delivery on Monday evening. No one has reported her missing either.”

  Joe said, “Flag her and keep looking. Mark, what about your contacts? Anything?”

  “I’m expecting to have something by the end of the night.”

  You could see by everyone’s body language they were frustrated by the lack of actual intelligence.

  “All right. I want …” Joe stopped mid-sentence and looked at a text. “Shit. Goddamn it.” Joe didn’t normally lose his cool. The team knew whatever was in the message he’d received wasn’t good. He looked up from his phone. “Moreau is dead. The official cause of death has been ruled a heart attack.”

  They all knew there were several ways to make someone’s death look like heart failure. Joe looked pissed. His hands were shoved in his pockets and his face was drawn tight. “Marshall, I need you to get something … anything from the bike, or track this guy on facial recognition software, or use whatever magic you can come up with. Find me a fucking trace.” When he realized he had said it a little too forcefully, Joe added, “Please.”

  An alarm sounded. Marshall swiveled in his chair and checked his computer screen. He turned back around and clicked on the TV. “Your high-speed chase made the news. Unfortunately, the guys chasing you evaded the police.” They watched for a few minutes. The news report showed the cell phone footage recorded by a student. Luckily, he’d just captured Joe and Jessica from the back before they disappeared behind a building.

  “I think those guys are SAVAK and from everything I’ve ever seen and heard, they’re plain nasty killers.” Joe turned to Alejandro. “There’s a good chance they were covering the mosque and might have even followed you around today. I’m going to send a cleaning team in from the local office to get your stuff and process your place. The op changed with SAVAK’s appearance and Moreau’s death. I know you all can handle yourselves. I’m just weighing the risk and rewards of our exposure. I don’t want to get sidetracked battling with the Iranian kill squad.

  “We need to keep the focus on picking up Zircone’s trail. I want to go to this party tonight, download the computer files, and process Lefèvre’s office. I still want to see if we can find out anything from Montecristo’s. Marshall, you and Mark may be the only ones not burned. Do you feel like going dancing with him later tonight?” Joe put his hand on Marshall’s shoulder and stared him in the eyes. “Stick to Mark and be careful. Besides having to worry about SAVAK staking the place out, the clubwomen could chew up and spit out most guys.

  “Okay. Unless anything else turns up, we’ll all be headed home in the morning. We just need to continue analyzing the evidence and working all the angles. We’ll get this turd.”

  In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Joe’s use of the word turd forced Jessica to stifle an inappropriate laugh.

  Marshall glanced at his huge, complex contraption of a watch. “Um, no offense, but doesn’t Jessica need to go make herself look pretty? I mean—you’re already pretty, I didn’t mean that. Uh … uh … that is, I didn’t mean that I didn’t mean that you’re not already pretty. What I didn’t mean is that you needed to go get pretty, because you aren’t pretty just, um, that you needed to get ready for the party, and I know it takes time to dress up. And isn’t it interesting that when people say ‘No offense’ what they say next is usually offensive?” Marshall was beet red.

  “Marshall, breathe,” Jessica said, smiling. “I understood what you meant. It is getting late. Thanks for thinking of me.”

  39

  “DOES EVERYONE COPY?” MARSHALL INITIATE a coms check. The team responded affirmatively. Joe had been right; the CIA’s technology had advanced and was amazing. The tiny, invisible earwig inserted into the ear let team members hear and talk to one another throughout the whole operation.

  Looking the part of a driver in a black suit and driver’s cap, Alejandro pulled into the line of cars at the Lefèvre’s house. When they reached the front, a young valet opened the door. While Joe was getting out of the car, he instructed Alejandro to keep the car available in a manner to ensure he was overheard.

  “Oui, Monsieur,” Alejandro’s replied with a tip of his hat.

  Jessica saw another guy directing Alejandro to an area where cars were parked. Alejandro rolled down his window and spoke briefly to the valet, then was redirected to park on the end of the front row. If it became necessary to leave in a hurry, they didn’t want the car trapped behind a bunch of limos.

  Jessica and Joe walked into the beautiful mansion where they were greeted warmly by their host and hostess. They presented their gift, which was happily accepted and passed off to a servant to be placed with the growing pile on a nearby table. After the faire la baise, kisses on both cheeks, and exclamations of joy that their new friends had come to the party, Aurélie pulled Joe to the side and whispered in his ear. Jessica watched out of the corner of her eye while she took two glasses of wine from a server carrying the drinks on a beautiful gold antique tray.

  When Joe came back to her, she handed him a glass, slipped her arm through his, and they moved slowly toward the party hall all while reconciling the layout of the house to the schematics they’d studied earlier. Jessica noted the ornate detail in the home’s architecture and thought it came close to the line but didn’t cross over into ostentation. Over a hundred people were already gathered in the massive hall that obviously had been designed and decorated for the express purpose of hosting grand parties. Servers were circulating with appetizers and drinks. Vivaldi softly played in the background.

  “What did Aurélie whisper to you?”

  “I can’t tell you. Did I mention how lovely you look tonight?”

  “Don’t change the subject. Why can’t you tell me?” Joe remained tight-lipped. His eyes were twinkling.

  “Come on. Tell me.”

  “She made me promise not to, but I’ll give you a hint. They have something special planned for us after dinner.”

  “Oh really? That’s all you can tell me?” Her lips curled into a sly smile. “I’ll let you off the hook. You can keep your little secret, but only because I love that mischievous look in your eyes.”

  He hugged her and spun a half turn, so she could see Mark enter the room with a very beautiful woman on his arm.

  Jessica and Joe circulated introducing themselves to the guests the team had flagged based on criteria of access or suspicious activity. They brought up strategic questions to get a sense of who might be involved and whom they could eliminate. Jessica felt Joe tense. Jacque was approaching them. Joe pulled her closer either to protect her or to play up their cover.

  “Daniel, my new friend, look at how gorgeous your future wife is,” Jacque said and actually pinched Jessica’s ass. She jumped slightly and pressed even closer to Joe. Jacque noticed the bandage on her shoulder. “My dear, you are injured.”

  “Just a little scratch.”

  “You must be careful with that beautiful skin. What did you do?”

  “Now, Jacque. Remember, a woman has her secrets.”

  “Vous êtes tout à fait la femme.” He repeated in English. “What a woman, Daniel. You’re a lucky man.”

  “Yes, I’m very lucky.” Joe looked at Jessica and said very convincingly, “I’m captivated by her beauty, a
nd I am consumed by my love for her.” He turned to Jacque. “And you. You’re a lucky man yourself. A beautiful wife, a spectacular home, and so many friends.” Joe motioned around the room.

  “Ah, oui. I too am blessed.” Jacque took a glass of red wine from a passing tray. “Please, I would like you both to sit at my table during dinner. Your proposal and love have touched both our hearts. They have, shall we say, inspired Aurélie.”

  “We’d be honored,” Joe said. “My friend, may I ask a tremendous favor? We haven’t been able to speak directly to our parents yet and didn’t want to leave them the news of our engagement in a message. Is there somewhere quiet we could try calling them again?”

  Brilliant, Jessica thought. Good move, Joe.

  “Of course,” Jacque said, summoning a man standing by the door. “Please show my friends to my office. Allow them some privacy.” Jacque took Jessica’s hand and raised it to his lips, brushing it softly. “Hurry back, my American beauty. We will be seated in the dining room shortly.”

  As they left the room and started up the curved staircase, Jessica saw Mark standing with Marcella and the French chief of police. He finished saying something that made the chief laugh heartily. Mark glanced up and made casual but distinct eye contact with her.

  Lefèvre’s man left Jessica and Joe alone in the office. As soon as the door shut, she pulled the zip drive attachment from her barrette and gave it to Joe. He went to the computer. It wasn’t password protected, which made him think there wasn’t going to be any pertinent information on it. He inserted the device, which started both saving and transmitting the files directly to Marshall.

  Jessica found the hidden safe behind Renoir’s Dance at Bougival. Thanks to previous training courtesy of Grey Winds, she was excellent at safecracking. This safe was an old model and shouldn’t present too much of a challenge.

  While they worked, Jessica gave her half of the fake phone conversation with her mother with excitement and bliss just in case anyone was listening through the door. “I know, Mom. I’m so happy.” She paused. She had the safe open. She used the other piece of her barrette to take pictures of its contents. “Well, I don’t know. We haven’t discussed where and when. We’re just enjoying our time here and being together,” she said and waited a few moments. “I’m thinking a destination wedding. We’ll talk more later. I’ve got to run. We’re at an amazing party.”