She rolled back and darted around the back of the car as three more rounds followed, narrowly missing her. She looked under the car to see Karelin scooting along, dragging his wounded leg and holding a pistol out in front of him. He fired another short burst and his clip ran out. That was her moment. As Karelin was reaching for another clip she sprinted up and kicked the pistol out of his hand, then kicked him hard in his shattered leg, causing him to collapse in pain. He raised up and tried to take a swing at her, but she side stepped and followed up with a punch straight to his nose. Then she pulled her pistol out and trained it at his head.
“Why are you after me?” she asked as she pressed the muzzle against his forehead.
“The boss wants to have a word with you.”
“Who’s your boss?”
“Go ahead and pull the trigger. You already know who he is.”
She kicked his wound again and repeated her question.
“You already know who I work for. That French fool probably told you all about me.”
“So, you work for Yuriy. Why did he send you after me?”
“You really don’t know?”
“Is it about Miami? He thinks I stopped that?”
“Not just Miami. He knows who you are, who your parents were.”
“I’m just a loose end? You think my dad told me everything he was digging up?”
“How does he know?”
Rachel noticed that Anatoly’s left hand had been moving ever so slowly toward his wounded leg. At first, she thought it was the pain in his leg, but then she realized, almost too late, that he was reaching for something. His hand reached the sheath and came out with a knife, but she anticipated the movement and twisted away from the blade as she delivered another kick to his wounded leg and reached for his left wrist. The grip on the knife lessened with the pain in his leg and she had it out of his grasp in an instant.
“You want this?” she asked as she held the knife in front of him.
“Your father should have left well enough alone.”
“Leave my father out of this.”
“Typical American, sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. We should have gotten him sooner.”
“You were behind it?”
“It had to be done. He was getting too close.”
“You are one sick bastard,” she said as she kicked him in the leg again.
“Just shoot me and get it over with.”
“That would be too good for you.”
“Go to hell, bitch.”
“You first,” she said, just before burying the knife in his throat and walking away.
7
Rachel stood for a moment just staring down at her blood- soaked hands. The entire incident from the crash to now couldn’t have lasted more than a couple minutes, but seemed like an eternity. She looked again at Jean’s lifeless body and the sadness threatened to overwhelm her.
“What would Dad do?” she asked herself, already knowing the answer. There would be time to grieve later, but for now she needed to move. The Citroen had holes in the windshield, but the BMW the other Russian had been driving was unscratched and still running. That was it. She had the address Jean has whispered to her before he died and she could still get to the safe house and wait for more information. She knew Avi had other contacts, so she was sure someone else would be there.
She hated to leave Jean and Marie there, but there was no time to tend to their bodies, not if she wanted to put as much distance as she could between herself and the scene before the authorities showed up. She got in the BMW and was about to fasten her seatbelt when she noticed Anatoly’s body with the knife still sticking up from his throat. Realizing her fingerprints would be all over the knife, she retrieved it and the rifle she had shot him with, threw them in the trunk of the car, took a quick photo of Anatoly, and headed up the highway. Not far ahead she was able to turn around and head back toward the city. Driving south, she noticed the northbound traffic already backing up and two miles farther she heard the sirens and soon saw the police cars heading north.
She tried to recall the address Jean had told her and entered it into the car’s navigation system, but it was no good. She must have the house number wrong. When she got to the 19th arrondissement, she pulled off and replied to the email from Ahmed.
Need the address. Jean can’t remember.
She didn’t know how much she could share at the moment. This was supposed to be a secure email, but she couldn’t be sure how secure, so she would wait until she got to the safe house and call on the encrypted line. A minute later she received the address with a note to call as soon as she could. When she arrived at the address, the house was unremarkable to say the least, a run- down looking two- story brick that looked to be every bit of 150 years old and was well past its prime. Untrimmed hedges ran along the front of the house and the front yard was dominated by a large tree that hadn’t been trimmed in years. A narrow drive ran behind the house to a dilapidated looking garage. Rachel stopped in front of the garage and contemplated how she was to get in, when her phone buzzed with an email containing only a long sequence of numbers. She got out of the car and walked all around the front of the garage until she finally found it. There was a loose brick to the side of the door and when she pulled the brick to see how loose it was, it slid down to reveal a keypad. She entered the number and the garage door opened without a sound.
The garage was easily large enough to accommodate four cars if parked two across and two deep, and stood in stark contrast to the outside appearance. She noticed a screen on the back wall that showed a real time camera feed of the driveway approaching the garage, and another view of the front of the house. There was a door to the right that she assumed lead into the house, but when she opened it there was a staircase that went down to a lower level. The basement appeared to extend under the main part of the house as well and was a state of the art command center. It reminded her of an almost smaller version of the lower level at the office back in Ohio. This was not some safe house that had been set up and forgotten about. Someone was keeping things up on a regular basis.
The largest room housed the computers and servers as well as a kitchen, living room, recreation room, restrooms, showers, and sleeping accommodations for at least ten people. There was another staircase leading up into the main house, which turned out to be rather ordinary. Clearly everything important was in the basement with the main house being only for show. She went back downstairs and found another bank of monitors that showed views of every part of the outside. She stiffened as she saw a vehicle approach the garage and a tall grey- haired man exit the car and walk toward the door. The man knew where the keypad was and within seconds the garage door opened and the car was pulled inside.
Leon parked the car and Hank closed the garage door and remarked on the BMW already parked there.
“Looks like we have company.”
“Probably the girl. What was her name again?”
“Rachel.”
Hank walked to the side of the door leading to the staircase and opened a hidden panel, pushed a button, and spoke into the intercom, “Rachel, if that’s you down there, don’t be alarmed. It’s Hank and Leon, Avi’s friends. We’re coming down.”
They came down the stairs to see Rachel putting away her pistol.
“You don’t need that now. We’re friends,” Hank said.
“I can’t be too careful, but I should have figured you’d show up here. Anyone else coming?”
“Ken and Elijah are on their way. They should be here tomorrow.”
“Are they bringing their plane?”
“Why do you think they won’t be here until tomorrow? You know Nyangumi?”
“I had the pleasure of taking a ride in her last month.”
“Say, I’m enjoying the little chat, but couldn’t we head to the living room and get more comfortable?” Leon said, “I’ve worked up a terrible thirst on the way here. You don’t suppose we can find something here to
take care of that?”
“I’ve not been here long enough to check around,” Rachel said.
“Oh, Leon knows where to find everything here. Why don’t we settle down and Leon can join us when he’s found something wet.”
They went to the living room and Leon showed up with beer and soft drinks a few minutes later.
“So, Rachel. I did not expect to find you here alone.”
Rachel took the next few minutes recounting the events of the last couple days leading right up to the shootout on the highway and her arrival at the safe house. When she finished, the two Englishmen just sat in stunned silence until Leon stood, brushed a tear from his cheek and raised his glass.
“To Jean and Marie.”
Rachel and Hank raised their glasses and joined the toast and the three sat for what seemed an age before Hank said, “That news is a harsh blow. I’m going to miss that old frog.”
“Well, “Leon said, “the old frog wouldn’t want us crying in our beer all night, not when there’s work to do. You sure that was Karelin back there?”
Rachel opened the photo on her phone and handed it to Leon.
Leon took a good look at the photo and handed the phone to Hank.
“That’s him,” Hank said, “a bit older than the last time I saw him, and a little less alive. When did you take this?”
“Right after I pulled the knife out of his throat,” Rachel replied.
“People have been trying to take out Anatoly Karelin for years and you got him with a knife?”
“I had a bit of luck. He couldn’t walk at that point.”
“Either way, good job, luck or not. How you holding up?”
“I’m okay.”
“Taking a life is nothing light. Give yourself time.”
“It’s not my first time.”
“Avi brought me up to speed. Still, it’s not something you just brush under the rug. You hope you never get to that point.”
“It’s just that…at the moment…everything happened so fast. When I say I’m okay, I mean it. It’s not that I don’t think about killing those men…or the ones at my house…they had it coming. Every time I defended myself, defended someone else…prevented more innocent deaths. It’s not easy. I’ve had a couple dreams…see the faces sometimes…but my conscience is clear.”
“I hear you. I know where you’re coming from. I’ve killed more than you. I like to tell myself that they were all necessary. Maybe they were. Still not easy. You need to talk…”
“Thanks. I’ll let you know.”
“You called home since you got here? Think the folks there might need to hear from you?”
“I just got here right before you showed up.”
“We need to go to the comm room down the hall then. Everything there is state of the art, secure connection, all set up by your pal Nathan.”
“When did Nathan come here?”
“Before you left the States. Avi had a hunch that we should fix this place up a bit. Jean was using it off and on, but the computers were a bit out of date. Nathan just went back home last week.”
“That’s something else, but it has to be after midnight there. I’m sure we can call in the morning.”
“No, I think you’d better call now, and send that photo while you’re at it.”
Miriam shook Achmed’s shoulder until he woke up.
“What time is it,” he mumbled.
“Time for you to take over. I need my beauty sleep.”
He was thinking that was the last thing she needed, but he said, “Okay, just give me a moment here.”
Miriam didn’t reply but dropped onto a bunk and was gone just like that.
Ahmed left the bunk room and went to his workstation, glancing at the wall clock on the way.
“1:00 a.m., no wonder she was so tired. She was supposed to wake me at midnight.”
He was still opening all his screens and checking his messages when the line rang. The caller id showed the safe house in Paris.
“Hi Ahmed, sorry to wake you,” Rachel said.
“You’re too late. Miriam did that a minute ago.”
“You guys going around the clock again? The last time you did that was-“
“When we had the last crisis. Avi seems worried about this one.”
“Is Avi there? I have some bad news.”
“He went home. I can patch him in if I can wake him up.”
“You might want to do that.”
A moment later Avi was on the line from his house.
“Hello Rachel. Ahmed says you have some bad news.”
“I don’t know how to say it. It’s Jean…”
“He’s not there with you?”
“No Avi…he’s…he’s gone…We were followed, shootout on the highway…he’s gone.”
“Who followed you? Was it Karelin?”
“Yes, Anatoly Karelin.”
“What happened to Karelin?”
“He didn’t make it either.”
“You took care of that?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good, but Jean…oh Lord…”
Avi broke into sobs and finally composed himself.
“I’m on the way. Have a pot of coffee going, will you?”
Rachel disconnected the call and went back to the living room to join Hank and Leon.
“I don’t have to ask you if anyone answered. Your face says it all,” Hank said.
“Avi didn’t take the news well.”
“I don’t imagine he did. They were close. We were all close.”
“I keep hearing that. You care to tell me about your adventures?”
“Not now.”
“You don’t think I need to know what happened?”
“A lot happened back then.”
“Is any of it relevant?”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“We all knew Karelin back then…and he knew us. Anatoly and his boss Yuriy Kazakov.”
“Yuriy is the guy behind the attempted attack, the guy responsible for my parents’ deaths.”
“It’s probably the same guy.”
“Why is he after me now, because he thinks I know something, because I’m still after him?”
“Knowing Yuriy, if that was all he would have simply had you killed. He probably intended that when he sent the hit team to your parents’ house. He has no proof that you had anything to do with stopping his attack, but he’s connecting the dots and you’re a potential threat.”
“So much of a threat that he sent his right- hand man to take care of me?”
“If I had to venture a guess, I’d say he has something else in the works.”
“And he wants to eliminate any possible obstacles?”
“Maybe, but not all. One thing we learned years ago is that he likes to use diversions, sometimes pretty big diversions.”
“He did that the last time. The bus station attacks, the attempted attacks in Detroit and Milwaukee…”
“Precisely. He fancies himself a grand chess master, always moves ahead of everyone else. He probably has something else going, and I wager he didn’t tell Karelin. You never would have gotten anything out of him, even if you had the time. Karelin was to bring you in or eliminate you. Either way you were out of the way of whatever he’s planning.”
“How do you know he’s planning something?”
“We don’t know really, but I would bank on something, and it might have already been in the planning stages while he was planning the one you stopped.”
“If he has something else planned, we might expect some sort of diversionary attacks soon, just like the last time?”
“Most likely, and any one of those could be a major attack in itself, leading up to something larger. The first attacks will draw resources away from stopping the big one, if everything goes his way, and it will appear to be the doing of someone else.”
“The last one was Muslims, but he was behind it all the time.
”
“Exactly. He’ll try to make it look like someone else, someone the American people will be ready to blame.”
“How are we going to figure out what he could be planning? The last time we got rather lucky with the intel and a couple good guesses. Maybe he’ll be more careful this time.”
“If what Avi tells me about the organization you’re working with is halfway true, it was more than a lucky guess, but Yuriy is bound to be more careful this time around. He’s going to be more careful with electronic communication. He might go old school, and if that happens, we have to be prepared to do the same.”
“What’s our first move?”
“For starters, we think we have the address for the Russian safe house here in Paris.”
“How did you get that?”
“Your friends got that. Miriam caught someone online searching for Jean and was able to trace the location to a house in the 20th arrondissement.”
“Is that far from here?”
“Not far at all.”
“Are we going to bug the place?”
“After a fashion, yes.”
“What are we waiting for?”
“The bugs for one, and some more manpower. Avi is sending us a package. Should arrive tomorrow, about the same time Ken and Elijah arrive.”
“Those guys could be helpful.”
“More than helpful. The neighborhood around that house is full of African and Middle Eastern immigrants. Ken and Elijah will be able to move around a little more freely than we would. They can plant the bugs. If it comes down to further action, we will discuss that tomorrow. For now, I suggest we all turn in early. Tomorrow might be a busy day.”
8
Ahmed disconnected the call and went for a cup of coffee. Something about all this bugged him, but he couldn’t put a finger on it. Yuriy wanted Rachel out of action. Check that. He wanted her dead, at least after he squeezed any information out of her that he could get. After evading the two lower level thugs he sent after her, he sent his right- hand man and now she had killed him as well. When he found out Anatoly was dead, he was going to be incensed. Who knew how he would react? The French authorities had no doubt cleaned up the roadside scene by now, but if Karelin was half the professional he figured he was, they wouldn’t have an ID on him yet. He got back to his desk and began looking online for news of the incident. There was mention on local Paris media about an accident involving three cars and bodies recovered from the scene, but there weren’t a lot of further details. That had to be the one. He read what he could find online and was into his third cup of coffee when Avi Zielinski pulled up a chair and sat down.
The Korean Gambit Page 5
