“Wow, you got here fast.”
“Yeah, don’t tell my wife. So, what do you know?”
“I’m finding little online about the accident. Of course none of the bodies had any identification, so it will be a while before they release any names.”
“They have to be sure there aren’t any relatives who need to be notified first.”
“That’s what I figured. You think Yuriy is going to wonder why he can’t reach Anatoly? He’s going to contact his people in Paris and they haven’t heard from him either. Then he’s going to be all over the internet. How long will it be until he figures out he’s dead? Then, how’s he going to react?”
“He will be angry, but how he reacts after that is anybody’s guess. He’s known Anatoly since they were both young men.”
“I thought this Yuriy was a mystery man, but you talk like you know the guy.”
“I had my suspicions earlier, but Karelin’s involvement confirmed it.”
“What’s the connection?”
“Op went bad years ago.”
“What went bad?”
“I’d rather not talk about it right now.”
“All you old spies are alike. Everything is so close to the vest. We’re working on the same team right now and if this guy is planning something, every bit of information we have, might help.”
“Yuriy had a brother. Leonid…yeah…name was Leonid. Leonid was the real brains of the family, and not too loyal to the party. Hank pushed him pretty hard and got him to defect. Everything was set up. We were going to go in quietly, get him out quietly, no fuss. Things went south fast. I’m still not sure what happened. I think Leonid played us. A couple KGB goons showed up and got trigger happy. Shots were exchanged and Leonid was hit. He didn’t make it. We barely got out of there alive. Ken got wounded and still managed to get to the plane and fly us all out. As odd as it sounds, Leonid and Anatoly were close friends. It was Leonid who introduced Anatoly to Yuriy. They’ve nursed a grudge ever since.”
“A grudge goes that long and they haven’t tried to take you out before now?”
“They tried a few times, but not recently. Yuriy likes to play the long game, bide his time and wait for the moment. He probably figures he has bigger plans than taking me out.”
“Could he be after Rachel to get to you?”
“That’s a possibility, but I’m reckoning that she was supposed to die when her parents were killed and he wants to finish the job. Either that or he thinks she knows something.”
“You think he’s planning something else?”
“Knowing him, most likely, and he was probably planning it even before the last operation was stopped.”
“That’s what Hank said. Anyway, about Anatoly. You think I could hack into the news reports and go ahead and identify him? Yuriy finds out quicker and maybe he does something rash.”
“I like the way you think, but he’ll find out soon enough anyway. He’ll get suspicious and he’ll have people at the morgue. No need to rush things there.”
“So, what’s our next play?”
“I shipped a package to Paris, some miniature drones I’ve been working on. They should be able to get the Russian house under surveillance and we can see what intel we get from there. That should give us a good idea where to go next.”
“And if we get some really good intel…”
“Then we’ll have to take down the house.”
“With four old guys and a girl?”
“Four experienced men and a highly skilled young woman. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, we need to be prepared for anything.”
Ahmed looked at his right hand screen, typed furiously for a minute and then said, “There’s a satellite passing over Paris in a couple minutes. I could tap into it and have a look see at that Russian house, make sure everything’s quiet.”
“Sure, good idea. If you’re not doing much else at this hour.”
“So…you were close to the Frenchman too?”
“Jean…yes…he was like a brother.”
“You had a team of Englishmen, two Africans, a Frenchman, and a Jew. Sounds like the start of a joke. How did that come about?”
“It’s a long story. I did some work in Poland as a young man, helping out the American spies. It was mostly boring work, running packages here and there and helping them with surveillance. At least I thought it was boring, but it was actually highly dangerous. I was a local lad and I went unnoticed. Everything was going well and one day I got spotted servicing a dead drop and I was almost caught. The Americans got me out.
I wanted to attend University, but I felt I owed them for saving me, so I agreed to work with the CIA. I was sent on some joint ops with MI6 and that was how I met Hank and Leon. A couple times we were flown into some hot areas by these two Kenyans, Ken and Elijah. Never got much background on them. They might have been involved with the Kenyan fight for independence, then they worked with the Brits after…lot of conflicting information there and they’re tight lipped about it.
We were running surveillance on some possible KGB defectors in Prague and we got word that a DGSE operative had his cover blown and needed to get out fast. That operative was Jean. We worked together a few times until I went to the University, but we’ve kept in touch over the years.”
“That’s certainly a story and a half. I didn’t realize the different agencies worked together so much.”
“It does happen from time to time. We were a good team in our youth.”
“And you gave it all up to become a professor?”
“Physics was always my first love. I don’t have any regrets.”
“But you’re back in the game now.”
“Oh, I’ve known Earl and Clyde ever since I retired and settled nearby. When Earl married Jenny and they started this place, it seemed like a good fit. I’m not in the field, but I can lend a hand when needed. Keeps my brain active.”
An alert chimed on Ahmed’s computer and he typed a few commands and then sat back.
“Looks like that satellite is in position. Let’s just take a look at that house, maybe get some good photos that our people can use.”
He entered a few more commands in the keyboard and a grainy image appeared on his middle monitor and gradually came into focus. It was a clear image of the Russian safe house. There was no activity, just lights on in some of the rooms. The satellite eventually moved out of range, but Ahmed took several high res photos showing the locations of the doors and windows and a good view of the surrounding neighborhood. He sent the images to Paris and then went back to monitoring his screens for any alerts that might warrant his attention.
The following morning, Hank came from the kitchen with a bagel and a cup of coffee and stopped at one of the computers to check for any updates. He printed the photos Ahmed had sent and logged back out after sending a quick reply. When he got to the living room, Leon was already there sipping a cup of tea and reading a paperback. Rachel was sitting in another chair browsing her tablet.
“How long have you two been up?” he asked.
“Close to an hour,” Rachel replied, “still kind of sore from yesterday.”
“My phone woke me up,” Leon said, “Message from Ken. They’ll be here in the afternoon.”
Hank dropped the photos on the table.
“Ahmed sent us these. Not sure how he got them, but they should help. Avi also sent us a package with some new toys he said we can put to good use. So, while we’re waiting for Ken and Elijah and the FedEx guy, we should talk things over and come up with some plans.
Ken and Elijah made the proper arrangements for storing their plane, rented a car, and headed toward the safe house. Elijah read his email and updated Ken.
“Looks like something’s going down. Rachel killed Anatoly Karelin.”
“Here in Paris?”
“Yeah…and…bugger all…Delacroix is dead. High speed chase, shootout on the motorway. Karelin got Jean and Rachel took him out and anot
her goon that was with him.”
“If Anatoly was here-“
“It’s Yuriy. He’s planning something.”
“Not revenge for Miami?”
“If it was just that, why send Karelin? Why not just kill her?”
“Good point. Anything else in your email?”
“Hank and Leon are at the house with Rachel…they have a location on a Russian house…want us to bug it.”
“Why us? What part of town.”
“20th-“
“Makes sense. We’ll blend in there. Might be able to get close.”
“Need to get pretty close to plant bugs. Wonder how they expect us to pull that off.”
“We’re not far from the house. Knowing Hank, he’s got a plan.”
They all gathered around as Rachel opened the package just dropped off by FedEx . There was a case inside the box that had what looked like a fingerprint scanner on the side. Rachel put her finger to the scanner and after a couple clicks, the box opened. Inside the box were what looked like several insects, but which upon closer investigation were mechanical and not biological. There was a thumb drive, three small joysticks, and a note from Avi that the thumb drive contained software for controlling them.
“Bugs that actually look like bugs. Has to be Avi’s handiwork,“ Ken said.
“These are amazing,” Hank said as he held one up close and inspected it.
Rachel was already inserting the thumb drive into one of the computers and she quietly went about installing the software on all the machines while they continued to marvel at the bugs. She attached a joystick to each computer and opened the software, which contained detailed instructions on how to turn on the bugs and how to control them remotely.
“Okay, boys, take a look. You turn them on by pushing the head in and then you look at the computer. You see on the screen an icon for each one. You have to select the one you want to control. Looks like we can control three of them at a time. Plug the joysticks in and you can fly them around, and the video and audio feed back to the computer controlling it.”
“What’s the range?”
“Says here twenty miles, so we should be able to sit right here. Just need to get them into the house.”
“Which is where our two darker fellows come in,” Leon said.
“So, we just walk by the house and toss them in?” Elijah said.
“Not that easy, but not that hard either. Walk by across the street and release them and we can probably fly them into the house from there.”
“What if they have a flyswatter?”
“Look, we have three sticks and a dozen of those things. You stay in the neighborhood with spares just in case.”
“When do you suppose we do this?”
“As soon as the sun goes down.”
9
Ken and Elijah walked past the Russian safe house, noting its location, and continued a few blocks farther, getting a good feel for the neighborhood in case things went south. In their experience, things often did go south. You could plan all you wanted, but there always seemed to be contingencies you didn’t foresee. Satisfied that they knew several ways back to their car, they walked back toward the house, on the opposite side of the street. When they were directly across from the house, Ken opened his hand where he had three of the tiny bugs and pushed the heads in on each one. A few seconds later he heard Rachel’s voice in his ear.
“All three are online and under our control.”
“Okay, we’ll stay in the neighborhood for now,” Ken replied.
He held his hand open for a moment and the three bugs took off and flew toward the house. They walked a few blocks away to a small park area and sat on a bench, conversing in Swahili.
“These little things really are pretty amazing,” Elijah said.
“You give Avi some free time and a lab and he’ll come up with things like this.”
“You think we’ll get any good intel?”
“I hope so, and I hope we get it without having to go in there.”
“Just in case, better put on your specs.”
Ken and Elijah both put on glasses that showed a video feed on the inside of the lenses so they could see what the bugs were seeing inside the house. A tap of the finger on the frame would change the feed from one bug to another.
Rachel, Hank, and Leon piloted their respective bugs with the joysticks, looking for a way inside the house. That didn’t take long, as one of the Russians stepped out the back door to smoke a cigarette. He didn’t even notice the insect- size devices as they flew in the door before he shut it. Each drone had a camera in the head that transmitted what it saw back to the controller at the computer and they also had highly sensitive microphones that picked up every sound inside the house.
“How’s your Russian?” Hank asked.
“A little rusty, but we’re recording everything,” Leon said.
Rachel flew her drone to the wall and when she got close enough, the feet grabbed the wall and she was able to walk it along the surface.
“Nice to know they can do that,” she said, “might make it easier to hide them.”
“Good to know, but I think we need to get a good look around the entire house before we settle on hiding places,” Hank said.
They split up and covered all the rooms, noting Grigory still lying in his bed looking groggy on pain killers. Two other men were in the kitchen and one man was in a small room surrounded by computers.
“There’s a wounded man here,” Hank said, “the guy you shot at the hotel?”
Rachel took a look at his screen. “Yep, that’s him.”
The man in the back yard came in, took a plate of food from the kitchen to Grigory, then stopped in the computer room.
“You coming for supper?”
“In a minute,” Pavel said, “as soon as I finish up here.”
“Okay, won’t stay hot forever.”
“I’ll be there shortly. Important stuff for the boss.”
“What I wouldn’t give to see what’s on those computers,” Hank said.
“I think we can do that if we leave one of these guys close,” Rachel said.
“See if you can put one under the desk.”
Leon had his drone walking across the floor toward the desk and before long he had it on the bottom of the desk directly under the computers. They could see Pavel typing furiously and Hank brought his drone around to get a view of what was on the screen, capturing several high- resolution images.
“Nothing we can get from the images,” Leon said,” Just a bunch of files.
“But look down here in the corner,” Rachel said, “a thumb drive. He’s copying files to that drive.”
“Looks to be in a damn hurry too,” Hank said, “wonder what’s on those files.”
A minute later, Pavel removed the thumb drive and put it in his pocket before heading to the kitchen.
“Okay, they’re all in the kitchen. We should leave the one under the computer and take the other two to the kitchen,” Leon said.
Leon and Hank piloted the two remaining drones into the kitchen while Rachel called Ahmed and told him about the one they left under the computer. Ahmed tapped into the feed and began remotely hacking the computer. Hank flew his drone into the kitchen and hid it behind a curtain while Leon walked his across the ceiling.
As luck would have it, the fake bugs weren’t the only bugs in the house. A real fly was buzzing around in the kitchen and becoming a nuisance. Pavel came into the room, exited, and came back a moment later with a flyswatter. The fly landed on the ceiling and Pavel approached cautiously.
“Now I’ve got you, if you don’t fly off again,” he said as he readied the swatter and with one swift motion squashed the fly. As it fell from the ceiling, his eyes were drawn to another one just a foot away and he wasted no time in swatting that one as well.
“Damn,” Leon said,” I think we’ve been had.”
Ken was watching that feed on his glasses when he saw the swatter com
ing and then the picture spun as the drone fell from the ceiling. One of the other Russians, thinking something looked odd about this one, picked it up for a closer inspection.
“Hey Pavel, what do you make of this?” he said as he held it out for the other man.
Pavel came close, took one look, and hurried out of the room. Ken gave Elijah a look and took off at a sprint toward the back of the house, turning another one of the drones on as he ran. Elijah was right on his heels, headed for the back door of the house. Ken had noticed a car parked outside earlier and he ran toward it, placing the bug under the rear bumper. Maybe they could track the car if it came to that.
They drew their sidearms and positioned themselves on either side of the rear door. Ken raised one hand and silently counted down from three and on zero Elijah opened the door and they both entered the room. Nobody was there, but he knew from the feed they had just been viewing that Pavel had run out of the kitchen, headed most likely for the computers, and that left the two other Russians in the kitchen and the wounded one down the hall.
Ken turned down the hallway toward the kitchen and ducked back as a chunk of the wall was torn away not two inches from his head. One of the Russians had left the kitchen and had the corridor covered. He heard more gunshots down the hall, but they hadn’t come from this end of the house and weren’t fired in his direction. He was startled by the shots, but so was the man in the hallway, and the momentary distraction proved fatal as Elijah button-hooked around the corner, brought his weapon up and dropped him with two rounds to the chest.
The Korean Gambit Page 6
