Chimera Code (Jake Dillon Adventure Thriller Series)

by Andrew Towning

  Lola’s face was stern. “Scorpion 7, was wiped out while they were on a babysitting assignment in the Carpathian Mountains in the Ukraine.”

  “I know,” said Dillon softly. “But these things can happen. Anyone involved in this kind of work - knows fully well that it could happen to them. Good men and women die. Life’s a bitch, yeah?”

  “Yes, but what is even worse is that Scorpion HQ has not said one word about it. I found out from a friend of mine. A former Russian special forces sergeant who is now working inside the Kremlin for their equivalent of the cyber monitoring and crime squad. He came across the report on a Russian news agency website and called me. So, Alix and I set out to find out a few things, keep a few tabs on several other Scorpion units, including members of Scorpion HQ. Two more units are missing, 3 and 4.”

  “The Sniper unit and the Southern Asia close protection unit. God, all those good men?”

  “Hmmm,” nodded Alix, filling the room with cigar smoke.

  “Coincidence or just very bad luck? I thought to myself. Then we get this real bad gig in London. You know the sort, Dillon. One of those jobs that you just wish you hadn’t been given. But you still sign the insurance waiver form and pledge your allegiance to the Crown for ever and after eternity. And guess what...”

  “Smoke and mirrors - a set-up?”

  “Too bloody right.” Alix finished his cigar, and immediately lit another. “They were waiting for us. I went in on foot to check ahead; there were five of them, almost got me and all. Very professional: well-armed, eastern European and as hard as fuck, intelligent, quick thinking, moved like greased lightening.”

  “And you also think that I was deliberately set-up?” Said Dillon softly.

  “Certainly looks that way, doesn’t it?”

  Dillon pulled gently on one of his earlobes, and accepted a cigarette from Lola. “It’s funny... I had a phone call from Tatiana earlier this morning. She’s on her way up here. She sounded a little freaked out.”

  “Be careful with her, mate. She’s turned into something else since you were with her. You know that the partners made her up to their personal liaison officer with the Government and Scorpion HQ. And don’t forget, she’s Old School. Crafty as a fox.”

  “I’ve known her for years - slept in her bed for a few of them. We’re still good friends...”

  Alix shrugged and gave Dillon a knowing look. “Tatiana is street wise - and don’t you forget it.” Alix said, and then immediately added.

  “No offence meant, Jake. But you know what I mean, and you always did think with your dick. Trust no one, my old friend. Not Tatiana. Not even us. There are Scorpion Units that have been wiped out and others that are missing. You’ve been close enough to this thing to know what’s what, and we had enough fire power used against us, back in London to have been able to start a small war. Why do you think we came up here? Looking for some lively night-life? Our telecom has been compromised and Scorpion HQ is not responding to any communications... and if our Matrix G8 encrypted comms. are down, then nothing is safe. We know that something is terribly wrong and think it started at Kirill’s project establishment up here in Scotland. As you know there had been death threats against him and his niece. The main threat came from al-Qaeda. You sure this place isn’t bugged, Dillon?”

  “I’m sure. I have the latest scanning equipment installed throughout the entire building. I don’t believe that Ferran & Cardini or Scorpion HQ have anything sinister to do with any of this. But the ministry - well they’re an entirely different can of worms... I reckon that Scorpion and my lot will have people working around the clock to sort this out.”

  “Maybe,” said Alix. “But then, we’re employed to think. Because we trust nobody. And, because we get the job done with the minimum of fuss. We don’t have blind faith, Dillon old mate. There are people inside Scorpion HQ and Ferran & Cardini who are corruptible, they live in the real world, where they have real problems. Where a large sum of money would make their dreary little lives a lot more comfortable. As you found out yourself. Listen, the last email from Scorpion HQ was informing us of a special unit they are putting together to shut down the Taliban - permanently. Things are that close, Jake. The apparent betrayal by Kirill in Cornwall is being played down and kept very quiet. Don’t want to give the fuckers any warning, do we now?”

  Dillon scratched at the back of his head, then his tired eyes. “Kirill. That bastard got exactly what he deserved.”

  There was an uncomfortable protracted silence. Outside, snow had started to fall heavily again, large flakes falling straight down to earth through the absence of any breeze. Alix shivered, then grinned over at Lola. “You gonna keep me warm tonight, my South American beauty?” He winked, a cheeky boyish grin on his face.

  “Alix, you couldn’t afford me.”

  “Oh, don’t be like that Lola. I’m sure I could scratch together a fiver.”

  “You cheeky bugger. I’ll cut it off if you even try to wave that weener at me.”

  “Well, perhaps another time, another place, then. But enough of this banter - come on, we’ve been well fed and have warned our old friend of the impending danger. Time to get the hell out of here.”

  “Where to now?” asked Dillon as they both got up, leaving a pile of dirty plates and pans.

  “Not telling,” smiled Alix. “The less you know. You know the routine. And remember not to use your Ferran & Cardini mobile phone. It’s linked to our G8’s and most likely useless. Listen, Dillon. I have a bad feeling about all of this. A real bad feeling.”

  “Alix, your bad feelings usually turn out to be sheep in wolves clothing,” said Dillon.

  Alix shrugged. “I’m just saying man. Take it or leave it - but watch your back and lock up your doors and windows securely.”

  Dillon nodded, then led Alix and Lola outside into the heavy snowfall and towards their van. They thanked Dillon for breakfast and, with Alix’s grinning face mouthing the words; “See ya around big man,” from the window of the battered Mercedes van, within seconds, and through a plume of thick black exhaust fumes they disappeared out of the main gates through the snow.

  Dillon watched them leave and went back inside. He sat, gazing out at the snow. He toyed with the mobile phone, but no matter how many times he tried he could not get the device to activate. The screen remained black and lifeless as he tossed it from one hand to the other, as you would a soft ball.

  A roaring fire burned, crackling occasionally, the glow warming the room and contrasting the inclement snowy wilderness on the other side of the large bay windows.

  Dillon stared at the mountains, their peaks invisible through the low cloud and heavy snow. On the coffee table in front of him sat his Sony Vaio laptop computer, the page blank, the cursor blinking in the top left hand corner. He flipped the mobile phone onto the floor, and remained staring at the bright screen deep in thought for a moment. He wrote:

  The problem is far worse than it appears: Scorpion units assassinated while on assignment. Kirill... and Zhenya’s involvement? SAS and security service possibly in on betrayal in some way - bribery or other incentive at the highest level?

  The question is - who was the real target in Cornwall? Jake Dillon? Or the delegates/party guests? Or both? Most probable that Dillon was target. But why? And by whom?

  Kirill - expert in software development - Russian born - Kiev, of independent wealth, with properties in UK and Italy. Defected USSR during mid-1987. Creator of the Chimera military software programme. Developed at Kirill’s top secret establishment in Scotland for the British armed forces, and currently undergoing

  field trials with a number of Scorpion units. Who is the enemy?

  Scorpion HQ? Ferran & Cardini? Unlikely on

  both counts. Where is Kirill now? How did he get out and possibly survive the explosion at his country residence in Cornwall?

  Dillon stared at the words on the screen. Ferran & Cardini knew that he was alive. He had spoken to Tatiana. And, he had sent
his report to LJ direct from the helicopter that had picked him out of Cornwall. They had okayed his return to his home in Scotland and told him to wait for Vince Sharp to contact him. If it had been the firm or someone in the ministry who had wanted him dead, he was sure as hell he would already bedead. Unless it was a rogue element withinScorpion working their own agenda. Perhaps it was a situation of biding time, waiting for the right situation to arise... Like Alix and Lola turning up on his doorstep? Or Tatiana making an appearance? Had Alix and Lola’s van been tracked?

  No. He shook his head. Scorpion stood for everything that was good; the global fight against terrorism in whatever form it took, cutting away the cancer of modern society with the precision of a surgeon’s knife. Every detail always thought through, there were never mistakes... Not usually...

  Dillon followed the premise: if whoever it was did want the Scorpion units out of the way for good, why the elaborate set-ups? If it were Scorpion themselves; why spend billions of pounds in recruitment of the most experienced field operatives - only to kill them off?

  Something just didn’t add up.

  And where did the Chimera Programme fit into this jigsaw? This puzzle? Kirill was in charge of its development, programming and refinement of the software that the Scorpion units were now field testing. Dillon knew very little about the project or the programme, except what Kirill had told him, but Tatiana had obviously been involved from the start as liaison officer between Ferran & Cardini and Kirill’s department and subsequently knowing more than most about it. Three years ago, when they had shared much more than just sex, she had trusted Dillon implicitly; she would talk to him long into the small hours after the warmth and lust of their love making, her features softened by candlelight... She would talk endlessly about the advancements in computer aided warfare, which would inevitably go straight over Dillon’s head, and always surprised him that she had such an avaricious appetite for technological knowledge. And despite Dillon’s extensive experience with military techno-systems the jargon had flown way above his head. Tatiana’s involvement with the Chimera project was also something that had many questions attached to it...

  And what now? Now?

  Dillon wrote:

  Assassination - How to assassinate the world’s most highly trained specialist antiterrorist units? Scorpion units are the ultimate weapon against the global terrorist in the twenty-first century - the best of the best. Each operative chosen for specific skills

  - Assassins, snipers, explosive/demolition experts, tech-weapons/computer experts, and a whole array of other covert and military expertise.

  How to assassinate the assassins?

  And why?

  Scorpion Matrix G8 Comms and Ferran & Cardini

  mobile smart phones no longer secure: In Cornwall the smartphone and G8 network died, only reactivating when clear of site. Possibility of some kind of jamming device or power drain on both Scorpion and Ferran & Cardini mainframes in London? Somene is remotely accessing system? Possible internal betrayal???

  Kirill.

  Everything revolves around Kirill. He was the one who tried to kill Dillon, therefore he was willing to throw away his position and the multi-billion pound research and development facility...

  Leave the British Government - leave the embrace of such a world-active country, who strives for global peace, which genuinely set out to fuck-up the bad guys?

  The British Government, Scorpion, and Ferran & Cardini were betrayed. Set up.

  Who better than someone involved with the Chimera project? Kirill, obviously... but he is merely a puppet; he cannot be the one pulling

  the strings.

  So, who else?

  And Tatiana... Tatiana knew Kirill; She set

  up the protection gig in Cornwall in the first place. Sent Dillon to his own execution. How perfect.

  Whatever this game is, it’s much bigger than I first thought.

  Dillon got up and started to pace up and down the living room carpet; pondering the questions he had thrown in to the hat. Like the most frustrating maze, just when he thought he was heading in the right direction, a dead end appeared, and he would have to retrace his footsteps. And so it went, until he slumped down onto one of the sofas.

  I don’t know , he thought, closing his eyes.

  Outside, the wind howled and Dillon, almost absentmindedly, threw a log onto the fire. It was Kirill who concerned him more than anything - the cold hate filled look in the man’s eyes as the unwavering gun muzzle was pointing straight at Dillon’s head. Something in Kirill made Dillon’s soul go cold. There was something different about the man. Something very strange.

  And Tatiana...

  Tatiana had pleaded with him to take on the assignment in Cornwall. She had known Kirill a long time, worked closely with him in her capacity as Ferran & Cardini’s liaison officer on the Chimera project.

  And if they had wanted him, Dillon, dead, then Tatiana had to have known.

  Dillon felt suddenly depressed, and immensely lonely. A sense of vulnerability washing over him, attacking his confidence.

  He still loved Tatiana; and knew deep down that she still loved him. But the facts were staring him in the face.

  She was part of it. Integral. A cog in the machine. Whatever that was... She had to be...

  Dillon knew; he would have to be extremely careful. He would have to be prepared. And he would have to watch Tatiana’s every move - and if she stepped out of line?

  Then she would have to be dealt with.

  * * * Dillon went to his study. Entering the book-lined room, he moved to his desk and pushed the button located just under the edge of the oak top. Panels slid silently back to reveal the bank of six HD monitor screens behind them. A screen saver moved from one monitor to the next almost seamlessly and then changed theme every twenty seconds.

  He sat down at the master keyboard and initialised the operating system. Entering the central hub, he typed in the password and accessed the main house and land defence security systems, and logged in.

  Everything looked normal.

  He scanned all hidden cameras for a three mile radius and then a one mile radius. Nothing had been tripped or tampered with, the power and voltage monitoring meters had not been broken or hacked into. The system had been built to his exact specification and the software programme written by one of the best hackers in the business, Vince Sharp.

  He finished running the scan.

  Nothing. He looked at the screens for a moment, and lit a cigarette. The CPU’s purred inside their housings and he decided to randomly flick through a number of other concealed cameras located higher up on the mountain-side, but could see nothing suspicious.

  Dillon knew that just because it looks normal, doesn’t mean that there’s not something there.

  He was tempted to go and physically check the cameras, which would serve no purpose and be completely unnecessary, given that he had gone round all of them just before he had flown down to Cornwall. He checked his watch. Tatiana would be arriving in a few hours and he would need to be ready.

  He walked through the hall and pulled on his boots, lacing them tightly. Then he moved down the stairs to the cellar and placed the palm of his hand on the biometric reader panel; a section of the wall slid smoothly back and he stepped into a brightly lit room.

  The armoury smelled of gun oil, and he opened the Armourlite glass fronted security cabinets using a remote control unit. He moved to the first cabinet and pulled free the Glock 9mm automatic. He checked all the magazines and strapped them about his body. Then he picked out a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun, and then from the next cabinet the AMSD OM 50 Nemesis 12.7mm sniper rifle, to which he attached an infrared scope to the weapon with a precise click. He checked the magazine, placed a couple of spares in his pockets, then with the rifle slung over his shoulder, he locked the room, and as he walked away the wall panel slid silently back into place.

  Dillon locked the front door and using the remote control, armed t
he security trip monitors and the CS Gas modules that were located at strategic points around the property. He had a bad feeling about Tatiana’s impending visit and wanted to check that she wasn’t being followed by any big men in suits with submachine guns. Then he set off across the grey-lit fields towards higher ground, so free of violence in this far flung part of Scotland, and up past the edge of the woods towards the beautiful view point of Cairn bluff, a craggy outcrop of rocks.

  * * * Dillon felt cold to the bone.

  His hands, protected by gloves, clasped the stock of the AMSD OM 50 Nemesis sniper rifle and he sat covertly amongst the outcrop of rocks, staring down at the lane. He had a clear view down the hillside for at least a mile straight ahead of him, he targeted the high powered scope, picking out snow laden branches on the trees, and the fluttering of snowflakes falling: and he stole a moment to smile to himself. From his vantage point, he had given himself the best possible advantage, and had chosen the best killing ground, and one reason why he had purchased the small castle in the middle of nowhere. If there was going to be trouble - then he had chosen his spot well.

  He heard the engine, drifting up from the valley, before the vehicle came into view around the bend. And when it did come, it was slewing left and right with churning tyres, and then it slammed into the low embankment with metal scraping against the frozen snow, bouncing the back of the vehicle violently around and slamming it across the lane as the engine screamed and tyres eventually found grip, shooting the Mercedes AMG 55 forward at speed.

  Dillon lifted the scope to his eye.

  Tatiana was coming - and it appeared that she was in trouble.

  The Mercedes accelerated madly down the narrow lane.

  A black Range Rover Sport spun around the corner, gripping effortlessly with its four wheel drive and winter tyres. It must have been laying in wait for her, ready to attack; it accelerated down the lane and started to gain ground on the Mercedes.