The Ties That Bind r5-4

by Cliff Ryder

  He checked the two guns he was carrying and made sure the extra clips were still on his belt. He attached a small sound suppressor to the end of his Glock, and moved around the truck, looking for an easy entrance into the building. He paused and lifted the flap covering the truck's cargo area. As he suspected, it was filled with crates much like those he and Tina had recovered from the smugglers before.

  He kept moving and peered around the end of the truck just as a man walked out of the building, lighting up a cigarette. As the man moved off to the other side, Jason pulled a knife from his boot and threw it into the ground, blocking the door from closing and locking. Moving on silent feet, he quickly assumed a position behind the smoker. Some tiny sound must have alerted him because he started to turn just as Jason reached him.

  The man opened his mouth to shout a warning, when Jason's palm slammed into his throat with brutal force. The only sound that escaped was a dry wheeze as the man stumbled to his knees, gagging and trying to find enough air to breathe through his crushed larynx.

  Spinning him around, Jason grabbed the man's head and neck in a lock and twisted it hard. The bones snapped like dry twigs. Jason dragged the deadweight around the corner of the building and back over to the far side of the truck as fast as he could.

  No one seemed to have noticed the quick and dirty fight, so he ran to the door, peeked inside, then pulled the knife from the ground and slipped through, letting it shut softly behind him. The entry was barren. There was no sentry or front security except the lock on the door that clicked in place once the door shut. Jason was a little surprised at how it all looked, but he knew that looks could be deceiving and he wasn't about to let his guard down. Someone here had to have money, access and power to have that kind of equipment, and no one wanted that many weapons unless they had a dangerous agenda.

  Jason walked down a narrow hallway. The first door on the right was an office. The door was locked. He heard footsteps heading his way and behind him, the front door was opening again. Damn! he thought. There must have been a second guard on the far side of the building.

  He pulled his knife free again, slid it into the doorjamb and pried upward, popping the lock. He ducked inside the office as quickly and quietly as he could, then slid down against the wall, waiting to see if they were coming his way. The two sets of footsteps passed as the two men acknowledged each other briefly, and then they continued on to their original destinations. Jason knew it wouldn't be long until the missing man was noticed.

  He moved to the desk against the far wall. The desk itself was clear — no phone, no computer. He opened the drawers — nothing there. The office was clean except for a map on the wall. Jason took an image of the map and then headed to the door.

  The hallway was clear, and he kept moving. There were no other offices, but he found two other rooms, both of them situated as barracks-style sleeping quarters. One held two men snoring heavily, most likely the guards who worked the night shift. He left them alone.

  What the hell was here that was important enough to require radar jamming? No receiving area, not even one for smuggled rifles, would be this well guarded, and it didn't make sense that the Asp was housed here. There was no cover for it outside.

  The hall curved and then steps moved down and into the earth. The temperature increased and steam blew past him. He kept going, trying to make his large frame invisible against the wall. The stairs emptied into a large cavern that appeared to have direct access to the ocean. Packing crates along the side provided cover, and Jason was glad for the shadows and the chance to assess what he was seeing. It was going to take him a minute to recover from his surprise.

  Three submersibles were docked along the underground waterway. One was being loaded by two men, at least one of whom must have been one of those who had passed him in the office upstairs. The cavern was massive, but the water was divided by sections of rock, and some sections of the water had steam pouring off, making the air stifling.

  The submersibles were standard Russian Mir minisubs. Nothing looked particularly different except the extra length for the cargo that was being loaded.

  Jason pulled out his PDA. The scanning system showed that most of the weapons in the room were the same, but he was getting a nuclear signature from one of the crates. It was already on the sub farthest down the dock. Jason moved to the next set of crates, trying to get closer. The reading came back as enriched uranium. He wasn't sure what the exact device was, but he knew the product was bad. He waited another minute, but realized that he was too late as the sub began to sink into the depths.

  A submarine with supercavitation capabilities and a nuclear weapon in the same area? The smugglers weren't just a small-time operation. They'd gone corporate or were being led by terrorists or Mother Russia was back and she was pissed.

  Jason took as many readings as he was able from his position, then headed back out of the room. He needed to get out and get word to Denny that things were much worse than they'd feared.

  He was almost at the front door when he was spotted. The guard pointed at Jason, but before he could sound the alarm, Jason was on him. He pulled a pen from his pocket, leaped forward and yanked the man to him, whipping him around and covering his mouth with his free hand. The man's dark eyes widened in surprise at the sudden attack.

  This wasn't the time for a fight and even just snapping his neck might take too long. Jason pushed a tab on the pen and a needle extended from the tip. He jabbed it ruthlessly into the man's neck, and held him tightly as the poison raced through his system, killing him in seconds. Jason lowered him to the floor, noting how the guard's hands were still grasping for his heart even as it stopped.

  Jason had picked up the poison during one of his first trips into South America. Some members of the indigenous tribes were experts in herbology. The poison was lethal and untraceable, and best of all, it came from a pretty flower that he could order online and was perfectly legal. So far as he knew, only a handful of people in the world knew the more esoteric uses for it.

  He ran from the building, dodging behind the trucks, then made his way back to where he'd left the quad. He started it up and was heading back to the village when he noticed Tina waiting for him on the next rise.

  "I thought I told you to go back to the village," he shouted as he pulled to a stop next to her.

  "Well, I was worried you might need help," she said.

  "Not this time. We need to get back and quickly. They'll be looking for whoever infiltrated their operation down there, and I need to get in touch with my superiors. This isn't just a small-time weapons-smuggling outfit."

  "Okay, but could we plan these outings a little better? I felt like a sitting duck out here, and I absolutely hate feeling like that. If nothing else, I would rather have some different equipment with me, including some better cold-weather gear," Tina said.

  "If you'll recall, I told you to go back to the village and wait. In fact, I told you not to come when we were down at the cove." Exasperated, Jason asked, "Do you ever listen to anything you're told? You must have driven your poor grandfather to the edge of insanity."

  "You might as well accept the fact that that is never going to work."

  "What's never going to work?" he asked.

  "Trying to tell me what to do," she said matter-of-factly. Then she started up her quad, turned it around and left without him again, once more leaving him to play catch-up so he might have a shot at missing at least some of the boggy spots along the way.

  "I hate complications," he muttered to himself as he followed behind her. "Why couldn't this have been a nice, simple assassination mission? Those were so much easier."

  * * *

  They got back to his cabin and Tina left to go check on her grandfather, with a warning from Jason to keep her eyes open. People knew that she'd brought him up here and they might decide to move against her on that basis alone. She assured him she could take care of herself and left while he went inside to contemplate the stubborn n
ature of the female half of the human species and log into Room 59. It was time to talk to the boss.

  His avatar traveled down the hallway, but Denny wasn't online. Using the emergency-notice icon, Jason left an urgent message and waited. He didn't expect it to be long before Denny showed up and he was right. He only had to wait a few minutes before he received a notice and went back to Denny's online office.

  "You must have found the sub," Denny said without preamble when Jason entered. "Good work."

  "No, I haven't found the sub," Jason said.

  "You used the emergency notice to pull me out of a meeting and you haven't found the sub?" Denny asked. "This better be good."

  "It's not good," Jason replied. "Not good at all. That's why I used the emergency notice." He uploaded the images and the scanned data from his handheld onto Denny's system. "This is what I found. Most of the weapons are inconsequential, nothing that would really interest us, but then I found this…" His voice trailed off as he saw Denny's reaction to the data.

  "A nuclear signature?" the older man said. "You have a gift for understatement. 'Not good' barely touches the surface of it."

  "My equipment wasn't sufficient to determine the exact nature of the weapon, but I figured it was worth interrupting you for," he said. "It's not a huge leap to believe that if there's a nuclear weapon in this part of the world, the sub exists. Maybe it has supercavitation, maybe not. But it's here. It has to be."

  "You're probably right," Denny muttered, studying the images in front of him.

  "There's something else," Jason said.

  "You mean it gets worse?"

  "To be honest, yes," he replied. "This may be worse." He uploaded the next set of image files, which showed the Asp helicopter.

  Denny didn't say anything initially, but stared at the image, stunned silent for a moment, before he whispered, "Aw, shit. How'd they get ahold of that?"

  "I don't know," Jason said. "But I thought there were only a few people who even knew of its existence." He knew he didn't have to say anything else.

  "Damn," his boss said. Jason could see him mentally running through scenarios and ways to address the problem. After a moment, he said, "Okay, I'll try to see what I can dig up on this end. Do you have any other information yet?"

  "Just a name," Jason said. "Boris Ambros. I didn't find anything on him in our system, but he's involved on this end, so I figured you'd want to flag the name, see if anything turns up."

  Denny made a quick note of the name. "It doesn't ring any bells for me, but I'll see what I can find. For now, I want you to stay focused on finding that sub and that warhead. Shut the whole thing down, Jason. I'd prefer to keep the midnight teams out of this if at all possible."

  "Understood," Jason said. The very idea of having to have a midnight team called in for his first official mission made him squirm uncomfortably. They were the last-ditch resort of Room 59 — ruthless killers who would eradicate anything and anyone to "clean" an operational area. It would also make him look pretty incompetent if they were needed his first time out.

  "Do you have anything else for me at this time?" Denny asked.

  "Just a thought," he said. "I'm not sure how an operation this big has been going on without our knowledge."

  "What are you getting at?" Denny asked.

  "Just that if we didn't know, it makes sense that someone did. Maybe you could reach out to our friends in the CIA and see what they know about this. Either they know about some of it and it's covered or…"

  "Or someone way up in the food chain is on it and has been helping to cover it up," Denny finished.

  "There is no way that this has gone completely unnoticed. It's too big. I know that the resources up here are limited, but this would just be crazy to miss. The FBI has information on the gunrunning that is going on, so it has to be being watched by somebody."

  "I saw the access to the FBI file. You think that this guy…Jesse is your family?" Denny asked.

  "Even if he is my brother by blood, he's a total stranger to me. I'll handle it."

  "If I need to assign a different agent, I need to know it, and right now," Denny said. "This is too big to let it get personal."

  "No, sir," Jason said. "It's not personal and there's no need for anyone else. An extra player in the field would only make things more complicated." He shrugged, remembering how Jesse had acted toward him. "Besides, right now this guy is a suspect, nothing more. An expendable asset, just like the rest."

  He knew what Denny was nervous about, but this was the job and there was nothing that was going to get in the way even if this was his brother and he had to kill him. There was a long pregnant pause.

  "Look," Jason continued, "I know you can run the new biometrics tools on this conversation, see if I'm telling the truth. Go ahead. Review the data. I'm here for the job, and that's it. If it could become a problem, you'll be the first to know."

  "All right," Denny said. He paused once more, considering, then added, "I'm going to send in some new equipment for you. Send the Scorpion out again and I'll have the offshore team load it and return it tonight."

  They said their goodbyes, and Jason logged off. He looked at the images on his computer again. About the only good side of all this he could see was that no one appeared to be in any hurry. If they had a plan, it didn't seem to involve an immediate launch.

  There was a sharp series of raps on his door, and he picked up his Glock and peered outside through the window. Tina was standing on the porch in only a sweater, rubbing her arms to try to stay warm. He quickly pulled open the door and moved out of her way, knowing she would rush inside.

  "Are you crazy?" he asked. "It's freezing out there!"

  "You're…telling me," she said, teeth chattering. "But I left my coat at my grandfather's. I was halfway here before I realized I'd left it behind and the wind started picking up. So I ran." She shivered again. "That almost helped."

  Jason pulled a blanket off the back of the sofa and wrapped it around her, rubbing his hands up and down her arms, trying to get her circulation going again. "Come here," he said.

  He slid his arm around her shoulder and walked her closer to the fire, pulling a chair forward for her to sit. She eased herself down gratefully.

  "Hang on a minute," he said. He went into the kitchen to pour her a cup of hot coffee mixed with a little brandy. It would warm her on the inside and help chase away the feeling of cold. He pulled a chair up next to hers and placed the drink in her hand, wrapping his hands on the outside of hers.

  "That should help take care of some of that shivering."

  Tina took a sip and cringed a little as the brandy seared its way down her throat.

  "How much antifreeze did you put in that?" she rasped.

  He chuckled. "Just enough to keep you from turning into a giant ice cube."

  "Thanks," she said. "It feels wonderful."

  She took another sip of the drink and set it aside. He reached forward and put her hands in his and rubbed them gently. He lifted her hand, trying to warm the backs with his breath. Her shivering started to subside. He stopped his ministrations and stared at her.

  Jason could feel the room heating up and not from the fire. She didn't look away, but started chewing her lower lip. That was the last thing Jason could take. He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her into a kiss. It was consuming and possessive, but there was nothing more that he wanted in the world than to be with this woman, this minute.

  They stood and Jason gently pulled her into the bedroom. The room was dimly lit, the only illumination coming from the moonlight that slanted in through the one small window. He led her to the bed, keeping his silence, letting the anticipation build for them both by the simple touch of his hands on hers.

  When they reached the bed, he moved to stand in front of her, then wrapped her in his arms, brushing her lips softly at first, then more urgently when a quiet moan escaped her lips. She pressed herself against him, and he could feel the length of h
er body through his clothes, the wanting pouring off her in heated waves. His hands found her hair, and he eased her head backward, trailing kisses down her neck and then undoing one button of her shirt at a time, following each with another kiss.

  He slid her shirt off her shoulders, kissing her soft skin and cupping her breast through the satin material, rubbing his thumb across her nipple, smiling to himself as it responded to his touch.

  She pulled his head up and imitated his motions, first trailing kisses down his neck and then his chest as she undid the buttons. She paused only for a moment and undid the button of his jeans and zipper, nipping the tender flesh that was protected by the clothing.

  Jason pulled her to him and they finished undressing with more urgency. Their clothes finally out of the way, he lifted her, one arm around her waist and the other supporting their weight as he laid her on the bed. He was so hot and intense, every muscle in his body ready to devour her, but wanted her need to be as intense as his.

  He stroked her skin, kissed her lips and slowly moved his fingers to the soft wet folds that held his salvation and slid a finger inside of her. Her plea for more as her hips pressed up into his hand was more than he could take. His hand moved to her hip and guided her upward as he plunged inside.

  Rocking forward, his head swooped downward, clenching her nipple in his teeth. Her cry of ecstasy along with her orgasm sent him over the edge.

  Jason rolled to his side, pulling her into his arms as he did. Their labored breathing was the only sound filling the room. He rubbed his hand on her arm, not really certain what to say. He'd certainly had sexual encounters on other missions, but everything seemed to be different in this place. He began to wonder if he was looking for more than was really there because he was starting to find the connections to his family and that was triggering other things.