Retrieval

by Ethan Jones

Javin crouched, then slid onto the floor. He aimed his pistol and, once his eyes found the target—a young man standing about ten yards away—he gently tapped the trigger twice. The first bullet struck the man in the chest, the second in the face. He collapsed against the wall, then slid to the floor.

  Javin kept the pistol pointed at the shooter even though he was not moving. Javin doubted the shooter was alive, considering the large bloodstains on his body, but his training had kicked in. Adrenaline was jolting through his body, fueling his actions.

  He turned his head and glanced at the other side of the hall.

  Empty.

  “All clear,” he shouted at Claudia, then jumped to his feet. “Check the shooter.”

  Javin bolted through the hall in the other direction, toward the staircase.

  As he came to one of the doors, a middle-aged woman opened the door.

  Almost instinctively, Javin raised his pistol.

  The woman screamed at the top of her lungs, then folded onto the floor, fainting because of the shock.

  “Oh, come on,” Javin shouted.

  He stopped and glanced at the woman. He wanted to help her, but also wanted to give chase to the sniper and whoever else was working with him. He was already late, and the chances of Javin’s catching up to anyone were growing slimmer by the moment. Still, he could not ignore the woman.

  So he put the pistol away, stepped inside the room, and checked her vital signs. She was breathing, albeit slowly. Javin placed the woman flat on her back, then took one of the pillows from her bed and slid it under her legs, so that they could be above her heart level. The woman was wearing a dress, so no need to loosen any tight clothing.

  He smiled at the woman and said, “Sorry about this.”

  Out in the hall, he dashed for the staircase. By now, he had almost lost hope that he would see even a speeding vehicle, let alone catch up to the sniper or anyone else in his team. But Javin wasn’t going to give up until he was absolutely certain there was no point.

  He ran down the stairs, jumping them three and four at a time. Then he tore through the lobby, skirting other patrons who gave him curious glares. When he reached the sidewalk, he cast a sweeping gaze to the left, then turned his head to the right.

  No screeching tires or gunning engines.

  Javin shook his head. These people were professionals. If he were to execute such a hit, he would simply walk through the crowds, at their pace, so he would draw no one’s attention. He would be dressed just like them, hidden in plain sight.

  He sighed and looked at the ebb and flow of the people walking on the sidewalk, then he zipped through the slow-moving traffic. He studied the faces of the men and women, but could not put the finger on anyone in particular. So he ran toward the back of the building and circled the entire block, growing more and more desperate with every passing second.

  As he came back to the starting point, Javin heaved a deep sigh of resignation. He glanced to the right and caught a glimpse of a short-haired blonde woman in a long red coat that came down to her knees. There was something in her hasty gait that caught his attention and began to trouble him.

  Javin tightened his fingers around his Sig Sauer pistol inside his jacket pocket and rushed behind her.

  As if she had realized that she was being followed, the woman hurried her pace.

  She never turned her head, and Javin was about twenty yards behind her, running through a thin crowd of passers-by. She did not hear him. How did she notice me? Did she notice me, or is this a strange coincidence?

  He sped up as the woman was coming close to the corner, then broke into a sprint.

  The woman disappeared behind a group of three women carrying large shopping bags.

  Javin ran around them.

  The woman was gone.

  He reached the corner and saw her as she was climbing into the back of a white SUV. It looked like a Mitsubishi, but Javin could not be certain. He squinted at the missing license plate. A second later, the SUV made a left turn and disappeared in traffic.

  Javin stood there, perplexed. What had he just seen? Was there enough to go after the woman?

  A couple of police cars zoomed in from the left, screeching to a halt by the entrance to the hotel. The place would soon be teeming with officers. Javin shook his head, deciding not to pursue the woman. I’ve got to talk to Zhang, so we can keep this under wraps. This was supposed to a discreet op. Javin’s and Claudia’s designation within the CIS was “correctors,” covert operatives dispatched to the field to fix other teams’ errors. They were expected to fly under the radar, get in, fix the situation, and get out without leaving a trace.

  He shrugged. This wasn’t my fault. All I did was pull the window curtain to the side. Since when can something like that turn an entire op upside down?

  Javin shook his head and walked toward the hotel. The turn of events would make for a lot of unhappy people. I’ll handle them when the time comes. For now, let’s make sure Han and the rest of the team are safe.

  Chapter Seven

  Grand Hyatt Hotel

  Beijing, China

  “So, Pierce, what exactly happened here?” Captain Wu said in a voice full of disappointment.

  Javin glanced at the captain standing across the large conference room table. Wu had folded his arms across his chest and had arched his left eyebrow. Then he waved his hand toward Zhang, who was his direct subordinate, sitting to Javin’s right.

  “That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Javin said in a calm, firm voice. “It seems the shooters, whoever they are, tracked us here and—”

  Wu cut him off. “I’m not asking for the mechanics, Pierce. What is going on here? We have a dead body in the hall, and a sniper on the loose. All in the heart of Beijing, in my sector.”

  Javin nodded, but said nothing. When people like Wu turned the conversation from business to personal, there was little value in trying reasonable explanations. Javin glanced at Zhang, but he had lowered his head and was studying something very interesting in the blank notebook in front of him.

  Claudia, who was sitting to Javin’s left, took advantage of the tense pause and said, “Captain, do we have an ID on the dead shooter?”

  “No,” Wu replied tersely. “We need a face for an ID. And he doesn’t have a face anymore, thanks to him.” He gestured at Javin.

  He shrugged. He could understand the captain’s growing frustration, but this was not the right way to approach the situation. From the tone of his voice, it sounded like Captain Wu would have been pleased if the shooters had accomplished their mission. “It was either me or him lying dead in the hall, so...”

  Claudia said, “What about fingerprints?”

  Wu nodded slowly, but his face remained locked in the irritated grin. “We’re running them through databases. No results yet. He might be clean.”

  “Any ideas who might be after Han?” Javin asked.

  “No, and that was actually your job.” Wu’s voice rose to almost a shout. “Keeping him safe, so he could find the information about the accident.”

  Javin thought about pointing out the fact that Han was, indeed, very safe, but again decided against bringing facts into the conversation. At this moment, Wu did not care much about them. So Javin went with the other approach: “It’s all understood, sir. We’ll do better to keep Han safe. We’ll move him to a secure location.”

  The words seem to slightly appease Wu. He offered another small nod. “I will assign another man to the team, since one obviously is not enough.”

  Javin glanced at Zhang as a ripple went through the Chinese agent’s body. His face began to turn the color of blood, but he said nothing. He did not even raise his eyes, but only gave a small nod of acknowledgment.

  The Canadian agent was not surprised. The Chinese society was ruled by a very authoritarian regime. Supervisors’ orders were never questioned, so as to maintain the orderliness of the organization and operations. Objections were discouraged and punished severely.


  Wu shrugged and stepped closer to the table. “That’s all for now. Go out there and get it right this time.” He tipped his head toward the door, and, in case they missed the meaning of his gesture, he waved his arms in that direction.

  Out in the hall, Zhang waited until they were a few steps away from the conference room, then cursed Wu under his breath.

  It was loud enough for Javin to hear every single word. He spoke passable Chinese, and the curse words were the first ones anyone learned in any language. He said, “I’m sorry he chewed you in there…”

  Zhang shrugged and kept walking toward the elevator. “That’s his style. Never happy. Always blaming others.”

  “Well, this time, we’ll get it right.” Javin tried to imitate Wu’s deep low-pitched tone.

  “Yes, because we’ve done nothing right so far.” Zhang shook his head. “I’ll find us a safehouse. One of the apartments we use for such situations.”

  “And let’s keep this low-key.”

  Zhang stopped and turned toward Javin. “What does that mean?”

  “It means let’s keep the intel confined to only those in the MSS who need to know.”

  Zhang gave him a sideways glance. “Do you think someone inside MSS is compromised?” His voice showed clearly that he interpreted Javin’s words as an insult.

  “I don’t know, but it’s an option we must consider.”

  Claudia said, “How else would they know about the location?”

  “Well, like you said in the meeting with Wu, the assault team somehow followed us.”

  Javin shook his head. “I said that because I didn’t want to lay the blame on your service, especially in front of the captain and without any evidence…”

  “But you have no problem making such accusations now, in my face.”

  “Look, I’m not accusing anyone. I’m just saying that MSS could be one of the options.”

  Zhang shook his head.

  Claudia said, “If they followed us, how did that happen? We were at the warehouse, where we nabbed Han. No one followed us there.”

  “That we know of,” Zhang said.

  “We checked, and double-checked,” Claudia said. “Javin and Han got into the Merc, while you and I followed them in the BMW. Did you see anyone behind us?”

  “No, but what if Han had some GPS-embedded wearable on him? T-shirt, watch, shoes…”

  Javin stepped closer to Zhang. “I ran a full scan on him before we got into the Mercedes, and a second one upon our arrival at the hotel. Do you really think I’ll bring in a hacker without a full-body search?”

  “What about the hard drive?”

  “Checked it too. It’s clean.”

  “Then it could be your security expert. Maybe someone followed him?”

  Javin considered the possibility of a surveillance team coming after Benjamin. Has someone intercepted our comms? Then his mind went to the blonde woman in the red coat. What if there’s another possibility here? He shrugged and looked at Zhang. “I’ll look into that. Let’s not exclude anything. We need to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Next time, we might not be this lucky.”

  Zhang nodded. “Something we agree upon...”

  Javin ignored the jab. After Wu’s tongue-lashing, Javin needed to stay in Zhang’s good books. “Yes. Now, let’s take Han and Benjamin and head to the safehouse.”

  Zhang resumed his walk toward the elevator. “Wu’s new guy, whoever that is, will meet us there.”

  Javin walked right behind him. “We’ve got to make sure he’s clean too.”

  “He’s assigned to the op by Wu. How much cleaner does he have to be?”

  “If this was an inside job, like the accident that claimed your brother, everyone’s a suspect.”

  Zhang turned his head. “Everyone, including me?”

  “You know what I mean, Zhang. Everyone else.”

  Of course, he couldn’t tell Zhang that he, as well as Wu, were suspects. Zhang had not been present at the hotel when it had come under attack. His absence could be explained as a coincidence, but it was convenient nonetheless. And the fact that he and Han had a turbulent past also left considerable room for doubt.

  Zhang studied Javin’s face for a long moment, seemingly unconvinced by the reply. Then he shrugged and said, “We’ve got to trust each other to make this work...”

  “And we do,” Claudia said. “We just need to be careful as we expand the circle of trust.”

  “Let in only the right people.”

  “Exactly,” Javin said.

  The sharp ping announced the arrival of one of the elevators before Zhang had pushed the button.

  As the doors opened, Javin’s phone rang. It was Liberty. “This is my girlfriend. Give me a couple of minutes, and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

  “Sure,” Zhang said. “We’ll be outside, in the front.”

  Claudia gave him a smile.

  Javin retreated to a quiet corner of the hall and answered his phone. He explained to Liberty why the call had ended abruptly when he had dropped the phone at that start of the shooting. He tried to be as vague as possible without lying to her, but also without divulging any sensitive information. Their relationship was not based on the complete truth, and that was something that troubled Javin. He wanted to tell Liberty about who he was, and what he did for a living, but he was worried about her reaction. Plus, the agency allowed only one person in an operative’s life to know the whole truth. That person had been Javin’s late wife, and after her passing, it was her sister. He still had a relationship with her family and his nephew, who was going to turn four in two weeks.

  Liberty seemed to accept Javin’s explanation without asking many questions. He was not sure if that was a good or bad sign, but he took it at face value. One less thing for me to worry about. He tried to push his concerns about Liberty to the back of his mind. At least for now. I’ve got my hands full.

  He took the next elevator to the main floor. Then he stepped through the revolving doors and looked around for Zhang and Claudia, but did not see them. A group of tourists were climbing off a large bus, so Javin walked to the left and around them. He passed by a number of taxis, but still no sign of his team.

  Where did they go?

  His phone pinged with the arrival of a text message. It was from Claudia: Change of plans. We’re in the back. Wu’s with us, and we’re waiting for the new guy.

  Javin nodded, but before he could turn around, his eyes noticed a white SUV gliding slowly from the right and around the driveway circling the large water fountain. The back window behind the driver was rolled down, and a blonde woman stared at him.

  Javin froze in place as their eyes met.

  He recognized her.

  The woman was Yael Rosenberg, a former Mossad covert operative, and she had some unfinished business with Javin.

  If you enjoyed this exclusive preview of Interception,

  click below to purchase it now:

  This work would have not been possible without the great support of my wife and son. I would also like to thank Frank Paine, Kristen Lewendon, Patti H, Susan Harju, James Pike, Mike Davis, Allen Prescott, Irma Lero, Alex Mellor, and Tim Birmingham, for their helpful suggestions.

  RETRIEVAL. Copyright © 2018 by Ethan Jones

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design: Kim Killion

  First edition: November 2018

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  About the Author

  Ethan Jones is an Amazon bestselling author of the wildly popular Justin Hall spy thriller series which includes Arctic Wargame, Tripoli's Target, Fog of War, Double Agents, The Diplomat, Rogue Agents, Shadow Agents, Homeland, The Saudi Strategy, The Central Connection, The Austrian Asset, The Belgian Bagman, The Cyprus Coverup and the 14th book Covert Assassin was released in June. Carrie Chronicles spy thriller series which features Justin Hall's partner, Carrie O'Connor. Books include Priority Target, Codename: Makarov, and Entry Point. Javin Pierce spy thriller series which is the latest series, includes The Corrector, Betrayal, Closure and now Retrieval.

  and Jennifer Morgan suspense thriller series which has three books so far: The Secret Affair, The Secret Blush, and The Secret Cause. Check out Ethan's website https://ethanjonesbooks.com to learn more and to sign up to Ethan's Exclusives which includes updates, deals, and a free starter pack library.

  If you like assassinations, conspiracies, military, political, psychological, and spy thrillers, with international action, adventure, terrorism, and intrigue, mixed with secret operatives on clandestine missions, then you will love Ethan's thrillers!

  Read more at Ethan Jones’s site.