Deep Allegiance

by David Archer

  “You’re right,” Molly said. “This is not the man you think it is. This is Gregor Sokolov, but he may be a close relative of Andropov’s. I admit, the resemblance is uncanny; Allison showed me photos of Andropov, and I would almost swear it was the same man myself.”

  “All right,” Noah said. “How does this guy figure into our Spear situation?”

  “That’s pretty simple,” Molly said. “From what we learned last night, he is next in line to take over as Director, and eliminating him is going to be absolutely necessary if we want to bring this organization to an end. Sokolov is currently wanted by Russian authorities for a number of crimes, including several assassinations. He is one of the highest ranking members of Spear, and it’s imperative that he be terminated as quickly as possible.”

  “But we have no idea where he is?” Neil asked. He had also been abducted by Andropov at one point, and he was obviously still shaken by the resemblance.

  “Not at the moment,” Molly admitted, “but there is one person who might know his whereabouts. That person is his daughter, Yvonne.” She clicked the remote and a photo of a young woman appeared on the screen. “Yvonne is a professional interpreter in Geneva, but we know that her father visits her there fairly regularly. You are being sent to Geneva today, to begin surveillance on her and watch for her father to appear. When he does, you will do whatever is necessary to terminate him with extreme prejudice.”

  “Whatever is necessary,” Jenny repeated. “That makes it sound like this is not going to be an easy job.”

  “Unfortunately, that’s correct,” Allison said. “Sokolov commands a small private army, more than a dozen former Russian special forces troops that have sworn loyalty to him. Besides those, he has more than a hundred other people working with him, and all of them are known to be proficient with weapons. Taking him out may involve a lot of collateral damage, but it’s absolutely necessary. If he is allowed to assume control of Spear, the organization will be back up to full strength within months. We cannot allow that to happen.”

  Noah nodded. “All right,” he said. “Mission identities?”

  “You’ll continue to use the ones you already have,” Molly said. “None of them were compromised on this last mission, and we need you to be on the way to Geneva immediately. Because I knew you just got in, I took the liberty of having bags packed for you. They’ll be waiting for you at the airplane, so you don’t even need to go home to pack.”

  “Molly,” Renée said. “I don’t know if I’m really ready to go out again.”

  Molly turned to her, but before she could speak, Allison interrupted.

  “Parker says you are,” she said. “That’s good enough for me.” She turned to Noah. “You’re also taking Sarah with you this time,” she said. “Her identity was easy to create, so it will be in her bag at the airport. She is your wife, of course, so you’ll be able to establish a cover as a tourist couple. In fact, each of you will maintain that cover until your target appears. At that point, Noah, you will have to determine the best way to carry out your mission and make it happen.”

  “All right,” Noah said. “What about equipment?”

  “I already thought of that,” Allison said, “so Wally is waiting for you. You can stop at R&D and get whatever you think you need, then go on to the plane. I need you in Geneva by tomorrow morning, their time.”

  The dismissal was obvious, so Noah got to his feet and the rest followed. They went down the elevator together, then Marco followed the Hummer out to the R&D building.

  “You just don’t get a break, do you?” Wally asked. “You just got home, and now you’re going out again. Any idea what you want to take with you?”

  “I want one of the explosive printers,” Noah said. “Also, I need some sort of a missile launcher. Something that can be accurate over distance, good enough to hit a target dead on.”

  Wally giggled. “Oh, have I got something to show you. Follow me!”

  They all followed him down the hall, and he stepped into a large room that was set up like a firing range. It was almost 100 feet long, and there were four shooting lanes. A couple of technicians looked up as they entered and Wally motioned one of them to come closer.

  “Noah, this is Lonnie,” Wally said. “Lonnie, Noah Wolf. He wants to see the blaster.”

  Lonnie let out a grin and shook Noah’s hand. “Sir, I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said. “Come on, I’ll show you what we came up with.”

  They followed him to a workstation and he picked up what looked like a simple plastic rod with a box on top of it. It was about three feet long and two inches in diameter, and one end had an opening that was about an inch and a half across.

  “This is what we call the blaster,” he said. “It looks pretty solid, but it’s actually a single shot launcher for an AI-enhanced missile. The tip of the missile, which you can’t see at the moment, has an extremely sensitive micro camera built into it. This little box,” he said, pointing, “holds the video screen that lets you select your target. As long as you keep it pointed toward the target when you tell it to fire, that missile will do whatever it has to do to hit that target. If it has to duck around obstacles, it will, and it won’t detonate at all until it hits its intended target. Come on, let me show you how it works.”

  He walked over to the firing range and hoisted the device up to his shoulder, holding it over his shoulder like a bazooka. He touched the box on top and it opened up to reveal a three inch video screen with crosshairs. The screen came to life and they watched as he moved it around, showing that whatever the weapon was pointed at was what appeared on the screen.

  “Now, watch this,” he said. “I’m going to put it on the bull’s-eye of the target down there.” He did so, and they saw the crosshairs light up on the bull’s-eye. “Now, to make it lock, all I have to do is tap the screen once.”

  He reached up with one finger and tapped the screen, and the crosshairs began blinking. He moved the weapon to the left so that it was actually aiming into another firing lane, then tapped the screen again.

  There was a soft Whumpf, and something shot out the open end. They saw a fiery tail as the missile took flight, and then watched as it curved around to go back to where it had originally been aimed. When it struck the target, Noah felt confident that it hit the bull’s-eye dead on, and then it exploded into a fiery cloud that completely obliterated the target.

  “That’s perfect,” he said. “Give me two of them, Wally.”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  “This is a beautiful city,” Sarah said the next day, when they got their first good look at Geneva. “You think we can get away with calling this a honeymoon?”

  Noah shrugged. “Why not?” he said. “We don’t know how long we’ll be here, so we might as well enjoy it.”

  They were driving down the street, and Noah was enjoying the local architecture. They’d already seen the St. Pierre Cathedral and the United Nations building, and were driving toward the famous flower clock. In the seat behind them, Marco and Renée were also looking out the windows at the scenery, while Neil and Jenny were taking the first duty of watching Yvonne Sokolov.

  The young woman had been easy to locate, and the intelligence agencies had told them that she was about as normal as any young Russian woman could be. Except for the fact that her father was a notorious criminal, there wasn’t a single black mark on her record anywhere. She worked for the United Nations as an interpreter, and when she wasn’t at work, she was usually at home.

  That day happened to be her day off, and Neil and Jenny had her house staked out. They were sitting in a car just watching, waiting to see if the girl went anywhere or had any visitors, but so far, they’d seen nothing of interest.

  Unfortunately, the first day set the tone for the next two weeks. They took turns watching Yvonne, and each of them spent some time in the United Nations building when she was on duty. Parts of it were open to the public, and they could conveniently keep an eye on her workspace most of the t
ime.

  Noah kept reminding them not to become lax. Just because Sokolov had not appeared, they still had to remain vigilant. Sooner or later, he was likely to show, because he rarely went more than a month without stopping to visit her. It had been almost a month since his last visit when they had arrived, so he was actually running late.

  It was Marco and Renée who were on duty when he finally appeared, and Noah and Sarah were out sightseeing once again, with Neil and Jenny tagging along.

  “Marco to Noah,” Noah heard through the subcom. “Our boy just showed up. He drove up in a caravan of vehicles, and his security force is watching closely.”

  “Where are you?” Noah asked.

  “Sitting outside the daughter’s place. Daddy is headed inside the house now. What do you want us to do?”

  “Just watch,” Noah said. “We are on the way.”

  The rest of them arrived a half hour later, and Noah got a good look at the obviously armed security people who were standing around in front of the house. A couple of them had wandered around the back, according to Marco, but most of them were visible in plain sight.

  “What’s the approach?” Marco asked. “We could probably take him with a blaster when he comes out, but I doubt we’d have a chance of getting away afterward. Those people look serious.”

  “Undoubtedly,” Noah said. “And the vehicles are probably armored, so trying to hit him in the car would probably be a wasted effort.”

  “I agree,” Marco said. “Got any ideas?”

  Noah sat behind the wheel of his van and watched for a couple more minutes. “He usually stays a couple of days,” he said. “I think we’ll keep watching for the moment, see what happens tomorrow. I want the rest of you to go back to the hotel, and take Sarah with you. I’m going to stay here and watch for the night.”

  Sarah looked at him. “Noah,” she said. “You can’t take them all alone.”

  “I don’t have any intention of trying,” he said. “I just want to be here if he decides to leave suddenly. If I can get a chance to take him out somewhere else, somewhere away from other people, that would be best. The trouble is going to be getting past his security guards. Even if the missile took out a few of them, it’s not likely to get them all.”

  “Not even with both of them,” Marco said. He looked at Noah for a moment, then said, “I can try a sniper shot. There’s bound to be somewhere around here I can get a high vantage point.”

  “We might save that for a last resort,” Noah said. “You can take a look around, see if you can find a spot that might work where you could see the front door. If you find one, let me know. Otherwise, just go on back to the hotel and get some rest. Somebody’s going to have to relieve me in the morning.”

  Sarah leaned over and kissed him, then got out of the van and went to Marco’s car. She, Neil and Jenny climbed into the back seat and Marco got behind the wheel and drove them away.

  There was no sign of Sokolov through the night, and it was Neil who relieved Noah the following morning. Jenny came along with him, but Noah cautioned them to do nothing but watch. They were parked far enough down the street that the security guards were ignoring them, but close enough that they could tell if their target decided to leave the house.

  At two o’clock that afternoon, Marco and Renée took over again. Neil and Jenny went back to the hotel, where Noah and Sarah were waiting for word that Sokolov was on the move.

  An hour later, Marco called Noah by subcom.

  “Marco to Noah, he’s out. He’s getting into his car, and his daughter is with him. Security guards are also loading up, so they’re all headed somewhere.”

  “Good,” Noah said. “Follow at a distance, try to keep them in sight. Give us a running account of where you go, and we’ll catch up with you as soon as we can.”

  An hour later, Marco reported that the convoy had stopped at what appeared to be a floating restaurant on the Rhône. A couple of the security guards had gone into the restaurant with Sokolov and his daughter, but the rest were waiting near the cars.

  “This might be our best opportunity,” Noah said. “We’ll be there in a couple of minutes, just keep an eye on the situation.”

  They arrived moments later and Noah saw the security guards standing around the vehicles in the parking lot that was across the street from where the floating restaurant was moored. He pulled the van in and parked, then he, Neil and Jenny climbed out. Sarah remained in the van, ready to pick them up in a hurry if necessary.

  The three of them walked over to where Marco and Renée were sitting in their car.

  “What you have in mind, boss?” Marco asked. “I know the Dragon Lady talked about collateral damage, but that’s an awful lot of people in there. I’m not sure what we can do at this moment.”

  Noah leaned on his car door and looked over his shoulder at the restaurant. “I think I’m going to go inside and try to look the situation over,” he said. “Our orders are to terminate Sokolov at the first possible opportunity, but I don’t know if this is going to be it or not.”

  “If you’re going in, so am I,” Jenny said. “Besides, we’ll look better as a couple. Nobody’s likely to pay much attention to us if we’re together.”

  Noah nodded. “I agree,” he said. “Marco, I want you and Renée to drive down the street a bit. Just in case the security guys noticed you, I want you out of the line of fire if things get crazy.”

  “What about you?” Marco asked. “If things go crazy, you’re going to be stuck inside there.”

  Noah looked at the restaurant again. “I think it’s still worth taking a look. Sarah’s got the van running, just in case we need a quick getaway. Be ready to run interference if we need it, okay?”

  “Hey, wait a minute,” Neil said. “What about me?”

  “Just get in the car with Marco, pookie,” Jenny said. “I want you out of the line of fire, too.”

  Noah turned and started toward the restaurant and Jenny followed. Neil stared after her for a moment, then got into the back seat of Marco’s car. Marco started it up and put it in gear, left the parking lot and headed down the street away from the restaurant.

  “Okay, Noah,” Jenny said as they walked toward the front door. “What’s our game plan?”

  “For the moment, we’re just going in to observe. I want to get a look at the target, see if there is any hope of accomplishing the mission this afternoon.”

  “Would’ve been nice if we’d known he was coming here,” Jenny said. “We could have tried to set something up before he arrived. Maybe a nice cocktail filled with arsenic or something.”

  Noah glanced at her, then turned his face back forward. They walked through the door and were greeted by a hostess who seemed to speak perfect English.

  Noah spotted Sokolov and his daughter near the back of the dining room as the hostess led them to a table that was only a couple of yards away. They sat down and picked up menus like any other tourists, but they were continuing to whisper to each other through the subcoms so that no one else would hear.

  “I think we may have one play,” Noah said. “He’s sitting right near the entry toward the restrooms. If we could start some sort of distraction, something that will occupy the two security guards with him, then one of us might be able to get close enough to take him out.”

  “You take care of the distraction,” Jenny whispered back. “I haven’t gotten to kill anybody in weeks, this bastard is mine.”

  Noah continued looking at the menu for another moment, then whispered that he was going to make an attempt. He put down the menu and got up from his chair, then looked back at Jenny.

  “I need to hit the head,” he said. “Order me something to drink, will you?”

  Jenny looked up with a smile. “Sure, babe,” she said. She turned her face back toward the menu, but kept watching Noah from the corner of her eye.

  Noah headed toward the men’s room and watched Sokolov carefully as he passed by. Neither he nor his bodyguards seemed to pa
y much attention to him, so he went on to the men’s room and made a show of flushing the toilet and splashing water around.

  “Noah to Sarah,” he said quietly.

  “I’m here, baby,” Sarah said. “Just be careful, please?”

  “I think we have a chance at getting this done,” Noah said. “I want you to leave the parking lot and drive down to where the bridge goes over the river. There should be somewhere there you can pull over and wait for us.”

  “Wait for you at the bridge? Noah, that’s probably a quarter of a mile. How are you going to get away if the security guards come after you?”

  “I’ve got that worked out,” Noah said. “Now it’s time for the distraction. Noah to Marco, are you listening?”

  “You know it, boss. What you got in mind?” Marco’s Cajun accent was coming out a little bit, the way it did when he was getting nervous.

  “I want you to get out one of the blasters and hand it to Neil. Turn around and drive back past the restaurant as fast as you safely can, and then Neil, I want you to aim that thing at Sokolov’s limousine. Try to hit it dead on, and that should keep everybody busy for at least a minute or two. Jenny, as soon as the blast goes off, you make your move and I’ll take care of the bodyguards inside. As soon as Sokolov is dead, then both of us go out the back and onto the deck. The water is our best escape route.”

  Jenny managed to giggle in her whisper. “I like the way you think, boss man. Neil, pookie, make your shot count.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Neil said. “Give us the word when you’re ready for this to happen.”

  Noah reached for the knob on the bathroom door. “Now,” he said. He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, then made his way slowly back toward the dining room.

  From outside on the street, the sound of tires squealing could be heard. A moment later, they heard people shouting outside as Marco drove rapidly back toward the restaurant, his engine racing as he raced along the narrow, two-lane road.

  There was a sudden blast, and a flash of light came through the windows that faced the road. Sokolov’s bodyguards leapt to their feet, snatching pistols out from under their jackets as they turned toward the door, and neither of them ever saw Noah pull the little PSS out of his pocket. It clicked twice, and people began screaming as blood and brain matter splattered across several tables.