“We are the Russian Federal Security Service and you are under arrest for espionage.”
VII
UNCOVER
52
CONFRONT
Elizabeth is in Houston in a session with her technical leads before they have the final meeting with Meadows and Crow. She glances down and sees a picture-embedded text. “Need to talk ASAP. Make sure no bugs.”
She excuses herself, takes the elevator down to the building’s basement level and goes into an empty woman’s room. She quickly scans for nano-drones around her and then turns the phone toward herself. She finds a bright spot sitting on her shoulder near her collar. In the basement, it should be dormant. She goes into one of the stalls and unwraps a piece of gum. Popping the gum in her mouth, she takes the foil wrapper, scoops up the drone and flushes it down the toilet. She scans herself again and then finds an unlocked janitorial closet.
Inside, she quickly scans the closet with the bug detector Tim gave her and calls the number from the text.
Tim answers immediately, “Are you clear?”
“I think so. I’m in the basement. Found one riding on my shoulder and flushed it down the toilet. I’m in a closet and I scanned it for bugs. The phone’s signal is weak so it should be under the nano-drone threshold.”
“Good. We have a problem. The Russians arrested Sheri and Christoff.”
“What?!”
“The press just implicated Russia in sabotage of the space station. The source claimed the information came out of a recent Russian state dinner that Sheri and Christoff attended. On top of that, Jen disappeared and I lost contact with our agent in Abadon.”
“How did they know about Sheri and Christoff?”
“Only two possibilities. They somehow overheard our plans, or….”
“Or?” Elizabeth prompted.
“Or, someone gave us away. The only place our plans were discussed in the open was on Christoff’s island. As far as surveillance, that place is as airtight as it gets. The probability of someone breaching our meeting is small.”
Elizabeth frowns. “Who would betray us?”
“The press said the information came from a high-level U.N. source. Carl, Jessica and Greg all flew straight back to D.C. Greg has a hard time grasping operational security, but he’s not stupid. I don’t think he’d talk about this in the open. The only people left are the ones in direct contact with U.N. personnel. Aside from you and Josh—”
“Wendy!” Elizabeth interrupts.
“Hold on. We don’t want to launch into a witch-hunt. It’s circumstantial but we need to find out quickly one way or the other. You and Wendy are both in Houston right now. Can you arrange a private meeting with her in a safe location?”
“I got this.”
Tim, obviously hearing the determination in her voice, adds, “No lead pipe interrogation.”
“Tim, I’d never use a lead pipe.”
As soon as they finish talking, Elizabeth heads back up to the conference room where the final sign-off meeting is about to start. Elizabeth can’t help but notice that Meadows seats her and Wendy on opposite sides of the table.
The meeting goes smoothly and the program receives its final sign-off. There are several technical discussions going on among the engineers as they wrap up.
Elizabeth says to Meadows, “I need a private conference room to talk to Colonel Crow.”
His eyebrows go up. “Umm. Are you sure that’s necessary?”
“We just have a few small items left we need to iron out … but I would feel more comfortable doing it in one of the maximum security conference rooms.” She adds casually, “They have the most soundproofing.”
Frowning, he quickly asks, “Would you like me to be present?”
“No.”
He sees the look on her face. “Ok, uh … conference room 107 in the basement is probably available.”
She just smiles at him.
He nods. “Uh, ok … I’ll take care of it.”
As he leaves, Elizabeth goes to Wendy. “It was a good meeting.”
Wendy nods. “Yes, it was. Is there anything we missed on the agenda?”
Talking very calmly, Elizabeth says, “I think we covered it pretty well, but there are one or two details I’d like to discuss with you briefly.”
“Of course.”
“Admiral Meadows scheduled room 107 for us to talk.”
She just nods.
“Meet you down there in about 10 minutes?”
She’s clearly trying to read Elizabeth’s face but nods again.
Elizabeth goes straight to the conference room. As before, she scans the hall, the room and herself with her phone. Then she pulls out the bug detector and scans for wired bugs. It’s clear.
She’s standing at the door when Wendy walks in. As Elizabeth closes the door, Wendy says, “Just us?”
Elizabeth pulls out her phone and scans Wendy. Finally, she says, “You and the room are clear of nano-drones or wired bugs. We can talk.”
As they sit down, Wendy nods. “So you know what’s going on and you’re not planning on hitting me with an office chair?”
With a small smile, Elizabeth says, “Probably not.” Rolling a lipstick tube between her fingers, she continues, “I owe you an apology. I jumped to conclusions about what happened on the space station and unfairly accused you and Josh. I now know what happened.”
Wendy, still guarded, nods. “Apology accepted, and I’m sorry that the situation caused so much trouble.”
“Thank you.” She pauses. “Knowing that you’ll soon be in orbit where you won’t be able to talk without being overheard, Tim wanted me to ask you some questions. He figured that since we were together for a meeting and there are enough rumors going around,” she gives her a wry smile, “nobody would be surprised if we had a private conversation.”
“True ... so, what are the questions?”
Elizabeth bites the side of her lip and looks at Wendy closely. “They just need to know who you talked to about the plans from the island.”
Too quickly, she says, “I didn’t talk to anyone.”
Elizabeth could see it on her face. Tilting her head slightly and with a calm voice, Elizabeth says, “You look nervous.”
“I’m not nervous, and I don’t need to be answering to you. Elizabeth, I’m sure you’re a wonderful person but you’re not an intelligence operative and you have no military or law enforcement background. No offense, but this is way out of your league and I’m finished talking to you.”
Elizabeth’s expression never changes and her voice remains utterly calm. “You’re right, I’m none of those things, but I know when someone isn’t telling the whole truth. We’re not finished.”
Wendy shakes her head with disdain. “Actually, we are finished. You’re a nurse. Go back to working in a hospital before you get hurt.” She leans forward to get up.
Still calm, Elizabeth stops rolling her lipstick tube and says, “Sit down.”
Wendy laughs as she stands up. “What are you going to do, defibrillate me?”
Elizabeth pushes the button on the side of the ‘lipstick tube.’ There’s a popping sound as two barbs shoot from the tube and strike Wendy in the chest. Arcing with high voltage, Wendy falls backwards over her chair.
With the wires still connected to the tube, it continues to tase her as Elizabeth walks around the table and sits down on the floor next to her. Turning it off, she says, “Yup.”
As Wendy recovers, she slowly sits up. With a look of total disbelief, she says, “What the hell’s wrong with you?! Is this still about Josh?”
“No.” She shrugs. “Well … maybe a little. What this is really about is you lying to me and putting Josh, Sheri and Christoff’s lives in danger.”
Wendy reaches down to pull out the barbs from her blouse.
Elizabeth holds up the Taser with her finger over the button. “Not yet.”
Wendy finally shakes her head. “I didn’t tell anyone except Turan.�
�
Elizabeth’s eyebrows go up as she calmly repeats, “You told Turan.”
“Yes, we were going to bring him in any way. I saw an opportunity to talk to him in a secure room.”
“You heard the press reports. Someone in the U.N. leaked that Russia may be involved in sabotage of the space station and that the information came from a high-level state dinner, which Sheri Lopez and Christoff Bobinski attended. They were just arrested by the Russians. At the same time, Tim lost contact with our agent in Abadon and Jen has disappeared. We need to know exactly what you told Turan.”
Wendy looks surprised. “Oh my God.” Shaking her head, she says, “I … I can’t believe that could have gotten out. I can’t believe Turan is involved.”
Elizabeth shakes her head. “He may not be. Did you check for nano-drones before you talked to him?”
“No, he said the office was secure.”
“You didn’t confirm it? I’ve had one riding on me all day. Even if there weren’t nano-drones, did it occur to you that there could have been wired bugs in that room?” She holds up the bug detector Tim gave her.
Wendy takes a deep breath, “Ok, the only thing I shared in his office was that we thought his life was in danger, and Josh and I were taking action to determine who was behind it. I did say Sheri was going to Russia to investigate, and I did say we were investigating the facility in Nevada.”
“What else?”
Frowning, she says, “I didn’t say anything about Christoff, Greg, Jessica or Tim. I never shared that we met in the Bahamas or that we even met.”
“Did you tell him we believed there were people involved at high-levels of government across the world?”
Wendy shakes her head.
“That may be the only reason that you and Josh aren’t dead right now.” Elizabeth sighs. “My office is bugged and I’m followed by nano-drones 24/7. I’m sure Turan is too. Or it may be simpler than that. Josh says Turan and the Secretary-General don’t see eye-to-eye, but that doesn’t mean Turan wouldn’t report something this important to his boss, who we know hates the Russian president.” As Elizabeth pulls the barbs from Wendy’s chest, she says, “Either way, you could have gotten Sheri, Christoff, Josh and yourself killed.” Elizabeth stands up and offers Wendy her hand. Helping her to her feet, she adds, “I’m sorry for tasing you but you shouldn’t have told anyone.”
“You’re right.”
As they move toward the conference room door, Elizabeth adds, “Oh, and … you also shouldn’t mess with married men.”
Opening the door, they see Meadows standing outside.
Wendy walks past him without saying a word.
He turns from her to Elizabeth. “Did, everything go—” He sees the office chair tipped over and finishes weakly, “… ok?”
Elizabeth smiles. “Quite well, thank you.”
53
EXPOSED
Sheri and Christoff are taken to Federal Security Service headquarters where they’re placed in what is obviously an interrogation room. The room has cameras, a one-way mirror on the wall and a TV.
A senior officer comes in and without saying a word, turns on the TV. It’s a live English-speaking news network. “Details are still coming in, but we know that an undisclosed, high-level source from the U.N. reported that the astronaut who recently died aboard the International Space-based Laser and Observatory may have been involved in sabotage. Even more disturbing, the astronaut, John Harrison, has been linked to the Russian Intelligence Service. The information appears to have been leaked from the highest levels of the Russian administration during a recent state dinner.”
The officer turns to them and in a very calm voice, asks, “Why would you implicate our country in international sabotage? This is how you repay this administration’s trust … by lying?”
Sheri put her fist down on the table. “We had nothing to do with that!”
The Russian officer, in perfect English, repeats, “The highest level of the Russian administration at a recent state dinner?!”
Sheri shakes her head emphatically. “First of all, no one in your government, including President Volkov, said anything about Harrison, nor did I ask. I didn’t have to. We already knew about Harrison. One of the members of our team, Commander Josh Fuze, saved the life of the astronaut he tried to kill. She discovered he’d modified the laser’s aiming software. Fuze was the man who fought and subdued Harrison. All we knew for sure was that his mother was a Russian immigrant to the U.K.”
With a half-smile, Christoff calmly adds, “If we were going to incriminate you, we would have waited until we were out of the country first.”
Sheri jumps back in, “So, you tell me, is the report right … was Harrison your man?”
The door behind them opens and President Volkov comes in and stands next to the officer. “I know who Commander Fuze is. My predecessor briefed me on the meeting at NATO Headquarters regarding … Jen. Yes, Harrison worked for us, but he didn’t modify the software, he discovered the modification long before Colonel Crow did.”
Giving him a skeptical look, she asks, “And how do you expect us to believe that?”
“Because the laser has already been fired at a ground target.”
“What?!”
“Yes. It was labeled a test misfire, but you will find that at that exact same instant, the head of the terrorist group Antiqam — Abu’l-Fadl Haddad — died. Media reports quoted an eyewitness who claimed he was completely incinerated in front of dozens of men.”
Christoff frowns but says, “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Haddad was a butcher that bragged about torturing women and children.”
“I agree, but he was incinerated three months ago.” With emphasis, he adds, “One month before Harrison arrived on the station. That is why we sent him up.”
Sheri looks surprised and then nods. “Commander Fuze said, Harrison was about to throw a knife at him, but stopped when the station commander yelled Josh’s name, and before Harrison died, he said to Josh, ‘You don’t understand.’”
Volkov nods. “Harrison also knew who Commander Fuze was. My predecessor warned me of his abilities and we had him under surveillance.”
“Why?”
“The former president saw him as a genetic super soldier and a dangerous threat, similar to the AI.” Volkov shrugs. “I saw him as a potential ally.”
She shakes her head. “Then who killed Harrison?”
Volkov crosses his arms. “Now that is the real question, isn’t it? Whoever tried to kill Colonel Crow almost certainly killed Harrison. All we know for sure is that he was killed by that neurotoxin, but we don’t know how it was administered.”
Sheri says, “We do. It was injected into one of his veins by an implanted plutonium powered capsule. The capsule can be triggered on radio command. We know this because several members of our team, including Colonel Crow, have been implanted with them.”
Volkov frowns. “Can they be removed?”
“We don’t know yet. We’re trying to determine if they’re booby-trapped.”
Volkov pauses and then raises an eyebrow. “Who would be able to surgically implant astronauts — assigned to the U.N. Planetary Defense Directorate — without their knowledge?”
Frowning, Sheri nods. Then tilting her head slightly, she looks directly at Volkov and says, “I don’t mean to pry but we also heard that you might secretly belong to an extremist organization?”
Volkov looks surprised and then puzzled. With a small laugh, he says, “Russian Orthodox…?”
“Oh ... uh, never mind.”
Christoff says, “We have another problem. The press release was worded specifically to implicate us and ensure we were persona non grata.”
Volkov nods. “Which means … they know you’re here.”
Judy slows her breathing. She realizes if they triggered the neurotoxin, she wouldn’t be feeling tightness in her chest; she’d be dead. It’s just anxiety. To be fair, well-deserved anxiety. She gets
up and takes a shower. In case they’re monitoring her, she wants to act normal and the shower will help her relax.
As she closes the shower curtain and turns on the water, she carefully inspects her bracelet. It’s very tight, and she knows it’s impossible to remove without a diamond tipped saw. Her life depends on finding a way to counter the injector without removing the bracelet. She has an idea but it requires materials she doesn’t have.
After the shower, she uses the technique Tim taught her to hide the pico-memory card. As she arrives at her morning class, her classmates are gathered around a senior instructor. She breathes a sigh of relief as she realizes they’re asking why their bracelets are stuck on their wrists. She joins them to hear the instructor’s explanation.
“I’m sorry, but the bracelets are expensive and many of them have been lost by our newest teammates during orientation. Don’t forget, too many infractions during the first 90 days and you’ll be sent home and forfeit your pay per the contract. To reduce that risk, they decided to lock the bracelets for new candidates during training.” She smiles. “Of course, if you want them off, just report to the infirmary. They’ll take it right off, but you will be sent home.”
Judy knows a lie when she hears it. They know they’ve been breached, but they don’t know who … or she’d already be dead.
54
RESCUE
Josh gets an embedded text from Tim. “Wendy told Turan about you, Sheri, Christoff and Abadon. Sheri and Christoff were arrested by the Russians. Lost contact with Abadon and Jen. Come to D.C. ASAP. Meet us where you met Brian. Be invisible.”
Josh puts on his newly acquired metallic fiber underwear and shielded glove. He then rents a non-descript car from an underground parking garage using one of his alternate identities. After disabling the car’s GPS, he drives to D.C.
He goes to the lowest level of the parking garage where he met Davidson. Climbing into a large black SUV, he sees Tim and Carl in the front seat; Jessica and Greg are in the back with him. With a half-smile, Josh says to Tim and Carl. “So, do rental car companies offer like a special spy discount for large black SUVs?”
Impossible (Fuzed Trilogy Book 3) Page 27
