Barrage

by Lea Hart

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Lucky walked along the pathway of the Parc du Bruxelles with Simon as two agents followed. Glancing over her shoulder, she waved at the two stone-faced men who were keeping an eye on the surrounding area. “Do you take them wherever you go?”

  Letting out a low chuckle, he shook his head. “No, but when I travel abroad, I’m required to take a security detail. Apparently, I’m of some value to the bureau and they want to make sure their investment is safe.”

  “Makes sense because if you were snatched it would make a lot of people look bad.”

  “There is that,” he replied as they strolled under the canopy of trees. “Thank you for agreeing to take a walk. I needed some fresh air before we’re stuck inside the embassy for the rest of the night.”

  “I thought you wanted to be outside so you could deliver your message without it being recorded.”

  “And what kind of message do you think that would be?”

  Shrugging, she crossed her arms over her chest and studied the fountain. “I’m not sure, but I think I’ve inadvertently gotten tangled up in your business lately and it probably doesn’t make you very happy.”

  “On the contrary, you’ve been the one who’s made some significant arrests possible, and that always makes me happy.”

  “Belikov didn’t make it to the arrest since he was shot at the airport, but I see where you’re going with it.”

  “Not only would I like to formally express my appreciation, but I would also like to give you my apology.”

  “Really?”

  “I was operating on some bad intel and I thought you were crawling around the Intelligence Branch’s network when, in fact, it was the other way around.”

  “I told Sam that’s what was happening, and I don’t think he believed me at first.”

  “Oh, he believed you and came to your defense when it was brought up. It made me more vigilant about the evidence I asked for and, when it wasn’t produced, I discovered who in the Intelligence Branch had it out for you.”

  “Was it professional jealousy or something darker that made the person sling the accusations?”

  “As far as I can tell, it was a mixture of both professional and personal envy that drove the person to commit perjury.”

  “Someone had the hots for Sammy and thought if they besmirched my name he’d drop me?”

  “In a nutshell, yes.”

  Lucky looked across the expanse of beautiful grass that surrounded the Cercle Royal Gaulois Artistiqu & Literary building they were standing in front of. “Any chance you’re going to tell me who it is?”

  “No. You’d have them destroyed, before we’d have a chance to put them through the disciplinary process.”

  Shrugging, as if the thought never entered her mind, she finally threw Simon an innocent smile. “I’m not sure if laughter is appropriate, but that’s what I feel like doing.”

  “It’s an embarrassment to the bureau and I’ll take your laughter over your anger. The person has been relieved of their duties and might very well face charges. What they’ve done is beyond the pale and it’s not something we take lightly.”

  “I’m glad that I didn’t send back anything when they were crawling around my network because decimating the IB’s network would probably have made this conversation difficult.”

  “I’d have to agree with you; things like that don’t go over well.”

  “Are we friends now, Simon?” She watched him put his hands in his pockets and smile. “I think we should be since I’ve saved your bacon more than once.”

  “Bacon saving aside, yes, Lucky, I’d count myself fortunate if we became friends.”

  Holding out her hand, she waited until he took it and then shook. “I can always use more friends and having your name on speed dial might be a good thing, should I ever find myself in trouble.”

  “It certainly won’t hurt.” He started walking and gave her another smile. “But, I imagine you won’t need to call me because you have your very own knight who will come to your rescue.”

  “You’re right and, though I’m a bit uncomfortable with the concept, I’m working on accepting it.”

  “I encourage you to do so because Agent Barton is one of the best men that I’ve ever met, and you would be hard-pressed to find a better one.”

  “Did you just give me dating advice?”

  Simon took off his glasses and rubbed his face. “I might have, seems being a father to two girls has made me softer than I realized.”

  “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

  Simon looked over his shoulder and then nodded. “My security detail is telling me it’s time we head back.”

  “Let’s go then and see Vazov arrested.” They turned in the direction of the embassy and, as they walked along the path, she prayed Sam would come out of the op unharmed.

  ***

  Twisting her hands together, Lucky tried to quit fidgeting but found she couldn’t. “I’ve been the mission coordinator for more than a few ops for SAI and I never felt nervous, but waiting for this thing to go down has me wanting to jump out of my seat.”

  “It’s harder to be a spectator than a participant, believe it or not,” Simon responded, as the conference room filled with spectators.

  “I didn’t realize this many people would want to witness the op.”

  Simon looked over his shoulder and then turned toward the screen. “It’s not often people get to witness the fruits of their labor, so it makes sense we’d have standing room only.”

  The large screen that dominated the wall was black and the only the only thing keeping them appraised of what was happening was the audio feed from the HRT team members. Listening carefully, she heard the Gold snipers inform the TOC they were at yellow and she knew it was about to go down. Yellow meant they were at their last position of cover and concealment. The next was green and that was no-man’s-land between yellow and breach. Leaning toward Simon, she asked, “Why did they bring in the Gold snipers in addition to the assault team?”

  “Seems you’ve done your homework and know how the teams operate.”

  “Between SAI and Sam, I don’t have a choice. SEALs speak a slightly different language, but it’s close enough that I can still understand.”

  “To answer your question, the snipers from the Gold team were brought in because we had no idea how many soldiers Vazov keeps around him at any given time and we didn’t want to be caught short-handed.”

  “Makes sense. He’s got at least three hundred shestyorka in Brussels and how many he keeps around him is anyone’s guess.”

  “And how exactly do you know how many soldiers he has in Brussels?”

  “It was easy, once I dropped the Trojan and made my way to his administrator account, I was able to roam around and discovered his bookkeeper’s files and it showed the spreadsheet he keeps for the cell. By the way, his bookkeeper is up to some shady business and, if I were in charge, he’d be the next one on my list because he’s trying to broker arms on the Dark Web for an insane amount of money.”

  “Listening to you makes me incredibly frustrated.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’ll never be part of my team.” He hunched his shoulders and moved forward in his seat. “I hope Hank knows how fortunate he is to have you.”

  “He does and the next time you see him, you should give him a really expensive bottle of scotch because SAI paid for my ticket and accommodations.”

  “I had no idea, Lucky.”

  “Well, now you do, so make sure you remember it the next time you see him.”

  “I will, make no mistake about it.”

  The screen lit up and the first operator's body cams went live. “Here we go,” Lucky said as she squirmed in her seat.

  “We should have a satellite feed in a minute if the Federal Police make good on their promise.”

  “Don’t we have our own satellite coverage?”

  “Of course, but we’re asses
sing our relationship with the locals and this little test should show us how trustworthy our partners are.”

  “Smart,” Lucky responded as she leaned forward. Studying the feed from the various body cams reminded her she needed to figure out which ones they were going to outfit the SAI operators with. Max and Rory wanted the guys to have them by the first of the year, so that meant she only had a couple of months to do her homework and see what their best options were. Not to mention the new programs she would need to write so they could sync up whichever office was running the op.

  “They’re ready to breach,” Simon remarked.

  Pulling herself out of the mental to-do list running through her mind, she returned her focus to the screen and saw the Federal Police had made good on their promise. There were satellite images of the area surrounding Vazov’s home along with the red dots indicating where the HRT operatives were located. It looked like a necklace of red dots was encircling the pakhan and, before too long, she expected he would be in custody.

  “Here we go,” Simon said as he leaned forward.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! The sound of all-out war echoed through the house as flash-bangs were thrown into the home and a hundred and eighty decibels of distraction stunned the occupants. The next fifteen minutes played out like some macabre ballet as the team breached the exterior doors.

  As each room was cleared, she watched byki or bodyguards neutralized, and in one area she saw a man with a crew cut jump in front of one of the operatives with a pistol in his hand; rising like a wave, bullets flew across the room and he soon fell in the corner.

  Again and again, the scene played out in some variation as the team moved through the house in a dance so tightly choreographed they appeared as one.

  Gold snipers checked in and reported two subjects dead who had attempted to flee the residence, and then, minutes later, another three. “Not very loyal,” she muttered to herself as her eyes flew from image to image as each body cam flashed on the screen, showing exactly what the operator was experiencing.

  Never before had she experienced an op as closely as this one and she was convinced that no man from SAI should ever go out without a body cam in the future. It gave the mission coordinator vital information that could very well be the difference between life and death, and the fact that they’d never had them and hadn’t had a casualty was a miracle.

  Noticing the frantic initial activity was slowing down, she searched through the images populating the screen to see if they’d found Vazov yet.

  Then the smoke cleared in a space that looked like it had been designed as a safe room and she saw two men standing over Vazov as they put him in cuffs. Covering her face with her hands, she looked through her fingers as she listened to them advise him about what was happening and who they were.

  Something she had thought about endlessly since she first saw the photographs of the women who were enslaved by him had finally happened. The pakhan was finally going to face the consequences of his behavior and the world was going to contain one less monster.

  Moving her hands to her mouth, she felt a sob rise in her chest and did everything she could not let it free. Staring at the screen, she breathed in and out deeply and felt a set of hands drop against her shoulders. She looked up and saw Simon standing behind her, staring straight ahead with a satisfied smile.

  “It was a good day, Lucky. We don’t get very many and I think we should enjoy this one.”

  Nodding, she found she couldn’t speak and simply stared straight ahead as she watched the men escort him from the room.

  Hearing the room erupt in cheers, she looked around and saw all the happy faces, and then Simon’s security man walked over and pulled him away. They walked out of the room with their heads together and she wondered what new crisis he had to manage.

  As she looked back to the screen, she saw several men being led out in cuffs and then heard her phone buzz; pulling it out of her pocket, she saw that it was Sam. She moved out of the crowded room into the hall and leaned against the wall as she answered it. “Sammy?”

  “Did you see it, Lucky?”

  “I did and it’s hard to believe it’s real.”

  “It’s real all right, he’s sitting in an armored van and they’re about to escort him to an undisclosed site.”

  “No regular jail cell for Anton?” she asked as people started streaming out of the conference room.

  “No, they want to keep him secure and not take the chance of someone getting to him before they extract the intel.”

  “Makes sense because I bet he has a ton of enemies both in and out of his organization.”

  “I'm probably going to be here through the morning, so don’t wait up for me.”

  “Okay, don’t forget that I’m flying out tomorrow afternoon, so if I don’t see you before I leave, we’ll catch up at home.”

  “I should be done in time to take you to the airport.”

  “You just do what you need to and don’t worry about me.”

  “Not possible, because you’re a part of me and that’s never going to change.”

  “Same, Sammy.” Before she could say anything else, she heard someone calling his name. “I’ll talk to you soon, I love you.”

  “Love you too, Lucky.”

  Closing her eyes, she let the tears finally fall as relief washed over her body. Sam had not only listened to what she wanted but found a way to make it possible, and for that, she would forever be grateful.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Friday, October 6th

  Chicago

  Lucky walked toward Hank’s office with her dog at her side and saw Jason walking in her direction. “Did you get the intel I sent over earlier?”

  “I did, but I haven’t had a chance to look at it. Hank’s got me moving to another case, so I’m going to forward it to Ed because it looks like he’s going to run the security analysis instead of me.”

  “What’s your new case?”

  “Watchdog assignment for some heiress that’s coming to town.”

  “That’s either going to be the easiest thing you do all year or complete torture.”

  “I’m guessing it’s going to be torture because the file I was just handed tells me the woman gets off on trying stupid shit.”

  “At least it won’t be boring.”

  Jason stepped forward and petted Judit and then leaned against the wall. “I’d take boring because I’ve got a date with Tegan next week and the last thing I need is for some spoiled rich girl to get in the way of my plans.”

  “Congratulations, I never thought you’d actually ask her out. I’m very proud of you and hope it goes well.”

  “We were never single at the same time and now that we are, I figure it’s do or die. We’ve danced around our attraction for one another for years, so this is either going to be the best thing in the world or I’m about to screw up a great friendship.”

  “Since I’m all about hearts and flowers now, I think it’s worth taking a chance and finding out whether you two make sense. You never know unless you try.”

  “Wow, I never thought I’d hear such sappy words come out of your mouth. Where’s the cynicism and derision?”

  “It’s gone. Sammy took it and replaced it with a lot of mushy love and optimism.”

  “He sure as hell did.” Giving her a slow once over, he grinned. “It suits you, Lucky.”

  “What suits her?” Hank asked as he stepped out of his office.

  “Love. Our girl has been hit and it looks like it’s fatal.”

  “The best love is,” Hank replied.

  Slapping the folder against his thigh, Jason stood up and turned toward the staircase. “I’m out.”

  “Do you need me, Lucky, or were you headed to Kay’s office?”

  “I came to see you because I have a bunch of updates and wanted to know what you thought about the proposal I sent over yesterday.”

  Turning, he walked back into his office. “Come in and let’s get started.” />
  Lucky strolled into Hank’s office and Judit laid down next to the chair that faced Hank’s desk. “She knows the routine,” Lucky commented as she sat down.

  Hank gave her a smile and then took a seat. “I tried to talk Stazi into a dog, but she said we should have a house before getting one, so we’re waiting.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “Before we get into all the SAI business, tell me if Vazov is the last of the mobsters we have to deal with for a while.”

  “I hope so, Hank.” Moving her hand to her dog’s head, she stroked her slowly. “I’m tired of thinking about the Russian Bratva, oligarchs with bad intentions, and Italian dons with old vendettas. There are more interesting things in the world and I’m ready to start focusing on them.”

  “Good because we have a lot of things around here that need your attention, and Ivy is chomping at the bit to get started on all the changes Max and Rory want to make.”

  “Yes, her daily emails have alerted me to her enthusiasm.”

  “That’s a very polite way to characterize her behavior.” Hank looked up and motioned for Maddox to come in. “What do you have there?”

  “This was just delivered by courier for you; it’s from Simon Harris at the FBI.”

  “Considering everything Lucky just did for them, it should be for her,” he remarked as he got up. Maddox set the box on the corner of the desk and Hank opened it and whistled. “Damn, it’s a case of Johnny Walker Blue.”

  Lucky stood and looked inside. “I told him to get you an excellent bottle of scotch as a thank you for letting me go and financing the trip and it seems he took me at my word.”

  “He sure as hell did. Six bottles of the best scotch there is will do nicely as a thank you.”

  Maddox lifted one out and studied the label. “I hope you invite the team in when you crack this open.”

  Hank lifted his watch and shook his head. “It’s going to have to wait until next week because after I’m done with Lucky, I have to head out since it’s date night for Stazi and me.”

  “And what torture are you subjecting yourself to tonight?” Maddox asked as he put the bottle back in the box.