The Remote Traveler (The Remote Series Book 1)

by Finian Blake

  Harry commented, “Alex, if this is what you mean by doing what the government can’t do. I am on all the way.”

  “Harry, this is exactly what I mean. We aren’t assassins. Most of the team is former SAS or Royal Marines. Anna, Sarah and Nadia are Russian army.”

  “Russian army…!”

  “Nadia served in Afghanistan. The Taliban called her the Red angel, since she introduced many of them to Allah. She has sixteen confirmed kills and seventy unconfirmed.”

  Harry wanted to know who he was working with. “What about the other women?”

  Ted jumped in. “The SAS decided to try women as commandos as an experiment. I oversaw their training and Dan directly participated in their training cutting them no slack. A while ago they canceled the program. We have not slacked off on their training since they have been here. I would trust my life with anyone of them.”

  “What about you, Alex?”

  “I was never in the service. I was a courier for Everywhere Air. I was just a delivery boy.”

  “Do you have any kills under your belt?”

  “I worked a few rescues and had to kill a few.”

  “How many…!”

  “Twenty-nine…” Harry’s jaw dropped. Alex thought that Harry had the right to know.

  Ted took them down to the firing range.

  “You will be using AN-ninety fours with silencers. The outside weapons will have a GP-30 grenade launcher. The inside people will have the AN-ninety-four without the launcher. There are two firing selectors, one for two shots and the other for full automatic. Try to keep it in the two shot mode. Harry was impressed with the weapon. The two shots sounded almost like one shot and when he checked the target the holes were touching each other. Next Ted showed them how to sight and work the grenade launcher. Harry caught on in no time.

  Ted showed them the battle harness.

  “Sidney designed these for rescue operations. They have small reflective markers on them that show up with these glasses red/blue is for back and yellow/green is for front. All of our friendlies will be wearing them. Sidney feels that it will stop friendly fire incidents. Ted dimmed the lights and Harry could not see anything, but after putting on the goggles he could see the small dots on the harnesses.

  “What if the other side has the glasses?”

  “It could be a problem, but they are not in general use. You and Alex will be outside covering left and right, if there is not a blue with the red or yellow with the green, it is a fake that is why we do two colors.”

  After Ted and Sidney were satisfied with their shooting he took them up to the training center to join the others. Harry was offended when Ted paired him up with Susan.

  “I am not that out of shape. You can give me a real opponent.” Harry looked Susan over thinking that it might be fun to have such a desirable partner just for grins.

  “Harry I didn’t do you any favors. Pair up and don’t cut her any slack.” Harry gave up a few inches and Susan gave up sixty pounds. Harry went light for the first fall and Susan cleaned his clock putting him in a painful submission hold. After several falls they were both sweating heavily. Susan gave Harry a hand up. Don’t feel bad. The Old Men have been teaching me combat martial arts since I was nine. We don’t use sport fighting here.” She pointed at Ted and Nadia. They were still working hard. Both of them were soaked with sweat. “The rougher it gets the better she likes it. If you don’t give these women your best, they will make you regret it.” Harry surveyed the room.

  “Ted, I see that you do a full speed workout.”

  “No that’s about sixty percent.” Ted called the workout and declared Harry fit enough for the mission.

  Pauline sat across the table from Felix Owens from justice. He knew that she was lying, but her testimony represented the best chance of ending this mess without a major public hearing or trial. He had specific orders to keep the whole investigation out of the court system. Evan was on the run and gave her story credibility by trying to kill her. The only other possibility for a witness was a foreign national named Simone that was presumed dead but she could move the whole thing to a public trial.

  “What do you want in exchange for your cooperation?” Pauline decided to stay low key.

  “Felix, of course I should have turned my boss in for the things that he made me do, but he threatened my life. Sean and Evan commandeered my house for their purposes. Senator Mudson was behind them all the way, so I was under their control all of the time. They did have the means to kill and dispose of me. The Senator approved and oversaw an agency that did exactly that.” Felix looked down at his paper work and did not raise his head when he talked.

  “That is something that never happened.”

  Pauline gave Felix a honey sweet smile, “Of course it never happened. Senator Mudson was an upstanding pillar of the community and the death of his wife drove him crazy. Anything that he did wrong happened when he was in this unbalanced state. I am sure that the other members of the Intelligence Committee will keep this matter classified. Evan was a rogue agent that went off the reservation. He killed innocent civilians and members of his own team. Evan kidnapped me, forced me to follow his commands raiding the operating fund for his personal use.”

  “How are you going to sell the fact that Evan was responsible?”

  “All of your problems started in LA. When Evan came here the problems came with him and things went quiet in LA. There is only one person that could upset the plan.”

  “Who is that?”

  Pauline put on her best honey sweet voice, “Simone, she disappeared.”

  Felix offered, “She is presumed dead.”

  Pauline’s voice did not lose the acid tone, “Do you want to balance this house of cards on a presumption? You have to find her.”

  “What do we do if we find her?” Pauline stared at Felix until he stuck his face back in the paperwork.

  Pauline’s honey sweet voice sickened Felix, “I am just a secretary, and I don’t make those decisions.”

  Harry and Alex were almost to the pub when Harry’s phone rang.

  “This is Felix Owens from justice. Can you talk?”

  “Yes…”

  “Were you able to find this person, Simone?”

  “We checked her apartment earlier with no luck. You said that that she was presumed dead.”

  “We have information that she was able to get several sensitive papers from Senator Mudson. We must be sure that she is dead.” Harry knew that he was lying. He switched his phone to speaker so that Alex could listen.

  “If I find her what do you want me to do?”

  “Simone needs to disappear, like she never existed.” Harry played along.

  Harry looked for clarification, “What do you mean by that?”

  “If I have to explain that, maybe you should not be in charge.” Felix broke the connection.

  Alex steered Harry to the side of the pub.

  “Harry, until they have proof, they will never stop hunting her.”

  “What can I do?”

  Alex kept his voice quiet. “Kill her.” A surprised look came over Harry’s face as Alex continued on. “I had to do something like this a long time ago. We need Simone and Sarah right now.” The two men ran up to the editing studio. Sarah was working on her models.

  “We need to kill Simone.” Sarah was used to Alex.

  Sarah calmly asked, “How elaborate do you want to get?”

  “Nothing too fancy, the still picture of a bound and strangled Simone. Finger prints, hair, blood and DNA samples for confirmation. Harry is supposed to make her disappear, as Station Chief he can just send the evidence.”

  Sarah pressed, “How soon do you need them?”

  “As soon as it is convenient, a day or so will work.” Simone walked in the studio. “Simone, Harry has to kill you. Sarah will do the confirmation pictures. Give me the keys to the cold flat and I will have someone make sure that it is clean. Harry would you like to stay here and strangle
Simone or come with me?”

  “I think that I will strangle Simone.” Sarah had Nina take Simone to make up. When she was through Sarah staged her in a low back chair. She placed a wire garrote around her neck adding makeup for realism and eased her head back at an odd angle as far as she could take it. Sarah talked to Harry as she worked. “They will not be happy, but tell them that you disposed of the body in the foundation of a building under two hundred tons of cement. We found a major construction project where they are pouring several hundred cubic yards of cement.” Sarah turned to Simone. “Harry will call in and say that he found you back at your flat. He strangled you and disposed of your body after taking the pictures, prints and DNA.” Simone shook her head.

  “What if they ask how I got back to London without a passport or clothes?”

  “They told Harry to kill you, not interrogate you and you can’t ask someone that’s dead. Harry performed as instructed, making you disappear sending in the confirmation.” Alex walked back in the room.

  “Simone your false flat will be cleaned out by morning. Harry, wait a few hours and give them the news.”

  “That is a little fast isn’t it?”

  “Tell them when you rechecked she was there. You saw an opportunity and took it. Simone’s body was disposed of in a foundation under two hundred tons of cement, and you had her flat cleaned out so that they will not even find dust there.”

  “It sounds kind of lame.”

  “Harry, coming from the station chief they have no choice, but to believe you. If they want to challenge you, they can always pull two hundred tons of concrete out of a brand new building. We will use her blood to take the prints and they can match the DNA with the blood that they took from her clothing. They have to log Simone in as officially dead. Remember Felix wants to believe you. He is going around the system, so everybody wants to believe that she’s dead.”

  “What is she going to do now?”

  “She takes her new name, Seraphina, and begins her new life. I made sure that she’s covered by all the correct documents. Just sell them the fact that Simone is dead.”

  Harry called Felix back in DC. Felix was drawing up the paper work for Pauline. He did not like what he was doing. Felix knew that Pauline was in this much farther than she stated, but he didn’t want to know what the real story was. This solution was the least damaging. Felix could tell that Harry had an extremely low opinion of him. This was the first time that he passed on any messages of this nature. His cell phone rang. It was Harry.

  “We found Simone. She returned to her apartment.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I did what you instructed me to do. I disposed of her and cleaned up.”

  “How did she get back to London without a passport?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t interrogate her that was not what you ordered. I am sending you the confirmation.”

  “What conformation?”

  “Hair, blood, DNA, pictures and prints will be sent to your office by diplomatic courier. We used her blood for ink for the prints. You have blood samples from the hospital, just match it up. I am sending you the confirmation and you need to evaluate the facts.” Felix started to try and duck out of seeing the results.

  “Who normally gets this information?”

  “The person that orders the action gets the confirmation. You cut the order so you get the results. The packet will be in your office by two PM tomorrow afternoon. She put up a fight so the pictures are a little graphic. If you want, I can send them to the director of the CIA.”

  Felix choked at that suggestion but continued to press, “Who did the job?”

  “That is something that you will never know. We are killing a foreign citizen in a foreign country? Your orders were carried out with the end result that Simone was disposed of. She was placed in a foundation and they poured two hundred tons of concrete over her.” Harry needed to vent his frustration, “How did a putz like you, get this job? Wasn’t anybody else dumb enough?”

  Felix broke the connection before he said something that he would regret. He walked down the hall to the room where they were holding Pauline.

  Felix snapped, “We have confirmation Simone is dead. We will have the official confirmation tomorrow afternoon.” Felix was sickened by the satisfied smile on Pauline’s face. This was the best deal that Felix could arrange. He did not have to like it. The director agreed to have a word with agents Byrne, Wright and everybody involved in the investigation out in LA. All of the suspects were dead except for Evan. There might be a classified hearing but there was nobody to put on trial, so there would be no public display. The ‘Sweeper Program’ was a dead issue. It was generally agreed by the intelligence committee that it produced the results that its critics feared that it would. Now if Evan would only have the decency to die, things would return to normal. Felix needed to talk to Harry one more time.

  “Hello Harry, I have one more request to make of you. Could you do something about Evan?”

  “I did you one favor to close out this issue. You do realize that you are breaking the same laws that you are prosecuting. If you have any further requests, put them in writing formally through channels by contacting the director.” Harry broke the connection suddenly. Alex watched the cell phone fly into the stone wall several feet away.

  Harry was properly pissed off. “The bastard just asked me to kill Evan. I wonder if he realizes that he is doing the very thing that he is prosecuting. Felix asked me like he was ordering an ala carte hamburger.” Harry put a mocking tone in his voice. “I will have another dead asshole, and be sure to clean up when you’re through. Alex how did you do it?”

  “I never did. I only kill to protect. I have done what we just did with people other than Simone several times in the past, so they believe that I do that kind of work.” After doing the set up with Simone, Harry looked at Alex in a new light.

  “I understand about the security business. How do they make enough money to run the Inn?”

  Alex started listing the assets, “They provide a secure retreat for high profile guests, run an investment company, rent out the property as a set for movies, there is the gun club, they run a full range of studio services, our equestrian center turns a fair profit and the farm does well. When Susan told you that the Inn charges 2,000 Pounds a night, she was not kidding.

  Harry asked, “The farm, do you mean like the CIA farm?”

  Alex laughed, “No I mean chickens, cows, pigs, goats, fruit, vegetables and flowers. We have three hundred sixty acres here with an additional three hundred down the road. There are a total of eight green houses with three acres under glass. We have a permanent stall in the farmer’s market where we sell our produce and flowers. You can see our chairwoman Lynn and her sister there almost every weekend. This is a real farm and we turn a tidy profit. Most of our help is retired military or security services. They have an older reserve crew that supplement their retirement by farming. Many of these people live on the property receiving their housing as part of their salary and their skills supplement the security. Everybody that goes to Oman will be a volunteer and there will be more than a few disappointed people.”

  Edward and Layla went into their meditative state. The kidnappers stopped in a walled compound, just west of Mahdha. The gate faced south. The house was to the right of the gate facing east into the court yard. The garage was in the northeast corner of the courtyard and a shaded garden in the northwest corner of the courtyard. The house was well situated for the desert heat. The nearest compound to them was two hundred meters away across the road. The main road curved west through a wide notch in the hills, and after it passed through the notch, the road wound downhill for five miles and turned toward Al Ain which was twelve miles away. The airport was on the far side of town a little over twenty-two miles away. Going through Al Ain the drive would take about forty minutes. If they went through in the early morning it would take less time. The house was a two story home with six bedrooms up sta
irs. The north and west walls of the house were incorporated in the wall of the compound. The upper floors had windows that looked outside of the compound. All of the kidnappers were exhausted from the trip. They had been traveling and on guard all night. They moved the hostages in to a small windowless room on the ground floor at the corner of the house. To Edward it looked like they would be there for a while. He and Layla decided to return to their bodies for a conference with Nadia.

  “I believe that the kidnappers will remain in this place for a while. There seems to be a few good routes of escape and there is a good source of food and water. They obviously know someone in the area, so this looks like a safe hideout.

  Sarah debriefed Edward and Layla. When she was through she went to search Suki’s records of Oman, while Edward and Layla returned for more detailed information. The oil companies did a fair amount of oil exploration in the area on the UAE side of the border so it was relatively easy to get detailed photos of the surrounding area. She also pulled all the information that she could for a town called Wahla, on the coast of Oman. She would do a work up for a raid in that area for the SAS team.

  Alex called Scott and Harry for a meeting. “We are doing a work up on the target now. We are also working a false target. Scott, I want you to do a false briefing with the SAS that should satisfy the leak that the kidnappers are safe. We will plan our raid to hit on the night before the false raid. Scott I would like you to do the briefing personally to insure that the raid does not launch. Our group will do the real target and be out before the SAS has to launch.”

  Scott shook his head, “Those lads are going to be pissed when they find out that they were a diversion. I would use them, if the foreign office did not insist on getting approval from the Sultan every time.”

  Ted snorted, “After our little fiasco on the Invincible I would enjoy pissing them off.”

  Alex reminded Scott, “Remember that we are working for the families.”

  Scott wanted to double check his information, “When do you plan on going in?”

  Alex started the germ of a plan, “Nadia was hoping for tomorrow night. The sooner we hit them, the better chance we have of catching them off guard. Sarah is working on the models and Nadia is working on the team. We have all of the equipment that we need. Sidney and the crew are prepping it now. We should have the models tonight. Sarah, Layla, Edward and I will be flying out ahead of the team tonight to obtain the trucks. We have two motor cycles that we will take with us, and finally the Caribou should be landing soon. We should hit them before they rest up from their travels.”