Out of Sight (Project Athena)

by Trish Milburn

  She slept fitfully, slipping under for a few minutes only to be jarred awake by the car connecting with a pothole.

  “Sorry,” Daniel murmured once.

  It seemed she’d only been asleep two or three minutes when Daniel shook her awake. “We’re at the edge of Cardoma.” He turned down what must pass for a city street in Mindu.

  “How are we not going to stand out like sore thumbs here?”

  “Limit our travel to night as much as possible. We have a local contact who will help out.”

  “He left the car?”

  “Yeah.”

  Daniel pulled behind a little hut of a building, out of sight of the street. “Come on, we have a lot to do.”

  After slipping inside the dingy room, Daniel immediately started unpacking his supplies. He pulled out a slim laptop and booted up. Wiring and a small, putty-looking object came next.

  He stepped toward where she leaned against the wall and extended the object toward her. “This is a wireless earpiece. I’ll be able to communicate with you, but you won’t be able to respond unless you remove it and flip this little switch. You shouldn’t need to do that though, and the battery lasts longer if the switch is off. Just do as I tell you, and we’ll get this done and out of here as quickly as possible.” He pointed at the laptop. “I’ll be able to track your movements on screen.”

  Jenna stared at the earpiece and wondered for a moment if she could really go through with this. Could she kill a man in cold blood, even one as corrupt and selfish as Tumeri? Had her father felt the same type of internal battle before taking out Tumeri’s cousin?

  The connection still jarred her, even a week after Daniel had revealed the tie between the man her father had assassinated and the one she was here to kill. But when her father had walked this landscape, Mindu hadn’t existed yet. It’d been born after Tumeri decided he was the rightful heir to his cousin’s lands and power. A three-month war and thousands of casualties resulted in a new country with Tumeri as its unquestioned leader. Katayami had been a ruthless killer, and his cousin was evidently keeping up the family tradition.

  “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” Daniel asked. We covered this before we left.”

  “Don’t worry.”

  “I do worry. You’re untested in this type of situation. You have to be positive you can pull that trigger before you move into position. We’re in this country illegally. Being caught here would be bad enough. You don’t want to know what would happen if we’re caught with weapons and intelligence equipment.”

  “I can do it.” She had no choice. If she took him out, the president would be safe and her mission would be complete. She could turn her full attention to looking for her father. And trying to forget killing a man.

  She took the earpiece and slid it deep into her ear canal. It wasn’t like the visible type she’d seen in movies, the ones that looked like hearing aids. This one was about the size of a pencil eraser and slid further in.

  Daniel stepped back to where he’d set up the laptop on a rickety table. “Walk around.”

  She complied, walked into the bathroom and back.

  “It seems to be working, at least in close proximity. Now go invisible. I need to make sure that doesn’t affect the signal.”

  She stared at him until he looked up.

  “Hell, it’s not like I’m asking you to get naked.”

  That’s exactly what he was doing, asking her to allow him to witness what no one else ever had. It wasn’t physical nakedness, but it laid her bare emotionally. She turned and walked back into the tiny bathroom, closed and locked the door.

  Daniel’s uttered oath filtered underneath the door.

  Screw him.

  She sat on the closed toilet, thankful her loose cargo pants protected her from whatever germs resided there. A sigh escaped her. She stared at her hands then, resigned, watched as they gradually disappeared. After the transformation was complete, she stood and took a deep, preparatory breath. Other than her mother, she’d never talked to anyone while invisible.

  When she opened the door, Daniel stood outside, preventing her from moving into the outer room. “Don’t even think about running away. If you disappear, the agency will find your family.”

  She pushed him against the far wall, her forearm shoved against his throat. “Keep my family out of this.”

  “That’s not under my control.”

  “Then tell your boss to stay away from my family. Don’t make me turn on you guys.”

  “If that were so easy, you wouldn’t be here would you?”

  She hated him for being right and shoved harder against his throat to show her displeasure before moving away.

  Daniel moved to the laptop as if nothing had happened. Mr. Cool and Collected. “Go outside and start walking down the street. When you get to the end, turn right and keep going until you reach the bazaar area.”

  “How far is that?”

  “About a mile.”

  She didn’t complain. Instead, she slid out the door and welcomed the cooler night air. Well, cooler compared to the stuffy room. She kept her footsteps light, enjoying the freedom to walk without having to worry about someone seeing her. She imagined chucking the earpiece and disappearing into the night, giving the agency the giant finger as she went. But too much depended on her success here — the life of the president, the safety of her mother and sisters, information about her father, her own freedom.

  Shuttered shops with signs written in Arabic lined the street. Pictures of Tumeri hung literally everywhere she looked. She stopped when a dog trotted out of an alley and paused, sniffing the air. He whined before tucking his tail between his legs and scooting off.

  By the time the tent awnings of the bazaar came into view, she’d relaxed more than she had since leaving U.S. soil.

  “Turn around and come back.”

  Jenna jumped at the sudden voice in her ear. She spun before remembering Daniel could speak to her through the earpiece.

  She stared at the myriad of bazaar tents and wondered what this area looked like during the day. It was hard to imagine people here with wares to sell when what she’d seen of the country showed anything but wealth.

  “Now, Jenna,” Daniel said in her ear.

  She muttered a curse under her breath and started retracing her steps. As she looked up at the moon, she suddenly couldn’t wait to get this task over with. She had to detach, not think about it too closely. One perfectly aimed shot and she could go home.

  ****

  By the time daylight began to filter over the eastern horizon, Jenna was in place inside a large, disabled, air conditioning unit atop the guard tower at Tumeri’s palace.

  After Daniel had dropped her off in the pre-dawn darkness, she’d used the night and invisibility to cover the mile-long entry road to the palace. She’d arrived only a couple of minutes prior to the 4:30 a.m. patrol and been able to slip inside the compound’s gate before it closed. When the patrol returned, she’d used the sound of the Jeep’s engine to mask her ascent to the guard tower’s roof and her slipping into the AC unit.

  Before daybreak, Tumeri had been some distant figure spitting in the face of U.S. aid. When the sun rose over his home, he became a true villain in Jenna’s mind. While his country struggled around him, Kalin Tumeri lived in palatial splendor surrounded by an army of private guards. Maybe once Tumeri was out of the picture, the people could plunder the spoils before another equally greedy bastard took Tumeri’s place.

  “Sickening, isn’t it?” Daniel said in her ear, making her feel like he was crawling through her brain again.

  But yes, it was indeed sickening. Word was most of Mindu’s population never saw the aid the United States sent in the form of food, clothing and medicine because Tumeri hoarded a chunk of it for himself and his henchmen, then sold much of the rest to the highest bidder. He gave just enough to his people to keep them from overthrowing him and to keep them dependent on his handouts. It angered Jenna that men
like Tumeri prospered while their subjects struggled in abject poverty. He deserved what was coming.

  Jenna carefully adjusted her position inside the AC unit so she could better see the courtyard at the side of Tumeri’s palace without making noise that might be heard by the guards below her. Still no sign of the visitor local intel said was supposed to arrive this morning. If the intel was wrong, this could be a long, uncomfortable, wasted trip.

  She needed Tumeri to come outside so she could line him up in her sights, but that wasn’t guaranteed even if the visitor arrived. If Tumeri didn’t show himself, she’d have to find a way past all those guards and get inside. Daniel had told her to retreat if she couldn’t get an exterior shot, that going inside was too risky, but she wasn’t leaving this compound until the deed was done.

  But until something happened, she had to wait as the fierce African sun beat down on what amounted to the oven she was crouching in. Her fully camo-clad body sweated salt. At least she wasn’t having to maintain invisibility while she waited. She doubted she could.

  “We’ve got movement near the palace road,” Daniel said in her ear.

  He was either nearby or depending on the mysterious local contact as the eyes on the ground.

  Seconds passed as she watched the road that led to the palace. When a sand-colored Humvee turned onto the road, her pulse quickened. She checked the rifle for the zillionth time, then waited as the front gate slowly opened for the visitor.

  This was it, the point of no return.

  For several minutes after its arrival, the Humvee sat outside the west entrance without anyone exiting it or the palace. Sweat dripped off her forehead, and she rolled her neck to relieve some of the stiffness. Damn, would they do something already!

  “Be patient,” Daniel said. “Remember, wait for the right moment.”

  Easy for him to say. He wasn’t roasting like a barbecue on this roof. And he wasn’t about to snuff out a life.

  Her empty stomach heaved. She swallowed against it, focusing on the end of her nightmare.

  Movement. Jenna crouched behind the rifle and placed her eye at the scope. The driver’s door of the Humvee opened, and the driver got out and crossed to the passenger side. Soldiers with weapons at the ready circled the courtyard. The driver opened the back passenger door, and a man in a wide-brimmed hat stepped out. He stood there while one of the soldiers came over and frisked him.

  Only then did Tumeri emerge from the palace to greet his visitor.

  Jenna wiped her sweaty palms against her pants, then moved her hands into position on the rifle. She focused the scope on Tumeri, slid her finger into place on the trigger, and waited for a clearer shot. She focused on the image in the crosshairs. All sound disappeared except the mad thumping of her heart.

  Dear God, forgive me.

  One of Tumeri’s guards stepped to the side, and Jenna fixed a clean shot. As if in slow motion, she pulled back on the trigger.

  “Wait.”

  She jerked, nearly pulling the trigger the rest of the way. Sweat dripped off the tip of her nose. What the hell was going on? She cursed silently that she couldn’t ask Daniel what was going on. This close to Tumeri and his men, she couldn’t risk even a whisper.

  “When you take the shot, get out fast. Use the confusion to cover the sound of your descent.”

  What? He’d just told her to wait. Or had the sun cooked her brain, causing her to imagine voices?

  She returned her eye to the scope and zeroed in on Tumeri again.

  “Wait.”

  A chill ran down her spine. That hadn’t sounded like Daniel. And now she realized the first time hadn’t either. Through the AC unit’s ventilation slits, she scanned a full circle around her but saw no one atop the roof. What the hell was going on? Something about that voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it. She needed to finish this and get out of the unmerciful sun.

  Again, she looked through the scope. This time, the face of the man who’d come to see Tumeri was visible. She focused harder. What the...? She’d seen him before. But where? In an intelligence photograph? No, she’d actually seen him somewhere. She’d bet her freedom he was American. Did the U.S. government have a meeting going on with Tumeri that the agency didn’t know about? And if so, would her taking the shot be a mistake?

  For some reason, she thought of the last e-mail fortune cookie she’d received before leaving for Mindu. “Trust your instincts. They’ll never lead you astray.”

  It seemed the height of absurdity to put her fate in an electronic fortune cookie, but she eyed the compound, looking for the best way to get closer to Tumeri. She needed to hear what was being said between Tumeri and his visitor before she took an action that couldn’t be reversed.

  She shoved the rifle into the corner of the air conditioner, then made sure her sidearm was fully loaded and ready to go. She moved to the back of the unit, away from the guards’ line of sight, and transformed to invisible mode. With a deep breath, she eased open the back side so that it made no noise and slipped out. After scanning all lines of sight and not seeing anyone, she returned the side of the unit to its former position and headed for the stairwell down to the ground level.

  “Head for the rendezvous point,” Daniel said, obviously thinking she’d taken the shot.

  She resisted the urge to pull the earpiece from her ear and send it sailing. But it was her only lifeline.

  She wished the palace sat closer to Cardoma’s busy streets so the traffic would cover the sound of her passage. But she’d seen no vehicles other than the Humvee and the patrol Jeep full of soldiers since she’d taken up her post.

  Jenna descended the metal stairs with agonizing slowness, all too aware that each passing minute lessened her ability to maintain her invisibility. Once she reached the bottom, she slid into a space between two of the fence pillars surrounding the palace grounds.

  She eyed the stones of the pillar next to her and tried not to focus on the fence’s height. If things went south, she wasn’t sure she could find a way out of the compound. What were the chances she’d be able to make it back to the top of the guard tower, retrieve the rope and grappling hook she’d brought to descend to the outside, and make it across the open expanse surrounding the compound while visible? Less than zero. She just couldn’t let anything go wrong.

  She needed some sort of diversion to cover her movement toward the entrance.

  Their initial greeting over, Tumeri and his visitor disappeared inside. Damn, that made things harder. She counted the guards. Two in the tower, six near the side entrance to the palace, at least a dozen more scattered about.

  She bent and picked up a handful of pebbles and held them next to the pillar, hiding their visibility from the guards.

  “What are you doing?” Daniel asked. “My screen shows you’re standing inside the palace gate.”

  Of course she couldn’t answer him, and that must be even more frustrating for him than her at the moment. Good. He deserved a healthy dose of frustration. As long as he didn’t take off and leave her stranded here.

  The pounding of her heart vied with Daniel’s almost constant questions in her ear.

  “What the hell are you doing? Get out of there.”

  She removed the earpiece and shoved it into the breast pocket of her camo T-shirt. This foray required concentration, and she couldn’t concentrate on her surroundings if Daniel was screaming in her ear.

  Pebbles in hand, she stepped away from the fence and pitched them as hard as she could into the far corner of the courtyard. The sound of them hitting the decorative tile hugging the palace wall there caused the guards to jump as one, like a herd of gazelles just before the lion starts the stampede.

  At the moment the guards started moving and talking to each other, she hurried toward the side of the palace. But before she reached the open doorway, two guards slid into place, one on either side of the entrance.

  Damn.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Jenna eyed the e
ntrance, so close and yet so impossibly far. The open doorway led to a short, enclosed entryway lined with tile mosaics on the walls. At the end of the entryway hung a thick wooden door adorned with stained glass in its upper half. If she could just get by these goons, she could slip inside without them noticing. But the twins didn’t look like they were going anywhere anytime soon.

  It didn’t matter if she advanced or retreated at this point, they’d have an equal chance of detecting her. So, she might as well go forward. She imagined Daniel going berserk in front of his computer screen as she lifted her right foot and took a step. When the guards didn’t flinch, the left foot followed.

  After what seemed like eternity, she stood directly between the two men, so close she could hear their breathing. Then one turned to look toward the other. He said something she couldn’t understand. Jenna’s heartbeat faltered. What had he said? She glanced over, and it was the oddest sensation to have someone literally look through her.

  The other man grunted an answer, then the two went back to being identical statues while their comrades continued their search where the pebbles had landed. Jenna swallowed against the dryness in her throat, praying she didn’t cough. With her heart beating so hard it hurt, she moved down the tiled entryway, the thick cloth covering her boots dampening the sound and preventing her from leaving recognizable tracks.

  She reached the door and slipped inside in one motion, hoping speed was a better tactic that risking the door squeaking if she opened it slowly. The chill of the air conditioning caressed her burning skin, and she held her nose against the sudden urge to sneeze. To determine whether her entry had been detected, she backed up to the wall and waited. No one rushed in, no alarm sounded. Feeling relatively safe, she chose the corridor to her right and started searching for Tumeri.