American Traitor, page 20
part #15 of Pike Logan Series
Surprised, having only acted out of the instinct of self-preservation, Paul seized the opening presented, slapping one hand against the back of the blade and using his other to jerk the arm down. The edge sawed into the neck, the skin splitting open like a pierced drumhead, exposing muscle, and then the blade crossed the carotid artery.
A jet of blood shot out across the tunnel and Paul leapt back, watching his victim roll over, his eyes wide in shock at the carnage spilling into his lap. The man dropped the knife, clamped his hand on the wound, and began to writhe around, looking like an earthworm on hot pavement, his other, useless arm flopping around obscenely. Eventually, his movements slowed, then stopped completely.
Paul backed up, then turned, looking behind him for a threat. He saw none, and took off running.
Chapter 44
The morning sun was low enough in the sky that the breeze still had a slight chill coming off the water, which worked in our favor in that we didn’t look out of place wearing light jackets to cover our weapons and other kit. What couldn’t be concealed on our bodies was stored in a small backpack each of us had at our feet.
Sitting on benches waiting on the next ferry to Manly, the Operators made small talk, calm about the coming mission. Dunkin was the only one acting a little itchy.
I sat next to him and said, “Don’t worry about anything. We’ll get her back. All you need to do is play your role.”
The last twelve hours had been a little chaotic, but it had been Dunkin who had come through in the end. Each man on the recce had come back and drawn a sketch of what they’d seen, and we’d put them all together until we had a pretty clear picture of the outside of the building, but with the structure built on a slope, I was still concerned about the floor plan inside. Usually, an unknown floor plan would be no problem—it was something we expected—but this house was so unique I wanted to know where to focus, which is where Dunkin’s skill proved invaluable.
It turned out the rental agency had a Roomba cleaning robot on each floor, designed to vacuum at designated intervals. The key Dunkin had found was that the robot had to learn what it was being called to do, using artificial intelligence to teach itself where to go. The first time it cleaned, it bumped into everything in the house. The next time, about half that. By the fortieth cleaning, it had mapped what was in the house, and it stored those maps in the cloud.
Impressing the hell out of me, Dunkin had penetrated the rental WiFi through the washing machine in the house. Connected to the WiFi node for some idiotic reason that no rental person would use, it had no security at all. Dunkin had cracked into that seam, and then explored the WiFi network, finding the Roomba. From there, he’d cracked the robot’s footprint for cleaning, and we’d ended up with a pretty good map of each floor of the house, to include furniture, doorways, and closets. It wasn’t perfect—it didn’t have a detailed description with things like “table” or “kitchen island”—but it did have each floor detailed in simple squares, some shaded and some not, specific enough to show us exactly what we were up against. It was what we called a golden egg. While we trained to clear a house with an unknown floor plan, with all tactics designed for the unexpected, we always wanted the golden egg of what it actually looked like.
And now we had it.
Eventually I’d had to leave the team, letting them complete the planning, forced to travel back to the beer hall to take the 7 p.m. call from the asshole who held Nicole. The call had come in, and after talking to them, I was convinced that they believed Dunkin had stolen something from them. The man was too real on the phone. Too visceral. He wanted that thumb drive, and he wanted it in a bad way.
I’d promised to have Dunkin bring it, and then had demanded to hear Nicole’s voice. He’d done so, letting me talk to her for all of five seconds—and it was heartbreaking. I’d asked her a question only she and Dunkin would know, and in between sobs, she’d answered correctly. I so wanted to tell her that I was bringing vengeance to the men who held her, but I couldn’t, knowing they were listening.
She had ended by saying, “Tell Dunkin I don’t blame him. Tell him not to grieve for me.”
And I understood she thought she was dead. In situations like this, be it a captive in a cave in Afghanistan or a house in Australia, given enough pressure, people just resigned themselves to their death, waiting on the hammer. Nicole had reached that stage of resignation. Truthfully, most of the time that was an accurate assessment of a situation like this.
This time it was not.
I’d told the man on the phone again not to hurt her, and he’d agreed, saying he only cared about the drive, and that it had better be real. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, and neither did Dunkin, but after I came back, he’d spent three hours building up a fake thumb drive that would fool even the CIA.
When I returned, I could hear the team still spitballing ideas about how to breach and which way to clear, and I wanted to join them, but I had one other headache to take care of, and that was the Oversight Council. Since I’d been jerked off of my vacation and activated for an Alpha mission, I’d sent the required Project Prometheus situation reports—leaving out the Nicole rescue—but George Wolffe had sent back that he wanted an actual SITREP via our VPN. I had no idea why, and really didn’t want to do it, because Wolffe had a sixth sense when it came to me going off the reservation, and seeing him face-to-face might be a giveaway.
I went upstairs to our bedroom, looked over the balcony at them plotting, and thought about making Jennifer take the call. But she was down there planning right in the middle of them. Sometimes it sucked to be the leader.
I dialed up the VPN, waited for it to connect, and then saw Creed’s face on the screen. He said, “Pike, you got me?”
I said, “Yeah. Where was that last trace? The one from thirty minutes ago?”
“Same spot. Called from the same location. Stand by.”
Which was good news. I waited, and then saw George Wolffe’s bushy gray mustache take over the screen. He sat down, pulling back from the camera until I could see his whole face. He said, “Hey, Pike. Got the last SITREP. How’s it going?”
“Going well, sir. No police trace to us, Dunkin is free and clear, and I’m tracking the men who attacked him. Still no real clear view of why it happened, but my report details what Dunkin thinks. You got any track on this Jake Shu?”
“We have a data dump on him now, and looking at it in hindsight, he has had some significant interactions with Chinese nationals. Given his job, it wasn’t enough to spike, but put together with what you found, there’s plenty of smoke.”
“Perfect. Where’s he now? I’m sure you’ve looked at phone data, credit card statements, that sort of thing.”
“We got one hit in Brisbane at a hotel. He paid cash, but they took his passport. After that, he’s a ghost. No known phone, no use of credit cards. If he’s got that stuff, it was provided for him. Probably bank cards loaded for use at ATMs and a burner phone. You’re going to have to find him for us.”
That took me aback. I usually leveraged the Taskforce for leads, not the other way around. I solved the problem they provided. I didn’t find the problem. I did the fix and the finish. But I made a mistake in my answer, because George assumed my mission in Sydney was precisely to find Jake Shu, not realizing the two sets were related but distinct missions.
I said, “How am I supposed to find him? Dunkin said he was heading to Cairns for a vacation, but that’s probably bullshit. What am I going to do?”
He narrowed his eyes and said, “Do? You’re going to explore that phone we’ve been tracking. By the SITREP, you said, you had a target house to explore. Go explore it.”
I couldn’t tell him that everyone in that house was going to be dead, and the exploration would end with the barrel of my gun. I backpedaled, saying, “We’re taking a look at it tomorrow morning. We’ll conduct a CTR and see what we can find. Use Dunkin to explore the systems in the house, maybe find another lead, but it’s pretty weak.”
He said, “It’s always weak until it isn’t. You’ll find a link to continue. Look, this is getting more serious. We’re receiving a lot of intel from multiple agencies and sources saying the Chinese are going to attempt to upset the Taiwan elections. They’ve already gotten their preferred candidate neck and neck with the incumbent, which is insane. With the intel you’ve picked up, we think it’s bigger than the election. The Chinese are going to try to erode the actual defense of Taiwan, and if that candidate wins, he’ll help them do it. We can’t do much about the election, but we can stymie their attempts to degrade the defense posture. We concur that Jake Shu may be the key. Find him.”
I told him I would and disconnected, wondering what the hell I was going to do. I’d been given a critical mission by the national command authority of the United States, but to execute it, I’d have to kill Nicole. I couldn’t make this hit a capture mission. Maybe we’d get someone, but odds were, with our limited force, we’d have to kill them all just to rescue her. Maybe we’d find something inside, but I wasn’t counting on it. These guys were professionals. They wouldn’t be leaving another golden egg on the dining room table.
So I could completely rearrange this mission, focusing on capturing one of the men or penetrating the house surreptitiously for information, which would take three or more days of work, or I could rescue Nicole. There wasn’t a way to do both. In fact, letting her die would probably be the catalyst to break open Jake’s location, because it would cause the team to move, most likely linking back up with Jake Shu.
I’d gone back downstairs and the team had briefed me on several courses of action. I’d settled on one, but Jennifer could see I was distracted. We’d sent the men off to their own rooms and then gone to bed. Once the lights were out, she’d said, “What’s going on?”
I said, “Nothing. Just ignoring the national command authority of the United States. That’s all.”
She turned the light back on and said, “What’s that mean?”
I told her about the call, and that something bigger than Nicole’s life was in play, and I was about to screw all of that up by this assault. We’d win tomorrow, of that I had no doubt, but we’d lose the bigger mission. And it didn’t sit well with me. It was an impossible choice.
She looked at me, seeing the conflict, and said, “There isn’t a choice here. It’s a duty. I know I’m not in command, and it’s not my decision, but if I get a vote, you made the right one.”
“Have I? I mean, sometimes we have to do bad things for the good things to happen.” I touched her neck, where a circle of gold like a thick washer hung on a necklace, the Bible verse Romans 3:8 engraved upon it. I said, “Sometimes we do evil that good may come. This time I’m doing good to let evil roam free.”
She leaned in and kissed me, saying, “You don’t know what tomorrow will bring. You don’t know what you may find. You can’t predict the future by letting this girl die.”
I leaned back and said, “It’s not that simple.”
She rolled over, snuggling into my shoulder, and said, “It is that simple. It really is. You alone have taught me that. Let’s get Nicole and worry about the rest later.”
I exhaled and she said, “Not that it’s the right time to bring this up, but Amena wanted to talk tonight. I got a message through your burner phone. I told her we couldn’t, but we need to talk to her sooner or later. Let her know we might not be home on time.”
And like lightning leaping from point to point, I made the connection to the name Chen Ju-Long. I bolted upright in the bed and said, “That’s where I’ve heard that name before.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Amena’s roommate’s dad is named Chen Ju-Long. She said that on the phone.”
“Yeah? So what?”
“The only people who go as exchange students to that school from China are bigwigs. And this guy in charge of the fake import/export company here, buried in the heart of the Ministry of State Security, has the same name. He’s running the entire ring of assholes chasing us, and from your research his name is Chen Ju-Long. He’s a bigwig.”
“Okay, okay, you can’t think it’s the same guy. For all we know the name is like ‘John Smith.’ Let’s worry about that tomorrow. Can we do that?”
I settled down, realizing she was probably right. I said, “You think I’m nuts with that?”
She snuggled into me and said, “No. Not nuts. I’ve seen you pull more rabbits out of the hat than are possible. But we need to get some sleep. Big day tomorrow, and one step at a time.”
Chapter 45
The ferry arrived, the deckhand pulling in the boarding ramp. We stood in line and entered with a host of other tourists, the team instinctively settling into the back corner, away from the other passengers. The boat broke free of the dock, and once we were under way, the tension increased exponentially. We were about to execute a hit, and there was no way to hide that kind of adrenaline.
The phone call had dictated that Dunkin meet his contact at the entrance to the Taronga Zoo at 12 p.m., right outside the cable car station that led to the top.
We’d debated back and forth about whether to let him go as if he wasn’t even in the room, and I’d finally decided to launch him because I was sure they’d put more than one guy on the mission—maybe up to four—and the more people we got out of the house, the better. The argument against putting him in danger was that the meeting was set, so those guys would be gone regardless, but I’d decided to hedge my bets. If he didn’t show, I didn’t want a bunch of calls going back to the house when we were preparing to breach—or, worse, if they had a private boat or some other means to get back in a hurry, interfering with our assault. We would be solely focused on the inside of the house. I didn’t want to worry about something coming from the outside behind us.
The meeting spot itself helped me decide. There was no way they’d kill him at the entrance to the zoo. They’d take the thumb drive and he’d be gone.
I’d given him his part of the mission, but he wouldn’t be going in alone. Jennifer was going to follow him and provide protection. If they tried anything, she’d stop them, either with a bullet or something tamer. Either way, he was in good hands.
His mission was to drag out the meeting, then pass the thumb drive, telling them that it was encrypted, and he’d give the key once he had Nicole. Of course, there was no key, and with any luck, we’d have Nicole long before the men he was meeting could relay the request.
The ferry continued bouncing across the choppy water of the harbor, the target location getting inexorably closer, and Dunkin leaned over, saying, “Are you sure this is going to work?”
I said, “What part? Yours, or mine?”
He thought a minute, then said, “Well, both, I guess.”
“Mine’s going to be flawless. Yours is up to you. But you have Jennifer. If something isn’t right, if you feel your life is in danger, just say the word. She’ll interdict. They might try to extort you with words, but you’ll be at the front of the zoo. They won’t do anything there. Whatever you do, just drag it out and don’t go anywhere else with them.”
“What if you haven’t called saying you’ve got Nicole? What then? What if the meeting is about to end or they ask me to go somewhere else in the park? Should I do it?”
“If it’s just a walk in the zoo, then yeah, that would be okay. Don’t get on a boat with them or in a car. Use your own instincts.”
I saw he was scared and said, “Look, they’re killers. There’s no doubt about that, but they’re also professionals. They aren’t gangbangers from Compton. They want that drive, and they may try to scare you to give them the encryption with death threats against Nicole—but we both know there’s nothing on the drive, so just pass it and stall, tell them to call us at the predetermined time, and get out of there. Don’t worry about them freaking out and killing Nicole. That will be over. I promise.”
“What if they don’t let me leave? What if they want to take me hostage?”
I looked at Jennifer, and she said, “I’ll be right there, and we’re connected in real time by radio. You give me the word, and I’ll drop them. But don’t do it in a panic. We’re going to be at the entrance of one of the biggest tourist attractions in Sydney, with the only escape a scheduled ferry. They aren’t going to harm you right there.”
He nodded, taking solace in her words. He said, “Are you sure you can get Nicole out of there? I mean, if I do all of this, and you fail, she’s definitely dead.”
Knuckles leaned in and said, “Trust me, there is no fail here. Your Roomba thing prevented that. We know exactly how we’re getting in, and exactly where we’re going. With you doing this mission, we’ll have maybe only five guys to deal with, and they haven’t seen anything like what we’re going to bring. It’ll be over in minutes.”
The ferry captain announced the stop for the zoo, the boat slowing down to slide into the dock, with multiple people standing up for their day of fun in the sun. Dunkin stood as well, looking a little green.
I said, “Hey, just stall them for as long as you can. That’s all. You bullshit your way through this like you did through our interview, when you said you could dunk a basketball. This meeting isn’t going to be near as bad as that hiring board. I promise.”
He smiled, relaxing at the memory, saying, “Yeah, you got that right. Worst pressure of my life.”
I fist bumped him and said, “Stand by the radio. The next time this ferry shows up, you get on it. When you do, Nicole will be on board.”
He nodded and walked to the exit. Jennifer turned to follow and I caught her arm.
“Don’t let him do anything stupid. He’s scared shitless. If the meeting looks bad, then break away. We’ll deal with the repercussions of radio alerts or anything else.”
She said, “I got this end. Don’t you do anything stupid. When the ferry comes back, I want you on it.”
