* * *
‘We’ve done a floor-by-floor search of the entire building. No joy,’ Ramirez reported. He had removed his mask and combat eye protectors to reveal a narrow, middle-aged face with olive skin and dark, faintly menacing eyes.
Dietrich rubbed the back of his neck, wincing at the twinge of pain that ran down his spine. Great – as if he didn’t have enough physical ailments.
‘If they came in here, they had to leave somehow. They must have switched vehicles.’ He glanced up, spotting a wall-mounted security camera; one of several covering the parking lot. ‘Get in touch with the building superintendent. I want the footage from those security cameras right now.’
Ramirez nodded. ‘On it.’
As the older man hurried off, Frost shook her head. ‘I can’t believe Drake would do something like this.’
Dietrich gave her a sharp look. ‘Believe it. We need to find him before the stupid bastard gets himself killed.’ He sighed and looked down. ‘Go help Ramirez. They’ll need a technician to pull the security footage.’
Her eyes flared. She didn’t take too kindly to being ordered around by a man like Dietrich. Still, she understood the logic behind his order. It was what she would have done anyway. Hesitating a moment, she strode off to join the tactical team leader.
‘Doesn’t make any goddamn sense,’ Keegan remarked. ‘If he wanted to take her hostage, he could have hijacked the chopper on the way back from Russia.’
Dietrich regarded the older man with disdain. A brilliant sniper he might have been, but he knew nothing about covert extractions. ‘And he would have had our Air Force after him on one side and the Russians on the other. No, this was the perfect place to lift her,
when
she was lightly guarded and we were expecting no trouble. The question is, what does he intend to do now?’
Drake’s thoughts were interrupted by the buzz of his new cellphone.
‘What now?’
‘Good. You’re still alive,’ Munro remarked.
‘You haven’t answered my question. Where do I hand her over?’
‘Who says I want you to hand her over?’
He frowned. ‘Run that by me again?’
Munro allowed him to languish in silence for a few moments. ‘Your new best friend was working on something before she was captured; something the Agency will go to great lengths to get their hands on. I want you to find what she was looking for, and deliver it to me.’
‘That wasn’t our deal,’ Drake hissed.
‘You’re in no position to make deals,’ Munro replied sharply. ‘It’s simple. You do what I say, or your sister dies. Is this in any way unclear?’
Drake didn’t reply, just stared straight ahead, seeing nothing.
‘I’m waiting, Drake,’ Munro prompted.
‘We’re clear.’ He had to force the words out through clenched teeth.
‘Good. You have four days. I’ll be keeping my eye on you, so I suggest you don’t do anything stupid. Keep your cool, get the job done and you’ll get your sister back unharmed. Good luck.’
With no further instructions, he hung up.
‘Fuck!’ Drake snarled, slamming his fist against the wheel.
‘What did he say?’ Anya asked.
He glared at her in the mirror. ‘You were working on something before the FSB captured you. What was it?’
The woman stared at him for several seconds, saying nothing.
‘Talk to me, for fuck’s sake.’
Still she did not reply.
He thought about the weapon still shoved down the front of his jeans, but quickly discarded the possibility. Threatening her would be worse than futile. She didn’t give a shit about being hurt, and there was no way he could cover her while driving.
‘Look, he’s got my sister, for Christ’s sake,’ he said, deciding his only choice was to be honest. ‘Jessica. She’s thirty-three years old. She has a husband and two kids, and he’s threatening to execute her if I don’t give him what he wants.’
He could feel his throat tightening as he spoke. ‘You’re the only one who can stop him. You might not give a shit about yourself, but she’s innocent. If you don’t help me, she’s dead, Anya.’
The woman sat in silence, listening to his pleas without emotion. He was losing her, he realised. She was shutting down, putting up the barriers again.
‘What are their names?’ she asked.
The question caught him off guard. ‘What?’
‘Your sister’s children. What are their names?’
‘Chloe and Julia. Julia is three and Chloe turns five next month.’
Anya glanced out the window, as if weighing up the matter in her mind. ‘I was in Iraq just before the invasion,’ she finally said. ‘Trying to make contact with a source in the Mukhabarat.’
Drake recognised the name well enough. Mukhabarat had been the Iraqi intelligence service under Hussein’s regime.
‘Why?’
‘He claimed to have evidence that the Iraqi government had imported stocks of illegal weapons from a foreign supplier. Chemical, biological, even nuclear material. He was willing to hand over the evidence in exchange for money and a new life in the States. I was all set to meet with him on the Iraqi border when the FSB caught me.’
It didn’t take a genius to understand the FSB’s interest in her. Russia had been openly acknowledged as one of Iraq’s biggest suppliers of military hardware for decades, up until the First Gulf War at least. After that, their assistance had become more covert but no less extensive.
‘You think they were trying to cover their tracks.’
She shrugged. ‘It seems logical.’
‘So why does the Agency want it so badly?’
The woman gave him a withering look. ‘You don’t understand, Drake. Evidence like that would give the Agency huge leverage over the Russians.’
‘Blackmail,’ he breathed. ‘So what the hell does Munro want with it?’
If he was merely after extortion, he already had a serious bargaining chip in the form of the Predator.
‘I don’t know. But he would not go to all this trouble for no reason.’
‘No shit,’ Drake observed darkly. He had a whole lot of questions and few answers. ‘All right, whatever. First thing we have to do is make contact with your source. He’s the key.’
Anya looked dubious. ‘That won’t be easy. He could
have
gone into hiding after the invasion. He could even be dead …’
Drake’s grip on the wheel tightened. If her source was dead, then so was his sister. ‘Then we’d better get to work.’
Chapter 36
‘WE SEARCHED THE
entire complex top to bottom. There was no sign of them,’ Dietrich reported. ‘As you can see, the tracking module was forcibly removed. Drake also dumped the vehicle and his cellphone. We have no way of tracking him.’
Franklin rubbed his jaw, surveying the scene with dark eyes.
After landing at Andrews, he had made a hasty car journey out to the scene of Drake’s last-known whereabouts to see the place for himself.
‘So they switched vehicles before the tac team got here,’ he surmised.
Dietrich nodded. ‘That’s our theory. But without knowing the make and model of the car they switched to, it’s hard to say.’
Franklin glanced up, catching sight of the CCTV cameras covering the parking lot. ‘What about surveillance footage?’
‘Looks like he had that covered too,’ Frost said. Reaching into her pocket, she held up a plastic evidence bag.
‘I found this attached to the main trunk cable.’
Franklin leaned in closer, frowning. Inside the bag was a black plastic box about the size of a cigarette pack. One end of the plastic casing had been removed, revealing a tangle of wires and a battery unit.
‘It’s a microwave emitter,’ she explained, sensing he had no idea what he was looking at. ‘Powerful enough to disrupt any data feeds nearby. It kicked in a couple of hours ago. Every camera on this level recorded nothing but static.’
Franklin rolled his eyes. ‘Why didn’t the building manager report it?’
‘We spoke to him already,’ she explained. ‘There are no permanent security staff on duty down here. The cameras are there to record, not to observe. Nobody was watching the feeds, so the problem wouldn’t even have been recognised until someone tried to manually access them.’
‘There’s no way Drake could have made this happen by himself. If you break this down, there’s only one conclusion,’ Dietrich went on. ‘He’s working with Munro.’
Franklin looked down at the dried bloodstain. ‘I can’t believe Ryan would do something like this. I’ve known him for years.’
‘Maybe so. But that doesn’t change the facts,’ Dietrich pointed out.
The younger man’s face was grim when he looked up again. ‘I want you to head up the search, Jonas. Find him and bring him in.’
Dietrich blinked.
‘Don’t look so surprised,’ Franklin said, unimpressed by his feigned disbelief. ‘You’re a Shepherd team – this is what you do. More important, you’re Drake’s team. Between the three of you, you know him just about as well as anyone. You’re our best shot at finding him right now.’
Dietrich had managed to assume a look of surprise and even reluctance, but inside he was jubilant. At last
he
was beginning to perceive the opportunity that lay before him.
This was his ticket back, his chance to reclaim what he’d lost. Despite injury and fatigue, he was still doing his job, and doing it well. That sort of thing got noticed.
Even better, Drake’s betrayal had cast a shadow over his entire career: every decision he’d made, every operation he’d headed up, every case officer he’d cited to negligence. This was Dietrich’s vindication, the proof that he had been wrongly persecuted.
If he played this one right, he could find himself back on top again. He could put all his past mistakes behind him, move on with his life.
And Drake … well, he would get what was coming to him. Dietrich would make sure of that.
‘All right,’ he agreed. ‘We’ll find him, Dan.’
Franklin nodded. ‘Pull whatever resources you need. They’re setting up a command centre at Langley tasked to this operation. Everything we have is at your disposal, so use it.’ With that, he turned on his heel and strode back to the waiting vehicle. ‘And for Christ sake, get some food down you. You look like shit!’
‘Where are you going?’ Dietrich asked as Franklin opened the door.
‘Back to Langley. I have to explain to Director Cain that we managed to lose his prisoner.’ He swallowed. ‘I’m counting on you, Jonas. Don’t let me down.’
‘Asshole,’ Frost remarked as Franklin’s car roared up the ramp to street level. ‘All he wants is to save his own ass.’
For once, Dietrich was inclined to agree with her.
‘I don’t care about his ass.’ He turned his attention to Frost. ‘We have to find the car they switched to.’
‘How?’ she asked, exasperated. ‘I told you, all the
cameras
in here were out of action. It’s a waste of fucking time.’
His headache was still pounding. ‘There have to be other cameras in nearby buildings,’ he said, swallowing down a sudden feeling of nausea. ‘Traffic cams, lobby security … whatever. Find one that was pointed at the exit ramp at the time of Drake’s escape, trawl through the footage and see what vehicles went up it.’
Frost looked dubious. ‘That’s a long shot.’
‘It’s all we have for now. Just get it done.’
But she didn’t move. She just stood there looking at him.
‘Do we have a problem?’ he demanded irritably. He felt as if he was about to throw up.
‘I think we do,’ she confirmed. ‘You might have Franklin fooled with all that “reluctant hero” crap, but not me. You’re loving this. You’re just itching for a chance to put Drake down, aren’t you?’
‘I don’t have time for this …’ he said, moving to push past her.
She caught his arm as he went, her eyes burning into his. ‘Then make time, Dietrich. Because I won’t stand by while you hang Ryan out to dry.’
He shrugged out of her grasp and glared at her. ‘Do your fucking job, Frost, or I’ll find someone who will!’
Frost, almost a foot shorter than he, stood unmoved by his threat. Her chin jutted stubbornly, her eyes blazing. ‘The hell you will.’
It’ll look bad if you lose control so easily, his rational mind told him. Don’t ruin everything now. Get her to cooperate.
With every ounce of self-control he possessed, he forced calm into his voice. ‘Look, you might not like me—’
‘I don’t,’ she assured him.
‘But Franklin put me in charge of this operation, and that’s the way it is,’ he said firmly. ‘Now, you can either fight me or you can work with me, but Drake stands a better chance if you take the second option. If you really want to help him, then help me find him.’
For several seconds she did nothing. She just stood there watching him, as if looking for some sign that he was lying.
‘If you try to fuck him over, I’ll kill you myself.’
Turning on her heel, she walked away.
Reaching into his pocket for a cigarette, Dietrich watched her go. It wasn’t exactly a winning reconciliation, but he sensed that was the best he was likely to get from the hot-tempered young woman.
He didn’t care. In truth, he didn’t give a shit if she liked him or not, just as long as she did her job.
When he was a team leader once more, he’d make sure he never had to work with her again.
Chapter 37
DRAKE SIGHED AND
rubbed his eyes. He’d been pushing the car hard all afternoon, wanting to gain as much of a head start on the inevitable manhunt as possible. According to the odometer they had covered well over 250 miles and were now deep into Virginia.
But they couldn’t keep this pace up for ever. A glance at the fuel gauge told him they needed to stop soon.
According to the road signs, they were approaching a small town called Jarratt. Spotting a gas station on the outskirts, he decided to go for it.
The woman perked up as their speed dropped.
‘We need fuel,’ he explained.
Pulling into the forecourt, he stopped beside the nearest pump and stepped out, making sure to take the keys with him. He didn’t think Anya intended to run, but he was taking no chances. He also had the Glock shoved down the front of his jeans in case the shit really hit the fan.
The terrain around the gas station was mostly dense woods and occasional tracts of farmland. He had no idea what they grew here but there were small fields all over the place, outbuildings and other utility structures scattered around. It was a quiet place, a backwater seldom used except by locals.