Volcano (5 page)

Back
? Mark slammed a fist into the small oak
night stand
. “How many times, Albert? How often has Ana been
to Washington?”

“To Washington, I couldn’t say...”

“Albert, dammit, don’t cat and mouse this with me!
 
Don’t you hear what I’m saying
?!
 
Ana could be
in danger!
 
Just this morning we
started receiving reports at the DIPAC-”

“International intelligence scare. I’ve heard.”

“Yes, sir. And I’ve reason to believe they’ve targeted
Ana
.”

“
Ana
? But she didn’t say a word.”

“No sir, she wouldn’t. She had no way
of
knowing her case was connected to anybody else’s.”

The line went still as Albert apparently mulled this over.
“Can’t discuss this over the phone,” he snapped. “How soon can you be in
Washington?”

“Try to make it in two hours, sir. Just let me get Isa and
Maria someplace safe.”

***

The man strong-held her arms behind her and shoved
Ana
toward the black Mercedes.

“I’m
not
going!” she barked, as her heels scraped the
asphalt.

“You are not being given a choice,” he spewed, as he doubled
her over and pressed her into the backseat of the car.

“They’ll find me,” Ana said, casting a sideways glance at
the second man already seated inside who quickly drew a pistol and pressed it
to her temple.

“Precisely what we’re counting on,” the older dark-eyed
Asian said with a smile. He left the pistol in place and, with his other hand,
gently sifted her hair. “Ah, Ms. Kane, so much more than I expected.”

“You can’t keep me here,” Ana said, quivering as a security
guard paraded right by the car on the other side of its tinted glass. “There
are cameras all around. You’ll be on tape.”

The man beside her grinned at the younger
man who now sat behind the driver’s wheel.
“Our film debut, Hay Long.”

The driver’s taut forearm, branded with a black dragon
tattoo, rippled with his laugh. “So, Sun-tzu, it would seem!”

***

Albert Kane was huddled up in the hall with Assistant Chief
of DOS Building Security Jason Meade, when he got the call from the
guard house
.

“Good God,” he said, punching the disconnect button.
“There’s been a fault in one of our camera tapes. Something’s gone the hell
awry downstairs!”

“Jason,” he commanded fiercely, “Code red. Get an armed team
down to the basement-
now!”

But, by the time a winded Albert Kane sprinted down six
flights of stairs and burst into the parking garage, weapon drawn, the place
was quiet as a tomb.

Mark kissed Isa one last time and rethanked Major Walker.

 
“Carolyn...” he
said, with a shaky smile.

“Go, sir!” she said, pressing him toward the door. “With the
security system, this place is like Fort Knox.”

“If you don’t hear from me-”

“Not going to consider that, sir. If I don’t hear from you,
it means you’re working on getting things under control. I know you, sir.
You’re the best. The
best of the best.
”

Mark only wished he had so much confidence. He took another
look at the baby, her head drooping dreamily against Maria’s shoulder. The
sitter’s eyes were wide with fear, but she forced a brave smile. “
No te
preocupas, senor... Dios te bendiga.”

“God bless you too, Maria. All of you,” he said with a
parting glance around the room. “I’ll be back, Carolyn,” he said to Major
Walker. “Hell or high water, I’ll be back.”

“Yes sir,” Carolyn said, the cool mist in her eye defeating
her hard stare. “We’re going to count on it.”

***

Ana turned toward Sun-tzu as the car sped
onto the highway, puzzling at the man.
Puzzling at the name that struck
a chord somewhere in a distant region of her brain.

Sun-tzu said something in rapid Chinese to the man behind
the wheel. And the other, Hay Long, smiled into the rearview mirror in return.

“This is ridiculous,”
Ana
said to
the two of them. “You know you’ll be found out.”

Sun-tzu turned his dangerously expressionless face toward
hers. “There are many people, Miss Kane. Many, many people who’d like to see
you alive.”

And Ana was betting that an even higher number wanted
Sun-tzu dead.

“You have nothing to fear from us.” A slow, insidious smile
worked its way across the Oriental’s face. “We only deliver the package.”

Ana thought suddenly of Isabel and cold fear gripped her heart.
“I’m sure if there’s a message to deliver, you and I could work something out,
Sun-tzu.”

“Don’t--” the old man said, grabbing her furiously by the
hair. He lifted the pistol that had been resting lazily on his knee with his
right hand and swung it in her direction. “...
you
ever
address me by that name!
 
Is that
quite clear?”

“Quite,” Ana said with a grimace.
“But, I’m still very flexible-”

“Silence!”
 
Sun-tzu pressed the pistol to her temple. “
I’m
the one to decide
how
flexible
you are, Miss Kane. Me and only me.”

The man behind the front wheel belly hooted.

“If it’s information you want-” Ana began, clenching her
teeth against their impending chatter.

Sun-tzu drew back the pistol with a snort. “Save it for the
jury, Ana.”
 
An eerie stillness
settled in his eyes and their sudden vacancy of emotion became even more
terrifying than his words. “Judgement’s at dawn.”

Mark brought the tip of his index finger to the video
display monitor. “There. Hang on a minute, Bill,” he said to Bill Rush, Chief
of DOS Building Security. “Go back a frame.”

Bill flipped the switch and leaned forward, apparently
trying to make out what Mark had seen.

“What’s that right there? In the edge of the frame?”

Bill, who always looked one day short of a shave, scratched
his stubbly chin. “Looks like the end of a car. Car trunk, sir.”

“Yes, dammit.”
 
Mark scooted in his chair and grabbed the controls from Bill, flipping
back another frame, then another.

“Watch this,” Mark said, pointing to the time display at the
bottom of the screen. Sixteen-twenty-two, thirty-five, no car.”
 
He hit the forward button.
“Sixteen-twenty-two, thirty-six...”

“There it is, sir!” Bill said, in amazement. “Absolutely.
Tail end of some sort of vehicle, sedan maybe.”

“And tell me, Bill. As far as you know, has anyone come up
with a car that can fire its engine and disappear in one second flat?”

“Not even the Japanese, sir.”

“Nor the Germans,” Mark said, standing. “I want this whole
tape sent to the lab. Enlarge every frame in the vicinity of this one. Pronto.”

“Got it,” Bill said, getting to his feet.

“Any idea how in the hell the tape could have behaved that
way?”

“None whatsoever, sir. Like you said, it’s theoretically
impossible.”

Yes, Mark thought, getting together his papers and preparing
to leave the room. But there was one hell of a lot of difference between
practice and theory. And Mark had the theory somebody’s practice had pulled a
fast one.

***

Ryan Gitchell held up the black and white negative with a
long tweezer-like instrument. “It’s a Mercedes alright, one of the newer
models. Should be able to get an exact make based on our photographic paint
scan within the hour.”

But, within the hour would be too late. If they were smart
enough to rig the camera system, they weren’t dumb enough to stay in the same
vehicle for any period of time.

“How about the timing glitch?” Mark asked.

“Easy, sir. Somebody froze the visual frame on the camera
while getting the clock to appear to keep on ticking. This frame,” he said,
pointing to the one sequential to the one in which the car appeared “is
essentially a reflection of an earlier moment. Anything that went on from this
period forward in that corner of the garage is basically not on camera.”

“And
this
happened at the DOS
?!
”
Mark asked, unable to keep his voice from rising to a threatening timbre. Mark
had the overwhelming urge to grab somebody’s head and slam it into the wall.
But it wasn’t Ryan he was after, he reminded himself. Ryan was one of the good
guys and
not-so-incidentally
in a position to help
him.

Gitchell shook his head. “This took some pretty
sophisticated maneuvering. Not the camera job itself. That’s pretty much an old
smoke and mirrors trick. But finding a way to get into the DOS system...”

Just like somebody had found a way to break through that
information system firewall, Mark caught himself thinking.

“How could that be done, Ryan? Gaining access to the camera
system?”

“Well, from the inside, sir-”

“From the outside.”

Gitchell choked out a laugh and shook his head. “No way,
sir.
Absolutely no way.
We’re drawn up as tight as a
clam shell in here.”

Yeah right, Mark thought, as he studied the trunk of the car
in the frame, and somebody out there- somebody who had Ana- knew all about the
pearls on the inside.

***

Al Fahd slid the long yellow envelope across his desk. “Your
first exam, Mr. Smith,” he said, as Joe lifted the envelope and unbent its
clasp.

“I’m your most promising student.” Joe smiled as he craftily
cracked the envelope and withdrew its contents. He gave the enlarged map area
of Central Virginia and some typed out road directions a cursory scan. “Is this
my big test?”

Al Fahd grinned and drummed his fingers against the desk.
“Your big test is yet to come. Prove yourself first with this little
assignment. Then maybe we’ll make party plans.”

Joe’s eye caught the name at the bottom of the file and his
stomach plummeted. “Not much happening in Virginia, Al Hakeem. Perhaps there is
another-”

Al Fahd brought a booming fist down on his desk. “You will
not
second-guess the master, Mr. Smith!
 
Is that clear
?!
”

Joe froze as the mustard brown face went deadly calm.
“Crystal.”

Joe thumbed through the papers but found nothing more. This
operation was far too important to US security to risk any slip-ups. More than
anything, especially now that Joe was getting close, he had to ensure his place
in Al Fahd’s kingdom. No matter what that took.

“What is it you want me to do?” Joe asked, curving his lips
beneath his heavy moustache.

Albert Kane stood at the window of his thirteenth floor
apartment and studied the glistening oil-black waters dissected by the gleaming
lights of the Key Bridge. He took another belt of bourbon, weighing his
options. Goddamn didn’t have any. He swallowed the last of his drink and
shuddered at the deja vu.

Three years ago he’d been in a similar position.

Three years ago Mark Neal had not let him down.

Three years ago, he’d had a wife and the promise of a new
beginning.

Now he had nothing but the predawn Potomac and a heavy heart
that told him he’d always been wrong. Wrong to involve the family. Wrong to let
Ana have her way and join the DOS. Wrong to condone Ana’s marriage to somebody
else in this God-forsaken business.

His older daughter, Emalita, had married an oil executive
and recently relocated to the Middle East taking along Albert’s three other
grandchildren. Albert knew he couldn’t call Emi about the current problem.
She’d had a hard enough time forgiving him the first time. But finally, as a
result of Mark and Ana’s intervention, Emi had grudgingly let Albert back into
her life.

Emi was different from Ana, had been from the beginning. Emi
was a loving mother and a good one, and in that and that alone felt extremely
fulfilled. Albert supposed Emi was following in her mother’s footsteps.

Ana, on the other hand, had always been more like her
father.
And worked mightily to deny it.
She’d been a
damn fine analyst and would make an even better operative, if she ever gave
herself the freedom to try it. But Ana felt hemmed in these days. Albert could
see it. Whether it was Mark or the barriers Ana had erected in her own head,
Albert didn’t know. But, whatever the problem, Ana clearly wasn’t happy with
the state of her life. And that was before... Before this God-forsaken mess Ana
had somehow gotten herself into.

Albert thumped a hard hand against the tightness in his
chest, knowing that was a lie. Any trouble Ana had
gotten herself into
had
come as a direct result of her being the daughter of one DOS Assistant Director
Albert Kane.

The timing of this fiasco couldn’t have been more
disastrous. For the first time in years, Ana had come to him-
to Albert,
first-
when she was in need of assistance. And foolishly, Albert had
thanked God he’d been able to play the benevolent patriarch and grant her wish.

Albert turned a weary eye to the kitchen clock and the
too-still telephone, as if watching the pot would make it boil. But it was
Albert who was boiling instead. Fuming inside for the never-ending angst he’d
caused his family.
All the far-flung consequence of his
decision to join the DOS more than fifty years ago.
A
decision that, in fact, had not been Albert’s choice at all.
But rather
a lifestyle foisted upon him by the over-zealous US Government. And, once he’d
gotten in, it had been impossible to get out. But what they’d never told him
was that they’d want his daughter, too.