Fisher glanced at Kobin, then returned his gaze to Grim. “Does he need to be here?”
“Hey, spy boy, who got you home from Sochi? And by the way, Bab is pissed about her guns.”
Fisher snorted. “We’ll pay her back with peanut butter.”
“Yeah, the old hag would love that.”
“And tell her the ammo sucked!” cried Briggs. “She’s probably had her grandsons reloading it.”
Fisher wasn’t complaining. The ammo sucked, all right, but it had also saved his life.
“So you got the girl,” said Kobin. “Now you call Daddy and wave the bait in his face.”
“And you think it’s that easy?” asked Grim.
“It is—if you know the right players.”
“And you do?”
“Look, if you want, I’ll put the word out to my contacts that we have her,” said Kobin. “See if any of them can pass it on. Maybe it’ll reach Kasperov. He’s got personal security, and a lot of those guys, well, let’s just say they’ve worked the black markets. You never know. If he realizes the Americans have his daughter, maybe he’ll come running to you.”
“No way. We’re not advertising that we have her,” said Fisher. “If that gets back to the Kremlin it’ll really stir the pot. We’ll take it from here.”
“And where are you taking it?” asked Kobin.
Fisher glared at Kobin, who threw up his hands.
“Look, I just want to help,” Kobin said.
Charlie turned back from one of his monitors. “Sam, the doctor’s calling for you.”
Fisher returned to the infirmary, where Evren frowned and kept his voice low. “There is a small incision near her lower back. I felt a capsule-shaped mass embedded beneath the skin.”
“That’s it. I need you to take it out right now.”
“What about her consent?”
“I’m telling you to take it out. That’s an order!”
“You have that authority?”
“Trust me, doc. I do.”
“I’ll need at least a local anesthetic and something to keep her calm.”
“We’ve got everything you need.”
“What would you like me to say to her?”
Fisher considered that. “You prep. I’ll get her ready.” He crossed back to Nadia’s cot and leaned over, softening his expression. “I know you’ve been through a lot. Do you remember if they sedated you? Maybe stuck a needle in your back?”
“They told me I fell and passed out and hurt my back. They told me I cut it and needed stitches.”
“They put a tracking device in your back. We’re going to remove it now. You won’t feel anything.”
Nadia bolted up and reached around to feel the wound. “You’re right. I can feel it in there.”
“Let us get it out.”
“Okay, yes, get it out of me.”
“First, did your father say anything to you about why he needed to run?”
“Not exactly. But he was always talking about all the pressure the government put on him. This is about them. I know it is.”
“Do you know if they were asking him to do anything for them? Maybe something he didn’t want to do?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t like to talk about work. He said it made him feel guilty. He always talked about vacations. Where are we going now?”
“There’s another plane on its way that’ll take you back to the United States.”
“I want to see my father.”
“Then help us find him. You sure you don’t know anything?”
She closed her eyes. “I keep telling everyone, I have no idea where he is.”
“You understand that if he broke the law or failed to obey them in some way, you’ll never see him again.”
“I know that!”
“Was there any secret way you spoke to your father, maybe through a third party or what we call a ‘cutout’?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“When I went away to school, he set up some kind of e-mail thing for family members, some kind of security thing, but I never used it and I don’t even know the address or the passwords or anything.”
“Do you know what this is?” Grim asked, standing behind them now.
Nadia frowned at the necklace and pendant dangling from Grim’s hand. “You were in my apartment? You stole my things?”
“No,” said Fisher. “Everything we borrowed will be returned to you.”
“So how did you get this?” asked Grim.
Nadia rolled her eyes. “It’s just an ugly piece of jewelry my father gave me.”
“Where’d he get it?”
“On one of his trips somewhere. He’s always bringing me back stuff I don’t even want.”
Grim turned to Fisher and said, “Ollie finished his analysis. There’s clay with traces of gold ore and mercury inside the pendant. The sample is Andean in origin.”
“The Andes. South America,” said Fisher.
“Correct. And there’s only one gold mining operation in the world where rampant mercury refining is still practiced by local miners. The place is called La Rinconada, and it’s in Peru. It’s known as the highest city in the world.”
Nadia’s eyes widened in recognition. “That’s right. My father’s been there several times. He was setting up a headquarters in Lima. And he was talking about the charity work he wants to do up there at the mining town. He was saying there’s terrible pollution and awful schools. He wanted to help the kids and clean up the environment.”
“Why there? The world is full of slums and misery,” Fisher said.
“I don’t know, but some of our ancestors were Donbass miners in Russia. Some went to Pennsylvania to work in the coal mines. My father liked to tell stories about them.”
“He’s a philanthropist. He’s got an attachment to miners. What else do you need?” asked Charlie, who was eavesdropping on the conversation from the hallway.
Fisher glanced back to the doctor. “Take out her chip. Please don’t damage it. Call us when you’re finished.”
Evren nodded.
Fisher gestured that they all return to the control center, where he said, “I think Kasperov’s up there in La Rinconada.”
Grim squinted in thought. “Why would one of the richest men in the world go there?”
“Because it’s not on the GRU’s radar. They’ll check out all the obvious places like we did and assume he’s a man of creature comforts and wouldn’t give them up. We might’ve blown off this place if it weren’t for the pendant.”
“So your gut tells you he’s there,” said Grim.
Fisher made a face. It was always his gut versus her facts. “Look, he probably doesn’t plan to stay long. He’ll wait it out until the Russians have to pull back most of their field assets. But for now, I say he’s lying low. Why not there? It’s hard to reach and a real shithole.”
“So he probably flew in to the nearest airport by jet, maybe took a chopper up to the city,” said Grim. “Charlie, get on it. Maybe you can find a charter company that ferries people up there, get into their records, get us anything.”
“You got it.”
“I’ll assist on that,” said Briggs.
“Kobin, you got any contacts in Peru?” Fisher asked.
“There was a guy in Lima who used to transport some stuff for me. I know he had some ties to a cartel that bought a lot of gold. Couldn’t hurt contacting him.”
“Do it,” said Fisher.
“Hey, guys,” Charlie called from his station. “Looks like the nearest airport is in Juliaca. It’s about seventy miles southwest. It’s a real hub for contraband. I’ve already got the list of charter companies operating out of there. Working on g
etting into their records now.”
Grim and Fisher crossed to the SMI table, where Grim brought up a map of Peru and zoomed in on Juliaca. “Population a quarter million, and it’s the capital of the Puno Region. They call it ‘The Windy City’ just like Chicago.”
“That airstrip long enough for us?” Fisher asked.
“Most of the military airstrips we use are at least fourteen thousand feet. Checking . . .” Grim zoomed in on the airport and keyed in a request for statistics. “Well, there we go. Runway length 13,780 feet.”
“Should be enough?” Fisher asked.
“A C-17 like this once landed at a civilian airport in Tampa with a runway no longer than 3,400 feet. That pilot must’ve hit the brakes pretty hard and that’s cutting it as close as it gets.”
“No kidding.”
The big screens behind them lit up with a video call from President Caldwell. She looked exhausted but managed to lift her voice: “Checking in again, Sam. The CIA charter to pick up Nadia will arrive in less than thirty minutes. How’s she doing? I want to speak with her.”
“Right now we’re having a tracker removed from her back, but after that, I’m sure she’ll be able to talk.”
“Good. We’ll be transporting her to a safe house near Langley. I want you to assure her that she’s in good hands and that we’re doing everything we can to assist her and her family.”
“Of course. And now we have some actionable intel on Kasperov, all pointing to Peru.” Fisher gave her a capsule summary of what they’d found.
“If you find him,” said Caldwell, “I want you to offer him more than just asylum. Impress upon him that we’ll help rebuild and restructure his company. He’s dedicated his entire professional life to Internet security and probably thinks his career has ended. Well, it hasn’t. Tell him America can keep his dream alive—no matter how complicated he thinks that’ll be. And we’ll clear his name of all these preposterous allegations the Kremlin is leveling at him.”
“What allegations?” Fisher asked.
“They’re saying he embezzled funds, that officers of his company accepted bribes to disclose top secret documents, and the list goes on and on.”
“Wow, all right. We’ll take care of it,” Fisher assured her.
“We’ll be in touch.”
The screen went blank, and Charlie once more said that the doctor was calling.
Fisher and Grim met him outside the infirmary, where he handed Fisher a small plastic bag containing the translucent capsule/tracker, one Fisher had seen before used by the SVR and FSB.
“Simple operation. Four stitches. She’s sleeping now.”
“Excellent,” Fisher said.
“Well, other than some blunt trauma to her face, she seems to be doing okay,” said the doctor. “She’ll need to have the new stitches removed in a week or so. If there’s nothing else, I guess I’m ready for my blindfold.”
“We appreciate your cooperation,” Fisher said.
Grim called to one of the analysts to escort the doctor out. As she strode away toward the control center, Fisher drifted back into the infirmary, where Nadia had just rolled over to face him.
“Is it over?” she asked.
“Yes, we removed the chip. Your plane should be here very soon. I’m sorry about the wait.”
“Are you really going to help my father?”
“I work for the President of the United States, and she tells me that we’ll be doing everything we can. That means something. Those words come from the most powerful woman on the planet. Do you understand?”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
“The president wants to speak to you, when you’re ready.”
“All right. I just realized I don’t even know your name.”
“It’s Sam. And to be honest, you remind me of my own daughter.”
“Really?”
He nodded.
A shadow passed over them.
“Hey, Sam, my guy in Lima just called back,” said Kobin. “Oh, sorry to interrupt. But hey, don’t you think she’s a little young for . . .”
Fisher closed his eyes, trying to contain the explosion forming at the back of his throat.
“Sorry, yeah, well, anyway,” Kobin stammered, “My guy in Lima’s got intel that’ll blow your mind.”
21
“THAT’S him,” said Briggs.
Fisher zoomed in with his trifocals on the man entering the Corporación Minera Ananea’s tin-roofed office lying in the shadows of the towering, snowcapped peaks of La Rinconada.
“You get a shot of his face?” Fisher asked.
“Got it,” Briggs answered. “And uploaded.”
“Charlie, transfer that photo back to the safe house in Virginia,” Fisher ordered. “See if Nadia can ID this guy.”
“Already done. You want fries with that?”
“Nice. Get me confirmation ASAP.”
Fisher eased back along the mountainside, slipping behind the ice-covered boulders along the cliff that overlooked the mining headquarters, which was no more than four double-wide trailers lying in the cowl of the glacier. The buildings were identified by a small sign bearing the company’s tiny blue logo. Seven dust-covered SUVs were parked near one trailer, their off-road tires pinpricked with chips of stone.
Fisher and Briggs were perched at more than eighteen thousand feet in the Peruvian Andes, the wind like knives across their cheeks, the night washing away into a saffron haze to the east.
The past sixteen hours had felt like only two, and ironically, Kobin—once the selfish, self-absorbed, egomaniacal crackhead smuggler—had come through for them in spades.
“Follow the money, find the man,” he’d said.
Trouble was, Igor Kasperov was too damned shrewd to make mistakes. Kobin believed that he’d rely upon favors, stashes of cash, or other such underground or even illegal means to procure both transport and living quarters, and to pay off those who needed to remain quiet regarding his whereabouts. Sure, he’d attempt to limit his contacts as much as possible, but he couldn’t do everything alone.
And he couldn’t pay off everyone.
That’s where Kobin came in. He always boasted that he was the go-to man with a direct line into the seedy exploits of smugglers, cartels, mercenaries, and guerilla-backed incursions across the globe. Sometimes the hype outweighed the facts, but not this time.
“Okay, teammates, prepare to be schooled,” he’d told them, holding court in the control center as though he owned the plane.
“Teammates?” Briggs asked, as though the word had gone sour on his lips.
“Shuddup, Action Jackson. So . . . I’ll put it to you this way. La Rinconada’s gold mining operation is a money-laundering wet dream for the cartels. Here’s how it works. The cartel-backed banks use American dollars to buy the gold from the mining company at one hundred and ten percent over current gold spot prices—that’s the standard fee for money laundering. The cartels have a team of gold and silver bullion traders, and these greedy little fuckers sell the gold in the open market, and you know with the volatility we have today, they usually recoup more than their premium fee. So my guy in Lima has run guns, drugs, and even gold for these guys, meaning he’s tapped into what’s going on up there. His contact at the mining company office says that somebody’s been drafting checks drawn against some Swiss and offshore accounts to buy untraceable U.S. dollars, ten percent over face value, which is the fee for what we call remote and discrete ATM services.” Kobin began to gesticulate wildly, a half-crazed glimmer flooding his eyes. “Boys and girls, think about it. Who the hell but a rich man would be drafting off of Swiss and offshore accounts? Sam’s right. Kasperov is up there, and he’s no dummy. He’s doing more than just lying low. That fucking Russian is picking up some serious cash so he’s untraceab
le and good to go for his next trip.”
Fisher drew back his head. “Holy shit, Kobin. Nice work.”
“I plan to verify all this,” said Grim.
“Be my guest,” said Kobin. “I keep telling you fuckers how valuable I am. When are you dumbasses gonna learn? Schooled? Oh, that would be you people.”
“I don’t think so,” said Briggs.
Kobin ignored him and faced Fisher. “You see? You never want to turn me over to Kestrel. I’m way too valuable.”
Grim stepped between them and said, “I hate ’im. But he’s earned his keep—for now.”
“Agreed,” Fisher said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
After transferring Nadia to the CIA charter, they had taken off. The flight from Incirlik to Juliaca, Peru, was over 7,300 miles, meaning they had about 2,700 miles between each midair refueling. With a cruising speed of about 515 miles per hour, the flight had taken more than fourteen hours, giving them ample time to sleep and prep.
In the meantime, Grim had coordinated with the Special Activities Division. They sent a paramilitary ops officer to Juliaca to reconnoiter the airport, searching for any spotters Kasperov might have planted there.
Grim had also pointed out that Paladin’s arrival might raise a few suspicions, so they’d planned to land at about 0200 local time and have the plane met by refueling services to make it appear as though this was only a brief layover.
Presently, they displayed bogus tail numbers along with the letters “AETC” and additional markings for the 97th Air Mobility Wing out of Altus AFB, Oklahoma. Altus AFB was the Air Education and Training Command, or AETC, for C-17s and KC-135s. Mission permitting, Paladin’s tail markings were changed every ninety days, and it was imperative that the transport always displayed them, lest they be immediately pegged as a spec ops unit.
Their CIA contact in Juliaca had reported no signs of spotters at the airport or its environs; however, there was still no way to tell if Kasperov had someone on the inside who worked at the airport and who’d been overlooked.
Charlie’s research on helicopter charters up to the mountain was inconclusive because several companies operated daily, ferrying, he assumed, mining executives, engineers, and reps from equipment manufacturers. None of those records indicated anything more than the numbers of passengers, not descriptions, names, IDs, or anything else useful. Some of the companies might’ve kept hard-copy files of that data in their offices, but Charlie found none available electronically. This was, after all, Peru.