Operation Barracuda (2005)

  “I’ll leave on the first flight I can get.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’ll be in touch.”

  The two men hung up and Zdrok felt the first glimmer of hope after an anxious twenty-four hours since he discovered what had happened to Anton Antipov and the Shop’s headquarters on Cat Street.

  All would be well now. The Shop’s most trusted killer, Yvan Putnik, was on his way to America to set things right.

  23

  THE ride across the Pacific in the Osprey was uneventful and I slept most of the way. However, when we landed in California I still felt weary. I suppose I could attribute it to getting older but I’m not going to. Maybe I just need another vacation. Two overseas missions back to back are enough to exhaust anyone, even guys twenty years younger than me.

  Frances Coen picks me up at the base. I’m surprised to see her on the West Coast but she explains that she flew over from Washington with Colonel Lambert. She and Anna Grimsdottir think they’ve solved the problem of how to protect my implants from the electronic transmitter the Triad used on me. I’ll need to submit to a minor operation for an hour while the adjustments are made. This will involve cutting into my skin to get to the little buggers. At the moment it’s not a prospect I look forward to but I guess it has to be done.

  She takes me to Maximum Security Unit 6, a classified holding pen for prisoners who represent a great threat to national security. It’s the kind of place where they hold terrorists and traitors without access to legal counsel, at least for a while. This policy is part of the Homeland Security Act and the so-called War on Terrorism that’s been in effect since September 11, 2001. The unit is located east of L.A., near San Bernardino. From the street it appears to be a public parking garage, which it is. But by keying in an access code in the elevator, you can descend to the lower levels some fifty feet underground. That’s where they keep America’s Most Wanted.

  After I’m cleared to enter the place, Coen leads me to Lambert. He’s temporarily taken over a small office that has a cot. He looks as if he just woke up.

  “Sam, good to see you,” he says.

  “It’s good to be back.” We shake hands and he offers me a seat on the cot. He takes the chair behind the desk upon which he’s set up his laptop computer. Coen leaves us alone, saying she’ll be back to get me for the surgery later that afternoon.

  “Forgive me if I seem disheveled,” Lambert says. “I was up most of the night talking with Mike.”

  “I’m tired, too,” I reply. “Am I on vacation yet?”

  Lambert grins; he knows I’m being facetious. “Not yet, Sam. You can have a day or two to rest up but we need you here. I’ll explain later. Want some coffee?”

  “Sure. I want to call my daughter. Is there a line I can use or should I use my cell?”

  “Here, you can use this one,” he says, pointing to the phone on the desk. “It’s a secure line. I’ll be right back.” He leaves the room and I make the call.

  Sarah’s answering machine picks up. “Hi, this is Sarah, leave a message.” I look at my watch and figure there’s no reason why she should be at home midmorning. She’s probably at school.

  “Hi, honey, I’m back in the States,” I say. “Just letting you know. You can reach me on the number you have when you get a chance. If I don’t pick up right away, I’ll call you back. I love you.”

  I hang up and lie on the cot. I’m just about to fall asleep when Lambert returns with the much-needed coffee.

  “Thanks,” I say. I sit up and take it.

  Lambert returns to his chair and then announces, “I read your latest report.”

  Uh-oh, here it comes. I was brutally honest with what happened at the antique shop in Hong Kong. He’s going to tear me a new asshole for killing Antipov in cold blood. At least I know he’s not going to fire me, because he’s already said I’m still on the job.

  “I’m glad you wrapped up that end of the Shop’s operation,” is what he says. “That’s two down, two to go.”

  I certainly didn’t expect that. “Thanks,” I say. Somehow I feel the need to explain myself. “Listen, Colonel, about Antipov—”

  He waves his hand at me. “Forget it, Sam. The guy was a major enemy. All those Shop guys are supreme shits. As far as our laws go, you were in a combative situation. We’ll say no more about it.”

  I nod and sip my coffee. After a moment of silence, I ask, “So how’s our prisoner doing?”

  “I believe he’s about ready to talk. I think he was waiting for you.”

  MIKE Chan, er, Mike Wu rather, looks pretty haggard. They’ve kept him awake and under intense interrogation for the last forty-eight hours. I met the guy once at Third Echelon and barely remember him. He was supposed to have been very good at his job as a research analyst. Why does greed turn so many good people into villains? I’ll never understand it. We all want to make money and live comfortably, but selling out one’s country or friends or family to do so is beyond the scope of my comprehension.

  As soon as I walk into the interrogation room, Mike sits up and widens his eyes. They must have really built up my visit. The guy looks scared.

  “Relax, Mike,” I say. “I’m not going to hurt you. Not right away.”

  “Why are you here?” he asks. “This isn’t your job. Since when do Splinter Cells get recruited to interrogate prisoners?”

  “They don’t. I’m here of my own free will. I’m here because Carly St. John was a friend of mine. I’m here because your friends the Lucky Dragons tried to kill me. I’m here because I’m patriotic and love my country and you’re a son of a bitch that isn’t worth his weight in excrement.”

  The prisoner sighs and nods. He’s resigned to his fate. “I still want a lawyer.”

  “You might get one after you confess. I’m not really sure how it works with you special combative types. All I know is that I’m not going to leave this room until you make an official statement and sign it.”

  “So, what, are you going to lean on me? You’re going to show how tough you are and beat me up a little bit?”

  “I’m hoping you’ll come to your senses and realize that you’ve got no way out of this. You’re caught. Lambert and the FBI have all the evidence they need to convict you. You don’t have to sign anything. You’ll still get the death penalty. We’d like to prevent that. Life is a lot better than death.”

  “Depends on what you’re doing with your life, doesn’t it?”

  “Perhaps. It’s too bad Carly can’t do anything with hers now.”

  Mike looks down. I sense he’s not altogether happy about what he did. Bastard.

  “Why, Mike? Why did you have to kill her? You know, Carly once told me what a great worker you were. She said you were the best analyst in the firm and that you’d probably advance quickly.”

  “Screw you, Fisher.”

  Well, something in me snaps. Maybe I was overtired. Maybe I was trying to grieve for Carly. Or maybe I was fed up with all the shit.

  I stand, walk over to Mike, grab him by the lightweight shirt he’s wearing, and I punch him in the nose. He flies backward and falls to the floor. I expect Lambert or someone to come in and bitch at me but nothing happens. After a moment, Mike stands and faces me. His nose is bleeding.

  “Hit me again, Fisher.”

  “What?”

  “I want you to hit me. I want you to rough me up a little. I deserve it.”

  “Come on, Mike. Sit down.”

  He shouts, “You bastard! Hit me! It’s what you came to do!”

  “Sit down, Mike!”

  “Screw you, Fisher! Hey, guess what! I blew Carly’s brains out and I enjoyed it. I deliberately walked into her office, pointed a gun at the back of her head, and pulled the trigger. You should have seen it, Fisher. Her brains went all over her goddamned computer!”

  That does it. I give the guy what he wants, and hell, it’s what I want, too. To the devil with proper procedure. Besides, the little shit has made me mad. I grab him by
the collar and pull him up and over the table. The guy is lightweight, so throwing him across the room and into the wall is nothing. For the next few seconds I totally lose it. I don’t remember whaling on him but I must have hit him two or three times. I think that maybe I kicked him once, too. When I come to my senses, he’s lying on the floor in a mess of blood.

  “Thanks,” he says. “You won’t believe this, but I needed that.”

  “Like hell,” I mutter. I reach into my pocket, find a handkerchief, and throw it to him. He wipes his face and then slowly crawls back to his chair. Once he’s sitting, he lays his head on his arms on top of the table. After taking a couple of deep breaths he looks up at me. I can almost see the gears working in his head as he tries to come to grips with spilling the beans. After a long pause, he speaks.

  “She was about to find out I was the leak out of Third Echelon.”

  Finally, he understands the situation. “But killing her didn’t prevent us from finding out,” I say. “It was a stupid, foolish thing to do. Kill her, then run. Real smart, Mike. Of course we’d figure it out when you do something like that.”

  “I thought I’d be out of the country before the FBI caught up with me. I was supposed to be in Hong Kong. Things got all fucked up. I guess most of all she was about to uncover the link with the Lucky Dragons. I couldn’t allow that to happen. I panicked. Killing her was a knee-jerk reaction.”

  “Keep talking. Everything we say is being recorded. Just let it spill. Then all you’ll have to do is sign your name once we have it typed up.”

  Mike continues, “All right. Here it is. Everything you guys know is true. My brother and I are members of the Lucky Dragons. We were recruited in Los Angeles six years ago. The Triad was already in league with the Shop and has been for some time. They arranged for me to change my identity and apply for work in the NSA.”

  “How did the Triad manage that?”

  “They didn’t. It was the Shop. But they had some help in Washington.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Someone high up on the food chain. I don’t know who it is, I swear. The person’s identity is very well protected.”

  I rub my chin and ask, “Someone in Congress?”

  “I really don’t know, Sam. I swear. Whoever it is has a lot of connections. They were able to whitewash my background, create a new existence for me as Mike Chan, whatever it took. And they initiated the contact with Professor Jeinsen.”

  “So you’re saying there’s a traitor high in our government that’s been orchestrating this whole thing with the Triad and the Shop?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did the relationship between you and Jeinsen work?”

  “I never met him. He would deliver electronic files to a drop box in the city. I would pick them up and send them to Jon Ming in Hong Kong. Ming then sold them to the Shop. Or maybe there was a different kind of deal between them. The Lucky Dragons got weapons for the information, or something like that.”

  “And there’s one more piece of Jeinsen’s work to be delivered?”

  Mike hesitates and then probably figures he’s gone this far so why not spill it all. “Yeah. It’s the guidance system for the MRUUV. Comes in a laptop computer. GyroTechnics designed it to Jeinsen’s specifications with some input from the Shop’s customer. I was supposed to deliver it to Hong Kong along with my defection but Ming suddenly decided not to buy it. He’s had a falling out with the Shop because of some political reason.”

  “So is the deal completely dead?”

  “No. Earlier on the day I was arrested I made contact with the Shop and offered to sell the thing to them directly. Eddie and I went around the Lucky Dragons.”

  I whistle. “Gee, Mike, you’d better be glad you were arrested. The Dragons would have killed you in a most unpleasant way for doing that. Where’s your brother?”

  “I don’t know. Hiding, I imagine. The Shop is in contact with him, though. I made sure that if I wasn’t available then they could deal with him. He’s going to sell the guidance system and it’s going to happen any day. It may have already occurred.”

  “He’s dealing with Zdrok?”

  Mike nods.

  I stare at the traitor for a full minute and then stand. “Thanks, Mike. Everything you’ve said will be typed up and you can sign it. You’ve helped yourself today. For the record, though, I still think you’re scum. Sorry about the mess.”

  After my little speech, which doesn’t really make me feel any better about the guy, I turn and leave the room.

  “I’M going to have to break into GyroTechnics,” I tell Lambert back in his office.

  “We’re way ahead of you,” he replies. “Anna Grimsdottir has been busy hacking into their server, collecting e-mails and downloading other secure files. Our analysts are already at work picking them apart. We’re sharing everything we have with the FBI and they’re cooperating with us. The Bureau already knows that GyroTechnics is up to no good. An official investigation is under way for a number of crimes, including providing sensitive and classified military information to foreign powers. We know they’ve been working with the MRUUV material and they shouldn’t have any access at all to that project. Special Agent Jeff Kehoe is now in charge of the investigation into the firm. I’ve told him you would do what you do best and get inside GyroTechnics and see what you can find. In the meantime, he’s searching for Eddie Wu and trying to pinpoint when the guy might be making contact with the Shop.”

  “Do you have a photo of Eddie Wu?”

  Lambert digs through the pile of stuff on his desk and comes up with one. I memorize the guy’s features. He looks a lot like his brother.

  “We have to prevent the exchange of that guidance system,” Lambert continues. “There’s no telling what General Tun is using the MRUUV for. We have to assume he’s built one from Jeinsen’s plans.”

  “What does our government have to say about this General Tun?”

  “The Secretary of State has been in contact with the Chinese government. We’ve issued a stern warning that Taiwan is not to be harassed. Of course, China’s playing dumb. They say General Tun is simply performing military exercises and war games in and around Fuzhou. He supposedly has no intention to attack Taiwan, nor has the government given him the authorization to do so. So, to make a long story short, our government has assumed a ‘wait and see’ position.”

  I stretch and can’t quite stifle a yawn.

  “Am I boring you?” Lambert asks.

  “I’m exhausted, Colonel. It’s been a tough week. Hell, it’s been a tough couple of months.”

  “Fine. You have twenty-four hours’ leave, Sam. Get some rest. Go get laid. Do what you need to do to get recharged. We have a car in the garage upstairs for you to use.”

  “Thanks, Colonel.”

  Right on cue, Frances Coen enters the office. She looks at me expectantly.

  “Oh, I almost forgot,” I mumble. “I have an appointment before I go, right?”

  She nods. “The doctor is here. You want to come into the prep room, Sam? I promise we’ll get this over with quickly. It’ll be painless. I think.”

  Lambert gives me a grin. “It won’t be any worse than it was when you first had them put in.”

  “That’s comforting,” I say. The original surgery was horrific.

  I stand and follow Coen into a sterile room where I meet a Dr. Frank and his pretty nurse Betsy.

  At least I’ll get a good drug out of the ordeal.

  AFTER all that, there was nothing to it. I feel a little discomfort in my ears, kind of like when there’s water in them and you can’t get it out. The doc told me it would clear up in a few hours and I’d be as good as new. The car they’ve given me is a 2005 Nissan Murano, a roomy vehicle with a V6 engine and “continuously variable transmission.” I’m impressed. It’s the best company car Third Echelon has ever given me.

  I have no idea where I’m going to spend the night in Los Angeles. While I’m cruising into the city o
n I-210, I phone my house in Maryland to pick up any messages that might be on my personal answering machine. Much to my surprise, there’s one from Katia Loenstern.

  “Hi, Sam, it’s Katia. I know you’re probably out of town but I just, I don’t know, I just wanted to call and say I miss you. I had a nice time with my mom and sister in San Diego and now I’m in Los Angeles. I felt like coming up here to spend some money. What can I say?—I like to shop, and L.A.’s a good place to do that. I just checked in to the Sofitel Hotel across from Beverly Center and I plan on hitting the mall in a minute. I’m probably gonna stay here a few days and then go back to Baltimore. Hopefully by then you’ll be back, too. Anyway, I hope you’re safe and I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.”

  Well. What did Colonel Lambert say about me needing to get laid?

  I’m suddenly faced with some decisions to make. On one hand I should probably stay clear of her, get some rest, and focus on the job. On the other hand, I’m dying to see her. But am I ready to dive headfirst into a relationship? Because that’s exactly what it would be if I return her call—a relationship. Damn, just the thought makes me nervous.

  Screw it. I need this. It’s been too long. Call it Mental Health Therapy. Hell, call it Gonad Therapy. I may be a Splinter Cell but I’m also a man.

  At least now I know where I’m going. After the 210 becomes the 134, I take the 2 down to the 101 and head west. It isn’t long before I get off at Santa Monica Boulevard and make my way to Beverly Boulevard and La Cienega. Right to the Sofitel, across from Beverly Center.

  24

  I check in to the hotel, go to my room on the third floor, dial the front desk, and ask to be connected to Katia’s room. I expect her to be out so I’m pleasantly surprised when she picks up.

  “Hello?” There’s a slight puzzlement in her voice. Who could be calling her in Los Angeles?

  “Hi, Katia,” I say. “It’s Sam.”

  “Oh, my God, Sam! What a surprise!”

  “How are you?”

  “I’m . . . I’m fine! My gosh, I’m flustered. What are you doing? Are you back in the States?”