The enemy, p.8
The Enemy, page 8
“That is not nice story.”
“No, but it’s very German.”
“Target coming up on the right,” Selena said.
She slowed a little and they cruised past the building.
“I don’t see anyone except the guy in the guardhouse,” Ronnie said.
“Doesn’t mean they’re not there,” Nick said.
Then they were past.
“The Inn is open,” Lamont said. “There are people sitting out front.”
“Go down the road a little, then turn around and come back,” Nick said. “Park at the Inn.”
Ten minutes later, Selena pulled into a parking lot by the side of the Inn. They climbed out of the car.
“Time to play tourist,” Nick said.
“I hope the food’s good,” Lamont said.
They sat down at a table where they could look across the highway at the laboratory. A waitress with blonde pigtails came out of the Inn, dressed in traditional Bavarian costume. She balanced a tray with four large steins of beer on one hand and a platter heaped with food on the other. They watched her glide across the patio.
“How does she do that?” Lamont said. “Those trays look heavy.”
The girl deposited the beers and food at a nearby table and came over.
“Guten tag,” she said.
“Guten tag,” Selena said. She said something in German. The waitress smiled and replied and went back into the Inn.
“What did you say to her?” Ronnie said.
“I asked her what was good today and for menus. She said the Wienerschnitzel is good. I told her to bring us four beers with the menus and a soda for Ronnie. The beer has to be good here.”
“I like this place already,” Lamont said. “What’s Wienerschnitzel?”
“Usually it’s a breaded pork cutlet.”
Nick nodded at the building across the way.
“Check it out.”
A muscular looking man in a neat blue uniform came out of the entrance and walked over to the guard shack. He wore a holstered pistol and carried a bull pup submachine gun. The way he held the gun showed easy familiarity with the weapon. The man in the shack came out to meet him. They talked for a minute, then exchanged places.
Ronnie looked at his watch. “Ex-military for sure. Shift change.”
“Twelve o’clock. Probably four or eight hour rotation,” Nick said.
“No one drove up. Security must have quarters inside the building.”
“If I were running the show I’d make it a four hour shift. That means at least six guards. You don’t get as tired in four hours.”
“Spotlights on the corners of the building,” Lamont said. “They probably go on if an alarm is triggered.”
“It looks like any other commercial business. There’s nothing unusual about the fence. Nice landscaping. No obvious security except for the guardhouse. Everything is designed to keep a low profile.”
“Hauser wouldn’t want to attract unnecessary attention,” Selena said.
“Figures. Level 4 biohazard labs tend to make people nervous.”
“Here comes the beer,” Lamont said.
The beer was excellent, the food was good. Coffee came after. They killed an hour and a half eating lunch. Nothing much was happening across the way.
“I don’t think there’s much point in sitting here any longer,” Nick said. “We’ll come back tonight.”
“I need to use bathroom,” Valentina said.
She stood and went into the inn.
“Ronnie, you and Lamont go ahead. We’ll meet you at the car,” Nick said.
“Suit yourself,” Ronnie said.
Nick waited until they were out of earshot.
“I didn’t want to say anything when they were here. Has Val got something on her mind? Something bugging her?”
“Val always has something on her mind,” Selena said. “Why do you ask?”
“She’s been too quiet since she got back from her last sightseeing trip. She’s usually pretty high-energy, but not lately.”
“She might be a little depressed. Maybe lonely. She likes it here, but it’s not home. She misses Russia, and she can’t go back. We aren’t her people. The culture is different, the food is different, the traditions, the way people talk and think.”
“That could explain it,” Nick said. “It makes sense when you put it like that.”
“She’ll snap out of it. She’s one of the toughest women I’ve ever known.”
“If you’re right and she’s depressed, it makes me wonder if she’s liable to make a mistake. Things could get dicey tonight.”
“Since she joined the team, she’s never let us down. I don’t think she ever will, no matter what else might be going on with her. Don’t worry, Nick.”
“Here she comes.”
“Where are Ronnie and Lamont?”
“They went ahead to the car. We were waiting for you.”
“Okay. Beer ran through me very quick.”
Nick laughed. “Yeah, that’s the trouble with beer.”
Chapter 19
In the afternoon, they studied the plans of Hauser’s facility. The biohazard lab took up most of the center of the building. A large section in a back corner was set up as quarters for the guards. There was a security station and an office near the entrance. Nick figured the office was the best shot at finding documents or records.
They left the hotel after midnight. There wasn’t much traffic. Earlier Nick had noted a pasture behind the lab, where half a dozen cows were grazing. It was accessed by an unpaved track. They drove past the lab. Selena cut the lights and turned onto the track. She drove a short distance and shut down the engine. A quarter moon provided faint light.
They got out of the car. Nick opened the trunk and handed out the tranquilizer guns, along with black balaclavas that blended with their dark clothes. They each took a pistol and ammunition.
“Use the darts on the guards. We don’t want to kill anyone.”
“What if they start shooting at us?” Ronnie said.
“That all bets are off. Shoot back. He pointed at a large, darkened window on the right hand corner of the building.
“We’ll go in through that window. Ronnie, you take the gizmo that kills the power. As soon as we’re near the fence, turn it on.”
“They will know we come,” Valentina said.
“There’s no reason for them to think it’s anything but a normal outage. By the time they know it isn’t, we’ll have neutralized them.”
“What about emergency backup power?” Ronnie asked.
“It shouldn’t work. If it does, we’ll deal with it. Stay away from the Bio Lab. We don’t know what he’s got in there. Any questions?”
“Let’s do it,” Lamont said.
A three wire livestock fence ran alongside the track to keep the cows in. Lamont cut the wires and stepped through. He stopped and muttered something under his breath.
“What?” Ronnie said in a whisper.
“Cow shit. I just stepped in it.”
They moved through the pasture. As they neared the chain-link fence, Ronnie flipped the switch on the black box. Lights in and around the building died. Lamont cut an opening in the fence. Then they were through and running toward the back.
Ronnie taped the window and broke it. They climbed through the opening into a storeroom. A large, cylindrical tank dominated the far corner. The door leading into the rest of the building was closed. Nick signaled, then cracked the door open. Emergency lights lit a hall leading away from the room with a harsh, white glare. The black box hadn’t affected them. They ran down the hall, toward the front of the building.
A security guard appeared at the far end. He shouted something in German. Valentina shot him with a dart as he raised his weapon. He fell to the floor, twitched, and lay still.
“Nice shot, Val,” Nick said.
“He called the others,” Selena said.
They passed a steel door labeled with warning signs and reached the end of the hall, where the guard lay unconscious on the floor. The hall opened onto a lobby in the front of the building. Nick took out a stun grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it around the corner. He didn’t try to see if anyone was there. They shut their eyes tight, looked away, and covered their ears. Even so, the blast was numbing. White light punched through their closed eyelids. Bright after images floated in front of their vision.
Nick glanced around the corner. Three men lay writhing on the floor. Ronnie and Lamont shot them with darts.
“Watch for the others,” Nick said. “There have to be at least two more.”
“There’s the office,” Selena said.
“Valentina, Lamont, you cover. Ronnie, Selena, with me.”
They went into the office. A safe stood against one wall.
“Ronnie, open that up.”
Ronnie went to the safe and stuck C4 on the door hinges. He set the remote detonators.
“Better go back out,” he said.
Once they were clear, Ronnie triggered the charges. The explosion blew debris and dust out of the room. They went back in. The door of the heavy safe lay on the floor. Inside were several file folders on a shelf.
Nick held out a bag. “Grab the folders. Anything else that looks interesting.”
Ronnie and Selena shoveled the files into the bag.
They heard someone yelling in German. The sound was followed by a burst of automatic fire.
Lamont and Valentina stepped into the room.
“Is trouble,” Valentina said.
She leaned out of the door and fired her pistol. Automatic fire echoed as she ducked back. Lamont took out a stun grenade and tossed it in the direction of the shooters. The grenade detonated. The gunfire stopped.
“Time to boogie,” Nick said. “Back the way we came. Lamont, grab the bag. Ronnie, cover our six.”
Smoke and dust drifted through the glaring emergency lighting. Selena began coughing. They ran back past the bio lab. As they reached the room, a hail of machine gun fire came through the broken window. The rounds sent chips of plaster flying the walls. They dropped to the floor and crawled on hands and knees toward the window and the way out.
“All this noise, cops will be here soon,” Lamont said.
“Don’t worry about it,” Nick said. “Nearest cops are miles away.”
Another burst of shots came through the window, striking the metal tank in the corner. A loud hissing noise was followed by the smell of gas flooding the room.
“This is not good,” Valentina said.
“Out the window as soon as this goes off,” Nick said
Nick pulled the pin on another stun grenade and tossed it out the window.
“Go!”
They piled out of the broken window. Two men rolled on the ground outside, clutching their ears. There was no need to shoot them.
They were halfway to the car when the tank blew. The explosion sent them sprawling. A wave of heat rolled over them. Nick got to his feet, half stunned. He looked at the laboratory. The back of the structure was gone. Long tongues of flame reached toward the sky. What was left of the lab was beginning to burn.
“Jesus,” Lamont said.
“I wonder what was in that tank?” Ronnie said.
Selena looked at the burning building and shook her head.
“Elizabeth isn’t going to like this,” she said.
Chapter 20
Gerhardt Strecker drove past the safe house where Kezri was hiding. It was situated in an older residential neighborhood, set back from the curb on a small lot. The lawn was choked with weeds and needed water. It was a dull house, unassuming, a faded clone of every other house on the block. It was perfect for the purpose. No one would ever suspect a high-ranking defector was living there.
The street climbed a hill to a small park with a green and white gazebo. Strecker drove up the hill, parked, and turned off the engine. He got out, went to a bench, and sat down. From where he sat, he could look down the street and see the house. It was noon, and the park was deserted. It wasn’t much of a park, really. Paint was peeling on the gazebo. The grass needed cutting.
It hadn’t been that difficult to find Kezri. The plane that took her out of Kuwait was the first step on her trail. Ownership was a matter of public record, though it had taken a little digging to find it. It was leased to a foundation run by a former director of the CIA. He’d found out where the man lived, found a place to observe his house, then waited. He’d figured that sooner or later someone would lead him to his quarry, and he’d been right.
The CIA connection had been a surprise, but it hadn’t caused Strecker any concern. If anything, it made things easier. Hood was a private individual, an administrator type, not an agent. Langley would never use him for something like this. It meant Kezri’s defection wasn’t a government operation. There wouldn’t be any FBI or CIA minders to get in the way of what he had to do.
Even so, someone else was in the house with her. Watching the house, Strecker had seen four people go in and out, two at a time. They took twelve hour shifts. Kezri was too important to leave unguarded.
He debated the best way to get to her. He could go after her up close and personal, or he could take her from a distance. Both approaches had advantages and drawbacks. When possible, Strecker preferred a distance shot. By the time anyone realized what had happened, he’d already be away. But that kind of kill required knowledge of when and where the target would be out in the open, as well as a place to set up and wait for the target to appear. With Kezri, that wasn’t possible. He couldn’t sit around waiting for her, he’d have to go in. That meant eliminating the guards.
Strecker considered the problem. He didn’t know the layout of the house. He didn’t know where the guards would be, or which room was Kezri’s. Life wasn’t like the movies, where the assassin snuck in through a convenient window and killed his target. Everything would be locked up. The guards had the look of former military. Getting in and taking them out before they could respond would be difficult, if not impossible. There was a reason why buildings like this were called “safe” houses.
Another option would be flushing her out, along with her keepers. A fire, perhaps? He could light the place up and pick her off when she came out. That was a possibility, but it didn’t guarantee results and he’d still have to deal with the guards. It would be better if no one in the house had an opportunity to escape.
Strecker got up from the bench and went back to his car. He knew what he was going to do. Hauser had wanted him to be discrete, but that was not going to be possible. In the end, what mattered was the result. He didn’t think Hauser would hold it against him.
A little after two in the morning, Strecker returned. This wasn’t the kind of neighborhood where people stayed up late. There were no streetlights. The street was dark except for an occasional porch light. Light showed behind drapes drawn in the front window of the safe house. The rest of the house was dark.
He drove past and up to the park, where he turned around. Strecker cut the lights and engine and rolled down the hill, pulling up across the street from his target. He picked up the package on the seat next to him, and got out. He’d disabled the interior light. Nothing showed when he opened the car door.
His shoes made no sound as he crossed the lawn. Electrical and gas meters sat by the side of the house. The gas line was a bonus. It would make the fire that much bigger and create initial confusion about the cause of the explosion.
With the ease of practice, he attached a bomb to the house where the gas line entered. It didn’t matter which room Kezri was in, the explosion would level the house and everything in it. There would be collateral damage to houses nearby, but wasn’t that what insurance was for? It wasn’t Strecker’s concern.
He padded back to his car and started the engine. At the bottom of the hill he stopped. The engine idled as he took out a remote detonator. He pressed a button. Behind him, the sky lit with violent, orange light. The concussion shook the car. Though he was a block away, bits and pieces of debris rained down on the roof of the vehicle.
Strecker drove away, humming a meaningless tune.
Chapter 21
When Elizabeth got angry, her face changed from milk white to pale crimson. It gave her green eyes a demonic look. That look had made powerful men shiver.
She was angry now.
“What part of don’t blow up the building did you fail to understand?” Elizabeth said. “Do you realize what a shit storm you left behind?”
Nick shrugged. “We didn’t do it. Hauser’s security was shooting at us. They hit a big tank filled with some kind of gas. It made one hell of an explosion when it went off.”
Elizabeth’s pen beat a tattoo on her desk.
“They found four bodies. The building is a total loss. Two of the guards survived. They say it was a terrorist attack. Fortunately for you, that’s what everyone believes. Two militant Islamic groups are claiming credit, so you’re clear, at least for now. You were damn lucky to get out of there before the cops showed up.”
“There wasn’t any way to avoid the guards,” Selena said. “We used darts and stun grenades. If that tank hadn’t blown, no one would have been killed.”
“Do we know what Hauser was doing in there?” Nick asked.
“The files you retrieved were coded,” Stephanie said. “I’ve got Freddie back online. He’s working on it. I’ve scanned everything into his system.”
I estimate two point two three minutes until completion.
“Hey, Freddie, are you okay?” Nick asked.
I am okay, Nick, thank you. Stephanie and I have instituted new security protocols to prevent future incidents.
“The attack on Freddie originated when I tried to get into Hauser’s servers,” Stephanie said. “I’m working on something now to get past those firewalls. His security programming is impressive, stuff I haven’t seen before. I’d love to meet the person who created it.”
“How did Hauser react when he learned about the lab?” Nick asked. “He can’t be happy about it.”
