cameras and lights mounted on the lab building. They had their heads close together, studying the dozens of digital surveillance photos the CIA officer had shot during her long afternoon and evening vigil.
Kirov glanced up when Smith and Randi returned. “We’ve definitely come to the right place,” he said somberly. “See for yourself.”
While Jon watched, the Russian clicked through several color images taken with a telephoto lens. The first showed two black sedans arriving at the lab building. The next set showed a large group of men climbing out of the cars and moving toward the lab. Kirov zoomed in on two of those men.
Smith whistled softly, staring at the familiar faces of Erich Brandt and Konstantin Malkovic. The sight of the ex-Stasi officer’s cold gray eyes raised the hairs on the back of his neck. Jon’s jaw tightened. While he and Fiona Devin were being tortured, Jon had promised to kill that arrogant bastard. That was a promise he meant to keep. He looked away, fighting to regain a measure of control over his anger. This was a time for coolly rational thought, not aveng-ing blood lust. “Are Brandt and Malkovic still inside?” he asked.
“They are,” Fiona said. She sounded surprisingly calm. “Ms. Russell’s ad-mirably complete set of pictures shows no one else entering or leaving.”
“That’s one piece of good news anyway.” Smith squatted down on his haunches. The others grouped themselves around him. “The bad news is that our first plan ?to run a quick sneak-and-peek into that compound, looking for evidence ?isn’t going to fly. Their security is too tight. We’d be spotted the second we started toward the perimeter fence.”
Kirov shrugged. “Since we know where Renke’s lab is, I suggest we strike now, without worrying about stealth. Our enemies have done us the favor of putting themselves in one place,” he said coldly. “We should take advantage of their error.”
“I’d like to kick in the door,” Smith agreed. He grinned tightly. “But only if we had a full company of infantry, with a couple of M1AI Abrams tanks for fire support. And even then we’d be sticking our hands into a meat- grinder.”
“The building is that closely guarded?” the Russian asked.
Jon nodded. “It is.”
“There are F-16s based at Aviano,” Randi said coolly. “They could be here in an hour. Maybe less.”
“You want to call in an air strike?” Smith asked.
“Why not?” The CIA officer’s eyes were hard. “One laser-guided bomb would solve a great many problems.”
Jon understood her feelings. The vicious genetic weapon set in motion by the men inside that lab, Renke, Brandt, and Malkovic, was already responsible for dozens of cruelly painful deaths around the world. It was incredibly tempting to contemplate watching a single massive explosion engulf them in flame. But there were too many arguments against an air strike, both practical and political.
Sighing, he shook his head in regret. “The president would never approve an F-16 strike, Randi, and that’s how high up the decision would have to go.
Most of the Center’s work is legitimate scientific research, and there’s too much chance of collateral damage. Can you imagine how the EU would react if we dropped bombs on friendly territory, especially without permission or even consultation?” He frowned. “Our alliances are already too fragile as it is.”
“Destroying that lab would also destroy the evidence we need?the evidence that the Russians have been involved in creating and using this new weapon,” Fiona pointed out quietly. “So would killing these men, or at least all of them. We may need their testimony to make our accusations against the Kremlin stick.”
Kirov nodded heavily. “Ms. Devin is right. Whatever we do, we must try to take at least one of these men, Renke or Malkovic especially, alive.”
“Spiffy,” Ranch said, shaking her head. “This gets better and better.” She turned back to Smith. “Okay, Jon, you claim that you’re tied in w ith the Pentagon. Why don’t you whistle up a commando unit? Like the Delta Force or the SEALs?” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder toward the ECPR compound. “Kicking in doors is what thev train for, isn’t it?”
“Believe me, I’d like nothing better,” Jon told her softly. “But there aren’t any Delta Force or SEAL teams in striking range. They’re either in the States refitting and training, or tied up in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.” One side of his mouth curved up in an ironic grin. “I’m afraid you’re looking at the only special-ops team available … and it’s the four of us.”
“What about the Italians?” Fiona broke in. She nodded at the darkened landscape around them. “This is their country. Don’t thev have special police or Annv units capable of raiding that lab?”
Smith thought about that. The Italians had two very highly regarded countcrterrorist units, the GIS (Groupe Interventional Speciale) and NOCS (Nucleo Operativo Gentrale de Sicurezza). And this was their jurisdiction.
Why not ask Fred Klein and the president to kick the responsibility over to the government in Rome? But how far would the Italian government be willing to go without seeing anything more than vague and circumstantial evidence?
Then another, even more unpleasant thought, occurred to him. He looked around at the others. “We know, from Randi here, that Malkovic is already being tipped off by someone in Germany, or maybe even inside Langley. But what if Malkovic has another mole?this one in the Italian security services?”
“It seems likelv,” Kirov growled. “This financier has shown himself to be a man with a near-infinite capacity for corrupting others, in Russia, Germany, and many other countries. I doubt very much that he would leave himself blind and deaf here in Italy.”
Fiona frowned. “That’s pure speculation, Oleg.”
“Yes, it is,” Smith agreed. “But even if Malkovic doesn’t have a secret source in Rome, bringing the Italians into this operation would take some prettv fancy diplomatic maneuvering?”
“For which there is no time,” Kirov said suddenly and forcefully.
The others looked at him in surprise.
“Our enemies must know that their cover here is tattered and perhaps even on the verge of falling apart completely,” Kirov explained. He showed his teeth. “Think, mv friends. Why else do you think a man like Malkovic would come all this way, especially now, with events in my country moving so fast toward war?”
“Renke and his pals are getting ready to pull another disappearing act,”
Smith realized.
“Could they really pull that off?” Randi asked curiously.
“Sure,” Smith said. He rubbed at his jaw, thinking it through out loud. “All Renke really needs to set up shop again somewhere else are his DNA samples, any special equipment he’s using, and a few of his trained technicians. Most of the equipment and other material would probably fit in one small truck or a couple of vans.”
“Then it’s simple,” Randi said coldly. “We wait until they drive out of here, and then we jump them.”
“Look more carefully at your photographs, Ms. Russell,” Kirov advised.
“Do vou see any trucks or vans outside that lab?”
She shook her head reluctantly. “No.”
“But there is a large stretch of bare concrete, is there not?”
Jon saw what the Russian was getting at. “Hell,” he muttered. “Malkovic and Renke are going to fly the stuff out.”
Kirov nodded. “Probably by helicopter to a jet waiting at Rome or Florence or any one of several other nearby airfields.” He shrugged his big shoulders gloomily. “Malkovic’s native Serbia is not far from Italy, not much more than an hour’s flying time across the Adriatic Sea. Libya and Syria are also within casv reach. As arc am number of other unsavory regimes that might offer so rich a man refuge.”
Frowning, Smith summed the situation up. “Which means if we wait too long, Renke will vanish again ?with everything he needs to restart Malkovic’s genetic weapons business.”
“So we can’t go in. We can’t bomb them. And we can’t wait for them to come out. Mind telling me what other options we do have, Jon?” Randi said sharply, reining in her temper with difficulty.
Smith gritted his teeth, feeling equally frustrated. “I don’t know.” He shook his head grimly. “But we’ve got to find a way to push these guys off their game, to make them react to our moves for a change.”
Unable to bear inaction any longer, he stood up and began pacing around their small campsite. There had to be something they could do, some angle they could play, to get at Malkovic and his subordinates, to pry them out of that fortified lab before it was too late.
