Lashti’s glasses camera, the rough walls of the buildings on either side of him bouncing up and down as he pounded down the dirt road, trying to outdistance his pursuers.
A soft chime announced that Pai Kun was online, as well. As usual, he wasted no time on inconsequential matters. “Alpha will have to get himself out of town at the very least before we can extract him. I can do a lot, but I don’t have anyone that close at the moment, and the region is volatile enough without anyone thinking the Chinese may be involved in covert activity there.”
“That would be the last thing we need,” Kate replied, then switched to the hacker. “Got anything yet?”
The words “It’s coming up now” appeared on her screen. The regular street map disappeared, and an eerie blue-and-black thermal view of the dark town appeared instead. Kate saw a tiny red-orange figure running down a narrow alley. He was chased by two others across a street and into another alley. She quickly scanned the buildings around the hotel, looking for the telltale heat bloom of an idling car.
“Alpha, turn left at the next intersection, and head back toward the hotel. Their SUV is in a building approximately twenty-five yards south of it. I’ll guide you to it.”
Kate drew on the monitor, tracing the route her operative would have to take. As she plotted the route, the computer used the satellite imagery to give her the precise distances of each leg, as well as visual points to lead him through it. “Move forward ten yards, then turn left again.
Circle around the hut you’re near…cross the road ahead of you…they’re about thirty yards back. Checking cross alleys, looks like you’ve lost them for now.”
Lashti had stopped in the deep shadow of an overhang-ing hut roof. “Dawn’s going to be breaking soon, and there won’t be any place to hide. Primary, if I don’t make it out of here, you need to know that all of the data I’ve collected indicated that our subject thought he was selling a live device. He had no idea it was a fake.”
Kate didn’t let this revelation slow her down for a second. “Good. Now let’s get you out of there so you can debrief properly. You’re close to the shed containing the SUV—you might even be able to hear it idling now.”
The camera view of Lashti panned left, then right as he scanned the area. “Not yet. Where to next?”
“Go to the front of the hut you’re near right now, then go two more buildings down on your left. The SUV should be behind the second one.”
“Affirmative.” The operative skulked from hut to hut while Kate kept an eye out for trouble, both of them aware of the glimmers of sunlight brightening the eastern horizon with every passing minute.
“Alpha, freeze right now!” Kate ordered.
Lashti flattened himself against the wall as two men walked out of the hut, dressed in heavy coats against the chill mountain morning. The two men showed up as small moving blue dots on Kate’s screen, with tiny red dots for their faces. They turned left, away from Lashti, and walked down the street.
“Give them a few seconds.” Kate split her attention between the receding pair of men and the approaching Russians, who were searching the narrow alleys and squat, one-story buildings with precision. “All right, go to the back of the hut. Their SUV is inside the shed. There’s one man guarding it, but the others are only about forty yards from your position, so you’ll have to take him out silently.”
“It’s never just as simple as catching a plane out of the country, is it?” Lashti whispered.
Kate sent a quick text message to the hacker. “No, but I think I might have a way to speed this up.”
Lashti silently reached the double doors, and both he and Kate could clearly hear the SUV’s purring engine.
“I’m here. Now I just need a way to get him outside without getting me shot in the process.”
“Just wait another few seconds.” Kate kept an eye on the two Russians, who were now only twenty yards away and getting closer by the second. The screen flashed as the hacker uploaded a sound file and message to Kate: “I can’t guarantee the translation accuracy, but this should do it.”
“Alpha, turn the volume on your phone to maximum and set it down in front of the doors and go around the side.
Incapacitate your target when he comes out,” Kate ordered.
She watched Lashti adjust the controls on his lifeline to her and set the phone on the rough, stony ground, then walk around the corner of the shed, his pistol drawn, but held by the slide and barrel instead of the grip.
“Dmitri, come out here!” The Russian’s order was a bit choppy, because the hacker had cut the words from other conversations and strung them together in one file, but it should have been enough to attract the guard’s attention.
Nothing happened for several seconds. The door remained firmly shut. Kate sent the wave file again, the lag time just enough that it seemed the person outside had been waiting for a response. The two men were only ten yards away now, and Kate realized they had coordinated their sweep to end up back at the SUV. If the driver didn’t bite soon, Lashti would be stuck with the three of them.
She heard a scrape of wood on wood, and one of the doors swung inward. Peering around the corner with her operative, they both saw a man’s dark form stroll out, a crooked cigarette dangling from his lips.
“Alexei, where the hell are you?” In the rectangle of light from the shed, he noticed the phone on the ground and walked over to pick it up, his free hand slipping underneath his coat.
With three large, noiseless steps, Lashti crept up and brought the butt of his pistol down hard on the back of the other man’s head, smashing him to the street. He picked up his phone, then frisked the unmoving man, coming up with a SIG Sauer 9 mm pistol, which he slipped into his pocket. “Commandeering the SUV now,” he whispered.
Kate was struck by a sudden brainstorm. “Alpha, take that man with you.”
“Already thought of it, Primary.”
Kate watched as he dragged the unconscious body inside the building, which was remarkably exhaust free.
Lashti spotted the reason why, and disconnected a hose that vented the exhaust to the outside.
“Get out of there—Kryukov’s people are less than ten yards away,” Kate said.
Securing the man’s hands behind his back with his belt, Lashti shoved him into the back of the SUV, then slipped behind the steering wheel. He eased the vehicle into gear, moving out of the shed slowly. As soon as he was free of the building, he gunned the engine, the wheels slipping on the rocks as they fought for traction. A shout echoed behind him, and Kate saw the two men running after the vehicle, shrinking in the distance as they pursued with guns drawn. They didn’t have the chance to shoot, since Lashti had quickly pulled out of range.
“Stinks in here—damn Russians, all of ’em chain-smokers. I’m going to reek like an ashtray by the time I get out of here,” Lashti said.
“Worry about the clothes later—you’re not safe yet— you still have to make it out of the town and north, across the border. That military base isn’t going to look too kindly on you if they spot you trying to leave through Kashmir,” Kate said.
“Leave that to me—after this little escapade, getting into China will be the easy part. Thanks for the assist, Primary, I appreciate it.”
“Anytime, Alpha. I’ve downloaded your route to your phone. It should avoid all of the army patrols on both sides of the border. Be careful, and you should be in China by this time tomorrow, if all goes well. Turn over your captive to our operative at the border. I’m sure he’ll be able to extract any useful information from him. Report back in when you’re clear, or if you discover something. Primary out.”
Kate disconnected the call and sent a quick note of thanks to the hacker, telling her to keep monitoring Alpha until he got out safely. She also updated Pai Kun, who promised to have people ready to get Lashti across the border.
Leaning back in her chair, Kate tried to slow her heartbeat. Although her voice had never changed from a calm, modulated tone as she had talked Lashti through his escape, her heart and mind had been racing a mile a minute, always analyzing, planning and discarding several options and variables. Oversight was a part of her job that Kate simultaneously loved and hated. She loved it for the immediate, real-time access it gave her to the operatives, and hated it for the powerless feeling she got at the same time. Every time she slipped on her headset and Web-viewing
