Bobby chanced a quick glance back then cut around the corner and into the alleyway. He keyed the transmitter again as he hurriedly made his way to the open street. “I’m out. Headed south.”
“Cleaners will be there inside a minute, Vulture.”
Bobby grunted to himself as he broke from the alley and into the semi-crowded street. “Minutes away when seconds count. Story of my life.”
He slipped into the crowd and pulled a ball cap from the bag. He tugged it down low and felt the irritated skin of his forehead break into a sweat from the pain. A panel van screeched to a stop beside him and the side door flew open. His eyes were having trouble focusing, but he saw the shadowy forms of two men reach out for him and pull him into the waiting vehicle.
Bobby knew better than to struggle but breathed a sigh of relief when he heard an American voice announce: “We have him. Cleaners engage.”
Bobby collapsed onto the floor of the van while one of the men cursed. “Open your eyes, Bridger.”
The spray that hit him had him squeezing his eyes shut, but he fought to keep them open. The decontamination spray brought an almost immediate relief to his skin and he tried not to inhale the alkaline solution.
“Get that jacket off!” The man tugged at his clothes and tossed them to the rear of the van. “Jesus…my hands are on fire.”
“You should see the other guy.” Bridger used a towel to mop up the spray, doing his best to dab and not rub. When he opened his eyes he saw the change of clothes being dumped at his feet.
“What the hell happened?”
Bobby turned to stare at the man in the dark suit who glared at him. He shook his head. “I have no idea. One minute I’m settling in at the safe house, the next minute I hear glass breaking and I’m being shot at.”
“They must have followed you.”
Bobby gave him a Go to Hell glare. “No, they didn’t. I know how to spot a tail. I went in clean.”
“We’ve been using that safe house for nearly three years. There’s no way they just stumbled on it.”
Bobby threw his hands into the air. “How the hell do I know? I didn’t think to ask them before I returned fire.”
“This op is burned.” The suit picked up a headphone and spoke into the lip mic. “Switch to alternate.”
“Alternate? We don’t know that they were on to us. This could have been something entirely unrelated.”
The suit gave him a deadpan stare. “We can’t risk it. I’m ordering the bug installed.”
THE TECHNICIANS EXITED the side of the building and put their tools into the plain white work van. The two men paused long enough to smoke a cigarette and waited for their colleague. Downstairs in the air conditioned computer server room, a man in light blue coveralls slipped open an access hatch and jumpered two points on the motherboard. He pulled a small device from his jumpsuit and connected it to the wires.
“I’m in,” he whispered as data began flowing across the screen of the device.
“Copy that Bluebird. You have forty-five seconds,” the tinny voice in his ear responded.
The man leaned out and checked the doorways once more then urged the small device to run faster. His eyes scanned the rapidly downloading data, unable to decipher it, but he could follow the progress bar across the top of the screen.
“Come on, come on…” He checked the doorway once again then turned back to the device. It was almost finished and his hand hovered over the alligator clips holding the wires in place.
The moment the progress bar read 100%, he heard the door open and he pulled the wires, shoving the device into his jumpsuit as he reached for the access door.
“Oh my god! You startled me.” The secretary stood at the end of the servers and stared at him with wide eyes.
“Just finishing up. The cooling fan on this one didn’t come on right away so I checked it. Just a loose connection.” Gregg Soares gave her a bashful smile then placed the access door back on the server housing. “Should be running good as new.”
She smiled and gave him a curt nod. “I thought you all had left. I wouldn’t have bothered you if I—”
“No bother.” He stood and picked up the small duffle full of tools. “All done now.”
She stepped aside and allowed him to walk past. He tipped his cap to her and she blushed. She followed him toward the door and held it open for him.
“If you have any more problems, please, don’t hesitate to call.”
“I am certain the Deputy Prime Minister will have you back out at once if it acts up again.”
Gregg joined the other two at the van and quickly put his tools away. “You were seen,” the voice in his ear stated.
“Just a secretary. Nothing to worry about,” he muttered into his sleeve.
“You should have removed the witness.”
Gregg sat in the back of the van and stared at the stacks of equipment on the homemade shelves. He couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing at the moment. He tapped his coms and whispered, “Say again?”
“You should have removed the witness.”
He stared at the buildings zipping past as the van quickly worked its way through town. He shook his head at the stupidity of the person overseeing the mission.
“Remove a secretary from the Prime Minister’s office? You don’t think that would have sent up alarms?” The voice started to respond but he cut it off. “She had no idea what she was seeing and as far as she’s concerned, I’m just another Turkish computer technician. Your software is uploaded. There’s no need for bloodshed.”
“You had orders, Slip. No witnesses.”
Gregg leaned back and ran a hand through his thick hair. He glanced at the other two men in the van and shrugged. “What the hell?”
Deric Bundy tossed his headphones aside with disgust. “Something must have happened.”
Steve Gibbons
