“Yeah, but she’s worth it.”

  “Maybe you can have her take one of those fear of flying classes,” suggested Spock.

  Atlas eyed him. “Fear of flying classes? They have such a thing?”

  Spock shrugged. “Frasier Crane taught one.”

  “Who the hell is Frasier Crane?”

  Everyone, including Niner, stopped what they were doing as they stared at Atlas.

  “You don’t know who Frasier Crane is?” asked Dawson. “How is that even possible?”

  Atlas shrugged. “I don’t know. We travel in different social circles? Who the hell is Frasier Crane?”

  “He’s the psychiatrist from ‘Cheers,’” replied Spock.

  “Oh, little bit before my time, dude.”

  “It’s a little bit before all our times, but I don’t know anybody who hasn’t watched it in re-runs.”

  Atlas rolled his eyes. “Well, now you do.”

  Niner gave a thumbs-up. “We’re clear.” He turned to Atlas. “You really should get Vanessa to take one of those classes.”

  Atlas gave him a look. “That’s my cover, you moron. Vanessa loves to fly.”

  “Really? Are you sure?”

  Atlas growled. “When we get married and go on our honeymoon, I’m flying to the opposite side of wherever you are on this planet.”

  Niner pouted. “You mean I’m not invited?”

  “The only way I’d be inviting you, is if I was afraid we were going to run out of toilet paper and I needed something to wipe my ass with.”

  Spock snorted. “Now there’s a mental image I didn’t need.”

  Niner stared askance at Atlas. “Have you been watching Eddie Murphy Delirious again?”

  Atlas grinned. “My brother is a funny man.”

  “Yet you’ve never heard of Frasier Crane.”

  “Did a brother play him?”

  “No.” Niner scratched behind his ear. “Actually, I don’t think there are any Black people in it.”

  “And you’re surprised I didn’t make a point of watching it?”

  Niner shrugged. “I’ve seen it. I don’t recall any Asian dudes being in it either.”

  “I don’t think you two were the demographic they were shooting for,” said Spock. “Different times.”

  Niner agreed. “I still can’t believe you never heard of Frasier Crane. What about Carla Tortelli?”

  “Drop it,” growled Atlas, “or I am going to wipe my ass with you.”

  Niner held up both hands in mock surrender. “I’ve smelt you after a ten-hour plane ride. There’s no way I want to get anywhere near those sweet cheeks of yours.”

  Dawson headed for the bathroom, pointing at Atlas and Niner. “You two go to your room. Everybody has ten minutes to prep, then we’ll meet in two-oh-four.”

  Atlas groaned. “Why the hell is he always my roommate?”

  “Standing orders from the Colonel.”

  Niner grinned. “I gave him a box of Cubans to make sure you and I spent every moment together, Sweet Cheeks.”

  Atlas shook his head, staring at the heavens. “Take me now, Lord. I can’t go on like this.”

  54 |

  Radisson Royal Hotel St. Petersburg, Russia

  Kane knocked on the door of Room 204, eying the security camera at the far end of the hallway. Leroux had assured him Jack had already looped it, so they weren’t being watched, and he had no doubt the room had already been swept for bugs. The door opened and Niner grinned at Sherrie.

  “You’re invited, but your friend can’t come.”

  She shrugged at Kane. “Sorry, I guess you’re not as handsome as I thought.” She entered the room as Niner stepped aside. Kane snapped his teeth at him, sending the man scurrying away in mock fear. He stepped inside and closed the door.

  “Is everyone here?”

  “Yes,” replied Jack, out of sight around the corner.

  Kane locked the door then stepped inside, his expert eye surveying everyone there. All good friends, all people he could trust. He spotted an interference generator attached to the frame of the window, designed to prevent the monitoring of any vibrations in the glass caused by their voices. “I assume we can speak freely?”

  Jack nodded.

  “Good.” He exchanged handshakes with his former Delta teammates. “Glad to see you guys could make it, even you, Niner.”

  Niner curtsied. “Always happy to help out the CIA, since apparently they can’t get things done on their own.”

  Kane shrugged. “Sherrie and I were prepared to take care of this by ourselves, but Colonel Clancy insisted we bring you guys so you could see how it’s done. Consider it a live training video.”

  Atlas eyed him, his deep voice no doubt rattling the windowpanes, despite any technological preventative measures. “If you’d like, we’ll just stand back and let you two handle things.”

  Kane laughed, slapping the big man on the back. “I’ve missed you guys.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who left,” said Dawson. “All this could have been yours, but you decided to go solo.”

  Kane shrugged. “Like I told you at the time, it was me or Niner, and you refused to make the choice.”

  Dawson frowned deeply. “Yeah, I know. Me and the other team leaders all drew straws. Bravo Team got the short one.”

  Atlas smacked Niner on the back with a meaty hand, nearly sending him to the floor. “Yeah, we definitely got the short one on that.”

  Niner stretched, working out the new kinks. “Really? With all the possibilities, you go with a short joke?”

  Atlas shrugged. “I go with what works. I guess I could’ve gone with a penis joke, but then you’d end up short there too.”

  Everyone laughed, and Niner did a Michael Jackson grab of his junk.

  Jack stood near the room’s only table, shaking his head. “Are you guys always like this?”

  Sherrie sighed. “Pretty much. Sometimes it seems like a high school locker room. There’s a lady in the room, and they’ve already been talking about their penises.”

  Niner stared at her. “So, you’re telling me that if it were a room full of women, the conversation would be different?”

  She shook her head. “Oh, no, we’d still be talking about your penises, but we wouldn’t be talking about our own genitalia.”

  Every man in the room froze, staring at her for a moment, and she smiled.

  “Yes, boys, we do talk about your penises.”

  Everyone was suddenly uncomfortable. Dawson scratched behind his ear. “I think I’m going to have a conversation with Maggie when I get home.”

  Spock agreed. “I’m definitely talking to Joanne.”

  Kane’s eyes shot wide. “Wait a minute! Do you and Fang talk about, you know, him?”

  Sherrie grinned and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, big guy, you’re okay.”

  Kane eyed her for a moment, then grinned at the others, deciding he was perfectly satisfied with the chosen words.

  Atlas gave him a thumbs-up. “Welcome to the club.”

  Jack rapped his knuckles on the table. “I’m not sure what I was just witness to, but how about we get this op underway?”

  Kane agreed, pushing aside the pleasant feelings his reunion with his former comrades had brought to the surface. “What’s the latest?”

  “We’ve got a location, and we’ve got the plans for the building. It’s an office tower, twelve stories, owned by a company whose accounts were drained as part of the Red Eagle theft, or liberation of funds, however you want to look at it.”

  “So, are you suggesting that this is a front company for the Russian President?”

  “Either that, or it’s where he hid some of his money, but it explains why she was taken there, if it’s under his control.”

  “Any idea how we’re going to find her?” asked Kane as he eyed the plans to the building that Jack projected onto the wall. “There are a lot of rooms in this thing, and if they are part of the glorious leader’s empire, we can’t trust that what they filed with the municipality is anywhere close to what’s actually inside.”

  “Agreed,” said Jack. He held up what appeared to be a canister of spray-on deodorant. “That’s why we have this.”

  “What’s that?” asked Niner.

  “Langley spotted chemical and biological sniffers around the building.”

  Dawson’s eyebrows popped. “Around a civilian building?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s odd. Something tells me what’s actually going on there doesn’t match what the outside world thinks.”

  Jack agreed. “Yeah, and that has Langley concerned. We’re going to have to wait and see what happens after we trigger their biological warning sensors with what’s in this can.”

  “Just what is in that can?” asked Niner again.

  “It’s a chemical composition similar to sarin. Any sensor that picks it up will mistake it for the real thing.”

  “That could come in handy,” said Niner. “Especially on a bad blind date.”

  Kane ignored him. “And just what is Langley’s concern?”

  “Well, the question is, what will happen? Depending on the design of the system, if they sense it, it could shut the whole building down and everyone is locked up inside, or it could trigger an evacuation, which works in our favor.”

  Kane scratched his chin as he stared at the plans for the building. “I don’t like those odds. Too fifty-fifty for me. We could trigger those sensors and lock Thorn inside. And regardless, they’ll know we’re coming.”

  “Langley figures they have sensors on the inside too,” replied Jack.

  “Then we need to get that canister inside. If they think the contaminant is inside, but not outside, then they’re more likely to order an evacuation. Either way, as long as we’re on the inside, the confusion should help us out.” Kane mulled over the possibilities. “This cover company, what are they supposed to do?”

  “They’re a financial analysis company,” replied Jack. “According to Langley, they’ve been around for about a decade.”

  “And this building, when was it constructed?”

  “Two years ago.”

  “And Langley’s found nothing else cross-referenced to it? No other companies using the same address?”

  “No, nothing. It seems to be one-hundred-percent occupied by this company.”

  “So, there’s every possibility this could be filled with paper pushers as opposed to trained personnel.”

  “It’s a definite possibility.”

  Kane frowned. “We’re going to have to break radio silence and risk a transmission being picked up. I need to talk to Chris.”

  Jack shrugged. “It’s your op. I’m just here to pretty up the place.”

  Kane activated his comm. “Control, this is Rabble-rouser. Come in, over.”

  “This is Control Actual, go ahead.”

  “We need more info on that building. We need to know what type of personnel we’re dealing with inside. You’ve been monitoring. What are you seeing?”

  “Nothing but business suits,” said Leroux. “No evidence of any military or security personnel. Now, they could be in disguise, of course, but we’ve noticed nobody that appears out of place or acting out of character. The entire team was monitoring at lunch hour when hundreds of people were coming in and out. We’ve got facial recognition running on everyone, and nobody’s come up in our records yet. All outward indications are that this is simply a state-of-the-art office facility occupied by civilians.”

  “Have you been able to breach their security? Can we get a look inside?”

  “Negative. We think it’s a self-contained system monitored from within, but we’re looking for a back door. We’re working on trying to breach their firewalls, but so far have only managed to access some general office admin stuff that would need access to the outside world. I can’t guarantee we’ll have full access before you go in.”

  Dawson pointed at the diagram of the building. “It looks like there’s an underground garage with a loading dock. How often are vehicles going in and out of that?”

  “Not very frequently as far as we can tell.”

  Kane turned to Dawson. “What’s your idea?”

  “We’re over-thinking this. Let’s just get ourselves a delivery truck, drive right in the front door, then go from there.”

  “Go from there?” asked Jack. “That’s your plan?”

  Dawson shrugged. “It’s worked before.”

  “There could be a hundred guys in there with weapons.”

  “If there are, then you’re never getting them out, no matter what you do. If they have those numbers inside, then they’re prepared for any eventuality. We toss some fake sarin gas through the front door, they’ll button up that building, because it’s designed to protect those armed personnel. Any plan we have to breach by trying to trick them with something like that will fail if it’s a worst-case scenario in there. But if there aren’t a hundred armed personnel in there, and there’s maybe one rogue group using the office as cover, then that’s all we’ll be facing. If we breach the facility without setting off all the alarms, we’re more likely to succeed. And if we get inside and find a hundred men, then they were going to be there anyway, and they would’ve been locked down. Skip the gas, and we at least have a shot of getting through the doors.”

  Jack looked about the room. “Seven against a hundred.”

  Dawson shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time, though I agree, I don’t like those odds. But I’m betting that it’s nothing like that at all.” He jabbed a finger at the diagram of the building. “I’m willing to bet you that that building runs our Russian President’s entire illicit empire. This is where all his money is laundered. There’ll be a small security detachment because of the data, but this thing is protected like Fort Knox from a technological perspective so the data can’t be stolen. He can’t put troops there, because then it can tie back to him. This is a civilian operation with people who probably don’t even know what the hell they’re actually doing. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they just have a single floor dedicated for things like this, where they can use it as a safe haven should the need arise. I’ve seen it before all around the world.”

  Kane agreed. “So have I. You see a lot of this, especially in China. You’ll have an office tower and there’ll be one floor where the government has something set up that the people in the building don’t even know about. The elevator just doesn’t go to that floor without a special pass. I think BD’s right. Let’s take your fancy deodorant, though, just in case we need to create some confusion on the way out.”

  Jack shrugged. “Fine by me, it’s your op.”

  “And all our asses if we’re wrong,” said Niner.

  55 |

  Operations Center 3, CIA Headquarters Langley, Virginia

  The operation was timed for maximum satellite coverage. They didn’t want to re-task a bird to remain geostationary over St. Petersburg, as their adversaries regularly monitored satellite positions, and it could tip them off to what was about to happen. Leroux stood by his station, his heart beating a little faster than usual as everything came down to these next few minutes. A box van belonging to a moving company had been acquired with little trouble only minutes before. By the time it was reported stolen, this operation was either going to be over, or every cop in the city would be heading there regardless.

  Child had managed to gain access to some of the less critical systems, including office requisitions. A delivery had been scheduled to pick up several antique desks for restoration.

  “Control, this is Rabble-rouser, going radio silent, out.”

  Leroux didn’t bother replying as they watched the vehicle approach the underground garage entrance. It stopped at the security gate, and they were about to find out if phase one of the plan would succeed or fail.

  And if it did fail, there was no Plan B that anyone would be happy with.

  56 |

  N Invest St. Petersburg, Russia

  Kane shrugged, and in perfect Russian replied, “What can I tell you? They didn’t give me any paperwork. I was told to come here and pick up three desks and deliver them to the shop. Are you going to let me do my job?”

  The guard frowned at Kane’s tone. “What’s the name of your company?”

  Kane jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “It’s on the side of the truck.”

  The guard muttered a curse, but Kane maintained his asshole persona. If he was too friendly and cooperative in this line of work, the guard might become suspicious. If he played the disgruntled employee, the guard would want to be rid of him as quickly as possible. The man took a step back and read the company name off the side of the stolen vehicle. He scanned his list.

  “Okay. I’ve got it.” He gestured at another guard inside the booth who opened the gate. “Go down to the bottom of the ramp, hang a left, then go all the way to the back. You’ll see the loading dock there. Talk to Dimitri and he’ll tell you what to do next.”

  Kane gave the man a two-fingered, left-handed salute. “Will do, thanks.”

  He put the van in gear and they descended into the belly of the beast. He turned left, and slowly made his way to the rear of the building, his head on a swivel, as was Jack’s, as they took in everything, from the stray people heading to and from their cars, to the types of cars, positions of the ramps to other levels, elevators, emergency exits—everything that might help them on the way out.

  Jack pointed at the loading dock ahead. “There it is.”

  Kane slammed a fist on the back of the cab twice, signaling the others to get ready. He spotted a camera to his left, focused on the loading dock, and it wasn’t the first he had seen since they arrived. Langley had had no success in gaining access to the security system, so they would play this cool.

  And old school.

  He turned the van around and backed up to the loading dock, the rear bumping against the concrete ledge. He and Jack both climbed out at the same time as a man emerged from a side door. “Are you Dimitri?” asked Kane as Jack opened the back of the truck to let the “crew” out.

 

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