Chapter Nine

Black

Black had asked Nutsbe for a SCIF and was following behind an escort taking him to a room with a secure line. They walked down the hall past men and women in charcoal grey uniforms, looking efficient and well-regulated. That was trained into them on Uncle Sam's dime. Iniquus was a veteran-owned and veteran-staffed business model.

Black's mind raced with the information that Sophia handed him.

Red's assets were stepping up, once again proving to Black that he'd made an excellent choice when he took Red onto his team even though his colleagues had scoffed at having a woman working in the field, especially in that part of the world. He'd taken the blowback. Fine with him. She had proven herself time and again. Just look, her net trapped two dangerous terrorist events unfolding in real-time.

Forty million euros—about the same in U.S. dollars—in the hands of a terrorist organizer could buy a hell of a lot of people's loyalties and the means to create destruction, be it cyberwar or something kinetic. Terrorism was a game of whack-a-mole. It had been from the beginning of history, and it would be until the extinction of humanity.

Right now, he had two pressing questions. Did Elena go after the ring for the money to retire, or did she do it to fund her work in terrorism? If this money wasn't going to a house on the beach with a server bringing her cocktails as she lay on the sand and was indeed about funding terror, would she tuck the money away and begin her plan? Or was Elena planning to use this windfall to fund something she already had underway?

Black tested each of those possibilities, seeing how they settled into his system. If he were a betting man, he'd say the teeth had already taken a bite of the fruit.

The first thing he needed to do was bring Color Code into play.

***

Sitting in the SCIF, Black watched Grey's image open over the video feed.

Grey lifted his chin by way of hello and jumped right in. "Hey, good, I was about to call you about Red."

"I tried to get her on the feed. She's not answering," Black said.

"Did you hear about the explosion?" Grey was dressed in a suit, which was highly unusual. It looked like he was sitting in a basement somewhere.

"This is about the Poole capture?" Black asked. "Did we lose him?"

"No, it's about Red herself. I got word that a car bomb detonated in front of a government building that housed both the court and official records offices. Most of the damage was to the hotel next door where Red met with her asset."

"Government building? Are they sure the hotel wasn't the target?" Black leaned back in the captain's chair, laced his fingers, and rested them on his chest.

"My understanding was that someone called in with a threat. The reporting suggests it was an assassination attempt on the judges."

Black scowled. "What's Red saying about this?"

"That's the thing. I've been reaching out. She's not answering."

"Shit." Black drew a hand over his face as icicles formed along his nervous system.

Silently, Grey nodded and then, after a prolonged pause, added, "Exactly."

"All right, let's talk this out."

"I'm going to share my screen with you. Here's what I have. These are pictures of the exterior of the hotel." Grey slowly moved through the four photographs.

Black took in the six-story building. While it remained standing, the whole front looked like the structure was carved out, blackened from fire. It was a rat's nest of construction material and furniture. There were random detached body parts. A lot of bodies … a lot of bodies. And they, like Red, were wearing sand-colored tactical wear. Black leaned forward and found himself searching the debris for some sign that one of those bodies was Red.

Grey moved to a photo of a map. "Red sent me this pin. I'm not sure why. But from what I can tell, it corresponds with the time of the explosion."

"She has the rooms at that hotel as a cover. She has rooms at the hotel down the road, right? When we talked to her, she was going to hand the bag over and walk out, right ?" Black was having trouble getting air in. Red was his . He discovered her at The Farm, trained and mentored her, and brought her on his team. They had been together for over a decade. Setting his work with her aside, he had an avuncular attachment. "Did you try calling the front office of that second hotel?"

"No one answered the phone. She missed her check-in call. I'm thinking someone needs to go in and get eyes on Red. If she's in the hospital and muttering State secrets under her breath, things can go very badly—methods and procedures, and over a decade of service with an extensive list of assets and contacts."

Black rubbed a hand over his chin. "And if she's in the morgue, we need to get her body for repatriation."

There was a long pause.

"Yeah," Grey finally said. "That too. We can't have her buried there when no one claims her. And claiming her would lead to all kinds of uncomfortable questions. One way or another, we've got to get to her and get her out of there. And it's got to be someone that can finesse any situation."

"You?"

"I already looked into that. I'm in Istanbul," Grey explained. "We need someone closer. It'll take me too long. The first flight out is nine-twenty hours here. We can't send anyone from the embassy, not even their security. She's not an American citizen on paper, so that would bring up red flags, no play on words intended. They're good at what they do, but I'm not willing to risk Red's cover if she's caught up in events. She could be delayed getting in touch, or phone lines and cell towers might be impacted by the explosion or the rescue efforts. We need someone with more than just training at The Farm on field methods in their rearview. It has to be someone with experience getting tough jobs done."

"Agreed. It might work in our favor that Delta Force Team Echo went into Syria to gather up Poole. By now, they should be boots on the ground. If I'm guessing at timing."

"They're following the broad strokes mission I outlined," Grey said. "They'll jump when the sky goes dark. If all goes well, they'll have Poole on the beach by astronomical twilight before local fishermen launch their boats, and they still have the cover of dark. If we turn, say, two or three members of Echo around, they could possibly make it to the village by the time the village gets moving."

"Right. I'm looking at the map. Boots on the ground in Syria, to Poole, to the sea, to Red's town—the whole thing is only six hours and twenty minutes of drive time. Not operational time, that's just road time. But we don't want the team driving into the town during pre-dawn hours, anyway. That would call security's attention. They need to blend with the local activity."

"I'll work the phone and see if JSOC will lend a hand." Grey paused. "Thinking this through—Echo is working without identification. No passports, so getting out again would become complicated. Once we know if they can go and which operators they're sending, I can wake up the good people at the embassy and get them involved in creating the proper documentation. Echo can sneak in where the border is porous. I know where. I need to ensure they have money to grease some palms if required." Grey looked away from the camera while he scribbled notes. Without looking up, he asked, "You were calling me about Red, and it wasn't about the explosion. What did you want?"

"You said you're in Istanbul? Do you have a full roster?"

Grey squared himself to the camera and put his pen down.

"We've had something come up."

Grey pulled his brows together. "About Red?"

"One of her assets couldn't get in touch with Red either. She had intelligence that needed our attention at an event this Saturday, and that event will require plenty of prep time, so she brought the problem to me."

"Listening."

"Does the name Elena Savas mean something to you?" Black asked.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"You've met her?" Black asked.

"Name on the bad guy list." Grey leaned forward. "What's going on?"

Black moved through the information that Sophia had shared with him. "I need you to go over the border to Vienna. As a matter of fact, if we can find Red alive—"

Grey's nostrils flared. "That's grim as hell."

"It's Red," Black said through gritted teeth, "so until I hear otherwise, I'm going to believe she's fine but might need help. We'll get that covered. So, if she can safely get to you in Vienna and work with you on this, that would be best. I need to make that happen. Either way, I need someone at a ball this weekend. I'll send you a file with the details."

"Okay. Until then, I'll be working on finding Red. Poole is JSOC's priority, but if they can hand Poole off and move on to check on Red, you're right. That would be ideal. If JSOC says that's a no-go or the team is going to be in the field on the Poole mission past sunrise, we're going to have to go another route." Grey paused. "We have people in the area that can do it. Like you, my concern is that, if possible, I don't want to blow her cover. Having the CIA actively functioning in the area of an explosion right there on the border—with so much else going down and everyone extra sensitive—would be diplomatic chaos. I agree, we need this to be shadow work, which takes a special forces skill set, especially if she somehow got scooped up in someone's net."

"Kidnapping?" Black asked.

"I was thinking hospital. But that kidnapping is a possibility. Suddenly, we have a new asset who shows up with information. Information that we haven't heard verified for accuracy. We don't know what's happening with Echo right now. One of the scenarios was that we were getting played, sending in a SOF for an ambush."

Black glared into the camera. "And at the same time, a bomb goes off, and Red's missing? Game that one out."

"If they grabbed her and then blew the building, and the explosion was devastating enough, it could cover her disappearance. It would take some time for the metaphoric dust to settle. There would be time and space for a thorough and enhanced interrogation."

"Yeah. Agreed,' Black said. "That has to be part of this calculation. I need Red, her body, or if that's not possible at the scene, then a significant DNA sample, or we need to go hard on finding what happened between our phone call and now."

Grey leaned into the camera. "Agreed."

"Okay, get a yay or nay on Echo taking this on, and if it's a no-go on their end, then we need to juice up a different team."

"Got it. I'll let you know what I find out." Grey dragged a hand down his face. "Yeah, this isn't like Red at all. Something is going very wrong."