Black Flagged Redux (21 page)

"My sincerest apologies for suggesting that you might be more of a bureaucrat than a CIA agent," he said.

"Touché. So what's up?"

"Reznikov grew up in an industrial city south of Murmansk called Monchegorsk. He was sent to live there after his father and mother died when he was eight. The circumstances surrounding his parents' death was suspicious according to one of my Russian sources. Anyway, something really strange is going on in Monchegorsk. ELINT is catching all kinds of military and civilian chatter about quarantines and roadblocks. Communications to Monchegorsk are down, and I'm trying to confirm what's going on, but we don't have any HUMINT assets on the ground there. Assets in Murmansk and St. Petersburg are on the road as we speak. I expect to confirm the presence of roadblocks within the next few hours. The link to Reznikov is too strong to ignore at this point."

"I agree. Do you think he's responsible? Why would he poison the city he knew as a child?"

"Maybe it wasn't a good childhood. I have no idea, and we don't even know if Reznikov is still alive. Muslim extremists have a tendency to clean up after themselves. I'd be surprised if he was still alive, but I'm not taking any chances."

"Good work as usual, Karl. I'll be in the building until this is over. Let's hope we can wrap this up cleanly," she said.

"I'm not counting on it," he said.

Chapter 22

6:40 PM

Highway A345

South of the Karkaralinsk National Forest

Daniel stared out of the front passenger window of their Toyota Land Cruiser at the rolling hills covered with pine trees. They had travelled over two hundred miles south of Astana along the same highway and had seen very little change in topography, though the grass and bushes had started to green slightly over the past hour. Checking the map, he noted that they were passing through the edges of a national forest, which explained the dense pines. Several miles in the distance he saw a few small mountains, similarly covered with deep green trees.

To his left was a different scene altogether. The highway here served as an informal border between roughly carved, pine strewn hills and a vast steppe that extended hundreds of miles to the Russian border. Low, flattened hills kept him from staring at the empty land to the east, which had served as Russia’s primary nuclear testing ground for over four decades. They would be driving into the heart of this wasteland, which they had been assured by "Dusty" to be utterly unremarkable.

Dusty had unexpectedly joined their team in Astana and had spent most of the ride silently sulking in the third row, wedged uncomfortably between the team's gear. Assigned to the embassy in Astana as the Economic Development Attaché, he met them upon their arrival in Astana. Karl Berg had insisted that they would need someone familiar with the terrain and local operations, and also presumably to keep them in check. So far he hadn't proved annoying, and according to Farrington, he had proved to be invaluable dealing with Brown River.

The equipment handover didn't go smoothly when the contractors tried to pass off badly damaged, previously confiscated rifles to the team. Farrington took one look inside the oversized duffle bag and zipped it back up, telling them that the weapons were not acceptable. He didn't need to inspect them any further to know that they hadn't been fired or maintained in a long time. One of the folding stocks had been bent, and he saw no optics devices. He did spot one badly twisted front sighting post. A heated argument ensued, and phone calls were exchanged. He never heard what Dusty said, but their tune instantly changed, though the contempt was still palpable in their mannerisms.

They left Brown River's compound with five AKS-74 assault rifles, all equipped with the latest optics. One of them had a 4X ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) scope that was handed to Daniel as soon as he arrived with Andrei at the oversized garage that had been provided by Dusty for their preparations. The ACOG scope gave the rifle a long distance sighting advantage over the red dot sights attached to the rest of the rifles. He was the best suited in the group to make use of the sight.

The weapons were stowed in the back, easily accessible by the three men in the wide back seat, but hidden from view in case they were stopped. Each member of the team, except for Dusty, carried a Russian semiautomatic pistol hidden somewhere. They didn't expect any immediate problems, but didn't want to take any chances. Reznikov had stirred up a hornet's nest of Russian activity, and they had all been assured by Berg and Dusty that the Russians didn't fuck around.

In addition to the weapons, they had various forms of digital recording equipment, night vision gear, biological testing kits and a satellite communications rig. The satellite rig would transmit everything they found from the site, as soon as they had finished their sweep of the structures. Dusty carried their satellite phone, which would be their emergency contact to Langley in case of trouble. They had been assured the support of an armed UAV drone, but were told that it would not be a quick response asset. The drone was located in Kyrgyzstan, with a three-hour flight time to their area. Dusty reinforced the fact that committing the drone to this flight would necessitate a life or death situation, since the drone would have to fly well past its recovery range to reach them. Daniel wasn't exactly sure how they could make use of it, but it made him feel a little better to know that it was an option.

"How much further to the turnoff?" Farrington asked.

"About fifty miles. We'll still have roughly an hour of light when we make the turn. We should be able to make it halfway from the turn to the site before it's pitch black. The last half will take us at least another hour. The roads are pretty shitty out there in the daytime. At night, fucking brutal. I uploaded satellite maps into our GPS. We should have no trouble navigating to the site. Just slow going," Dusty said.

Great, another three hours or so of driving
, Daniel thought, watching the deep red sun dip closer to the horizon.

Chapter 23

11:38 PM

Foothills of Kurchatov

Republic of Kazakhstan

The site proved to be nearly impossible to find in the dark, and the road conditions turned out to be far worse than Dusty had anticipated. These unexpected factors added two more hours to the trip. Finally, the Land Cruiser slowed in front of a horizontal yellow and black striped pole that served as a makeshift barrier. No sign hung from the pole, but Daniel could see that crudely attached links of thick chain held the pole in place, locked to the side posts with padlocks that shined in the SUV's headlights. He wasn't sure why anyone would have bothered with the gate, since you could drive a dump truck around either side of it. Beyond the hastily constructed obstruction, they could see the scarce outline of several buildings roughly a hundred meters away, superimposed against the faint orange glow of Kurchatov's city lights. He decided to take a closer look at the gate.

"Hold up for a second. I just want to make sure this thing isn't booby-trapped," he said, and Farrington nodded.

Daniel opened his door and stepped out into the frigid air. He was relieved to be out of the SUV. They had driven nonstop for over nine hours, the last four on spine-breaking roads. It didn't help that they drove around lost for nearly two hours before finding the obscured entrance to this road. Whoever left this site last did a professional job concealing the turnoff.

He approached the gate with a small but powerful flashlight and inspected the lock and chain connection on each side, paying close attention to the vertical posts. It all looked pretty straightforward to him and nothing raised his suspicion. He lifted the black and yellow pole a few inches off the posts and didn't see any wires. Nothing attached to the gate, as far as he could tell, but he wasn't one of their explosives experts. He directed the light along the ground to the side of the posts and could immediately tell that the gravel and rock had been recently groomed. He backed up several meters and examined a similar stretch of ground on the same side of the road, noting the difference. A significantly large section of ground immediately adjacent to the post had been raked or brushed. He repeated the observation on the other side and jogged back to the Land Cruiser through a sudden gust of cold air.

"The ground looks groomed on both sides. I don't like it. The gate looks fine. Sergei, you've received some advanced training in improvised explosives. Why don't you grab a set of bolt cutters and take another look at the gate? If it looks safe, cut the locks, and bring the truck up. I'm going to walk up to the site and take a look at the road. Meet you up there," Daniel said.

He reached back into the truck for his backpack and night vision spotting scope as Sergei hopped out of the SUV with a large set of bolt cutters. Daniel walked with him to the right side of the gate and showed him the ground.

"Yep, that looks pretty fucked. Land mines?" he said.

"I hope so. I'd hate to think someone is watching us with their thumb on a detonator. That's why I'm walking ahead of the truck," Daniel said and slapped Sergei on the shoulder.

"And it sounded so selfless and brave a few seconds ago," Sergei said.

"That's part of my unusual charm. It grows on you. Just ask Farrington. See you guys in a few."

Daniel slid over the top of the gate and started his slow, cautious trek up the windswept road, scanning ahead for trip wires and to the sides of the unimproved gravel road for evidence of an IED. He heard Sergei snap the chains, followed by the hollow metallic ring of a hollow pole thrown to the ground. A few minutes into his walk he had the Land Cruiser several feet behind him, illuminating the road far better than his small flashlight. Bathed in light, he felt exposed, but there was no rational reason to be worried. Aside from his team, the nearest human being probably sat huddled up under blankets twenty miles away in Kurchatov.

Ten minutes later, they assembled in front of the first building with all of their gear. They did a sweep of the immediate area with a portable hand Geiger counter, and although the reading was higher than normal, it didn't fall into any hazardous parameter that would preclude them from spending time at the site. Once this sweep was concluded, they shouldered backpacks and split up into two teams of three to examine the buildings. They each carried basic biological/chemical detection lab kits, designed to give an immediate color coded indication of the most common agents: anthrax, nerve, blister, ricin, Ebola, botulinum. Beyond that, they would have to bring samples back in small coolant containers, if they found any.

Three of the larger structures had new stainless steel chimneys, so these were prioritized for first inspection. Daniel had chosen the largest of the buildings, which was a one-story, flat-roofed structure roughly 50x30 feet. They walked the building's perimeter and found a second door at the rear of the building. Continuing along, Daniel located a small vented shed set against the far side of the building. The shed sat on a recently installed concrete slab, and upon opening the unlocked door, he immediately surmised its purpose. Besides the distinct smell of diesel fuel, electrical wiring protruded from the back wall of the shed and rested upon a large metal spring dampener that had been bolted into the concrete. A yellowed, translucent plastic hose protruded from the wall a few feet away from the wires. The shed had obviously been used to house a heavy duty generator, and judging by the small puddle of diesel fuel below the plastic hose, it had been recently used.

Daniel decided to enter through the back door, which was located halfway down the building. The door was locked, but using a small crowbar, they easily forced their way in. A musty, dank smell hit them as soon as they stepped inside the small vestibule, but there were hints of something more familiar.

"What does that smell like to you?" Daniel said.

"Old building, but definitely used recently. I want to say cologne or some kind of chemicals," Andrei said.

They both pulled out larger flashlights and illuminated the hallway. Nothing looked damaged or out of order upon first impression. They cautiously stepped into the main hallway and could easily assess the entire building's layout. One hallway ran from one end of the building to the other, ending at the exterior walls on each side. The front door stood opposite the back door, across the intersection of hallways. Glancing in either direction down the main hallway, they saw several open doors stood on each side.

"Let's split up," Daniel said.

He stepped inside the doorway of the first room and worked the light over the interior. The room was completely bare. Even the light bulb had been removed from the ceiling socket. He examined the walls where they met the floor, looking for anything left behind. He found nothing in the room, which had been apparently swept clean. In one corner he found broom lines in the thin layer of dust. He started to walk out of the room, when he suddenly flashed the light up at the ceiling. Something about the light socket seemed odd.

Examining the socket closely, he started to think that he had been mistaken. It was a standard one bulb fixture, crudely screwed into the ceiling. Nothing unusual, he thought, when he suddenly realized what had caused him to take a second look. The wiring for the socket ran along the ceiling, outside of the drywall. He followed one wire that ran to the light switch and the other that tied into the building's electrical system. Studying the room again, he found the same wiring setup repeated for hastily installed wall sockets throughout the room. The wires were bundled in groups and neatly stapled to the walls and ceiling, and there were enough outlets installed in the room to handle a credit card phone customer service center, or an equipment laden laboratory.