Black Flagged Redux (26 page)

The second Mi-8 helicopter hovered where the Havoc had been moments ago, fighting the sudden air flow instability caused by the drastic temperature fluctuations radiated from the conflagration of aviation fuel to its immediate right. Leo wasted no time pushing Daniel out of the way and leaned against the house to steady the RPG launcher. He took a few seconds to gauge the distance to the wavering helicopter and fired the rocket without warning. The rocket's explosive booster charge caused a crunching overpressure among the group, bathing them in a toxic cloud of grayish dust dislodged from the ground.

Petrovich saw the rocket motor engage and propel the 93mm warhead toward the Mi-8's cockpit. The helicopter spun at the last moment possible, causing the rocket to miss the cockpit and detonate against the rear cargo hatch area. His team immediately retreated behind the two closest houses and reloaded the RPG, unsure if the Mi-8's pilot would commence a gun run against them. Though the helicopter didn't carry anything as sophisticated as the 30mm "chain gun" found on the Havoc, nobody on the team wanted to stick around to test the skills of a Special Operations helicopter pilot.

He heard the heavy whining sound of turbo-shaft engines and risked a look at the helicopter. He saw the Mi-8 headed due north at high speed, trailing thick black smoke over the road. When the helicopter passed their own smoking SUV and didn't alter course, he knew they were safe for the moment.

"It's headed north. Nice shot," he said and something caught his immediate attention.

Four Spetsnaz soldiers crouched in the open, watching the helicopter abandon them. Daniel raised his rifle and dropped one of them with a headshot. The remaining three commandos raised their hands as the four Black Flag operatives rapidly fanned out to approach them.

"I want solid intel out of these guys. Kill one if you need to motivate them to talk. I need to see if the satellite phone still works," he said.

Daniel sprinted back through the village and found the wrecked mess of concrete chunks and wooden pylons that served as Dusty's ill-conceived cover from 30mm cannon fire. The repeated bursts had leveled the house, and he struggled to tear the debris clear of a boot that he spotted in the monochromatic heap of shoddy building materials. He lifted a sizable chunk of concrete off the boot, exposing the top of the shin, which was no longer connected to a body. Sheared off below the knee, a jagged piece of bone protruded from the dust caked end of the outer limb. He didn't look forward to digging through the rest of this pile.

A single gunshot echoed through the village, and Daniel wondered exactly how long Farrington had tried to get information before blowing one of their heads off. It really didn't matter, none of those soldiers would leave here alive, and his team needed to be back on the road immediately, though he wasn't sure what they would use for transportation. He kept digging through the rubble, finding a severed hand and what looked like intestines. The phone suddenly rang, and Daniel realized it sat ten feet away near the road. Dusty's last act must have been to toss the phone out of the carnage exploding around him.

He jogged to the phone, and pressed "receive."

"Did my little gift arrive?" the familiar voice said.

"I can't imagine anyone will be happy about losing that drone," Daniel replied.

"A simple thank you would suffice."

"I'll thank you over coffee, once you get us the fuck out of here."

"The Predator control team said there were a few vehicles located at the southernmost point of the village. Most, if not all of Kaynar's inhabitants appear to be herded into an area west of the village, in a depression over a small rise. One hundred plus bodies. They had full thermal signatures, and control saw plenty of movement among the group. It looks like they're all alive," Berg said.

"I don't think the Russians had enough time to properly dispose of the villagers, and I'm pretty sure they didn't expect us to survive the IED blast. The helicopters didn't approach in any sort of attack formation. I think they cruised in low to pick up the Spetsnaz, operating under strict radio silence. It's the only explanation."

"What happened to the helicopters?"

"The Havoc crashed into one of the transport helicopters thanks to your Kamikaze drone. We hit the other with an RPG, and it hauled ass back to Russia. This is fucked, Karl. Something doesn't add up here."

"The picture is still developing, but we might have another lead and a possible explanation for the Russian response. I need to send your team north of St. Petersburg to investigate some bizarre rumors that our signals intelligence team has processed. Nearly the entire Kola Peninsula has gone dark, and we've detected a massive military deployment to the area. Nothing can get through the highway running between Murmansk and Kandalaksha. Russian military has it shut down tight. The only major city along that route is an industrial dump called Monchegorsk, and there might be a link. We have nobody on the ground in the vicinity, and your team has the special talents needed to find a way in."

"Sounds like fun. I assume Sanderson has signed off on this one too?"

"You can give him a call. We've already spoken. You need to get the hell out of there before the Russians decide to carpet bomb that town. Based on this new information and the fact that they have a small army dead within Kazakhstan borders, I wouldn't make any long term investments into the future of Kaynar."

"We'll grab a vehicle and continue to Astana. Can you run any diplomatic interference if we are picked up by Kazakh forces?"

"Negative. You need to reach the airport terminal as originally planned. A U.S. military transport will start moving you toward your next destination. I need to work on an infiltration plan and equipment drop for your team, so if you don't mind, I'm going to let you go. Bring Mr. Bremer with you on the plane. He's compromised in Kazakhstan."

"Dusty didn't make it. Neither did Andrei."

"Shit," he said and paused, "stuff their bodies in the trunk of whatever you find. I'll have someone take care of it from the airport. How bad are the bodies?"

"We'll have to bag up Dusty. He did pretty well under the circumstances," Daniel said.

Two more rifle shots filled the air, causing Daniel to look around.

"We're on the move. I'll call once we're on the road." The Black Flag operatives appeared between two of the buildings, jogging toward Daniel. Farrington shook his head as they approached.

"They didn't know anything useful. They were roused from their barracks and loaded onto the helicopters for an anti-terrorist operation. What happened to Dusty?"

"Dead. We need to bag up as much of him as possible," Petrovich said.

"With what? The truck is gone," Sergei said, pointing at the burning metal hulk down the road.

"He looks like the rest of them. We don't have time to fuck around with this," Farrington said.

"Fine, but we need to bring Andrei with us or throw his corpse in with the rest of them," Daniel countered.

"We toss both of them in one of the fires. Last thing we need on the road is a corpse in the trunk," Farrington said, and they all nodded in agreement.

"Ditch the rifles. Pistols only from this point forward. We need to reach Astana and put this as far behind us as possible. Berg says we'll find vehicles at the southern edge of the village…and since you learned the finer skills of hotwiring cars, the honor is all yours," he said and slapped Farrington on the back.

"Does Berg have any idea why the Russians would take this kind of risk to kill us?" Leo asked.

"He's sending us up near Murmansk to investigate a possible link and explanation. If he knows, he didn't feel like sharing. Let's get moving," Daniel said.

He tasked Leo and Sergei to move Andrei's body to the burning wreckage while he dug around for Dusty's body parts.

Chapter 26

7:25 PM

CIA Headquarters

Langley, Virginia

Karl Berg closed the communications circuit with U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly through his nose. A fairly routine, straightforward operation had just gone sideways on him. He leaned back in the plush black leather chair and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds. He had several phone calls to make, and none of the recipients would be pleased to hear from him. His first call had to be Bauer. He could use the operation center's phones for that one. The others would have to be made on one or two of his "burner" cell phones. He had no idea what he was going to tell Bauer, but he suspected that Bauer would be prepared for this. He'd called her about four hours ago to let her know that the drone was airborne. She concurred with his decision to launch, especially based on the Monchegorsk information.

The Russians had sealed Highway M18 at points several miles north and south of the city, effectively cutting off access to Monchegorsk. The roadblocks had also sealed off Olenegorsk, a small town ten miles to the north. Intelligence assets from Murmansk had managed to interview members of several families that escaped Olenegorsk just before Russian Federation Army units arrived. All of them relayed stories of sickness and mayhem in Monchegorsk. Although none of them had seen it firsthand, reports of a violent army crackdown had been enough to send them fleeing in the direction of the regional capital, Murmansk. So far as they could tell, the sickness hadn't spread through Olenegorsk, though the hospital had been filled with patients from its sister city. Strange stories of violent, uncontrollable behavior in these patients sealed the deal and sent them driving in the middle of the night toward Murmansk, against an endless stream of Russian Federation Army vehicles.

The coincidence was too strong for either of them to ignore. Reznikov had poisoned the city somehow and was still at large. The presence of three dead Al Qaeda agents on a side road in Kazakhstan fit the pattern. Reznikov had apparently escaped the crematorium flames that consumed the rest of his laboratory staff and targeted his hometown for the debut release of his designer virus. Berg would send Sanderson's team to Monchegorsk to assess the full scope of the virus's potential. They would have to build a rock solid case against Reznikov before Audra brought this up the chain of command. Berg dialed Bauer's cell phone, which rang for longer than expected. He was about to hang up, when she answered.

"Sorry about that. I'm still in a meeting here. Good news? Aside from the fact that I'm going to have to explain the temporary loss of an armed Predator drone? I have a retrieval team on standby."

"Audra, retrieval is no longer an option. The team was ambushed by a reinforced Spetznaz platoon outside of Kaynar," Berg said.

"Jesus. How bad?"

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?"

"Skip the games, Karl," she said.

"The Predator drone launched both Hellfire missiles at ground targets, then crashed into a Russian attack helicopter."

"Crashed?"

"I ordered the flight crew to crash the drone into the attack helicopter. Two of the Russian helicopters were destroyed by the impact," he said.

"How many helicopters did the Russians send?"

"Three. One Mi-28 Havoc, and two transport helos," he answered.

"So, right now I'm looking at a Predator drone crashed among two burning Russian helicopters?"

"There was no other way. The Havoc was cutting our team to pieces," he said, anticipating Bauer's fury.

"I'm not suggesting there was. I trust your judgment. Please tell me that our team escaped?"

"Four of them. Our CIA liaison is dead, along with one of Sanderson's crew. The good news is that they still have the samples. I'm connecting them with someone from our embassy in Astana, so we can transfer the samples in an emergency diplomatic package. I'd like to have it in a friendly lab within twelve hours."

"I'd like it there sooner than that, but I think our best option is to get the samples back to the States. We don't have any facilities in Europe that we control."

"We're looking at twenty-four hours if we fly it back here," Berg said.

"I should be able to get it here faster on a priority Gulfstream charter. I'll contact the embassy in Astana and arrange for the samples to be transported directly to the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. This will cost a fortune, but I can't keep the Predator thing quiet for very long. We have to prepare a response, and the White House will need to be notified at some point very soon. I'd like to have those samples analyzed by the time I have to walk this down the hall. Any further word on Monchegorsk?"

"Nothing new. I'm sending Sanderson's team up there to conduct reconnaissance. We might as well keep their momentum rolling. I'll fly them into Helsinki and figure out how to get them into Russia. They'll probably have to approach on snowmobiles. Monchegorsk is roughly 150 miles from the Finnish border, so it won't be a difficult trip."

"All right, I'll activate the necessary protocols with our people in Finland. They'll get full support on the ground there," she said, "unless I get shut down here."

"I don't think we'll hear a word from the Russians. They lost two helicopters and possibly a full platoon of Spetznaz soldiers on Kazakh soil. They won't be interested in drawing any attention to that problem. With any luck, the remaining pieces of the Predator are burned beyond recognition in the helicopter wreckage. Our most immediate problem is that they know someone else is looking for Reznikov. Our team will need to be careful, and so will we. They'll be actively scanning the ground and air for information."

"Well, there won't be much for them to pick up. Since this is still in my pocket, there isn't much electronic chatter out there. They'll be in the dark for a while, unless they identify Sanderson's team. I hope they were discreet getting into Astana."

"They were, but I need to get them out of there on the next flight, and I would be surprised if they weren't identified upon departure. Kazakhstan is crawling with Russians."