Black Hawk Day Rewind: An action packed spy thriller (Mark Savannah Espionage Series Book 1) (15 page)

59

"You are a pain in the ass, Green! Now get on this Cessna 172 M and we’ll fly over the Grand Canyon. I'm not going to take you to Santa Fe without enjoying that view, it's almost a forty-minute flight to the airfield. Get in here!" said Anaïs who had lost her patience.

"They told me that many accidents occur each year because of the climatic conditions in the Grand Canyon. There are rotors, strange thermals and the wind conditions often change with gusts that come up suddenly. Let's go directly to the airfield. How long has it been since you've flown?" asked Green.

"Since I left Switzerland to come here, but I’ve being practicing three hours per week on average. I’ve being flying for ten years and usually I change aircraft a lot to get more experience. Come on board or I’ll leave you here. Afterwards I am going to fly directly from Las Vegas to New York on a regularly scheduled flight; tomorrow I'm going to pay a courtesy visit to Aisha, she will not be very happy to see me.”

Green still hesitated.

“Damn it! Do you wanna get into this Cessna?” said Anaïs. “Trust me, you will enjoy flying over the Grand Canyon and then I'll take you to her. She’ll join us, you’ll sit next to her and you’ll take her cold hands and voilà, la femme est faite, in the real sense of the word."

"You’re such a romantic!" Jago C. Green said as he listlessly climbed into the Cessna.

"What a brave man. What's her name?"

"Ellen..."

"Ellen, we’re going to arrive shortly!” Anaïs shouted out. “Oh yeah, let's fly!"

Anaïs took off with determination and went immediately towards the Grand Canyon.

She liked the sound of the engine, as always the vibrations tickling her body and the top-down perspective was something she could never do without. It seemed like she was riding the horizon between unlikely agitated slices of sky. Jago, on the contrary, was behind her, holding on to his seat belt and sweating from the temple.

The turbulence began as expected and transverse gusts of wind repeatedly hit the aircraft, forcing Anaïs to constantly correct with stick and rudder.

The intoxication of the air, light and colors made her feel at peace with herself; occasionally, she looked at the empty seat next to her, and she thought with a little touch of melancholy that she would have liked to have the navigator of her life with her to share the long shiver of pleasure that flights with him always gave her.

When she turned to see Jago C. Green turn greenish, she decided it was time to head straight for Santa Fe.

"If you could see yourself in the mirror, you would see the face of terror personified!" said SkylineP92, laughing with satisfaction. "I have no intention of making you feel sick. Half an hour under these conditions with you on board is sufficient. Relax now, OK? Let’s go get Ellen."

After about forty-five minutes, they landed in Santa Fe and Jago went to look for Ellen. Anaïs stayed on the plane, getting ready to take off again with an additional passenger.

Jago held Ellen’s hands during the flight, he explained the control panel to her and described the landscape below. When they disembarked in Santa Fe, fifty minutes later, they asked SkylineP92 if she wanted to stay with them for the rest of the day, but the agent warmly thanked them and quickly got back on the Cessna to return to Las Vegas.

Anaïs arrived in New York in the evening and went straight to the hotel because she was in pieces: her ribs were still sore and, with every breath she took, she felt a hard pain in her chest. She knew very well that it would have been better to rest for another couple of days, but she preferred to be weak but free, rather than a prisoner in a building with an atmosphere that was not congenial at all for her work.

At 10:00 pm Jago C. Green sent her the following message:

"Mission accomplished, thanks. Tomorrow I'll be watching you all day, baby."

"You have already given, my dear. What use do I have for an exhausted man? They’re usually put in storage like oil," Anaïs replied sarcastically.

60

At 8:00 am SkylineP92 opened the door to Aisha’s building and rang the bell to her apartment.

The model had returned to town earlier than expected, she was still asleep and, as Anaïs had thought, she opened the door without checking who her potential guest was, when she realized her mistake it was too late. SkylineP92 had entered and sat down on the sofa.

"Hello Aisha, don't worry…stay calm. I just want to talk to you, and afterwards you will never see me again in your life. Now sit down."

"Who are you?” asked Aisha meekly. What do you want from me?"

"I need to know everything you know about Mark, including where he went after leaving your apartment."

"I met him on a plane, we were going to Paris. I was going for a casting; he did not tell me why he was travelling. We talked about this and that, and I invited him to dinner. He refused, but then he called me the day before you burst in here. All I know is that he’s a psychiatrist, if that’s true."

"Yes, he’s a psychiatrist. Didn’t he say anything to you when he left me in the garage and walked away?"

"He just asked me to call the station to check that the trains were running normally, but I don’t know anything else."

"Did he speak of his mother or friends who he might visit?"

“No, absolutely not. He didn’t tell me anything…we had little time to talk, we went straight to the point as you could see."

"I noticed. Is there anything in particular that you remember?"

"He took my mobile phone and he didn’t give it back, the bastard. What has he done?"

"You don’t want to know anything for your own safety. Did you by chance check the train schedule for him?"

"No, he just asked me to make sure that there weren't any problems. I don’t know where he might have gone."

"Okay Aisha, thank you, I'm leaving now. I won’t scare you anymore, and you will never see me again."

Before Aisha could answer, SkylineP92 had already closed the door behind her.

At the station Anaïs spoke with the ticket collector who was on duty that night, showing him a picture of Savannah.

"I remember him because he was in a frenzied rush, and had a scratch on his face, but he was very polite. I was not suspicious…you know, sometimes the strangest things happen to people."

"Do you happen to remember the destination of the ticket?"

"No, I'm sorry, but at the time there are only three trains scheduled: one to Texas, one to New Jersey and one to Vermont."

"Do you know if there are cameras in all the stations?"

"Of course, in all stations, even the smallest ones."

"Thanks for the info, have a good day."

"Come back and see me whenever you want,” smiled the clerk.

Anaïs left the station and dialed Stefano Allegri’s number.

"Hello?" he said in Italian.

"Hello Stefano. It’s Anaïs, how are you?"

"Anaïs, nice to hear from you. I'm fine, and you? Where are you?"

"In New York.”

"Great, and how long will you be here?"

"I leave tomorrow, but if you like we could see each other tonight."

"I’d like to invite you to dinner at my dearest friend’s restaurant, “Le Regioni Italiane” on Fifth Avenue, at 8:00 pm."

"Perfect, I'll be there. Thanks, Stefano."

"See you this evening."

SkylineP92 then immediately called Jago C. Green on the secure line:

"Hello Jago, please arrange for a check on all cameras at the stations Texas, New Jersey and Vermont the night Savannah left. They’re the three routes that he could have chosen that evening. It’ll take at least two weeks, right? But at least we know where to start. Any news about Aisha’s cell phone?"

"A weak signal has been detected but, unfortunately it was lost after only 5 seconds, too short to be located, then nothing, nothing at all. Are you meeting the Italian, my dear?"

"Uhhh! Again with this story, it's none of your business. Why don't you focus your low and sweaty thoughts on Ellen?"

"I have to watch over you, my dear. It’s my job. You’ll be under surveillance."

"Don't you dare!!!"

"I was just kidding."

"Yeah? Well, I'll cut all communication, and I’ll check for any bugs that might accidently fall on me out of the trees."

"See you later, gorgeous."

"Fuck you, Green."

"Was that a goodbye?" asked the hacker laughing.

"Go where you can imagine I would like to send you," replied Anaïs calmly and she hung up.

SkylineP92 went shopping in the afternoon: she had not entered in a boutique for eight months and she wanted to buy herself some stylish clothes that would make her tall and slender body stand out.

When she returned to the hotel around 6:00 pm, she had three pairs of Prada shoes with 4-inch heels, two Versace dresses, an Armani jacket and trousers, and two Bottega Veneta handbags with her; for the evening she chose one of the two dresses to wear with a matching handbag and new shoes.

As she got dressed, she thought about her time at university with all the parties, the friends, and with Stefano. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw the difference the new clothes made: dressed this way, she was extremely feminine, as if her masculine side withdrew to give space to her softer and more sensual feminine side, taking away her habitual, hard exterior.

At eight o’clock, she was in the Italian restaurant and saying hello to Stefano:

"Hi, how long has it been? You’re in great shape!"

"And you always look really beautiful, Anaïs. You must have made a pact with the devil!"

Stefano was really in great shape, his hair was graying now but it made him more charming, his face was furrowed by a few wrinkles that seemed custom made to give even more charm to his expression, while his body was lean and muscular, a sign of regular gym work. Well, Stefano was still a fine figure of a man and Anaïs took note of the fact with a faint smile.

They ordered pasta and beans, eggplant parmigiana, roast veal with pan roasted potatoes, and they talked and talked and talked all evening. SkylineP92 described her working days at Professor Nicholas Mayer’s Astrophysics research center in detail and how the lab was equivalent to the famous ivory tower for her.

Stefano, instead, being an architect, told her about his ongoing projects and his travels. He was not yet married, even if he had been living with a French girl for years.

At about 11:30 pm Stefano asked Anaïs if he could take her back to the hotel.

"Anaïs, I'll drive you back to the hotel in my car."

"No, thanks, Stefano. Don’t worry, I’ll take a taxi."

"I really liked seeing you again and spending this evening with you, Anaïs. Many things have changed in my life, you know…I’m no longer the indecisive person I used to be."

"Stefano it's been really nice to see you again for me too. You're right, many things have changed, and almost ten years have passed."

"Are you sure you want to go back in a taxi?"

"Yes, thank you, it’s okay."

Stefano reluctantly hugged her and watched her get into a cab a few minutes later. He would have liked to spend the night with her and who knows...maybe resume the relationship they had interrupted ten years ago.

He was impressed by the fact that she had not changed at all; she had maintained her verve and her exuberant charm.

In the taxi, Anaïs wondered if she had done well not to partake of the same old dish, although it was a familiar, delicious dish, but then she thought about how the last ten years had radically changed her life and that everything had inexorably turned into a complicated mess.

She knew quite well that she would never have the opportunity to lead a "normal" life and that Stefano could only be a brief fling without any involvement of the heart and she wasn’t interested in that kind of adventure: now there had to be unbridled passion or nothing at all...and instead of Stefano, who fucked well but could never drag her into the vortex of the sacred fire, she preferred to be alone.

She fell asleep hugging the pillow in her hotel room, sullen and still sore; the next day she would be back at Biosketch Technologies Inc. to deal with Green, and then she would go back to Switzerland. She would stay there until they got the results from the investigation of the train station camera images.

She could carry out part of her investigation from her house, keeping in touch directly with Green, as she got ready to start chasing Mark Savannah again.

61

"See you at 12:00 pm at the Twilight Jazz Club. I will have two bodyguards with me," said a voice on the phone.

"I'll bring only one with me, and I'm sure we've got lots of mutual interests."

"I’m sure of that." And the voice hung up.

Colonel Reed had just returned to Washington D.C. and his family for a long weekend; he would leave for the New Mexico desert the next day.

He arrived at the Twilight Jazz Club at 11:45 pm using public transport so that he would go unnoticed. Samuel Q. Jenkins was already at the table waiting for him, having played the sax in the club for two hours.

"Hi Jenkins, did you see anyone?"

"No, it's all been very calm and quiet. I expect they’ll arrive on time at midnight."

"Yes, I think so. Sweetie,” Reed said turning to a waitress, “please bring me a bourbon. What are you drinking Samuel?"

"A margarita, thanks."

The girl arrived a few minutes later with their orders and a cell phone. "Is one of you named Samuel?"

"That's me."

"It's for you, then."

"Jenkins, please turn to your left. We’re over here close to the orchids, walk towards us and then invite us over for a drink like we’re old friends," said a voice with a thick Russian accent.

"They’re here Colonel. I'm going over to welcome them."

"Ok, come back with the glass in your hand and the sax."

Jenkins headed towards three men with the margarita in his hand and the sax strapped over his shoulder:

"Hey! What a pleasure to see you guys. Would you like to join us?"

"Hello Samuel, everything all right at home?"

"Yep, thanks, and you?"

"Not bad at all,” replied Jenkins. “Hi Walton! Good to see you after so many years, you’ve sprung hooves and a tail...when will we see the horns?"

The four men walked across the club as Reed stood to welcome them. He held out a hand to the Russian and spoke loudly.

"Grigoriy, you son of a bitch, have you had your cheekbones reconstructed? You were not so smooth back in Kursk. Have those two small implants in the shape of balls helped you with your KGB career or was it the submarine accident?" asked the Colonel laughing. He then turned to the other men and smiled.

"Jenkins,” Reed said, “take the big baboons to watch the perimeter. Ten minutes, not one minute more. Did you have a good trip, Grigoriy?"

"What can I say? Now we have to adapt ourselves, sometimes on commercial scheduled flights, the problem is not customs but cameras. They are everywhere and you have to act quickly so as not to be seen and arouse suspicion. Their cameras go on the blink mysteriously and they think it was only a sudden drop in voltage. The golden days of James Bond are gone..." laughed Grigoriy.

"Yeah, it is the same for us. Taxpayers contribute less and less."

"I heard about your son. I am very sorry."

"Thank you, I’ll not rest until I catch the bastard who did it."

"Savannah was the Brits’ top agent. If we get any information, we will pass it on to you in exchange for a small favor..."

"Of course, as long as you don’t recruit him, Grigoriy, in which case, just tell me and we’ll reach an agreement. It’s a personal matter, not a CIA issue."

"I know you, Walton. I figured it was a personal matter...now what about us…"

"I am ready, we have performed 4842 transplants and the training procedure is bearing fruit on the 2892 re-programmed subjects. We can follow their behavior directly from the Biosketch Technologies facilities because we have injected a micro RF-ID tag which is a geo localizer in their necks at the subcutaneous level, but it’s also a transmitter that sends the performance of the patients’ brain waves to the central unit using the patient’s own thermal energy to remain active for at least two years.

“The results are astonishing, not only for the recovery of all psychomotor activities, but also for the high level of courage, arrogance, combativeness and aggressiveness. Once we’re finally able to push the emotions back down their throats, we will be able to program them for war, Grigoriy!"

"Remarkable,” said Grigoriy, “but you know that I'm like St. Thomas. Make me an attractive proposal, Walton, one I cannot resist. But tell me one thing, why choose us instead of the Iranians or the Israelis? You have more contacts with agents than hairs on your head..."

"Don’t laugh at my reply, because I'm telling the truth. What the fuck! I couldn't care less about selling know-how to the Arabs or the Israelis! What kind of political-military weight do they have? Birds of a feather: there is no competition, no excitement, it doesn't give me any pleasure, I want to kick off and resume the game, Grigoriy. We'll start a new cold war after the failure of capitalism and communism. America against Russia and its Federation, the clash of the titans. The only irritation is those al-Qaeda guys: a pain in the ass for sure, but with men like them, you know, we can crush them like cockroaches between us."

"The good old days!” Grigoriy lifted his glass in a toast. “I agree with your idea! I like it and it amuses me too, after all we’re all nostalgic..."

"You've probably got ex-military or ex-agents who have had an accident here in U.S. that we can put together and reprogram. Don’t deny it because I wouldn’t believe you. Send me three of them, we’ll do the transplant and the reprogramming, and then we will both follow their behavior together for four months."

"What do you want for the service, once we end the test successfully?"

“Twenty-million dollars and a protected escape route in neutral territory for me and my family for twenty years in case I get caught. Instead, I pay my staff directly and you don’t interfere with them."

"Deal” replied Grigoriy, “just so I can be sure that you want to stay in your place and you are not going to disappear."

"The taste of power and blackmail is so spicy and delicate that it’s addictive, almost onanistic..." replied the Colonel smiling through gritted teeth.

"When do you want the men for the trial?"

"As soon as possible. I will use a different lab, Grigoriy, a temporary one that you will arrange for me in a safe place, possibly in New York. I will come with my team only for the tissue collection and to give you instructions. You understand me, don't you?"

"Of course, you can count on me. You'll get a message from me as soon as I am ready."

"These are the technical specifications required by the laboratory. It's a microchip. The information is encrypted and it will self-destruct in five hours, but in the meantime you'll have already given it to your staff. New York is geographically strategic for both of us and allows for quick cleaning without leaving traces."

"See you soon Walton, I cannot wait to play with you and your toy soldiers..."

"Da svidànija Grigoriy, it is always productive making deals with you".

As soon as the two got up, Jenkins and the two bodyguards of the KGB agent split the bill, and they reappeared at the table to leave the room respectively with their bosses.

"Thanks Jenkins, we’ll arrange for the continuation of the project, I’ll contact you as soon as we’re all ready. I’ll try to allocate the tasks when you're not on a mission, and as for tonight I'll send you what was agreed to your Cayman account. You played really well, I liked that!"

Jenkins waited for Reed to get into a taxi, then he shut the door of the taxi and went home on foot. $ 3,000 for a couple of hours at a table in a pub was not bad at all.

As he crossed the square near his home, he thought about how silence cost more than an operative action, which was saying something.