Necessary Retribution (34 page)

“I'm relieved.”

“Relax and get cooking. We're all famished.”

“I'm working on it. Can you try to get everyone introduced?”

“Looks like it's already in progress.”

The family had surrounded the Rogovs. Robin noticed Eddie and Ilya talking to each other and Sasha's eyes locked on Eddie. Andy and Cathy were talking to Lev and Rada.

“Looks like it. How ’bout another kiss.”

Karen gave Robin a quick kiss on the lips, but as she pulled away, Robin pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight.

“Are you all right, Rob?” She whispered.

“No.” He gently pushed her back and looked into her eyes. She squeezed his hands and went back to their guests.

Later in the evening Robin and Karen lay in their bed talking. The conversation had been about the family and the Rogovs, but Karen changed the subject.

“Are you going to tell me what's bothering you?”

Robin took a deep breath. “I'm very worried. We have to find those weapons and when we do, it will be tough to get to them. If we don't…well, that's just too horrible to contemplate. We can't fail.”

“But you're not in this one alone, right?”

“That's true.”

“Maybe the CIA or the Russians will find them first and you won't have to get involved.”

Robin looked into Karen's lovely eyes. The lamp light was just bright enough to cast their color as a deep jade.

“I'm sorry…I just hoped.”

“The problem with both the CIA and Russians is although they can get us the intelligence, they can't move fast enough tactically to get to the weapons. Everybody and his brother will want part of the action and that'll slow them down.”

“And you don't have that problem?”

“I simply won't accept it. If we locate the weapons I know they'll tell us to wait for them.”

“And you'll refuse.”

“No, I just won't respond.”

Karen put her head on Robin's chest. “Please come back to me. I couldn't go on without you.”

Robin pulled her on top of him and kissed her deeply.

“I will always come back to you. You're the love of my life.”

Robin's pager started beeping. “Goddammit, what now!” He got up and picked up his phone and dialed the com center. He walked out into the family room so he wouldn't bother Karen.

“Hi Rob. Sorry to bother you but General Yamurov just called,” Jamie said.

“What's he want?”

“He says the KGB took down some Russian Mafia suspects in Chechnya. One of them says they brokered deals for eight tactical nukes for Picushkin. One of their contacts is a Chinese intelligence agent with connections to Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups. Another is a Pakistani ISI agent.”

“I'm listening.”

“The Mafia guy says at least four nukes are headed for Pakistan.”

Robin cursed to himself. He wanted more time with his family. “Okay, call out Jack and the air crew. Then call out everyone else. I want to be airborne ASAP. Call Jonathan and Doug and get them on the ground in Pakistan. Jonathan may be able to get some real time intelligence on the situation.”

“I'm on it.”

“How much sleep have you had lately?”

“I'm good, Rob.”

“Where's Nancy?”

Jamie didn't answer for a moment. “She's here.”

“Take her somewhere for a couple of hours. We'll wait for you.”

The phone was briefly muffled. “Thanks, Rob.”

“See you later.”

Robin went back to the bedroom. Karen had changed into a sweat suit and was packing his bag.

“I'll do that, babe. You go back to bed.”

“Why? So I can listen to you bang around while you try to do it in the dark?”

Robin stood beside Karen as she put his socks in the bag. Suddenly, she turned and wrapped her arms around him and Robin felt like she tried to merge their bodies and pull him into her soul.

“It's all right. We'll get the job done and get home.” Robin's throat caught.

“Sometimes you are so full of bullshit, Robin Marlette. I've loved you for almost twenty-five years. I know when you're scared…and you're scared now.”

He looked into her eyes and his heart felt better…stronger. “You just keep on loving me and I will get home.”

She smiled. “Then I don't have to worry.” She held him tight again.

T
HIRTY
-E
IGHT

JONATHAN MARCHAUX EASED INTO A BOOTH
in the small Islamabad tea house. Two men sat across from him. One was an older Anglo with a hard look about him. The other was a young Pakistani who seemed about ready to jump out of his skin.

The Anglo grinned. “It's about time you showed up you black bastard. I thought you were going to be a typical Legionnaire and wait for the Special Air Service to take care of things.”

“Blakely, the SAS couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag without Legion back up, especially one who has been retired so long. Sorry, you know how traveling is around here.”

The men shook hands. “I do. This bloke is Ahmed. He plays in the cricket league I coach. He has some good scoop that may be connected to our problem.”

Jonathan shifted to Arabic. “I promise I will tell no one you talked to me and I can reward you for your information, if it proves to be accurate. What can you tell me?”

The boy looked around the café and then leaned towards Jonathan. “My brother, Bacla is a member of Al Qaeda. Do you know of them?”

“Yes, the head of Al Qaeda is Osama Bin Laden.”

“Yes, yes, he is an evil man. He wants Bacla to martyr himself.”

“What is Bacla to do?”

“He says he will be given a mission to attack either America or India. He doesn't know which one, but it's supposed to be the greatest mission anyone has ever seen.”

“When is he going to do this?”

“He has a meeting in two days in Peshawar. He will be told then.”

“Where is your brother now?”

“He is here in my mother's home, but you must not talk to him!”

“Don't worry, we won't, but we have to follow him so we can stop the people trying to get him to do this. Can you show us your mother's house?”

The young man looked around the café again. “Yes, but we must be very careful and you must promise me you won't hurt my brother.”

“I promise I won't hurt your brother. Does anyone else live with your mother?”

“No.”

“Then you just need to show us the house.”

“All right, I will show you.”

“Is it far?”

“No, only two streets over.”

“Lead the way.”

The young man walked out of the café and Jonathan and Blakely followed him.

“How can you promise his brother won't get hurt?”

“I said I wouldn't hurt him. That's the best I can do.”

“You're a real bastard, Jonathan.”

“I don't think you have much room to talk, Colin.”

Blakely shrugged. “It's a nasty business and I thought I got out of it.”

“Me, too, but I can't stand by and let this insanity happen.”

“You're right about that, Mate.”

The two men kept a short distance behind Ahmed. Colin wore a Shalwar Kameez, so with his long grey beard and deep tan a person had to be close to spot him as an Anglo. Jonathan wore the modern dress of the Sheedi, the black Pakistani tribe. The two were able to melt in the foot traffic.

After two blocks, Ahmed gave them a quick glance and walked into a small one story stone house.

“Well, there's our surveillance target.”

“Yes, Doug will be landing at the airport in about two hours. The team is also on the way. We need to find a surveillance point.”

“Well, there is a rental sign on that place over there. You go get Doug. I'll check on renting the house.”

“All right. Let me know what you find out.”

Fatboy had taken off after a refueling stop at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam before Robin was able to make contact with Jonathan again. Ten seconds into the conversation, Robin could tell by Jonathan's voice he was more than concerned about the situation.

“One of my SAS sources recruited a young Pak whose brother is a member Al Qaeda. The brother was told he has been selected for the greatest mission anyone has ever seen and it will be either in America or India. He will be told more in two days in Peshawar.”

Robin was well aware of Pakistan's two faced relationship with the US and the Paks support for terrorists. It made sense Picushkin went there because the Paks wouldn't snitch Picushkin off to the Russians either. “Do we know who he is supposed to meet?”

“No, and I think we are only going to find out by following the brother of our source. We need to move carefully. If ISI gets word we are on the ground here, our safety will be seriously compromised.”

“I understand. Northern Pakistan is an area tough for us to operate in.”

“Yes, we need to be very careful.

Robin's mind sped through options for infiltration into the area. “I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I have to figure out how we can get in there without attracting too much attention, but we need enough assets on the ground to make sure we don't lose the suspects during the trip from Islamabad to Peshawar.”

“I'll be waiting for your call.”

“Thanks, Jonathan.”

“Shall I alert the cavalry?” Jamie asked.

“No, the first thing the CIA will do is call the Pakistani President and making our job impossible. It will be shades of Vietnam where
we kept the South Vietnamese military informed of our ops and got compromised numerous times. I'm not letting that happen to us.”

Robin pulled maps of Northern Pakistan and the Peshawar area and began planning the insertion of the team. He asked Jamie to have Ernie, Rocky and Burke come up to the com deck to help with the planning. As he looked at the map, the difficulty of the operation became even more apparent.

At this point Robin considered Pakistan enemy territory, requiring any insertion be covert by necessity. His choices were limited by the geography. Fatboy could land in New Delhi, India and the team could proceed. The Russians and Indians were on good terms, so Yosef might be able to provide contacts for logistical assistance. The Indian government, however, would still be in control and that meant one more thing Robin couldn't control.

The other choices all had more devilish problems. Iran was out of the question because of their hatred for all things American, as was Iraq. Afghanistan had no facilities for Fatboy to land near its border with Pakistan and the Russians were losing their grip on that country making the situation there unstable. Saudi Arabia was pro American, but they would alert the CIA as soon as Fatboy landed. As the planning team came into the cabin, Robin examined the CIA map of the area around Peshawar.

“What's our status, Rob?” Ernie asked.

“As usual we've got a shit sandwich to deal with. I'm trying to find a place we can land Fatboy and get to Peshawar without the Paks knowing we're coming.”

Ernie leaned over the map with Robin. Burke and Rocky went around the other side of the table and starting looking also.

Robin moved his finger on the map to a spot in Kyrgyztan, just above the Pakistan border. “This might be the place…Osh, Kyrgyztan. There's a Russian Air Force Base there. According to the CIA info the runway is over eight thousand feet.”

“That won't be a problem for landing Fatboy, even at that altitude,” Burke observed.

“I don't think so either, but we'll still have to get the flyboys’ opinion, not to mention the Russian's permission to land.”

“I suppose that's the easy part,” Burke interjected.

“You suppose correctly. To get in covertly we're going to have to go in at night and have disguises ready. At some point during the infil, we're going to need to split up in two or three man teams and come in to the target area from different directions.”

Burke leaned over. “Where's our target area?”

“We don't know yet. We're waiting for an update from Jonathan or Colin.”

“That means we may have to stage in enemy territory. That worries me,” Ernie said.

“Me too, that's why I said we needed to be ready to wear disguises.”

“I have to call Yosef again. You guys start working on details.”

Robin walked over to the communication console and nodded to Jamie who initiated the call.

“Hello, Yosef.”

“Do you ever sleep, my friend?”

“I don't think either of us is going to get much sleep any time soon.”

Yosef grunted. “I supposed you are right.”

“We have a good lead in Islamabad which appears to be taking us to Peshawar. I have some requests.”

“What are they?”

“First, I need permission to land at Osh, Kyrgyztan.”

“That can be arranged.”

“Second, I want your guarantee our plane won't be searched.”

There was a pause. “That will be more difficult, but I can arrange it.”

“Good. Next we need air transportation to the Peshawar area. Do you have any AN-12s or similar aircraft in Osh.”

“It is likely, but if not I will get what you need.”

“And last, at least for now, I need Alex to join us on this op to maintain coordination.”

“He is already in the air on another mission, but I will divert him to Osh. He has his Spetsnaz team with him.”