Finding North (53 page)

FFF

Two days later

Friday, early
morning

June 17 — 1:24 a.m.
AFT

(June 16 — 1:54 p.m.
MDT)

Near Kabul,
Afghanistan

“
Fey Team!” Joseph yelled
as Zack landed the helicopter.

Although the CIA black
site was only ten minutes by car from Kabul, they took a helicopter
in case they needed to make a quick exit.

“
Sir!” the Fey Team
called.

“
We leave this vehicle
ready for anything!” Matthew yelled.

“
Sir, yes, sir!” the Fey
Team called.

Raz raised his eyebrows at
Alex, and she shrugged. He smiled.

“
Listen,” Raz held out two
unopened envelopes. “With the party and everything, I haven’t worn
my body armor until today. We were asleep until Kabul,
and . . .”

“
I completely forgot about
these,” Alex said, and took the envelopes.

Zack landed the
helicopter, and Joseph yelled something to the team. The team
responded. Alex opened the envelope from Waltry, the Admiral’s
personal bodyguard. She nodded and opened the note from Ji. She
took both notes and tucked them into her duffle behind her seat.
Raz nudged her. The Fey Team was waiting for them on the tarmac.
They’d worn their straight-black jumpsuits with their balaclavas
around their necks. Raz took out his weapon, and she put on her Ray
Ban sunglasses.

Raz got out and helped her
from the helicopter. Surrounded by the team, they went into the CIA
black site. This black site served as a secret CIA prison where the
agency could perform acts that were not legal inside the
continental United States. Over the course of the last few months,
the prison had slowly been cleared of detainees. A month ago, the
CIA building team had remodeled a series of cells deep below the
ground to look exactly like a high-security prison in the United
Kingdom. Unbeknownst to the Boy Scout, MI-6 had moved him to these
new cells two weeks ago.

“
So what did they say?”
Raz asked as they reached the building.

“
In,” Alex said. “That’s
what the Admiral and Waltry said.”

“
And Ji?”

“
Yin and Yang symbol on
the front,” Alex said. “You know, something he got at the gift
store.”

“
But?”

“
Ji circled the black dot
in the middle of the white,” Alex said. “He circled the black dot
on the white side.”

“
I saw he wrote something
on the front in
hanzi
,” Raz said.

“
Expect,”
Alex said.

Raz nodded.

“
And we think that means?”
Raz asked as he opened the door.

“
It means that Ji thinks
that we will be betrayed,” Alex said. “He may know who, or he’s
giving us a general warning — you know, you can’t have light
without dark, that kind of thing — or he may just be talking about
what happened to him.”

Alex shrugged.

“
Keep your eyes and ears
open,” Joseph yelled.

“
Yes, sir,” the Fey Team
yelled.

“
We won’t know until we
see him,” Alex said.

Leena and Colin stopped
and did an about-face at the security station. They stood guard
while Alex talked to the security team.

“
We are ready for you,
sir,” the young man at the counter said. “You should find
everything you requested ready and waiting for you. If not, feel
free to ring this bell, and we’ll bring you what you
need.”

“
Thank you, Sergeant,”
Alex said.

“
Sir,” the young man said.
“Your coffee.”

Alex smiled and took the
cup from him. He nodded and pressed a button. A buzzer went off on
the door to their left. Troy opened the door for Margaret. They
went through the door to check the security. They waited until Troy
gave the signal. In the meantime, Zack and Cliff joined them from
the helicopter.

“
Ear buds,” the desk
Sergeant said.

MJ took the ear buds from
the young man at the counter and gave a set to Colin. Normal
military or civilian communication devices did not function in CIA
black sites. They would be able to communicate only within the
facility. Outbound communication was managed through the office. Of
course, this meant that everything they did was recorded, but that
would have been true anyway. MJ and Colin nodded in unison and
passed them out to the team.

“
Sir.” Sergeant Dusty and
Margaret came from inside the prison. “We are ready for
you.”

“
Thank you, Sergeants,”
Alex said.

Sergeant Dusty and
Margaret had arrived the day before to check to make certain
everything was set up according to their specifications. The Fey
Team hadn’t left Denver until Alex and Raz had done a detailed
review of Sergeant Dusty’s video and Margaret’s report.

“
Sir?” Leena
asked.

She gestured toward the
door. James Kelly, MI-6 agent and John’s older brother, was
standing in the doorway. She went through the door and into the
prison. The Fey Team followed her inside.

“
We are ready for you,”
James said. “As far as we can tell, he is unaware of the move.
Stupid bugger.”

“
He’s not as dumb as he
seems,” Alex said.

“
Maybe prison has made him
stupider,” James shrugged.

Alex, James, and Raz
stepped into an elevator. Joseph, Leena, and Colin followed them
inside. They waited until another elevator car arrived for the rest
of the Fey Team, before heading down five floors. The elevator
opened to light-grey concrete halls that tunneled under the old
brick factory. They stayed on their elevator car until the Fey Team
got out of theirs. The Fey Team surrounded Alex, Raz, and James and
moved down the corridor.

“
As you know, he’s had no
visitors,” James said. He took a black jumpsuit from Sergeant Dusty
and nodded his thanks. “No packages. No phone calls. As far as he’s
concerned it’s just another day.”

They reached the
observation room to the Boy Scout’s cell. A large man, the person
she knew as Robert Powell lay on the prison cot with his feet
hanging off the end. They had lain cinderblocks over the cement
walls of the prison to match the Boy Scout’s usual prison cell.
Everything else in the room had been taken from his cell in the
UK.

“
I will tell you,” James
said as he put on his jumpsuit. “It’s weird to see you without your
usual jewelry.”

“
Jewelry?” Alex
asked.

“
Trece,” James
said.

“
A lovely accessory, isn’t
he?” Raz asked.

“
Sparkles like the hope
diamond,” James laughed. The team laughed with him, and Alex
smiled. Just the sight of the Boy Scout set her on edge.

“
He’s not fit for travel,”
Alex said. “White Boy, either.”

“
How is Vince?” James
asked. “Royce?”

“
Healing,” Alex said.
“Just going to take time.”

“
So, tell me,” James
said.

The Boy Scout roused from
his sleep. He got up and urinated.

“
Did you lose anyone in
your recommit-or-leave?” James asked.

Alex shook her head but
kept her eyes on the Boy Scout.

“
Clearly, I’m here,” James
said.

“
They all said what you
said,” Alex glanced at him.

“
Oh, yeah?” James said.
“What’s that?”

“
You knew your life was in
danger when we started working together. Nothing’s
changed.”

“
Very true,” Raz
said.

“
Leena was concerned about
her mother,” Alex said. “Her mother has Alzheimer’s, but she
realized that her situation would be harder if she weren’t on our
team. Take the good with the bad, I guess.”

Alex didn’t take her eyes
off the Boy Scout. After all that time she had spent near him, she
knew that he was agitated and ready to go off. She stepped back
just a second before he pounded the mirrored glass.

“
I know you’re there,” the
Boy Scout said.

“
He cannot hear us,” James
said. “He cannot know we are here. He just thinks we
are.”

“
Is he ever wrong?” Raz
asked.

“
About half the time,
actually,” James said. “UK protocol is to acknowledge the visit. Of
course, we’re under no such pressure here.”

“
Hey, Grozny,” the Boy
Scout said. “You got visitors?”

“
That’s his friend, Aslan
Idrisov, from Grozny, Chechnya,” James said. “He calls him
‘Grozny.’”

“
He wouldn’t happen to be
related to Abukhazhi Idrisov, would he?” Troy asked.

“
Grandson,” James
nodded.

“
Why?” Alex
asked.

“
Abukhazhi Idrisov was a
Chechen soldier for the Soviets in World War II,” Troy said. “He
has more than three hundred and fifty confirmed kills. Sniper. They
rewarded him with a frosty death in a Siberian concentration
camp.”

“
The grandson is a thug,”
James said. “We were holding him for threats against the
state.”

“
Were?” Alex
asked.

“
He was the Boy Scout’s
neighbor for a few months to create the bond,” James said. “He was
downgraded and is doing the rest of his time in the north. We
replaced Idrisov with one of our own. Chechen born, London raised.
He’s there now.”

“
What you want?” a voice
yelled in response to the Boy Scout’s yell.

“
You have visitors?” the
Boy Scout asked.

“
No, no visitors,” the
voice yelled back. “Just sleep. You sleep?”

The Boy Scout grumbled and
went back to his cot.

“
Sergeant Dusty?” Alex
asked.

“
Sir?”

“
Can you check to see if
there’s a link between the Boy Scout’s grandfather, Josef Yakovlev,
and Abukhazhi Idrisov?” Alex asked.

“
Yes, sir,” Sergeant Dusty
said. “I will start our list.”

“
Thank you,” Alex
said.

“
It’s a good question,”
James said. “I doubt there’s a direct connection, but plenty of
Russians went over with Operation Paperclip. You do know that the
Boy Scout speaks fluent Russian.”

“
No,” Alex said. “I knew
he spoke multiple languages like we all do, but no, I didn’t know
he spoke Russian.”

“
He prefers English,”
James said. “But according to our language experts, Russian is most
likely his native tongue.”

They watched for a few
minutes. The Boy Scout lay back down on his cot.

“
Shall we?” James
asked.

“
Fey Team, cover up,”
Matthew said.

The Fey Team pulled up
their balaclavas. On Alex’s instruction, they had rotated their
scarf colors from their usual color. Alex wore Vince’s white scarf
with chartreuse lines of thread. She’d planned to stay in the
background. Matthew wore Alex’s usual white-and-bright-blue scarf,
while Leena wore his usual white-and-burnt-orange scarf. Matthew
gave James a black balaclava and Royce’s white-and-maroon scarf.
Raz traded his white scarf with deep-navy-blue thread lines for
Trece’s white-and-cherry red. Zack took Raz’s scarf and gave his
white-on-white scarf to Margaret, while Cliff wore White Boy’s
white-and-forest-green scarf.

She didn’t think the
change of color would throw off the Boy Scout. He would know her
the moment she walked into the room. She only hoped to disorient
him enough to see if there was a human being behind the rage and
bravado.

“
Let’s do this thing,”
Matthew said when everyone was covered up.

Raz and Colin entered the
Boy Scout’s cell.

“
What the fuck?” the Boy
Scout yelled.

Raz and Colin grabbed him
by the arms and pulled him off his cot. The Boy Scout started
screaming at the top of his lungs.

“
Strip,” Colin said in
Russian.

“
You can’t
do
that!” the Boy Scout
said.

Matthew and Troy came into
the room. Together, the men removed the Boy Scout’s clothing. They
shackled his legs and chained his hands behind his back. After
dropping a black hood over his head, they dragged him, kicking and
screaming, to the infirmary. They chained him to the table, and
Colin gave him anesthesia to knock him out. When he was under, MJ
used an ultrasound wand to check him for explosives. Finding him
clear, they dressed him in loose sweats and a sweatshirt. They
dragged him into an interrogation room with a one-way glass wall.
They locked his shackles to the floor and his wrist to the table.
In this room, the table was bolted to the floor. The team filed
into the room.

“
Ready?” Alex
asked.

Matthew sat down across
from the Boy Scout. Alex and Raz stood behind him. Zack, Cliff, and
Troy stood behind them. Leena, Colin, and Joseph stood behind the
Boy Scout. Margaret and MJ remained outside the room to help if
needed.