Payback (29 page)

They had
been forced to tell him the truth.

Since
then he’d been inconsolable.

“I
th-thought you we-were d-dead!”

“Oh,
honey, I’m not dead, I’m perfectly safe, perfectly fine. You know that now,
don’t you?”

“A-are
you s-safe?”

“I’m
surrounded by American soldiers. All the bad guys are gone.”

She
looked over at the four Americans standing in front of the community center,
one of them taking photos of the bodies, apparently sending them to someone for
identification purposes.

“This
one’s Koroma,” said an Asian looking soldier, pointing at one of the bodies.

Sarah’s
eyes narrowed as she turned toward them, trying to listen to what was being
said while her son continued to talk, telling her everything that had happened,
excitement replacing fear as he finally spoke to his mother after days of
torment.

“Mommy?”

“Yes,
honey?”

“Are you
listening?”

“Of
course I am, honey. Listen, I’m going to have to let you go. Tell your daddy
that I will be home soon and I can’t wait to see you both and hug and kiss you
until you’re sick of me.”

“I’ll
never be sick of you, mommy.”

She
gasped as she tried to stifle a cry, her heart hurting from the innocence of
youth.

“I love
you, honey. Good bye.”

“Bye,
Mommy.”

She
walked over to who she assumed was the head of the American team. He had
identified himself as some sort of agent, but she could tell just by the way
they carried themselves they were soldiers, and now that she had had time to
think about it, their appearance suggested Special Forces.

“Agent
White?” The man turned and she handed him the phone. “Thank you for arranging
the phone call.”

“No
problem,” he said, nodding toward Tanya. “We just got through to her family as
well.”

Sarah
looked over at Tanya who was sitting against the wall of the clinic, tears
pouring down her cheeks as she spoke rapidly and excitedly in Ukrainian. Tanya
spotted her looking and smiled widely, waving and pointing at the phone.

Sarah
grinned, giving her a thumbs up. She turned back toward the soldiers. “Did I
hear you say that Koroma’s body was here?”

White
nodded, pointing at one of the bodies. “Intel confirms this is him.”

Sarah
stepped closer to make sure of what she already knew then shook her head. “I’m
sorry, Agent, but that’s not Koroma. That’s Mustapha.”

“What!”

The
shock in his voice was clear as he motioned for the Asian to hand over a
tablet. He showed her side-by-side photos, one of Mustapha in uniform, looking
up at the sky from beside a truck, the other of his dead face taken minutes
ago. “You’re telling me these aren’t the same people?”

There
was no doubt they were. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that man is
not
Koroma. Koroma looks nothing like him. This is his second in
command, Amadu Mustapha. I think I heard him called Captain at one point, but
I’m not sure.”

“Did you
meet Koroma?”

“Yes,
he’s the one who kidnapped us.”

“When
did you last see him?”

“Earlier
today, first thing this morning. I don’t know, maybe ten, twelve hours ago.
What time is it now?”

“Almost
midnight local.”

“Really?
Then probably closer to fifteen, I guess. I’m not sure.”

“And
you’re positive this isn’t Koroma.”

“Absolutely.”

“Maybe
they just switched names to confuse you?”

She
shook her head. “No. Koroma’s daughter is inside that clinic. Tanya took her
from her home where his name was on the front door, and we’ve been sleeping
there. There’s no doubt the man I knew as Koroma was Koroma.”

“Shit!”
he muttered as he stepped away, activating some sort of radio. “Control, Bravo
Zero-One. We’ve got a problem here.”

Dawson stared at the satellite image taken from the docks when the
supplies had been stolen, then their corpse. There was no doubt.

It’s
definitely the same guy.

Yet
their hostage was adamant this wasn’t Koroma.

Which
meant the intel was wrong.

Which
wouldn’t be the first time.

“Bravo
Zero-One, Control. We’ve patched in Langley and Homeland Security. Repeat what
you said, over.”

“Doctor
Henderson has confirmed that the man we’ve identified as Koroma is
not
Koroma,
I repeat,
not
Koroma. His name is Amadu Mustapha, apparently his
second-in-command.”

“This is
Leroux. How certain is she?”

“Absolutely.
Apparently Koroma’s daughter is in the clinic they created here and Doctor Danko
took her personally from his home where his name was on the door. I think we
have to assume the man we’ve thought was Koroma isn’t.”

“Which
means we have no clue what Koroma actually looks like,” added Niner, shaking
his head. “This is a Charlie-Foxtrot if I’ve ever seen one.”

“She
says he left about fifteen hours ago, but she’s not sure exactly. Did we have
drones in the air anywhere near here?”

“Negative,”
replied Leroux. “We’ll have to go to the satellites. It’s going to take some
time, but at least we have an exact location for where he was and a time
window.”

“Maybe
you can see who the VIP was,” said Sarah Henderson, listening in on a comm
provided by Niner.

Dawson’s
eyebrows rose slightly. “What VIP?”

“Some
guy was here before he left. Lots of security and a Mercedes with flags on the
hood. He looked important. Koroma handed him a briefcase.” She motioned for
Tanya Danko to join them. “She overheard the conversation. She speaks Krio.”

Tanya
jogged over, all the while saying goodbye to her family on the phone. She hung
up and handed it to Niner. “Yes?”

“Tell
them what you heard them say, when the VIP was here.”

“Oh,
that! Yes, well, Koroma told this guy something like ‘she confirms it will work
just like we thought’, but I don’t know what he was talking about. Or at least
I didn’t then.”

“What do
you mean?” asked Dawson, not liking where this was heading.

Sarah
responded. “They had me infect them with the virus.”

“What?”

Even
Langley echoed the outbursts on this end, Dawson leaving the comm open so
everyone could hear the civilians.

“Eight
of them that arrived with this VIP,” said Sarah. “And Koroma. Apparently
they’re going to commit some sort of attack on the United States as payback for
us not helping them sooner.”

“Jesus
Christ,” muttered Dawson. “Did you guys copy that?”

“Affirmative,”
came Clancy’s subdued voice.

“Yes,”
said Leroux. “I think we need to focus on that VIP. I’ve already got my team
trying to track anybody who left that village today, but the VIP might be
faster. If he was senior enough, then we might have a much narrowed list of
people to go through. I’m going to pull what we’ve got and have their photos
pushed to you. Give me a few minutes.”

“Roger
that,” said Dawson, handing the tablet back to Niner. He turned to Sarah. “How
quickly will they become infectious?”

“In as
little as a day or two, but it could be longer. But that’s just them being
contagious. If they decide to use themselves as transport devices, the virus is
in their blood. They could simply take their own infected blood and use it to
infect others.”

“This is
unbelievable,” muttered Niner. “And we have no idea who the target is?”

Sarah’s
mouth opened slightly, then snapped shut.

It
wasn’t missed by Dawson.

“You’ve
got an idea?”

She
nodded, slowly. “Well, he asked if I had a message for my father.”

Dawson’s
eyes narrowed. “Really? That suggests he’s going to see your father.”

“That’s
what I thought.”

“Control,
did you hear that? The target might be the Vice President.”

“We’ve
confirmed that on this end,” replied Clancy. “Bravo Zero-Two and the FBI just
hit a suspect’s apartment. It looks like this is all about him voting against
an Ebola funding bill months ago.”

“Do you
have him in custody?”

“Negative.”

Niner
waved the tablet. “First photos are coming through.” He handed the tablet to
Sarah who began to swipe through the images, Tanya at her side. They had
flipped through several dozen before they both cried out in excitement. “That’s
him!”

“Who?”
asked Dawson, taking the tablet and looking at the photo.

“The
VIP.”

“Langley,
it’s photo ID Alpha-six-four-seven.”

“Are you
sure? Can you repeat that?”

“Alpha-six-four-seven.”

“If your
witnesses are correct, then they’ve just identified the new Vice President of
Sierra Leone, Mr. Ibrahim Kargbo.”

“Do we
know where he is?” asked Dawson.

“Yes.
He’s at a reception at their embassy in Washington right now, meeting Vice
President Henderson.”

Republic of Sierra Leone Embassy, Washington, DC

“I’m Special Agent Savalas, head of Vice President Henderson’s
detail. What the hell’s the problem here?”

Red’s
quick assessment of the new arrival already told him he didn’t like the man.
Savalas appeared arrogant and already on the defensive, his tone and language
walking into this situation speaking volumes to his character.

Now
we know why Henderson is still here.

He and
Spock along with FBI Agent-in-Charge McKinnon had been left cooling their heels
in the security office at the Sierra Leonean embassy for ten minutes,
impatiently waiting for Savalas to grace them with his presence, all the while
working the phones as they tried to get an update on why their security
warnings were going unheeded.

McKinnon
flashed his badge. “I’m Agent-in-Charge McKinnon, FBI. There’s a threat to the
Vice President’s life.”

“I’m
aware of that.”

“Then
why is he still here?”

“The
Vice President is quite secure. Thank you very much.” Savalas turned to leave
when Red reached out and grabbed him by the arm, yanking him back toward them.

“Obviously
I’m misunderstanding something,” said Red, his eyes narrowed slightly as he
glowered at the arrogant asshole. “You are fully aware of the threat to the
Vice President, the fact that this threat involves the very man he is meeting
here today, and that this threat involves infecting the Vice President with
Ebola, yet Vice President Henderson remains. I am going to assume that this is
on his own orders, rather than the supreme idiocy of the head of his security
detail, because if I’m wrong, and you haven’t informed him of this threat, and
the fact that the intelligence comes from his very own daughter, then I’m going
to put two bullets in your chest right now, because you, sir, are a threat to
national security.”

Savalas
stared at him, sweat beading on his brow as Red’s iron grip continued to tear
into his arm.

“Come
with me,” he finally said, Red’s grip immediately loosening. “But you leave
your weapons here.”

The
three of them disarmed then followed Savalas into the embassy, two Sierra
Leonean guards accompanying them. Red heard a squawk in his comm.

“Bravo
Zero-Two, Control. We’ve got more intel on Vice President Kargbo. Apparently
he’s Koroma’s wife’s uncle and was his commanding officer until about five
years ago when he went into politics. CIA has also confirmed that Koroma’s
records were altered in the Sierra Leonean mainframe to replace his photo with
that of one Amadu Mustapha. We still have no photo on Koroma, but if the Vice
President was at the village and is now at your present location, Koroma may be
with him, over.”

“Copy
that, Control.” Red turned his head slightly toward McKinnon, Spock having
heard the conversation. He relayed the intel in a low voice. “This new VP was
Koroma’s wife’s uncle and his former commanding officer. There’s also the
possibility Koroma may be here.”

“And we
have no idea what he looks like,” hissed McKinnon, shaking his head.

“We need
to get the Vice President out of here. With this virus the threat may be
indirect. They might infect him somehow without ever touching him.”

“Agreed.”

They
stepped into a large conference room, the tables and chairs having been removed
so they could fit a decent sized crowd of about fifty dignitaries. It was
fairly tight, everyone having some elbow room but little else. He noticed
several cellphones out as people took video of the dignitaries. He turned to
Spock. “Start sending video to Control and keep an eye out for Uncle Bai.” He
activated his comm as Spock pulled out his phone. “Control, Bravo Zero-Two.
We’re sending you footage now. Request you push to Bravo Zero-One so the
witnesses can pick out Koroma if he’s here, over.”

“Roger
that, Bravo Zero-Two. Receiving footage now and relaying, over.”

They
followed Savalas through the crowd, weaving between the guests as they neared
the rear of the room where it appeared the guests of honor were standing. Red
spotted Henderson and his wife, huge smiles on their faces now that they knew
their daughter was alive and safe. He was impressed that they were here, but
apparently it was to thank the Sierra Leonean government for their assistance
in the recovery of their daughter.

Despite
their best efforts.

He was
pretty certain from Savalas’ reaction that Henderson had no idea the man he was
glad-handing with was involved in the kidnapping and that their end game had
been to kill her. It was clear to him Savalas hadn’t passed on all of the intel
that he had been provided, or, if he were to give the asshole the benefit of
the doubt, Henderson hadn’t been willing to let him, instead dismissing him.