Recovery: V Plague Book 8 (14 page)

Kansas must
have had a bigger road maintenance budget than Oklahoma.  We screamed by a
large sign welcoming us to Kansas and proudly proclaiming it was the “Sunflower
State” not too long after our fuel stop.  The change in the road surface was
dramatic and immediate and I was able to relax slightly on the smoother
pavement.

I had
settled into a routine as I drove.  My eyes stayed on the road ahead,
constantly moving and looking as far ahead as possible so I’d have plenty of
warning if there was something I needed to be concerned about.  Every thirty
seconds or so, I’d lower my vision to make a quick scan of the Dodge’s dash
panel. 

The Charger
was performing well, so far, but I was pushing it harder than it had been
designed for.  I was keeping a very close watch on the water temp and oil
pressure, which were all that were displayed, and I was expecting at any time
to see the former begin climbing and the latter to start dropping.  But so far
it was running like a champ despite the abuse I was putting it through.

We had been
in Kansas for less than five minutes when the satellite phone rang.  Keeping my
eyes on the road I found the button on the steering wheel that controlled the
link and pressed it.

“Yes,” I
assumed it was Jessica from Pearl Harbor but there was no number displayed on
the screen.

“Sir, it’s
Petty Officer Simmons at Pearl.  You may have a problem.  I’ve been tracking
you on a wide view and a few minutes ago a Russian YAK fighter that was flying
a CAP in your area deviated from its patrol pattern.  From my view it appeared
to be taking a closer look at you, but I couldn’t tell for sure.  We’re
monitoring the comms in and out of the plane and I’m waiting for a Russian
language translator to tell me what the pilot is talking about.” 

Shit!  

“What are
the Russians doing flying a CAP in this part of the country?  We’re a long ways
from any of the three air bases they occupy.”

“I thought
you knew, sir.  There’s been a surge in the past thirty-six hours.  They’ve
more than doubled their military presence in CONUS.  They’re occupying five
additional bases west of the Mississippi.  The one that I think may have taken
an interest in you is out of McConnell in Kansas.  You’re within the envelope
of their CAP.”  She sounded apologetic, but it wasn’t her fault.  I’d heard
something about a Russian surge but hadn’t given it much thought other than I
couldn’t fly to where Rachel was stranded.

“It’s OK,
Jessica.  I had heard about the surge, just wasn’t thinking.  What’s our guy
doing now?  Is he keeping an eye on me or has he resumed his patrol?”

“He’s back
on his pattern, sir.  I should hear back on the translation… Uh Oh.”  She broke
off her thought.

“What Uh
Oh?”  I almost shouted.

“Two helos
just lifted off from McConnell.  Russian HINDs.  They’re on a westerly heading
which is a direct course to you.”

“What’s
their ETA?”  I asked, exchanging a worried glance with Katie.

“Doing the
math now, sir.  Stand by,” she said and I could hear her breathing over the
open circuit as she worked.  “OK, I had to look up their top speed and
operational radius.  Top speed is 200 miles per hour and their range is 280
miles, though I suspect the range would be less if they were pushing to the
max.

“They’re 140
miles to your east, due east, at the moment.  With only at best a sixty mile an
hour speed advantage over you, if you maintain your current speed they can’t
catch you.”  She sounded genuinely pleased.

I breathed a
momentary sigh of relief then thought some more about what she’d just said.

“OK, the
Russians aren’t stupid,” I said.  “They must already know they can’t catch me
with the helos.  So, why did they launch?”

“I don’t –
wait one, sir.”  Again I could hear her breathing and the occasional click of
her mouse.  “An aerial tanker just entered the area.  They’re going to be able
to refuel and stay on your track.”

“Damn it!” 
I grumbled.  “I don’t get it.  That’s a lot of resources dedicated to one car
driving across the middle of nowhere.  Why the hell are they so interested?”

“I don’t
have any idea, sir.  I’m going to see if I can come up with any ideas to evade
them but for the moment stay on your current route and maintain your speed. 
Even with refueling it will take them a long time to catch you and maybe
they’ll lose interest before then.  It’s also possible they’re out on a regular
patrol and just happen to be heading in your direction and we’re worrying about
nothing.”

“Yeah, and
if a frog had wings it wouldn’t bump its ass on the ground every time it
jumped,” I said, a moment later hearing Jessica giggle over the phone.  Katie,
who’d heard that little gem more than a few times, just shook her head.  “Call
me as soon as you know more.”

“Yes, sir.” 
There was a beep and she was gone.

“OK, you’re
the intelligence officer in the car,” I said to Katie.  “What am I missing?”

“You’re
asking me?  This is a military thing.  That’s your world, not mine.”  She
answered.

“It may be
the military but there’s got to be some logic here that I’m missing.  You don’t
put two helicopters and a refueling plane in the air to chase down a single
car.  That just doesn’t make any sense.” 

“Unless
there’s someone in the car that they want to get their hands on,” Katie said,
looking at me.

“There’s no
way they know who we are, and even if they did why would they care?” 

“They might
know,” Katie said.  “How secure do you think the sat phone is?  I know it’s
going through an NSA satellite, but…  And there are several people that know
what we’re doing.  You’ve got the people in Hawaii.  How many of them know
we’re out here?  And don’t forget the two Russians riding around in the
Bradley.  How sure are you their defection is genuine?”

“I don’t
have much, if any, doubt about Irina or Igor,” I said.  “I saw them kill
several of their countrymen to escape, as well as fry a bunch more with a
backpack nuke.  I know the Russians have gone to extremes in the past to sell a
false defection so they could get an agent in place, but no one goes this far. 
Besides, there’s no reason for the Russians to be interested in either of us.”

Katie was
quiet for almost a minute, staring out the windshield.

“What?”  I
finally asked.  She took a deep breath and turned sideways in the seat to face
me.

“Remember
how Steve got in trouble for accessing your file when we first got together?” 
She asked.

“Yeah,” I
said, not liking where this might be going.  “And you stayed clear of all
that.  Right?”

“Well, not
exactly.  He was pretty upset and determined to get me back.  He didn’t just
look at your file, he printed it out and told me about a lot of it.”  She said
in a soft voice.

“So you…” I
said, trying to not get upset.

“I lied,”
she said, reaching across and placing her hand on my arm.  “I didn’t see it,
and he and I had a big fight about it, but I heard a lot of the details.  Steve
made it sound like you were some kind of sociopath and we had just gotten
married and I was already head over heels in love with you.  I’m sorry I lied.”

“Jesus
Christ!”  I exploded.  “If you wanted to know something all the fuck you ever
had to do was ask.  You know that!”

“Oh, really?” 
Now she was getting angry, her voice growing loud.  “You know how much you’ve
told me about your life as an operator?  Nothing.  You don’t talk about it. 
Ever.  Sure, you talk about people you knew and might mention some places
you’ve been, but so what?  Steve and I are screaming at each other and he
starts spouting details about you, throwing them in my face.  I couldn’t help
but hear some of it.  I’m not sorry I did, I’m only sorry I lied about it.” 

I sat there,
staring through the bug smeared windshield, not sure if I should be upset or
not.  Deciding I had much bigger problems than a wife who had told a white lie
I took my hand off the wheel and squeezed hers.

“This isn’t
the time or place to worry about something that happened a long time ago,” I
said.  “Unless there’s anything else you lied about that you’d like to confess
while we’re at it.”

I was joking
but it must not have come across that way.  Katie pulled her hand back and I
could hear a quiver in her voice when she spoke.

“That was it
and I’m sorry.”  She said.

How do women
do that?  I didn’t do anything.  She was the one that had lied to her husband. 
Yet here we were, me feeling like an ass for asking if there was anything else
she’d lied about. 

“OK, let’s
move past that.  You must have had a reason for dredging all this up.  What are
you thinking?”

“You did a
lot of, um, nasty shit, when you were in the Army.  And you did a lot of it to the
Russians.  I don’t mean that the way it sounds.  I know it was missions you
were sent on, but still…” She was beating around the bush, trying to be careful
about what she said after her confession of being less than truthful with me.

“Honey, just
spit it out.  I know what I did and I’m not ashamed of any of it.  What are you
thinking?  Something Steve told you about me stuck with you.”

“Berlin. 
The run up to the German national elections.  Remember?”

I remembered
all too well.  Germany was up for grabs, politically.  The Berlin Wall was down
and the cold war was over.  Millions of poorly educated and un-skilled East
Germans were still out of work and the country was a mess.  The Soviet Union
was no more, but there were factions in the Russian government that saw an
opportunity to move Germany away from the US and closer to them.

They had
sent in a team of KGB specialists who were experienced with influencing
elections.  Nothing was off the table for them.  Bribes, extortion and
assassinations were how they operated.  Their leader was a genius when it came
to the work he was doing.  The CIA had sent in a team to counter the Russians
but within days they had all been systematically hunted down and killed.

The decision
was made to stop the Russian’s interference in Germany’s democratic process and
to send a message to the Kremlin as well.  KGB Lieutenant General Fyodor
Aslinov had been my target.  In a bloody battle that had unfortunately spilled
onto the streets of Berlin my unit had killed all but one low level KGB
staffer.  Two of my team didn’t make it out alive.  I had personally ended
Aslinov’s life.

From a
political perspective the operation had been a success.  Germany had elected a
new leader without any outside influence.  At least that I knew of.  There had
been a lot of CIA types crawling all over the place, but I had no idea what
they were up to. 

“I remember
every detail,” I said.

“Here’s what
you probably don’t know.  Aslinov was Russian President Barinov’s mentor.  He
got him into the KGB and shaped his future.  Word was that Barinov loved him
like a father.  I don’t think for a second that the Russians have been hunting
you, up to now, but they’re occupying our country.  That means they have access
to records they’ve never been able to get at before.”

“You’re
really reaching, here,” I said.

“Perhaps,”
Katie acknowledged.  “But I remember that operation.  I wasn’t on the Russian
Desk at the Agency, but it was a big deal.  Barinov had already started
amassing his fortune and he placed a ten million US dollar bounty on the head
of whoever killed Aslinov.  I don’t think anyone at the CIA knew details on the
team that went in to Berlin, but with what was known and the details in your
file it wasn’t hard to figure out.

“Now they’re
occupying our country and if they got into the right files...  A smart
intelligence officer would know about the link between his President and
Aslinov.  I’m just saying…”

“No way,” I
argued.  “That’s ancient history.  If you’re right, they’d have to be digging
that far back, then they’d have to put two and two together and not come up
with five.  And if all of that falls in place they’d have to know exactly who
is in this car.  Way too much of a stretch.”

“Then why
are they coming after us in helicopters, which probably means they want to take
us alive, instead of the fighter on CAP just swooping down and erasing us with
his canon?”  She asked.

I thought as
I drove, turning the possibilities over in my head.

“Or we’ve
got someone who talked to the Russians,” I said.  “Dredged up the past and
pointed them at me.”

“But who
could do that?  They’d have to have knowledge of the operation to begin with
and understand that the Russians would be very interested…” her voice trailed
off into thought.

“What?”

“Steve,” she
said pensively.  “He has the knowledge.  He has the motivation.  He hates you
enough to do something like this.  Give the Russians something their President
wants very badly.  Something valuable to them.”

“All for
revenge?  Don’t you think that’s a bit of a stretch?”