The Bleeding Sun (3 page)

Annie decided to visit the Indian embassy first as
it was in Vedado itself. On visiting the embassy, she went up to
the reception and said that she was a visitor for Julio Villena.
She could not reveal her true identity as she was supposed to be a
Dutch national according to her passport. The receptionist told her
to wait for some time as Julio had still not arrived at the office.
He was hired by the Indian government to enable smooth
understanding between the two governments when needed. Julio was a
specialist in negotiations. He had six other family members
involved in Cuban politics. It was said that two of them were very
close to Castro. Annie shuffled through her purse while waiting for
his arrival. She seemed to have nothing else in the purse apart
from the daily amenities a woman is supposed to carry. However
there was an inner chamber at the bottom which carried a small
device which looked like a small pager. It was a security key.
Every ANTT agent possessed one. It gave them randomly generated
code required to access the ANNT network over wire or in wireless
mode. She needed to use it in order to speak to the Serpent.

Julio Antonio Villena was a well-built man in his
early forties. He had prior information of Annie’s arrival. He led
her to his office and asked her a series of questions to make sure
it was really her. After being satisfied with his inquiries he led
her to the shelves in his office. A gentle push caused the book
shelf to move aside and reveal a state of the art radio
transceiver. Annie took out her security device to check the exact
code she needed to call to. The job was done within quarter of an
hour. She left the place thanking Julio for the support. Julio
handed her a bunch of papers so that when she went out it would
seem that she had come for an official matter. This way there would
be least amount of suspicion. Annie thanked him one more time and
left the embassy…next stop… Maria Rosario Morales.

Maria Rosario Morales had worked in sync with the
Indian Assembly ever since she was hired in the late nineties. Her
father had played a big role in exchange of arms and supply of
ammunition during the cold war era. It is said that he supplied
arms to Che Guevara’s guerrilla warriors. He was eventually killed
by CIA agents. Maria had taken over the business ever since. She
had undergone a critical cardiac surgery on behalf of the Indian
government after the hospitals in Cuba had given up all hope and
the ones in US refused to treat her. Since then she has been Indian
Government’s accomplice and has been helping the Indian
operatives’. She lived in plot number11B, 25th Avenue, Marianao.
Annie’s car speeded over the highway in her journey to Marianao.
However, the journey took her over an hour owing to the poor
traffic conditions for the last few miles.

The house that Maria lived in was a well maintained
duplex. The ground floor had been turned into a coffee shop named
‘Café de Havana’. All the tourists visited her coffee shop for its
trademark preparations. Annie strolled inside the shop and chose to
seat near the window. A waitress came up to her table. Annie
decided to order a cup of strongly brewed cappuccino. After the
waitress left, Annie turned around to take a closer look at the
place. A Russian couple sat in the opposite corner sipping their
coffee and discussing loudly about their course of action while
looking into a guide book. There were few guys singing along with
one of them strumming a guitar. Their strong Yorkshire accent was
highly prominent. There were a few odd couples seated here and
there. Apart from that, the place was relatively empty. A staircase
beside the main counter led to the first floor where Maria’s office
was probably located.

The waitress brought her the cup of coffee. As Annie
raised the mug to take a sip she found a card attached to its
bottom. She slowly detached it. It had the code word for accessing
Maria’s office. She sipped off her coffee quickly and paid the
check. Then she moved beside the main counter and started walking
up the stairs. On the first floor, a huge man with a shotgun
awaited her in front of a hallway. She was allowed to proceed when
she told him the pass code that was written on the card. The man
led her to a door at the end of the hallway. It was Maria’s
office.

Maria was a small elderly woman in her late fifties.
She was delighted on seeing Annie. She was especially excited on
seeing a woman operative from ANNT…..the very first one. After
initial conversation, the more important matters were addressed.
Annie ordered anything and everything she could think of………… couple
of silenced M9s and MP5s, few smoke and flash bang grenades, C4s,
couple of walky-talkies and GPS devices, night vision goggles, a
silenced SV-99 sniper rifle, gas masks, deep sea diving kits, an
inflatable rubber dinghy, bullet proof vests, army knives,
binoculars and ample ammunition for all the guns. It was more than
enough to start a full-fledged war against the terrorists in
Havana. Maria also handed her a sealed envelope which belonged to
agent Alpha K. He had handed it over to her two days before he was
killed. Annie took the envelope, and ordered for all the other
equipment to be packed.

Maria made sure that the 3 boxes containing all the
equipment carried a few paintings and stuff from her curio
collection. Maria’s curio collection was famous in all of Cuba.
Owing to her contacts with Government officials and also various
other important people during her entire life, she had collected
various types of stuff. This would make the whole scenario appear
as if Annie was a big art enthusiast who had bought the stuff from
Maria’s curio collection thereby causing least amount of suspicion
among the visitors in the Café as well as the chauffeur. After all
the boxes were loaded, Annie started for her final destination for
the day…Tropicana Casino. At this point, Annie’s security device
started to beep with a yellow light. It meant that plans had been
changed…she needed to return to the hotel. Annie ordered the
chauffeur to turn around and return back to Hotel Nacional.

Annie returned back to the hotel and headed straight
for her room. Lucas must have been in the middle of something
really important…otherwise he would not have turned on the security
device. To her utmost amazement, on reaching the room, Annie
realized that Lucas was not there. Lucas had not come back ever
since he had left the hotel that morning. The room had been cleaned
and rearranged by the room service personnel. The sheets had been
changed and the curtains closed. A bunch of fresh tulips adorned
the flower vase. It was not there last night, probably Alfred had
arranged for the flowers to please them. Annie could not ponder
around anymore, she needed to look for any clues or instructions
that Lucas may have left for her. She pulled out the data pad from
Lucas's bag and logged in to the ANNT network. She had to try and
locate Lucas's location and shut off the device to ensure no one
else could intercept it. While she was concentrating on using her
security key to get into the network, she suddenly felt a warm air
kissing her neck. As she tried to turn around, a heavy thud on her
head silenced her.

The Trap

After visiting the beach Lucas decided to head back
to the hotel. He needed to get his plans chalked out for the next
night for his encounter with Rosmus and Hussein. He would try to
get as much Intel as possible and then look for an opportunity to
take both of them down before they could cause any more harm to the
innocent civilians around the world. In the cab, he noticed that
the security beacon on his watch had started flashing. Annie must
have had found out something important which she intended to tell
him.

On reaching the hotel, Lucas moved hastily through
the lobby towards the elevator. As he moved past the reception, he
noticed that Alfred was not present there; even the guys at the
reception were missing. The lobby looked unusually empty in the
middle of the day. That was really strange considering the fact
that Hotel Nacional was one of the biggest hotels in entire Cuba.
As Lucas headed towards the elevator, he couldn’t help but notice
that the security cameras were pointed straight towards him. Lucas
entered the elevator and headed towards the 7th floor. The camera
in the elevator was also looking straight at him. Something was not
right. Someone was watching his every move very closely.

The elevator came to a screeching halt at the 7th
floor and Lucas walked out of it. He walked out on the hallway and
moved towards his room. Room number 702 was just round the corner.
Lucas walked halfway and looked up for the security cameras. The
two cameras were at opposite ends of the hallway. If his assumption
was right, then he was standing at an eclipse zone where none of
the cameras could track him down. He needed to perform the
vanishing act. He could neither go forward nor backwards without
avoiding the cameras...the only way to travel undetected, was to
move up. He could use the air conditioning vents for this purpose.
It could lead him straight to his room.

Lucas pulled out his left shoe and opened a secret
chamber from the sole. He pulled out a thin wire and a mini
grappling hook. It didn't take him long to pull down the cover of
the vent and pull himself up. He turned the dial of his watch to
activate the location system. He had to find the way to his room.
As Lucas moved forward through the vent, he could see four masked
men with automatic rifles waiting below him around the corner. He
would have been shot as soon as he got close to his room had he
kept walking all along. It was a death trap set for him. He needed
to move to his room quickly and check on the whereabouts of Annie…
for the first time, he felt worried about that girl.

Lucas slowly moved forward to ensure that he didn’t
make any noise in the vent. He could not make his presence felt.
When he entered the room he could see only a part of it from the
vent. He took out his pen and started unscrewing the cap. The pen
extended into a foot long thin metallic rod with a small camera on
its tip. The video feed would be shown on his watch. He lowered the
camera from the vent and turned the cap to move it around. There
were two armed men in the room. One was guarding the windows while
the other was waiting near the door. The room was empty with no
signs of Annie. Annie’s suit cases along with the weapons obtained
from Maria were lying on the floor. Annie must have been in the
hotel to drop off the bags. Probably the assailants had her in
custody or in the worst case, had already executed her. Lucas took
a closer look at the room once more and pulled up the camera. He
had tagged the location of the two armed men in his watch. He
needed to take them down silently without the slightest of
fuss.

Lucas slowly unwound the screws from the vent access
using a Swiss knife that he always carried. He slowly lifted the
access door and attached the grappling hook on the vent. Then he
slowly moved into the room with body hanging vertically downwards.
He could not afford to land on his feet since his boots could make
enough noise to give away his presence. He landed on his palms
without a sound and swiftly rolled behind one of the couches. He
pulled down the grappling hook swiftly and silently. The guys were
still stranded in the same positions. Lucas wondered what exactly
they were waiting for. He rolled across the door and moved swiftly
behind the man waiting at the main door. He took out the Swiss
knife, rose up behind the man and like a silent assassin covered
his victim’s mouth and jabbed the knife onto his neck. The poor guy
didn’t even get a chance to blink.

Lucas could hear the sound of the rest of the armed
men outside the room. They were moving around trying to find him
since he did not walk up onto their trap. The radios were crackling
and from the conversation, it didn’t seem that their boss was too
pleased. Lucas had to take out the next guy in order to search the
room for any clue he could find and then he needed to vanish again
before the other guys arrived. He could see his backpack lying near
the bed. Apparently it had not been opened. He rolled again swiftly
on the carpet trying to get near the second guy when his plans went
wrong. The phone in the room started ringing and the guy looked
back to stare straight at him. As he lifted his rifle, Lucas threw
the knife straight at him and lunged forward. The knife struck his
shoulder but he managed to fire a few rounds before Lucas landed on
him. A brutal blow on his neck ended his misery.

Lucas rushed towards Annie’s luggage and pulled out
a silenced M9 along with a smoke grenade. As the door opened up he
threw up the smoke grenade and jumped across the room away from the
windows taking shelter behind a recliner. He got hold of his
backpack as well. The men started firing their rounds as smoke
filled up the room and the fire alarm started ringing. Lucas put on
his glasses from the backpack and turned on the thermal imaging. As
the bewildered men moved around the room firing haphazardly, he
watched their every move and took them down one by one with his
shots. All the four men were gunned down. As the sprinklers came to
life, Lucas turned his attention to the room. There was no sign of
Annie. He packed up his backpack with whatever he could from the
accessories that Maria had provided. He needed to clear the place
of every trace. He took out a round of C4 and placed it tactically
in the room to ensure that all his traces were gone. He went on to
the men who were guarding the room and searched for clues on their
bodies. The only thing he found was that all of them had a patch on
their shirts with the name of ‘Viper’. He would need to do some
more research to find about them. He would need every single clue
to track down and rescue Annie if she was still alive. One of the
men had a cell phone and the last call was made to someone named
Dimitri minutes before the men had rushed into the room. Lucas took
the cell phone for analyzing later as he wired up the C4 and got
ready to move on. He would work his way up the vent again and on
reaching the stairs would detonate the bomb.