The Zimmer Doctrine (Corps Justice Book 11) (16 page)

Chapter 31

Great Sale Cay

The Bahamas

August 29th, 8:21pm

Hannah bit her tongue and kept her hands clutched to her stomach as she was escorted into Chance Baxter’s office. Her mind was still reeling from seeing Maya. Maya! What was she doing on the island? Had Baxter somehow tracked her down through Perlstein? Perlstein knew about Maya, of course, but to Hannah’s knowledge he’d never seen her. The snob was too concerned with being boss to worry about such frivolous details. Better to dispatch his underlings to kill Maya.

But Hannah had saved her from Perlstein’s clutches. She’d shipped Maya off to America. Why was she here? Why?

Those thoughts rattled around in her head as she tried to look presentable and gather her wits. Baxter and Perlstein were drinking some dark liquid, probably aged whiskey. Perlstein’s glass was almost empty while Baxter’s looked untouched.

“Ah, Ms. Krygier,” Baxter said, rising from his seat. “Thank you for joining us.”

She searched his face for anything that might give her a clue of why Maya was here. His face gave nothing away. His face was as welcoming as it had been the first time she’d met him. Perlstein, on the other hand, glared at her from his chair while he drank deeply from his glass.

“We were just discussing our arrangement,” Baxter said, pointing to the bar.

She nodded and he went to fetch her a drink.

“And what exactly were you discussing?” Hannah asked, trying to ignore Perlstein, whose face seemed to fall into a deeper glare.

“Your brother, the prime minister, does he know everything about you?” Baxter asked, plucking an olive from a small dish and placing it in her martini.

“What do you mean?”

“Does he know everything you do for a living?”

Was it just an innocent question or was he probing? Hannah couldn’t tell with her senses already dulled from the shock of seeing Maya. She tried to put her emotions aside.

“I have helped him with his political career in the past. Is that what you mean?”

Baxter turned and presented her with a martini.

“I made it a little dirty. I hope you don’t mind,” he said.

Hannah sipped the drink and smiled appreciatively.

“It’s perfect, thank you.”

Baxter smiled and motioned to the sofa across from Perlstein, who was still staring at her but now with more distrust. What was his problem?

“So, as I was saying, how much does your brother know of your career outside of assistance you've provided personally?”

“I don’t know really. We’re not particularly close. Is that what you are asking?”

“I assumed but I wanted to be sure.”

Where is he going with this questioning, and why is Perlstein trying to murder me with his gaze?

“And what about your extracurricular activities? Does he know about them?” Baxter asked, finally taking a slow sip from his own drink.

“I’m not sure I know what you mean, Mr. Baxter.”

Baxter set his glass down on the coffee table and, for the first time since they’d met, the billionaire leveled her with steely eyes.

“Does he know you’re a spy, Ms. Krygier? Does he know you’ve dedicated your life to providing information to the Americans while deceiving your own country?”

+++

Georgetown, Washington D.C.

Rudy Collier felt like skipping. The CIA was having the rest of his personal items shipped to his new address, a quaint little farm he’d closed on an hour before. Iowa would be good for him. It was away from the bustle of big cities, far from the prying eyes of Washington. How he longed to stretch out in his leather recliner and immerse himself in his never-ending quest for the perfect book.

The night was warm but he could smell the coming rain. Someone at the office had said that the hurricane about to make landfall in the Caribbean would most likely dump inches of rain along the East Coast. He didn’t care. Hopefully, he’d be gone in the morning. With the money that was now sitting in nine different accounts around the world, he could afford to have a moving company pack and ship his belongings without him having to lift a finger.

Yes, it would be nice to live with such luxuries. He’d lived frugally the day he’d left his parents’ house at eighteen. He’d scrimped and saved, and now it was all paying off. A quiet life in the heartland beckoned and Collier couldn’t wait for this new chapter to begin.

With his stomach full from what might possibly be his last Subway sandwich, he ascended the last rise that would lead him into his humble home. The agent he’d hired to put the house on the market said it would easily sell in a week's time. It had taken him every ounce of newfound entitlement not to negotiate her commission. It would be worth every penny if she did all the work. He smiled at that fact as he closed in on a couple coming from the opposite direction. The woman was laughing and her boyfriend or husband was tickling her.

Collier moved farther to the right to get out of their way. They barely seemed to notice him until the last moment. Then the man looked up in surprise as he veered in front of Collier, courtesy of a playful shove from the woman.

“Oh, man, I’m sorry,” the guy said.

“No problem,” Collier answered, ducking his head and walking past them.

The man caught him by the shoulder.

“Hey, can we buy you a drink? Peace offering?”

“Yeah, come on. We’re celebrating and Ben’s such a bore,” the woman said, her words slurring.

“Uh, no thanks,” Collier answered. That was when he noticed that half the lights on the block were out, including the two on his porch.
Strange.

“Hey, are you Rudolf Collier?” the man asked.

Collier answered without thinking, his mind too engaged with the darkened street. “It’s Rudy, and if you don’t mind, I have to go.”

“Ha, Rudolf. That’s a funny name,” the woman laughed.

But the man was close to him now, his grip tight on Collier’s arm.

“Let go of…”

Collier’s next words came out in a squeak as he felt something blunt and hard against his ribs.

“Mr. Baxter says thanks, Rudolf.”

Collier’s eyes bulged. The sixth name on the list. The name he’d made disappear before briefing Zimmer. The name he’d contacted and who’d made him rich. Why would Baxter...? Collier tried to scream as whatever the man had in his hand came up to face level. He realized it was a gun with a long silencer on the end just as the man squeezed the trigger.

Three wounds entered Rudy Collier’s forehead in rapid succession. A second later, his body flopped, motionless, to the ground.

The gun was already back in the man’s pocket as he turned and put his arm back around his partner’s waist. She giggled again, kissed him on the lips, and the pair walked away as if nothing had happened.

+++

Great Sale Cay

Hannah struggled to find the words. Perlstein seethed. Baxter waited.

“Why do you think I am a spy, Mr. Baxter?”

“Efraim, will you excuse us please?” Baxter asked. It wasn’t a request but rather an order.

Perlstein said something under his breath, got up from his chair and, upon his departure, he grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the bar. Once the door was closed, Baxter continued.

“Do you think you were the only one?”

Hannah stomach turned. More riddles?

“What do you mean?”

“The Americans are very clever. They lost some of their nerve after 9/11 but they have since regained it.”

“You’ve lost me, Mr. Baxter.”

“I apologize, both for the intrigue, and for Efraim. He can be such a pest.”

Hannah nodded, wanting to take a long pull from her drink, but not trusting her shaking hands. Baxter either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

Baxter went on. “Let me guess. You were recruited in university?” Hannah didn’t move. “That was where they found me. Of course, the initial introduction was through my father who was always uncovering helpful ways to take advantage of foreign powers, but this time it was me they wanted.”

“I don’t understand what you are saying,” Hannah said.

Baxter grinned. “Come now, Ms. Krygier. I’m telling you my secret, so why don’t we dispense with the lie? It took me a lot of time and a good bit of money to find out the truth. Would you like to hear the story?”

Despite her own feelings, Hannah nodded.

After sipping his drink, Baxter said, “In the 1970's, someone in the American government had the brilliant idea of finding influential men and women in their early twenties to recruit for long-term missions. Much like sleeper cells they would, or should I say
we
would, lie dormant until we discovered some imminent danger that would affect the United States. The Americans ended up with six recruits, you and I being two of them. From what I’ve pieced together, the other four were from Japan, The Soviet Union, Mexico and Canada. A strange mix, I know, but clever in its own way. Well, the Soviet mole was discovered barely a year after being established. The KGB tried to ransom him back but the Americans flatly denied the man’s existence as a spy. He was jailed and then found dead the next day. The Mexican spy died of natural causes. I found and killed both the Canadian and the Japanese moles.”

He said it casually, as if he’d just explained his family recipe for bread pudding.

“So that leaves the two of us. As luck would have it, I had no idea you were the other mole until a recent phone call from a former colleague. At first I thought that killing you might be the best course. But once I had a moment to think and really digest the possibilities, I wondered if this might not be a blessing in disguise. So that brings us here, to this moment. Do you have any questions?”

Hannah's heart pounded in her chest.
Questions? How could he ask such a thing?
If Baxter wasn’t some sort of sociopath, he was undoubtedly the best actor she’d ever come in contact with. She reminded herself that she had to keep her wits. That’s what they’d said when they’d recruited her, a fresh-faced coed with the political contacts to establish an Israeli dynasty. There had been so much risk involved, but she’d viewed it as an exciting adventure. It also provided her the means to keep her country safe while forging a deeper bond with one of their most needed allies, the Americans.

“What do you propose?” she asked, trying to find that younger version of herself that hadn’t been afraid of the monsters lurking in the dark of night.

“I’ll have to think about it. With the storm coming…” The phone on his desk rang and Baxter looked up with the tiniest hint of annoyance. “Excuse me.”

He got up from his seat and snatched up the receiver.

“Yes?”

Whatever the person on the other end said made Baxter frown. The acting was gone. Less than thirty seconds after the call had ended Baxter rejoined his guest.

“Is everything alright?” Hannah asked.

Baxter didn’t answer her immediately. He was staring at the coffee table, his expression pensive. He looked up a full minute later and said, “I apologize, Ms. Krygier. Might I suggest we finish our conversation in the morning?”

He rose again and made his way to the door.

Hannah couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was he just going to let her go? And then she realized that there was no place
to
go. She was on an island in the middle of a hurricane surrounded by Baxter’s servants who were most certainly spying for their master.

Baxter opened the door an inch and then stopped. He looked at her, his eyes calm, and he said, “Please stay in your room until George comes to fetch you in the morning, Ms. Krygier. It turns out that there are more American spies in our midst. I daresay they’ve taken advantage of my hospitality.” He shook his head, his eyes bright once more. He smiled. “No matter. The nuisance will be dealt with before you awake. Good night, Ms. Krygier.”

“Good night,” she replied as she passed through the door. She thought only of Maya.  Her presence and the phone call could not be a coincidence. She had to do something, but what?

Chapter 32

Great Sale Cay

The Bahamas

August 29th, 8:46pm

They’d moved to what Baxter said was a more secure location. The room was on the first level of the massive home and when you looked out the window all you could see was the steep drop-off to the ocean below. No beach, just water.

Master Sergeant Trent had been the first to test the window.

“Thick,” he said as his knocking only elicited a deep thud. Amazingly, they couldn’t even hear the storm raging outside.

They killed time by trying to come up with a plan. What they really needed was to contact their second team in Freeport or Zimmer in Washington. Someone needed to know that they’d found Hannah Krygier. They were sitting blind, deaf, and mute and no one was more frustrated than Neil. He worked furiously to try to get something to work. Nothing did, but he didn’t stop.

Then the squawk came followed by another. Neil looked up. “Was that the radio?”

Gaucho walked over to the small encrypted radio they’d brought along as backup to all of Neil’s fancy gadgetry. It squawked again, and this time a single word came out, “Inbound.”

Neil jumped from his chair as everyone else gathered around. Even Maya, still shocked from the surprise of seeing Hannah, came over.

Neil fiddled with the knobs, trying to acquire a better signal. They were out of range of the main island, but if someone was coming to help…

This time the transmission came through clearly.

“Fletch inbound. I repeat, Fletch inbound.”

“How the hell?” Neil asked.

Daniel grabbed the mike and keyed it, “Fletch, this is Snake Eyes. How do you copy?”

“Solid copy, over,” Benny Fletcher said over the radio.

There was a collective sigh of relief in the room until Daniel asked in disbelief, “Are they flying through that?” He pointed to the window at the storm wreaking havoc across the island. Then he keyed the mike again. “What’s your ETA, over?”

“Ten mikes,” came the reply, this time sounding more garbled than before.

Cal stared at the radio, amazed that anyone could fly through the gale-force winds. Benny Fletcher was in a for a few free beers if he made it.

“Roger. Let us know when you’re close. Snake Eyes, out.”

Daniel set the mike back on the table and looked at Cal. “Looks like we just caught a break.”

+++

Chance Baxter read the report from his head of security. So, someone was stupid enough to brave the wind and torrential rains to reach his island. Baxter had to tip his hat to the brave fool, but that would have to wait.

“Make the necessary preparations please,” Baxter ordered.

The security chief nodded and ran down the hall.

“What is going on?” an annoyed Perlstein inquired as he staggered out of his room. He still had a glass in his hand, and it was obvious by his lilt that he hadn’t stopped drinking since leaving the meeting with Hannah Krygier.

“We have uninvited guests coming,” Baxter answered.

That seemed to sober Perlstein up a bit.

“What? Who?”

“It seems as though some noble warrior is trying to rescue his friends.”

“Who?”

“It is most likely Americans coming to the rescue of their friends.”

Spittle came out of Perlstein’s mouth when he spoke.

“Americans? Here?”

Baxter wanted to slap the man.

“It was inevitable, really. Don’t worry, I have things well in hand.”

“How? How could you deal with American soldiers?”

Baxter smiled patiently and said, “You don’t think I’d build this house without a few surprises, would you?”

+++

There had been one more transmission from Fletcher. The helo was five minutes out. Maybe luck was on their side. Cal hoped it would stay that way. He was about to say as much when a loud clicking sound hushed the room.

“What was that?” Trent asked. Then he pointed to the air vent on the ceiling. “That thing was open a second ago.”

Then they heard the clicking sound again, and this time it was followed by a loud scraping, like steel grating against steel. It stopped suddenly, but they all felt the final vibration in their feet.

Cal scanned the room. Nothing looked amiss except for the air vent. Then he tried the door. It was locked. He pulled on it, still nothing.

“Top, give me a hand,” he said.

Trent came over and gripped the handle. He pulled and Cal could hear the door creak in complaint. Then, with a final yank, the door came off its hinges.

That wasn’t the end of it though. There, behind where the door had just hung was another door. Cal knocked on it. Steel. He searched the seams but it looked airtight.

“What the hell?”

Then he heard a lighter scraping sound and turned to see four rectangular holes in the wall where a moment ago there had just been plaster.

“Get to the other side of the room,” Cal said, every muscle in his body tensed for what was coming next.

He didn’t have to wait long. He scooped Liberty up in his arms as the next surprise came. With the force of a fire hose, water sprayed from the holes in the wall, slamming Gaucho against the wall. Trent went to help him as the others stayed clear of the powerful streams.

The water hadn’t been running for thirty seconds and already the water was up to their ankles. Everyone was looking around the room trying to find an escape route. Trent went at the windows with a chair, while Daniel stood on Gaucho’s shoulders as he tried to pry one of the air vents open. It didn’t take them long to figure out that they were trapped.  By that time, the water had risen to their waists.