But they cuffed Xander to the plane, anyway, and put sensory deprivation headphones, blinders, and a black hood on him. Sonny volunteered to take the first watch over their prisoner.
Hannah returned to Chris and sat beside him. “You look like you’ve been shot out of a cannon.”
“I feel like it,” he admitted.
“Do you need medical attention?”
“Just some rest. Feels good to sit in a cushioned chair.” He paused a moment. “How is Mikhail?”
“He’s out of critical condition, but he’s undergoing surgery again,” Hannah said. “He’s got some tough bark on him, though, so we think he’ll be okay.”
Sonny had a bag of nuts and munched on them like a damn squirrel at a movie theater while he watched Xander. Chris let out a soft chuckle, then met Hannah’s eyes, his expression serious. “Did the Azeri Coast Guard mistreat you?”
“We had a cell to ourselves, and they were professional about it,” she said. “The Agency bailed us out pretty quickly. It was no big deal. But don’t worry about that now. We’ll do the full debrief when we return to Langley.”
He smiled. Being with her lifted his spirits. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“I want to hear all about how you captured him, but you look like you could use some rest.”
Chris smiled weakly. “Thanks.”
“I have to make a couple calls,” she said before giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze and leaving him.
Chris savored the catlike grace in her stride as she made her way to the cockpit. He closed his eyes, keeping her in his thoughts. At Harvard, he’d read the writer-philosopher Elbert Hubbard who said, A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you. Hannah knew more about Chris than he knew about her, but he hoped in time the scales would balance.
The plane’s hull rumbled beneath him and an unseen weight pressed his body back into the seat. He opened his eyes and continued to feel the heaviness against the front of his chest as the jet accelerated and lifted off the runway. Baku’s city lights became smaller and smaller and were eventually extinguished by the clouds. Soon, the weight melted off his body, and the plane reached cruising altitude.
Hannah returned from the cockpit, and Chris fluttered his eyelids open. She reclined his seat back before she sat next to him and reclined hers, and the cabin lights dimmed. He closed his eyes again, and just before he fell asleep he felt the softness of her hand on his.
And in the realm between reality and dreams, he thought he heard Sonny’s voice. “Bubkes.”
GLOSSARY
Agency: Central Intelligence Agency.
AK: Abbreviated form of AK-47 and its variants.
AK-47: Contraction of Russian, Automat Kalashnikova abraztsa 1947 goda (Kalishnikov’s 1947 automatic rifle). Holds thirty rounds of .308 (7.62 × 39 mm) ammunition.
Azeri: Shortened word for Azerbaijani people or the Azerbaijani language.
Blowout kit: Slang for first aid kit.
BUD/S training: Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training. Where all prospective SEALs must begin training, located in Coronado, California.
Bug-out bag: A three-day survival kit kept handy in the event of having to suddenly evacuate, or bug out.
Bubkes: Yiddish word meaning nothing, having no value.
Circus: Slang for MI6.
Comms: Communications devices.
Delta Force: US Army’s Special Forces Operational Detachment — Delta. Has used cover name of Combat Applications Group (CAG) and Army Compartmented Elements (ACE), but its men simply refer to it as “the Unit.” Recruits mostly from top-performing Army Rangers and Green Berets. Similar to SEAL Team Six, Delta Force is the Army’s Tier One unit that conducts counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations. For the most sensitive operations, they also work under the CIA’s umbrella of Special Operations Group (SOG).
DEVGRU: Development Group, one of the cover names for SEAL Team Six.
E&E: Escape and Evasion. For each mission, SEALs make an E&E plan for what to do when they can’t make it to the extraction. They also carry a small kit to help them escape and evade the enemy.
Federal Security Service: The Federal’naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (FSB), Russia’s version of the CIA. Formerly part of the KGB. FSB headquarters is in the Lubyanka building, northeast of Red Square, in Moscow.
FSB: See Federal Security Service.
Gulag: Originally a Russian acronym for Glavnoye Upravleniye Lagery, literally translated as the “Main Camp Administration,” the government agency in charge of Stalin’s forced labor camps. Although they imprisoned criminals, they also functioned to suppress opposition to Stalin.
KGB: Russian acronym for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, directly translated as Committee for State Security. From 1954 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the KGB served as part of the Soviet Union’s military, acting as secret police within the country and spies abroad. Following the end of the Soviet Union, the KGB was divided into the Federal Security Service and Foreign Intelligence Service.
Kit: Gear.
Klick: Kilometer.
MI6: The United Kingdom’s equivalent of the Central Intelligence Agency.
MNS: Ministry of National Security, Azerbaijan’s intelligence agency, similar to America’s CIA.
NOC: Stands for Non-Official Cover. An illegal resident spy. Rather than work as an official spy with diplomatic cover in an embassy, a NOC works away from embassies and trade missions. If captured, a NOC doesn’t have diplomatic immunity, but he does have more independence and can mingle more easily in the target country in deep cover. Even if the embassy or trade mission in the target country is dissolved, the NOC can remain to continue conducting intelligence operations.
PC: Precious Cargo, such as a hostage being rescued.
Resident spy: An intelligence officer who operates in a foreign country for an extended period of time.
RHIB: Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat. A boat with a solid, V-shaped hull and large inflatable collar at the gunwale, often used by SEALs and other military personnel.
RSO: Regional Security Officer, who works for the State Department overseas and is in charge of law enforcement at US embassies.
SDR: Surveillance Detection Route. A tactical route taken to notice surveillance, which can also be used to lose surveillance, making oneself clean.
SEAL: US Navy commandos who operate in the environments of SEa, Air, and Land. The odd-numbered SEAL Teams (One, Three, Five, and Seven) are based in Coronado, California, and the even-numbered Teams (Two, Four, Six, Eight, and Ten) are based at Little Creek, Virginia. (If the Teams expanded, Team Nine would probably be created next.)
SEAL Team Six: Team Six selects from the best SEALs to serve in its Tier One unit, also known as DEVGRU. Team Six SEALs conduct counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations. For the most sensitive operations, they work under the CIA’s umbrella of Special Operations Group (SOG).
Selection: The course for weeding out who would become a Delta operator and who wouldn’t.