Before takeoff, the group’s leader made the call to Jake Flynn. “We’re headed to Naval Air Station Jacksonville. Where do you want us after that?”
“Have your aircrews set up shop there. The Jacksonville SAC will send vehicles for your team as soon as you arrive. We’ll bring you to where we need you.”
“Roger. We’ll be there in a few hours. I’ll call you back in a few minutes. We’ll need you to brief us on the plane so that we can mission-plan on the way down.”
Max and Renee had switched from wading along in the water to trudging along through the beach grass, up on the small dunes.
“I should probably say thanks for coming to rescue me,” Max said.
“Hmm. Now you say it.” She punched his arm.
“How were you able to find me?”
“I followed you after you left the Lemon Bar. With Charlotte Capri.”
“That’s not her real name, you know. The woman I met with was an impostor. Working for Morozov. Wilkes called me and warned me about it.”
“You’re kidding.” Renee was shaking her head. “But I don’t understand. They tried to kill you in Georgia, then this impostor meets with you in Key West and lets you go. Now they’re trying to kill you again? Why do they keep changing their minds?”
“I’m their scapegoat. They aren’t just trying to hack into the Fend system to steal the technology.”
“What?”
Max told her about what he had learned, and what he thought Morozov was planning.
“If I’m dead or in captivity, I can’t screw up their plans.”
“But why leave you alive in Key West?”
“That must have been when they found out about MI-6’s agent. The real Charlotte. By leaving me alive, thinking I had met Charlotte, I helped Morozov deceive someone.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know exactly. MI-6. The CIA. Both? But whoever it was, it worked.”
“How do you know?”
“Morozov told me as much. And now he’s decided to kill me again. So I’ve served my purpose.”
“But why bring you up to Amelia Island to see Morozov? They could have just shot you in the hotel in Jacksonville, right?”
Max shook his head. “That’s one thing I’m still trying to figure out. There was another man there with Morozov. What name did he use…? Vasily, I believe.”
“Vasily? I met a Vasily. An older Russian man?”
“Yes.”
“When I was on the yacht, I spoke to him. Morozov came over and interrupted, and they began talking.”
“What did they say?”
“I don’t know. They were speaking in Russian, and I left.”
Max frowned. “Morozov wanted him to see me. He said something like ‘Now are you satisfied?’ to Vasily. But why? Why would seeing me alive mean anything to Vasily?”
“Maybe it wasn’t seeing you alive. Maybe it was knowing that you would be dead…”
Their eyes met, and they kept walking.
A bright white moon began to rise over the ocean horizon. Max thought how pretty it was, and how much he would enjoy this night, were he not also watching the headlights about two miles down the beach. Headlights that were searching for him so they could put a bullet in his head.
Renee shook her head. “Why does he want you dead so bad?”
“I told you, I’m his scapegoat for what he’s planning.”
“No, I mean, why you? Why couldn’t he make someone else the scapegoat? It would be more believable.”
“He hates my father, and he’s responsible for my mother’s death.”
Renee gasped. “So it’s all about revenge, then?”
“I think that’s why I’m involved. But now I’m not so sure revenge is his only objective.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was trying to dig at him. To get him emotional and see what he would say. He made one comment that stuck with me. I said something about revenge, and he responded that his plans are much grander than that. Something to that effect.”
“What if he’s trying to mislead you again?”
“That’s possible. Never trust an ex-KGB agent. That’s always been my motto. Well, that and never fall off a barstool.”
“Both good pieces of advice.”
“Here comes the truck again. Better get down.” They lay flat against the sand, hiding behind a large clump of grass.
While they were waiting, Max whispered, “I’ll tell you another thing that bothers me. He’s too confident. Like he knows he won’t be caught.”
“You told me the FBI thinks he has someone on the inside.”
“Yes, but wouldn’t you still be worried if you were him? It’s pretty ballsy of him to be here in America.”
Max thought about the cryptic way Morozov had said it. My people are everywhere. My plans are often years in the making.
The SUV rumbled slowly past them. Only fifty feet away.
Then it stopped. Brakes squealing.
The lights went out, and the doors opened. Two men got out from either side. The doors slammed shut.
Max could make out a faint green glow near their heads. Night vision goggles.
Flynn hung up the phone and looked at Wilkes. It was almost 3 a.m. now, and he was still in his room. They had ordered coffee and set up shop. There would be little sleep tonight.
“HRT is on the way to Jacksonville now. I’ve finished briefing them, and they’ll be doing scenario planning the whole way down. The Jacksonville SAC will meet us at the Fend Aerospace headquarters tomorrow. Are you sure we shouldn’t just call this thing off?”
Wilkes shook his head. “We can’t. I need Morozov to make his move tomorrow. It’ll allow us to snare him and his agent working for Fend.”
“Okay. We’ll get the HRT team ready to go in with an air assault on his yacht when ready.”
“Let’s walk through what we think will happen tomorrow,” Wilkes said. “The Fend 100 will take off at seven a.m. It’s roughly a three-hour flight. They do a bunch of circles over Florida and then land back at the Fend Aerospace headquarters near Jacksonville.”
“I’m with you so far.”
“Morozov will, at some point, initiate a cyberattack on the Fend 100. That electronic signal is expected to come from the yacht. I have a team of experts at the NSA who are ready and waiting for that electronic signal. Once it occurs, we’ll have what we need. The HRT team can then move in and take control of the ship. We have surveillance teams that will be monitoring communications from our suspects within Fend Aerospace.”
“You still think its Karpinsky or Hutson?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. But we’ll be watching them both closely.”
“We’ll need a cyber expert on the yacht.”
“I got a guy who’ll be here,” Flynn said. “HRT can take him when they go assault the yacht. If there are any problems with the aircraft link, he’ll solve them.”
“What about Charles Fend’s employee that he’s got on the plane — what’s her name?”
Flynn said, “Maria Blount. She’s plan A now. Once we get the signal that Morozov’s hackers are trying to steal the Fend 100 data, she’ll be able to shut them down.”
“Good. Without Max Fend, we’ll need to rely on her.”
“Is Max going to show back up before the Fend 100 gets airborne?”
“I hope so.”
Max watched one of the Russians head their way, scanning the beach with his night vision goggles in a side-to-side sweeping motion. The other Russian was doing the same thing, but walking along the beach in the opposite direction. The moonlight would make his night vision much more effective. And the moon was rising.
Max touched Renee’s hand. Then he made his fingers into a gun. She gave a barely perceptible nod. She carefully raised the pepper spray gun. Max still held her field hockey stick. What he wouldn’t give for his Sig right now.