“This is Pepper,” he said.
“This is Ramey,” she replied. If Pepper wanted to answer his phone in such a curt manner, Kara would respond likewise.
“What’s up, Kara?”
“We have put together a plan to make a play for Kornev,” she told him. “We are also in the intelligence gathering phase in relation to making a move on Afua Diambu.”
“Wow, you guys have been busy,” Pepper said.
Kara thought he sounded sincere.
Pepper asked, “Do you have a timetable in place?”
“Not for the Diambu operation, but we do for the Kornev op. I need to fly into Termez, Uzbekistan as soon as possible, but on a commercial flight.”
“It would be faster on a charter or a private jet,” Pepper suggested.
“No, I don’t want Kornev to feel that he’s worth all that expense. I want it to be as low-key as possible.”
“Where are you now?” Pepper asked.
“We are in the middle of the Sulu Sea.”
“Where the hell is that?”
“We are near Zamboanga.”
“Where the hell is that?” Pepper repeated.
Kara considered telling Pepper, “Hey, you are the head of the CIA. Maybe you should break out an atlas and learn your damn job.”
Instead, she let out a huff of exasperation and said, “The southernmost part of the Philippines. Hail is going to chopper me to the Zamboanga International Airport. From there I’m going to catch like a million connecting flights that will eventually get me to the Termez International Airport. I should arrive the day after tomorrow. Hail will be there with me.”
“You mean he is arriving in Termez on the same plane with you?” Pepper asked, concern in his voice.
“No. He’s flying in on his own Gulfstream the day before so he can get things set up.”
“How is this going to go down?” Pepper questioned.
“It’s a little too involved to go into over the phone, and it may not be a one-time meeting to get Kornev to play ball. Big, dense and rich guys like Kornev need more convincing than small, smart and rich guys.”
There was a moment of silence on the phone while Pepper mulled the situation over.
After a moment, Pepper asked, “What does Hail need from the CIA?”
Kara replied, “Nothing. He asked me to make sure that there isn’t a back-up plan or any other operation the CIA or US government has planned for either of these targets.”
Pepper huffed and sounded upset. The back-up plan he had set in motion during the previous operation had cost lives and equipment. It had also jeopardized Hail and his crew. According to Hail, it was a logical question.
“Tell Hail that we don’t have any back-up plans in place. But make sure he knows that if he screws up either mission, then the intelligence faucet will get shut off. No more info. for him on the whereabouts of further terrorists.”
Kara said nothing.
“Did you hear me?” Pepper said.
“Sorry,” Kara lied. “You were breaking up there for a moment.”
“I said—” Pepper began, but Kara disconnected the call.
“It is so hard to get good reception in the middle of the Sulu Sea — wherever the hell that is,” Kara thought to herself with a smile.
Termez, Uzbekistan
The Darknet’s lesser known cousin, the Black Net, was one criminal level down from the Darknet, which had become so familiar to the common public. Thus, it was not the elicit marketplace it once it had been. The TOR Browser had become the Rip Browser.
Kornev brought up his Rip Browser and entered the world of drug dealers, exotic animal suppliers, military secret peddlers, identity document experts, credit card number brokers, as well as hitmen and human slave dealers and, of course what Kornev sold, weapons. With a few clicks of the mouse, Kornev brought up an encrypted e-mail service he used to communicate with his customers, who were scattered all over the world.
The first e-mail he saw was from the new secretary of the North Korea’s Worker’s Party, Jang Song Hae. Following the recent missile debacle, there had been a major purge of power by the esteemed leader, who had sent most of the Worker’s Party cabinet to what he called an ideological re-education to work in the uranium mines at Pyongsan. The only education they would receive is how to work themselves to death — the true point of the reassignment.
The e-mail from Jang Song Hae was direct and to the point. It was written in English, since his North Korean client understood that Kornev was not proficient in Korean.
“What are you prepared to do about the loss of the ICBMs?”
The single sentence was provocative to the point it made Kornev flinch and cause his stomach to churn. Recently, there had been a few exchanges between Kornev and the North Koreans. All three missiles they’d ordered from him blew up minutes after arriving in a North Korean warehouse. What made Kornev look like he was involved with the destruction was his hasty departure and escaping the explosion. All the guards, in addition to the North Korean general overseeing the delivery, vaporized with the warehouse and its contents. Kornev had made it out, but he wouldn’t have escaped if it hadn’t been for a phone call he had received minutes prior to the blast. The anonymous, Spanish-sounding female, warned him Hellfire missiles were inbound. Since no one knew he was at the warehouse, Kornev had taken the warning seriously and fled in a Jeep. While making his escape, a flying weapon had given chase. It had flown just above and behind his Jeep shooting controlled bursts of automatic weapon fire down on him. One of the bullets had clipped his right hand, and he felt death was a certainty. There was no place to hide in a ragtop Jeep. Then the strangest thing had happened. The pursuing aircraft exploded no more than twenty meters behind his Jeep. Kornev had been immensely filled with relief, believing from then on it would be smooth sailing. But then when he reached the sanctuary of the Dongmyong Hotel in Pongch’un-dong, the entire hotel had blown up. The explosion sent a shockwave causing him to lose control of his Jeep. At a speed of 40 kilometers per hour, he lost control, veered off the road and rocketed straight into a ditch. That incident was responsible for the many injuries he had suffered.
The latest e-mail from the North Koreans didn’t necessarily blame him for the sabotage, but they expected, at the very least, for him to provide them more ICBMs. Either that or they wanted him to return the diamonds. The last time he had seen that bag of diamonds they were being removed from a floor safe in the warehouse. He recalled seeing the general hold them up, offering them in payment for Kornev’s services. Instead of accepting the diamonds as payment for his services, he had run from the building.
The problem Kornev faced was the time it took to procure the ICBMs. It had taken him over a year to orchestrate the successful collection and delivery of the ICBMs (that had been destroyed) to the North Koreans — it had not been an easy process. There were different companies in Russia who had built different parts of the decommissioned missile. One company was responsible for the guidance system. Another built the structural components. And yet others built the thousands of other electronic and propulsion components that allowed the missile to tick, fly, and go boom. Since the missile was no longer in production, Kornev had to track down the manufacturers of each component to purchase their retired parts.