He followed her into the restaurant like a shadow behind her, his eyes checking her slim body for any sign of a gun. If she was hiding one, he had no idea where.
Jake caught her off-guard, startling her somewhat as she turned to sit in the corner booth with a view of the front door.
The two of them shook hands without mentioning names and then took a seat across from each other.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” the station chief said. “Especially after seeing you school that moron from California. Unfortunately he represents my home town.”
“Well, he’s the personification of the Peter Principle,” Jake explained.
She laughed and showed off her perfect teeth. Jake guessed her parents had spent a lot of money with the orthodontist.
“I almost didn’t recognize you with the haircut,” she said. “I liked the longer hair.”
“Well, I needed to change my look a little after my video went viral.”
The two of them looked at each other for a moment in silence. Jake wasn’t sure why they were meeting, unless she had some information for him. A waiter came and Jake ordered a beer for himself and a glass of white wine for the station chief.
“What can I do for you?” he asked her.
“I haven’t been briefed on that,” she said with some consternation. “I was just told to arrange for your transportation and insertion into the congressional delegation. I understand you will be using your Austrian persona.”
Jake let out a breath of air through his nostrils. His version of a laugh. If they knew about that persona, he would have to scrap that plan.
“You have a problem with that?” she asked.
“Yes, I do. As far as I can tell, there’s no Austrian in the delegation. The obvious choice is to go as myself. After all, my expertise is as a security consultant. I have spoken before government groups in nearly every European country on this subject. But I’m guessing you know this. Let’s not try to design a new mouse trap. Put me on the lecture agenda in Gyeongju and I’ll give them my standard speech.”
She shrugged. “That works for me.”
The waiter brought their drinks and Jake took a long swig, pulling a third of it down his throat.
“Tell me about your man, Kim,” Jake said.
The Korean woman’s eyes shifted as she delayed with a sip of wine. “What about him?”
“Can I trust him?”
“Absolutely,” she said emphatically. “I personally hired him.”
“Who says I can trust you?” Jake smiled at her.
She didn’t really look disturbed by that question, since distrust was a natural occurrence in the spy game. “If you can trust my friend, Toni, then you can trust me.”
Now it was all coming together for Jake. Toni had set him up again.
“Where did you cross paths with Toni?” he wanted to know.
“First time was Paris,” she said. “She was station chief in Vienna at the time. I’ve also worked special projects with her. I learned a lot from her.”
“Hopefully not about me.”
“Your name came up a few times,” she demurred.
Great. He drank some more beer. Changing the subject, Jake asked, “If you can’t help me with my so-called mission, then what are we doing here?”
“Logistics planning.” She explained how Jake would go to Gyeongju, while she would travel to the DMZ as an advance team. The congressional delegation would go to the DMZ in three days for six-party talks, including representatives from the U.S., South Korea, North Korea, Japan, China and Russia.
“Sounds like you’ll have your hands full at the DMZ,” Jake said seriously.
“We’ll have help from South Korean National Intelligence Service, along with Army intel and the Japanese.”
“I’m sure the Russian CVR and FSB will keep you busy,” Jake surmised and then drank down the last of his beer.
She laughed. “Yeah, but they should be easy to see. I’m more concerned with our cousins to the north.”
“Don’t forget the Chinese,” Jake reminded her. “I would scrutinize anyone from the media there as well. I’ve heard the Chinese government has planted officers and recruited others as agents.”
“Kind of like our own media?” She sipped and smiled behind her glass.
“Well, it’s hard to divest the Communist Party from the government intelligence and the media,” he explained.
“Are we still talking about ABC, CBS, NBC and nearly every print outlet in America?”
Jake looked at her seriously, guessing she thought very much like his old friend Toni. “Does it matter?”
Her eyes now covered him like a warm blanket on a cold night. “I guess I should get going. And you have an early flight.”
“And I thought our government was going to buy me dinner.”
“Our government is nearly broke,” she said. “And I understand you can afford it.”
“Are tax records not sacred?”
Smiling, she said, “You haven’t paid taxes in America since you left the Agency.”
“If you’re implying that I haven’t done my fair share for my country, you’re off the mark.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry. Not at all, Jake. I know all that you’ve done for your country. I didn’t mean anything by that.”
He put his hand onto hers. “I’m messing with ya. Didn’t Toni tell you I at least make attempts at levity?”
She nodded. “Knowing something is true doesn’t mean I can tell the difference.”
Time to change the subject. “One question.” He paused. “Where do you keep your gun?”
Getting up to leave, she leaned into Jake and said, “Strapped to my inner thigh.” The station chief smiled at him and strut off toward the main entrance, a number of eyes following her smooth sway all the way.
Jake looked at his empty beer glass and lifted it for the waiter. He decided to get a good meal in before heading back to his room.
21
Deep in the heart of the cesspool of the warehouse district of the nation’s capital, in a decrepit cinder block building with corrugated metal roof and doors and a nearly none-existent heating system, two men without masks loomed menacingly over the figure zip-tied to a metal chair. The woman’s long dark hair, scraggly and wet with sweat and blood, covered her face and the bruises she had gotten in the past twelve hours.
Alex Yaroslav ran his hands through his own dark hair, revealing the long scar on his jaw line. How much more could this woman take? He had never seen anyone — man or woman — endure such pain. It was as if she liked it. Sure the Agency had trained her for this eventuality. But training alone could not account for her resolve. His friend Danko had tried nearly everything on her. He had punched her, cut her, added chemicals to the cuts. Used electrical prods. He even used a butane torch on the woman’s breasts, nearly burning off her nipples, and still she had not given up the encryption codes to the flash memory card. Her endurance had given him…what did the American’s call it? Major wood? Yeah, he wanted to give it to her big-time. But he had his orders. If he and Danko could get the information from her, then, and only then, could they screw the woman. It was their incentive. Their bonus.