They emptied the nylon bags methodically, placing everything on the opposite bed. Weapons, body-armor vests, communications gear, grenades. The kind of stuff you didn’t want housekeeping to walk in on. A tall, annoyed-looking black guy appeared next to the bed, straightening out the gear and mumbling curse words. Jackson. She remembered him from the mission to stop True America. He’d begrudgingly delivered a cache of weapons that had made all the difference in that operation.
Daniel sat on the bed next to Munoz.
“Lie down or something,” said Daniel. “You still look a little unsteady on your feet.”
“I can manage to sit up,” she said, leaning over to speak quietly. “How is Sayar doing? I was a little surprised to find out he was still around.”
“This whole crew is kind of a patchwork, outside of Munoz and Melendez.”
“Finally. A compliment,” said Munoz.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” said Daniel, inching away from the eavesdropper.
“I have no idea what Foley has been doing. Sanderson thought he could bring her on board full-time, but the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service put a sizable bounty on her head after the Vektor raid, confirmed by the agency. Foley quit the CIA and dropped off the radar. Sanderson has kept in touch, but hasn’t been able to convince her to leave the U.S. I don’t blame her. She’s probably only here because of Berg.”
“How was she involved with Vektor?”
“She took out the Iranian scientist working on the bioweapons program at Vektor, along with his bodyguard. She also managed to steal the keycard that got them into the facility. She’s good, from what I’m told.”
“Mazurov? He looks a little—”
“Rusty?”
“That’s one way to put it,” she said.
Mazurov worked with the new Russian group operatives on an occasional paid-contract basis for Sanderson. He’d spent close to ten years as a sleeper agent in Moscow, teaching school of all things. He played a part in something big around the time of the Vektor raid, but even Sanderson wouldn’t say what he did.
“That leaves Daly, who just left the SEALs. He’ll be sharp, but he hasn’t trained with Sanderson’s people.”
“And then there’s me,” said Jessica. “This is like the Bad News Bears.”
“I heard that,” whispered Munoz. “You don’t have to worry. We’ll do the heavy lifting, like always.”
“Funny,” said Daniel.
Gupta sat up in the chair and started typing furiously.
“You got something?” asked Munoz, leaning forward to see.
“Fucking A. It worked,” Gupta crowed. “I’m getting three independent signals, all clustered in the same location… in Oakton, Virginia. Let me synch this to a better map.”
A satellite image of the area appeared, zooming down to street level. Gupta pulled the image back far enough for them to get the lay of the land. Foley rushed over, wiping her face with a towel.
“Looks like an uncrowded mix of one-acre lots, tighter subdivisions. Some land here and there. Target location is off Hunter Mill Road in an area with a lot of trees and not many roads.”
“Zoom in on the signals again,” Munoz requested.
All three signals were co-located within some kind of structure mostly obscured by trees. A home was visible between the hidden structure and Hunter Mill Road. Gupta centered the screen on the home without anyone asking.
“Do you think that’s visible from the road?” asked Daniel.
“I don’t know. It’s a good tenth of a mile from the road. The target building is a hundred yards past that.”
“I bet the target building is an old barn,” said Foley. “This is a big lot compared to the rest, especially for a town this close to D.C. Not part of the subdivision around it. The original owners probably sold most of their land, but kept this one and a small parcel, which is why they kept the barn.”
“That’s quite an analysis,” said Daniel.
“I grew up on a small farm in Connecticut. That’s exactly what my parents did. They get crazy offers all the time because of the barn. Stockbrokers and hedge fund managers wanting to feel all country-like,” she said, smirking.
“What kind of signals are we getting?” asked Graves.
“Cell phone. One had Wi-Fi enabled. The virus must have called the other phones and daisy-chained,” said Gupta. “This is fucking brilliant technology.”
“Is the system interactive?” asked Graves. “Can you ask it to daisy-chain with other devices?”
“I’m not seeing an interface, and I get the impression we’re not hacking into this system any time soon.”
“Probably not,” said Graves.
“I guarantee we’re dealing with more than three hostiles,” said Munoz. “It would be nice it if gave us more.”
“That’s not its job, but I think we might get what we we’re looking for. The virus clearly felt the need to hijack three phones,” Graves explained.
Jessica shook her head. “You’re talking about it like it’s alive.”
“In a technology sense, it is alive, or smart,” said Graves. “It hijacked three phones, presumably to ensure continuity of signal. It had one, then decided to spread, but it didn’t go any further. It mapped the closest three devices, probably some kind of parameter set by the programmer. I bet if one of our hostiles gets too far away from Berg, the virus will daisy-chain to someone closer, maintaining the three closest points. It might morph strategies altogether and expand to more than three.”
“I guess we have another decision to make,” said Munoz.
“What’s that?” said Daniel.
“Do we wait until dark, or hit them in broad daylight?”
“It’s already been fourteen hours,” said Foley. “The chances of finding him alive grow slimmer by the minute.”
“We don’t have the right night-vision gear to make the best of the darkness,” said Daly, standing in the doorway between rooms. “I counted two sets of goggles and one unmounted scope. No dual-beam lasers mounted to the rifles. Two of us can walk around in the dark, but that’s about the extent of it. If we’re up against professionals that plan on sticking around through the night, they’ll have all the right gear.”
“Nobody’s forcing you to use any of the gear,” remarked Jackson from the other room. “I’m sure that Spyderco knife clipped to your belt will be a real force multiplier combined with your bare hands.”
“I’m not complaining,” said Daly. “We can work with this.”
“Then that’s it,” said Munoz. “Let’s start moving toward the target. Graves and Gupta, I want you mobile and as close to this location as possible. Sayar and Mazurov will provide security. Start looking for a suitable drop-off point along one of the roads behind the property. It doesn’t have to be perfect, we just need a few seconds to slip into the woods.”
“Got it,” said Graves.
The room erupted in a beehive of activity, everyone but Graves and Gupta moving into the other room to kit up. Jessica followed Daniel toward the door, but was stopped by Munoz.
“Jess, you have to sit this one out.”
“I’m not leaving her alone,” said Daniel.
“Then I guess you’re not coming along either,” said Munoz. “We can manage.”
“I’m fine, Danny,” said Jessica. “Seriously. Get Berg and get back in one piece. I’m not going anywhere.”
Daniel stared at her, obviously torn about the decision.
“Let me rephrase this. I will forever think less of you if you don’t go with them,” she said firmly. “We owe this to him. He’s stuck his neck out for us before.”