Flynn looked back at Natalie against the wall. She stirred but continued to sleep.
The phone belonging to the lone awake guard rang, allowing Flynn to listen in on one side of the conversation. His Russian was rusty, but he understood the gist of the conversation: The plan was running according to schedule and they would have no need of the hostages after tonight, once they moved locations.
Flynn heard Natalie stirring and began sliding back toward her.
“What is it, James? What’s going on out there?” she asked.
He ignored her question. “I bet you didn’t know how beautiful you look in the morning.”
She smiled and rolled her eyes. “You’re not answering my question.”
Flynn was well aware he was evading her question.
“Has anyone ever told you that before?”
She smiled again, continuing to mildly protest. “Stop it, James.”
“I’m serious. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“Gosh, you are relentless — and ridiculous. We’re hostages of some terrorist group I’ve never heard of and you want to pay me compliments?”
“Well, have they?”
She laughed again and shook her head.
“Now that you know I’ve never been told that before, will you please answer my question? What are they saying out there?”
Flynn paused, choosing his words carefully.
“I’d really rather not say.”
“Come on, James,” said Natalie, her patience wearing thin. “What are they saying?”
“OK, fine. I’ll tell you. They said that after tonight they don’t have need for us any more and they will need to get rid of us.”
“Get rid of us? I’m hoping that means let us go.”
“Nice try. But you know that’s not what they mean.”
“What are we gonna do?”
Flynn shrugged his shoulders. “I’m working on it.”
Ever since he’d been tossed into this room with Natalie, he’d been “working on it.” But nothing was working in his head, at least not a plan that guaranteed safety for both of them. As much as he wished he had hours to plan out an escape, time was a precious commodity — and it was vanishing quickly.
He knew how high the stakes were. It was time to figure a way out of there.
CHAPTER 33
Todd Osborne studied the message on his computer, wondering if all of the events over the past week were some orchestrated move by the Kuklovod. For an extremist terrorist group, their movements were so infrequent that the CIA often considered declaring them defunct. And then something would happen. A bombing here. A kidnapping there. A sudden rise to power by an unknown politician who was sympathetic to Kuklovod type causes. It was just enough to show a pulse, that the organization still had operatives — and still had an agenda.
But this week’s events meant something bigger was up. The Kuklovod remained covert except when it was preparing to make a big move on the global scene. And if ever there seemed like a big move, Osborne concluded this was it. Everything seemed to be falling into place. The removal of a peace-loving President. The re-emergence of the Vice President’s supposedly dead daughter. The distraction of a former CIA operative who chose to finger the organization on national television as a group targeting the President.
The message on Osborne’s terminal was from an operative embedded in Russia. He taught English at a school in the Urals and rarely had much contact of any kind. If Siberia was where Russia sent political opponents to silence them, the Urals was where the CIA sent operatives who barely passed key components of the agency’s espionage training. Nothing ever happened there, at least, nothing to speak of. But Osborne wondered if one of his operatives had discovered one of the most elusive locations in global spydom: the location of the Kuklovod’s headquarters.
Most agents figured out quickly why they were there. If they avoided detection, they would usually be reassigned within a couple of years. Normally, Osborne would’ve dismissed this as an overzealous agent, trying to make a name for himself. But with the sudden re-emergence of the Kuklovod injecting themselves into national events, he couldn’t dismiss this as mere coincidence. Something far sinister seemed at play.
Identified two Kuklovod operatives. Followed them to what appears to be Kuklovod HQ. Please advise.
Osborne wanted to storm the gates and oust the terrorists in a public display — something the agency would frown upon, especially since the U.S. wasn’t officially in Russia. And this opportunity seemed worth breaking protocol. But not when tensions with Russia were so high — and not when he was unsure of the Kuklovod’s end game. He advised the operative to continue monitoring the situation. Osborne wanted to discover more before charging in — much more.
CHAPTER 34
Breaking free of the zip tie holding Flynn’s hands behind his back never presented a serious problem. However, severing the tie without an action plan would prove detrimental to his hopes of escaping if he didn’t have a firm plan in place. From experience, Flynn knew plans executed with confidence worked. Trying to escape without a plan? Not the best idea — especially when you had someone with you.
“So what are we going to do?” Natalie asked.
“Escape,” Flynn responded dryly.
“Well, I hope so. But how?”
“I’m working on it.”
Flynn slid next to the door and put his ear to the ground to discern what their captors were saying. A few moments passed in silence as Flynn strained to listen.
“Well?” Natalie asked, finally breaking the silence.
“Well, what?”
“Well, what did you hear?”
“Nothing that’s going to help us right now.”
“What were they saying?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Of course I do. If I’m a spy now, I want to know what’s going on.”
Flynn cracked a slight smile. “OK then, I’ll tell you. They said they hope that everything goes as planned in the missile attack on the United States — and that they are a long ways away when it happens.”
Natalie had no idea how to process such information. She remained quiet, staring at the floor.
“I told you that you didn’t want to know,” Flynn said, attempting to break Natalie out of her stupor. “So, even if we make it out of here alive, we’re going to get bombed. What do you think about that?”
Natalie stayed quiet, rocking slowly and staring at the floor.
“OK, I see that you are having a hard time with this. Well, you need to snap out of it because we’re about to break out of here.”
Natalie’s gaze broke and she rejoined Flynn in the present. “What do you want me to do?”
Sharing his detailed plan with Natalie, Flynn expressed full confidence that his idea would result in freedom.
Flynn sliced his zip tie and climbed up the wall and into the beams of the room’s vaulted ceiling.
“Ready?” he asked Natalie.
She nodded. Flynn could tell she wanted to believe in his plan but looked tentative at best.
“Sell it hard,” Flynn said.
She nodded again and smiled slightly.
A moment later, Natalie unleashed a scream that pierced the ears of the three guards. One of them came rushing into the room.
“What is wrong?” he asked, seeing Natalie lying on the floor.