Chris translated the Arabic on the monitor. “Final destination — Washington, DC.” Although Americans might get a sense of security from the government’s no-fly list, for experienced terrorists like Professor Mordet and Little Kale, the no-fly list was something they wiped their asses with.
“I’ve got to call someone,” Hannah said.
Chris and Sonny made sure they were ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Hannah used her cell phone to make her call. “This is Hannah Andrade. I need to speak to the chief about an attack on the US.” She hit the speaker button, so Chris and Sonny could hear their conversation, and they waited. A man with a baritone voice wasted no time in telling her what was on his mind: “Hannah, you and Christopher Paladin were captured in Turkey for selling the Switchblade Whisper to the Chinese, the attempted murder of Jim Bob Louve, and the murder of Victor Shivlin and Maximilian Wolfeschlegelaltona. Then you instigated an assault on the embassy to free yourselves. A lot of good people died.”
Sonny’s face and muscles tensed as if he were about to crawl through the phone and punch the guy. Lucky for the chief this wasn’t a face-to-face or Chris might have beaten Sonny to it.
“Jim Bob and Victor tried to kill us before they sold the Switchblade Whisper,” she said. “Then Chris and I recovered it—”
The chief cut her off. “You have to come in and straighten this out personally.”
“I went into our embassy in Turkey to straighten this out personally,” Hannah shouted, “and Professor Mordet razed the embassy and stole the Switchblade Whisper! Now he’s in the US, and soon he’s going to use the black box to figure out how to hack into the nation’s critical infrastructure. The Secret Service is worried about a possible attack on the White House, and I’m concerned about how many Americans this madman is going to kill! And who’s going to stop Mordet if I’m in some embassy rotting under custody again or dead?”
“I’ll send your message upstairs,” the chief said.
Hannah took a deep breath. “You have to do more than that. You have to make them listen.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“I hope so. America depends on it,” she said.
“I understand.”
“Is there anything else I should know?”
“Jim Bob sent your alias and Paladin’s along with your real identities to the Department of Homeland Security. If you try to use those at a US airport or other port of entry, they’ll flag you.”
“Can you get us new passports then?” she asked.
Chief was quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry, I can’t help you there. People are very emotional right now, and Jim Bob is fanning the flames. But I’ll talk to some people upstairs and tell your side of the story.”
“Straighten it out with me! Right here, right now, damn it!”
“Where are you?”
Hannah shrank and, in a rare moment, seemed fragile. “You’d rather believe Jim Bob, wouldn’t you? Anything that would mean you aren’t in danger.”
“Hannah?”
“You’re tracing the call right now, aren’t you?”
“I can help you,” the chief said.
She hung up. She dragged her feet to the chair and sat. Tears shone in her eyes, and the Hannah Andrade whose spirit once filled the room now looked small.
Chris gently put his hand on her shoulder. “If we can infiltrate a foreign country, we sure as hell can infiltrate our own.”
Sonny nodded in agreement, adjusting his rifle and puffing out his chest, trying to look macho. “We just need someone in the DC area who is good with computers — a tier one hacker.”
Chris’s mind raced to figure out the next step. “Young Park is a tier one hacker.”
“Is that the Agency tech you rescued?”
Chris nodded.
“I heard stories about that,” Sonny said.
“Still works for the Agency as a contractor,” Chris said. “He’ll help us analyze intel from Jim Bob, Little Kale and Professor Mordet.”
“Do you know where he is now?”
“In Virginia, not too far from Langley, just across the Potomac from DC,” Chris said. “Still sends me Christmas cards.”
Hannah wiped her eyes. “Then let’s get out of here.”
25
Over nine hours later, the sun brightened the horizon as the trio docked a stolen boat at Larnaca Marina in Cyprus, where they were fortunate enough to find an open berth at a crowded dock. After tying up their vessel, they passed through customs and immigration. Although they wouldn’t be able to use their passports in the US because American authorities were looking for them, their passports were still good overseas. Even if the US contacted Interpol to be on the lookout for the three, it would take time before other countries received the information — and then not all of them would enter the data into their system and not all would check.
They caught a taxi that took them down a palm-tree-lined promenade that marked the beginning of a fifteen-minute trip to Larnaca International Airport. They’d ditched their weapons in the ocean rather than try to smuggle them, and Chris was keenly aware that they were unarmed.
“Well, we made it this far,” Hannah said after they passed through security.
“You two need passports with new aliases for the US,” Sonny said, “and I should probably get a new one, too. Know anyone who can help us out in that department?”
“We’ll have better luck in Italy,” Chris said. “Lots of US travelers we can pickpocket.”
Sonny flashed a mischievous grin. “That’s what I’m talkin’ about.”
They boarded a Cyprus Airways flight and touched down at Italy’s Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in the afternoon. Inside, Chris examined an airport map. “We’ll find easier marks in the bars,” he said. “These two bars in terminal one are close together.”
Hannah put her jacket over her right hand to conceal it. She’d use the right hand to pickpocket with while the left hand served as a distraction. Then she walked over to the trash and fished out a newspaper. On their way to terminal one, Hannah shifted into high gear, as if she was moving in on a possible doppelganger. She homed in on a shorter woman with blonde hair, instead of black. The blonde walked timidly. Hannah didn’t seem concerned about the differences. She gave her luggage to Chris and moved in for the hit.
The woman’s passport visibly stuck out of the side pocket of her purse. As Hannah walked past the woman, she pretended to read the newspaper in her left hand while using it to help cover the movement of her right hand as it swept over the woman’s purse. In the next moment, the passport was gone, hidden by Hannah’s jacket over her right hand, and the woman had no idea she’d just been ripped off. Chris had only pickpocketed in training, but it seemed Hannah had real-world experience. She made it look so easy, putting the pressure on Chris and Sonny not to screw up. After the blonde’s path diverged from theirs, Hannah took a look at the passport. Then she nodded with a wry smile.
Sweet.
They moved through the terminal, trying to find potential marks for Chris and Sonny. At the Culto Café Chocolato, they didn’t spot anyone who looked like Chris or Sonny, but the place was rather full of people, so they went in, ordered drinks, and sat down at a table where they had a panoramic view of the restaurant and the terminal outside the front door. They paid for their drinks in advance so they could leave at a moment’s notice.
Chris had an orange juice and Sonny and Hannah drank local Moretti beers. “Why don’t you drink?” Sonny asked before taking a swig from his glass.
“Not interested,” Chris answered.