Phantom zero, p.20
Phantom Zero, page 20
But she was recovering. Sara held her hand and, from time to time, smiled up at her, reassuring her that she really was all right and everything really was okay.
“I am proud,” he told Todd. “Of all of them.”
“Excuse me,” Trent said. “Fat man coming through.”
He stepped through the foyer, carrying a tray of cheese and crackers and followed by Alan, who carried a cooler of drinks. Alan sucked in his gut and added, “And his svelte, devastatingly handsome younger brother.”
The girls rolled their eyes, and Todd stared incredulously at the two. “You didn’t want to use the large doorway designed specifically to let you move from the kitchen to the living room?”
“Nope,” Trent said. “I wanted to annoy the boss. Besides, your prettier, smarter, stronger, better, nicer—”
“Penny’s there,” Todd said. “Got it.”
The woman in question walked into the foyer, holding a bright-eyed infant who was currently folding his lower lip under his upper lip and running his fingers through his mother’s hair. He gently grabbed a few strands, then very not-gently yanked them down.
“Ow!” Penny cried. “God, David!”
David giggled, and Todd stifled his own laughter as he helped extricate his wife’s hair from David’s fingers. David protested, but when Todd offered him a yogurt chip, he forgot about the hair and took the snack instead.
Penny rubbed her crown ruefully while she smiled at her son. “You’re as gentle as your father, I see.”
“I thought you liked it rough,” Todd teased.
Penny glared at him while Zero pretended to be fascinated by the plants resting on the foyer table. “Choose your next words carefully.”
“Did I mention that Penny singlehandedly managed to crack the code Keller used to lock the command functions for his jamming software?”
“You mentioned something on the way over,” Zero said. He looked at Penny. “So it’s over now? Back to normal?”
Penny sighed. “Whatever that means. But yes, GPS and radio communications worldwide appear to be back to normal. There’s no telling how long it’ll take the airline industry to recover, and there’s still the damage to LAX and several other major hubs to consider, but the economy is no longer ground to a halt. A few people gained access to some of the classified information before we were able to scrub Keller’s website and retake the satellites, but it’s nothing scary. A few people now know that the SR-92 Aurora is a real aircraft.”
Zero frowned. “The what?”
“It’s a reconnaissance aircraft,” Todd explained. “Not nearly as exciting as people made it out to be. It’s fast and stealthy, and it can take high-definition pictures from far away. We’re about ninety percent sure China has one just like it.”
“Ah. Got it.”
“We also found some of the evidence Keller’s company came across years ago,” Penny said. “A few more politicians are going to lose their jobs because of it.” She lowered her voice and stepped closer. “We were able to confirm that the human trafficking referenced is connected to Meridian. The FBI’s taking over that portion of the investigation, but the President Pro Tempore of the Senate resigned suddenly, and certain nightclubs in the D.C. area shut down overnight.”
“That’s good,” Zero replied. “Another win for the good guys.”
“Indeed. I understand you have a win to celebrate too.”
Zero glanced into the living room and gestured with his head for the three of them to go back to the kitchen. The four of them including David, but he would keep a secret. He was a good kid.
He wouldn’t keep it for free, though. He held his hand out and demanded another yogurt chip, which Todd reluctantly provided. “Kid’s already eating me out of house and home.”
“Maybe you should stop eating the baby’s snacks,” Penny suggested drily.
“Have you tasted them? They’re delicious.”
They were out of view now, so Zero lowered his voice and said, “We managed to kill the people they sent after Mischa and Sara, but it’s a bit of a mess. I don’t know how much Todd has told you…”
He looked at Todd, and Todd sighed. “I gave her the Cliffs Notes. Ambassador Marković was already presumed dead, and we managed to spirit the body away before the coroner could identify him. The Meridian hitmen all have false identities, which is going to be its own clusterfuck but one we can control. The big issues right now are the fact that nine Serbian special operators were found dead in front of a restaurant in McLean, and an entire apartment complex saw you and Alan tear apart four dozen armed killers.”
Zero lowered his eyes. “Yeah. We all kind of flubbed that.”
“It’s fine,” Todd said. “Between Alan’s contacts and my resources, we can make this go away. Unfortunately, in order to do that, we had to make you all go away, hence…” He gestured around the house.
“That worked out though,” Penny said. “They’re safe here.”
Todd and Zero exchanged a look. They knew better than to believe that there was such a thing as “safe” for them.
Still, this was better than Alan’s cabin. They had room here. More importantly, they had a semblance of normalcy. Their neighbors would wear casual clothes and water their lawns. They would walk their dogs and let their kids play in their yards. They would get their shopping delivered, but everything else was just like things were in Langley. And like Todd said, it was very difficult for Meridian to get to them here. With Marković dead, they wouldn’t have his contacts in Eastern Europe, and while Chen Wei-Ming was unlikely to give up, he would need to spend the next few months performing damage control so that the events in Langley couldn’t be connected to him.
But this was a temporary measure. This fight wouldn’t end until they or Chen Wei-Ming were dead.
Alan poked his head into the kitchen. “Hey. You guys gonna come hang out, or are you too cool to join the club?”
“I’m just too intimidated by your svelte and devastating handsomeness,” Todd quipped, heading into the living room.
“It’s okay. You got the prettiest girl. And I promise I won’t steal her away.”
“Too bad for me, I suppose,” Penny said, slipping her arm through Todd’s and smiling at David, who had discovered that smacking his palm against Todd’s forehead made a very amusing noise.
Zero brought up the rear. The family was arranged on the large sectional, leaving the loveseat open for Todd and Penny and the easy chair open for Alan, who gratefully dropped into it. Mischa scooted over and made room for Zero on the sectional. He sat next to her and put his arm around her, smiling when she leaned her head against his chest. She was more affectionate lately, and while Zero knew that part of that was a reaction to the fear she’d experienced ten days ago, he was confident that it would help her heal and remind her that she wasn’t alone.
None of them were. Whatever battles they faced, they faced together. They had all learned that the hard way, but now there was no more confusion. They would face Meridian together. They would face the Dragons together. And when the latest maniac popped out of the woodwork spouting pseudo-cultish bullshit and threatening disaster on the world, they would solve that problem as a family too. They were the Lawsons, and they had yet to find an enemy that could stop them.
But right now, they faced no battle. They were just together. And Zero wouldn’t have it any other way.
***
Sara waited until the others were engaged in the movie they were watching, then got to her feet and tapped Mischa. She frowned up at Sara, and Sara motioned for them to leave so they could talk alone.
The movie was The Bridge on the River Kwai, a favorite of Zero's and Alan's. Mischa hated that movie, and normally when they watched it, part of the enjoyment was hearing her rant about how stupid everyone was and how they should have just killed the prison commander and guards in their sleep and commandeered the camp, then used it as a forward operating base and conducted guerrilla raids to destroy the Japanese position in Thailand and Burma.
They hadn’t gotten to that point yet, and they wouldn’t this time. Zero lifted an eyebrow at them as they left, and Sara shook her head. Zero got the point and started talking to the others about Force 136, the Far Eastern Branch of British Military Intelligence fictionalized in the movie as Force 316. The others definitely noticed the two younger sisters leaving, but when Zero ignored them and continued his story, they understood that they were supposed to let them leave without mentioning it.
Sara led Mischa into the backyard and walked to the fence at the far end of the large yard. Her leg ached, but it was healing nicely, and as long as she moved slowly, she could walk mostly normally. It would be a while before she could fight on it, but that was all right. She needed time to reflect before she jumped back into fighting again.
The night was warm, and a gentle breeze blew in from the ocean, softening the warmth just enough to drop the temperature to perfection. Sara closed her eyes and let the breeze massage her face. She breathed the ocean air in deeply and when she exhaled, she looked up at the night where a waxing crescent moon glowed in a clear sky.
Mischa stood next to her and waited. Sara knew what she wanted to talk about, but she let the words hang in her mind for a moment. This was going to be a heavy conversation, and one that she wasn’t really looking forward to having.
But it was one she needed to have. She wasn’t going to stop fighting Meridian. Even knowing that she was in over her head, she wasn’t going to stop. Mischa had to know why. She had to understand why Sara couldn’t just stay back and let the others do this for her.
“I wasn’t raped,” she began. “Neither of us were. They groped us a little, and one of the guards, I think, was going to try to go further with me, but our kidnappers didn’t want us damaged. We were young.” She smiled bitterly. “Unspoiled. We were worth more untouched.”
Mischa’s hands tightened around the fence, but she remained silent. Sara wondered if she ever thought about that sort of thing happening to her. Probably not. She wasn’t the kind of person to think of herself as a victim. It was one of the reasons Sara admired her.
“I wasn’t assaulted,” Sara repeated, “But…”
She took a deep breath and released it slowly before continuing. “I was separated from Maya for a little while. I think they were afraid that the two of us together would think of a way to escape. They were right to think that, but that’s neither here nor there.
“While I was separated, I got to know one of the other girls. Leta, her name was.”
A lump formed in Sara’s throat. It had been years since she allowed herself to think about Leta. She’d never told anyone about this, not even Maya.
Tears came to her eyes, and she continued before they could overwhelm her. “We were only separated for a little while. I didn’t know Leta long. We only talked a few times, but I learned that her mother was a seamstress, and her father was a cobbler. She wanted to open a bakery in her village in Turkey. That’s all she wanted. She didn’t want to change the world or become a celebrity or move to England or the United States. She wanted to bake pastries and give free ones to the little kids who visited her. And they took her.”
Her lower lip trembled. “She had a boyfriend in Turkey. She wasn’t… unspoiled. The guards were allowed to…” She took another breath, and this one shook. “They just had to avoid damaging her too much. Well, one of them did. Broke her nose when she didn’t do what he wanted her to do. Because she was damaged, they couldn’t sell her, so after the leader chastised the guard for damaging their ‘property’ he had the woman beaten to death.”
“Der’mo,” Mischa muttered.
“Yeah,” Sara said. “It was shit. All of it.”
She wiped more tears from her eyes and looked across the ocean. “I didn’t do anything. I was there. I heard everything. I didn’t see it because I closed my eyes, but I heard it. I heard her scream. I heard her beg for mercy. I heard their blows land. I heard her…” She swallowed. “Stop begging. I heard their blows continue to land. I heard things break. Heard them keep hitting her after they broke.”
Mischa grabbed Sara’s hand and squeezed it. “You don’t have to tell me this. It’s okay. You did nothing wrong. If you had tried to save her, they would have killed you too.”
“Yes,” Sara agreed. “Probably. Definitely. But I’ve carried that memory with me ever since. That’s why I used drugs. That’s why I didn’t want to get involved in the family business. I never wanted to encounter anyone like that ever again. Anyone so evil.”
She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Mischa continued to hold her hand and stayed silent. She knew she needed to listen and not reassure. Another reason Sara loved her.
“The thing is that it won’t stop,” Sara said. “It won’t end. Never. I’ll remember Leta for the rest of my life.”
She looked at Mischa. Her younger sister regarded her with compassion, her wide green eyes meeting Sara’s without shame and without pity. Compassion, yes, but not pity. Sara was not weak to her. That meant so much to Sara.
“I’m going to fight Meridian for Leta,” she told Mischa. “I’m going to make up for not stepping in when they beat her to death. I know you blame yourself for bringing me back into this, but you didn’t bring me back into anything. I never left. I never will as long as I’m hiding from the memory of what happened to her. I know it frightens you and everyone else, and I know you all feel guilty because I was the one who was supposed to escape and live a normal life, but I’ll never have a normal life unless I do this. I need to find closure, and that means I need to do what I’ve refused to do for almost six years.
“I need to fight.”
She fell silent then. Mischa watched her with that same compassionate look for several minutes. Then she took Sara’s other hand in hers.
“Very well. I understand. You may fight, but you must not fight alone. From now on, we fight together. I promise I will no longer stand in your way but at your side. Do we have a deal?”
Sara smiled. “Yes. We have a deal.”
She pulled Mischa into an embrace and held her tightly for several more minutes. Then they walked back to the house, their arms around each other. The others didn’t acknowledge their absence or their return. They just made room for them. One day, Sara would tell them all what she told Mischa, but for now, that belonged only to them. She had her family, and she had her sister. Soon, she would have her life back.
But first, she would have her pound of flesh. For Leta. For all of them.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Chen Wei-Ming stood with his hands clasped behind his back and listened while Chow Fang delivered his report. The slender but exceptionally deadly Chow showed no emotion as he delivered the news, and it occurred to Chen that he should have left the Lawsons’ assassination in his hands, not those of Imran Marković, the pitiful remnant of a man who wanted revenge so badly he forgot how to achieve it.
“The family has been moved into a CIA compound a few hours south of the capital. The neighborhood is impregnable. It contains one hundred four residents not counting the Lawsons, ninety-six of whom are trained Special Operations Group combatants. It has an extensive sensor suite covering approaches from the air, land, and sea, and multiple other units are stationed within ten minutes, including helicopter gunships, boats, and armored vehicles. My rough estimate is that it would take a battalion-sized composite force to successfully raid the location.”
Chen considered this news for a moment. On one hand, it was exceptionally frustrating that the Lawsons had retreated into an even deeper hole. On the other hand, it was intriguing and even complimentary. They viewed him as a real threat. They were as worried about him as they were about Mr. Bright.
And they were right to worry. Chen was every bit as brilliant as that man, but he was far less obsessive and far more in control. He was not given to flights of arrogance or grandiosity. He would not make an example out of the Lawsons by defeating them in single combat or luring them into a convoluted trap. He would kill them. Simply. Brutally. That would send enough of a message to everyone.
Chow waited patiently for his instructions, another quality Marković never possessed. Chen nodded at his lieutenant and said, “Very well. We will gather information about the Lawsons’ support network. I am particularly interested in this man, Alan Reidigger. I understand he will not be moving into this neighborhood?”
“It’s unclear, sir. We believe he has another secure facility where he monitors his intelligence feeds and maintains contact with his network.”
“Find that facility,” Chen said. “Find his network. Learn where his tentacles reach. I suspect that he is responsible for feeding them information and resources. If we remove him, we isolate them.”
“No sir, not entirely.”
Irritation flashed through Chen. Another valuable quality of Chow’s was his willingness to challenge Chen, but it was a very frustrating quality despite its value. “No?”
“The Lawson family remains firmly entrenched in the Central Intelligence Agency. The leader of the Executive Operations Team is a personal friend of the family’s and of Alan Reidigger. The Agency considers the EOT its most important unit and the Lawson family as its most valuable asset. Todd Strickland—the EOT leader—has been given carte blanche to protect them by any means necessary. Reidigger’s network is formidable, and his ability to make use of unconventional methods is worth wariness, but it’s the weight of the CIA that should truly concern us. They are aware that their most valuable assets are under threat now. They are likely aware that Meridian is behind that threat. They don’t have proof of your involvement, sir, and they don’t have enough evidence to bring this case to the public eye, but I am convinced that is what they’ll try next. The easiest way to defeat you, sir, is to expose you.”
