Kill Chain (18 page)

“We wondered why they
didn’t just leave her with the bus, and now we know. She had to be found. If
they left her in the warehouse, we might never have. Leave her on the side of
the road, she can be found and evacuated.”

Starling nodded, the
explanation making sense. “But how would they know that they’d evacuate her?”

“Standard protocol for
the Chinese. There was a threat in Indonesia last year and President Cheng had
his wife evacuated immediately while he stayed behind to finish his business.
Whoever is behind this knew that he’d do the same this time.”

Starling shook his head.
“Whoever he is, he’s a madman, and like an idiot, I spewed the corporate line.
We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”

“Sir, I don’t think they
ever expected you to cooperate immediately. There’s no way they’d just hang up
and not call back. They’ve planned way too hard for this, invested too many
resources, to let negotiations break down so quickly.”

“So it
is
a
message.”

“Yes, sir, I think it is,
and it’s one that was always meant to be delivered. They
knew
you’d
resist whatever they were going to demand of you.”

Starling frowned, leaning
back in his chair. “I guess the question now is what to do about it.”

“We delay as long as we
can. The more time we can buy, the more time we have to find your daughter and
the others.”

Starling waved a hand at
the monitors showing troop movements. “I don’t think the world has much more
time. There’s so much firepower steaming and flying into this region, we’re
turning what was already a powder keg into a damned explosives factory or some
metaphor a hell of a lot better than that!” He threw up his hands in
frustration. “This is ridiculous! Why don’t they call? If we don’t hear back
soon, I’ll have to inform the other leaders what’s going on so they can stand
down their forces.”

 “We still have time,
sir.”

“Yes, but how much? Look
what just happened in the Kuril Islands between the Russians and Japanese. All
it takes is one shot, and this city will never be the same. The
world
may never be the same.”

“We have to believe that
if these people are environmentalists, they wouldn’t want that.”

Starling shook his head.
“I’m having my doubts as to whether or not they are what they say they are.” He
sighed. “Hell, I’m having my doubts as to whether or not
they
is
actually a
they
at all. For all we know it
is
a damned fourteen-year-old
boy in his mom’s basement in Texas.” He glanced at the screens, the Seventh Fleet
getting close. “Order our ships to slow down, that might buy us some time.”

“We can’t, sir. It could
be interpreted by the hostage takers as a violation of their terms.”

He closed his eyes,
nodding slowly. The operator was right. And Starling wasn’t thinking straight. The
jetlag combined with the long hours of meetings had left him ill-prepared for
this situation.

And he was making
mistakes.

Mistakes that could cost
him the last thing he loved in this world.

He looked at Red.
“They’re forcing me into an impossible choice. War or my daughter’s life.”

Red agreed. “That might
be why they haven’t called back yet.”

“Why? They want war?”

“Perhaps. More likely,
they want to build the tensions with North Korea to the point where you can’t
refuse any of their demands. My prediction is that when they call back, they’ll
want their demands, whatever they are, met completely and quickly, and you’ll
be inclined to agree so you can stand down our forces and de-escalate the
situation.”

Starling nodded, thankful
someone was thinking straight. “Let’s hope that whatever their demands are,
they’re ones I can actually agree to.” He stared out the window at the city of
millions, their lives in so many hands other than their own, oblivious to how
close they could be to annihilation.

Please call back!

Operations
Center 1
CIA
Headquarters, Langley, Virginia

“Sir, we’ve
identified the weapon.”

Leroux turned to Tong.
“What is it?”

“It’s a Riker WX .40
caliber pistol.”

Leroux’s eyes narrowed.
“Never heard of it.”

Tong motioned toward the
displays, images of the weapon appearing. It looked to be a standard
semiautomatic handgun, though the grip seemed slightly different. “Not
surprising. It was a prototype weapon under development by Riker Defensive
Systems. The Secret Service was the potential initial buyer. The grip can read
the user’s palm print, which isn’t anything new, but this one also had the
ability to be remotely deactivated in the event an agent went rogue like when
President Bridges was assassinated. With this design, the thinking was that a
signal could be sent to disable a single weapon or all of them in an emergency
situation.”

A burst of air erupted
from Child’s station. “Christ, I can see problems with that!”

Tong agreed. “Apparently
the Secret Service thought so too. They were about to take delivery on several
thousand of them when it was discovered the test results had been faked.
Apparently the electronic triggers were hackable so the entire program was put
on the backburner.”

“Huh. Electronic trigger?
I guess that’s why they’re being used on the drones.” Leroux stepped toward the
screen, side-by-side photos displayed of the prototype weapon, along with the
weapon taken from one of the drones. There was no doubt they were the identical
gun. “So the backburner is apparently drones in South Korea.”

“Yeah, but that’s not the
only place they showed up.”

Leroux turned to Tong.
“Where else?”

“The Ukraine.”

“What?”

“Apparently hundreds of
them started showing up on the black market. Riker’s headquarters were raided
and they found the records showing the destruction of the prototypes were
actually faked. The President issued an order terminating all contracts with
Riker. It bankrupted them.”

Leroux eased into his
seat, still staring at the weapon. “How many are we dealing with?”

“The initial production
run was two thousand weapons.”

“Huh.” He looked at the others,
a slight smile breaking out. “Is anyone else smelling what I’m smelling?”

Child spun in his chair,
staring up at the ceiling. “You mean motive?”

“Yup.”

Gangnam
District
Seoul,
Republic of Korea

“Do we
know if he’s in there?”

Kim nodded. “We’ve got a
single heat signature on the top floor. It looks like we might get lucky.”

Niner wasn’t so sure. If
this person was involved, the level of sophistication shown so far suggested
they might not be going up against just one enemy. Certainly a single human,
but how many drones might be protecting him?

Yet he wasn’t in charge.
This was a South Korean operation, Kim was the lead, and they seemed eager to
resolve the situation as quickly as possible, even if it meant taking risks
with only a team of four.

“Perhaps we should wait
for backup. I can call in some of my guys.”

She shook her head. “No
time. And it’s not necessary. He’s just one man. We can handle it.”

“Then at least let us
join you.”

She eyed him for a
moment. “Very well.” She quickly strode away as the last of the other residents
of the three-story apartment building evacuated.

Niner shook his head,
appreciating her departure. “Man, I’d fight her on this if she wasn’t so damned
hot.”

“Huh? You think she’s
hot?”

Niner stared at Jimmy.
“What, you don’t?”

“Well, yeah, of course
I
do, but I thought you were gay.”

Niner’s head dropped, his
eyes staring up in shock at his best friend. “What! What the hell made you
think that?”

Jimmy shrugged. “I dunno.
Maybe the fact you’re always slappin’ and grabbin’ asses, commenting on
everyone’s Johnson, and telling Atlas how sexy he is.”

Niner stared at his
friend in horror. “Does everyone think this?”

Another shrug.
“Probably.”

“Jesus! I think I’m going
to have to have a serious discussion with you painfully misinformed bastards
when we get back.”

Jimmy grinned. “Atlas
will just say you’re in denial.”

“Un-huh. Well, I like the
ladies, not the laddies.” He dropped his voice, giving his best Seinfeld
impression. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

“Huh, I always pictured
you as more of a Kramer.”

Niner frowned. “And I
pictured you as more of an Elaine.”

“See, there’s that whole
gender identity confusion again.”

“Oy! I can’t win.”

“Now you’re Jewish?”

“How many Korean Jews do
you know?”

“None until right now.”

“You’re enjoying this,
aren’t you?”

Jimmy grinned. “Immensely.”

“So that whole thinking I
was gay thing was just a joke?”

Jimmy shook his head. “Oh
no, we all think you’re gay, but I don’t think anyone believes you’re Jewish.”

“I’m neither.”

Jimmy shrugged. “I guess
we’ll just have to take your word for it.”

“You better.” Niner
reached over and squeezed Jimmy’s ass. “But if I
was
gay, you’d be the
first I’d try to tap.”

Jimmy swatted Niner’s
lingering hand away. “And you wonder why there’s confusion.” He nodded toward
Kim. “You should be grabbing her ass.”

“She won’t let me.”

“But
I
will?”

“You just did.” Niner regarded
Jimmy. “Huh. Maybe you’re the one who’s gay.”

Jimmy rolled his eyes.
“Here we go. I wonder if Charlie Team has an opening.”

“Hell, if you really want
to avoid me, join the SEALs. Then we’ll never see each other.”

Jimmy shook his head
emphatically. “No way, can’t stand the wa—”

Niner cut him off,
nodding toward Kim who was waving them over. “Looks like we’re on.” The team of
four were already inside, two on either end of the third floor. Outside all
that would remain were two unarmed, uniformed officers providing crowd control.

Not enough personnel for
the job, as far as he was concerned.

Inside or out.

“We’re ready,” said Kim.
“Do you still want to participate?”

“Absolutely.”

“Very well.” Kim entered
the building, sprinting up the three flights of stairs, an impressed Niner
racing to keep up. Reaching the third floor, two of the assault team greeted
them.

“We’re ready. No
indication he knows we’re here.”

“Good. Proceed.”

The man activated his comm
and all four rushed forward. Niner was about to follow when Kim held out her
arm, blocking him. “Let them do their job. We’ll cover the hall.”

Niner frowned but agreed
as one of the men swung a battering ram against the door, it splintering open.
All four surged in, shouting orders to get down when a shot fired.

Followed by a lot more.

Niner pushed Kim aside
and sprinted toward the door as one of the assault team fell into the hallway,
crawling backward for a moment before collapsing, unmoving. Niner could hear
Jimmy on his heels as he readied his MP5, thankfully a shipment from Osan Air
Base reaching them while they were at the Shinhan Motors plant. The gunfire
continued, automatic weapons against semiautomatic, probably .40 caliber
pistols, as he reached the door, swinging around the frame in a crouch.

The gunfire stopped.

He spotted a man sitting
in a chair in the middle of the room, a laptop on a small table in front of him,
the rest of the security team dead at his feet.

Then he saw the drones.

Niner spun back out into
the hallway as they opened fire, pressing his back against the wall as he held
an arm out, blocking Jimmy and Kim. “Drones! Aim high!” He turned, stepping back
to get an angle then leaned quickly to his right, his weapon raised. He jerked
back. “At least half a dozen.” He leaned over slightly, getting a bead on the
edge of one of the drones.