Kill Chain (19 page)

He squeezed the trigger.

It dropped, a steady
stream of gunfire the response.

He jerked back.

“Look out!”

Niner spun around at
Kim’s warning and dropped to a knee, aiming high and firing on full auto as a
dozen drones swarmed toward them down the hallway. Two dropped immediately yet
it was too late, Jimmy taking several hits, falling backward and smacking his
head against the wall, out cold.

A look of horror on Kim’s
face was followed by her hands slowly rising. Niner continued to fire, stealing
a quick glance behind him before he stopped. Another set of drones was hovering,
holding their fire.

A voice suddenly came
from one of the drones.
“Welcome to the party. Drop your weapons, or you
die.”

Kim glanced at Niner,
speaking in Korean, the voice on the drone English. “What do we do?”

“We do what he says.”
Niner lowered his weapon, placing it on the floor, Kim doing the same.

“All of your weapons.”

Niner frowned, complying,
a few moments later the floor littered with over a dozen ballistic, blunt force,
and cutting weapons. “Can I check on my partner?”

“Yes.”

He knelt down and
examined Jimmy for wounds, instead only finding several shots to his vest that
didn’t penetrate. He checked and there was a strong pulse.

Thank God!

He looked up at Kim.
“He’s just knocked out. He’ll be fine.”

“It’s time we went for
a ride.”

Li’s Photo
Beijing,
China

“How’s
the wife?”

Chan Chao glanced at his
wife Bing through the narrow doorway, she standing behind the counter of their
photo shop, Kane an occasional visitor when he needed something from someone
not friendly with the current regime. “Annoying as always.”

“I heard that!”

“Of course you did.
You’re always here, in my space!”

Kane chuckled. “I can
feel the love.”

“Never get married, my
friend. At least not to a hateful woman like her.”

Bing’s retort was swift.
“Maybe if you knew how to make love like Dylan, I wouldn’t be so cranky!”

“Did you hear that?”

“Yup. Want some
pointers?”

“I’ve been doing it since
before you were born. If I haven’t figured it out yet, I’m never going to.” Chan
laughed.

“Maybe I’ll trade you in
for a younger model!”

“Woman, no younger model
would touch you let alone put up with your bickering.”

“Then why don’t you leave?”

He shrugged. “I must be
an idiot.”

“My father’s dead. He’s
no longer going to kill you if you go.”

He turned in his chair to
face her. “He’s dead?”

“You old fool, you know
he’s dead! You went to his funeral.”

“I thought I was dreaming
about my own blessed funeral.”

“If you keep talking back
to me it
will
be your funeral!”

He turned back to face
his cubbyhole of a desk. “Don’t make promises you aren’t going to keep.”

A knife embedded itself
in the wall, two feet from his head.

An exfiltration might
be in order.

“Dylan, I might need an exfil
soon. She just threw a knife at me.”

“Did she hit you?”

He glanced over his
shoulder at her. “No.”

“Then she didn’t mean
to.”

Chan laughed. “You’re
right. I think she secretly loves me.”

“No, you’re the one that
loves me.” Bing stepped into the tiny office and pulled the knife from the
wall. “You treat me with respect, or next time Dylan’s here, I’ll jiggy-jiggy with
him.” She leaned into the phone. “Okay, Dylan?”

Kane laughed. “Umm, I’m
not getting involved in this.”

“What’d he say?”

Chan covered the
mouthpiece. “He said sure, he’d love to.”

She beamed at him. “See,
young men still find me attractive.”

“Woman, you’re so short,
young men use you as a stepstool to get a better view of something they
actually want.”

She frowned, a hint of
hurt in her eyes.

Uh oh, gone too far.

She turned to leave, uncharacteristically
quiet, and he reached out, grabbing her arm. She glared at him, her eyes
glistening. “You know why I married you?” he asked gently.

“Why?”

“Because you were, and
still are, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

She frowned, though her
eyes smiled. “You never get out of the shop,” she murmured. “How would you know
what beautiful is anymore?”

He smiled at her. “I’m
blind to anything that isn’t the woman I love.”

That worked.

She beamed, patting him
on the hand still holding her arm. “Okay, you get some tonight.”

He grinned and she left
the room.

“Didn’t know you were
such a smooth talker.”

Chan laughed, returning
to his conversation with Kane. “It’s not smooth if it’s true.”

“Must be love.”

“Must be. Did you get the
upload yet?”

“Yeah, it just arrived
during your marital crisis. Give me the executive summary.”

Chan leaned forward,
skimming through his notes. “The order for the drones was received three months
ago, payment wired into their account, but get this, there were specific
delivery instructions that were a little unusual.”

“In what way?”

“The container was
supposed to arrive no later than yesterday, then not be delivered until today,
even if it arrived early.”

“Any reason given?”

“None that they knew.
Just that it had to be there no later than yesterday, and not to deliver it to
the bakery until this morning. And it had to be first thing in the morning, no
late morning or afternoon delivery.”

“Who placed the order?”

“Some shell corporation
set up in South Korea. I’ve talked to my contacts there and it looks like it’s
just a numbered company set up three months ago. One bank account, two
transactions. A deposit then the transfer to pay for the drones.”

“Address?”

“The bakery.”

Kane grunted. “Of course.
We need to figure out why the delayed delivery.”

“Maybe they didn’t want
to risk it being late? Having it arrive early is always better than late. They
were
on a schedule.”

Bing appeared in the
doorway. “You two geniuses couldn’t figure your way out of a plastic bag.”

He looked at her, mock
annoyance on his face. “What now, woman?”

“It’s obvious why they
needed the extra time.”

“Why, oh wise one?”

“They had to weaponize
the drones. They don’t come from the factory with guns!”

Chan’s eyes widened. “I
think she’s right.”

“Of course I’m right.” Bing
returned to her perch behind the counter, pleased with herself.

I’ll never hear the
end of that one.

“You’ve got a wise woman
there.”

Chan frowned. “And she
knows it.”

“I’ve seen the photos of
the downed drones. There’s no way a machine put those guns on them unless they
had already configured an assembly line to do it. A human being had to be
involved, and judging by the number of drones and the timeframe, I’m thinking a
good number of hands were needed.” Kane paused then cursed.

“What?”

“Just thought of
something. How did they ship them?”

Chan’s eyes narrowed. “What
do you mean?”

“Well, these things flew
out of the back of the container. Weren’t they shipped in boxes?”

Chan’s eyes widened as he
realized what Kane was getting at. He checked the paperwork and nodded. “Yes,
pallets of fifty.”

“Well, I saw the photos of
the container and there were no boxes inside. That means somebody unpacked the
drones, weaponized them, then staged the container.”

“If that’s the case, why
wouldn’t they just release them at the container yard?”

“Huh, that’s right, why
wouldn’t they?” Kane paused. “If they did, then nobody would have known they
were ever released, not that it would have made much of a difference, I guess.”

Chan shook his head. “But
it could have. Those drones had to deploy and remain hidden for hours, during
heightened security. They’d have been better off leaving the container
somewhere isolated then launch them just before they needed them. There’s no
reason to send the container to the bakery.”

“What’s the one thing you
can be guaranteed of when you send a package marked perishable to someone with
their name on it?”

Chan shrugged. “They’ll
open it?”

“Exactly.”

Chan’s jaw dropped. “They
needed
someone to open the container to let them out.”

“Right. But if they
weaponized them in South Korea
after
they arrived, then they already had
someone there to open it.”

“So—”

“So, you two are still
stupid,” interrupted Bing, her ear pressed to the extension phone. “You were meant
to
think
they were weaponized over there.”

Chan stared at her. “What
do you mean stupid? It was your idea!”

“That’s not the way I
remember it. It’s obvious. They weaponized them here. Probably at the factory!”

Gangnam
District
Seoul,
Republic of Korea

Jimmy
flinched, suddenly awake. His head pounded and his ribs protested as he heaved
in a breath. He looked about, wondering what had happened for a moment before
reality rushed back and he leaped to his feet, his body protesting the
exertion. He scanned both ends of the hallway with his MP5 at the ready.

He was alone.

Save the bodies of the
South Korean assault team.

And only the assault
team.

He breathed a sigh of
relief at not finding Niner or the Korean lady, Kim, dead along with them.

But where the hell are
they?

Somebody moaned in the
apartment, its door still ajar.

Jimmy reached for his
comm to find it wasn’t there.

Shit!

A sob.

He raised his MP5 and
approached the apartment, quickly leaning into the doorway to see what was
inside.

No drones this time.

He stepped through the
door, clearing the room from left to right, the only occupant sitting in a chair
behind a table, a laptop sitting in front of him, a bottle of water beside it.

Jimmy sniffed then
winced.

It stank.

He glanced over at the
kitchen of the small bachelor apartment piled with dishes and takeout boxes, it
clear the man who apparently lived here had let his household chores lapse.

“Do you speak English?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Where’s my partner?”

“I-I don’t know.”

Jimmy raised his weapon,
aiming it at the man’s head. “Tell me or you’re dead.”

“I don’t know! I swear! I
heard the drones order them to drop their weapons then leave the building. I swear
that’s all I know!”

“Where are the hostages?”

The man’s eyes widened.
“Hostages? I don’t know anything about that. They just tell me what to do.”

“Who’re they?”

He shrugged. “I receive instructions
by email. They said they’d kill my family if I didn’t cooperate.”

Jimmy relaxed slightly,
this man perhaps a victim as well. “Any idea who they are?”

The clearly terrified man
shook his head. “None.”

Jimmy lowered his weapon—a
touch. “You never met them?”

He shook his head. “No.
Everything’s done by computer.”

“What have they had you
do?”

“Lots of things. First, I
had to plant a virus on the vehicles for the G20, then they had me sending
messages.”

Jimmy’s eyes narrowed. “What
kind of messages?”

“Hiring people to do
things. Little things.” The man paused, his eyes widening slightly, excited. “I
don’t think they speak Korean!”

That would kinda confirm
North Korea isn’t involved.