Black Flagged Redux (22 page)

With a small digital camera, he snapped several pictures of the room before walking directly across the hall through another open doorway. He found the same wiring arrangement in this room, but nothing else. He was impressed by how clean the rooms appeared. The building was at least twenty years old, solidly constructed with little flourish. It had probably served as a mineral company's initial headquarters and laboratory years ago, someone having decided that mineral core samples taken nearby looked promising enough to warrant the construction of permanent buildings. Obviously, this hadn't worked out for the company, but someone else had recently found its seclusion and rugged construction suitable for temporary use.

He got down on his hands and knees to inspect the outlet nearest the door and felt his spine tingle. A small wire protruded ever so slightly from the bottom of the half-installed outlet. His mind had been in paranoid overdrive since finding the disturbed gravel near the gate, so the tiny wire had piqued his attention. He slowly pulled the outlet from the wall without a screwdriver, easily separating the heavy duty staples from the drywall. Once removed, he twisted the outlet to examine the back. Nothing unusual. The outlet was still attached to the wires, and Daniel had to pull the wire bundle free of a few staples to get it far enough away from the wall for an easy inspection. He removed a small screwdriver and opened the outlet box. He didn't like what was inside.

The small, protruding wire turned out to be the antennae for a highly sophisticated listening device. The presence of this device in a random room meant that the entire building was bugged. More likely, the entire complex had been rigged with these tiny UHF passive bugs. The UHF bugs operated on a line-of-sight principle and had limited transmission power. Despite the fact that these were top shelf surveillance bugs, the gentle hills surrounding the complex suggested the presence of a manned hide site, or a remote transmitter hidden somewhere among the buildings. Unfortunately, by handling the outlet, he may have already tipped off his listeners. They would have to compress their timeline.

He gently placed the opened outlet against the wall, hanging from the wires, and walked briskly to Andrei. Upon seeing him, Daniel put his finger to his lips and signaled for him to come closer. In a barely audible whisper, he told Andrei about his discovery and asked him to finish searching the building. He would need to notify the others. After leaving the structure through the back door, he bumped into Dusty, who was staring through night vision goggles at the surrounding hills.

"Looking for trails. The new building is located about fifty meters down that path. Funny they would put it there. I don't get the impression that building codes are big out here," Dusty said.

"Maybe it's a pump station," Petrovich said, trying to keep the conversation natural.

"For what?"

"A well? Geothermal?"

Dusty lowered the night vision goggles, and Daniel could feel the quizzical look on the man's face. Before Dusty could fire back a smart-ass comment, Petrovich quietly filled him in on what he had found and asked him to step inside to help Andrei, while he talked to the others. With two people nosing around in the building, his absence might go unnoticed.

**

Senior Warrant Officer Grigory Limonov stared through a powerful night vision spotting scope at the compound. Through the green image, he watched as flashlights probed two of the buildings. Dressed in artic level thermal gear, he lay next to Sergeant Mikhail Kilesso inside a small, low profile tent hidden among the larger rocks on the side of a hill eight hundred meters away from the buildings. The tent's opening faced the complex and had been nestled right against two of the larger rocks, allowing the occupants a clear field of vision of the entire site.

Slightly higher in elevation than the building area, they were virtually invisible to the men that had arrived thirty minutes earlier. Even in the daytime, the camouflaged tent had been undetectable, so perfectly placed and concealed, that close-up Russian satellite photos had failed to find them. Constructed of specialized thermal blanketing material, they were also invisible to any infrared or thermal imaging devices deployed from the ground or air, as long as they stayed in the tent.

The two men had been part of the security detachment for the scientific team that had analyzed the site and cleaned up the remaining mess. They had been left behind strictly to conduct surveillance and see if there were any other interested parties. The scientific team hadn't found much in the main buildings, other than a few walls that needed further cleaning, but the building outside of the complex had been a different story altogether. The original six man Spetznaz team had been given few details regarding the site's purpose, but the discovery in the outer building required everyone's involvement. They had spent the better part of a half day digging a hole deep enough to bury what seemed to be an unending quantity of skeletal remains. Not exactly the kind of work any of the Spetznaz soldiers had expected, especially Limonov's team.

They were members of the elite Vympel Group, a Spetznaz unit descended from the darkest shadows of the cold war era, specialized in foreign covert operations. The original Vympel commandos had been trained for deep penetration of enemy territories to conduct sabotage and assassinations in support of conventional Soviet military missions. NATO civilian and military leadership lived in constant fear of these commandos, who were given the task of infiltrating Europe prior to war and unearthing hidden weapons caches. These weapons would be used to kill generals, destroy NATO communications hubs, and cause chaos throughout Europe. Fluent in multiple languages and masters of deception, they were the most highly trained and lethal arm of the military.

Since then, little had changed about the quality of the men that comprised the Vympel Group, but their mission had undergone a radical shift. Though they still focused on foreign covert operations, they were now one of the Russian Federation's premier counter-terrorism units, focused on weapons of mass destruction. His unit had drawn this assignment due to their familiarity with the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site grounds. Never removing his eye from the scope, he spoke to Sergeant Kilesso.

"Do you think they found the bugs?"

Kilesso shook his head hesitantly, staring through a smaller scope. Both men wore earbuds attached to receiving equipment on the sergeant's side of the tent and had been listening intently to the group's limited conversations. Both of them regretted not placing a bug at the gate. The gate's location was obscured from their view by terrain, and they had no idea if the group had discovered the anti-personnel mines they had buried in the gravel along each side. Clearly, they had not driven the SUV around the gate. The anti-personnel mines were powerful enough to blow out a tire and possibly bend a wheel hub, but unlikely to destroy the vehicle or kill anyone inside. They had placed them as a deterrent, but the crew searching the buildings seemed far from being easily discouraged. They worked quietly and efficiently, methodically working their way through the complex.

"I can't tell. I think one, or possibly two of the outlets have been handled. Not out of the ordinary, in my opinion. I'd want to examine at least one outlet in each building. Especially given the odd wiring setup."

"I agree. We call this one in once they leave. If the motion detectors along the back trail show activity, we call it in immediately," Limonov said.

"Can we leave then?"

"Not likely, my friend. I suspect we'll be here a few more days, especially if this site has become popular," Limonov said.

**

Petrovich reached Farrington's building and softly opened the door. He stepped inside and was immediately met by Sergei, who held a finger to his lips and shook his head. Daniel was relieved that they had made the same discovery.

He walked up to Sergei and whispered, "Found the same thing in our building."

They both joined Farrington, who was in one of the rooms at the end of the hallway studying the furnace, which looked relatively new. Scanning the room with his flashlight, he didn't see an oil tank. Farrington stood up and took a few pictures before they all walked outside into the windy, frozen air. They spoke freely, but in hushed tones.

"We have to assume all of the structures are bugged," Farrington said.

"Yeah. I just wonder if someone is watching us right now," Petrovich said.

"We need to assume this is the case and get our job done here. We can upload photos and any data from somewhere down the road, just not here," Sergei added.

They turned their heads at the sight of Dusty and Andrei jogging toward them.

"Anything interesting?" Daniel said.

"Nothing really. I found some recently installed plumbing in two of the rooms, cracked and frozen. They must have a well somewhere close by. There's no way they're connected to a municipal water source, but there's a water pump connected to a pipe that penetrates the flooring," Andrei said.

"Same thing in this building, but there's also a shower. The furnace is new. On demand hot water type and it's hooked into a radiant flooring system, which is also new. I accessed the crawl space from one of the rooms to check it out," Farrington said.

"On the surface it doesn't look like much, but a considerable amount of money and time has been poured into these buildings. The one we examined looked like it might have been their lab center. Andrei?"

"I agree. Nothing there to indicate living quarters. The electrical system is rigged for heavy duty use, with a backup breaker box, which leads me to suspect they ran a lot of equipment in the building," Andrei said.

"There was only one box in our building. I get the impression this was their living quarters. There's an old kitchen that came with the place. Propane stove and space for a refrigerator, not that you'd need one around here now. I see indentations outside where they had probably installed temporary propane tanks," Farrington said.

"I guess the million dollar question is what lies behind curtain number four?" Daniel said, nodding toward the path leading away from the main site.

"Andrei and I will take the trail. You guys finish up any further assessment of the buildings. Let's plan to be back on the road in less than thirty minutes. I like Sergei's idea of uploading all of this shit well away from here," Petrovich said.

"We still need to take a look at the three bodies not far from here. We might find the good doctor with his brains splattered on the ground. I can't imagine Al Qaeda leadership would want him in circulation anymore," Farrington said.

"Fuck. More detours," Andrei said.

"He's right. If Reznikov is dead, then we have no leads and a big problem on our hands," Dusty said.

"We already have a big problem on our hands, if my suspicions are correct," Petrovich said.

"Should we grab the rifles? If someone is watching us, the rifles might keep them from paying us a visit," Sergei said.

"What do you think, Rich?"

"You should really get used to calling me Yuri. You're gonna blow our cover if you can't keep it straight," Farrington said.

"Sometimes the strangest things get under your skin, Yuri."

"I think walking around here with rifles will tip our hand too soon. If someone is watching us, I think it's from a safe distance. They know we're professionals and won't want to take the gamble. At some point they'll call this in, and who knows what we'll be dealing with? A fake roadblock, a small ambush in one of the nameless towns…I think we should keep our ace card hidden for now," Farrington said.

"We have another ace up our sleeves," Petrovich said.

"Yeah, over three hours away. They'll get some nice pictures of our dead bodies. Forget the rifles. Let's get this going and get the fuck out of here. The Russian border isn't that far away, and I'm not in the mood to entertain company," Farrington said.

"Good point. Dusty, why don't you join our group? I suspect you might have a better idea of what Berg expects to find out here," Petrovich said.

"I really don't, but I have a few worst case scenarios in mind," he said.

"So do I, and I really hope I'm wrong."

Ten minutes later, after navigating a treacherous, lightly worn path through several large rock clusters, they descended into a small dip between two hills. The dark structure lay twenty meters ahead of them, and Daniel took a moment to study the building with his night vision scope. A large stone chimney stood at one end of the square building and extended several feet above the flat roof. He didn't see any windows or a door from their slightly elevated position on the trail. He couldn't see anything through the scope that would keep them from approaching the building, so he gave the signal. They proceeded cautiously and quietly, using flashlights to keep them from twisting an ankle or stumbling across a hidden tripwire.

The three men arrived at the front corner of the building and split up. Daniel placed his hand on the brick wall and walked toward the back corner of the building, feeling the brick scrape and catch his gloved hands. The wall spanned about fifteen feet. When he turned the corner and saw the back wall, he felt his heart rate spike. A large metal door sat flush on the brick wall, aligned with the chimney, three feet off the ground. Cut firewood sat stacked against the wall on the other side of the metal door, extending from the frozen ground to a point three quarters of the way to the top of the wall. Petrovich noticed that the roof was constructed of the same brick as the sides. He'd seen something like this before, but it had been a bit cruder.

He stumbled over a few loose pieces of firewood and grasped the oversized metal handle of the door to steady himself. He felt the thick metal door open slightly, and after regaining his footing, he pulled it open. The slightly rusted door creaked open on its hinges, and Daniel directed the beam of his flashlight inside. The metal door spanned two feet by two feet and opened into the immense metal belly of a stove. A thick layer of ash filled the chamber. He shut the door and scanned the nearby area for more ashes. He found two piles measuring three feet high by five feet across. They had burned a lot of wood in a short period of time, he thought. He heard movement near the corner of the building and raised his light, instinctively reaching for the pistol tucked into his heavy coat jacket. He was in full combat mode based on what he had seen so far and wanted to get as far away from this place as possible. His light caught Andrei in the face.