The Patriot Threat (33 page)

“I never made her.”

“It would have been impossible. She kept her distance and faded into the other Koreans on board. I wouldn’t have made her, either, except that we had some intel that alerted us to be on the lookout for her, including a picture.”

“You knew she killed Larks?”

She shrugged. “Either her or Kim. Who else could it be?”

“The North Koreans are some of the most ruthless agents in the world. You’re going to have to keep your eyes and ears open, ’cause they can come from anywhere. Don’t get yourself killed, okay?”

She could see that his warning was genuine, and she appreciated it. “I’ll watch out. What do you have in mind?”

He stood. “Drink your tea and relax a bit. There’s not going to be much time for rest in the hours ahead.”

She watched as he left the café, her opinion of Harold Earl “Cotton” Malone quite different than a few minutes ago. Silence returned and she allowed the calm to soothe her nerves. Here she was, right in the middle of an international intelligence operation. Chinese? North Koreans? Luke Daniels was right. This was far different from what she was accustomed to handling.

But she liked it.

FORTY-EIGHT

W
ASHINGTON
, DC

Stephanie stood from the bench and faced the man from Treasury. She kept her cool and asked, “Are you following me?”

He did not answer, and she understood why.

She looked down at Carol Williams and said, “Could you excuse us? I appreciate your time. I’ll give you a call if I need more information.”

The young curator left.

“New friend?” he asked.

“None of your business.”

“I wish that were true. I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here. I told you back in Atlanta that you should leave things to us.”

“And I told your boss not an hour ago that this was now an American intelligence operation, of which you are not a part.”

They were speaking low, beneath the ambient noise from the fountain and the schoolchildren, who continued to enjoy the garden court.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I came to tell you a few things.”

He sat on the bench. She had no choice but to sit, too.

“No chicken sandwiches today?” she asked.

“You still sore about your phone?”

“I’m still sore about a lot of things. I thought Joe Levy and I had an understanding that he was going to leave this to me.”

“Look, don’t shoot the messenger. My boss told me to find you—”

“And since you were having me shadowed anyway, that wasn’t so hard.”

He chuckled. “Something like that.”

“So what’s so important?”

“There’s been some reorganization within North Korea. It’s late breaking, and the secretary thought you might want to know.”

She listened as he explained that six government officials had been convicted of treason, then summarily executed.

“Happens all the time there,” she said.

“There’s more.”

“What makes you so cocksure of yourself?”

He shrugged. “Those friends in high places I told you about at our first little chat.”

She still wasn’t intimidated. “Tell me more.”

“The Dear Leader’s other brother, the middle one, has been executed, along with his wife and their three grown children. Two of those children were married, so the spouses and their four children were also killed. Seems like a thorough housecleaning.”

Definitely a message was being sent from brother to brother. And a fast one. Only about eighteen hours had passed since the loss of the $20 million. In that time North Korea had assessed the situation, determined the culprits, and fashioned an appropriate response. Not bad. By eliminating his middle brother and all of that brother’s heirs, Dear Leader was saying to his older sibling that his remaining nieces and nephews were next. From what she could recall, all of Kim’s children and grandchildren still lived in North Korea, making them easy targets.

He said, “The official reason given was ‘acts of treachery regarding a business dispute.’ I guess that’s what they call the loss of $20 million. Wasn’t it your agent who screwed that up?”

“My man did his job. At least that money won’t be used to buy any nuclear components. I’d rather see it as ash.”

“Can’t argue there, but I bet the family of that middle brother wishes things had gone different.”

She stared at the man. “Is there anything else?”

His hand slipped into a pocket and he pulled out a $20 bill. “I hear you’re into hidden symbols and secret messages on money. Here’s one you might not know about.”

She watched as he creased the bill in half, lengthwise, then folded the left and right sides upward, the bill now shaped like a house with a gabled roof.

He pointed at his creation. “See anything?” He pointed.

“Right there,” he said, “above the fold. It’s the Pentagon, burning, on 9/11.” He flipped the bill over. “And here are the twin towers.”

He was right. Both images were strikingly poignant.

“What are the odds?” he asked her.

“Is this some Treasury Department trivia?” she asked.

“You work with money all the time, you come across things. Frankly, I think it’s spooky as hell.”

“You came here to show me that?’

He shook his head. “Nope. I came to see your reaction.”

“To what?”

“We know where Kim is in Croatia.”

She did not mask her surprise. “How could you possibly know that?”

“Are we just too stupid at Treasury to know anything? The NSA is still monitoring Kim’s phone and email. We got a hit and a trace. Seems he’s getting sloppy, or desperate. I guess that depends on your point of view.”

“And why are you telling me?”

“It’s
your
guys on the ground, so my boss wanted you to know. And we decided not to broadcast it to the world on a cell phone line.”

“Tell Joe Levy I appreciate the news flash, but I don’t need a babysitter.”

“My boss doesn’t trust you. There’s a lot at stake here.”

“I could have all of you arrested.”

He chuckled. “But you won’t. That draws a lot of attention, especially from the White House, which you don’t want.”

She said nothing.

“There’s one other tidbit. You know the Chinese are involved, but they’ve also brought in the North Koreans. NSA picked that up, too. Beijing decided to curry some favor with their neighbor to the south and told them everything they know. The North Koreans are going to do the dirty work, while the Chinese sit back and watch. Gives them deniability. Thankfully, they’re all dumber than dirt, but unfortunately they’re also crazy as hell, so there’s no telling what might happen. You got nobody here on this with you. Zero. You’re flying solo. So my boss just thought you could use a little help from an old friend like me.”

“And when I find whatever there is to find, you’ll be there to make sure it’s properly destroyed.”

He shrugged. “That’s entirely possible.”

“Where is Kim?”

“He retreated to a Croatian luxury resort on the Virsko Sea. The Hotel Korcula. He’s in a two-bedroom suite. You want the room number?”

“What is it?”

An irritating smirk formed on his lips. “3506. Bet you thought I didn’t know.”

She stood. “Tell your boss I’d rather be shot by the Chinese, or the North Koreans, than have you help me. Stay off my tail.”

“I’m good with that. I don’t like you, anyway.”

She glanced around the courtyard. The schoolchildren were moving on. She counted six more people on the other benches. Two women, four men. Nobody paid her or Chick-fil-A Man the slightest heed. Actually, she did feel a bit alone. The only two agents she trusted with anything associated with this mess were engaged in Croatia. This end was hers. And she was stymied until Cotton solved the cipher. His last scrambled text message indicated that he was close.

She walked off.

Leaving Chick-fil-A Man alone.

FORTY-NINE

C
ROATIA

Malone was back in the American Corner with Luke and Howell.

“Wonder Woman going to play ball?” Luke asked.

“You know, she might actually surprise you.”

“She’s green as an unripe banana, Pappy.”

“She’s your partner on this one, so make it work. Hell, I got you last time and it was okay.”

Luke seemed puzzled. “Actually, I thought that was the other way around.”

Malone faced Howell. “Have you given any thought to what you and I talked about?”

“You don’t have to worry about me, I can do it.”

“I do worry. Kim has killed two people in the past twenty-four hours. A third would not be a problem for him.”

“Let him try.”

He pointed a finger. “That’s what I mean. Right there. Cockiness
will
get you killed, and that’s going to do none of us any good, especially you.”

Howell seemed to get the message. “If it matters, I’m scared to death. But I’ll get it done.”

“That’s what I want to hear. Fear’s a good thing, in small doses. Now tell me about where you’ve been hiding.”

Before he’d left to visit with Isabella he’d explained his plan to both Luke and Howell. What he needed was a place where his show could be staged. Howell had suggested a locale deep in Croatia.

“Solaris is a small village about two hours by rail from here, up in the mountains. Jelena was from there. I was just wandering, trying to vanish, and one day I stepped off the train. I met her and she asked me to stay.”

He listened as Howell told them that there were only a few hundred residents, the town located near the eastern border between Dalmatia and Bosnia. Serbs once dominated the area, but when Croatia retook the land in the 1990s they were all expelled in ethnic cleansing.

“Lots of ruined buildings and empty places are still there,” Howell said. “It’s largely rebuilt, but still economically depressed. Though the Croats didn’t realize it at the time, they needed those Serbs.”

“Did any of them come back?” Malone said.

Howell shook his head. “Precious few.”

“Bet it made a good place to hide,” Luke noted.

“I thought so. Then I met Jelena and decided it was a great place to hide.”

Howell sounded upbeat for a moment.

“You’re going to have to string Kim along and keep him dangling,” Malone said. “Use the truth. Less thinking on your part that way. Lies can be tough to keep straight under stress. He’ll want to hear the story, so tell him bits and pieces, but never the whole thing.”

“Isn’t that risky?” Luke asked. “He knows too much already.”

He shook his head. “He’s not going anywhere. We just need him rocked to sleep until that train stops in Solaris. I’ll be there, waiting.” To Howell, he said, “Luke and Isabella are your backup. We have the upper hand since Kim doesn’t know they exist. But watch out for the daughter. She’s the wild card. We know nothing about her, except that she likes to stick people with needles.”

If this played out right, he should be able to corner Kim in a remote Croatian village, a hundred-plus miles inland, with nowhere to go. International communications would exist, but be spotty at best. And how many Koreans could be there? His places to hide would be few, his escape options limited. All in all, an excellent trap.

“One thing,” he said to Howell. “You cannot ever let him think that you know Jelena is gone. At that point your value to him becomes zero. He will kill you.”

“I get it. I know how to play this game. You forget I’ve been on the run for three years.”

“What about the Chinese?” Luke asked.

“Still an unknown, but Stephanie is working on finding out, as we speak, if they’re really here.”

Luke nodded. “In this part of the world, they use a lot of freelancers. So you never know from where they’ll strike.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Howell said.

“It’s not good,” Malone said. “The Chinese and North Koreans want what Kim has, and they’ll kill any of us to get it.”

“We won’t let that happen,” a new voice said.

He turned and saw Isabella.

“That’s the main thing you and Luke have to be worried about,” Malone made clear. “Let Howell handle Kim. You two make sure that any strangers stay out of this. If trouble is coming, it will be with you.”