The Poseidon Initiative (10 page)

He could wait until Amir left the room and then call Liam and have him tail him, perhaps from a cab this time. But that might not work. Amir was here, now, they should do something now. Tanner flashed on the gasping victims in Miami, the confused looks on their doomed faces, the panic spreading through the stadium crowd like wildfire…knowing a scene just like it was set to be repeated
tomorrow…
and suddenly his mind was made up.

Tanner gripped his PM9 and raised himself onto his two elbows for a low crawl. He watched from under the bed as Amir’s legs walked out of his field of vision to the left, toward the closet. Then he heard the swipe of a coat hanger off the rack.

The card!

He’d almost forgotten about it. He could just let him leave with the tracker in his jacket. But the battery in the transmitter had a life of “hours, not days,” he recalled his techie saying.

Tanner made up his mind.

He heard Amir pull his jacket on.

He watched his ankles travel past the bed toward the door.

Tanner slithered toward the edge of the bed. Left elbow. Right. Left. Right…silently, until he could tilt his head to the right and see Amir entering the short hallway leading to the room door.

Tanner put his body into rapid motion, squirming the rest of the way out from under the bed and springing to his feet in one fluid motion.

“Freeze or I shoot!” Tanner leveled his gun at Amir’s back just as his hand landed on the doorknob.

“Open the door and I shoot!”

Behind him Tanner heard Danielle emerging from the bed she was under.

While Amir was frozen, Tanner reached for his radio with his free hand and brought it to his mouth. “Alpha to Bravo, 416, now.”

“Copy that, Alpha.”

To Amir he said: “Back away slowly from the door. Right now! Don’t turn around or I shoot!”

“Is that you, Mr. Kohler?”

“Shut up and do it!”

Amir took a careful step backwards.

“What is the meaning of this? Why are you in my room?”

Danielle walked up next to Tanner, her gun also pointed at Amir’s back.

“Do as we ask and you won’t get hurt,” she said.

“Both of you are in here? If you needed a place to stay, you need only have asked!” He roared with fake laughter.

Tanner pantomimed to Danielle where he wanted to move Amir.

“Step backwards, slowly, into the main room. There are two guns trained on you. Do not try to fight or we will kill you. Is that understood?”

“Yes.” He began walking backwards.

Tanner backed up into the space between the two beds, by the wall. Danielle retreated to the foot of the second bed that she’d been hiding under, giving Tanner a hard stare as she passed that said,
what the fuck are we doing?

Tanner removed a folding knife from his rear jeans pocket and used it to cut the cord from one of the nightstand lamps. He took the cord over to Amir.

“Clasp your hands behind your back.”

Amir did so.

Tanner bound his wrists so fast that it surprised even Danielle, who moved over to the other bed in order to cover Amir from the front. He scowled at her while Tanner cinched the cord tight.

“What are you doing with me?” He was yelling now, starting to panic. “What do you want? You want the ten thousand dollars? I will get it for you.”

Tanner opened his mouth to say that this wasn’t about money, it was about protecting innocent lives, but then a thought struck inside his brain that caused him to close his mouth before having spoken. Did Amir have ten thousand dollars in cash on him right now? He carried no briefcase or bag with him, and he was preparing to check out of the hotel so he wouldn’t have left it in the room safe…An envelope containing hundred dollar bills would fit in a pocket, though.

Tanner started to frisk Amir, first his back pants pockets, then the front, then the suit jacket.

“You think I would carry that kind of cash on me to a meeting with people I’ve never met before?” Amir spat.

Tanner stepped back having found nothing. So far this was going exactly the way he hoped it would.

“If you don’t have it, why should I believe that you can get it?”

If Amir thought he was just a high class thug out for money, so much the better, Tanner thought.

The Hofstad agent laughed. “I can get it. You should have told me sooner you needed the money that badly. I would have gladly paid it not to have gone through this ridiculous ordeal. Now release me and I will see about providing you with the funds.”

Tanner looked over at Danielle and grinned like a Cheshire cat.

It was time to follow the money.

U.S. Embassy, The Hague, Netherlands

Mr. Peterson stared at Stephen Shah as the embassy administrator began talking to whomever had picked up the phone on the other end.

“David, listen to me. A State Department envoy just handed me embassy shutdown orders from the White House.”

Shah heard an unintelligible line of inquiry emanate from the phone.

“Yes,
shutdown
orders. Right, they’re complying with the demands. At least for now.”

Peterson listened for a few more seconds and then cupped the phone, looking at Shah.

“Where are we supposed to go? Do we stay in country or report for duty in D.C.?”

Shah hadn’t considered this and had to think fast. As much as he enjoyed the vision of a couple of hundred foreign embassy workers suddenly showing up for non-existent duty in Washington, it was more consistent with his temporary closure story that they remain nearby.

“Stay in country and be prepared to resume operations when notified. You have a disaster plan in place, correct? Like if there’s an earthquake or a flood or something?”

Peterson nodded.

“Treat this like that. Those type of plans generally tell employees how to contact each other once off the premises. Put your disaster plan into effect now.”

Peterson spoke into his phone. “We need to evacuate everyone and then follow our disaster plan for coordination of activities while off-site.”

For the first time since he’d entered the embassy, Shah allowed himself the faintest of hopes that his ploy might actually work. Emboldened, he pressed on, half-expecting that at any second a team of security men would burst into the office to escort him away.

“You also need to remember to announce the closure publicly just before or after leaving, to let the terrorists know that their demands have been met.”

“Hold on a minute, okay?” Peterson said into the phone. Then he said to Shah, “Shouldn’t President Carmichael do that?”

He was right, of course. But Shah was hoping that since The Hague was Hofstad’s base of operations that a local announcement would reach their ears soon, and they would put a hold on whatever they had in store for the citizenry of the United States for at least the next few hours. Who knows, maybe the White House would follow with its own announcement if they assume the embassy acted on its own best intel. Maybe they know something the president doesn’t. But these thoughts took a backseat in Shah’s mind to the situation right here, right now. He still had some convincing to do, and even if Peterson and whomever he was talking to were fooled, he was well aware that this little charade could have the rug pulled out from under it anytime in the next few hours.

“The president will do it, but sometimes local sources are taken as more authentic by local people, so we would like the announcement to come from the embassy itself as well.”

That would have to do. Shah hoped it would be enough as Peterson conveyed the instructions to his colleague on the phone. Shah’s inner voice told him he should get while the getting was good. The ruse would either work or it wouldn’t. There wasn’t anything more he could do here. The questioning would grow more pointed, more confirmations would be requested, so it was better if he left now and hoped the plan would be carried out. Based on his knowledge of federal administration of overseas assets, Shah gave it about a forty percent chance of success.

At least Peterson and his contact were now discussing the details of implementing the shutdown.

“Excuse me, Mr. Peterson?” Shah interrupted. Peterson raised his eyebrows at Shah expectantly.

“I’ve got to be on my way. I trust you can handle things from here?”

“Yes sir, Mr. Rahimi. You can count on us.”

“Excellent. I’ll be sure to let the president know what a first rate operation you run here. Just don’t forget that announcement.”

Peterson beamed. Thank you, Mr. Rahimi. Yes, Sir!”

Shah turned and left the office, closing the door behind him.

Charleston, South Carolina

Tanner punched Amir in the face, a forceful, closed-fisted shot. He didn’t enjoy violent behavior but time was short and he needed to get it across to this terrorist that he meant business. Blood erupted from the Hofstad agent’s nose, staining the bedding as he keeled over. Danielle kept her pistol trained on him.

“What did you do that for?” He spat blood out onto the covers. “I said I would get you the money.”

“That’s just to keep you from getting too comfortable. Just a little preview of what’s to come if I don’t have that ten grand in the next hour.”

“The next hour?” Amir struggled until he was able to right himself, sitting once more on the now bloody bed.

Tanner raised his fist as if he was about to strike a hammer blow. “Do I need to repeat myself?”

Amir seemed to shrink into the bed. “One hour, okay. I can do it.”

Tanner wondered if Amir personally had ten thousand he could access from an account of his own, which would mean there would be nothing to trace to Hofstad. He hoped not. But regardless, it was worth a try.

“Where is it?”

“It is in one of my accounts. I can wire it to your account or I can withdraw it in the morning from any major bank.”

“I said one hour.”

“Then provide me with an account number and I will transfer it immediately from my phone.”

In his line of work, Tanner had learned long ago to be prepared for this eventuality. He had an account setup for use by OUTCAST — an account that was well-funded and easily accessible online, yet that was also setup under the alias he was currently using.

Tanner glared at Amir, channeling some of the genuine hatred he felt for this terrorist who, if not directly responsible for killing those people in Miami, at least supported the organization that did. Tomorrow would most likely bring more devastation if OUTCAST was unable to do anything.

“I can give you an account number. But we use my computer.” Tanner reached under the bed and retrieved his briefcase from where he’d been hiding.

“You could be recording my keystrokes,” Amir stated.

Tanner backhanded him across the mouth, bloodying his lip. “I could be killing you, too. Would you prefer that?”

Amir said nothing.

“If I wanted more than ten thousand don’t you think I would have asked for more? We use my machine and you transfer the ten thousand or else I will kill you right here in this room.”

“Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

Tanner handed the notebook computer to Danielle, who was familiar with the OUTCAST account. She took it to the room desk to boot it up while Tanner aimed his firearm at Amir’s head.

“To expedite things, I’m going to untie you so that you can use the computer. You will have two weapons trained on you the entire time and everything you are doing online will be closely watched. Do not try anything funny. Is that clear?’

“Yes.”

“It’s ready,” Danielle said, pointing to the open computer, a web browser sitting at the ready.

Tanner made a show of opening his folding knife in front of Amir’s face. Then he walked slowly around the bed until he was behind the prisoner.

“I’m going to cut your arms free now. Do not move until I say and you will not be hurt.”

“Okay.”

Danielle moved over to the bed, standing in front of Amir with her pistol aimed at his chest while Tanner sliced through the lamp cord and stepped back.

“Stand up slowly.”

Danielle backed up to the wall to give him plenty of room as he put his hands on the bed and pushed himself up to a standing position.

“Now walk slowly to the desk and sit down in the chair.”

Amir did so, eyes fixed on the computer as he walked.

“I must warn you about something,” Amir said, taking a seat in front of the computer.

In response Tanner cocked his PM9.

“I am not positive — this is the truth — but transferring this much money from my account, which is company linked — my own personal accounts cannot be accessed in this manner — may trigger an investigation.”

Tanner smirked. “We’ll be long gone by then. Let us worry about that.”

Amir turned his head away from the screen to look at Tanner. “No, you don’t understand. I’m just trying to avoid surprises here since I don’t want to get shot. But the company I work for has its own security measures, some of which are rather extraordinary, and
they
—not the bank — may come after us to see if the transaction is legitimate.”