Hail Warning

Central Intelligence Headquarters — Langley, Virginia

Pepper understood he would be unable to contact his agent, Kara Ramey, while she was in the presence of Kornev. Instead he phoned Marshall Hail for an update on her activities.

Hail answered on the second ring with the single word, “Yeah?”

“This is Pepper,” responded the director of the CIA.

“Yeah, I know. I have caller ID,” Hail said sarcastically.

Both men understood that neither was their cup of tea. Something intended as an attempt at a light-hearted joke was not taken that way.

In a blunt manner, Pepper asked, “Where is my agent?”

Hail let Pepper eat digital static before responding, “She is currently in the air.”

“What do you mean in the air?”

“Exactly that,” Hail said. “She and Kornev are in the air flying in a southwesterly direction. Their current position is directly above the Red Sea.”

“How do you know that?” Pepper asked.

“Because we are following them in my Gulfstream,” Hail said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Pepper took a moment to absorb the information. He asked, “And I don’t suppose you know where they’re headed?”

“I have no clue, but they will have to fuel up if they intend to fly off the continent of Africa. Kornev’s old cargo planes don’t have the fuel capacity to go any farther than that.”

“Do you have any flight information so we can track them from here?” Pepper inquired.

“No,” Hail replied curtly. “Kornev is purposely flying low, under radar; therefore, my educated guess is he didn’t file a flight plan. I don’t think that Kornev is a flight plan kind of guy.”

When he gave Hail and Kara the task to turn Victor Kornev, an arms dealer into a CIA asset, Pepper understood there would be many mission elements outside his control. Hell, he was now even dependent on Marshall Hail to inform

him of the whereabouts of his agent. If, for some reason Hail lost Ramey’s trail, she would be completely alone with no means up backup support. There was the possibility that Kara may still be in possession of her cellphone, but she had not texted her fake friend, a CIA number she was supposed to text every three hours. Pepper had to assume either she could not get a signal or her phone had been confiscated. This was not a deal killer. However, whenever an agent was out of contact for a prolonged period, it added an extra level of angst for Pepper and his CIA team. Kara’s phone was also rigged to send out a tracking signal. However, two hours ago the phone had stopped sending out a signal. Pepper concluded her phone had not only been taken from her, but also had either been destroyed or quarantined in a compartment preventing signal transmission. Neither scenario gave him warm and fuzzy feelings.

Hail waited patiently for Pepper to say something. After a moment of silence, Hail said, “I will contact you when they land.”

“OK,” Pepper concluded the call.

Just as Hail disconnected his phone call with Jarret Pepper, Dallas Stone appeared on a monitor mounted on the wall inside Hail’s Gulfstream. The monitors on the plane were interconnected in a round-robin fashion, so if one screen currently had a video call in progress, the next person calling in would appear on the next screen once the former call ended. Since there were a dozen screens mounted in different areas of Hail’s jet, he had adequate room for plenty of simultaneous video conferences. Currently, Dallas Stone was the only face appearing on a screen. Stone was physically located in the security center on the Hail Nucleus.

“Hey, Marshall,” Dallas said. “We were recording video of Kornev’s plane on the tarmac of the Termez International Airport when we notified you they were getting ready to takeoff. We had Milky Way sitting atop the airport’s roof shooting the video. Initially, we didn’t see anything of significance. However, one of our analysts aboard the Hail Proton reviewed the recorded video. He saw something that you should be aware of. It may be of concern.”

Hail said, “Show me.”

Stone said, “I’m bringing up the video on screen number two.”

Hail looked at the screen mounted to the wall. A clear video showed Kornev’s black Hummer pulling into the AIR CRESS area of the airport on the tarmac. An older Antonov An-26 cargo plane was awaiting his arrival. It was the same plane currently flying a few miles in front of Hail’s Gulfstream. On the recording, the cargo doors of the plane were opened. A single engineer dressed in a bright orange vest and coveralls greeted Kornev with a wave. Hail watched Kara get out of the Hummer and look around. Kornev went to the back of his Hummer, popped the hatch, dropped the tailgate and pulled out two small carry-on suitcases. He set them on the ground, but the cargo engineer made no attempt to pick them up. Then Kornev removed from his vehicle a very large black case. Kornev grimaced. Hail thought it looked like Kornev was in a mild amount of pain when he took out a second identical-appearing case. Kornev handed a case approximately 5-feet long by 1-foot wide by 1-foot deep to the cargo engineer, who quickly hustled it up into the plane. A moment later, the Air Cress employee returned to receive the second case from Kornev. The worker ran it up into the cargo plane, but this time he didn’t return. Kara and Kornev dragged their personal carry-on luggage up the ramp and into the plane.

Dallas said, “That is a very strange shape for luggage, if you know what I mean?”

Hail said, “I understand why you wanted me to see this. Those cases do not appear like any standard luggage of which I am familiar.”

Renner had been watching the video as well. Nolan was flying the Gulfstream. Typically, Hail had his jet flown remotely by one of his pilots aboard the Hail Nucleus, but Nolan was excited about getting behind the stick. Hail had told him to knock himself out.

Renner said, “There is absolutely nothing I can think of, other than a shoulder-fired missile that is that size. A gun would be in a smaller case and any standard-sized missile would not be in a case. Most likely it would have been in a crate of some sort.”

Hail added, “And if it wasn’t for the fact that Kornev is an arms dealer, we probably wouldn’t even give the cases a second thought. But really, what else can they be?”

Dallas asked, “What do you want to do?”

Marshall said to Stone and Renner, “I warned Kornev the next time I caught him selling this wicked stuff to his clients he would pay for it. It’s time to make him pay. If he thought that little gunshot in his hand hurt, then he doesn’t know the meaning of the word pain.”

Renner nodded his head in agreement.

Hail told Stone, “Dallas, I want you to contact Captain Mitch Nichols on the Hail Proton.”

Then Hail stopped and said, “Wait, just one second.” Hail put his finger in the air like he was freezing time. Hail took out a notepad and scribbled some math, keeping his “I’ve got a thought” finger in the air which he lowered when he began explaining the thought that had appeared out of thin air.

“We will maintain our current heading and speed. Tell Mitch to intersect Kornev’s plane using Foreigner at these coordinates.” Hail read off a series of numbers. Offscreen, Stone jotted down the coordinates.

“I want Foreigner armed with LOCO missiles — big and bad and prominent — so Kornev can see them. Have Mitch’s pilot fly right down in front of Kornev’s plane to the point of almost touching his plane’s windshield. I want that bastard to see Foreigner has plenty of armaments and can blow his ass out of the sky. Hopefully, once Kornev sees that we aren’t messing around, he will follow our instructions.”

“Do you want the Hail Nucleus team to fly Foreigner?” Stone asked.

“No, let Hail Proton’s pilots fly the drone. We’ve been stealing a lot of their thunder, and we need to let them have some fun.”

“What are you going to do once Foreigner catches up with them?” Stone asked.

“We need to force Kornev’s plane to land before they reach their destination,” Hail said. “Check your topographical maps using the coordinates I just gave you. After we fly over the Red Sea, are there any abandoned or unused airfields in Egypt?”

Stone mumbled to himself that the entire Egyptian desert was one abandoned and unused airfield. A few minutes ticked by while Dallas searched for a location that would be suitable.

“There is an old airfield on the outer edges of Eba National Park, although I don’t know why they call it a park. Looks like nothing but sand to me. I can’t even make out a single tree.”

“That will work,” Hail said. “Send Nolan the coordinates so he can pour on the afterburners before Kornev gets there. With any luck, we can get this Gulfstream on the ground and get everything set up before Kornev sets down.”

Hail took a moment to think over the situation.

He then asked Dallas, “We had medium-class drones with us for this mission. Milky Way was left on the roof of the Termez International Airport. U2 was loaded on this plane with us. Does U2 have type 1 ammunition on board, as well as the gun to fire it?”

“Yeah, it should,” Stone said. “The ammo and the other gun should be stowed in your cargo hold next to the drone. I think we have type 3 as well.”

Hail asked Renner, “Gage, how long would it take for you to change out the gun and ammo on the drone?”

Renner puffed out his lips, exhaled, letting his lips flap together.

“Five minutes,” he said.

“Good, then we’ve got a plan,” Hail told everyone. “Dallas, make sure you notify me when Foreigner is in place and in front of Kornev’s plane.”

“Will do,” Stone replied.

“Good deal,” Hail said. “If those are indeed surface-to-air, shoulder-fired missiles Kornev loaded on his plane, he is going to be in a great deal of pain and will have some decisions to make.”

“Works for me,” Renner said.

Dallas clicked off the connection, and Hail went to the cockpit to fill Nolan in on their new plan.