Target Omega

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Garin ascended the stairs to the master bedroom of the house that Dwyer contended he wasn’t in. In his right hand was a flash drive he had retrieved from the pocket of the athletic Iranian as he lay on the highway on the Eastern Shore.

Garin had conducted a quick sweep of the Severn after leaving the scene of the accident. He had retrieved his SIG but had found nothing else of note. In fact, it appeared to Garin that the Iranians had concluded their stay. The refrigerator contained just two bottles of water and a plastic container with the remains of some kind of meat. The closets were empty. He found no weapons of any kind. The keys to a Ford Explorer parked outside the cabin were on the kitchen counter.

After checking the Iranians’ SUV for any obvious booby traps and surveillance, he wiped down the Fusion and left it at Terrapin Estates in favor of the Explorer. Since he couldn’t be certain the Explorer didn’t have any hidden tracking devices, he parked the vehicle several blocks from the safe house and would abandon the vehicle as soon as he could secure another one.

The flash drive might yield a wealth of information about what the Iranians were up to or it might reveal nothing. Garin was skeptical that it would be of much use. Over the last few days, questions seemed to multiply in inverse proportion to answers. All he knew was that for some reason, someone wanted Garin and his team dead, and that someone had somehow motivated actors as disparate as the FBI and Iranian operators to get the job done.

Garin settled into a cushioned swivel chair before the laptop in the master bedroom. He paused before inserting the flash drive into the portal and examined the innocuous-looking device. Not long ago he had assisted a team that had used such a device to set back the Iranian nuclear program by at least two years. The device had contained a worm that had wreaked havoc on the computers controlling, among other things, the centrifuges that had processed uranium.

The Iranians hadn’t been careful. Garin would be. He thought about what he’d seen in Pakistan. He’d survived scores of operations by being prepared. Caution dictated that he take an additional step before examining the contents of the flash drive. He picked up a secure cell phone and called Dan Dwyer.