The Ajax Protocol

CHAPTER 48

Nick heard the lock being turned in his cell door. There was light in the cell but he didn't know if it was the same day. He'd been half asleep or unconscious. Every part of his body hurt. His left hand glowed with pain. He forced himself to his feet. The door opened.

Nick launched himself at the first man into the cell, like a linebacker taking down a fullback. The man grunted as they slammed into the wall. Then something hard hit him on the back of the head. The next thing he was aware of was the sound of voices. He was lying on the floor of the cell. There was something oddly familiar about one of the voices, but he couldn't figure out what it was. He slipped back into unconsciousness.

He was sitting tilted back, a belt strapped across his waist. The seat vibrated gently. He could hear the sound of engines.

A plane. I'm in a plane.

Nick opened his eyes. He was in a private plane, a business jet elegant with accents of wood and leather. Selena was in the seat across the aisle from him. She looked worn and tired, her face strained. She smiled when she saw him looking at her.

"Nick," she said. "You had me worried."

He looked down at his injured hand. Someone had set the bones and splinted them and wrapped the fingers in tape. Under the bandage, the hand throbbed with dull, steady pain.

Selena laid her hand on his arm. Her touch felt comforting, familiar. A tiny bit of the tension from the last few days melted away. He looked at her.

"Christ, I'm glad you're all right. When this is done…"

A voice from the seat behind interrupted him before he could finish.

"You are awake, Nick? Good."

It was a familiar voice, the voice he had heard in Cuba before he blacked out. Nick turned toward the speaker. A wave of dizziness rippled through him and was gone.

Korov. What the hell is he doing here?

"Where did you come from?" Nick said.

"Moscow, of course. Where else?" Korov got up and stood in the aisle looking down at Nick. "You look like shit," he said.

"Yeah. Nice to see you, too."

Nick looked around the plane. Harker was three rows ahead of him in the front of the cabin. Ronnie lay back on the seat behind her, sleeping. In the rear of the plane was a meeting area with chairs and a table. The table had been turned into an improvised bed for Lamont. Stephanie sat nearby, watching over him. She looked worried. At the very back of the plane was a small galley. A man in civilian clothes sat there, reading a magazine.

"How are you feeling?" Korov asked.

"A little dizzy. I've been better. Where are we? Where are we going?"

"At the moment we are over the Gulf of Mexico. As to where we are going, I was waiting for you to wake up before choosing a destination."

"You want me to tell you where we're going?"

"Yes."

"I need coffee."

Korov called out something in Russian. The man in the back of the plane came forward. Korov said something. The man snapped to attention and went back to the galley. A moment later he appeared with a tray and two cups of coffee.

Nick took a sip of the strong, black liquid and sighed. His mouth hurt and his face was swollen. He tasted blood. Probed with his tongue at a loose tooth.

"How did you get us out of Cuba?" Nick said.

"Cuba has few friends," Arkady said. "We have a special relationship with them, particularly concerning intelligence about America. We have influence. They told us they had captured a boatload of American spies and that the infamous Nicholas Carter was among them."

"Infamous?"

"Like your Jesse James, no? I made it clear that giving you to me would help with trade negotiations coming up soon with Moscow. After all, I am a ranking officer in SVR. The Cubans think I am taking all of you back to Russia for interrogation. What you Americans call rendition, yes?"

"Why bail us out?"

"Your director told General Vysotsky about Ajax. Then we found out you had been forced to leave Washington. You have made powerful enemies, Nick."

"Go on."

"The General believes your director is sincere in her desire to stop these madmen from deploying Ajax. He thinks you and your team have the best chance of doing it. You can't do that from a Cuban prison. He decided to intervene."

Nick saluted Korov with the coffee cup. "Good to see you, Arkady."

"And you, Nick. Now we must finish the job."

"We?"

"Tell me where we need to go. I'm going with you. Your director wanted an entire unit, but the General decided it was too risky. All you get is me."

"This could turn ugly, real fast," Nick said. "There are going to be casualties."

"There are always casualties when it matters." Korov looked out the window of the plane.

"A Russian shooting it out with Americans on American soil won't go down well," Nick said.

"If it comes out, the politicians will deal with it," Korov said. "Probably at our expense."

"What else is new?"

"Interesting, isn't it?" Korov said. "Your country and mine, no difference. The politicians always throw the soldiers under the car."

"The bus. You throw someone under the bus."

"Ah. Yes, under the bus."

"We have to get Lamont to a hospital."

"First we must get into American airspace. Can your director arrange something?"

"I'll go talk to her," Nick said. "Lend me your phone."

Korov handed him a phone and he went forward.

Korov saw Selena follow Nick with her eyes. He sat down next to her. "You and Nick," he said. He stopped.

Selena looked at him. "Yes?" Her tone was cool. It was hard to get past the fact that Korov was Russian, even though he'd proved a friend in the past. It was the Russians who had murdered her family. She knew it was irrational, knew Korov had nothing to do with it. But it didn't change how she felt.

"You are with each other?"

"You mean, are we lovers?"

"I don't mean to be rude," Korov said. "I couldn't help noticing how you look at him."

"I guess it's obvious. Yes, we're together. Why do you ask?"

"It's good to know as much as possible about the people you fight with," Korov said. "I am glad for you." He got up and went back to his seat.

What was that about? Selena wondered.

Up front, Elizabeth called Clarence Hood.

Aside from Hood himself, Elizabeth and her team were the only ones who knew how he had become Director of Central Intelligence. The DCI owed her a very large debt. It was time to call it in.

"Clarence, it's Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth. I was beginning to wonder what had happened to you. What's your situation?" Hood's voice was cultured, with a soft hint of a Southern accent. Elizabeth pictured him in his paneled office on the seventh floor at Langley.

"Let me give you the short version," Elizabeth said.

She briefed him on Cuba. When she told him about Korov, there was a long silence at the other end of the connection.

"We seem to have a unique relationship with this officer," Hood finally said.

"That's putting it mildly," she said. Then she told him she had traced the origin of the satellite signals to DIA and that she thought the Ajax command center was concealed under the Denver airport. She told him her suspicions about General Westlake.

"I know about the complex under DIA," Hood said. "It's been abandoned for years. It was supposed to be part of the continuity of government program, but a budget decision was made to construct facilities elsewhere."

The COG program was an emergency plan to protect government leaders in the event of a catastrophic event like nuclear war.

"That confirms my suspicion," Elizabeth said. "It would make a perfect location."

"What do you intend to do?"

"I am going to put it out of action," Elizabeth said. "I intend to destroy it."

"What if it's not there?" Hood said.

"We'd better hope it is."

"The joint operation between the Army and the Department of Homeland Security is scheduled to begin the day after tomorrow," Hood said. "There is unusually tight security surrounding the exercise."

Elizabeth said, "I am certain this exercise is part of implementing Ajax. If I were planning this, I'd want the riots to really get going before the troops went in. That means they'll activate that weapon sooner than the day after tomorrow. I would guess in the next 24 hours."

"That doesn't give you much time," Hood said.

No kidding, she thought. "Whoever is running that exercise has to be part of the plot, and probably the Director of Homeland Security. There's no time to convince anyone that these people are traitors."

"This is a nightmare," Hood said.

"It will be a much worse nightmare if Ajax is deployed."

"What do you need?"

"Clearance into US airspace, for openers. We need an airport that will handle a Dassault E3. Lamont is in critical shape. He has to get to a hospital. We need fuel for the plane. Satellite phones. Weapons for my team. They need clothes. Uniforms, if there's nothing else."

"You're over the Gulf right now?"

"Yes."

"Langley has a restricted airfield near Lubbock. I'll send you the coordinates. Land there. I'll transmit an emergency code to you after this conversation that will get you through our border defenses and onto the airfield. I'll have an ambulance waiting there. It might be better if you kept Colonel Korov out of sight."

"Thank you, Clarence."

"You may not thank me if this doesn't work out," Hood said. He paused. "Elizabeth."

"Yes?"

"No one can protect you if this goes bad."

"If this goes bad, I won't be the only one without protection," Elizabeth said.