The Athena Project

CHAPTER 40

NEW BELGRADE

SERBIA

MONDAY

The stunning glass and steel structure had been built by a world-renowned engineering and design firm. From its internal internet hub and proprietary server farm to its cutting-edge security system, it was considered one of the most sophisticated and most secure buildings in Eastern Europe.

It occupied a prominent position on the left bank of the Sava River in the Serbian capital’s bustling business center known as New Belgrade. Its tenants were prestigious multinationals and leading Serbian businesses. A mixed-use development, it offered not only commercial and retail space, but also luxurious residences to those who could afford them. Attorney Branko Kojic was one of those people.

The Athena Team had flown from Prague to Belgrade via private jet and took rooms at a hip, four-star hotel. They left Vlcek in charge of their two prisoners while Hutton decided what would be done with them. On their way out, Megan had given Vlcek a playful kiss on the cheek, and even though they debated who had lost their bet, he still offered to take her to dinner.

After catching what little sleep they could on the short plane ride in from Prague, they had grabbed a few more hours at the hotel and then had gotten to work.

No one knew very much about Branko Kojic. That wasn’t necessarily a surprise. Many people had reinvented themselves after the Yugoslav wars.

Some had returned years later with new names, new identities, and passports from new countries of citizenship, while others had found ways to emerge from expensive cocoons reborn, with shiny new personas, unmarred by the violence that had so scarred the region. Branko Kojic was believed to be one of these “Serbian butterflies,” as they were known. The Athena operatives were instructed to use the utmost caution when dealing with him. They were on his turf, and they took the directive very seriously.

To conduct good surveillance you needed one thing in abundance-time. But time was something they didn’t have. From what little they had been able to learn from Megan’s interrogation of Heger, Kojic lived and worked in the same building. He rarely went out. When he did, it was in an armored vehicle accompanied by a follow car and multiple private security specialists.

They entered and exited the building via its highly fortified garage, which, like the building’s lobby, had a strong security presence of round-the-clock guards. It was next to impossible to plan to take him en route, because they had no idea where he would be going, or when.

Casey had come up with the idea of posing as an American attorney whose client was looking to open an office in Belgrade. She hoped to get him to dinner, or to at least get a face-to-face meeting with him in his office. When she called that morning, the woman who answered his phone told her that Kojic was not accepting new clients at this time. That was it. Though Gretchen pushed for a referral, something most professionals were usually happy to provide, the woman said she could not be of any help and hung up.

This put them in a very difficult position. Not only did Kojic not leave the building that often, he also didn’t take meetings, at least not with anyone new. That left them with two choices. Either they could force him out, or they could force their way in. For a moment or two, they explored the idea of setting the building on fire, but then decided against it.

Without weeks to surveil him and watch for any pattern or weakness, they had no other option than to go into the building after him.

While Hutton and the team back at Fort Bragg assembled satellite imagery of the building and began gathering as much information about it as they could, Casey, Rhodes, Cooper, and Ericsson did the footwork.

Using one of the false-front consulting companies the DoD had established for intelligence operations, Cooper and Ericsson were able to set up meetings with three businesses in the building to compile as much of an idea as possible of the security on the commercial side. Casey and Rhodes arranged to tour multiple units in the residential portion of the tower that were for sale.

As they had been trained, the women took in everything while not appearing to be very interested in anything. They were also alert to opportunity, and Cooper was able to steal a building ID badge from an employee in one of the offices they were visiting.

At the end of their first day of intelligence gathering in Belgrade, they met back at the hotel to debrief. The consensus wasn’t good. Though Cooper had done a great job grabbing an ID badge that also functioned as an access card, it was tied to its owner’s biometrics. They would have to find another way.

Casey ran down what she and Rhodes had learned via their walkthroughs of several high-end condo units with one of the building’s sales agents. The man had been incredibly forthcoming, even to the point of admitting that he was telling them things he shouldn’t. All of the women laughed at this remark, as they knew it was part of the raison d’être for the Athena Project.

The man’s candidness had given Casey an idea. It was dangerous, but it was a scenario they had trained for. “And if we do it just right,” she said, “I think we may be able to pull it off.”