The Hunt

59

‘First vehicle leading off,’ Jaeger continued his commentary. ‘Heading east down the dirt track. Two up, travelling in convoy.’ He kept his eye glued to the scope as he swung it gently right, tracing the vehicles’ passage. ‘Showing full lights, not driving tactically, skis strapped to the roof: looks like a regular kind of a road move.

‘Gone from view,’ he added. He removed his eye from the scope. ‘What d’you reckon, mate?’

Raff shrugged. ‘Gone to RV with the incoming shipment. What they figure is a crateload of HEU.’

Jaeger nodded. ‘My thoughts exactly.’ He flicked his wrist and glanced at his watch. ‘Time to check in with Falkenhagen.’

He disconnected the Thuraya satphone from its portable solar charger, punched out a short message, encoded it and sent it in data burst: Sitrep: in position. Update?

The two men stared at the Thuraya’s screen, waiting for a response. Generally Miles got back pretty much instantly. A few minutes later, there was the ping of an incoming message.

It wasn’t from Miles. Instead, the caller ID showed it was from Brooks.

Jaeger opened it: Falkenhagen compromised. Condor missing. Your position believed blown. Take soonest direct action to sabotage Kammler. Urgent: make contact voice comms earliest possible.

Jaeger had to read the message twice before he could even begin to grasp its import. Surely it couldn’t be true? Condor was Peter Miles’s code name. If Brooks’s message meant what it appeared to, the Falkenhagen bunker had been penetrated and Miles was gone. Plus their mission had been blown to Kammler and his people.

Shit. Jaeger turned to Raff. ‘Mate, what the fuck?’

‘Only one thing to do: call Brooks.’

Jaeger punched speed dial for the CIA director’s secure line – the one on which he’d assured Jaeger he would always be available.

‘Jaeger?’ a voice answered. ‘No easy way to say this, but the shit’s hit the fan. A force of gunmen hit Falkenhagen. The place is a mess. No guessing who’s responsible. Miles is missing. MIA, KIA – we don’t know. We have every reason to believe your mission is compromised, your position known. You’re going to have to speed things up down there.’

Jaeger cursed. It was worse even than he’d imagined. He felt as if he’d had the rug whipped out from under his feet while going five rounds with Mike Tyson.

‘How did they even find Falkenhagen? Penetrate the security?’

‘No idea. They must have had someone on the inside.’

Jaeger’s mind was reeling. ‘So we’ve no idea who we can trust? Kammler’s people could be anywhere – anyone – amongst us?’

There was a momentary pause. Then: ‘Jaeger, I figure I can trust you. And I figure I can trust your team. And rest assured, buddy, you sure as hell can trust me.’

It was Jaeger’s turn to pause. Brooks could be the one who had betrayed them. Sold out Falkenhagen; sold out Miles. But that didn’t make any sense. Brooks turned? From all Jaeger knew of the man, it didn’t add up.

A look of steel came into his eyes. ‘Okay, so what do we do?’

‘In essence, nothing’s changed. You’re there. You have your team. Kammler’s very likely onto you. But he’s got to get to you. And before he does, we – you – have to stop him. Finish it. Finish it before he finishes you.’

‘So we’re a hundred per cent on our own, right?’

‘You always were. You’re in China: apart from intel, I can’t give you jack in terms of backup. You know what you gotta do. Finish Kammler. Nail that goddam sonofabitch once and for all.’

‘Got it. Out.’

Jaeger killed the call. Expect the unexpected: it was his mantra. But he’d never for one moment imagined anything like this.

He eyed Raff. ‘How much of that did you get?’

‘Most of it.’ A beat. ‘But here’s the thing: those two dozen guys Kammler just sent out? They ain’t gone to RV with the shipment. Mate, they’re coming after us.’

‘Like how?’

‘Kammler knows we’re watching. If he sends his guys out on foot to comb the valley, we see them coming. This way, they drive east until they’re out of sight, pull over, climb to the valley rim and come at us from the rear.’

‘Across the snowfield?’

‘Yeah. From where we least expect it. From where we’re not watching.’

‘So they’ll be moving on skis?’

‘Probably, yeah.’

‘Right. We go out and meet them head on. Fire with fire.’

‘Hit them where they’ll least expect us.’

‘Not us.’ Jaeger eyed the scope. ‘I need you here on watch. The priority has to be to get the tungsten bomb in. Eliminate the main threat. Do everything possible to avoid Kammler’s people. Last thing we need is for it to go noisy before we hit the kill button.’

Raff’s face hardened. ‘I’d rather go out fighting.’

‘No, mate, I need you here. Safe pair of hands to backstop the team. That tungsten bomb arrives, someone’s got to call it. Trigger the blast. That’s you. Got it?’

‘Got it.’