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“Interpol shared plans with us. They, too, are concerned. The revised plan is lower risk. If you’d let me finish.”
“We have a seven-hour drive, don’t we?”
“Not together, we don’t. We bought you a car that fits with your profile. One a person relocating to Cambodia as a mercenary would purchase for personal use. Staying at the hotel fits because you’ll be searching for a place to live.”
“How long is this revised mission?” She scowls and I hold up a defensive hand. “Go on.”
But I also breathe deeply and stretch my fingers because there’s nothing more annoying than taking off with one plan and landing with another.
“As a new employee, on your first day, you’ll be given a tour. With any luck, you’ll gain confirmation she’s there. In your role, according to our contact, they should assign you an interior post. The goal is for you to speak with Sloane Watson. Gain her trust. Give her a pill to take. It will induce seizures. You’ll call for a medic. We’ll intercept the call to the local hospital, and Max will arrive in the ambulance. The two of you will drive away with her. Or, if you can’t finagle getting in the ambulance with her, you’ll leave on your shift as scheduled and return to our hotel. You simply won’t return to work the next day.”
“You know, I don’t speak Khmer, and my grip on Vietnamese is…” My facial expression relays severely limited.
“We’re hoping it works to your advantage. A lot of the Wagner group don’t speak it either. Your file says you speak Spanish, French, and Russian.”
“French is rusty.” I haven’t looked at it since training years ago.
“The profile you’re slipping into knows Russian and English. Between those two, you should find a common ground. That’s the way most of the guards communicate with each other.”
“So, let me get this straight. I play the role of a newly hired mercenary. Find a way to speak to her. And convince her to take a pill that’s going to give the illusion she needs emergency medical care.”
“That’s the plan.”
“And someone thought this is a better plan than us moving in at three a.m. and simply extracting her?”
“We don’t have enough intel on what’s going on behind the compound walls.”
“Which is why Interpol wants us to share what we find?”
“Interpol and several other organizations. When you disappear with the ambulance, they’re going to know the Wagner Group was infiltrated. We won’t get back in the same way. So, you asked how long? We’re hoping you’ll spend a couple of days getting as much information as you can. But not too long. The deadline is five days.”
“What happens in five days?”
“We’ve got a VIP watching this, and his patience is wearing thin. The sooner you can get her out, the better.”
“VIP?”
“Above your clearance. But trust me when I say there’s more riding on this than just getting an American out of a forced work arrangement. We have a deadline. If she’s not freed within five days, a tangential operation that we’re invested in blows. You asked why I’m down here? Our boss,” she gestures to Fisher, “wanted to send someone you would trust. Plus, apparently, as a rookie, I’m given all the easy ops.” Fisher keeps his eye on the road but holds up an index finger and shakes it in her direction. She smiles. I let their little joke go because I’m not loving this plan and need to focus.
“And there’s no backup?”
Max’s studious expression tells me he’s listening, and he’s as uncertain as I am.
“We’ve got three teams on standby on the Thailand side of the border. But no one, and I mean no one, wants us using them.”
“SEALs? Delta?”
“Does it matter?”
I take her question to mean when briefed she didn’t ask.
“No.” But I would like to know.
“The point is, if this goes south, no one’s going to let you waste away in a Cambodian prison.”
“Good to know,” Max says.
The worst-case scenarios I’d imagined involved being discovered and shooting our way out. The plan changing drastically while in transit hadn’t been one of my fears.
