“Just like we figured. Kyle was pretty guarded about what he could reveal, but he confirmed that the guy using that alias never boarded.”
“Think he was the target? The reason the jet was taken down?”
“It would make sense, but there’s still no hard evidence to support the theory.” Katie glanced at the open door, then went over and closed it. “I haven’t heard many details about what happened last night. You feeling up to giving me a rundown?”
“Only if you promise that all high points of initiative and valor will get put in my next FITREP.”
Katie grinned.
Conza covered the helicopter crew’s attempted intercept of the convoy, and then the SAM launch that had taken them down. He told her about waking up in the back of the GAZ as a prisoner, being interrogated, and his eventual rescue. She waited until he was done before hitting him with questions. The first one was automatic.
“So it was John Clark who pulled you out of this bind?”
“The one and only—although he did have help.”
“Anybody I know?”
“Ding Chavez and a bunch of guys with funny accents.”
Katie gave a knowing nod. She knew Ding well—he and herfather had a long association. Clark himself was a veritable family member, going back to when he served as her father’s personal protection officer during his days with the CIA. In various capacities, Clark had been at his side ever since.
She said, “Sounds like Task Force 99 made good for the help you gave them on that dock in Tianjin.”
“That might’ve been mentioned.”
“Aside from recovering this device, Kyle mentioned that Clark questioned one of the group that abducted you.”
“He did.”
“Any actionable intel come from that?”
“Honestly, I can’t say. Mr. Clark had sent me off on an errand while that went down.”
“An errand? In the condition you must have been in?”
“I was selected to turn away a carload of approaching civilians.” He told the story as only JC could. The occupants of an oncoming sedan, a young couple, had taken one look at him, bloodied and carrying an assault rifle, and screeched wide-eyed through a U-turn in a cloud of dust.
Katie could only laugh at the scene he painted.
Conza glanced at the door. “One of Clark’s guys was brought in with me. He had a leg wound, but they patched him up and released him.”
Katie nodded, and as she did the gears in her mind began to turn. “Any idea if Task Force 99 is still around?”
“You mean on base? Most likely. Last I heard, they were getting put up in the Qs. They’re probably all luxuriating in their hot tubs by now.”
Katie laughed again. There wouldn’t be hot tubs, but it was a fact of life, at least in Navy minds, that Air Force visiting officer quarters were Ritz-like in comparison to their Navy equivalents.
“Have they said how long they’re going to keep you here?” she asked.
“I asked, but you know how doctors are.”
“Careful…my mom is one.”
“I don’t see any reason to stick around. I’m banged up, but all they tell me to do is sit still. I can do that on an airplane as well as I can here.”
“JC, you don’t sit still anywhere. But point taken.” She gave him a thoughtful look. “I think I might go over to the Qs and look up Mr. Clark.”
“Sounds like a plan. But one word of advice. If you knock on his door, make sure you’re visible in the peephole. Guys like him get a little twitchy otherwise.”
