AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Have you talked to his mother yet?”
Kennedy shook her head. “Her dementia is worse than Scott let on. That’s the other reason Claudia’s here. He has no family other than his mother, and his close friends are all in Pakistan working for you. I can provide him with security but I can’t stay here for much longer. Claudia can.”
“What have you got on the guy who did this?” Rapp said, changing the subject.
“We’re still working on it.”
“I don’t want to hear that you’re working on it, Irene. I want to hear that you know who he is and where I can find him. If the people you have on this don’t start providing me some actionable intel, I’m going to come to Langley and crack some skulls.”
“I understand, Mitch. I do. But we have more pressing issues than revenge right now.”
“What issues?”
“We’ve ID’ed two of the men Scott killed. They weren’t al Badr. That was likely just a piece of misinformation to throw us off track. They were ISIS.”
“So you can identify two random Arab assholes but not one of the top professional killers on the planet?”
“It wasn’t hard. And one of them was British. Both of them had Facebook pages identifying themselves as members of ISIS and putting their area of operation as Iraq. I think we can be confident that the man who attacked Scott is less active on social media.”
Rapp walked to a soda machine in the corner. The change slot had been taped up so he slammed a hand into one of the buttons and was rewarded with a cold Coke. He would have preferred something stronger but had sworn off alcohol until he pulled his life together. Something that, at this rate, might take a while.
“Look, Mitch. We have to consider a few things.”
“What things?” he said, opening the can.
“First, the possibility that the fissile material in that weapon wasn’t the primary target. That it was just an ancillary benefit.”
“What was the target then?”
“You. Think about it. We get information from one of our most trusted informants leading us to an abandoned manufacturing plant where a highly trained assassin is waiting. The reasonable assumption would have been that you—not Scott—would be the one to enter the building. And that assumption would have been right if your motorcycle hadn’t broken down.”
“Yeah. The same thing occurred to me.”
“Whoever’s behind this wasn’t able to distract you in South Africa so they decided to get rid of you. That seems obvious. And unfortunately, the why of it also seems obvious.”
“Because their move against that warhead wasn’t a onetime thing. They want me out of the way so they can get more.”
She nodded. “Either warheads or fissile material. And if it’s the latter, they may already have it. How much of Pakistan’s arsenal might already be compromised? How many of their warheads now have empty fuel canisters? ISIS could be creating dirty bombs for deployment in U.S. cities. Worse, they could be developing their own nuclear weapons.”
“ISIS? Look, I know they’re getting more sophisticated now that Saddam’s old generals are taking command positions, but building a nuke? That seems far-fetched.”
“Yesterday, I would have agreed. But, according to Craig, whoever manufactured that decoy canister is extremely knowledgeable and well equipped. It doesn’t take much anymore, Mitch. You know that. It won’t be long before nuclear weapons technology is a century old. In an age of computer-aided design, CNC machines, and 3-D printers, how hard is it really to put a weapon together? It’s the fuel that’s difficult. Weapons-grade fissile material takes an enormous amount of infrastructure to create.”
“And then there’s the Russian involvement,” Rapp said.
She nodded. “Beyond Ilya Gusev in Africa, we’ve got the pictures of the man who attacked Scott. Based on his features, I’d say there’s greater than a fifty percent chance that he’s of eastern European descent.”
“But what’s in it for the Russians? Why would they get involved in something like this?”
“Those are two pieces of the puzzle that I haven’t been able to put together. What I can tell you, though, is that Maxim Krupin is one of the most dangerous men in the world. From the outside he seems to have iron-fisted control of Russia, but it’s not true. His supporters are loyal only to the point that he’s making them money, and he has countless enemies who will attack the moment they see an opportunity.”
“And the cracks are starting to show.”
She nodded. “We’re predicting that the Russian economy will shrink another four percent this year and that government revenue could be down as much as thirty percent. Krupin’s power—and the country itself—just isn’t sustainable in the current environment. It’s an example of the dark side of low oil prices. On the surface it seems that weakening regimes like Russia and Venezuela would be a good thing. But weakness can turn to chaos in the blink of an eye. You wouldn’t believe how much time I spend trying to get politicians to focus on Russia. It’s a country with sixteen hundred nuclear warheads controlled by a single man. And, having met Krupin on a number of occasions, I can tell you that there is nothing he
won’t do to maintain his position. Including turning the planet into a burned-out cinder.”
“I feel like we’re getting too far ahead of ourselves, Irene. What we need to do now is assess the damage and make sure no more is done. Our first order of business should be finding out how many of Pakistani’s nukes have been compromised. And that means you’re going to have to get me in front of President Chutani and the general.”
