Authors: Dominick Fencer,Baibin Nighthawk
65
"Digitrevenant69. QRL? "Pavel wrote.
"QRU?"
"All right, her name is Anaïs Degann, she has dual U.S. and Swiss citizenship. She lives in Switzerland, where she has a cottage near Zermatt. She has a degree in Quantum Physics from Geneva, she is a researcher, and she is also a skilled climber and an aircraft pilot. The file with her card and address is attached."
"What does she have to do with Reed? Were you able to find any connection?"
"I found her cell number, or at least the public one. She recently traveled with American Airlines. I won’t invoice you for this service because she intrigues me too. She works at the Institute of Physics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. But of course they told me that she was on sabbatical and they cannot give out information about her address and telephone number."
"She was well-trained, I’d say, considering the way she moves and reacts. I'm sure she's looking for me,” replied Mark. “Colonel Reed is the creator of the Transtem 1.1 project. An encrypted file is coming, please study it. Anaïs is a special agent and she is not registered, therefore she deals with non-recurring and secretive missions at the highest level and she wants to eliminate me on the Colonel’s behalf.
“Davis brought me here where I found out about the Transtem 1.1 project that involves the Colonel’s CIA team, and even the Department of Defense. Well, there is something wrong here and there are too many coincidences. What do you think?"
"I agree with you. I'll read the file, but I don’t think we can think about coincidences: Defense and the CIA together, damn it!"
"But, for the moment, I cannot move from here and I have to work as a doctor, also I don’t currently have any idea about how to get out of the situation in which I find myself, notwithstanding the fact that I will not stay hidden forever like Davis."
"We'll think about it together and adjust our strategy and tactics from time to time. If Davis actually has something in mind, the situation will become lively."
"I think so too. Bye…by the way, Anna?" asked Mark.
"I met her yesterday afternoon for coffee after my lecture at the university. She didn’t know how to apologize. I let it go, I can’t part with her. I'd rather be content than lose her. I still believe that sooner or later she will change her mind."
"Hopeless! See you soon. If you discover any new data about my terminator let me know."
"See you soon, my friend. Have a good evening!"
Mark hung up, put his office in order and then went home. The swollen face of Anaïs Degann came into his mind, not for the first time.
66
"Jago, have you talked to Skylinep92 today? Where is she?" Colonel Reed asked Jago C. Green.
"She’s in Zermatt, she’s waiting for the results of the analysis of the cameras located in the stations of the three identified routes: Texas, New Jersey and Vermont."
"Interpol?"
"Everything is silent, silent like our informants."
"He can’t have vanished into thin air, he's still in the U.S.. I’ll bet on that."
"That’s what we think, sir. We know all his aliases, the British disclosed them to us and our services have indexed them so that if there is any transaction or exchange of correspondence, the information will show up on our warning system."
"New recruitment in hospitals?"
"It's impossible to control everything, if Savannah doesn’t use one of his aliases it will be very expensive and will take a long time to check on all the new hires," Green replied. "Someone has probably given him a completely new identity by now. I can’t understand it any other way and, if so, excluding the British, the Russians and the Iranians, there aren’t many possibilities left," the hacker kept on thinking aloud.
"Mossad told me they couldn’t care less about a burned agent that I’m hunting, and the Arabs aren’t interested in a westerner who isn’t a flag-bearer for their political interests, and Savannah is no politician.
“Jago, before I forget. Our pilot Anderson had a car accident tonight; unfortunately, he’s in a coma and given the sensitivity of the Grigoriy Kozloy issue, I cannot think of using a pilot I don’t trust. Better call Anaïs back. Can you do that for me?"
"I’m so sorry about Anderson, such an unlucky guy: first cancer and now the accident. I’ll call Anaïs. What’s the official version I should give her?"
"She has to go and get three patients from Oklahoma. They had transplantations the same day, and have problems with infection so they have to be treated by the medical team at the Biosketch Technologies Inc. clinical facilities and then brought back to the medical facilities in Oklahoma. Because she's smart, we’ll organize it in such a way as to make her landing in a place off the beaten track. We can tell her that we need to avoid unnecessary alarmism in the media."
"And the three patients?"
"They will be sedated during both the outward and return journeys. It's impossible to perform the transplant outside our labs, but the patients mustn’t learn what we’re doing and much less snoop around our facilities. You will also organize the sweep for any detection systems that these guys might bring with them. Even if, as I believe, Grigoriy is interested in the technology and does not want to screw me, he knows that it doesn’t pay for him to do that."
"When do we have to be ready?"
"In the morning, the day after tomorrow. Anaïs should take off from our base at 6:30 am, she’ll only have a nurse with her. For the return trip, you’ll have to arrange for a doctor with drugs and medical equipment and a specialist in anesthesia and resuscitation. You never know, they’ll be airlifted a few hours after the transplantation."
"It’s all clear, sir. Shall I also arrange to get Skylinep92 back from Switzerland?"
"You don’t need to do that. I don’t want to draw attention to Biosketch."
"She’ll want to pilot the plane herself, sir..."
"Certainly, and now get your ass in gear and call her!"
"Yes sir, have a good day!"
Green hated it when the Colonel shouted at him that way, it was not necessary to raise his voice with him since he was always organized and efficient; these demonstrations of strength somewhat irritated him and put him in a bad mood.
"Anaïs? Hello dear, call to action for a short but intense task...one of those that you love so much."
"So sudden? What's this?"
“Pick-up and delivery by air, the trusted pilot of the Colonel had a serious car accident last night."
"Hopefully he’ll survive. When should I be ready?"
"The day after tomorrow at 6:30 am. You have to come back to Biosketch Technologies Inc. immediately. No recovery is expected. Have you heard from Savannah?"
"The cameras of the Chicago station have pictures of him. It's definitely him, but none of the cameras located outside the station, in the neighborhood or in the subway detected him, so we can assume he went on by train.
“The last few frames show him motionless near a specific platform, so I sent out his picture. I started with the Texas Eagle line, which connects Chicago to Los Angeles through Arkansas, Missouri, Texas. Then, if that’s unsuccessful, I’ll start scouring the route to Vermont."
"But it's like finding a needle in a haystack!" said Jago.
"It's better than nothing; and if we catch sight of him again, we can carry out more detailed checks and refine our search. I'll arrive at night Green, please let me find a room ready and some food, and send me all the specifications of the aircraft that I have to fly, thanks."
"Have a good trip, but don’t count on me. I won’t wait for you unless you agree to meet in bed."
"I don’t count on anyone ever, Jago, and nobody has ever waited for me. See you tomorrow."
Skylinep92 arrived at Biosketch Technologies Inc. after midnight. She still felt pain when breathing and her eye had turned to yellow, giving her a sickly and tired look. Before turning off the light in the room, she opened the file with the specifications of the aircraft she would fly for the operation: it was a twin-engine turboprop Twin Otter. She had already flown the Twin Otter in other operations; she would certainly not be alone on board.
67
"Good morning, Alan, how are you feeling today? How is your hairy monster?" Mark Savannah asked Alan Cox.
"I don’t see it anymore and I have to say that I feel better. I breathe well, and I no longer have that sense of oppression that I had before. Maybe you're right, I'm not completely dead."
"You really have a particular mind. Which part of you is dead in your opinion?"
"A very bulky part. I can’t remember anything about it, except that it exists, and has become like a fossil."
"The therapy is helping you a lot, and even the hypnosis sessions. Take this."
Savannah handed him his BlackBerry to see how he reacted. Cox turned it on slowly, let it connect to the network and looked at the messages received.
"Just one message from the office wishing me a speedy recovery, and nothing more! I was expecting an avalanche of e-mails..."
"They know that you’re in hospital and they don’t want to add to your anxiety; when you get back to work, you will be flooded with e-mails again. Can you give it back to me now, please?"
"Here it is."
Cox gave his BlackBerry back to Mark without batting an eyelid. The satisfied psychiatrist did not observe anxiety or compulsive actions. He took Cox’s device and put it back in his pocket.
"Tomorrow I'll bring it back to you, now please relax so we can begin our daily session."
When Mark was sure that Cox was completely receptive, he took him back to the description of his job under hypnosis; he wanted to understand the reaction that Cox had had during the first session.
"You have traveled extensively and I'd say you met many political figures during your negotiations for the group you work for. Tell me about your experience in Nigeria."
"I don’t understand, sir... Nigeria...two years ago... I'm not allowed... I breathed in water, but I didn’t say anything."
"Were you on the platform that day?"
Mark knew very well that the Netherlands government together with those of the UK and the U.S. had managed not to leak the news to the media, but an attack was launched by the guerrillas of the liberation of the Niger Delta movement, with the logistical support of Boko Haram. It was carried out on an oil platform in January 2007. It had caused the death of forty people and the destruction of the control room.
The platform had been evacuated and they had discontinued oil extraction for six months. The guerrillas had held ten people hostage, afterwards they had killed eight people and released only two, threatening more attacks during the following months.
There had been a rumor about the involvement of al-Qa'ida and no one was going to unleash a media bomb.
Cox continued speaking under hypnosis:
"I don’t know what you're talking about sir, but...pitch dark and mice, I couldn’t breathe under water, then I woke up here in the hospital...I had my appendix out."
"What's your name in code?"
"I don’t know what you're talking about, sir. I just woke up."
"Was it the guerrillas who kidnapped you?"
"I don’t remember..."
"But you were subjected to waterboarding, trust me. I arranged for you to be taken out by helicopter. You had a ruptured spleen, not an acute appendicitis."
"My codename…you should know it, sir."
"Stop pretending not to know that you have been picked up by the Allied secret services. Unless you tell me the code, I cannot contact them and arrange for your return as soon as you’re able to move again."
"Runaway75 energy division...I didn’t say anything and I was just doing my routine work...so why did you subject me to waterboarding?"
Mark paused to think about how to continue as a shiver of disgust ran down his back. ‘Lousy bastards,’ he thought to himself.
"Runaway75, it was the rebels that tortured you, now you're under sedation and you have a distorted memory. Sleep in peace, it's over. In a week you will be back at home, healed."
Mark now understood: Cox had suffered a blunt force trauma, he had been tortured by the allied secret services who had intervened to manage the bloody event in Nigeria, probably because he was an inconvenient witness at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The fact Cox was an agent was the only fact that mattered to Mark, but there didn’t seem to be any connection with Mark’s investigation, so now he would continue the therapy with a more effective approach and hoped to release Cox within a month. Cox was a decent chap, and Mark hoped to get him back in shape soon.
He brought Cox back to the present and after the usual check up, took leave of him.
"QRL?" he connected to Pavel through the protected line.
"QRV, Digitrevenant69 listening."
“Runaway 75 GB or Holland, he who seeks finds, have fun and amuse me, too."
"Affirmative, I'll call you when I'm ready, the usual price."
"Venal to the last."
"I like to give gifts to Anna, you know that."
"Your therapy is getting closer, my dear..."