“There’s a burrower,” The Wall said.
Anya’s brow furrowed. “A burrower?”
“A mole,” the Wall clarified. “Someone in the CIA has been working with Ivan.”
The words felt like a blow. Tyler swore quietly.
“How do you know this?” Anya asked.
“After the failed missile strike, the CIA began reviewing all the data we have on Ivan’s operation so far. The timeline started to become… concerning.”
“Concerning?”
“Most of what I’m about to tell you is outside of your clearance,” the Wall said, “but as it directly affects your assignment, I’m going to share it. The CIA has been entrenched in Cuba for years. In fact, one of the first missions the OSS undertook was to determine the extent of German influence in the Americas. Mexico was an obvious suspect, and we turned out to be right to suspect them. Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia—we have a presence in all of those nations. Also Panama, but that’s for different reasons.”
“Why Cuba, sir?” Tyler asked, barely concealing his impatience.
“Because of its location. We thought the Germans might try to build an airbase here to bomb Washington. What we discovered instead was decades of Soviet presence extending back to the earliest days of Stalin’s leadership.”
Tyler looked at Anya, brow furrowed. She shook her head to indicate that she didn’t know about any of this.
“I’ll save the rest of the history lesson for later,” the Wall continued. “The point is that several times, we relayed instructions to our operatives in Cuba and received communications from them, and Ivan’s movements occur, or seem to occur, based on that information.”
“Jesus,” Tyler said. “Who do you—”
His eyes widened, and Anya realized what he was thinking. “Blue Jay,” she whispered softly.
“It’s possible,” the Wall replied. “Have you heard from him?”
“No. We tried calling him, but he didn’t reply.”
The Wall sighed. “I would like to think that Jack’s better than that, but… I want you two to come back to Havana.”
“Havana?” Tyler exclaimed.
“Sir, we can’t delay,” Anya added. “We must shut down that launch site.”
“Yes, but there’s no way in hell you’re going to be able to do that alone. I’ll be in Havana before you two get there. I want you to meet me at La Cabana Cubana. It sounds like a dance hall, but it's actually a hotel. Not so fancy as the resort that the Harts rented. Speaking of, it might be better if you didn't look like the Hart's since they disappeared under mysterious circumstances and the resort is looking everywhere for them. You can go back to being blonde. The MGB obviously knows you're here already, so there's no point in disguising your appearance."
Anya frowned. That meant more delay, since it would take a while for them to scrub the dye from their hair. “Sir, I urge you to reconsider. We can’t keep waiting and hoping those missiles fail.”
“I’m no happier with this than you are, Anya,” the Wall replied, “but there’s just no way you two stop that launch site on your own. If these were conventional weapons, I might be willing to risk your lives to carry explosives into the site and blow it up, but since these are nuclear weapons, that’s out of the question.”
“How touching,” Tyler said drily.
“If you can convince me you wouldn’t make that choice with or without my approval, Wolf, I’ll apologize,” the Wall countered.
Tyler shrugged and said, “Good point.”
“Get to Havana,” the Wall repeated. “I’ll meet you there.”
“You will?” Anya said, eyebrow lifted.
“Yes. We can’t trust anyone in Cuba, unfortunately. I’ll meet you there.”
“What room?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll make sure I’m somewhere I can see you when you arrive.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Good. I’ll talk to you two—”
“Hold on,” Tyler said. “Sir, why you? Not that I don’t believe you’re capable of doing the job, but… you’re a director-level employee, and you manage Europe, not the Americas. Do we think that the conspiracy reached beyond Cuba?”
"Not at this time," the Wall replied. "I'm going to Cuba to oversee things. I'll be obtaining resources for you two, but I'm not carrying a rifle into battle. As for why it's me, it's because you two are the ones handling this assignment first of all, and second of all, the mastermind behind this is one of CIA Europe's big baddies. Third of all, the threat of imminent nuclear attack on the United States is very much an all-hands-on-deck sort of scenario. But no, I've done some independent review of the situation, and I don't think there are moles at higher levels of the Agency."
“Thank God for… actually, I guess that’s not a small blessing.”
“Pretty damned big from where I’m sitting,” the Wall agreed. “Okay, kids. Hurry up and make yourselves pretty, then get to Havana ASAP.”
“Understood,” Anya said again.
Tyler closed the connection and sighed. “Well, damn. I guess that explains a lot.”
“We should have known,” Anya said. “We should have seen this coming.”
“How could we have seen this coming? This guy was a senior case officer who knew the Wall on a first-name basis.”
“I know him on a first-name basis,” Anya countered.
“He calls you Anya because you share your last name with the head of the MGB. Besides, he literally assigned me to you at first to determine whether you could be trusted or not.”
“That’s my point. You suspected me for a while. It hurt, but I understand it. Why didn’t we suspect Blue Jay?”
“One, he’s American, not Russian; and two, he’s been with the CIA since the beginning. Any vetting that might have needed to be done was likely done long ago.”
“Or not done at all because the CIA didn’t yet know how to be a spy agency,” Anya countered.
“I see our Blue Jay and raise you your Ivan,” Tyler replied. “And your you.”
“Fair enough,” Anya replied. “Well, I suppose there’s no point in being upset with the situation. Let’s go shower and get this dye out of our hair as quickly as possible. Then we will head to Havana.”
Tyler lifted an eyebrow. “You actually want to go to Havana?”
“That’s where we were ordered to go.” She lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t want to go there?”
“I mean… I know I’m normally the one insisting that we follow orders, but I feel like this might be a situation where we’re justified in doing what we think is right.”
Anya pursed her lips. “I feel the same way, but… the odds are stacked heavily against us.”
“They’re always stacked against us.”
“Yes, but unlike before, risking our lives is not an acceptable option. The Wall is right. We have to be strategic.”
“We have to be fast too,” he pointed out.
“I know!” she snapped. Tyler frowned, and she sighed. “I’m sorry. I know you’re upset too. And you have a valid point, but… I hate this, but I think the Wall is right. We need help. We need resources. Above all, we need to succeed. Our next chance might be our last one.”
Tyler took a deep breath and pushed it out in a frustrated half-sigh, half-groan. “All right. Let’s go shower, then we’ll go to Havana. At least I’ll get to see you naked again.”
“No playing,” she admonished. “We are working now.”
“I wasn’t planning to try anything,” he said irritably.
“With you, I can never tell.”
He rolled his eyes, and Anya was surprised to find that she could still laugh, even given the seriousness of their situation.
They didn’t manage to get all the way back to blonde, but enough of the dye washed out to leave their hair a russet brown. That combined with the utilitarian clothing—ill-fitting in Anya’s case—and Anya’s lack of makeup was enough that she was confident they wouldn’t be recognized as the wealthy American couple that had gone missing the night before.
Or was it two nights before? Anya realized with some consternation that she didn’t know how long they had spent underground. The sun was nearly set when they left the bunker, so they had spent nearly a day, she thought. She sincerely hoped it wasn’t nearly two days.
“At least we don’t have to worry about predators out here,” Tyler opined as they began the trek away from the bunker. “I am very much not interested in meeting a pissed-off bear right now.”
“Yes, but they have snakes and crocodiles,” Anya pointed out.
“The crocodiles will be closer to the ocean, but thank you for reminding me about the snakes. Just for that, I’m going to feed you to any snake that tries to attack us.”
“Such a gentleman,” she said drily.
“I don’t think you’d like me if I was a gentleman.”
She looked him over, and a smile came to her face. It occurred to her that if the world ended, she could find a way through it as long as Tyler remained by her side. There were worse ways to fail than with the man she loved.
She forced that thought away. Comforting as it was, it was unacceptable for her to envision any scenario where failure was possible. There were many other people who stood to lose the loves of their lives, not to mention children, parents, brothers, sisters and friends if they failed.
So they wouldn’t fail. She didn’t yet know how they would succeed, but they would. They had to.
They walked toward Havana through the night, and as the sun set, another obstacle revealed itself. The two of them had been awake for over a day and a half, and they’d had only limited sleep the night before that. In the bunker, Anya was able to ignore that fatigue, but now, as they navigated the grueling terrain of inland Cuba, her body and mind cried out for rest. Several times, she felt her eyelids droop, threatening to close regardless of her desire.
Each time, she forced them open, at times glancing at Tyler to see him seemingly unaffected by the lack of sleep. His strength inspired her, and she pressed on.
Still, when the lights of Havana finally revealed themselves, she had to envision a mushroom cloud rising over the skies of Washington, D.C., and the retaliatory cloud rising over Moscow to convince herself not to find a place to curl up and sleep. Maybe the Wall would serve them coffee.
“He’ll have to.”
“What?”
She hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud until Tyler replied. “Coffee,” she explained. “I need coffee.”
“There’s some at the hotel,” the Wall’s voice replied.
The two of them spun around to see him walking behind them. “And yes, you do need coffee,” he continued, unbothered by their shock. “I’ve been following you for two hundred yards. Come on, I’ll lead you to the hotel.”
The two of them blinked in amazement. Tyler voiced the thought that crossed Anya’s mind. “Were you just showing off, sir?”
“I was assessing your awareness of your surroundings,” the Wall replied. “It’s shit. Let’s go fix that.”
He continued past them. Anya and Tyler shared a look before sighing and following him into the city.
“For what it’s worth, sir,” Tyler added, “That was impressive as hell.”
“No, it wasn’t. You’re just wiped out. And no one likes a kiss-ass, Wolf.”
Anya frowned and mouthed, kiss-ass?
Tyler shook his head, but whatever the phrase was, it must be embarrassing, judging by the flush on his cheeks.
Anya patted him on his shoulder. She wished she could feel relief at the fact that they weren’t on their own anymore, but it was hard to feel anything other than fear. At any moment, she expected to hear the telltale hiss of a rocket launch and see a streak of smoke cross the sky.
At any moment, she feared the flash of light and the mushroom-shaped cloud that would tell her that they had failed.