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It took Hail’s Gulfstream about eleven hours to fly from Lomé, Togo to Termez, Uzbekistan.
From the previous mission, Hail still had a surveillance drone sitting atop the roof of a home adjacent to Kornev’s property. It charged by absorbing the sun’s rays through its solar panels. Before Hail arrived in the city, the drone had begun surveilling Kornev’s safe house complex. Even though Kornev’s home was a detached two-story dwelling, it was tucked in between homes on all sides, which Kornev owned as well. Weeks ago, Kornev’s Hummer had been seen exiting the garage from the property north of one of his homes connected via the tunnel.
An Uber picked up Hail and his MIT friend Gage Renner, along with their newly-acquired jet pilot, Lieutenant Foster Nolan.
Hail called Dallas, who was surveilling Kornev’s Termez home.
“Dallas,” Hail began without introduction, “Any activity at Kornev’s place?”
“Nothing at all,” Dallas reported. “I flew Milky Way over to watch his place yesterday. I keep alternating locations on an hourly basis, watching one of his garages and then moving to view another. To give the Russian some props, it’s excellent security technique to have so many ways to come and go. Unless I have four drones covering all four homes with garages, he could leave from one and I wouldn’t even know it.”
Hail understood the issue and replied, “OK, I just wanted to get the latest intelligence before we go in.”
Dallas suggested, “I would try to enter through the garage we saw the Hummer exit from like a week ago. That would be your best bet.”
“Roger that,” Hail said. “Keep your eyes on; I’ll give you a call if I need anything.”
“You got it, Skipper,” Dallas responded.
When the Uber pulled into Kornev’s neighborhood, Hail had the driver drop them off in front of the garage Dallas had indicated.
The three men exited the vehicle wearing body armor under their black windbreakers. Under the jackets each man wore a small tool belt as well as an underarm holster that held a sidearm. Hail didn’t really anticipate a gun battle. He was more concerned about booby traps Kornev may have placed about his property to deter people who either meant him harm or wished to steal from him. Or in this case, deterring a group of men who may or may not kill him.
Hail, Renner, and Nolan stood in front of the heavy white garage door. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know they weren’t going to gain access through the door. The trio walked around to the side of the garage and discovered a side door. Without any verbal exchange, Nolan withdrew a short crowbar from beneath his jacket, wedged it into the doorjamb just above the deadbolt, and broke the wooden door open with one mighty yank.
The noise was substantial in the quiet neighborhood. Hail looked around, saw no one, and followed his men into the garage.
Gage reached for the light switch and Nolan called out, “Don’t touch that. Let’s use our flashlights. And watch for tripwires and any other sort of trap the Russian may have set.”
“We might have considered traps when we were breaking open the door just a moment ago,” Gage muttered. Hail gave Nolan a sideways look and then shrugged. They’d been lucky.
All three men retrieved mini flashlights from their coat pockets and snapped them on. The empty garage came into view.
Hail was the first to discover a set of stairs that led down to what should be a basement, but which all the men suspected led to a tunnel. After all, during the previous mission they had seen Kara and Kornev drive into this garage then magically appear inside Kornev’s home. It only made sense.
Hail started to descend the stairs and Nolan piped up, “Let me go first. I know what to look for.”
Not particularly wanting to get blown to bits, shot, or impaled on a punji stick, Hail yielded to Nolan. Renner and Hail remained at the top of the stairs keeping a loose guard on the garage until Nolan sounded the “All-clear.”
The air at the bottom of the stairs was noticeably cooler and had a musty scent. Mildew was the predominant odor, but as the men walked deeper into the dark tunnel, the mildew smell mutated into something a little more putrid. At first, the odor was indefinable. But once the men had made it halfway between the garage and Kornev’s home, the scent became more familiar. It was the smell of a human and all the vile substances excreted by humans. Hail had never smelled the stench of a rotting human corpse before, but Nolan had.
“Is that smell what I think it is?” Hail asked Nolan.
“I don’t know. What do you think it is?” Nolan questioned.
“Is that what a dead person smells like?” Renner asked.
Before Nolan could reply, they came upon Victor Kornev’s inert body. Three flashlights illuminated the man hogtied on the dirt floor of the tunnel, his hands and feet tied together in front of him. The Russian stunk to high heaven.
Expertly Nolan pressed his fingers against the Russian’s carotid artery. He waited a moment before announcing, “He’s still alive.”
“What is that horrible smell?” Renner asked, pulling his T-shirt over his nose to mask it.
Nolan smiled and said, “It would appear that Mr. Kornev has pooped and pissed himself.” Nolan stood and added, “Several times.”
“Wonderful,” Hail said. Following Renner’s lead, he pulled his polo shirt up to cover his nose.
Nolan continued, “Judging by how cracked his lips are I would assume that old poopy pants here is extremely dehydrated,” Nolan looked around and saw an empty plastic jug of water on the floor near Kornev. “He probably drank all that even with his arms tied and that was it. No water left.”
“So, what do we do?” Hail asked, not having much experience with this type of situation.
Nolan suggested, “You guys sit tight. I’ll go up to his kitchen, check the place out, and come back down with some water. We’ll see if we can get him conscious and on his feet. With luck, we won’t have to take him to a hospital. Hopefully he won’t die.”
“Sounds good,” Hail agreed.
Nolan picked up the empty gallon jug, turned toward the unexplored direction of the tunnel, and began walking. Hail and Renner watched Nolan until he reached a dead end. From there, Nolan placed the flashlight in his mouth and began to climb a ladder that presumably led to Kornev’s home.
Apprehensively, Renner danced his flashlight around the tunnel.
Renner murmured, “Can you believe this place? Man, Kornev must be one paranoid individual to have dug this tunnel to access his home.”
Hail kept his flashlight on Kornev and said, “Paranoid times three because he has three more properties here and three more tunnels leading to his home. But when you think about it, it makes sense. In his line of work, I’m sure there are numerous people in all different types of organizations that would want to take him out. Probably the only reason Kornev is still alive is that he is very careful to cover his tracks.”
“Barely alive,” Renner corrected.
“Yeah, he ran into an angry CIA redhead and look what happened to him.”
Renner looked at the dirty and disheveled man and asked, “Do you think Kara intentionally left him to die down here? I mean, I know she’s pissed at him, but this type of death—” Renner let his sentence trail off.
Hail thought about it for a moment before responding, “I don’t think she meant for Kornev to die like this. I can’t imagine she would be that cruel even if this scumbag had a role in her parents’ deaths.”
Hail waited a moment before adding, “And Pepper made it very clear to her that they wanted Kornev alive. For all practical purposes, we turned him into a CIA snitch. Besides, turning Kornev cost Kara as much time and devotion as it did us. No, I can’t imagine that she would have risked her life to then flush all that time and energy down the drain by killing him.”
“Well, he’s down here, hogtied and doesn’t look in the best of health, so—”
Renner had a point and there wasn’t much Hail could say to contradict his friend’s logic.
They heard Nolan coming back down the ladder. His flashlight was again in his mouth and the jug of water that dangled from his arm appeared to be full. After the pilot had fully descended the ladder, Nolan took a moment to inspect an electrical plug hanging down from the ceiling next to an outlet. He checked the wire and the electrical outlet, looking for any telltale signs that the infrastructure was booby-trapped. Seeing nothing that would raise an alarm, Nolan took a calculated risk and stuck the plug into the socket. A long line of white bulbs snapped on. Nolan could see Renner and Hail standing halfway down the tunnel with Kornev still at their feet.
Once Nolan had reached the men, he wasted little time and poured a quarter of the gallon of water on Kornev’s face and head. Kornev stirred and Nolan released another quarter gallon onto the man.
The smelly man’s eyes opened and he looked up.
“What...what...where...?” Kornev’s voice sounded as if his vocal cords had been scrubbed with heavy grit sandpaper.
Nolan bent down and put the jug to Kornev’s lips. The Russian drank the water thirstily, even leaning closer toward the jug when Nolan removed it from his mouth.
“Do you know where you are?” Nolan asked Kornev.
“Thirsty,” Kornev reiterated.
Nolan let him have another drink and repeated, “Do you know where you are?”
Kornev took a moment to look around. Nolan helped Victor up into a sitting position. Kornev stared up at Hail and a scowl came over his face.
“How did you find me?” he asked Hail.
“We just followed the smell,” Hail returned, waving his hand in front of his face as if fanning away fumes.
Kornev looked confused for a moment. He then grimaced, as though he had just become aware of his condition. He fell silent.
Hail said, “If you’re done sitting in your own shit, then we need to get you cleaned up and ask you some questions.”
“What kind of questions?” Kornev responded.
Hail said, “Yeah, we’ll get to that when I don’t have to talk through my shirt to breathe, dickhead.”
Nolan retrieved a knife from his Kevlar vest pocket. He slid the blade between Kornev’s hands and sliced through the plastic cuffs. He repeated the motion on the plastic cuffs binding the Russian’s legs.
“On your feet, stinky,” Nolan ordered.