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Hail retrieved a garbage bag from his kitchen cabinet from his kitchen cabinet. They allowed the arms dealer to shower and change clothes—more for their benefit than his. The garbage bag was provided to encapsulate everything he had been wearing, including his shoes.
Nolan prepared Victor a pitcher of cold water, which he placed next to a single glass on the kitchen table.
While Kornev was in the bathroom, Renner searched his home, collected a dozen automobile keys from various drawers, and brought them back into the kitchen. He popped open each key fob and placed a tracking device inside before snapping them shut. He returned them to the exact locations where he had found them.
About ten minutes later, with his hair still wet, Kornev entered the kitchen and saw two familiar men sitting at his table. He had never met the third man, a younger guy who gave off a military-type demeanor.
“Sit,” Hail ordered.
Kornev was going to protest and insist on drinking more water when he saw the water already set on the table.
The Russian sat in the only available chair and poured himself a glass. He drank, and Hail asked the first of many questions.
“Do you know where the CIA agent went?”
Deny, deny, deny. It was a hard and fast rule in the world of intelligence and counterintelligence. It also pertained to those specializing in arms dealing.
Kornev set his glass down and said, “I don’t know.” He would have started with, “What CIA agent?” but since the bitch had tied him up and left him for dead under his home that response wouldn’t fly. “No,” was just as good. After all, who were these men to say he was lying?
“He’s lying,” Renner said.
Hail told Kornev, “Listen, we really don’t have time for this nonsense. I would rather kill you, but for some reason the CIA still wants you alive. Now, you have two options. One option is you tell us where Kara is, and in gratitude for your cooperation we’ll leave quietly and let you resume your pathetic life. The second option is to cuff you back up and return you to your tunnel. We will tell the CIA we went to your home and couldn’t find you. Hell, if we hadn’t monitored how you enter and exit your home, we would have never found you in the first place. So, do you think the CIA will find you if they come looking for you?”
Kornev stared defiantly at Hail. Hail reached over and poured the arms dealer another glass of water.
“Drink up,” Hail said. “Looks like this may be your last chance.” On the off chance they would abandon him in the tunnel, Kornev chugged the entire glass.
Hail smiled and said, “Yeah, fill ‘er up, shit britches. Down as much of that go-go juice as you can handle because fifteen minutes from now, you’ll be either up here or down there. You realize by hydrating you’re prolonging how long you’ll suffer. If it were me, I’d rather go fast. But hey, different strokes for different folks.”
Renner took out his cell phone, pressed the record icon and placed it on the table in front of Kornev. Hail commanded, “Cities, places, people, addresses, phone numbers. We want it all. Everything you told Kara. I want to know what she asked you and what you told her. And you better be damn sure you don’t lead us on a wild goose chase or we will come back for you.”
Kornev gave Hail almost every location of each safe house he owned. He supplied Hail’s team with truthful information, except for the safe house he sent Kara to and the name of the men she was after. That information must have “slipped” his mind. Instead, intentionally, he indeed sent them on a wild goose chase. As for Hail’s threat, well, Kornev had evaded people much more dangerous than Hail during the entirety of his covert career. The Russian owned other safe houses that he hadn’t told Kara about, and he could lay so low in those homes that neither Hail nor the CIA would ever find him. He could then either surreptitiously rekindle his arms dealing or not. He really didn’t need the money, but the CIA agent had humiliated him, and that burned him to his core. He had never let anyone best him, and he would be damned if that someone would be a woman, CIA or not. Before he performed his disappearing act, he needed to make one quick stop in a dangerous little city known as Peshawar.