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Traffic was especially heavy during lunchtime. Everyone was either headed somewhere to eat or returning to work. The traffic played well in Kara’s favor. Increased congestion would make it difficult for anyone to follow her.
In the back seat the kids had calmed down. Kara had convinced them to eat their lunches. They peered out the window as she drove toward the safe house. Being an only child and home schooled, Kara hadn’t experienced hanging out with other children. Her childhood couldn’t be called lonely. After all, she’d made a few friends from ballet and horseback riding. Having never needed an income from babysitting, she had zero experience with children. Kara was happy the children were chilling and not screaming. She assumed it would not have a calming effect on her if the kids threw tantrums or sobbed uncontrollably.
Sitting at a stoplight, she adjusted the rear-view mirror so she could keep an eye on them. She had had the foresight of providing them with entertainment at the safe house— a tablet with noise-cancelling headphones in case things got loud. She had dozens of Disney movies, and that would have to do to keep them busy. The kids certainly wouldn’t be playing outside. There was at least a 50% chance of heavy lead flying around the property, so staying indoors would have to suffice. Kara considered all the booby traps she’d set around and under the property. Typically, guns and kids didn’t make for the safest combination. Let alone, add in grenades and mines. Overall Kornev’s complex was a pretty frickin’ dangerous place for the children.
Kara reviewed her strategy. Kornev’s safe house was ultimately the place where the transaction would go down; therefore, it would be smart to protect the children. She estimated the kids would be with her for less than 24 hours, and then it would all be over. Well, everything but the aftermath.
Oh damn, Kara hadn’t thought about the aftermath. She had been so fixated on her primary goal she hadn’t taken the time to consider what would happen to the kids when she had gotten justice for her parents’ deaths. She allowed her mind to travel past the here and now and drift into the short term of there and then. Frustratingly, during the rest of the drive to the safe house, it was of no use. She had come up with a big fat blank. What would happen to the kids after she killed their father was unknown, but that did little to deter her. She could only allow herself to think of them as collateral damage. Their father had taken the lives of her parents and this was the ultimate tit for tat.
Upon arriving at the seemingly quiet farmhouse, Kara pulled up short of the property and surveyed it. She scanned the area around the home, as well as the home itself, searching if anything was out of place. She peered at the front door, making sure there was not a fresh machine gun hole in it. If that had been present, it would tell her someone had triggered her first defense. The door appeared intact, and Kara saw no discernable changes to either the dwelling or the barn.
She figured there were only three ways her plan could go south. First, Kornev might come looking for payback, but she was relatively certain he understood the deal he struck with the CIA wouldn’t permit him to sell large weapons. Thus, really his days of being an arms dealer had ended. The deal the Russian had made with the CIA was he could still sell the little stuff. However, if he made a deal to sell weapons of mass destruction or anything that could bring down a commercial aircraft, he was required to report the sale to the CIA. The agency would then decide how to proceed. Even though Kara had humiliated the Russian and had left him tied up in his tunnel, her conscience still plagued her. Oh, but surely by now his doctor friend had released him. After all, she had left a message on the doctor’s machine indicating Kornev’s predicament and precise location. Kornev could be freed. But would he come looking for her? Maybe. But she wasn’t concerned about it. Her deterrents would provide ample warning of an incursion into the home, and she felt confident she could get the drop on the Russian if he happened to arrive unannounced.
Second, the caretakers of the property might have reported her presence to the local police. They presented a greater concern to her than Kornev. And would Peshawar’s finest demand to know what she was up to, only to discover that she had kidnapped two children? She could not imagine that would play out well.
Third, even though she had scanned the children for tracking devices, she wasn’t positive Kornev’s machine could detect the latest version or the most sophisticated tracking devices. After all, new technology was being invented daily.
Kara didn’t want to give away her position, but in the end, she would call the banker to meet somewhere. This place would at least give her home court advantage. She knew the terrain and the tunnels. This location offered distinct advantages, especially if Zain had never seen the property before. Kornev had told her Zain Shallah was the man who pulled the trigger on the missile that had killed her parents, the missile that had taken down their plane. She would enjoy putting a hole through the terrorist’s head. It was no different than putting down a rabid dog that had bit her and then killed her family.
Kara removed her foot from the brake pedal and allowed the car to idle forward until she arrived at the barn where she had left the door open. She backed the car in and turned off the motor. The kids had finished their lunches and were on their knees looking out the side windows.
“It’s a farm,” the boy said in English.
“I wonder if they have any animals,” the girl pondered.
Hell, I don’t even have a new toy for you, Kara thought to herself. The tablet and movies would have to do. Maybe she was just not mother material.