When they checked in at what had been a Motel 6 on North Military Highway in Virginia Beach, the old guy who was the desk clerk gave Pam and Ayesha a knowing smirk. The place was run-down, in a seedy neighborhood, and attracted all kinds of clientele.
They drove back and parked in front of the end room. Ayesha held her silence until they got out of the car.
“What kind of horrible place is this? We could be in Rawalpindi.”
“We just were, remember?” Pam said. She had no sympathy for the woman, none whatsoever, but she had been telling the truth when she promised to make sure Ayesha got back to Pakistan in one piece. It was for self-defense if nothing else.
They carried the heavy bags inside and flopped them down on the twin beds. The room was reasonably clean, though the sink ran slow when Ayesha splashed some water on her face. The mirror was cracked and one of the fluorescent tubes was burned out.
“My four operators are in the next two rooms,” Pam said. “I’m going to get them together for their briefing. I suggest that you remain here until I come back for the equipment.”
“I’m not staying here alone.”
“Listen to me, bitch. I’m trying to carry out this op while at the same time keep you alive. These guys won’t want to deal with you. For all they know you’re a spy for the ISI who’ll turn them in when this is all over. It’d be easier for them to kill you now so that they won’t have to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.”
“Like you.”
“That’s right. The ISI knows who I am, which is why I want to make sure that you get home safely.”
“Interesting,” Ayesha said. “They’ll want me dead to save their own necks, and you want me alive for the same reason.”
“So stay here.”
“No,” Ayesha said. She hefted one of the bags. “Let’s see how my money is being spent.”
Pam considered the woman for a long beat. Without her cooperation the money would dry up. Reestablishing a tie with the ISI would take time, even if it could be done now, considering the tense situation with India. And working with the devil you knew was almost always better than working with one you didn’t.
“Put the bag back on the bed and stay here, I’ll be right back.”
“I said I won’t be left out of this.”
“I’ll bring my people here. They’ll have to find out about you sooner or later—might as well get it done now.”
“Don’t ignore me. I have just as much reason for retribution as you do. Maybe more.”
Pam went to the next room and knocked discreetly on the door. “It’s me,” she said.
The door opened on its safety chain. Volker was there with a shotgun. “Who is the woman you brought here?” he demanded.
They had maintained a lookout. It was something she hadn’t thought about. To this point no one but she and the four operators—Volker and Bruns in this room and Woedding and Heiser across the hall—knew about this place. “Our paymaster from the ISI.”
“Get rid of her and then we’ll talk.”
“Where’d you get the shotgun?”
“A little bar in North Carolina. No witnesses.”
“The gun will be reported stolen.”
“No,” Volker said. “Get rid of the broad.”
“If you want in on this op, it’s on for tonight,” Pam said. “I’ll see your ass next door in five.”
She went across the narrow corridor and knocked on 122. “It’s me.”
Heiser opened the door a crack. “Is it time?”
“I’m in one-twenty-five. Briefing in five minutes.”
Heiser closed the door.
* * *
Volker left his shotgun behind, but he and the other three men kept on their feet, their body language tense. Fight or flight, they left their options open.
“The woman’s name is of no importance; she is our paymaster and nothing more,” Pam said. She too was on her feet. The weapons were laid out on the bed between them.
Ayesha stood at the open bathroom door. She had the good sense to say nothing.
“She will not be on either assault team tonight, and before first light all of us will be long gone from here, in our separate directions, considerably richer than we are at this moment.”
“What guarantee do we have that when this is over she won’t out us?”
“None, other than your own tradecraft and the money, which will allow you to go deep.”
“And if we don’t wish to stay ‘deep’, as you put it, forever?” Heiser asked.
At twenty-four he was just getting started. The thought of such an early retirement didn’t sit well with him, hadn’t from the beginning. It was something Pam had understood the first time she met him.
“That would be entirely up to you,” she said. “But once the dust settles, which it surely will—even 9/11 has faded in the minds of most Americans and Neptune Spear will fade in the minds of the Pakistani government—there will be other operations.”
“With you?”
“We’ll see,” Pam said.
After tonight she would be faced with one last operation—hers personally, with Gloria’s help—and she would go permanently to ground somewhere. Possibly in Germany, after some plastic surgery and some bulletproof identity documents, which a lot of money could buy. She would go back to being a small-town girl. Maybe buy a Gasthaus somewhere outside of Munich.
Or maybe she would set up in Frankfurt or Luxembourg or even Zurich as an investment counselor for a specialized clientele. A money laundress and financial expediter for guys like Heiser. It would be the dolce vita: nice clothes, nice cars, nice apartments, fine restaurants, vacations to the Caribbean or South Seas. A boy toy who wouldn’t beat on her.
Anything was possible with money and retribution under her belt.
Volker looked at Ayesha. “If this goes bad and the ISI goons start coming for me, I’ll get past them, and you will be my first kill.”
Ayesha shrugged. “Do you want the money or not?”
Volker nodded at length.
“Then do as you’re told and keep your fucking mouth shut.”
The tension level in the small room rose palpably.
“Kirk McGarvey will be our primary target for tonight. The ST Six operators will be secondary.”
“He’s here?” Bruns asked.
“Yes. At the home of one of the Neptune Spear operators, just a few miles from here. He knows we’re coming, and he’s offered the operator as bait.”
“Shouldn’t be too tough for the four of us to take them down,” Bruns said.
“Tell that to Dieter and Steffen,” Pam said. “But they went in blind, something we won’t do.”
“We’re listening,” Volker said.