Chapter Thirty-Two

The house on Peleliu was untouched since Dimitri’s last visit, and had everything he needed to wait for the exchange. It even contained the tools he needed to open up the AUUV and see what secrets she held.

The AUUV was the length and width of a surfboard, but with wings that tucked in, like an eagle that could transform into a seal. The organic design felt more Asian than Russian to him. But he wasn’t an engineer, so what did he know?

He carefully opened the panels to access the data ports and power pack. He didn’t really give a damn if he returned the AUUV intact—the deal was he’d hand it over, not that it would be functional—but he didn’t want to advertise that he’d cracked it open, if he could avoid it.

The design was impressive. Lightweight, durable, and sleek housing. Watertight, yet it could transform shapes and launch from the water to take flight, or dive from the air and swim.

But the feature he found most worrisome was when he powered up the AUUV after it had rested under a poison tree for five months, it worked.

It had a hibernation mode that lasted for months, meaning it could be planted in a strategic place and be called into action much later. The ultimate sleeper spy.

He quickly powered it off, in case it could somehow contact its home base, although that had been Russia’s problem to begin with—the person who hijacked it had disabled the two-way communication with Russia. They could no longer control it by remote, and couldn’t locate it to recover it themselves.

Whoever had stolen the AUUV must’ve been able to hack the code to hijack it in mid-flight or swim. Was it possible the AUUV had been on a mission and not just on a test run when it was taken?

Could there be data here that would be valuable to the US—or damaging to Russia?

The technology the AUUV represented was one thing—a tool for the new Cold War, and highly advanced at that. The sleeper-spy ability was worrisome in an age where both Russia and the US were trying to gain advantage with tools instead of weapons.

This tool all by itself could be very, very dangerous. But if it contained actual intelligence, if it had been spying on China, Taiwan, or a US military base in Japan when it was hijacked… That was different.

Intelligence was the real commodity. Intel could change the balance of power as tensions between the US and Russia grew ever more precarious.

Dimitri wasn’t a fan of the president of Russia and the way the man had returned the country to a dictatorship. Acting as the Kremlin’s enforcer had been an ugly, horrific pill.

His final act as the Kremlin’s puppet was to return their lost technology, but what if the cost of that was too great? His life, his sister’s life, and even his nephew’s life weren’t worth more than the thousands—even millions—of lives that could hang in the balance if the Russian president’s quest for power was bolstered by this technology or the data it contained.

Before he blithely handed over the AUUV, he needed to know if it held any actionable intel. He needed someone who understood computers and coding, and intelligence gathering via drone.

He needed Ivy.

He pulled out Ian Boyd’s business card again. No. Less risky to contact her through Ulai.

Ivy paced the deck of the cabin cruiser. It seemed all she could do these days was pace. At least now she had a hard cast protecting her arm. She’d opted for a vivid aqua-colored cast, because it matched the tropical sea, but now she wished she’d gone for bright pink, because she was getting tired of blue as they fruitlessly trolled the islands for signs of Dimitri.

She’d shown Dimitri’s note to Luke and Ian the evening she found it. Not surprisingly, they’d made sure her spy wouldn’t be able to access her via the lanai again, which was a bummer. Although she doubted Dimitri would have taken such a risk a second time.

Ian was more irked at the breach than angry. He admitted he’d left the lanai vulnerable in hopes Dimitri would do exactly what he’d done—thus triggering an alarm Ian had set up. But Dimitri had disabled the alarm, remaining one step ahead.

They were now heading back to Koror after a second day on the water. They would spend the night in the hotel again and plan their strategy for tomorrow.

Her cell phone buzzed, telling her she was within tower range as they neared the marina. She headed below so she could hear the call over the loud boat engine, noting as she went that the call came from an NHHC number.

“Ivy, it’s Mara.”

“Hey, Mara, I heard you’ve been ill, so why are you at the office?”

“I’m not ill, I’m pregnant, but I have been sick as a dog.”

“You’re pregnant? Congratulations! I’m so—”

“Thank you, we’ll celebrate when you get home,” Mara said, cutting her off. “Listen, you need to know something important. The DIA is doing their damndest to pin this on you. Curt didn’t want to tell me, but I overheard everything—my ear was practically right next to the cell phone—and I had an idea this morning, so I came to the office to check.”

“How can they pin this on me? I mean, I slept with Dimitri, but that was after they set me up for this nightmare of a job. They were the ones who sent me here.”

“Your phone logs indicate you called Dimitri twice before you even left for Palau.”

“That’s bullshit!”

“I know. But once Curt told me the calls came from your work phone, I decided to see for myself. You did call the number, twice, just like the DIA claims.”

“I didn’t call him, Mara. I didn’t know Dimitri Veselov existed.”

“I figured that. So I cross-referenced it with that list of contractors I’d passed on to you—people you were approved to work with on the Palau project. Because of CAM, we needed to do a background check on anyone who would have access to the equipment. Dimitri’s number was on that list as a scuba dive charter.”

“Liberty Charters was not on that list. I would’ve remembered when I saw the boat. It was clearly out of my price range.”

“On the list, it’s called DV Scuba Tours.”

Ivy closed her eyes, trying to picture the list of contractors. Trying to remember if she’d spoken with Dimitri in March. She had a good memory for accents—and that included voices. She came up blank. “I kept a copy of that list in my desk, with notes on who I talked to, pricing, et cetera. Did I have a note next to DV Scuba Tours? I don’t have the copy I brought with me anymore.” It had gone out to sea with Liberty when they abandoned her.

“You did. You wrote ‘automated voice mail, left message’ and the date and time you called. Which match the call log. As far as that goes—you’re in the clear. This can’t be used against you.”

“Good.”

“But, Ivy, I think—and Curt, who is here with me now, agrees—the more important point is this list was provided by the DIA. They supposedly vetted every contractor on the list to protect you and CAM. But I can’t find any record that DV Scuba Tours exists. If you can talk to Dimitri, ask him how his nonexistent business ended up on a DIA list of approved contractors.”

The conversation ended, leaving Ivy wondering how the hell she could get in touch with Dimitri. Talking to him had been the one thing she’d wanted since she woke up after surgery three days ago.

She returned to the deck to see the boat was pulling into their slip at the marina. Luke was at the helm as Ian was perched to secure the bow line. Five slips away was the enclosed hangar that housed Ulai and his seaplane.

The door to the hangar was open, a sure sign Ulai was there.

She glanced at the men who’d been guarding her for the last three days. If anyone knew how to get in touch with Dimitri, it was Ulai, but the seaplane pilot would likely clam up in their presence.

She took a deep breath and touched the holster at her back. It was completely illegal for her to be carrying concealed in Palau, but that was the least of the rules she was willing to break to protect herself.

Luke and Ian were focused on the boat. She slipped under the railing and onto the dock as silently as possible—not easy with one hand, but the engine noise covered the thump of her feet. She ducked down and darted around the boat in the next slip, using it for cover. She was halfway down the long main dock before she stood to her full height and hurried toward Ulai’s hangar.

When she reached it, she knocked once on the open door before stepping inside. “Ulai?”

A grunt sounded behind her.

She reached for her gun as she turned toward the sound. A leg—at the end of which she recognized Ulai’s broad bare foot—rested, toes up, on the dock just behind the open door.

“Run, Ivy!” Dimitri shouted.

The door slammed closed, revealing Ulai, stretched out on the aluminum floor. His head was bleeding. A bloody hammer rested on the dock next to his body.