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Operations Center 2, CIA Headquarters
Langley, Virginia

 

“Locals have spotted them by the looks of it.”

Leroux cursed as he watched footage from their micro-drones deployed earlier by Sherrie and her local contact. “Do the math. If they guess right, who gets there first?”

Child responded. “Our guys do, but by a hair.”

“And our convoy of assumed bad guys?”

Child tapped his keyboard, footage of the six-vehicle convoy shown from overhead.

Blasting past the Burj Khalifa.

“Well, they clearly have someone on the inside.”

“You have a gift for stating the obvious,” retorted Tong. “An Interpol agent is dead at the airport, the professors are collected by men wearing police uniforms, driving police vehicles allowed in a secure area, and the locals knew nothing about it? My ass. They’re so corrupt, it’s a wonder there’s any law and order there.”

Leroux had to agree. The locals were definitely infiltrated, and that could cause complications they hadn’t considered, depending on how deep the penetration went. If the locals caught up with Sherrie and the others, several unfortunate outcomes could result. Delta, the CIA personnel, and the professors, could get into a gunfight that they could win or lose, either way causing an international incident. Alternatively, they could be simply arrested, and under normal circumstances, that could prove awkward for Delta, but they’d be alive and eventually handed over.

Yet these weren’t normal circumstances. If these police were corrupt, they could hand them over to those in that convoy, to never be seen again.

Their only hope was to get their feet on the ground and reach the extraction point.

But deep down he knew that was impossible. The Dubai authorities had access to the same traffic camera footage they had tapped into, and they would follow Sherrie with ease.

And there was one thing his training told him.

You can’t outrun a radio.