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SPECTRE WAS ESCORTED by South Korean police with Sierra, Kruger and Tuna to the hospital that Woody had been taken to an hour earlier. He sat in the backseat with Kruger, and Sierra rode shotgun, while Tuna drove the blacked-out SUV in the convoy of police vehicles with their lights on and sirens blaring.
They arrived at the hospital just before noon and were escorted to Woody’s room by a South Korean military liaison. He was in ICU with armed guards standing watch. Spectre led the way into the room, heading right to his friend’s side as the others followed him in and stopped at the foot of Woody’s bed.
“Jesus, buddy,” Spectre said softly as he looked over Woody’s wounds. Both legs were broken, his left arm was in a cast, his face was heavily bandaged, and he was on a ventilator.
Spectre turned back to Kruger. “There’s no way all of this was caused by the ejection.”
“The North Koreans had him, bub,” Kruger said. “We’re lucky he’s alive.”
Woody’s doctor walked in carrying a chart. He was an older man with gray hair and thick glasses. He didn’t bother to acknowledge any of them as he walked to Woody’s bedside opposite Spectre.
“How is he, doc?” Spectre asked.
“He is recovering from surgery to relieve cranial swelling. We’re keeping him in a medically induced coma for that reason. He also has a partially collapsed lung, several broken bones, and we had to fuse two vertebrae.”
“Will he walk again?”
“Only time will tell. For now, our goal is to keep him stable and give him a chance to heal.”
“How long will he be in ICU?” Spectre asked.
“If he remains stable and the swelling stays at bay, I hope to move him to a room when I go on call tomorrow. Tonight will be very telling.”
“When will you bring him out of the coma?”
“If he makes it through the night, possibly tomorrow morning,” the doctor replied.
“Thanks, Doc,” Spectre said.
The doctor nodded and finished reviewing Woody’s chart before excusing himself. When he was out of the room, Spectre joined Kruger and company.
“I’ll stay with him until they discharge him,” Spectre whispered. “We need to call his wife and fly her out here.”
“I’ll do it,” Tuna said.
“No, I dragged him into this. I’ll do it,” Spectre replied. “Besides, she knows me. It’ll mean more coming from me.”
“I’ll have Jenny send a jet to pick her up,” Kruger said.
“Thank you,” Spectre replied. He still couldn’t get used to the idea of Kruger being a billionaire. It was just weird to hear him say things like that.
Kruger’s phone vibrated in his pocket. “Excuse me,” he said as he walked out of the room.
“What do you have, Coolio?” Kruger asked as the encrypted phone connected.
“Ringo just finished his first interrogation session with the people they picked up at the farmhouse. They’re both former North Korean intelligence playing both sides of the resistance movement.”
“Did they say who they gave Cowboy to?”
“A Chinese intelligence operative named Khang Zhou. They said he was taking Cowboy to China.”
“Do we know where?”
“They said they were intentionally kept in the dark about that. Ringo believes them. I’ve run a search for all flights out of that area that went to China during that time frame.”
“And?”
“I found three. One to Beijing and two to Shanghai. But there’s something else.”
“What?”
“The Russians didn’t stay in Moscow.”
Kruger froze after pacing around the ICU waiting area. He looked around to make sure no one was listening and then retreated to the corner of the room. “Where did they go?”
“The plane was on the ground for less than thirty minutes and then took off again with no flight plan.”
“No flight plan? Can you track it?”
“It’s going to take some time and processing power, but yeah, I think so.”
Kruger exhaled slowly. He wanted nothing more than to track down Anatoly or Viktor and find out what the hell happened. More than anything, he wanted vengeance for Natasha’s death. But despite his sadness and pure rage over what happened, he knew he had to keep his emotions in check and focus on the mission. One of their own was in hostile territory. Getting him home safely was priority one.
“Work on it only when you have time. Right now, I want every available asset devoted to finding Cowboy. We have to get him home safely.”
“Hey boss, hold on a second, Ringo just walked back in,” Coolio said abruptly. “He may have something.”
Kruger waited impatiently as he tried to listen to their conversation. He overheard “Shanghai” and “Ministry of State Security.” He heard Coolio typing as the phone sounded like it had been placed right next to the keyboard. After a few minutes of back and forth with Ringo, Coolio finally picked the phone back up.
“I think we found him!” Coolio said excitedly.
“Spit it out, bub,” Kruger snapped.
“The girl – Maeng Min – said she overheard one of Khang’s men mention Shanghai when they were carrying Cowboy off after they drugged him. I just confirmed that Khang is an operative with the Ministry of State Security and cross-referenced his name with our various databases. Turns out, he’s been known to operate out of a hotel in Shanghai called the Starlight Tower. I’m running facial recognition against their security cameras to confirm, but I think we may have at least found Khang.”
“Send a helo to come get us. We’ll meet it on the roof. And tell Jenny to have the jet waiting for us to go to Shanghai when we arrive. We’ll plan and brief the mission airborne.”
“Copy that, boss. I’m on it.”
Kruger ended the call and headed back to the room where the others were whispering with each other as they stood at the foot of Woody’s bed.
“Let’s go,” Kruger barked as he stopped in the doorway. “We’ve got a lead on your brother.”
“Where?” Sierra asked.
“Not here. It’s not secure. Helo is on its way. I’ll tell you when we get airborne.”
“Is Reginald okay?”
“Unknown. Coolio thinks he found the guy who took him, so that’s a start.”
“Then we have no time to waste. Let’s go.”
“If you get time, ask Coolio to send up a go bag for me. I’ll need clothes and a shaving kit while I’m here. And don’t forget about Woody’s wife,” Specter interjected.
“Got it,” Kruger said.
“Good luck, Kruger,” Spectre said as the trio walked out and headed for the helipad on the hospital roof.