45 |
45 |Director Morrison’s Office, CIA Headquarters Langley, Virginia
National Clandestine Service Chief Leif Morrison looked up from his computer and pointed at one of his chairs as Leroux entered. Little progress had been made so far, except that the French authorities had confirmed the cable had been severed physically, and likely by an explosive. Other cables were being inspected, but it would take time to get teams in place, and it couldn’t be rushed, since no one knew which was due to be detonated in only minutes, their time almost up.
“You said it was urgent.”
Leroux nodded, dropping in the chair. “Yes, sir. It’s about the professors.”
Morrison frowned. “I thought I told you to drop it.”
Leroux paled slightly. “We did! We passed everything to Dylan and Agent Reading, then left it. But I just received an urgent communique from Dylan. The professors have been rescued, and they said that their kidnappers claimed to be the ones who planted the explosives on the cables.”
Morrison’s eyebrows rose. “You’re kidding me.”
Leroux shook his head. “No, sir.”
Morrison leaned forward. “I sense you’ve found out something.”
“Yes, sir. During the rescue, a call was made from the location of the hostage rescue, to the boat we had been monitoring that we thought might be involved in their kidnapping. A boat that had some serious dive equipment on board.”
“To plant the explosives.”
“That’s our working theory. Anyway, just minutes ago, a ship-to-shore call was placed from the boat. It used some serious encryption, so we weren’t able to monitor what was said, but the landline it connected to in mainland Portugal, routed the call through the same Russian satellite that our extortionist used.”
A smile slowly crept up the side of Morrison’s face. “Coincidence?”
Leroux’s smile grew to match. “No, I don’t think so. We were able to trace the routing to Chkalovsky Airbase near Moscow, the same place the two Russian planes are based.”
“What planes?”
“Oh, sorry, I never mentioned it because we hadn’t connected them until just now. A Russian Ilyushin Il-80 has been circling over the Atlantic for hours, been refueled at least once already, and another tanker is on its way. Some assets were scrambled to monitor, since it was behaving oddly, and there’s been no communication with them except to basically tell our guys to back off.”
“So you’re thinking what?”
“I’m thinking that it’s too big a coincidence that these Russian military jets are based in the same location our blackmailers just placed a call to.”
Morrison leaned back. “My God, Chris, are you saying that the Russians are behind this after all?”
Leroux shrugged. “I find it hard to believe they couldn’t be, if these planes are Russian military.”
Morrison sighed heavily. The idea that the Russians could actually be behind this was unthinkable. What they would have to gain, beyond simply causing havoc from behind their wall of nuclear missiles, was beyond him. But the nation was so corrupt, there was another possibility. “A rogue element.”
Leroux nodded. “That’s what I’m hoping, but either way, there’s not much we can do. The next detonation is in minutes. Without blowing that plane out of the sky, there’s no way to know for sure.”
“That’s out of the question.”
Leroux frowned. “I know. But I do have an idea on how we can confirm things.”
Morrison’s eyebrows rose. “Oh?”
“Let them detonate the next cable.”