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Henry Carr pulled his car into the U.S. Embassy garage in Tbilisi and exhaustedly emptied his gear from the rental car. He checked in with the receptionist who immediately told Deputy Chief of Mission Evans that he was here.
Evans quickly came out of his office to meet Henry.
“You must be Mr. Carr.”
“Yes, did Jack Hoskins and his people check in yet?”
“Yes, earlier this morning, he and Mr. Prescott are resting, they’re scheduled to fly back to the States later today.”
“Well, if you could put me up for the rest of the day, I think I’ll join them. I called my office and they’re making arrangements to get me on a plane back to Austria tonight.”
“I assure you that you’ll be no bother at all, Mr. Carr, you’re welcome to stay as long as you wish.”
“Thank you, but all I need is a bed or couch for a few hours, and I’ll be fine,” Henry said as a porter came down the hallway to escort him to his room.
“Please make yourself at home, we’ll be dining at 6:00 P.M. and you’re welcome to join us?”
“I’ll take you up on that, Mr. Evans, if you could get me a wakeup call at 5:00 P.M.”
“We’ll take care of that, Mr. Carr, go and get some well deserved sleep, and we’ll see you later.”
Henry walked into the second floor suite that the porter opened for him and inspected the area. It was more than respectable enough for a king, a president, your run of the mill dignitary, and your common CIA agent. He momentarily pushed the curtains aside on the window and looked over the well-protected walls and area surrounding the Embassy. For the first time in quite a while a secure feeling came over him. Having been in the field for nearly ten years, security was something he always took care of himself, but for the next few hours, he had a small squad of Marines to guard him. Before he fell to sleep, Henry dismissed the thought of letting his guard down. He thought that he would probably feel better if he was in a cheap apartment across the street from the embassy providing security for the young Marines.
Three hours later, at 4:00 P.M., Jack Hoskins and Frank Prescott left their suites on the second floor of the embassy and checked out with the first floor secretary who immediately alerted John Evans that they were ready to leave for the airport.
Evans came running out of his office and looked at his watch.
“I’m sorry, gentlemen, I was sure that the Ambassador was going to be back by now,” he said as he looked quizzically at the secretary.
“I tried calling him again,” the secretary said, “But neither the Ambassador or Mr. Spak answered.”
“Mr. Ganley was insistent that he wanted to speak to you before you left, but we certainly can’t expect you to miss your flight.”
“This is my number,” Hoskins handed Evans a card, “We have a long flight ahead of us with plenty of time to talk to the Ambassador about anything that he’d like to discuss.”
Hoskins and Frank picked up their bags and started walking to the Embassy garage.
Three blocks away, Tamara Gorridge excitedly made her way across Freedom Square and up to her apartment. When she unlocked and entered the door, she was surprised that the room was still dark and the curtains closed. She got startled when she heard a noise, but was quickly relieved that it was just Brad Spencer snoring on the couch. Knowing that the two men were probably exhausted, she thought that she would leave them sleep longer, so she slipped back out of the apartment and went shopping for groceries.
When she returned at 5:00 P.M., the two men were awake and helped her with the grocery bags.
“What time did you two get up?”
“About an hour ago,” David said, “From being in the field the past week, we’re not used to getting more than a few hours sleep at a time.”
“I don’t know about you two,” Brad said, “But I’m getting kind of hungry.”
“I bought plenty of food, I’ll have a nice dinner fixed for you in no time.”
“Hey, we’re on vacation, and I’m not going to have my sister slaving over a stove for us, is Gilishvili’s New House Club still open?” David asked Tamara excitedly.
“Sure, and he asks about you all the time.”
“They have really good food and music,” David said to Brad.
“Well then, what are we waiting for, let’s go,” Brad said.
“Maybe the band will let me play a few songs with them," David said.
As they got ready to leave the apartment, Tamara said, “This is so wonderful David, it’ll be just like old times.
Outside, in his car that was still parked just off Freedom Square, Abdula Nassir had been watching the apartment building most of the day. He sat up when he saw the two men and young woman leave the building and walk down the street. After they were out of sight, Abdula got out of his car and went into the apartment building.
An hour later at the airport in Tbilisi, a mini-bus from the Embassy dropped Hoskins and Frank off at the private hangar. As they walked across the tarmac toward their private jet, Hoskins cell phone rang. He thought for a moment about ignoring the call until he was on the plane and in the air, but relented.
“Hello,” Hoskins said, but received no immediate reply.
“Hello, is anyone there?”
An unfamiliar voice started talking, “You probably laughed when you watched my brothers die in Baku, and laughed again when you took my money,” Abdula Nassir said, “Now you’ll pay for this you CIA bastard.”
Abdula smiled as he hung up the phone.
Hoskins shook his head, not really sure of what to make of the call. When he stopped walking for moment, Frank looked back at him and asked, “Is everything okay?
“That sure was a weird call, then again, there’s always somebody pissed off about one thing or another, it’s probably nothing, let’s get out of here.”
They boarded the CIA jet and within a few minutes, the jet was taxing away from the private hangar toward the main runway. Hoskins sat back in his seat and relaxed as did Frank who was sitting in the seat next to him. Hoskins cell phone rang again.
“You’d better get ready to put a trace on this call just in case it’s that nutcase calling back.”
Hoskins answered the phone and quickly put his hand up so Frank would not trace the call.
“Hello, Henry, I hope everything’s in order.”
“Well, I have good news and bad news, Jack, the good news is that the cave and military compound in Ismailly are no longer there.”
“That’s great,” Hoskins said with a laugh.
“The bad news is that my men just called from the safe zone in Germany and they discovered that a couple pounds of cesium was missing from one of the canisters that we took from Baku.”
“The canisters have been buried for decades, maybe the can was broken into years ago or it was never full to begin with,” Hoskins said.
“I was hoping the same thing was true, but all evidence indicates that the one canister’s top was recently removed. The lids were slightly loosened on all of the units, but this particular one was definitely tampered with. They checked the seals on the other three and also on the four from Batumi to make a comparison, and sure enough, someone deliberately confiscated a small sample of the powder for themselves,” Henry said.
“A few pounds may be small, but it could still do a lot of damage,” Hoskins said.
“You’re right, I wouldn’t wish any part of that stuff on anyone.”
“From the time that we caught up with the blue rental truck, those four canisters and the terrorists were never really out of our site,” Hoskins said.
“Hold on, what about that thug Abdula, he was in the back of that blue rental truck with the canisters right before the shootout went down,” Henry said.
“You’re right, he stayed in the back of the truck while his goons unloaded the canisters. Let’s hope that Tariq Amin’s soldiers shot the hell out of him when he dove into the bay.”
“I checked with the Baku police this morning, and they said that there was no reports of any bodies washing up on the Caspian shoreline. But they did say that an old couple was reported missing along with their private yacht yesterday.”
Just as the CIA’s private jet turned onto the main runway to get in its takeoff position, Hoskins quickly said to Frank, “You’d better hurry and tell the pilot to turn around, we have to go back,”
Hoskins then said to Henry, “How soon could you get to Tbilisi?”
“I’ve been at the Embassy for about three hours, trying to catch some sleep before I head back to Austria.”
“Go ahead and get some sleep, cancel your flight, I may need your help rounding up a really pissed-off arms dealer.”
Hoskins hung up and dialed another number, and on the other end of this call a cell phone rang but could not be heard as rock music blared away in the restaurant club. Brad, David and Tamara were in the New House Club laughing and having a good time, the cell phone was in Brad’s coat pocket on the back of his chair.
Hoskins hung up the unanswered call and made another.
“Leslie, this is Hoskins, where are you right now?”
Leslie closed the door on the CIA’s RV as she talked to Hoskins on her cell phone.
“We’re just outside of Tbilisi, we just packed up and re-fueled the RV. My replacement and I are planning to have a nice relaxing trip back to Azerbaijan but I somehow get the feeling that you’re going to say something to spoil this delightful moment for me.”
“I hate to do this to you, but we may need your help again, how soon could you get a predator airborne?”
“You’re like a kid with a new toy, Jack, I saw a field a few miles out, I’ll need an hour, maybe more.”
“I can’t ask for more than that, call me when you’re over the city.”
Hoskins hung up the phone and said to Frank, “That’s how that bastard got my phone number, he had us bugged.”
“Well, it’s not the first time this ever happened to someone.”
Hoskins immediately picked up on the fact that Frank was referring to the time the terrorists in Italy tracked him and ended up killing his family.
“I’ll bet you that he followed us all the way from Baku, and he knows every move we made since we got back to Tbilisi. I don’t know what this crazy bastard is up to, but we’d better put the Embassy on full alert. Let’s pick up our boys at the apartment building ASAP.”
Frank pulled out his phone to make some calls and said, “You don’t really believe that one man is going to attack a guarded Embassy?”
“Why not, all he needs is a grenade tied to a plastic bag full of cesium, and he could hold the entire city hostage."
“If he was going to target the Embassy, why would he call you, he knows that you could have the entire block cordoned off with one phone call.”
“That’s true, but we’re not dealing with a religious zealot or a suicide bomber. Abdula was involved in this strictly for the money, and he mentioned money when he called earlier. I think that he’s going to try to extort us.”
“In that case, let’s get Brad and David before he gets to them.”
“You’re right, if he followed us, he could be watching them right now,” Hoskins said as the jet taxied back into the hangar.
Hoskins and Frank left the jet and hurried to the Embassy car that was called back to pick them up. They were surprised that Deputy Chief of Mission Evans came along on the ride to get them.
“I heard that you turned the jet around, did you gentlemen forget something?”
“There’s a minor detail that we need to clean up, we’ll fill you in on the way back to the Embassy,” Hoskins said.
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