Chapter 36: compromised!; patience; leave no one behind;
Safe-house, Mid-town Manhattan, noon, 2016
One by one, the Team had awakened, showered, and assembled in the kitchen around the table. Each one took his own task from a list of them and ran it down. Laptops and tablets adorned the space, side by side with plates of eggs, ham or bacon, hash brown potatoes, toast, and coffee, lots of coffee, or tea.
Some, like Finch, jotted notes for themselves in a small notebook or sheaf of paper. Others, like Reese, skimmed document after document for relevant information. The Machine stayed busy downloading whatever they needed, while it ran its own searches in the background, updating Finch every now and again with its findings.
By mid-afternoon, a story had emerged in Finch's mind. He consulted the notes he'd made in his notebook:
Their Team had discovered a Russian cell, made up of current or former Russian security operatives, Spetsnaz, hiding out in Manhattan. Unknown was how long they'd been operating here or how/why they had targeted Miss Groves and Miss Shaw.
Members of the cell, dressed in black uniforms, tracked them to a diner early one morning a few days ago. All of the other patrons and staff were found bound and gagged in a storeroom, save for one waitress who hid in a bathroom, and later escaped from their Team. She divulged to the Team that she was an undocumented worker before escaping, perhaps fearing the police arriving at the diner.
Now, in retrospect, Finch made a question mark in the margin next to that entry. There might be more to this than had first appeared.
As for Miss Groves and Miss Shaw, the two managed to get away from the men in black in the diner. During the escape, someone – likely one of the Spetsnaz snipers – shot at Miss Shaw and wounded her. The two were able to extricate themselves, but not without further harm to Miss Shaw.
The pair stole a vehicle and drove away from the Team and even avoided their best-equipped safe-house. This Miss Groves did because she believed they could compromise the rest of the Team by calling for help. They fled to a location with no prior connection to the Team – the house of a trusted friend of Miss Groves.
After discarding the stolen vehicle, they stayed in the friend's home until the Team was able to locate them in the middle of the night. The plan had been to rescue the women and take them to the safe-house, but Miss Shaw was in such grave condition, they immediately diverted to the nearest trauma center instead.
In attempting to warn Mr. Reese of the change in plans, their transmission was intercepted and their van was chased by two SUV's which tried to apprehend them before they could get to safety. The Team was forced to abandon their plan to divert to a trauma center. Endangering the public by rolling into a hospital with gun-wielding men shooting at them was unconscionable. There was no other choice but to turn back for the safe-house. Mr. Reese was able to neutralize the threat before their van was overtaken. Unclear is who the people inside the SUV's were and whether they had any connection to the men in black in the diner.
Harold stopped for a moment to jot a few notes to himself in the margins. There were a few questions he had about the story thus far, and when the team re-assembled later he would follow up at that time. New intel had just come in from the Machine and he needed to discuss it with Mr. Reese. It was almost too chilling to grasp and while his brain struggled, Harold continued reading:
Miss Rose tagged their hacked cell phones with a marker spray and hid them where only those who had tracked the phones could find them. That marker was later discovered by Mr. Pierce during a broken mission at the diner. He had to abort the mission and then he and Detective Fusco were fired on, perhaps by the same sniper who wounded Miss Shaw, as they escaped.
Which led to the return mission to the diner in the middle of the night last night – where their Team entered and discovered more evidence of a connection with the Russian owners. Hidden in the owners' office were the Team's cell phones, the marker spread over multiple surfaces in the office, and, too, a lucky find in the floor of the office.
A locker containing a cache of weapons lay hidden beneath a heavy rug, and one of the weapons was apparently the weapon used to wound Miss Shaw, and to shoot out the rear window of the car Mr. Pierce and Detective Fusco had driven away from the diner.
With this new and far more dangerous weapon, a Spetsnaz-trained sniper was a grave new threat to the City. Who the sniper was and how many more of them were actually here in New York remained unknown. No one knew what their objective was, nor where they were hiding.
The Team knew of no direct connection between the owners of the diner and the men in black. Neither the son nor the father had any history of working for FSB, Spetsnaz or any other Russian security organization that the Team or the Machine could find. Yet there were Spetsnaz weapons, hacked cellphones there and two episodes of sniper attacks originating from that diner. The Russian owners and the men in black appeared to be working together in some as-yet-undetermined way.
Harold sat back in his seat at this point. Here was where the story had taken an unexpected turn. New intel had surfaced just this morning and he couldn't quite believe what he was reading.
The other connection the Russian father and son seemed to have was with an investor from Manhattan. He was the one who had sold the diner to them knowing full well who they were. Harold and the Machine had drilled down into the series of shell corporations behind the true ownership of the diner, and that had eventually led to the identity of the investor.
That man who sold the diner to the Russians was just about to be installed in a sensitive U.S. government position – and that government position was now potentially compromised! Thanks to the Machine, Finch and his Team might also be the first to know anything about it!
Finch looked up at Mr. Reese, while the rest of them got up to stretch their legs.
"We need to talk, Mr. Reese. Something quite unexpected has surfaced – intel discovered by the Machine. I'm referring to a connection between the Russian cell and a certain government official," he said in a low whisper.
The rest of the Team could be left in the dark about this until they had more details, but Mr. Reese must certainly hear what he knew. Finch leaned closer to Reese and spoke the name. Reese blinked, and sat back in his chair, a rare expletive passing his lips.
They exchanged looks. What had they gotten themselves into? How would they stay below the radar long enough to collect more intel? And who could they tell without getting themselves killed?
Suddenly, the concept of a Russian sniper loose in Manhattan seemed pedestrian, Harold thought. What they did from now on could put all of them in the most danger they had ever encountered.
Mid-town diner, blocks away, same day
The front glass doors opened and Yana hustled in, eyes straight ahead, unaware of any of the rest of the waitstaff. She headed for the alcove and the hallway to the office. The cook behind the window in the hallway waved as she passed, but Yana ignored him. Further down, the office was empty and she went right to her locker inside, twisting through the combination and pulling the door open. Her apron and order pad were hanging inside, and she grabbed those, slamming the locker door, spinning the combination, and heading back down the hall for work.
One of the bosses passed her in the hallway, the younger one.
"Meet with us later," he said softly, in Russian.
She nodded as she passed. Now, what does he want, she thought to herself. The relationship between the father and son Petrovs and her Spetsnaz unit was an uneasy marriage of convenience. The Petrovs supplied a base of operations for her team here in the U.S., in exchange for some favored status position back home – but there was little love between them. The elder Petrov had come dangerously close to crossing the line with her – and it was only her military discipline that prevented her from striking back. He was a necessary evil in her plan, but after that, who could tell his fate? The son was a more willing subject, and if something were to happen to the father, the son would inherit control of the diner. Certainly a better arrangement all around, from her point of view.
Yana continued down the hall and out into the dining area to take up her station in the diner. She had left Gregor with the video of the encounter between her Team and the white van with their American target inside. Gregor was working on cleaning up the video so that they would have a location to begin searching for the American. He had just barely escaped them that time, but Yana felt certain her team was closing in rapidly now. Sweet victory after a year-and-a-half's work on this mission.
To find this elusive man, who had designed some kind of super-secret tracking system, would be the crowning achievement of her service. She would have her pick of posts after this. Of course, someone with the kinds of specialized skills she possessed had certain limitations in career choices.
Patience, she told herself. And, as a third-row sniper in Spetsnaz, patience was something she possessed in excess.
Mid-town Manhattan, underground location, late December, 2016
Gregor sat in front of a monitor, leaning forward toward the screen, as though that would somehow help him see through the smoke and haze obstructing the view. He was using every trick he knew to subtract the smoke on the video Yana had given him. It had poured from the front end of the SUV after it was struck in the engine by some high-powered round fired at close range. There were a few tantalizing shots of the white van speeding away, but where it had ended up he hadn't been able to determine yet.
The van was carrying the American target they had been sent to find, plus some of the other members of the target's team - soon to become expendable. Yana had left her calling card twice with her sniper rifle, in her controlled fashion, and now their own team had the opportunity to pressure the Americans into making a mistake that would reveal their whereabouts.
Hidden by the smoke and haze on this recording was the location where the Americans had gone with their wounded comrade. Perhaps they were still there. American soldiers were known for dragging their wounded along with them – leave no one behind, or some such motto. A sure way to lose the entire squad, attempting to save one. The one will slow the rest, and maybe cause them to show themselves.
Well, that would be just fine for him and the team. He was dreaming of home more and more now, and once this was done, they would all be headed back home. The sooner they found this American, the sooner they would be going home. Gregor leaned in again, and thought of another way to erase the smoke.