Chapter 15

By 0500hrs Santos and I were driving a grey 2008, Dodge Ram 1500 Truck, SXT. The source that I had for the Rangeman vehicles was all too keen to provide me with something different to my normal request. He'd worked overnight to ensure that the truck was up to scratch, in other words the eight cylinder engine was quick to respond and powerful enough for anything. There was a lockbox under both the front and back seats with an additional area hidden underneath the back of the truck and state of the art electronics for communications.

Our first stop was to pick up the guys. They'd hitched a ride up on an army cargo transporter that was flying into Fort Dix and were then being dropped off at a diner outside of the base, which was where we were meeting up with them. Charles James Alder, known as CJ, who was an explosive ordnance disposal officer could determine methods and procedures for locating and rendering safe all types of explosive ordnance. He had experience of leading teams that could neutralize chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, as well as improvised explosive devices (IED). A definite if we were dealing with a nuclear warhead and probably a necessity if we were going after a group that were hell bent on blowing something up.

The second man, Ethan Wexler, was a whizz with electronics, if it used electricity then he could work with it from computerized devices through to mechanical ones. To be honest he could probably give Hector a hard time with what he had experience and knowledge of. Both men were slightly younger than Santos and me, but they had both put in the hours to serve their country.

As we approached the diner, I spotted the two of them leant against the side of the building to all intents and purposes stood outside talking and smoking. I knew that neither of them smoked but they made the scene believable. CJ, well he could probably double for Diesel with bleached blonde hair that looked like it needed a good cut and the start of a shadow over his face. He wore ripped jeans, that could be seen as fashionable with a matching denim jacket. Ethan was the opposite with short dark hair and glasses. In some ways he looked the part of being a geek with computers and his attire of a long grey trench coat certainly wouldn't have had anyone looking at him twice. People should, look twice that is, because these two had skills almost as good as me. They could fight, shoot and kick ass without hesitation.

I flashed the headlights of the truck as I approached and pulled off the road to the side of the building. With their rucksacks in the back, we were soon back on the road, and hopefully no one would give a second thought or even remember them.

"CJ, you remember Santos?"

"Yeah sure, long time no see man. I thought that you'd finished with these jobs?"

I listened to their conversation wondering what Santos would say in response.

"This one is special"

Good answer, because it sure as hell was special and personal for the both of us.

"Santos, Ethan. Ethan is going to be our electronics wizard"

I watched through the rear-view mirror as Ethan leant forward and knuckle bumped Santos. The men knew that nothing would be said about what we were going to be doing until we were secure inside a property that would be our first base. The place that I had found was a cabin on the edge of Sourland Mountain Preserve, close enough to where Markovic lived and yet gave accessibility to Trenton or New York City. It wasn't much but was adequate for what we would need having three large rooms and a bathroom. Heating was provided from an old wooden burner though I didn't want to attract attention to ourselves from the smoke that using it would produce.

After carrying the supplies in from the back of the truck Ethan used one of the rooms to set up computer equipment and the rest of us stacked weapons and munition in another leaving the main room for eating and probably sleeping, though knowing Ethan he would probably sleep with his equipment. Food was mainly dried or canned because there was no way that time would be wasted shopping for fresh produce. We'd survive just as we would on any other mission. Once the truck was empty Santos heated up some water whilst I prepared to tell the guys what our outcome needed to be.

Sat around a table with mugs of coffee in our hands I knew that CJ and Ethan were keen to learn what the mission was about. I started at 12 years ago and the extraction of Markovic from Serbia. From there I played the recording of my meeting with Gregson, after all it did contain all of the necessary detail. Once finished I waited for CJ and Ethan to ask their questions.

"Okay, let me get this right. This scientist, Markovic was part of a group of scientists who designed and built a nuclear warhead. Someone has found the warhead but in order for it to work they need the detonator. Someone thinks that Markovic has it or knows where it is"

I nodded my head, that was the easy part to follow.

"To get the detonator someone has kidnapped his daughter, that he never knew he had, and the ransom is the detonator"

I watched as Ethan looked from CJ and sat forward seeing that he was already thinking of things that would need to be done.

"We need to find out who Markovic worked with that would even know of the existence of the warhead and detonator. Then find out if that girl is the genuine thing"

"Can you do that?"

I asked already knowing the answer.

"Yeah. I may have to hack into some government sites, but it shouldn't be a problem"

"So, this group that were selling organs, where do they come in?"

I knew that someone would be asking that, and I wasn't sure if them being in Trenton was a coincidence or not.

"I don't know, other than this daughter that calls herself Lainey had been grabbed by the group and Steph managed to get her out"

I looked to Ethan as I answered that because as far as I knew, the only link that Steph had was to Lainey.

"Too much of a coincidence if you ask me"

I was glad that Santos had taken that stance and maybe he was right. But what the hell link could there be between Markovic, the nuclear warhead, the men who wanted the detonator and that group? Maybe I needed to run a deeper search on Joseph Thomson.

"We've been asked to find the daughter"

"So how do we go about that?"

I knew that we had a lot of information but none of it had the potential of a lead to finding her.

"We have some work to do through searches, determine if this girl Lainey is genuine and find out who knew about the detonator. Maybe researching Markovic's work colleagues and clients might lead us somewhere because the person who has the daughter knows Markovic has it or that he knows where it is. I think we need do some surveillance on Markovic. He seems to have a lot of muscle with him at that house, men that to me sounded Eastern European. My men also thought that the FBI had someone watching the place"

"Yeah but the FBI also have a rat inside, if what I'm hearing is right"

"Then maybe the rat will lead us to whoever has the daughter"

Santos was right. Though I was questioning whether or not the two were related, maybe Lainey being grabbed by them was simply a coincidence and the mole was only involved in that operation. The group at the warehouse must have been told that the FBI were taking an interest and were about to burst into the place, but how did someone know that Morelli and Steph were leaving that house when they did and why was Morelli killed?

We agreed to work 6 hour shifts, 2 shifts on surveillance, one shift following up on any leads and one shift sleeping. Ethan and CJ were on surveillance first and would be setting up cameras so that the whole area would be covered. It also meant that there would always be one of us monitoring the cameras here at the cabin. Whilst they were doing that I was going to be talking to Gregson and asked Santos to do a deep search on Joseph Thomson.

Calling the number that Gregson had given to me it went straight to answer phone, so I gave a time 2 hours from now at our usual place. Driving there I did wonder if maybe we should swap out that place just in case it had been compromised.

I arrived early in the neighborhood and took my time scouting around, watching people and cars as they went about their normal lives. I knew the direction that Gregson would be coming from, cursing him for being so predictable, for assuming that he wasn't being followed.

Because he was. The man was good, but I was better, probably because he just never thought that I would be looking out for him. As Gregson entered the garden area, the man stayed back waiting and watching, a phone out ready to use in his hand. Maybe he didn't know who Gregson was meeting with, that was something that I was hoping for anyway. It gave me the opportunity to use the phone on my camera, so I now had another lead to follow. The man didn't stand out as he took a seat and brought out a book from the deep pocket of his jacket. He was maybe late forties, with thinning dark hair and a face that was long and almost gaunt.

Gregson waited for 30 minutes before he realized that I wouldn't be arriving. I wasn't sure whether to call him later and explain to him why I had failed to turn up or not. When he started to walk away from the garden area and along the path that exited the cemetery the man was once again following him. I tailed them until Gregson went inside the building where he worked and watched as the man followed him at a distance. What did surprise me was that the man also entered the building. Did that mean that he was also FBI? It might make sense if he was the mole that Gregson had alluded to. Being a federal building, you had to have a card to get through the glass doors, so I wasn't surprised when the man opened his jacket revealing an ill fitting suit underneath, and pulled out a card of his own.

No doubt Ethan could find out who this was from the photo on my phone, but I wanted to know now. If he was the rat in the FBI, then he could be responsible for Steph being missing and the death of Morelli. I walked through the outer doors and up to the guard who was watching people as they entered, hoping that he would fall for the lie I was about to say to him.

"Sorry, but the man who came in here, he gave me his phone number but not his name"

I took out my phone as though waiting for the guard to give me a name. Okay, he wasn't going for just that, so I expanded my reasoning for wanting the information.

"He asked me to rent a car for him, but I need a name to do that"

I was actually surprised when the guard sighed and walked over to the computer at his desk and started to type. Seconds later he looked across to me.

"Ryan Correll"

Was all that I needed before I turned and left the building.

I arrived back at the cabin with just enough time to change and grab a flask of coffee to take with me. Not something that I would normally drink a lot of, but I needed to be alert for this surveillance shift. I drove with Santos with me, still mulling over what had happened with Gregson and the man who had followed him and didn't get a chance to talk to Santos, I'd tell him what I'd seen when we met with the other two men.

Parking the truck, well hidden from the road, we each took different directions to reach the area where we would be spending the next 6 hours. I was positioned to the north of the house giving me a view of the back of the house and a partial view of the front. I was far enough away not to be observed but too far to see any detail without the use of binoculars. As darkness fell lights appeared at the windows, windows that had blinds closed so there was no chance of seeing inside the rooms.

I spied two men near the perimeter fence, with dogs at the end of leads. The men seemed at ease as they walked slowly, red glows from the end of cigarettes dancing in the darkness like fireflies in the night. What did surprise me though was a light suddenly coming on at the back of the house, light that was escaping from the opening of a door. As I focused my night vision goggles, and watched as three figures came out of the house. The central figure was walking slowly but upright as though determined with where he was going, whilst the two beside him were constantly looking around, an awareness of the area that gave them away as bodyguards. The three men took a direct route to the back of the property, making me swear that soon they would be beyond my range of vision. I just hoped that Ethan had a camera out there that would capture what they were doing.

I had to make a decision and I chose to move away from my assigned position because I had to know what they were up to. My assumption was that it was Markovic, but I was curious why he would be leaving the house in the cover of darkness. Whilst I was far enough away that the sound of me moving wouldn't be heard I wasn't going to be taking any risks. Moving from tree to tree I was exceptionally careful with where I stood, not wanting to disturb the undergrowth or accidently break a twig. The closer that I got, I realized that there was another figure approaching where Markovic was stood. I had no idea where he had come from and from what I could see there were no cars parked where they had been before. Did that mean that Gregson had pulled surveillance, but why would he do that, or did he think that now I was involved they wouldn't be needed?

Markovic hadn't left the safety of his enclosure, but it seemed that there was a meeting taking place, a conversation through the fencing.

I wasn't close enough to hear exactly what was said, only the low murmurings of two men. The conversation was short, before Markovic suddenly turned and this time he was walking more slowly back to the house. I wanted to find out who the other man was so changing direction started to head toward where I knew there was a large expanse of water. It seemed the unknown man was heading that way as well though it seemed to me that he was more nervous, constantly looking around him. If I didn't know better, then I'd say that he knew that he was being watched.

When a car came into sight I dropped to the ground and watched as the indicator lights flashed before the door came open. I had the binoculars to my eyes, knowing that the interior light would interfere with the night vision goggles. I watched the face of the man intently as he got into the car, surprised that the car didn't make a sound as it slowly began to reverse and turn before driving away from me.

No wonder I hadn't heard the approach of a car engine before because it seemed the car was electric. I waited and watched making sure that there was no one else around before returning to my original position, all the time wondering what the hell Gregson had been doing meeting up with Markovic.

Once back at the cabin I filled the rest of the team in on the events of my day. Santos was struggling to find anything more on Markovich than I had, which in itself was worrying, or I was becoming paranoid. Probably the latter.

"The cameras are up and working but so far the only thing that they've picked up was a man entering close to the perimeter fencing. You already sussed him out"

I nodded my head to Ethan and was about to ask if anyone else had found anything.

"I did some research on what was called Program A, Serbia's work on nuclear fission. To be honest I don't think they were as advanced as other countries, then again, the principles aren't difficult, but controlling it is. There was nothing to indicate that they'd been successful but apparently a lot of the scientists were opposed to the work and also complained at the lack of funding so maybe they purposely didn't report everything. I'm slowly starting to unpick who might have been working at Vinca when Markovic was there"

Most of that I already knew but was glad that CJ was on the case, I nodded to CJ and turned to Ethan.

"The daughter?"

I asked, because we really needed to know exactly who she was.

"Elaina Rašeta. Born to Nadiya 23 years ago. The registration of the birth certificate looks legitimate, and the mother had Damir Markovic named as the father. Elaina ended up in a home and was adopted by a young American couple who at the time lived locally. They moved to the States a year later and brought up the girl as Elaine Cummings. There looked to have been requests made for copies of the birth certificate, one came here to the States to Elaine Cummings, the other was picked up in person in Belgrade"

So someone else was suspicious that Markovic had a daughter. Could Markovic have known and asked someone to pick up the certificate and start to look for Elaina? But why now? If he suspected that he had a daughter, then surely, he would have looked for her before now.

"Did it have her travelling to Serbia?"

"Yeah, I found that and her return trip"

I watched Ethan as he picked up his laptop, as though there was more but he wasn't sure if it was important.

"Ethan?"

"Well, if she was on a gap year travelling why did she come back? Then I was curious why she flew back into Miami but then ended up here. Why not fly into New York?"

"Maybe she bought a return ticket and didn't realize that she needed to be up here?"

Came from Santos. It made some sense but that niggle that I had when Gregson was telling me what he knew came back to me.

"How did she know that Markovic was here? Why Trenton?"

No one had an answer for me which had me wondering what she'd found out in Serbia and why she was living on the streets in Trenton.

"Do we have a photo of this Elaine Cummings?"

Ethan passed me a sheet of paper with the search that he'd done on her. Looking at the recent photo I could see a resemblance to the older girl in the photo that I'd used when searching around Trenton. The search just gave what Ethan had told me, but in more detail, so I didn't read through it. Instead, I wanted to find out who Ryan Correll was.

As CJ and Ethan headed out to do their stint on surveillance, I sat on a chair at the table and opened up a laptop and was about to go into the search program when I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I didn't recognize the number, which didn't surprise me, seeing as anyone who had this number would be using a burner phone. There were only three people that had this number, Santos, Hector and the Colonel.

"Manoso. Change of plan"

I didn't say anything, hoping that whatever the Colonel was going to say was based on updated data.

"Gregson spoke to Markovic. You need to go collect the ransom demand. Coordinates are 44°45′43″N 20°37′23″E"

I never had a chance to question the change to our mission objective, I was annoyed because it was taking us away from looking for the daughter and looking for Steph. That had always been my objective before now, to track and find the hostage. What he was expecting me to do didn't seem right, finding the ransom implied that there was a possibility of an exchange taking place. As the phone went dead, I was quickly recording the numbers onto a piece of paper and then closing down the search program and entering them into a map search. Santos must have been aware that something had just changed, maybe it was me swearing when I looked at where the coordinates would take us. I was aware of him stood behind me, no doubt looking at the image on the screen.

"Why're you looking there?"

I sat back, pushing the laptop further onto the table and watched as Santos sat down opposite me.

"That was Raynor. Markovic gave Gregson some information, which was probably why he was there. Those are the coordinates for where the detonator is"

"And?"

I was pretty sure that Santos knew the answer to that, so I wasn't going to elaborate. Instead, I gave out orders for him to carry out. He'd soon understand what the message from Raynor was.

"Recall CJ and Ethan. We leave in the morning"

I was sure I heard "Shit" come from Santos as he went to the radio to talk to CJ and Ethan. I was in total agreement with him but knew that we didn't have any other choice than to follow orders. As he did that, I was busy looking into how to best approach this and working out how to get in and out of Serbia as quickly as possible. I certainly didn't want to be there any longer than necessary because it was taking time away from finding Steph and Lainey.