Page 93 of Spymaster

If this was the Russians, they had picked a perfect target to hit with an anti-NATO PRF strike. No other member of the alliance was more precariously perched. Turkey had one foot out the door already, and Harvath chastised himself for not seeing this coming. It made excellent sense.

It also scared the hell out of him. The death count was going to be enormous. If this was what they had chosen to follow Rome with, what else did they have up their sleeve?

“Looks like a lot of women and children, too,” Nicholas added. “Families. The Turkish government is going to go ballistic.”

As they should, thought Harvath. “How long ago did this happen?”

“Within the last half hour.”

He had known better than to think that nothing could knock the Rome bombing out of the news cycle. The devastation from both attacks would now be run in split screen on news stations around the world.

Watching the carnage only recommitted him to his purpose. Every fiber in his being wanted to walk across the motor court to take a pair of red-hot tongs to Dominik Gashi. He knew that would be the wrong move.

Gashi, like everyone else, would eventually break. As a GRU operative, though, which Harvath highly suspected he was, he would dribble out enough false intelligence to keep them chasing their tails for weeks, if not months. They didn’t have that kind of time.

It was better to leave it to a professional, someone more skilled in the science of interrogation than he. Blunt force would only get them so far.

The Carlton Group’s specialist was landing shortly and would quickly extract the most reliable intel Gashi had. Harvath’s anger, for the time being, would have to be put on hold.

Plating a couple of sausages, he also poured a cup of coffee and sat down at the table. “Can we turn that off?” he asked as he began eating. It wasn’t that he couldn’t stomach it, it was that he needed a break from all of it for five minutes.

Nicholas obliged him and powered down the monitor. “I heard from Ryan,” he said, changing the subject.

Harvath had meant to call her, but had been so tired when they got back in that he had sent her an email instead. “What did she want?”

“She said the U.S. Ambassador to the UN had an emergency meeting with the Ambassadors for Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia this morning. They all came under a variety of cyberattacks on Friday. The attacks have grown much worse over the weekend.”

“That means the Russians are getting ready to invade. We don’t have much time.”

The little man nodded. “Lydia wants a bow around my operation ASAP.”

Nicholas had not only come up with an amazing hack, but with Harvath’s help, had also created a tiny spy network of his own.

There was something poetic about using a man known as the Troll to disrupt the TrollFactory. His plan was to expose all of the Russians engaged in cyberoperations against the Baltics—real names and photos, as well as every fake website and social media account attached to them. It would be the ultimate cyber takedown.

“When do you think you’ll have everything?” asked Harvath.

“My guy in St. Petersburg should have the last of it out tonight.”

It had been a brilliant plan, but a huge undertaking. And it had cost a fortune. Nicholas and Ryan had gone round and round on the expense.

Also, no matter how well he performed, there was a lingering distrust based on his past unsavory deeds. He had made the CIA and the NSA look foolish on more than one occasion.

Harvath also suspected that the Old Man might have put a bug in Ryan’s ear about Nicholas. Not that she needed him to tell her anything about the little man’s history. She had already been well aware of him while she was at the Agency.

It was certainly not her intention to agree to large sums of money being spent, only to discover that he was siphoning off pieces of it for himself.

Whenever he had trouble getting approval, he went to Harvath and Harvath in turn went to Ryan. It was a game she didn’t take kindly to—something akin to a child playing both parents. Harvath, though, was always a vocal supporter and, when necessary, defender of Nicholas. He usually got what he wanted and nothing, so far, had gone wrong.

Be that as it may, Ryan maintained a detached, professionaltrust-but-verifyposition when it came to the company’s finances. It was one of the leading reasons Harvath was happy to have her sitting in the corner office. He’d go crazy if he had to deal with those kinds of issues every day.

Looking down at his watch, he saw that it was time to get going. “I’ll be back in a little bit. Need anything while I’m out?”

Nicholas studied the notepad on the table in front of him and replied, “Yes. I could use a lot more time, a lot more money, and a lot more luck than either of us deserve.”

“Couldn’t we all,” he replied, standing up and reaching for his jacket. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Walking outside to one of the team’s vehicles, Harvath said a silent prayer that the man he was going to pick up could provide the one thing they needed the most—a miracle.

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