Page 46 of Dead Fall

CHAPTER 14

KHARKIVOBLAST

Harvath couldn’t drive and properly question the woman at the same time. So, as soon as they were a safe distance away from the burning dacha, he pulled over.

The first thing he did was a medical evaluation. Despite all of the rounds that had been flying, neither of them had been shot. He examined her leg and, pulling a bandage from his IFAK, dressed her wound. Then she filled him in on who she was and what, to the best of her knowledge, had happened.

She was the real Zira—the GUR operative who worked with the International Legion and was supposed to meet Harvath at the train station. Her orders were to transport him to a Ukrainian military base near Staryi Saltiv. There he would be issued his uniform, ID card, and other items before being linked up with his team.

Before dawn this morning, the two men from the dacha had broken into her apartment. They kidnapped her and took her to the dacha. In addition to roughing her up, they had information and photographs of several of her family members whom they threatened to harm. She was embarrassed for having broken and apologized to Harvath for not having held out longer. He told her that she had nothing to be ashamed of.

He put her through a full battery of questions—all of which she answered. There was nothing about her responses that suggested she was being anything but honest and forthright. As far as he was concerned, she was telling him the truth.

She had no idea who her tormentors had been other than that they were “filthy Russians.” She assumed they were operatives from Russian Military Intelligence, as those tended to be the people who carried out these sorts of operations inside Ukraine. Harvath agreed that they were the most likely culprit.

Unfortunately, she had no idea how they had known about her assignment. The most logical explanation was that they had a source somewhere inside Ukrainian Intelligence. It pained her to say that, but even legendary agencies like the CIA and MI6 had known their share of traitors. The fact that it had happened during wartime, when the country was enduring an invasion, and the information had been given to the enemy, only made the act that much more evil and reprehensible.

Harvath agreed with that as well. He was a big believer that treason should be dealt with in the harshest terms. It established a bright line and made it crystal clear what would happen to those who aided a nation’s enemies.

After having all of his questions answered, he inventoried his gear and gave her a chance to take herself off this assignment. She had been through a lot. No one would blame her if she wanted to tap out. He could drop her off in the next town or village and see himself the rest of the way to the forward operating base at Staryi Saltiv.

Zira, however, refused his offer. She wouldn’t give Ukraine’s enemies the satisfaction. She would see her mission through. And once she had gotten him to the base, she would return to Kharkiv and file a full and accurate report with her superiors. They needed to know what had happened. If there was a mole in their organization, they needed to start the hunt immediately.

She was a fighter. Harvath liked that. She was also a professional. Since she knew the roads and it was her responsibility to get him to the base, she insisted on driving. He turned over the keys and climbed into the passenger seat.

He preferred riding shotgun, especially this close to the front. If anything bad happened, he wanted to be able to get on his weapon right away.

He was also exhausted. It would feel good to dial it down a couple of notches and not have to worry about being behind the wheel. Sitting backin his seat, he allowed himself to close his eyes and to slip into a meditative state.

When he felt the Land Cruiser slow down a little while later, he had flashbacks of the train coming to a stop and his eyes snapped open. There was a checkpoint up ahead. At this point, as far as he was concerned, he suspected everyone and gripped his weapon a little tighter.

Zira noticed. “Don’t worry,” she said, rolling down her window. “Everything is okay.”

Arriving at the checkpoint, she put the SUV in park and it was instantly surrounded by men with guns. As she chatted with the officer at her door, the conversation quickly became heated.

Harvath didn’t speak a word of Ukrainian, but he was getting the gist of it, including her insulting the Russians who had beaten her and taken her identification. She then pantomimed the firefight and did a zombie-like impression of the man who had burst through the window, completely on fire, and walked toward them, at which point Harvath had shot him in the knees.

Upon hearing this detail, the stunned officer’s eyebrows shot up in bemused surprise and he called his men over to hear Zira’s story for themselves.

When she got to the part about kneecapping the flaming Russian zombie, Harvath received smiles all around and a thumbs-up from several of the Ukrainian soldiers.

The officer gestured toward Harvath and asked a question, which Zira translated. “He wants to know if you have any identification. Mine is back at my apartment. He wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t ask.”

“Of course,” Harvath replied, fishing the paperwork out of the pocket in his plate carrier and handing it to her.

Zira passed it along to the officer, who gave it a quick once-over and handed it back, saying to Harvath in English, “Thank you, Captain.”

The man then looked at Zira and delivered a cheerful “Palianytsia!” to which she laughed and replied just as cheerfully, “Palianytsia!”

He then stood back and waved them through.

Rolling up her window, Zira put the car in gear and drove on, the smile lingering on her face.

Considering what she had been through today, it was a tribute to her resilience that she could muster up any sort of good cheer. He wondered what had caused it.

“That word you just spoke,” he began.

“Palianytsia?”

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