Page 45 of Shadow of Doubt

“The operation has to be carried out tonight.”

“What part of it?”

“Allof it,” said Staelin.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Harvath replied as he turned to look at Nicholas. “He’s joking, right?”

The little man shook his head. “We’ve intercepted some of Tsybulsky’s communications. He’s packing up and heading back to Russia.”

“Good. Without him around, our job with Inessa will be that much easier.”

“She’s going with him.”

“What the hell are they headed back for?”

Nicholas shrugged. “It’s something to do with Peshkov and his place on the Black Sea.”

“Who trades the South of France for the Black Sea?”

“When the president of Russia summons you? Arkady Tsybulsky does.”

“How much time do we have?” Harvath asked.

“Tsybulsky’s jet is scheduled to leave tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow morning?”

“Yup.”

“Fuck.”

“Not the first word that came to my mind,” the little man replied, “but it aptly sums things up.”

Harvath shook his head. He needed days, not hours, to properly put together and pull something like this off. If there was one thing he was certain of, it was that tight timelines jacked the danger factor through the roof.

If this were a hostage situation, which it wasn’t, a race against the clock would be baked in. Instead it was this bizarre three-legged race. Grechko had to get close enough to Inessa to make his pitch, then—if she agreed—she had to be extracted, after which Harvath had to make Tsybulsky believe that she was dead so that he didn’t expend his vast fortune and close relationship with the Kremlin searching for her.

Impossiblewasn’t a word Harvath allowed himself to entertain. At this moment, however, it sure seemed to be the only word that applied.

“Listen,” Nicholas continued, sensing Harvath’s trepidation. “Palmer and Ashby will be back in about a half hour. We should know more then. Why don’t you get cleaned up. There’s fresh clothes in your room. Tyler can show you and Sølvi the way. We’ll do a team meeting in forty-five minutes and go through our options. Sound good?”

None of it sounded good to Harvath. Nevertheless, he nodded. Then he and Sølvi followed Tyler upstairs. Already his brain was spinning, trying to come up with solutions.

CHAPTER 21

The team meeting was held in an old library off the living room, which Nicholas had set up as his operations center.

From the carpets and drapes, to the furniture and light fixtures, the villa looked like it hadn’t seen a decorator since the late 1970s. Harvath grabbed a seat on one of the orange Togo sofas as Ashby and Palmer, the team’s youngest members, walked in.

While Palmer was ex–Delta Force, Ashby was the only person in the group, besides Nicholas, without a Special Operations background. She’d racked up more confirmed kills in Afghanistan than most male soldiers and had wound up on an Al Qaeda hit list. Fearing for her life, as well as the propaganda victory it would give the enemy, the U.S. Army had denied her request to be sent to Iraq and had pulled her from combat. As soon as she could quit, she did, and was scooped up by the Carlton Group’s founder. He knew an exceptional operative when he saw one.

Harvath said hello to them and then Nicholas called the meeting to order.

“You want the good news first?” Nicholas asked. “Or the bad news? You’re the team leader, so it’s your call.”

Harvath definitely didn’t like the sound of that. “There’smorebad news?” he asked.

Palmer nodded. “We took a small drone with us and were able to get a look at Tsybulsky’s property. As you can imagine, for a guy with more money than God, it’s wired tight. Very heavy security. Lots of cameras. The whole thing’s fenced and the driveway’s gated. We’re guessing that there’s probably a bunch of other things we couldn’t see, but shouldassume are present, such as ground sensors and other motion detection systems.”

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