Page 58 of Fear and Desire

“You don’t spend your salary on housing,” Dan observed as they shook hands.

“As long as the roof doesn’t leak on my gear, and the electricity works, the rest doesn’t matter. You look like hell, Dan. When was the last time you slept?”

“Sometime last year. I’ll be fine.” Dan didn’t bother to point out that Murphy had been up since yesterday, too. They didn’t have time to waste on sleeping. It had been just over twenty hours since Laura had disappeared.

“Sorry about Josh, man. Anyone called his mom?”

“She’s on her way up. Shit. Someone needs to meet her at the airport at five…”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll call Charlie. She’s not back in the field yet since her injury, but she gets around pretty well. She’s restless as hell, and she’s good with families.”

Dan nodded. The other agents had already arrived—ten of the most professional and experienced agents Dan knew, who were now members of his new off-the-record team. They’d had each other’s backs many times, and didn’t mind skirting the rules when it came to helping another agent. And they’d all gotten to know Josh since the operation had started. That alone would have called them to Dan’s side. They settled on the combination of a sagging and dirty sofa, lopsided wingback chair, a couple of metal folding chairs, and the floor.

Dan surveyed the group. “Where’s Jones?”

They looked guiltily at each other. Anders spoke first. “Um, boss, well, he was here, but we took a vote and sent him home.”

Dan looked at them in confusion. “Why?”

“He has a three-day-old baby, and his wife is still in the hospital.”

“Oh, shit. I’ve been out of the loop for way too long. Thanks. Anything else I should know about any of you?”

They all looked at Sinclair, the one woman on the team. She grinned.

“Did you finally talk Charlie into marrying your sorry ass?”

Sinclair shrugged. “He finally said yes last week. We were in Vegas by that evening. I wasn’t gonna let him change his mind.”

Dan walked over to the woman and they clasped hands. “Congratulations. He okay with interrupting your honeymoon?”

“When he found out it was for you and Josh, he pushed me out the door.”

Dan nodded his thanks and briefed them on what he knew. Murphy took over and started his magic. After a few lively discussions, Dan’s eyes refused to cooperate any longer. He hadn’t slept the night before the auction, so he was going on some fifty hours with little sleep, and his body finally mutinied.

“Dan,wegotsomething.”Someone was shaking his shoulder. He snapped awake.

“Why the fuck did you let me sleep?” He was lying on top of an assortment of rumpled sheets and blankets that didn’t smell too fresh. “And how the hell did I get onto Murphy’s bed?” He rolled into a sitting position with his feet on the floor. Anders thrust a cup of coffee into his hand. Dan blew on it and took a sip, suspecting how hot it was, needing the burn to wake him up. “Ow. Shit. What do you have?”

He followed Anders back into the living room. A couple agents were lying on the floor, snoring. They’d all been part of the raid yesterday and had been up for a couple of days. Another group sat on the floor with coffee in their hands.

“I was able to track their flight path. Do you know anything about airplane communications?” When Dan looked blank, Murphy laughed. “Didn’t think so. Okay, the very simple version: most planes have a system called ACARS that transmits data to and from the ground.”

“Like an ID transponder?”

Murphy shook his head. “Different systems. This system transmits and receives all kinds of data about the weather, the plane’s mechanical health, its speed and location, and other stuff. It gets the information from a satellite. Like the transponder, it can be switched off. But even when it’s switched off, the satellite will ‘ping’ the airplane every so often, a kind of ‘are you still there?’ inquiry, and the plane will respond back with ‘Yes, I am’ even if there’s no data to exchange. Most pilots don’t know this is happening. I hacked into a US satellite, and then a Russian one, and found a nice straight line of pings across the Pacific and then Russia, just inside the western border. Unfortunately, since the ping only happens every hour, we lost the plane after its last ping when it landed somewhere. Based on the direction, though, we narrowed the possibilities to four major airports and twenty-five minor airports on either side of the Russian, Estonian, and Latvian borders.”

He handed a sheet of paper to Dan. Since Latvia and Estonia were friendly with the U.S., that made Russia the likely location. Murphy agreed.

“This is the closest airport in Latvia to the Russian border area where we suspect he is, and potential routes into Russia that avoid the official crossings. I have a friend of a friend with the border guards. He’s doing some quiet sniffing around and will meet you as soon as you get there.”

Dan looked at him. “Shit, man. I’m glad you’re on our side. Thanks.” He clasped hands with Murphy and then turned to his team. “You guys understand that this is completely unsanctioned and against regulations? If anything goes wrong, there won’t be anyone official who’ll get you out of unfriendly territory. I understand if you want to back out now.”

Sinclair snorted. “Dan, we didn’t figure he’d taken her to some resort in the Bahamas. We all knew the risk before we arrived here.”

Dan nodded. “We’ll need to leave before they notice we’re not at work in the morning.”

Murphy turned back to his computer and clicked a few keys. Dan’s cell phone beeped, and he swiped it open to see a boarding pass for a red-eye flight to London.

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