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CHAPTER 14



Two hours later, they were ensconced in their room and cleaned up. Once again, everyone was on their phones in a conference call. Wade and Kyle both gave verbal debriefings, reading their notes verbatim, then giving detailed interpretations. Wade proceeded to shred the coated pages into tiny pieces they’d scatter among various trash cans and outside. Sam had taken the memory sticks and they were being processed already.

“So how did we do?” Kyle asked. He hoped the information had proven useful. It had been a rough task to acquire it.

“Well, there’s good and bad news,” Cafferty said.

“Yes?”

“The good news is, the photo interpretation people confirm your kills from yesterday. The less than good news is the Romanians discovered your packs. They’ve got the bodies, the explosives, the other bodies, and the commo gear. That’s not necessarily bad, as long as they don’t tie it to us.”

“What’s the bad news?” Wade asked.

Cafferty said, “Someone got a photo of you, Kyle, in profile as you ran that first day.”

“Ah, shit.”

“Not your fault,” Cafferty insisted. But he obviously wasn’t happy about it. “They haven’t ID’d it yet, but it does mean if you get spotted somewhere else it might bite us in the ass.”

“Damn!” Kyle said. He was seething. That damned dog! He was totally invisible and had been sniffed out by a mutt. And a friendly mutt. He liked dogs, he couldn’t be mad at it for being a dog, so he was mad at the situation.

“The real bad news is really not your fault,” Cafferty said, bracing him.

“Right. Hit me, then.” What had Murphy done now?

“Ambassador’s wife heard some of the news, and some of my report, and a few other things, and is on the warpath.”

“Oh, fun.” Kyle couldn’t think of any profanity that fit.

“My problem, not yours,” Cafferty assured him. “But it’s a bitch, and so is she. More relevant is that the bad guys know we’re after them. On the other hand, they know we can dig them out. I’m still trying to assess this.”

“What next, then?” Wade asked.

“Stay hidden. I have a deportation order for my two snipers, from the ambassador. Luckily, you aren’t my snipers.” He sounded sarcastically gleeful at that.

“How much trouble is this going to cause for you?” Kyle asked. The internal politics of this were a nightmare he couldn’t begin to grasp.

“He won’t ship me out yet. I’m too useful. And your bosses and my bosses pulled favors higher up. He’s not happy, though.”

“I can understand his position, a little,” Kyle said. He wouldn’t like some chairwarmer like Wiesinger running operations without his clearance. And the ambassador did have other issues to deal with. From that perspective, Kyle was a really small fish with annoying habits.

“A little? I grasp it perfectly,” Cafferty said. “But I have to do my job, you’ve got to do yours, and he has to deal with it. At some point, he’d be replaced if he got in the way too much. So rather than do that, he just makes my life a living hell.”

“You know, I think I prefer my job,” Kyle said.

They waded through the pictures, Kyle and Wade adding notes from memory to go with some of the less intuitively obvious ones. The mental wringer added to the physical stress had them almost hallucinating by the time 9:00 a.m. rolled around. Kyle thought of that old Army ad campaign and winced. “We do more before 9:00 a.m. . . .” Yeah, as if that was a selling point.

Still, it had been a very productive couple of days. He couldn’t complain about the accolades they were getting. Cafferty, and presumably others, were very happy.

Kyle would be happy to get a good day’s sleep. So it thrilled him no end when Cafferty said, “I think we’re done for now. You should be secure where you are. Keep the phone handy, and Sam will stay in touch. Now get some sleep. I’m going to need you again and I want you functional.”

“Yes, sir,” he said, with Wade in parallel. They grinned at each other and crashed back on their beds.


Kadim woke to the alarm and rose. It was far too early, before even morning prayers, but this put him on the same schedule as the Americans, some of whom seemed to keep chaotically odd and later hours.

He had almost missed vital data, he realized shortly after he logged in. The chatroom was busy and moving quickly.


JulianLee has entered the room.

7 people in room.

fancydancer: Hi, Julian

leo155: hi

aussiewalt: Julian, long time no see

julianlee: Yes, it has been a while, Walt. Peace.

aussiewalt: Peace to you. Did you know this is Lent for me? Or is that just a greeting?

julianlee: I hadn’t known. What did you give up?

aussiewalt: Caffeine

jamesgunn: I gave up self-restraint for Lent. For six weeks I’m denying myself nothing.

fancydancer: LOL@James

redkitty: :-)

leo155: I gave up sobriety one year.

aussiewalt: Leo, if you stayed drunk for 42 days, you’d get the punishment you deserved from the act itself. :-)

Barbiemouse has entered the room.

barbiemouse: STEAMING MAD!

redkitty: Hi, Barbie

fancydancer: What’s wrong, Barbie?

julianlee: ??

Private Message from Leol55 to JamesGunn: Right, nutcase in, old artillery puke out. ciao.

Leo155 has left the room.

jamesgunn: Good luck, Walt. I live on caffeine.

aussiewalt: I only have a little, but I enjoy Coke and coffee. Thanks.

Private Message from REDKITTY to FancyDancer: do we really want to know?

barbiemouse: You wouldn’t believe what those IDIOTS have done now!

Private Message from FancyDancer to REDKITTY: She needs help. Letting her talk in here can’t hurt and might let her feel better.

Private Message from REDKITTY to FancyDancer: bites tongue * Yes, 1 suppose that’s true. I’ll try to be nice.

jamesgunn: Barbie, please do me a favor and do not discuss foreign service operations in chat.

aussiewalt: What are we talking about?

julianlee: Barbie has some issues with government policy, I understand.

barbiemouse: No, it’s not the policy. Well, yes it is. But those two CIA hired goons almost blew up a historical site yesterday. I can’t say which one, but if you do a Web search you might find it. And they left several people dead and blew their cover, and it’s going to turn into a diplomatic mess that my poor husband has to help deal with.

JamesGunn has left the room.

fancydancer: he works for State dept, right?

barbiemouse: in some capacity. And this is in his lap.

Private Message from REDKITTY to FancyDancer: he’s the ambassador.

fancydancer: the ambassador???

Private Message from FancyDancer to REDKITTY: OOPS! I didn’t mean to blurt that out! :-[

aussiewalt: here’s a link to the storv

julianlee: Thanks, Walt. Barbie, is it that bad?

barbiemouse: Maybe not. If we can get them to stop or at least talk more before running in shooting, it would be a good mission. But as it is, it’s verging on criminal.

redkitty: maybe you should report it to the host nation.

barbiemouse: Maybe I should.

Private Message from REDKITTY to FancyDancer: I was being sarcastic. Now it’s my turn to be embarrassed. :-/

aussiewalt: Castle Bran? That’s one of Prince Dracula’s HQs.

fancydancer: I’ve got a performance early tomorrow. Got to go.

Private Message from FancyDancer to REDKITTY: I know you won’t, but please do NOT tell Barbie I’m a stripper. It’d be all over the net. Tryout at a nice new club tomorrow. Better music, less smoke, richer clients.

Private Message from REDKITTY to FancyDancer: good luck. Hugs. I won’t say a word.

Private Message from FancyDancer to REDKITTY: Thanks! :-) Hugs back, gone.

FancyDancer has left the room.

aussiewalt: Good luck at your . . . shoot, missed her.

barbiemouse: Yes, it’s a Dracula site, but it’s also a very important historical building otherwise. And it’s being used by terrorists and Rambo military types as a battlefield. They both need to think about their priorities. Or at least the military does. I sometimes wonder which group is worse?

aussiewalt: I have to get to church and help them set up for the evening service. Good luck.

julianlee: be well, Walt.

barbiemouse: Take care. Hugs.

AussieWalt has left the room.

redkitty: Got to chase my kids back to bed. Back later.

barbiemouse: sigh. And I really need to talk.

julianlee: I Don’t know much about things like that, Barb, but I can be a friendly ear.

barbiemouse: Oh, there’s not a lot to say. I really don’t know that much.

julianlee: Well, I’m staying in chat for now. You just ping if you need me, okay?

barbiemouse: Thanks, Julian

barbiemouse: I suppose I really should call the host nation.

julianlee: Will that improve things? If these men mess up, wouldn’t it be better to deny them?

barbiemouse: . . . that might be true. I don’t know.

barbiemouse: I suppose I should get it out of my system. But I can’t name names or places, okay?

julianlee: Okay.


Yes, it was just fine with Kadim if she said anything at all. He’d send the saved chat in its entirety to the mullah, and then it could go where it was needed. Perhaps a sufficient incident would get the political resolution that was needed. If not, it was better that soldiers get killed rather than children or civilians. If the military wanted a solution, they’d find one. Civilians really didn’t have any power, and the politicians didn’t care.

Kadim was proud to do this small part for his people and the world. There was definitely good to be seen in the outcome.

Two hours of chat and instant message yielded a lot of talk from a woman who was obviously stressed. Her husband would do well to take her home. Or at least keep her out of such troublesome affairs, which she wasn’t equipped to handle. On the other hand, she was the source of the information. It was a moral quandary for Kadim, but he would pray to Allah to calm her soul and to resolve it in His way.


BRAN, Romania: Investigations continue in this historic little village today. Two days ago, a “man in camouflage clothing” was seen hiding near an abandoned entrance to Bran Castle. At another, previously unknown entrance to the east, investigators found several crates alleged to contain explosives.

The Romanian government still has not made any comments, but witnesses claim to have seen several shrouded bodies removed, possibly as many as twenty, along with other crates similar to those found to the east. The area is being patrolled, and investigators are at work around the clock.

Bran Castle, a 14th-century fortress, may have been used by Prince Dracula in his war against the Turks. There are rumors that the bodies being removed are remains of some of his victims. While he is often attached to the vampire legends, Dracula is not known to have drunk blood. He did, however impale prisoners on stakes and torture them at length.

Other reports, from sources close to the operation, say that the bodies are those of dissidents and the crates were explosives to be used to create terror in this still developing nation.


Al Asfan pored over the new report with interest. So there were definitely two CIA operatives specifically tasked with harassing his operation. They’d taken out the chase car for the delivery, then apparently killed—because they hadn’t reported in—Florescu and Logadze. That angered him until he broke out in a sweat and gritted his teeth. Worse yet, most of the new load of explosives was now in Romanian government possession, and they’d lost some very expensive communication gear. On top of that, the most secure operating location anyone could have ever dreamed of had been exposed.

He’d told those idiots that driving directly into Bran was stupid. One never headed straight for a safehouse, but detoured around the long way. Instead, they’d drawn an arrow straight in, and either been seen or deduced.

It was time to close up here and move on. There was a good place on the French Riviera where he could stay quiet for a while.

In the meantime, he should see if those CIA infidels could be taught a lesson. There were local assets who might trace them. The ideal result would be to leave them dead, publicly and creatively. Barring that, enough attention would perhaps make the Romanians stick them in jail. So far, there were questions about the men who’d abandoned a car in Bran. A few more questions should suffice to get them taken in.

With a mean grin, he reached for the phone.


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