Extraordinary Rendition Read online

Unknown Location

  Sherrie groaned as the fog of pain slowly lifted enough for her to become aware she had no idea where she was. She moved her limbs to find herself bound at the wrists and ankles, and her aching jaw made it painfully obvious she had been gagged for some time.

  She winced as she drew a breath, then gasped at the pain. Several ribs were cracked or worse, and her breathing was labored. Her head pounded, and from the intensity of it, she was quite certain a steel-toed boot had kicked her in the back of the head.

  Concussion.

  She had been beaten mercilessly, kicked by two of the men, no doubt pissed she had crashed their little party and killed one of their own.

  But she was alive.

  The question was for how long?

  She struggled to move in the confined space, an overwhelming stench the only thing that gave her any sense of her surroundings, but that was nothing to go on.

  She sat up, or at least attempted to, then cried out as her ribs revealed they were broken. An overwhelming headache blinded her and she fell back, her world black.

  9 |

  McDonald’s Arlington Blvd, Falls Church, Virginia

  Kane swallowed another bite of his sausage and egg McMuffin then took a swig from his large Diet Coke. McDonald’s breakfasts were one of his true vices, rarely exercised unless in country. And now that they were an all-day affair, he could enjoy them at any hour.

  Though today he was just going through the motions. He was consumed by the disappearance of Fang, and of course Sherrie, yet there was nothing he could do but wait. Leroux’s team would find something. They always did. And the moment the sweep team cleared his apartment, he’d return to properly gear up, his emergency kit in the false bottom of his trunk inadequate for what he suspected might be ahead.

  A text arrived on his Apple Car Play display from Leroux indicating the all-clear for his return. He hoovered the rest of his food then put his seatbelt on and fired up the engine. As he put the car in gear, he dialed Leroux.

  “What did they find?”

  “Eyes and ears in every room, just like you suspected.”

  Kane cursed. “Any idea how long they’ve been there?”

  “Assuming Fang does a standard sweep every day like you said, our guys said she would have caught them, so any time after she did her last sweep. I’m guessing they were planted this morning, either while she was out, or after she got back.”

  Kane turned onto the road. “She was out?”

  “Yeah, she went for a run. Sherrie was supposed to go with her, but tweaked her ankle yesterday during training.”

  “Any idea whose work it is?”

  “Our guys say it looks Chinese.”

  Kane growled. “Why am I not surprised? Okay, I’ll be at the apartment in a few minutes. Have you found anything yet?”

  “No. We’re pulling footage now, but so far nothing. Can you get the building security footage? It isn’t networked, so we don’t have access to it, and I think I might have seen the cleaners in the elevator.”

  Kane’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding me! Would you recognize them?”

  “I doubt it. They were getting on the elevator as I was getting off. I only saw them for a few seconds.”

  “What do you remember?”

  “They were all similar. Asian, dark hair, bad haircuts, slim.”

  “So, not very helpful.”

  “I’m afraid not. If we get that footage, though, we might be able to identify them.”

  “It’ll be my first stop.”

  10 |

  Unknown Location

  Fang had no doubt she was in a truck or something similar, the stops and starts, along with the turns, indicating they were still underway. To where, she had no idea. Nobody on the other side of what she had begun to think of as her coffin, had said anything since her warning to speak Chinese.

  The vehicle came to a halt and the engine shut off.

  Wherever they had been heading, they were there. An airplane roared overhead, and the distinct odor of jet fuel filled her nostrils. They were at the airport, and as soon as she was on an airplane, her fate was sealed.

  She kicked out with her feet, hitting the bottom of her coffin, and slammed her shoulders from side to side as she yelled into her gag, hoping someone might hear her.

  But there was no reaction from her captors, just a hissing sound then a foul odor as she slowly lost consciousness.

  There’d be no escape for her today.

  11 |

  Operations Center 2, CIA Headquarters Langley, Virginia

  Leroux stared at the camera feeds showing his apartment building from various angles. “I saw a cleaning crew getting on the elevator. See if you can find any vehicles near there that might fit the description.”

  Randy Child tapped a few keys then spun in his chair, finishing with an arm pointed toward an enlarged feed. “I can do better than that.”

  Leroux tilted his head at the unusual angle. “What am I looking at?”

  “One of your neighbors has a camera set up on his balcony. I think he likes people-watching. It’s aimed at the parking lot.”

  Sonya Tong, one of Leroux’s senior analysts and his number two, grunted. “More likely he or she doesn’t trust their spouse.”

  Child shrugged. “Maybe, but whoever it is, doesn’t understand security. They’ve just left the default password on the device. I’m about to get into their cloud storage…and I’m in.”

  Leroux stepped closer to the display. “Back it up to when I texted Sherrie.” He checked his phone. “11:35. Go back about ten minutes before that.”

  Child worked his station and the footage started to play from the requested timecode.

  “Speed it up.”

  Child complied, the footage racing through when Leroux held up a finger. “There. Slow it down.”

  Child tapped his keyboard and they all watched as a white box van parked, the four Asian men he had seen earlier climbing out. They headed into the building, where they didn’t have coverage yet.

  “Okay, run it forward, let’s see when they come out.”

  Less than thirty minutes later, they reappeared, three large bags over their shoulders.

  Body bags?

  Bile filled Leroux’s mouth as Child echoed his thoughts.

  “Holy shit! You don’t think—”

  Leroux remembered the Chief’s words. “Unless I see their bodies, neither of them is dead. Understood?”

  Child’s head dipped. “Yes, sorry.”

  Leroux turned to face his young underling. “Don’t worry about it. Zoom in.” The image expanded. “I think there’s little doubt those are bodies. See if you can pull a height from those bags. Head to toe.”

  Child manipulated the image, lines displaying on the screen as he mapped the bulges in the bag to body parts, then smiled. “Good news! Best guess is they’re all over five-eight.”

  Leroux sighed, his shoulders slumping with relief. “They have at least a few inches on both of them.”

  Tong shook her head in admiration. “That means they managed to kill three of their attackers.”

  Leroux took some satisfaction in the knowledge, though the fact might make the survivors less likely to let their hostages live. “I have a feeling they weren’t expecting that, otherwise they would have had a dolly or something to take the bodies out with.” He slapped his hands together. “Okay, Sonya, I want your team to start tracking that van forward and back. I want to know where it went and where it came from.”

  Tong nodded. “On it.”

  “Randy, roll back that footage. I want to see who else goes in and out. This was the clean-up crew, not the primary team.”

  Child returned to the arrival of the van, then rolled it back from there. Leroux watched as neighbors he’d seen for years came and went, then pointed. “Stop. Run it normal speed.”

  They watched a cargo van roll up and two Asian men get out, heading into the building. A couple of minutes later, a car arri
ved with two more Asian men, then a third vehicle with another two.

  “That’s six men for just Fang?” Child whistled. “Is she that good?”

  Leroux nodded. “She is. Fast-forward. Let’s see what we see.”

  Child pointed at the same time as Leroux. “There’s Fang.”

  “Back from her run.” About five minutes later one of the men left the building and retrieved two large, empty duffel bags from the back of the van. He returned inside, then a few minutes later three men left, the duffel bags bulging. One was placed in the back of the van, the other in the trunk of the second vehicle to arrive. Each of the men then drove one of the vehicles out of frame.

  “Sonya, have your team track those as well.”

  “On it.”

  Child spun in his chair. “They took Sherrie and Fang, but left the bodies of their buddies? That’s cold.”

  Leroux returned to his station. “The mission was to capture Fang.”

  “Dead or alive?”

  “Alive, otherwise this would have been a lot easier. They would have just shot her then left her body.” He shook his head. “No, they wanted her alive.”

  “And Sherrie?”

  Leroux tensed. “Wrong place, wrong time.”

  “But she’s alive, right?”

  Leroux blew a burst of air through his lips. “I…don’t know. They cleaned the apartment, which means they didn’t want anyone to know what had happened for as long as possible. They couldn’t leave her there, so they might have taken her body.”

  Tong shook her head. “You’re forgetting one thing, boss.”

  “What’s that?”

  “They left three bodies there already. Why not four? Why would they bother taking her if she were dead? The only reason to take her is if she’s still alive. They couldn’t risk her raising the alarm.”

  Leroux brightened, sitting upright in his chair. “You’re right! But why take her? Why not just kill her?”

  Tong shrugged. “Would you kill a CIA agent on American soil?”

  Child’s eyes narrowed. “How would they know she’s an agent?”

  “Probably the way she fought. Maybe her weapon. If there were three dead there, then that probably means shots were fired. And that means a suppressor, otherwise the police would have been called. No law-abiding citizen goes around with one of those.”

  “Does Sherrie?” asked Child.

  Leroux nodded. “Yes, her holster is designed to hold it.”

  “Would Fang?”

  He shook his head. “No. Knowing her and Dylan, I’m sure there’s one in the apartment, if not ten, but she would have been jumped the moment she entered, and she wouldn’t dare carry a weapon on the street in case she got stopped by the police. Too many questions.”

  Tong agreed. “So, if a suppressor-equipped weapon was used, it was used by Sherrie, and because of that, they knew she had to be some sort of operative. Their orders didn’t include how to handle that eventuality, so they subdued her and took her with Fang while waiting for orders on how to deal with her.”

  Leroux exhaled loudly. “It’s as good a theory as any.”

  Child frowned. “Yeah, but what did those orders eventually turn out to be?”

  12 |

  Over Arlington, Virginia

  Special Agent Brooklyn Tanner, leader of Echo Team, a CIA unit seconded to Homeland Security so they could operate legally on US soil, stared at the streets below from their chopper. One of their own had been kidnapped, or worse, yet local law enforcement couldn’t be involved.

  Not yet.

  And that meant time was of the essence.

  Control had told her almost nothing about the initial target, which meant it was highly classified, and despite her clearance level, that still meant need to know.

  And she apparently didn’t.

  “We’re almost there,” said the pilot over the headset.

  “Copy that.”

  Her team checked their gear as the pilot descended. Two cars and a van had arrived at the victim’s location first. The two cars had been tracked to a local Walmart parking lot. According to Control, one of the victims had been put in the trunk of one of the vehicles, but the cars were parked in a dead zone with no camera coverage, so they had no idea if they were still there.

  It was as if the vehicle dumping point had been picked purposefully, which meant these people had access to intel they shouldn’t.

  And that likely meant foreign government.

  Her mind raced with possibilities. Russians? Chinese? North Koreans? Iranians? There were a lot of options, and for the moment, she had no intel to suggest any or none.

  Though she might be about to find out.

  “Mask up!”

  Her team pulled up their facemasks to protect their identities, as what they were about to do was very public. She peered out the window and spotted the cars, still parked in the dead zone. “There they are! Secure the area, then check the cars. They might be boobytrapped!”

  13 |

  Unknown Location

  Sherrie jolted awake, the sudden movement sending a wave of pain and nausea sweeping through her as her head and ribs screamed in agony.

  Yet something had woken her.

  Something loud.

  It was overwhelming, her entire body vibrating with the sound, yet in her delirium she had no clue what it might be. Vomit erupted and she jerked her head to the side, the effort intensely painful, enough for her to recognize her concussion was growing worse.

  She had to stay awake.

  Though she was already fading, the sound that had woken her lost to the fog of her suffering. The world spun, the blackness of her prison deepened by the darkness of her mind losing the battle to remain conscious.

  14 |

  Walmart Supercenter, Kings Crossing Arlington, Virginia

  The chopper hit the ground with a bounce, but that didn’t stop Tanner and her team from surging through the open doors, fanning out as their ride lifted off to provide eyes in the sky if needed. Four of her team took the corners as customers scattered, terrified at what they were witnessing.

  And she didn’t blame them.

  The new assault team uniforms now worn by SWAT and other similar units were like something out of a dystopian science fiction movie a decade or two ago.

  But we do look cool.

  Two of her team swept both cars with RF scanners then searched for boobytraps without touching the vehicles. Her second, Michael Lyons, gave a thumbs up.

  “I think we’re clear.”

  “You think?”

  He shrugged. “Hey, wouldn’t be the first time we were wrong.”

  She stepped closer. Both cars were empty, but their victim was supposed to be in one of the trunks. “This is Homeland Security! Is anyone in the car?”

  There was no reply, though the victim could be gagged, unconscious, or dead. She motioned toward the first car. “Open it.”

  Lyons used a scanner to imitate the car’s fob, searching for the frequency. The doors clicked as the locks disengaged.

  And nothing blew up.

  Always a bonus.

  “Pop the trunk.”

  Lyons did then stepped forward, lifting the lid and shaking his head. “Empty.”

  “Try the other one.”

  Lyons repeated the process then cursed as the second trunk proved empty as well.

  Tanner sighed, activating her comms. “Control, Echo-Zero-One. Both target vehicles are empty, over.”

  “Copy that, Zero-One. Ground team on the way to relieve you. We have a new destination for you. Coordinates being relayed to your helo. Control, out.”

  She frowned. Control sounded disappointed.

  Very disappointed.

  I wonder if he knows one of them.

  15 |

  Fairfax Towers Falls Church, Virginia

  Kane scrolled through the security camera footage from his apartment building’s lobby and elevator as his super, the rather diminutive and oxymoroni
cally nicknamed Titanic leaned over him.

  Titanic jabbed a finger at the screen, four Asian men entering with a trolly filled with supplies. “Is that them?”

  “Yup.” Kane took several stills of their faces then sent them to Leroux.

  “You sure you don’t want me to call the police?”

  Kane shook his head as he rose, closeups of all ten men involved now in the hands of his friend’s team. “No, I’ll take care of it.” He shook his phone. “This is a buddy at the FBI. He’s handling it personally. If the locals get involved, it’ll just mean paperwork and bureaucratic bullshit that will delay things.” He slapped Titanic on the back. “Once this is finished, a box of Omaha Steaks is on me.”

  Titanic grinned. “I think you’re my new favorite tenant.”

  Kane chuckled. “I bet you say that to all the guys who offer you steak.”

  He returned to his apartment and geared up while plotting his next move, coming up empty. This was a waiting game, and he had to wait for Leroux and his team to find something he could act on.

  His phone vibrated on the dresser. He swiped his thumb, answering Leroux’s call.

  “Found something.”

  16 |

  Operations Center 2, CIA Headquarters Langley, Virginia

  Leroux watched the bodycam footage as Echo Team lifted off from the Walmart parking lot, the ground team securing the area and beginning to process the cars for evidence. The van from the abduction had been traced to the cargo area of Dulles International Airport, but a malfunctioning set of cameras had made any transfer impossible to trace. When the cameras had come back online, they only showed the parked van, with no evidence anyone was inside.

  Just like Walmart.

  If this was the Chinese, their intel was excellent.

  And Child’s expert fingers had just confirmed their possible involvement, as facial patterns pulled from the footage Kane had provided were clear enough to start finding matches in the database.