Extraordinary Rendition Page 6

  31 |

  Operations Center 2, CIA Headquarters Langley, Virginia

  Leroux stared at the various feeds monitoring the intercept of the private jet then rose from his station as Morrison entered the operations center.

  “Report.”

  “Sir, the plane is approaching Canadian airspace and is not responding to hails.”

  Morrison joined him at the center of the room, taking in the information displayed in front of him. “What are the Canadians doing?”

  “They’ve scrambled F-18s from CFB Bagotville to intercept.”

  Morrison shook his head, staring at the map. “Why didn’t they go out to sea? At least they’d be in international waters, then they could have gone north and taken the polar route.”

  “No idea. Right now, they’re on a standard flight plan matching the one they filed. No deviations. If it weren’t for their transponder going silent, there’d be nothing suspicious about their flight. According to Dulles, they departed without incident, though had been delayed due to a backlog after an equipment malfunction in the luggage handling area.”

  “When was it booked?”

  “Two weeks ago, according to the charter company.”

  “Do we know who’s on board?”

  Child brought up the manifest, the passport information for the crew and passengers displayed. “Three crew, four Chinese businessmen.”

  “Have we run them?”

  Leroux nodded. “Yes. They’re clean as far as we can tell.”

  “So, they might not even know they have our people on board.”

  Child grunted. “Or they’re doing a favor for their Chinese overlords.”

  Leroux agreed with both possibilities. “Anything is possible. I doubt the pilot knows, however. He shows as a Swedish citizen, and his co-pilot is French.”

  Tong interrupted. “Sir, our fighters are reporting the pilot is visually indicating a comms failure. He’s turning now.”

  Morrison headed for the door. “Good. Maybe we’ll have some answers when they land. Send Echo Team.”

  Leroux returned to his station. “Yes, sir.”

  “Sirs!” exclaimed Tong, excitement in her voice.

  Everyone turned toward her, Morrison halting his exit. “What?” asked Leroux.

  “They found one of them!”

  32 |

  Walmart Supercenter, Kings Crossing Arlington, Virginia

  Sherrie woke to the sounds of voices. Loud voices. They were all around her, no longer in the distance. Hands grabbed her and a shot of panicked adrenaline rushed through her system, giving her a momentary burst of energy as she struggled to fight them off.

  Yet the fight was short-lived, the energy fleeting.

  “Calm down. You’re safe now.”

  The voice was soothing, concerned.

  English.

  No more Chinese.

  She was lifted into the air then placed on something softer, more comfortable than the confines she had been trapped in for so long.

  “She’s suffered severe trauma. It looks like they laid quite the beating on her.”

  “You should see them,” she whispered, the laughter buoying her spirits, finally confirming to her that she truly had been rescued.

  Someone patted her shoulder. “That’s good. Keep up that sense of humor. It means your old noggin is still working.”

  “She took a blow to the back of the head,” said another. “Looks pretty bad.” The person leaned in, though her swollen eyes didn’t let her see them beyond a shadow on the other side of her eyelids. “Do you have a headache?”

  “Like a college hangover. It hursh ev…where.” Her heart raced at her slurred speech, and her newly discovered world faded.

  “We’re losing her!”

  33 |

  En route to Walmart Supercenter, Kings Crossing Arlington, Virginia

  Kane raced toward the Walmart Leroux had notified him of only minutes before. He had already been heading back to Langley when he had received the call, and he had broken pretty much every traffic law imaginable since. At the moment, he knew nothing beyond someone had been found at the scene of the two abandoned cars used in the abduction.

  How whoever it was had been missed for so long he had no idea, but heads would roll if Fang or Sherrie died because of it.

  He spotted the Walmart ahead, a beehive of law enforcement activity, an ambulance just pulling out onto the road, its siren wailing, its lights flashing as a police escort cleared the way.

  He followed, drafting the ambulance to take advantage of the cleared path.

  He instructed the car to dial Leroux. “What do we know?”

  A clearly distraught Leroux replied. “J-just that her heart stopped. That’s all I know. I don’t know if they got it going again.”

  “I’m behind the ambulance now. Do we know who it is? Is it Fang or Sherrie?”

  “No. I’m trying to find out but there was no ID.”

  Kane slammed his palm into the steering wheel. “Hell, was she Asian or Caucasian?”

  “I-I didn’t think…”

  Kane could hear his friend’s anguish, and his own emotions threatened to get the best of him. He drew a calming breath, determined to avoid taking his frustrations out on his best friend. “It’s okay, buddy, we’re all messed up and not thinking straight. Tell Sonya to ask them if the victim is Asian or Caucasian.”

  “Just-just a second.”

  He heard a burst of static then Tong’s voice replaced Leroux’s. “Hi Dylan, this is Sonya. I’m taking over for a few minutes.”

  “Understood. Is he okay?”

  There was a pause. “No,” replied Tong in a whisper, her own voice cracking. “Are you?”

  Kane gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. “Not yet. Did you find out—”

  “She’s Caucasian. I’m—I’m sorry, Dylan, I know that’s not what you wanted to hear.”

  Kane’s shoulders slumped, angered at it not being Fang, then overwhelmed with guilt at treating Sherrie’s life as less valuable than his girlfriend’s. He struggled to control his anguish. “Tell the Chief to send Chris to the hospital. Send a security detail as well.” His ears pounded with a realization. “If Sherrie’s in that ambulance, then those remains they found…”

  “We don’t know that yet, Dylan. Echo Team is about to enter that jet. She may be on board.”

  Kane’s heart hammered as tunnel vision threatened to take control. He steadied his breathing and released the death grip he had on the wheel. “Keep me posted.”

  34 |

  Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst

  Tanner sprinted toward the airplane, her team on her heels as scores of troops and vehicles surrounded the private charter. The door opened and the stairs dropped, a military team taking the lead on this one, approaching the aircraft and ordering the occupants out.

  A group of terrified men and women emerged, hands raised, the action over within minutes. As the passengers were patted down and their IDs checked, a team boarded the aircraft, a rapid search conducted for any stragglers or kidnap victims. The officer in charge exited the plane, shaking his head.

  The cargo holds were opened and emptied as Tanner approached the pilot, his hands cuffed behind his back. She flashed her badge. “Tanner. Homeland Security. Was anything loaded in the last few minutes before takeoff?”

  “Just their carry-ons. Their luggage was loaded about half an hour before we taxied.”

  “Anything else on board? Anything your company was filling any excess capacity with?”

  He shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of. We’re not a cargo aircraft. You’re right, sometimes we courier stuff if we know there’s going to be excess capacity, but this flight has nothing like that on board.”

  “Nothing large, like a…coffin?”

  The pilot’s eyebrows popped. “Just what is it you’re looking for?”

  “Answer the question.”

  “No, just standard luggage.”

  “Mind if we open everything up?”

  The man eyed her. “You just had fighter jets force me to the ground. If you can do that, I think you can do whatever the bloody hell you want. But when you get to my suitcase, somebody get a fresh pair of underwear for me. I think I shit myself earlier.”

  Tanner chuckled. “I don’t blame you.”

  “What the hell is this about? Why are you bringing my plane down just because of a comms failure?”

  “Your transponder was turned off, and you left Dulles immediately after an…incident, shall we say?”

  “You mean you think we’re involved in some sort of terrorist plot?”

  “It was a possibility.” She watched the military personnel haul the last bag out of the hold. She stepped over to the large pile. “Open anything big enough to contain a body.”

  Everyone stared at her, the officer in charge approaching. “Nobody can fit in these, ma’am.”

  Tanner regarded him. “Not in one piece.”

  35 |

  En route to Inova Fairfax Hospital Falls Church, Virginia

  Leroux stared ahead, his mind a fog of confusion, ignoring everything around him, the traffic a blur. Thankfully, Morrison had insisted on driving him to the hospital, playing it off as his duty since it was one of his personnel near death.

  Near death.

  The very thought had Leroux’s stomach in knots, bile filling his mouth, his head gripped by a headache he couldn’t shake.

  He couldn’t think straight.

  Thank God for Sonya.

  He was useless. He couldn’t run an operation, not in his condition.

  And if Sherrie dies…

  If she died, it was all over. His life was over. She was everything to him. The only woman he had ever loved, the person who had dragged him, kicking and screaming, out of his shell.

  She had made him into the man he was today.

  And without her in his life, none of it was worth it.

  A tear rolled down his cheek and he quickly wiped it away, though he was certain Morrison had seen it.

  The phone rang and Morrison answered it. “This is Morrison. You’re on speaker with a cleared passenger.”

  “Sir, this is Sonya Tong. We just heard from Echo Team. They found nothing on board. We’re all of the opinion here that these people were set up.”

  “A diversion?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Leroux, dragged from his fog of emotions, stared at Morrison as a horrifying conclusion occurred to him. “If Sherrie is at the hospital, and no one is on that plane, then that must mean the remains in the van…” He couldn’t say it, he couldn’t acknowledge what was now obvious, for doing so meant it was true. As long as he didn’t say it, it wasn’t a fact, there was still a possibility.

  Morrison’s jaw squared. “Until I have proof, I’m not assuming anything. Miss Tong, I want to know the moment you find out anything on those remains.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Morrison ended the call then glanced at a shaking Leroux. “How are you holding up, son?”

  “Like shit, sir.”

  Morrison chuckled. “No doubt.”

  “Dylan’s going to be worse. He loves Fang as much as I love Sherrie. If she’s dead, he’s going to go apeshit. I wouldn’t want to be the Chinese tomorrow.”

  Morrison frowned. “I know, that’s what I’m afraid of.”

  “Are you going to order him to stand down?”

  Morrison gave him a look. “Do you think that would work?”

  Leroux grunted. “Not for a second.”

  “Then we better make sure whoever he starts killing deserves to be killed, or we could have a bigger problem on our hands than one dead foreign operative, and one badly beaten intelligence asset.”

  36 |

  Fairfax, Virginia

  Echo Team’s chopper landed gently, any urgency now gone. All that was left was the identification of the remains found in the burned-out van. And if those remains proved to be one of their victims, the day would have been a failure.

  Something none of her team were pleased with.

  They strode toward the scene, the last firetruck pulling away, the smoke billowing from the abandoned warehouse now gone. Police swarmed the perimeter, but inside, the warehouse was controlled by CIA personnel seconded to Homeland. She approached a tech holding some sort of gadget near a table, some of the charred remains laid out on it.

  “What have you got?”

  The woman looked up, then gestured with the device. “The Rapid DNA Analyzer is comparing the DNA we just pulled from the remains. We should have a result shortly.”

  Lyons’ eyebrows popped. “That quickly?”

  “Yup. State of the art. It’s basically a lab on a chip.”

  Tanner eyeballed the machine with curiosity. “Cool. What are you comparing it to?”

  “Sorry, classified.”

  Tanner rolled her eyes. “What else is new.”

  The tech chuckled. “Tell me about it. I don’t even know who I’m testing against. All I know is that I had two samples to test against, and was just told to exclude one of them.”

  “What do you think that means?”

  The tech shrugged. “Don’t know, but one of the locals here said he heard over the radio that they recovered a badly beaten victim at a Walmart not too far from here.”

  Tanner felt sick and took a step back, Lyons placing a steadying hand on her arm. “Where did you say?”

  “In a dumpster behind a Walmart. I don’t know which one.”

  Tanner closed her eyes, sighing heavily. She looked at Lyons. “We should have searched the area.”

  Lyons shook his head. “Those weren’t our orders. The ground team was supposed to, not us. We were ordered out minutes after we arrived.”

  The tech ignored her discomfort. “Hey, do you guys know what’s going on?”

  Tanner sucked in a deep breath. “Not an effin’ clue, just that I’ve put more miles in on that chopper today than I have in months.”

  The device beeped in the tech’s hand.

  “What’s that mean?”

  “It means we’ve got a match.”

  37 |

  Inova Fairfax Hospital Falls Church, Virginia

  Leroux climbed out of Morrison’s SUV as the Chief’s phone rang. His boss waved him on. “Go in, I’ll take this then find you.”

  “Yes, sir.” Leroux headed through the hospital doors and into the organized chaos an emergency department usually was. He flashed his ID to get to the front of the line. “I’m looking for a patient that was brought in. Sherrie White.”

  “Mr. Leroux?”

  He turned to see a woman approaching. “Yes?”

  “I’m Cynthia Rhodes. I was told to expect you by your office. Follow me, would you?”

  He followed Rhodes to an elevator. “Is she okay?”

  Rhodes frowned slightly as they boarded. “She’s alive. I think it’s best if the doctor explains everything. All I can tell you is that she was badly beaten, and from what I hear from the paramedics, left for dead.”

  Rage and fear threatened to overwhelm him and he gripped the railing, leaning against the wall, Rhodes not noticing as she faced the doors.

  “She suffered severe head trauma. It looks like she was hit over the head with something. The doctor thinks she was pistol-whipped from behind, then kicked repeatedly. There were very few defensive wounds. We’ve had to put her in an induced coma.”

  The doors opened and she reached back, pulling him out after her, concern on her face. “Are you okay?”

  He wiped the sweat from his forehead, his entire body weak. “Is-is she going to die?”

  “I’ll let the doctor—”

  “Chris!”

  He looked up with tear-filled eyes and spotted Kane rushing toward him. They hugged hard, and his friend led him to the window outside Sherrie’s room.

  And the sight had his knees buckling, only Kane’s supporting arm keeping him from collapsing. She was bandaged it seemed from head to toe, with more tubes and wires coming out of her than he had ever known possible. Her eyes were swollen shut, and she was on what appeared to be a ventilator.

  Kane guided him to a chair, Rhodes leaving for a moment. Kane knelt in front of Leroux. “You okay?”

  Leroux shook his head. “No.” He stared at his only friend. “If I lose her…”

  “You won’t. She’s a fighter. You know that. She’s the strongest woman I know with the possible exception of Fang.”

  Rhodes returned with a bottle of water and handed it to Leroux. “Drink this. It will make you feel better.”

  Leroux complied, taking several long swigs. A man walked over and Rhodes introduced him. “This is Doctor Lenze.”

  Leroux stood, shaking the man’s hand, but couldn’t speak. Thankfully, Kane took over.

  “What can you tell us?”

  “The next forty-eight hours will tell. She has swelling on the brain. We’ve induced a coma, and we’re taking her in for surgery now to relieve the pressure. If she survives the next two days, then I’m confident she’ll be okay.”

  Leroux watched as a team entered her room, moments later pushing her out.

  Lenze patted Leroux on the shoulder. “I have to go. I’ll see you after the surgery.”

  Leroux dropped back into the chair as Morrison joined them, his face grim.

  And Leroux was certain he knew why.

  As apparently did Kane.

  His friend’s fists clenched. “It’s Fang, isn’t it?”

  Morrison placed a hand on Kane’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, son, but the DNA test confirmed it. It was her remains in the van.”

  Kane’s fists clenched harder, his jaw tight as the veins in his neck threatened to explode, his face turning red as every muscle in his body tensed.

  Then he collapsed in the chair beside Leroux and let out a heart-wrenching gasp, his shoulders slumping and his head drooping as tears erupted. He gripped the arms of his chair, his knuckles turning white as his shoulders heaved. Leroux put an arm over his friend’s shoulders, and for the first time he could recall, his only friend for so many years turned and hugged him, the two sobbing as they held each other.