Double Vision (2 page)

That anomaly warranted investigation. But this perfect spectrum of light added another complex layer to the reasons she must keep investigating.

“Bluefish?” Maggie asked. “Did you hear what I said?”

Great. A classic catch-22. If she acknowledged, she’d have to disobey a direct order. If she didn’t acknowledge, the lab would be informed that its new C-273 communications device had failed its field test. Kate decided to ignore the question and the order, and turned the topic. “This perfect illumination proves Captain Douglas was on the money.”

“Oh, no. You’re not pulling this on me. Acknowledge the order, Bluefish,” Maggie insisted, her tone short and sharp. “Get out of there, go the outpost and wait for Douglas and Tactical. Then return with them and investigate.”

Kate frowned. Damn it. Any other S.A.S.S. operative—Amanda, Darcy, Julia—
any
of them would have let that slide.

But then, they all had more experience than Maggie. Just Kate’s dumb luck that Amanda was out on a mission for the next few days and Maggie was manning the watch. “I won’t say I can’t hear you. The C-273 device is working great and I don’t want it reported that it’s not. But I can’t acknowledge that order.”

“Damn it, Kate.”

Now Maggie was transmitting her name! “Hey, don’t let your temper put a target on my back. Just calm down, okay?”

“Sorry.”

Jeez! Kate licked at her lips.
Make her think. Make her think.
“Listen, you know the enemy,” she reminded Maggie, who had read the dossiers on Thomas Kunz and GRID. “He could shut down this operation in a matter of minutes—he’s done it before with others. If we wait, and that happens, then all we’ll find down here is an empty hole.”

“But we’ve got—”

She might be hearing, but she damn well wasn’t listening. “What
we’ve
got doesn’t matter. It’s what
he’s
got that counts.” Kate swallowed a lump in her throat. “He’s holding at least thirty Americans permanent hostage. They’re stashed for life in one of his hellholes unless we get them out. What if they’re stashed here?”

S.A.S.S. knew for fact he had at least that many American government employees under wraps at his various compounds.

They also knew those employees’ GRID operative counterparts remained inserted and undetected in classified positions within the CIA, FBI, NAS, INS and U.S. military. Those agencies had been identified and were being watched. Yet there were other GRID operatives who remained unknown, and had not yet been identified by S.A.S.S.

Exactly how many? Only God and Thomas Kunz knew for sure. But they were active inside the U.S. government in classified positions, which is why the president had designated GRID as S.A.S.S.’s top priority.

The hostages had to be rescued to determine their doubles’ identities, their specific program affiliations and to determine their access level to classified information. And hopefully this would be accomplished before those GRID operative counterparts managed to do irreparable harm to the U.S.

“What if the hostages aren’t there and you’re walking into a trap?”

“Highly unlikely, Base. The coordinates weren’t fixed and there weren’t any guideposts, leading me here. No one meant for me to find this particular cave. I literally stumbled into it.” True, thanks to high tide, swift water currents and a curiosity about defaced rocks.

It seemed vulgar in a way, to have so much technology and sophisticated detection systems available, yet if the hostages were here and rescued, or if the GRID weapons cache were found, it would be as a direct result of simple unsophisticated things and blind luck.

“Which is exactly why you need to wait for Tactical. You could be walking into anything.”

It was walking into the unknown that troubled Maggie. Kate rolled her gaze ceilingward, edgy and annoyed now. Maggie’s lack of experience was weighing Kate down. The woman really shouldn’t be cutting her teeth on this mission.

But she had to cut them somewhere, and since the president had changed the unit’s priorities, there’d been no latitude or choice in the matter. Hell, Maggie probably wasn’t crazy about the situation, either.

Realizing the truth in that, Kate calmed down and dredged the depths of her soul for another helping of patience. In short supply, she grabbed the meager bits she could pull together and then explained. “No, Base. That’s exactly why I can’t wait. I’ve got to check this out now—before the enemy discovers I’m here.”

“He could already know it,” Maggie said. “The whole damn cave could be wired with surveillance equipment. He could be intercepting our communications. I know the lab says we’re secure, but this is the C-273’s maiden voyage. They can’t know it for fact. Any communications device can be intercepted—you don’t need Intel to verify that. All the experts agree. What if the guys at the lab are wrong, Bluefish? What if he’s waiting for you?”

The idea chilled Kate’s blood. Kunz looked like a sunny kind of guy. Forty, blond and blue-eyed, casual and elegant, he appeared to be totally benevolent and good-na
tured. But he wasn’t. He was a sick, sadistic bastard who got off on torture and stealing other people’s lives. Amanda’s confrontation with him on a previous mission had made all of that clear, and Kate definitely would prefer to avoid him on this mission—if given a choice.

“Listen,” she told Maggie. “Some risks you’ve got to take. If any of the hostages are here, I have to take the shot at getting them out.”

“And if they’re not?”

“Then we’ve still got the weapons cache to worry about. There’s been a lot of chatter lately about the enemy trying to move bio weapons systems. You’ve heard the reports. Douglas suspects they’re hidden somewhere in the area.” Darcy did, too, and Kate had a healthy respect for her deductions. She was an ace at them. “We can’t risk bio weapons getting loose on the black market. Odds are they’ll be used against us, Base. I’m not willing to risk that.” She sure as hell didn’t need to add responsibility for that to her personal, emotional baggage.

“Okay, okay. But just do reconnaissance. Don’t approach, and don’t reveal yourself. I understand your motives, Bluefish, but you can’t prevent any crisis if you’re dead. If you find anything, get Douglas and Tactical to go in with you. I’ll put his commander on alert.”

“Who is his CO?”

Maggie answered in code.

Kate translated. Major Nathan Forester. She let his name meander through her mind. They’d never met, but his name seemed familiar to Kate. She couldn’t recall why. “Ask Intel to get me a dossier on him.”

“Stand by.” A lengthy few minutes later Maggie returned and relayed the encrypted information.

Kate automatically decoded it in her head.

Nathan G. Forester. Thirty-one, black hair, blue eyes, solid build. No remarkable scars or identifying marks. Graduated from the Academy top of his class. Awarded a Purple Heart in Afghanistan, another in Iraq. Bio field-specialist. Expert marksman. Worked under Secretary Reynolds at the Pentagon on analysis of bio intelligence. Currently commanding the 123rd Tactical Force.

Intriguing. “Put him on notice,” Kate said. Her heart hammering, she looked down the cave. Pale light glinted on the water’s surface as far as she could see. This compound—every instinct in her body screamed this cave was a GRID compound—appeared to be as unique as the others discovered by the S.A.S.S. units—and as problematic to breach. Underwater entrance: one means of ingress and egress. If Kate ran into trouble, escaping would be significantly challenging, which was probably why Kunz had chosen this one.

“Okay, the commander has been notified,” Maggie said. Then her tone dropped a notch. “He also delivered some bad news, Bluefish.”

“What now?” Kate snapped, unable to keep her irritation out of her voice.

“Douglas and his team are unavailable. The commander is trying to make contact but the team’s been locked down and radio silent for almost twenty-four hours.”

“Do they need backup?”

“No. They’re functional, just out of pocket.”

Not pinned down by someone else, just locked down observing someone else, Kate supposed.

“There’s more.” Even the terminally cheerful Maggie sighed. “The commander informed me that the CIA and Special Forces have scoured the hills above you from land. Apparently there’s a maze of caves. But an intense exploration netted only dead ends.”

Kate chewed at her inner lip, fully understanding why the compound had been nearly impossible to locate. Her mind raced ahead as she crept through the bowels of the cave, her left shoulder scraping against the jagged rock wall, her fins scouring the sandy bottom. Launching a successful attack on this place wouldn’t be a picnic. Actually, it’d be damn near impossible. Alone, her odds of success were astronomically small. And that, too, no doubt had been Kunz’s intention.

“I updated the boss,” Maggie said. “She’s ordered me to remind you that you’re under direct order to pull out now and to wait for tactical assistance before reentering.”

Kate considered it. The odds for her survival, and for the survival of the American detainees Kunz was holding hostage—if in fact any of them were here—ranked a one on the colonel’s infamous one-to-ten scale: zero probability of success. The mission difficulty ranked ten. Translated and simply put, succeeding required a miracle.

And who dies if you fail, Kate?

The fears and old feelings of not being good enough to do what needed doing shot up out of a dark, secret niche inside her. She’d buried all that unworthiness baggage years ago, but the memory of it persisted, as ingrained things do, and on occasion it surfaced. Naturally, because the timing couldn’t be worse, it had chosen to surface now.

Resentment slid through her and, steeped in it, she stiffened, clenched her jaw and strengthened her resolve.
Knock it off. Now, Kate. You can’t afford any doubts. Bio weapons, classified information on only God knows what programs…Millions of potential victims are depending on you, and they definitely can’t afford any doubts.

Summoning her will, which had always proven stronger than her fears, she shoved her doubts back down, burying
the emotional baggage that just wouldn’t die, then turned her thoughts back to the challenge at hand.

As well as that one means of ingress and egress through an underwater cave, and the compound being inside a hill of rock, other challenges lay ahead.

Significant challenges.

Aided by former Soviet plastic surgeons and psychiatrists with expertise in psychological warfare and mind manipulation, Kunz had created doubles. Very well-trained, well-motivated clones. She would have to determine which people were GRID operative clones and which were true U.S. government employees.

As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge to make sane woman nuts, Kunz would more than likely spice up things to amuse himself by adding his own cloned surrogate into the mix. It would be just like him to mimic Saddam Hussein, pose his double to GRID members and have him run operations in the compound while Kunz remained removed from the fray.

This man-made clone, without a doubt, would be surrounded by seasoned GRID operatives who existed for the sole purpose of protecting him from any enemy, including Kate.

The real Thomas Kunz—thank heaven and Amanda and Kate—had had been arrested during the last GRID compound raid. He currently sat stashed behind bars in Leavenworth. Whether he remained in command of GRID, running operations from his prison cell or had handed over power to some subordinate GRID member remained undetermined.

If betting, Kate would put her money on his empowering a double. It’d be more effective—especially if the GRID members didn’t know he was a double.

That was possible. S.A.S.S. had encountered one Kunz double already and unfortunately had no idea how many others existed. Hopefully he hadn’t copied Saddam Hussein, in that, too. He had at least eight known doubles. Yet with Thomas Kunz, experience proved it wise to pray for the best but to expect the worst.

The sorry bastard probably had a dozen.

Under these circumstances, would even a single miracle do the job?

Unsure, Kate tightened her grip on her knife, dragged in a steadying breath and admitted the truth. Her odds sucked. She’d need at least a fistful of miracles to pull this off.

The back of her neck prickled. She removed her mask and opened her senses, then slowly turned in a circle and studied everything in sight. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Calm. Silent. Just her and the moving water and eerie light.
Definitely hyperalert.

Giving herself a mental shake, she finished weighing her challenges and then turned to plans. How should she proceed? What moves gave her the highest probability of success?

Water splashed and hit her full in the face. The strong salt stank and had her eyes tearing. She wiped at them with her free hand and mentally worked through potential plans of action. She couldn’t just blow the compound to hell and back as she had the first one she’d found in the Middle East. Thomas Kunz’s surrogate and the GRID operatives would die, but so would the hostages—if any of them were here—and detonating biological-laced weaponry wasn’t something she would willingly do. Not in this lifetime.

She thought on it some more, certain she could find something to better her odds…Even if the explosives were
strategically positioned and fitted out with remote detonators, they could cause a collapse in the cave. Percussion alone could kill anyone inside. Water was a hell of a conductor, it would amplify the effects.

Every way she looked at it, a person attempting to escape would face insurmountable odds, including her. And she’d have to be in the cave to relay the remote or the signal wouldn’t penetrate. There were alternative devices that could be used, but she couldn’t get them down here to use them. Not without help.

She played with a few more possibilities, but none were feasible much less wise, which left her with only one viable solution: to return to the outpost and draft a plan enlisting the aid of Douglas’s commander.