Love Is for Tomorrow (7 page)

The room was calm, which was good. It meant that everyone understood that World War Three was at stake.

Antoine thought,
Great. Another mission to save the world before I can get back to what I need to do.

“Do you know anything about Tanya, or her connections?” Smith asked. “What terror group are we talking about?”

Rose hesitated.

“I am looking into that,” she said.

“So she’s a ghost,” Antoine said looking at Jason.

Rose nodded.

“As you can imagine, it is easier telling other intelligence agencies that there is a bomb heading their way than informing them it’s in their country,” Rose said. “We need to find out what is going on and pass the intelligence onto an official body of authority, which will deal with the situation accordingly. Let them handle it. We stay in the dark, pulling the strings.”

CHAPTER SIX

THE SINS OF THE FATHER

“The apple does not fall far from the tree.”

Vienna, Austria

Rose tapped the side of her glasses. An internalized map display with different waypoints flickered in front of her left eye. She was in the war room with Priya. Rose fed what she saw to the big screen so that Priya could take a look herself.

“That’s what I’m getting from my informant,” Rose said. “We’re tracking Olga’s location over the Gmail system Kate Jackson uses to get in touch with her.”

The map showed the places Olga had visited after various time marks during the last couple weeks. To anyone else it would be just a jumble of information, but Rose knew how to make connections and extrapolate. Olga had flown through half of Europe, but there was a structure to it that was unrelated to the UN.

“It’s amazing how the simplest things get overlooked. With this location tracker we get updates every half hour. We can follow her, anticipate her moves and stay close so we can find her when she meets Tanya. You see that?”

Rose highlighted possible destinations, then linked it to Olga’s pattern. She cross-checked the outgoing flights for the next ninety minutes.

“According to her tickets, it will be in Madrid,” Priya said.

“You’re going after her, Priya,” Rose said. “There is no margin for error. I am sending a small support team with you in case things turn sour. Drone, sniper, spotter. Maximum surveillance. You need to be fast. I am sending Smith and Mini with you.”

Priya asked somewhat surprised, “Mini? I thought she retired from the field after…”

“She will just be a spotter. We need all hands on deck. She knows what’s at stake. Flight’s leaving in an hour.”      

***

Toledo, Spain

Toledo was the home of master blacksmiths, producing the finest blades in Europe. However,
Olga saw it as a medieval city that hadn’t lost its Renaissance charm. Sand colored cathedrals crowned the mountain top. She would be meeting Tanya in one of them. Edged weapons in every shop on every corner shimmered as she drove by through the narrow alleys. Red rocks surrounded the city in a surrounding valley, as the sun set, framing the city into red light. Olga parked her car close to the city gate
Puerta del Sol
. A narrow alley led her over cobblestones into a cube-shaped church. Her stiletto heels clacked over stone in the evening sun.

Even now, danger loomed. It could be a trap. Olga was a valuable target who would fetch a top price. People said every person’s life was worth the same. If that was true, how come some had bigger ransoms than others? She pushed that thought out of her mind. Her father had gotten her to where she was. Now this was her chance to elevate herself to a whole new level: Stopping a terrorist attack against her motherland. This was an opportunity that she would not let slip by.

She waited. Her eyes scanned the church.

There was more to
El Cristo de la Luz
than what met the eye. A former mosque, it was now Tanya’s chosen rendezvous point
.
For the first time in years, she would see in the flesh a once close friend whom she had not seen for the greater part of a decade.

A welcoming coolness and the smell of frankincense greeted her as she entered. The old wooden benches and crosses awoke painful childhood memories of her father forcibly dragging her to church. She dipped her fingers into the holy water font and made the sign of the Cross. She walked into the middle of the church. She genuflected at the figures of Jesus and Mary behind the altar and turned for the rightmost pulpit. A confessional box stood hidden in a dark corner.

Olga went inside, closed the door behind her and took a seat. A small wooden grille was the only link between the two cells. Darkness stared back at her. She felt the presence of someone on the other side. A female voice spoke to her in Russian.

“You have come here to atone for your sins?”

That was enough for her to know she spoke with the right person. She gave enough for the other person to know she understood.

“This time, I will listen to yours,” Olga said.

CHAPTER SEVEN

CITY OF BLADES

“Sleep is a shallow death we practice every night.” - Lydia Netzer,
How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky
 

Toledo, Spain

Olga couldn’t see but she felt that Tanya was grinning.
She put her fingertips against the wall separating them.

“Very well,” Tanya replied.  

Olga recognized her pattern of speech. It was the one that Olga’s father had taught Tanya and then Olga herself. She had still been a child, when Tanya left.  

“I don’t know how much your father told you about me, or how much you still remember,” Tanya began. “So I will tell you myself. I went to the States young. There I met a US born Russian who had already been vetted by the KGB. Of course the facts were kept blurred but he knew what I was doing. He agreed to it but wasn’t involved in spying. He helped me keep a good cover. We gave the illusion of a normal family.”

Olga had seen their family pictures when she was young through postcards sent to her father. They went sailing and to the beach and did all these typically American things, with going to concerts and having barbecues.

“Shortly after getting married, we moved to Washington. The huge increase in defense spending and hiring people with foreign language skills after 9/11 proved very beneficial.”

Olga nodded. She had heard about this period, but didn’t know whether both of them got hired. Tanya surely did.

“Then, agents in Russia and America both got captured, in the build-up to what would be the biggest spy-swap in history. Someone let it leak that we were involved. The US captured him in 2008 and then swapped him two years later. After his arrest, I pleaded to come back to Russia. You see, I loved my husband more than my country or mission”

“Love conquers all,” Olga said.

Tanya laughed.

“Not in this job. One month after he returned to Russia, my husband was found dead in his cell. Apparently the FSB thought it would be better to kill him to make sure the Americans didn’t find out their mistake. It also eliminated any reason for me to come back. So I stayed, but for the last five years I have been making plans. I rose higher and gained more influence, power and money.
”

“I admire that you have no hatred against the FSB,” Olga replied.

“The world is bigger than us and our feelings. What good would it do to harm my own country? It’s the last loyalty I have. Your father has it, you have it and I have it too. Without loyalty, we have nothing.” A long silence followed. “I have a car parked at
Puerta del Sol
. It is a wine-red Acura NSX. Follow me. I will lead you to a safe place where we can talk face to face.”

“Why not here?” Olga said
.

“Hello?” Olga said after a long silence. The confessional compartment next to her was already empty. Steps moved over the stone tiles outside, leading to the exit.

***

Priya lifted her head from the pew in which she was kneeling. Her hidden microphone aimed at the back of the chapel. Her eyes followed a woman in sunglasses who left the confessional box and made for the exit. Seconds later, Olga came out of it. She looked around and made the sign of the Cross before leaving.

Priya rose from the pew, the old wood creaking. She walked into a side nave of the chapel.

“Team,” she said into her micro-bead. “We’re about to get mobile. The angels are flying.”

She slipped through the closing door and saw Olga scudding down the stone stairs.

The plaz
a was drenched in evening heat. Only the shadows from the high tree tops made it bearable. A flock of pigeons rose up in the sky and fluttered away as Olga charged them.

Priya hurried over the big cobblestones in the street to the parking lot. She saw Tanya leaving in the ruby Acura and Olga walk towards a black Mercedes AMG GT S.

Priya paused behind a tree and pretended to take a picture of the city gate. Watching Olga in the background of her camera-feed, she took a picture of the license plate as the car drove away.

“Sending you the number, take up pursuit,” Priya said, running to her Porsche. “Targets driving off. Olga is in the black Benz, her contact, probably Tanya, is in a red Acura.”

Priya unlocked her car and got inside. Salim had done a good job giving her what she needed. She gripped the steering wheel and pressed the button to start the engine. The car lurched forward and propelled her onto the narrow street without making as much as a sound.

She maneuvered through an upslope alley, being spit out onto the main square on top of the mountain. She closed distance with Olga’s Mercedes, as she sped the Porsche Boxter do
wnhill. The city walls rushed past her. She banked right, taking the road over the bridge. The river rumbled a hundred meters below as the three cars reached the other side.

Tanya led them in a wide circle around the city. The yellow blades of dry grass rushed past her. Cars and cyclists stopped in laybys to take in the sunset, oblivious to the chase.

Olga slowed down in front of a restaurant with a wide view over the canyon and rolled her car into a free parking space.

“They’re stopping,” Priya spoke into her mic. “Stopping at the
Hierbabuena
. I can’t go in there easily.”

She looked around and scanned the environment.

“Team, see that mansion to the south on the lone hill,” Priya said. “Go there and get access for an observation point.”

“Understood,” Smith said.

Priya hit the steering wheel and reversed. She was back up the road in mere seconds.

The mansion was a private one-family estate, its driveway occupied by her team’s Dodge Grand Caravan. A wall of large windows faced the canyon with the
Restaurante Hierbabuena
. That was exactly why she chose it.

Mini opened the door before Priya could ring the doorbell. The homeowners were still protesting as Smith carried equipment past her into the living room. Priya followed him. It was Mini’s job to deal with them--though it was clear in less than three seconds that she would get what she wanted.

Priya joined Smith in the living room. He took position onto the floor of the balcony. Priya started her laptop in the living room and activated the drone. A moment later Mini arrived, closing all doors to leave them undisturbed.

“I bought us twenty minutes,” she said. “Let’s hope it lasts.”

“And that we aren’t too late,” Priya said, blowing a strand of hair away from her forehead.

Priya had everything assembled. Her fingers were sweating. She didn’t want to miss a thing. Vital information could be passed between Tanya and Olga at this very moment. She had to get the drone up fast.

Mini lay down next to Smith. She set up a tripod then balanced binoculars with a range finder on top.

Smith began assembling his Nesika Tactical Rifle. In less than thirty seconds he had his scope in place, the barrel mounted and was aiming at the
Restaurante Hierbabuena
.