“One attack that either gathers people or emergency services, then another on the gathering?” Britney asked.
“Bang on. I’m going to make a WAG that the main attacks are going to be simultaneous or near simultaneous. The terrorists saw our response to 9/11. When the first attack hits, we’re going to go to DefConOne and shut everything down. People are going to get distributed, fast. But they’re going to concentrate in certain spots during that distribution…”
“What you were talking about with the tunnels,” Britney said.
“Give the girl a cigar,” Mike said, leaning back and looking at the ceiling. “So figure that there are three near simultaneous attacks. What are the indicators that they are about to go down?”
“If I knew that, I’d be in the intel business,” Britney said. “Oh, wait… ! Seriously, I have not the faintest clue.”
“Then use that noggin,” Mike said. “What were the indicators of the 9/11 attacks?”
“Guys with box cutters in their luggage?” Britney asked. “The hijackings.”
“Right,” Mike said. “The terrorists don’t make their own weapons; they use weapons that are already made by societies that can actually make stuff. Oh, sure, they use bombs and poison gas, but they’re not going to make big distribution systems. One report I had the girls go over is sales of aircraft in Florida to men with Middle Eastern names. They got nine hits. I’ve got a standard request out there to find those nine planes. Five have been located and examined; none of them are in the process of conversion. But I also talked to Arensky about conversion methods and he said two guys could do it in a couple of hours.”
“So if a plane gets stolen… ?” Britney said.
“Or any other distribution method,” Mike said with a sigh. “Which is why we’ve got all of Central Florida’s dispatch system feeding back to the caravanserai. I mean, I’ve only got so many people here. But if anything odd comes up, they should catch it there.”
“And then?”
“Well, then somebody’s got to shoot down the planes.”
“You heard Anastasia’s been kidnapped.”
“Yep.”
“You don’t seem concerned.”
“You don’t know Anastasia as well as I do.”
“So, you’re awake.”
The hood was yanked off and Anastasia blinked at the strong light in her eyes. But she was spun away from it to look at the room she was in. There were shackles hanging from the ceiling, whips lining the far wall and a set of nasty metal tools displayed in a case. At the sight, she almost fainted, but not from fear.
“Your boyfriend has been causing me trouble,” Gonzales said, walking around to stand just at the edge of her view. She was naked and strapped solidly into the chair, gagged and the gag was attached to the headrest. She could barely move a muscle.
It was wonderful.
“And you’re going to tell me everything I need to know to kill him,” Gonzales continued, walking across her field of view. “I know that right now, you’d love to tell me everything I want to know. But since I’m mad at your boyfriend, and he’s not here, I’m going to take that mad out on you.”
He returned holding two clips attached to cords. One he reached down and clipped to her labia and the other he clipped to her nipple. Then he held up a red plunger.
“Let us see how much I enjoy this…” Gonzales said, pressing the button.
As the electricity coursed through her body, Anastasia screamed in near orgasm. But it sounded enough like pain and fear.
“Anastasia was brought on board about three hours ago,” Greznya said. “We got a flash of conversation in the main salon. We have a pretty good layout of Gonzales’ boat from Katya’s travels through it and we are pretty sure what room she’s in. Katya’s been informed that she is onboard. Vil’s team is ready with the boats, Dragon and Valkyrie are prepared and Pad… Dmitri’s team and Yosif’s are working on an entry plan with Chief Adams.”
“Uh, huh,” Mike said, nodding. “Good. Great. Glad everybody’s dialed in. What’s this I hear about Schwenke?”
“Ritter was apparently Schwenke in disguise,” Greznya said. “We don’t know when Katya spotted him, or vice versa. But they had a very pleasant conversation just before he left. This was well prior to Anastasia being snatched, but it might have been…”
“Nah,” Mike replied. “This is Gonzales. Kurt would know better.”
Greznya leaned to the side, touching the earbud she had in.
“Julia says that something’s happening with Katya that may have relevance,” Greznya said, frowning. “We have the take in the…”
“Yep,” Mike said, nodding. “Let’s check it out.”
He followed the girl to the interior room of the suite where the intel team had set up shop. It was technically a maid’s bedroom, windowless and surrounded by the rest of the suite. It wasn’t entirely, or even mostly, secure, but was the best they could do under the circumstances.
The intel team had changed locales so much they had it down to something of a science and the room was ringed with monitors. One of them was showing the jerky shots of Katya walking down a hallway. From the occasional harder jerk, she was apparently being shoved from time to time.
“I gotta give that girl a raise,” Mike said. “She never seems to catch a break.”
A door opened and Mike shook his head. Anastasia was naked and tied up, spread-eagle. Gonzales, sweating, was standing in front of her holding a whip. From the looks of it he’d been working her front and Mike shook his head when he saw the marks on her breasts.
“Never whip breasts, you idiot,” he said, sighing. “When will they ever learn?”
Anastasia had a ring gag in and as Gonzales struck her again she screamed, hoarsely. Clearly they’d been at this for a while.
“Do you see this, bitch?” Gonzales said. A hand came up past the pickup and her head jerked to the side. It looked as if he was pointing her head to look at Anastasia but Katya’s eyes were jerking around taking in details of the room. “This is what happens to bitches that displease me. Are you going to please me?”
“Oh, yes, please,” Katya whined.
“Yes, Katya, you can have him when we’re done,” Mike said, pressing the transmit button on the desk mike. “Do me two favors. Wink at Anastasia and gimme a good view of the interior of the door.”
The view of the wink was weird; it turned the room surreal for a moment as the processors suddenly had to shift to just one eye then back.
“I’m sorry,” Katya whined, sliding down and huddling on the ground. “I won’t talk, I promise!” She’d turned her head away, apparently to keep from looking at the girl, and focused on the door.
“Yeah, one bolt,” Mike said, touching the transmit key again. “Good girl. Remind me when you get back I need to give you a raise or something.”
Gonzales apparently didn’t care for her turning her head away and dragged her over to the tortured woman. There was a brief flash of muff, then it was pretty apparent where he’d shoved her head. Greznya leaned down and put the sound on “record,” then cut off the exterior speakers.
“It’s late,” Mike said, walking to the door of the intel room. “I’m gonna get some sleep.”
“Kildar,” Greznya said, exasperated. “That’s Anastasia! You can’t just leave her there!”
Mike turned back and walked to the controls, hunting around until he found the recording feature. Using one of the other monitors he backed up the recording to where Gonzales laid the whip on his harem manager and froze the playback. Then he zoomed on her face.