“Moscow is not pleased to hear this, nor with having to explain to that soldier’s family how he ended up with his throat hacked open in Tajikistan. That creates publicity and raises questions,” Litvin said. “The official story is that he wandered off base and was killed by local bandits, but somebody was at Ayni last night, when you made the transfer.”
Cramer could have said this also wasn’t his problem, but he didn’t. As good a job as he’d done at covering his tracks, was it possible he’d still missed or overlooked something? No, that couldn’t be it. It had to have been in Yazgulam, when the IMU safe house was taken down. They still didn’t know exactly what had transpired there.
His biggest concern was that the intruder at Ayni could have seen his face. Sure, the media just reported he was dead and CIA publicly confirmed this, but it’s not like CIA would rescind its statement and alert the media that a high ranking officer was dealing in guns and drugs with the Taliban.
He swore aloud as he considered the possible repercussions. “This could be really bad.”
“Who do you believe it was?” asked Litvin.
“It has to be CIA. The only question is why they were there? Did they somehow track me to Ayni? Were they after Arzad? Was it to monitor the arms delivery? We’ll need to prepare for the worst.”
“And what is the worst?”
“His name’s Avery. He’s the one who took down the IMU safe house. If he was at Ayni, he’ll pursue this thing to the end. Count on it. He’s a stubborn, obsessive fuck who doesn’t know when to quit.
“Avery,” Litvin repeated the name, slowly drawing out the syllables. “This man is a danger to us?”
The nature of the inquiry gave Cramer reason to pause and consider his response. If the world made any sense, Avery would be on his side. Like Cramer, he’d dedicated nearly his entire life to defending and serving the United States in one capacity or another. In Afghanistan, Cramer couldn’t have a better man watching his back.
Still, he would kill Avery, if that’s what it came to.
Like Avery, Cramer had no qualms over doing what was necessary, but he wouldn’t live easily with it. This troubled him, because he knew that if Avery caught up with him, the man would have no hesitation at all about ending his life, and he’d never think back on it with an ounce of remorse.
They served three years together in Afghanistan. Avery’s first Special Activities Division assignment was at FOB Camp Gecko, near Kandahar and the Pakistani border, where Cramer ran black penetration ops into Pakistan.
In 2009, Avery’s SAD unit was responsible for pursuing Taliban targets across the border. On one such mission, faulty intelligence led his team into an ambush. Only two members of the six-man team survived the initial assault. Avery and his wounded teammate fled into the mountainous foothills, finding a high ground to defend.
Cramer knew that Kabul station would deny his request to send FOB Gecko’s special operations contingent into Pakistan to retrieve the CIA officers. Cross-border raids without Pakistani consent were not yet commonplace at this time. Besides, Avery’s SAD team was deniable.
Cramer dispatched an UNODIR message to Kabul station, stating that unless otherwise directed, he was going to sheep-dip the Delta operators and 160th SOAR flight crews at FOB Gecko, go into Pakistan, and bring his men out. He did so immediately, without awaiting a response from Kabul station. When the response did come, the Special Operations Aviation Regiment’s Black Hawks and Little Birds were already in the air and en route, and the order from Kabul station, as expected, adamantly and frantically instructed Cramer not to proceed.
When the helicopters returned to Camp Gecko, two hours later, they unloaded the surviving and wounded SAD operators and the bodies of the others. They also left behind over two dozen dead Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.
Cramer was reprimanded by Langley, but they didn’t do anything to him. The war in Afghanistan was picking up, with Taliban and al-Qaeda escalating their attacks and tactics, and they needed someone like Cramer on the battlefield if they were going to win.
“I’m not exaggerating when I say that he’s the most competent and capable operator I’ve ever worked with. So, yes, that makes him dangerous. But he’s an independent contractor, and he’s not on good terms with the CIA leadership. He won’t have the full resources of the Agency behind him. I doubt he’ll be able to reach us outside of Tajikistan.”
“What are you going to do about this?” Litvin asked.
“I have someone in Tajikistan who has penetrated Avery’s operations there. I’ll have this taken care of by the end of the day.”
“That is reassuring to hear,” Litvin said, “but I am afraid I will not be able to commit any further to this operation until I am satisfactorily assured that this matter has been resolved and the fallout mitigated. Until then, consider all other business placed on hold.”
“Whoa, wait a minute,” Cramer said. “Let’s not overreact. First off, the Agency’s after me, not you, Aleksander. Read the news. The goddamn president is going to make a statement about my death. This guy, Avery, yeah he’s dangerous, but as far as CIA is concerned, he’s unreliable and a loose cannon. Nobody who matters at Langley gives a shit what he has to say. He can tell them he saw me at Ayni, sure, and he may as well tell them he saw the pope smoking crack with Elvis for all the good it’ll do.”
“I am pleased you’re so confident, Robert,” Litvin said. “It should then be a simple matter of determining what this man knows and then removing him from the field. Then we can go through with the sale and delivery, and conclude our business with Arzad. Do you have any objections to this?”
Cramer thought it over and decided not to argue. To do so would indicate he was unconfident in his ability to deal with Avery. “Sounds reasonable enough to me,” he said.
“Splendid.” Litvin flashed the winning smile he put on anytime he closed a business deal. “Moving forward, this setback will necessitate a face-to-face meeting with Mullah Arzad, to offer him reassurances and re-negotiate our next transaction. I’m willing to offer him some small compensation, but there is no way we can replace all of the hardware that was lost. I purchased all of that equipment from my suppliers in cash, and I’m not going to reimburse Arzad and take the loss myself. If he doesn’t care to continue doing business with us, well, that’s all right, too. There are plenty of other maniacs interested in what we are offering.”
This meant that another foray into Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province or Gorno-Badakhshan was likely in Cramer's future. He would need to calm Mullah Arzad and make sure that that the heroin would continue to flow to Ayni. Cramer’s only concern was that by this point, every CIA asset in the region would know his face, and the Department of Justice was offering $5 million for information leading to identification and arrest of his “killers.”
“Arzad won’t be a problem. I know him, I can deal with him,” Cramer said. “I’ll get in touch with my agent in Tajikistan and set it up as soon as this lingering problem over there has been resolved.”
Now that he was out of Tajikistan, he’d planned ahead as to how he would maintain contact with Mullah Arzad. Oleg Ramzin now acted as the network’s eyes and ears in Tajikistan, Dagar Nabiyev his personal courier. He could contact Oleg easily enough, by encrypted satellite communications, but Mullah Arzad didn’t trust technology. He forbade his inner circle from using computers and cell phones. Although time consuming and not one hundred percent secure (bin Laden’s location was compromised when his messenger was identified and followed), Mullah Arzad used human couriers to deliver messages.
“In the meantime, I have an appointment later this evening with a senior KGB officer,” Litvin said. “Either through the media or from Moscow or their own sources, the Belarusians will inevitably hear of what happened to the weapons in Afghanistan. This will make my position much more difficult in negotiations for the final sale. As you say, we will need to lay low in the coming days and see how events unfold from here. No worries, whatever happens, I know how to handle the Belarusians and placate them. And if your former colleague in Tajikistan is not dealt with, then I will find a different buyer.”