Avery returned the binoculars to Poacher.
The driver-side door opened and Darren, the ops officer from the embassy, slipped behind the wheel. He also did a double take when he noticed Aleksa, but he didn’t ask questions. “We can’t stay here. Ghazan’s people are ordering us out of the airport ASAP.”
“Fuck that,” Avery countered. “We’re not leaving.”
“Sorry, man,” Darren said. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but that’s an order straight from DCM, who just got off the phone with the Tajik interior minister and the Russian ambassador before that. Shit’s way above my pay grade.”
Gerald squirmed upon hearing this, knowing that he would now have to answer to the State Department’s deputy chief of mission when he returned to the embassy. He silently prayed that Avery and the SAD officers didn’t do anything in the next few minutes to exacerbate the situation and make his life more difficult.
“Darren’s right,” said Gerald. “We should leave immediately.”
Avery started to protest, but Darren put the Forerunner into gear and followed the other two embassy vehicles. Two Tajik police cars with flashing sirens escorted them, making sure that they put a satisfactory distance between themselves and the airport. Overhead, another Russian military helicopter whipped by.
Avery shook his head. “And we’re just going to allow the HEU to go through?”
Gerald didn’t want to hear about this either. He didn’t want to explain to the DCM or his superiors anything about nuclear material going to the Taliban. As it was, it already looked like he had no control over anything happening here. He was sure that Langley would recall him after this fiasco.
“He’s right,” Aleksa said. “They diverted a shipment of uranium bound for Russia. It’ll be in the Taliban’s possession by the end of the day. I have all the proof, but I don’t know the location of the processing facility.”
“Who is she?” Poacher asked Avery again.
“She’s the contact M-Bird set me up with in Minsk,” Avery told Poacher. He was aware of Aleksa glaring at him, and he consciously avoided meeting her gaze. “If it weren’t for her, I’d still be cluelessly fucking about Minsk right now.”
“I thought you didn’t work for the CIA,” Aleksa said to Avery.
Darren turned his head at that. “Whoa, who the hell said anything about CIA?”
Avery cringed.
Gerald cleared his throat. “Gentleman, perhaps we should have this conversation at a later time. Whoever she is, this woman does not have the requisite security clearances, and, as it is, we’ll already need to fill out FN contact forms.”
He referred to the exhausting amounts of paperwork all CIA officers had to file after coming into contact with a foreign national. Avery knew Gerald didn’t expect any of them to comply with that protocol. He was just throwing it out there to cover his own ass, in case his superiors caught wind of a Russian citizen riding around in an Agency vehicle.
Christ, this was turning into a freaking circus. Avery knew Gerald’s next statement was going to be something along the lines of debriefing Aleksa Denisova at the embassy, but he wasn’t about to turn her over to Dushanbe station.
So Avery shot Gerald his angriest look, warning him off. The novice officer caught the message and let it go. Avery said to Poacher, “How do you think I found out about the HEU and got aboard that plane? I trust her, to some extent. She won’t talk.”
“Oh, the hell I won’t,” Aleksa said, irritated with people talking about her as if she wasn’t present. “These people killed my friend. I still have a story to write, and it’s your fault I’m here. I’m not going to be quiet about this.”
Avery’s head hurt. “Look, we’ll talk about it later.”
He needed to discuss with her about what exactly she intended to do with everything she’d saw and learned. As far as he was concerned, she could print what she wanted, but anything that happened after she met him in Minsk was off-limits.
He turned to Poacher. “What’s the story here?”
“After I got your message, I contacted the boss.” Poacher didn’t want to use Matt Culler’s name in front of Gerald or Aleksa. “He said he’d to try to get a Predator over here to stick on the Antonov. I haven’t heard back from him on that. I have no idea if he has anything en route, and even if he was successful, it’s coming from Bagram, so it’ll probably be too late to do us any good. If you’re right about the cargo, then the Russians are going to fly it out of here ASAP.”
“Why would they do that?” Aleksa asked. “They just flew it all the way here from Europe. They’re going to deliver it to the processing facility.”
“Bullshit,” Poacher said, pointing a thumb in the direction of the spectacle unfolding back at the airport. “The game’s up. They’re finished.”
“They have all of Aleksa’s notes and research,” Avery replied. “They’ll know that the location of the processing plant isn’t compromised.”
“He has a point,” Gerald offered.
“So this is the end of the line?” Poacher asked. “We have no idea where the HEU’s going and no way of tracing it, unless we can get an UAV up there in the next five minutes?”
“Not necessarily.” Avery thought it over. There was something that had been stuck in his mind since he’d first talked to Aleksa in Minsk. “Gerald, remember you were telling me about CERTITUDE looking into a construction project underway in Gorno-Badakhshan?”
Gerald hesitated before responding. “I remember. Why?”
“I want everything you have on it, all of CERTITUDE’s reports.”
Gerald opened his mouth to waffle, protest, and obfuscate further.
But Avery cut him off before he could utter a single word. “Immediately. I haven’t finished my investigation, which means you’re still expected to cooperate fully.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Gerald said, looking ahead over Darren’s shoulder.
They approached the embassy. Three GKNB cars waited on Rudaki Avenue outside the gates as the Forerunners pulled up. The doors swung open, and uniformed Tajiks, including Colonel Sergei Ghazan, climbed out.
“He got here fast,” Darren observed.
Avery told Aleksa to stay in the car. He got out with Poacher and Gerald, careful to obscure the Tajiks’ view inside the Forerunner, and quickly shut the door, so that they didn’t catch a glimpse of Aleksa. He had an ugly feeling where this was going, and he wasn’t sure there was much he could do about it.
Gerald approached Ghazan, and the two chatted for a bit, out of Avery’s earshot. After a few minutes, Gerald turned and waved for Avery to join them. Ghazan provided him the document from the Interior Ministry declaring Avery persona non grata and ordering his immediate ejection from the Republic of Tajikistan.
Avery didn’t resist or argue. There was no point. Cramer was long gone and not returning here, and there were other ways to slip into Gorno-Badakhshan, if that was in fact where the uranium was headed next. He wouldn’t waste time collecting all of his gear and belongings, which was infeasible anyway, since the GKNB would escort him wherever he went next. He was prepared to leave immediately and told as much to Ghazan, who seemed surprised at Avery’s cooperation
Avery only requested that he be allowed to make a private phone call first, which Ghazan granted. Avery used Poacher’s phone to call Culler, who picked up on the second ring. Avery explained the situation and requested transportation. The conversation took ninety seconds. Then Avery returned to Ghazan and Gerald.