But I could be jumping to conclusions. These guys in the Citroen could be acting independently of Basaran, for all I know. Maybe Basaran has enemies within his own organization. It's possible.
Then something odd occurs. The two guards get into the Citroen and drive away toward the airstrip on the far side of the compound. The courtyard is empty. It still doesn't solve the problem of getting to the other side without the cameras seeing me. Do I dare shoot them out?
The answer comes to me as I look to my left and see a shed housing the three-wheelers, those golf carts I saw the guards driving earlier. I run to the shed and climb into a cart. No key is needed because it runs on electric power. There's a nice canopy over the driver's seat--so if I hunch over and keep my head down, I'm fairly certain that the cameras won't make me. On the surveillance video I'll probably just look like another guard. I decide to risk it.
The thing starts up and I drive into the courtyard. I hear the cameras move as they pick me up, but I don't worry about it. I putter along at a slow speed as if I'm just another lazy guard doing his rounds. For authenticity I stop once and pretend to rummage around in the floor of the cart, then continue on.
I make it across, get out of the cart, and begin to explore the sides of the big building. The main employee entrances and loading doors are closed, locked, and directly under floodlight beams. On the far side, though, there's a garbage Dumpster sitting directly beneath an open window. I scramble up the Dumpster and peer into the place.
For the most part the space is dark. There are lights on here and there, but it's a very big building. I crawl through the window and drop to the floor on my hands and feet like a cat. Lambert once told me that I'd make a pretty good cat burglar if I were into that sort of thing. I let him think I may have been at one time.
It's a typical steel mill. There's the huge furnace, belts, worktables, overhead trolleys, forklifts, and everything else that accompanies a legitimate construction plant. As I explore the place, I'm beginning to think I'm wasting my time here. There's nothing out of the ordinary. I'm about to give up and get the hell out when I turn a corner and see a lone guard sitting in a chair in front a heavy steel door on rollers. He's holding an AK-47 and is staring straight ahead, probably counting the minutes until his shift is over. I wonder what he's guarding.
This time I decide to act aggressively. I load the SC- 20K with a ring airfoil projectile, aim for the guy's head, and fire. Zap--the guard falls over, unconscious. I rush over to him, pick up the round, and return it to my Osprey. He won't know what happened to him, but he'll have a fairly big knot on his head when he wakes up.
I unbolt the big door and slide it open. It's a storeroom containing dozens of crates and boxes. I step inside and-- bingo. I recognize the crates as having the same stamp as before, from the Tabriz Container Company. With my reliable combat knife I pry off the crate lid. Guns. AK-47s. I pry open another crate--Hakims. Explosives. Bomb-making materials. Pistols. More rifles. Ammunition.
Just what the hell is Akdabar Enterprises doing with a shitload of weapons?
I continue to examine the containers, closing them as I go, and eventually find a shipping manifest still stuck on one of the crates. The originating location is an address in Baku, Azerbaijan. I note it in the OPSAT and decide I've seen enough. I snap a few shots of everything and leave the storeroom. I close the heavy sliding door and latch it. The guard is still in Dreamsville.
As I make my way to the window where I entered, I hear the rusty screech of a door opening. It's the front employee entrance. I rush to cross the floor, but it's no good--whoever it is will see me if I continue on this path. I hear a single set of footsteps clomping toward me at a slow pace, so I just have time to slip behind a column and stand perfectly still.
The man discovers the unconscious guard and grunts. It's a sound that's familiar to me, so I risk peeking around the column. The newcomer is none other than Farid, Basaran's big bodyguard. I have to get out of here quickly before the goon sounds the alarm. I look around for an escape route and find no other recourse but to climb onto the tall conveyor belt mechanism and grab hold of a pipe that runs the length of the room, forty or fifty feet off the ground. While Farid is bending over the guard and trying to revive him, I dart across the floor, step onto the base of the mechanism, use a set of cranks as leverage, and climb the thing like a monkey. The machine resembles a gigantic old-fashioned jukebox with the conveyor belt coming out of a "mouth." It's not easy to climb, especially toward the top, which is rounded. After two tries I manage to clutch a handhold on top of the machine and pull myself up. Sliding off would be a disaster, so I take a moment to catch my breath and concentrate.
I look down and see Farid standing by the guard, who is now sitting up and rubbing his head. No time to lose. I can easily reach the pipe, so I grab it and begin traversing it, hand over hand, my body dangling precariously high over the floor.
Bang!The gunshot comes from below. Shit, Farid has seen me. I continue to move along the pipe, but the guy's taking potshots at me with a pistol. He doesn't have a very good aim, praise the Lord. As I approach the end of the pipe near the far wall, where I can easily climb down to the floor, the gunshots stop. He's figured out he'll meet me there, and sure enough, he's standing below me when I reach my destination.
With my helmet and goggles on, I'm hoping he doesn't recognize me. Besides, I'm pretty high above him. I hear him grunt at me, motioning me to come down. He expects me to climb down and take my punishment like a man. So what do I do? I let go of the pipe and drop the forty or fifty feet directly on top of him.
We both crash to the hard floor and I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder as it hits the concrete. It's a good thing Farid is so big; otherwise I could have caused a lot more damage to myself. He made a nice cushion. I quickly scramble to my feet, ready to take on the brute--but I see he's sprawled faceup, not moving. His arm is bent unnaturally behind his back, obviously broken.
Fine. Saves me the trouble of killing him. Before the other guard can run over to see what's happened, I move quickly to the spot where I came in, climb some crates to reach the window, and squeeze through.
Outside, I get back in the three-wheeler and drive around the building and head through the courtyard toward the side of the complex where I originally entered. I don't see a soul. Eight minutes later I park the vehicle near the fence, skirt through the shadows until I find the incisions I made at the beginning of my adventure, pull open the trap, and squeeze through the hole.
Damn, my shoulder hurts. It could be a sprain, but I don't think it's a bad one. I've taken some pretty hard knocks in my time and this is nothing.
When I'm away from the complex and back in the Pazhan, I send Lambert a message:
URGENT--FIND OUT ALL YOU CAN ABOUT NAMIK BASARAN, ALBERT MERTENS, AND ANDREI ZDROK.
22
LIEUTENANTColonel Petlow was tired. He had overseen the interrogation of the prisoners for nearly twenty-four hours. After the "Iraqi prisoner abuse" scandal that had rocked the world several months ago, the U.S. government was being overly cautious with regard to what could or could not be done during interrogation sessions. As a result, interrogations became matters of time. A lot of time.