“I can tell you now there is no way I can keep this from my superiors,” Daniel said. “Many people will not accept the standard cover story that Sergeant Castillo was killed during a training exercise. They will demand an investigation into what happened to him.”
“Who gives a fuck?” Avery said. “Let them. He was dirty.”
“There are many people who will find that difficult to accept, especially taking into consideration the reputation of the Central Intelligence Agency’s so-called scorpions,” Daniel said, using the nickname for CIA contractors.
“Wait a minute,” Culler said. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“This isn’t the first scorpion operation to result in a gun battle and civilian casualties.”
“Daniel,” Aguilar cut in impatiently. “I was there. I can vouch that Carnivore made all of the right calls. He saved both our lives.”
But Avery knew that didn’t matter. He understood what was really going on here. With Colombian presidential elections coming up, this might become a political issue, as invariably did any failed operation of the security services. The last political scandal borne from the intelligence services resulted in the elimination of ANIC’s predecessor agency and a total re-organization of the Colombian intelligence and security establishment, plus the termination of numerous careers.
“We can place blame later,” Special Agent Mark Slayton said. Addressing Avery and Aguilar, he asked, “Did you guys see or hear anything that might help us? Was there anything that caught your attention? Anything at all?”
“Yeah,” said Avery. “I was getting to that before Daniel started threatening us with bureaucratic political bullshit. Canastilla did tell me something before he died. Actually, he wanted me to pass it on to Daniel.”
“What is it?” Slayton asked.
“Canastilla said that the Viper has hijacked Plan… Estragos, that’s it, and is bringing Estragos to the United States.”
Culler didn’t react, clearly as out of the loop as Avery, but Slayton exchanged worried looks with Daniel.
“Obviously that means something to you guys,” Avery said. “Estragos means, what, havoc?”
“Right,” Slayton answered. “Plan Estragos refers to FARC’s battle plan following its acquisition of an unknown quantity of MANPADs, specifically SA-24. FARC intends to distribute the missiles amongst their military blocs for air defense against the helicopters and attack planes that have been so instrumental in giving the Colombian government the upper-hand and finally forcing FARC to the negotiating table.”
“Quite simply,” Daniel said, “our military will have no defense against a SAM threat of this magnitude. SA-24 will deny the military air superiority. These missiles can completely alter the balance of power in Colombia, buy FARC the time to re-organize itself, and potentially undo everything we’ve achieved over the last eight years. Our top priority the past year has been to deny FARC access to MANPADS.”
After WMD, MANPADS — man portable air defense systems, aka shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) — were the most sought after weapon by terrorists. American-supplied Stingers played a pivotal part in the Soviet Union’s defeat in Afghanistan in the 1980s. If FARC had SA-24 at Táchira, then Operation Phoenix would have turned out very differently, with burning Colombian helicopters, and troops stranded in Venezuela. If MANPADS were used against defenseless civilian airliners, it would be a total slaughter.
SA-24 Grinch is the latest model of the Russian-made 9K38 Igla (“needle”) infra-red homing shoulder-fired SAM, and one of the most sophisticated in the world. It is faster than previous Russian models, with an extended range of 3.2 miles, and possesses upgraded defenses against known NATO countermeasures while packing a larger warhead. SA-24 can also target an aircraft from any direction, unlike older Russian MANPADS, which went for the heat of the engines’ exhaust.
“What about Viper?” Avery asked. “What’s that?”
“The Viper is Arianna Moreno,” Daniel replied.
It took a second before the last name clicked with Avery. “That sounds familiar.”
“She is Aarón Moreno’s sister, and she is a dozen times more lethal than her brother. Aarón Moreno was a brutal thug. This woman is a skilled, professionally trained, and capable assassin.”
“In short, she’s the most dangerous terrorist in Latin America,” Culler replied. “She came up a couple times back when I ran CIA’s Counterterrorism Center. This was well after 9/11. Frankly, the Seventh Floor didn’t give a shit about one Colombian terrorist at the time. I had a feeling I’d hear that name again at some point.”
“She might have little political value, but she’s one of our most wanted and most elusive high value targets,” Daniel said. “For the past six years, she’s been the target of a special Search Bloc task force.”
When the National Police’s Search Bloc unit, often working in tandem with the US Army’s top secret Intelligence Support Activity, set its sights on someone, that person invariably ended up dead or in jail, often sooner rather than later. They’d hunted and took down Pablo Escobar, head of the Medellin cartel and once the most wanted man in the world. The fact that the Viper could elude Search Bloc so long spoke volumes about her skills and tradecraft.
“I never heard of her,” Avery admitted.
“Most people haven’t,” Culler said. “Like I said, she’s never been a focus for us. Not when we have lunatics from the Taliban buying weapons grade material on the black market and the Islamic State seeking to weaponize the bubonic plague. Despite the connotations of her cute nickname, which is simply a codename FARC informally gave her, she doesn’t seek fame and attention, or media adoration. She maintains a low-profile and stays in the shadows.”
“Well, I guess we know who set the trap for me in Panama.”
“You’re a very lucky man,” Daniel said. “The Viper is not known to miss. Admittedly, we have precious little insight into her psychological makeup, but by all accounts she shared an extremely close relationship with her brother and is a generally disturbed personality. Her brother’s death must have left quite an impression on her.”
“Yeah,” Avery grunted. “I gathered that.”
“It’s my fault,” Culler told Avery. “We knew something wasn’t right from the beginning. I shouldn’t have let you go.”
“Fuck that, Matt. It was my choice, not yours. If I didn’t go, we’d have no idea about the SA-24 threat until planes started dropping out of the sky. Speaking of which, you really think FARC would hit us on American soil? Do they even have the capability? They never operated in the States before.”
“FARC will surely retaliate for Operation Phoenix,” Daniel said, “but it is difficult to believe that the Secretariat would ever authorize terrorist attacks inside the United States. On the other hand, I doubt there is little that can deter the Viper once she has made up her mind, and, since the peace talks began, there are plenty of factions within FARC that essentially act independently of the Secretariat and Central High Command.”
“So you’re saying the threat should be taken seriously?” asked Avery.
“Coming from a source like Canastilla, yes.”
“Who’s supplying missiles to FARC?” Avery asked. “The SA-24 shoulder-fired variant is modern, top of the line gear. You don’t just go to any arms dealer and place an order.”
Slayton fielded this question. “We can’t say for sure, but we have our suspicions. We know that for the past month Emilio Reyes has been meeting with a mid-level trade official from the Iranian embassy in Venezuela named Farhad Mahmoudieh. The CIA station in Caracas has verified that Mahmoudieh is in actuality one Colonel Vahid Kashani.”