Matthew Dunn - Spycatcher

Roger looked at him for a moment before nodding once. “Ben’s our best driver, so he’ll be in the vehicle. The rest of us will be on foot. What about our weapons?”

“I’m collecting them from Harry today. The exfiltration plan?”

“All set.”

“Good.”

Given Roger’s expertise in these matters, Will had asked him to construct a plan to extract Megiddo from Sarajevo once he’d been captured. Roger had considered a number of different options, including going over Bosnia’s land borders, escaping via air, and the option of the sea. But Will had made it clear that they did not have the use of American or British facilities, and that therefore ruled out some of Roger’s ideas that included the use of military vehicles such as helicopters, freight aircraft, and submarines. The only thing they did have was American and British money.

Roger had therefore decided on the most viable option. Megiddo would be captured and taken to a vacation rental home approximately thirteen kilometers outside the town of Konjic, which itself was almost fifty kilometers southeast of Sarajevo. The house was secluded on the edge of Jablanicko Lake in a wooded, mountainous area and could hold six people if required to. Will, Roger, and Julian would take Megiddo onward from Konjic to Bosnia’s only seaside town, Neum on the Adriatic coast. Laith and Ben would not travel with them on this leg but instead would take conventional transport out of the country and travel to the United Kingdom. The remaining team, however, would leave the country on a chartered yacht. Megiddo would be stowed away in the yacht’s hull. The captain of the vessel, who ran a popular tourist charter business, was well known to Roger. As a sideline he was also a smuggler of heroin, among other things. Illegal human cargo would not bother him at all.

Will and Roger had analyzed the risks they would face at every stage of the extraction. They had decided that the point of highest vulnerability would be between exiting from Neum and reaching Italian waters. Their destination was the English Channel, but Will had decided that if they were seized anywhere outside the Bosnian and Herzegovinian jurisdiction, he would have no other option than to escalate matters by involving their premiers to plead their release on the basis of a mutual Western intelligence imperative. He hoped, however, to avoid such a requirement. He liked the idea of quietly sailing into one of England’s ports with his prize.

“What about the meeting itself?” he asked Roger now.

“Lana needs to give us a visible thumbs-up or thumbs-down. I suggest that we have her place her handbag on the coffee table if the man is Megiddo and on the floor if it’s not him. Can you confirm to me now that that will be the signal?”

“I can confirm. Handbag on the table if it’s him.”

“Good. Now, what happens when the meeting is over? If it’s him, she needs to get the hell out of Dodge. She must go straight to the airport and get on the next flight to Paris. She must not go back to her hotel. She’ll be safe on the route from the meeting to the airport because it’s all built up, and once she’s at the airport, there are too many armed cops for the Iranians to do anything silly. If it’s not him, then where will she go?”

“Back to her room in the Holiday Inn for a debrief by me.”

“All right. We know that all seven Iranians are now in Sarajevo. They’re still rotating their numbers on Lana, but obviously the full team will be out to play tomorrow. And I’m betting they’ll be armed.”

Will shook his head. “It should never have had to come to this.” He looked straight at Roger. “What kind of men would place an innocent woman into the epicenter of a circle of danger and potential death?”

Roger grabbed Will’s arm with unexpected force. “ We are not that kind of men. We did not want this. You did not want this. But here we both are doing what we have to, even if we hate our job. Stay focused, Will. We all need you more than ever right now.”

Will sighed and nodded. “What are the next steps?”

“Depends on what the man does. If he goes on foot, we follow him on foot. If in a vehicle, then Ben will be on him. It depends which route, but if we’re lucky-and I stress lucky-Ben may be able to pick one of us up while he’s on the tail. Objective: pin Megiddo down to one location. Then we improvise.”

Will frowned at Roger. “You improvise? You have no prior plans?”

“How can we? All is good if he goes to the HBF building. If it’s there, we have an attack plan. But will it be? It could be a hotel, could be a house or an apartment building, could be inner city, outer city, or just about anywhere.” Roger had been ticking off the possibilities on his fingers. “We get him in one location and then we improvise. But we improvise with speed and accuracy.”

What he said made sense to Will. The team would have to react to whatever circumstances they faced. “Okay, Roger. Where do I fit in?”

Roger considered the question. “You can’t be too close to Lana, because you may be recognized by the Iranians. But you’ve got to be on the ground with us, because Megiddo’s exit from cafe to fixed location to our assault and extraction could take place within thirty minutes, start to finish. Then it will be directly on to the house in Konjic. You need to be with us, but you can’t take an active role in surveillance of the meeting.”

Will wasn’t happy, but he knew that Roger’s assessment was correct. Nevertheless, he would dearly like to have seen the moment when Lana placed her handbag on the table to indicate that his quest was near its end.

Roger rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Well, there’s nothing more that can be said right now. I need to get back to watch Lana. Are you seeing her before the meeting?”

“I need to see her tonight.”

“Okay.” He looked at Will with an expression that was both stern and understanding. “When this is over, we can examine our consciences. But right now I’ve got to stop a woman from being attacked or worse, and you’ve got to capture a mass murderer. For the moment let’s just focus on that.”

Two stationary vehicles were parked on the side of the otherwise deserted hilltop road. Will drove up behind them and pulled to a stop. He flashed his lights and exited the car. The vehicle in front of him was an S-Class Mercedes that contained one man. The other was a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and Will could see four men inside the SUV. He walked through deep snow to get to the first vehicle and banged his fist on its trunk.

Harry got out of the car and grinned. “You’re always creeping up on me from behind, Charles. You don’t have a knife on you this time, though, do you?”

Will smiled and shook the man’s hand.

Harry nodded at him. “So things must be coming to a head if you need my equipment now.”

“I hope so.”

Harry looked away in the direction of Sarajevo city beneath them. His smile slowly receded, and he remained still for a while before turning back to Will. “I guess that means I have no further value to you?”

“I doubt that. Our paths will cross again.”

Harry smiled, although the look was doubtful. He walked to the rear of his car, opened the trunk, and pulled out a duffel bag that he swung toward Will. “This is what you asked for. SIG Sauer handguns with silencers, ammunition, Motorola walkie-talkies, and an HK417 sniper rifle.”

Will took the bag. “How much do I owe you for this?”

Harry rubbed a hand against his chin thoughtfully. He said, “I tell you what: just stay in touch. That will be compensation enough.”

Will nodded toward the Jeep and its four passengers. “I’ll let you know when you no longer need protection.”