Kill Chain (8 page)

Embassy
of the United States Seoul
32
Sejongno Street, Seoul, Republic of Korea

“Any
progress?”

President Starling could
tell by the Delta operator’s face that if there was news, there wasn’t any that
was good.

“I wouldn’t characterize
it as progress, sir, however we do have a theory.”

Starling leaned back in
his chair, his eyes narrowed slightly as the operator, who he had heard called ‘Red’
in the jungles of Mozambique, continued.

“We’ve confirmed
eyewitness accounts that suggest the escort vehicles drove intentionally into
the fuel truck. Langley thinks they might have been hacked.”

Starling’s eyebrows shot
up. “Hacked? Is that even possible?”

“Yes, sir. A lot of new
cars today have Internet access built in, and if the firewalls aren’t properly
configured, the car’s computers can be hijacked, and with pretty much
everything drive-by-wire now, that means full control in some cases.”

Starling shook his head,
remembering the briefing he had received after the nightly news demonstrated just
such a hacking. “Insane. Remind me to pass a law when I get home.”

Red smiled slightly.
“Yes, sir.”

“We had agents in those
cars, didn’t we?”

Red nodded. “Yes, sir. Two,
presumed dead.”

Starling sighed. “I’ll have
to get their names when this is all over. I’ll want to meet with their
families, personally.”

“Of course, sir.”

Starling glanced at the
phone on the ambassador’s desk, it now his office for the time being. “Any
demands yet?”

“Negative. We think
they’re still securing the hostages.”

Starling closed his eyes,
resting his head against the sumptuous leather, and sighed. “We’re not going to
find her, are we?” He opened his eyes, Red stepping closer to the desk,
lowering his voice slightly.

“I’ll be honest with you,
sir. The longer we don’t, the harder it will get.” Starling’s chest tightened.
“But harder doesn’t mean impossible. I’ve rescued guys out of the middle of the
desert that had been missing for months. We just need to work the problem.
You’ve got every security force in the modern world working on this. It’s not
just your daughter that’s missing. The Brits, Germans, Canadians,
Aussies—everyone is throwing everything they’ve got at this.”

Starling nodded slowly.
“I know.” He sighed. “I know as President, I should be concerned with everyone,
but
I’ll
be honest with
you
, Sergeant. All I can picture is my
little girl and how terrified she must be.”

Red pursed his lips, his
head bobbing. “I understand, sir. I have a young son. But I’ll tell you this.
If this ever happened to him, I’d want the exact same people looking for him
that are looking for your daughter.”

Starling smiled,
realizing the man was right. The best people were on this, doing whatever it
took to find her and bring her home safely. “I appreciate that, Sergeant.” His
chin jutted toward the door. “I won’t hold you up any longer. Keep me posted.”

“Yes, sir.”

Red left the room and Starling
rose, stepping over to the door and locking it, images of his wife, dying in his
arms, her face replaced with his precious daughter’s, overwhelming him.

He dropped to his knees
and clasped his hands together as tears flowed freely, his eyes staring at the
heavens, his soul beseeching All Mighty God to save all he had left in the world.

Crawford
Residence                
Forest
Hills, Washington, DC

What
should I do?

Jeff Crawford stared at
his phone, willing Nancy to respond, to no avail. It had been at least half an
hour since her last text message had him bolt upright in bed, and he hadn’t
budged since, repeatedly sending her messages.

Something’s wrong.
Help us!

Something was definitely
wrong, and he didn’t know what to do. She was the President’s daughter. Surely,
she had security personnel that could help her, yet she had asked
him
for help.

What does that mean?

Were they dead? And if
they were, what the hell was he supposed to do about it? Wouldn’t people who
knew what to do already know? And even if they didn’t, who was he supposed to
call? Her dad? The White House?

Hi, I’m Jeff, the President’s
daughter’s secret boyfriend. Is she okay?

He launched Skype,
calling his buddy, Ronnie.

“Yo, dude, whassup?”

“Not sure but I think
something might have happened to Nancy.”

“Who, Nancy Starling?”

“Yeah. We were texting
and now I can’t reach her.”

“So, isn’t she in like
Korea or something? That’s like dark-age type shit over there, isn’t it? People
eatin’ grass and shit?”

Jeff felt his chest
tighten. “That’s
North
Korea, you idiot. Try reading something other
than Kim and Khloé’s Twitter feeds.”

“Hey, when CNN starts
featuring tits and ass, I’ll tune in.”

“You’re hopeless.”

“I am what I am.” Ronnie
grinned. “So, why do you think something’s wrong?”

“It’s her last text.”

“What did it say?”

“It says, ‘something’s
wrong, help us.’”

Ronnie was suddenly serious.
“Jesus. Who’ve you told?”

“Nobody.”

“Who’s the idiot now!
You’ve gotta tell someone!” His eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute.” Ronnie leaned
out of frame then popped back. “Shit, have you seen the news?”

“No, I’ve been trying to
reach her.”

“On your precious CNN—you
get that?”

“I have parents.”

“Well, it says that some
bus carrying the spouses of the G20—whatever that is—is missing, including
Nancy.”

Jeff felt his stomach
flip, his mouth watering. “Jesus, what the hell am I supposed to do?”

“You’ve gotta tell
someone.”

“But she told me we had
to keep it a secret!”

“Ask your folks. They’ll
know what to do.”

Jeff shook his head
emphatically. “No way, you know how friggin’ puritan they are. They’ll just
lecture me on the evils of premarital sex.”

“Holy shit! You’re having
sex with the President’s daughter?”

Jeff’s eyes shot wide in
horror as he replayed what he had just said, failing to find Ronnie’s
interpretation. “I never said that!”

“You might as well have.”

“No, I just said that my
folks would
think
I was.”

“Riiight. I think you’re
doin’ her.”

“And you’re a pig.”

“Hey, I’m a guy, just
like you. If I had a chance to bang her, I would. She’s hot!”

“Next time I see you I’m
going to beat the living shit out of you.”

“Bullshit, the only thing
you’re beating is your meat.”

Jeff’s cheeks flushed.
“I’m done with this convo.” He reached forward to end the call.

“No, wait!”

He stopped. “What?”

“Does she have nice
cans?”

He killed the connection,
his face hot with rage.

You must really like
her if he pissed you off that much.

He closed his eyes,
picturing her perfect face, her perfect smile, her perfect hair, her perfect
lips.

You love her.

And he had to save her.

He glanced at his still
silent phone then at his bedroom door.

Should I tell them?

If he did, what could
they
do? All he had was a text message. She had the CIA and everyone else in the
world searching for her. He stared at the altar to geekdom sitting in the
corner of his room.

But they’re idiots!

He rolled out of his bed
and dropped onto his stool, firing off half a dozen chat requests.

It’s time to get
The
Squad
on it.

Operations
Center 1
CIA
Headquarters, Langley, Virginia

“I might
have something.”

Leroux turned toward
Sonya Tong. “What?”

“Well, something disabled
all the cameras at that intersection.”

“Right.”

“So I went and checked
the other cameras.”

Leroux’s eyes narrowed.
“Were they all out?”

Tong shook her head. “No.
Just everything leading up to the intersection from the north for about five minutes,
then everything south of it along five different routes.”

Child spun in his chair.
“Why not just block them all?”

“I’m guessing they wanted
it to look like intermittent failures as opposed to a hack.”

Leroux agreed. “Are they
still out?”

“Yes.”

“Then maybe they haven’t
finished. Get those routes to Delta. At least the South Koreans can start
deploying resources in those areas.”

“Unless it’s a trick.”

Leroux looked at Child.
“Go on.”

“They make us think that
they’ve taken one of those routes, but in reality, they’ve taken a completely
different one.”

Leroux shook his head. “I
don’t think so.” He pointed at the displays at the front of the operations
center. “Bring up an aerial view of the bus.” Child brought up the shot. “What
do you see?”

Child smiled, his head
bobbing as he leaned further back in his chair. “A massive G20 logo.” He tapped
away at his keyboard, several more shots appearing from the promo package the
Koreans had sent to everyone who was anyone, the bus proudly displayed, logos
covering all sides. “That bus would stick out like a sore thumb. They’d spot it
in a heartbeat if it passed one of their cameras.”

Tong motioned toward the
screen. “That’s got to be easy to spot from the air.”

“Exactly,” agreed Leroux.
“Which means wherever they are, they’re already out of sight.”

Child sat upright in his
chair. “So we should start looking for buildings big enough to hold a bus along
one of those routes?”

“It’s a start.”

“I’m on it.”

Leroux turned to Tong. “I
want you coordinating this. Divvy up those routes and start finding me private
CCTV feeds, anything that might have a view of the road. If we can get just a
single shot of the bus on any of them, it narrows down the search
dramatically.”

“Yes, sir.”

Unknown
Location
Seoul,
Republic of Korea

The truck
bounced along, everyone riding in silence. Nancy didn’t know what they were
thinking about, though she was certain some were obsessing like she was over
those they had left behind.

The dead.

Part of her was focusing
on the poor German man. At least there had been an introduction made and some friendly,
polite banter exchanged, though it was rather one-sided, her responses
monosyllabic, something she regretted deeply now.

But most of her focus was
on the Chinese woman who she had never met, never paid any attention to, she
merely a background fixture, someone to be ignored.

She had become good at
ignoring people since her father had ascended to the presidency.