Shadow of Betrayal

Peter glanced at his two guests. They were both staring at the monitors, no emotion on either of their faces. Real pros. Undoubtedly each had witnessed agent-down situations before. Peter had, too, countless times it seemed. And while he also tried to keep his emotions suppressed, he was only partially successful. He could feel a tick under his right eyebrow, a twitch that only flared up when things got out of control.

He raised the microphone back to his mouth. “Agent Douglas?” he said.

If she could hear him, she wasn’t responding. Chances were, during the fall, her earpiece had been dislodged, and she wouldn’t have been able to hear him no matter what.

“Agent Douglas,” he said again.

“Leave it alone,” Chercover said. “She’s probably dead.”

Peter looked over at the old man, then raised the mic to his mouth again, his eyes locked on Chercover’s. “Agent Douglas?”

“Is that your strike team?” Furuta asked.

He was pointing toward monitor one. On it, a dark van had pulled up in front of the abandoned building.

The phone Peter had used to call the team began to vibrate. He picked it up and pressed Accept.

“We’re here,” Perkins, the team leader, said.

“You’re looking for a room in the basement. There was an explosion, so there’ll probably be some damage in the hallway. But it should also lead you to the right room. Be careful. The staircase that was just inside the door is damaged, and the floor is nearly two stories below.”

“Copy that,” Perkins said.

“Agent Douglas is down there somewhere. Find her, and get her out.”

“Anything else?”

“A man left the scene about two minutes ago. I don’t expect him to come back, but there might be others. If you find someone, take them alive. I want to talk to them.”

“Got it.”

Peter gave him the signal settings he’d been using with Agent Douglas so they could communicate by radio, then hung up.

“They should search the building,” Furuta said. “This is obviously the place we’ve been looking for. There’s got to be something there. Something that will help us identify Primus.”

“Seems to me, Agent Douglas might have already found it.”

“Found where it is, perhaps,” Chercover said. “But what exactly did she find?”

“That’s not this team’s job,” Peter said. “They’ll get Agent Douglas out, then we’ll figure out our next move.”

“We need to figure that out now,” Furuta said. “We don’t have a lot of time on this. The man who got away could be informing his contacts about what happened right now.”

“We’ll get Agent Douglas out first,” Peter said, his tone telling the others that this was non-negotiable.

On the monitors, the team had already begun to move into place. On number one, two men dressed in dark clothing stood near the front door watching the street. Though there were no weapons in sight, Peter knew they were each armed and ready to jump into action if needed. The interior shot on two showed one man standing in the small lobby. But unlike his friends outside, he had his weapon out and ready. Number three still showed an empty hallway, and on number four, several dark, unidentifiable objects, but no movement at all.

Peter brought the mic up near his mouth. “Perkins, you’re out of our camera range. What do you see?”

“Just a dark hallway.” Perkins’s voice came over monitor three’s speaker. “The door Agent Douglas entered should be down the next corridor.”

“Do you hear anything?”

“Nothing. Dead quiet.” There was a moment of silence. Then in a whisper, “We’re at the intersection now. Hold while we check.” More silence. “All clear. We’re approaching the doorway now. There’s a lot of dust and smoke in the air. Visibility down thirty percent. Okay, just like you thought. Damage to the floor outside the doorway. The door itself is gone.” Pause. “I’m looking in now. Damn. You said there was a staircase, right?”

“Yes,” Peter said.

“Not now. Morgan, fire up the spot.”

Five seconds later there was a flare of light on monitor four, the one that displayed the feed from the camera Agent Douglas had been carrying. The dark shapes that had been filling the screen suddenly became bits of concrete and pieces of wood. But there was no sign of the agent.

“Sir, it’s a mess down there,” Perkins said. “Looks like the whole stairway has collapsed.”

“Do you see Agent Douglas?”

“If she’s there, she’s buried. I’ll take one of my guys down with me.”

There was a few minutes’ delay while the gear was prepared.

“Rappelling down now,” Perkins said. For several seconds there was only the muffled sound of someone sliding down a rope. Then, “Okay, we’re on the ground.”

“Watch your step,” Peter said. “There could be other traps.”

“Copy that.”

Light ebbed and flowed on monitor four as the team searched the debris.

“Stop!” Peter yelled.

A foot had just passed within view of the image on the monitor.

“One of you is near her camera. Both of you take one step back.”

The foot reentered the frame.

“Okay, hold there for a second,” Peter said. “Perkins, you move your foot first.”

“Copy.”

The foot in the screen remained stationary.

“Anything?” Perkins asked.