Zack fielded a call back from Brewer, going into a back room to do so. When he returned he said, “Look alive, kids. Brass is inbound.”
Court immediately started pulling himself up to his feet, but Zoya didn’t understand. “What does that mean?”
“Brewer is ten minutes out,” Zack explained.
* * *
• • •
Suzanne Brewer arrived in a rented BMW 3 Series; behind the wheel was Chris Travers, one of the Ground Branch men from Walt Jenner’s team. Hanley had sent him along for her security, while Hanley and the seven other Special Activities Division operators got back in the air and flew on to Inverness, the closest airport to Castle Enrick.
Travers parked in the driveway and walked up the hill to the house, where they were met at the front door by Jason. In the living room Brewer saw the three assets and immediately noted Violator’s bruised face and the ice pack on his left hand.
She made no mention of it, but Travers said, “Damn, Violator. I’d hate to see the other guy.”
Court shrugged. “Me, too. Two ass kickings was enough for me.”
Travers laughed at this.
Brewer looked at Jason, then jerked her thumb at the front door. The young case officer left compliantly.
Now Brewer looked at Zoya like a teacher regarding a misbehaving student. “I have a lot of questions for you,” Brewer said. “You were in captivity for a day. Did you learn anything during that time that could help us determine what’s going on?”
Zoya nodded. “David Mars is my father, General Feodor Zakharov. He is working against the West because he thinks MI6 killed my mom and my brother, and he thought the CIA had killed me.”
“So, did they?”
Zoya blinked. “I’m sitting right here.”
Brewer said, “I’m talking about your mother and your brother, obviously.”
“I don’t know, but I have my doubts. My dad moved to London under an assumed name and started operating in Russia’s interests. All part of Russia’s strategy of indirect warfare. But I think he’s been plotting his personal revenge all this time, too. He’s not working for GRU, not working for the Kremlin, per se. He was probably sent over here by the president and his billionaire cronies, but whatever he’s doing right now, it’s his own plan, no one else’s. He’s an independent puppeteer carrying all this out on foreign soil.
“Maybe the British really did drive him to this, but you know the Kremlin and its schemes. Perhaps they were the ones who killed Feo and Mom, to stoke his fury, to place him like a ticking bomb in the middle of their adversary.”
Brewer said, “Well, the woman you are holding here has already provided us with one clue. We easily matched her photograph. Her name is Janice Won. She is a virologist. Until about four months ago she was working for the European Centre for Disease Prevention in Stockholm. She’s from South Korea. I’ve sent a message to Seoul station to try to get more information about her.”
“What did she do in Stockholm?”
“She is an expert on the weaponization of pneumonic plague.”
Court muttered, “Well, shit.”
“Yeah,” Brewer said. “We have people looking into her, trying to figure out her link to Zakharov.”
Zoya said, “My father has the contacts to get whoever he wants. And he has the motivation. He is convinced the British killed his wife and son, and he’s positive you guys turned me from a valiant and loyal Russian spook to a dirty American operative. My father is a man of utter conviction. As long as he believes all that, he will attack, and nothing will stop him but a bullet to the brain.”
“You’re playin’ my tune, sister,” Zack said, and Zoya just gave him an “eat shit” look.
Zoya then turned to Brewer. “Now I have a question for you. What is Poison Apple?”
Neither Zack nor Court had any idea what she was talking about, but to their surprise Brewer said, “Where did you hear about that?”
“From my father. He doesn’t know what it is, either.”
Brewer looked to Travers. “I need you to leave the room, please.”
“Ma’am, I’m TS/SCI, with a full scope poly. I don’t have to leave any room.” He was telling her he had the highest security clearance.
She didn’t blink. “I said, I need you to leave the room.”
Travers pushed himself off the wall. “Yes, ma’am.” He stepped out the front door and closed it behind him.
Brewer looked back to the three in front of her. “I assume Wheeler got the name of the program somehow and passed it on without knowledge of its scope or sanction.”
Court tightened a fresh cold pack on the back of his left hand and said, “What is it?”
Brewer said, “It . . . is you. You three make up an initiative that has been code named Poison Apple. It is approved by the director himself, and it is run by me, with the DDO determining the operations.”
Court said, “So . . . what? We’re Matt Hanley’s private assassins?”
He expected pushback from Brewer, but she said, “That’s exactly what you are. That and spooks, surveillance artists, whatever he needs done that’s blacker than black. Look, I don’t like it, so don’t bitch about it to me.”
Court replied, “I’m not bitching. Matt makes good decisions. He’s a good man.”
Zoya turned to him. “I’ve seen ‘good men’ attain power and abuse it.”
Court waved his functioning hand in the air. “I’ve known Hanley for over a decade. I trust him.”
Zack said, “The Russkie has a point, Six. Matt did order me to kill you once.”
Court turned to Hightower. “You ordered your team to kill me, too. By that logic I shouldn’t trust you, either.”
“Dude, I’m all you got.” He looked at Zoya. “Not her. She’s trouble. I can feel it.”
To Zoya, Brewer said, “I’m going to talk to Matt. He has people he can call on in the British IC. Men who know where the bodies are buried. He just might be able to get someone to tell him what happened to your mom and your brother.”
Zoya said, “I’d appreciate that, Suzanne.”
Court said, “What are we going to do about the Korean?”
Brewer said, “Frankly, I don’t want to know what you do with her, but whatever it is . . . I need you to do it quickly.” She stood.
Implicit in her comment was that she wanted the three off-book assets to get information from Janice Won, and she had no desire to know the particulars of how they were going to go about it.