Zoya’s heart sank. He had something else in mind, not the crop duster. The Americans knew of no other plot against Castle Enrick. If she didn’t find a way to warn them, she worried they would think the danger was over when the plane went down.

CHAPTER 58

   Court Gentry’s eyes opened slowly, and he found himself staring at the back of a shit-brown sofa. It took a moment more to remember his last thoughts before he went out, and even before he had a clear idea of where he was and what had happened, his body began reminding him about his myriad pains, located from head to toe. His left hand was the worst; it throbbed and hurt like a small car was driving over it, back and forth, over and over.

He then realized why he’d awakened just now. A banging on the front door seemed to shake the entire building. Court’s first inclination was to get back to the bedroom and grab his pistol, but he’d just made it up onto his forearms when the front door came crashing in, fifteen feet away.

Zack Hightower flew into the living room behind it. He’d slammed his shoulder against the door to smash it, which gave Court the impression he’d been knocking for some time before going to such extremes.

Hightower looked around the room and finally saw Court, still on the floor, still bleary-eyed and disoriented.

The jarring sound of Hightower’s voice penetrated through the cobwebs in Court’s brain. “What the hell you doing, you lazy fuck?”

Court’s words were garbled from the drugs. “What . . . what are you doing?”

“Coming to get you two. Brewer’s been ringing your phone off the hook for an hour. Where’s Marina?”

“Who?”

“Oswald. Where’s the Russian? In the shower?” The water still ran in the bathroom down the hall. “Fuckin’ women.”

Court was still coming to. “She’s, she’s gone. She . . . I guess she drugged me. She’s going after her dad.”

Zack approached, knelt down closer. “How the hell did you let her drug you?”

Court did not answer; instead he struggled to sit up without touching his left hand against anything, and Zack saw his predicament. “I got you.” He pulled Court to his feet. His knees were wobbly. “What did she dose you with?”

“M99, I think.”

“Cold-blooded bitch. I told you that you had to watch her.”

“I’ll be all right. In a minute.” He grabbed Zack’s arm and pulled it up, then looked at the watch on Zack’s wrist. “Eight a.m. She’s been gone over an hour.”

Zack said, “’Bout a forty-minute drive time from here to Zakharov’s lair. If she went straight there, she’s on scene now.”

“Shit,” Court said.

Zack snorted. “Face it, Six. Your girlfriend’s got daddy issues.”

“She went to kill her father.”

“Bro, what did I just say? Langley’s now hiring fucking Russian spooks who want to kill their dads, who themselves are bent on killing thousands. Who in the fuck is driving this clown car of an intelligence agency, anyway?”

Court rubbed his eyes with his good hand. “What now?”

Zack sighed. Annoyed. “More dipshittery from Brewer. She’s sending a car to pick us up to take us to the Ground Branch helo. Jenner is assembling his team at a staging area close by for the hit on the airstrip and the church, and Brewer wants us to ride along.”

“Ride along on their hit?” Court looked at his hand.

Zack said, “Between you and me, sometimes I wonder if Suzanne doesn’t really love us.”

Court smiled weakly, then headed to the bathroom to take a cold shower to wake himself up.

* * *

• • •

   Thirty minutes later Court and Zack stood in a steady cool rain in an open field next to two helicopters. One was a UH-60 Blackhawk, possibly the same one he’d flown there in the night before. The other, however, looked similar to a Blackhawk, but it had special design features that indicated to Court it was something new, elite, and highly classified.

He was pretty sure he was looking at one of the newer models of Direct Action Penetrators, souped-up Blackhawks that supposedly gave off the radar cross section of a bird and flew faster, longer, and much more quietly than a regular helo.

Outside the helos, the seven junior men of Walt Jenner’s team worked on assembling gear, while Brewer alternatively talked on her phone and then spoke to Jenner, who was standing over a map lying on a large black Pelican case. To Court, Jenner seemed to have a lot of questions for the senior CIA officer, and the bearded paramilitary team leader clearly wasn’t pleased with the answers he was getting.

There was a heavy mist in the air in addition to the rain; visibility was no more than one hundred yards. Court wondered about flying in this soup but told himself the pilots of the high-tech bird could probably fly it upside down and backwards through conditions worse than this.

He and Zack had been out of the conversation; no one had spoken to them since they’d arrived, and other than a nod between Gentry and Chris Travers, the only man on the team Court knew personally, there had been no recognition by the Ground Branch team of the two new assets.

Finally Zack cleared his throat. “Suzanne? What’s our role here?”

Walt Jenner held a hand up. “Hightower, we haven’t figured out what our role is yet. We’ll get to you.”

To Jenner, Brewer said, “Your role is exactly what I said it was. You will assault the staging area for the impending attack on Castle Enrick. You will capture or kill all hostiles and, if possible, destroy the agricultural aircraft on the ground.”

“In broad daylight? You don’t know how many men are there, what training they have. I’m not going to hit that target till I have a better idea of—”

Zack spit on the wet ground and muttered loud enough to be heard. “Here we go. Everybody wants to be a gangsta till it’s time to do gangsta shit.”

Jenner pointed at Hightower. “Fuck you, Dad. Shouldn’t you be somewhere playing golf?”

Some of the men laughed at this, but Court was fixated on something else. “Hey, Brewer. Were you planning on mentioning the fact that there is an Agency asset at the target location?”

Suzanne Brewer gave a half shrug, then spoke to the entire group. “Violator is correct. A female asset, thirty-three years old, hair dark brown, eyes green. You are the same team that exfiltrated her out of Thailand a few months ago, so you should recognize her. She is now an asset of ours, code name Anthem, but her current status is unknown. You have to consider her potentially hostile at this time.”