“When will we take off?” said Devin.
“After I get a good night’s sleep,” said Berg. “We’ll head straight to your mother’s apartment and wait for one or more of our long shots to pay off.”
Marnie raised her beer. “To long shots.”
“To not getting shot,” said Rich.
“Cheers to both,” said Berg, raising his can. “Though if I had to choose between the two, I’m going with not getting shot.”
Was it possible to have it both ways if they took the fight against the Russians to the next level? Devin clinked all their cans, a heavy sense of dread hanging over the toast. He couldn’t shake the distinct feeling that they wouldn’t all be alive for the next one.
CHAPTER 58
Yuri Pichugin took General Kuznetzov’s call on a secure line in the state-of-the-art, surveillance-proof room deep inside his Lake Ladoga mansion complex. Modeled after the sensitive compartmented information facility concept used by major world intelligence agencies, Pichugin had consulted with the world’s top information security consultants to ensure it met or exceeded industry standards.
In truth, it was more for show than anything else. A luxuriously appointed, soundproofed, and electromagnetically sealed space that he mostly used to impress new clients and reassure long-standing allies. He could arrange to have the secure phone line run to either of his offices inside the mansion, and not risk acoustic or digital eavesdropping.
“It’s late,” said Pichugin. “More bad news, I assume?”
“More of the same, unfortunately,” said the general. “I have the final casualty count. We lost twenty-six of the parents and fifteen of the children. Plus eight of the ten GRU sleepers brought in for the cabin side of the ambush. Farrington’s sharpshooters took a hefty toll.”
“Have we confirmed it was Farrington?”
“No. But this has his team’s fingerprints all over it,” said the general. “From Baltimore to the torture job on the two morons in Indianapolis—and now this mess. Given Berg’s involvement, it has to be Farrington.”
“And they brought the helicopter pilot along, obviously.”
“Nobody anticipated that. Sanderson and Farrington have never operated in the field with outsiders,” said the general.
He supposed it could have been worse, though he wasn’t sure how. The camp had been operating at its new full capacity when it was attacked. Thirty-nine sets of siblings representing the third generation, along with one of their parents, had been on site. Not only did this represent a sizable blow to the currently active network, but it also potentially endangered the network by further exposing it to Devin Gray and Karl Berg, who would undoubtedly be combing the news and law enforcement bulletins for missing person reports or deadly accidents involving teens and adults, or, in some cases, child and parent. You couldn’t just hide the fact that someone was missing in the United States.
“Where are the survivors?”
“The team that had been watching over Orlov’s gear at the airport scrambled to arrange transportation out of there. Everyone has been evacuated to a friendly site just off the lake, about a mile south of the Missouri-Arkansas border. That includes the bodies. We’re going to keep them there until things settle down, then start smuggling people out in small groups. They managed to retrieve all of the files from the buildings before the fires got out of control, so that’s one less thing to worry about.”
“Big consolation,” said Pichugin, sensing that Kuznetzov was building up to something.
“There’s one thing that’s going to be a significant problem,” said the general.
“Just one? What is it?”
“Senator Filmore’s wife and son were killed during the attack. They were found along the trail between the boat landing and the camp. Both of them shot twice in the chest.”
That was how it could be worse. They’d just lost one of the highest-placed sleepers in the entire network.
“We have to assume that Farrington’s people have identified them. They probably documented the entire raid with video cameras. They’ll go after the senator at some point, if only to fuck with us,” said Pichugin. “Has Senator Filmore been notified?”
“None of the families have been notified,” said the general. “And strict communications protocols have been activated at the evacuation site.”
“I see,” said Pichugin. “Hold off on any notifications, and under no circumstances are any of the sleepers to make contact with anyone. I need to think about how we’re going to deal with this, particularly the senator’s situation.”