Chapter 11
Islamabad, Pakistan
Lopez looked over the airfield as he waited with the rest of the team. They were all in civilian gear, their ID left behind with an embassy attache, and the only thing they were still waiting on was the Company rep to tell them the final details.
On paper they were just another group of smugglers moving weapons for a fast payday.
The local company rep knew their ‘real’ mission, which was basically to smuggle weapons to help the Mujahadeen forces repel the Soviet invasion.
Lopez was the only person on the team who knew the real ‘real’ reason for the mission, though the Captain had been briefed enough to know that there was another objective that he’d be told about once he was in-country.
It wasn’t a good way to do things, but Lopez understood the reason.
Someone has sleepers infiltrating even SOCOM. That’s bad in ways I didn’t know existed.
Honestly, he figured that it pretty much had to be the Russians. No one else had the resources to pull any of it off, or at least not the resources and the motivation.
Lopez turned his eyes to the North and West, the Afghan border would be up in the mountains in that direction, and so would the soviet patrols.
If it was the Russians behind whatever the hell that thing was, he knew they were riding into a wood chipper for sure, but that was the mission he supposed.
“Hey check it out. Company man.”
Rico Lopez turned and instantly spotted the approaching man. Dark sunglasses, loosely buttoned up shirt, khakis, and shoes that looked like they were just polished.
Definitely the local CIA handler.
The known handler, the one that was there for people to spot and follow. It was important that the locals thought they had a handle on things. They tended to get twitchy when they knew they had an unknown agent monkeying around, after all. Much better to let them think they only had the known ones.
“Captain Pruso?” The Company man asked, eyes steady on the Captain without any hint of uncertainty.
“That’s right. Company contact?”
“Oh no, I’m just an attache with the Embassy,” The man smiled. He didn’t wink, but he might as well have. “I’ve just been sent out to ensure that you have your itinerary and are good to go.”
“Of course.”
“Let’s chat in the bird,” The Company man said, nodding to the Hercules that was still parked nearby with its back ramp down.
“Right this way, everyone mount up.” Pruso ordered.
Lopez got off his ass and started walking, following the rest up into the belly of the herky-bird.
The Company man looked around briefly, then relaxed a little.
“Ok, this is about as secure as we can expect in the region,” He said, looking back at them.
“I’m Agent Jones, at least as far as any records in-country indicate.
We’ve got your supplies ready, and a friendly sentry at the border.
The Pakistan government is getting a nice donation from Uncle Sam to let you through.
Some local schools are officially getting a few million for women’s classes from a foreign aid package.
Hell, some of the money might even get to them, probably not much though, but either way it’s bought you clear passage to the border. ”
Captain Pruso nodded, “Understood. Our cargo?”
“Waiting outside the city limits for you. Mostly Russian surplus, AKs, RPGs, that sort of thing. Good chunk of ammo too.” Jones said.
“Your contact at the border will be on shift tonight, after ten, local time. If you can’t get there by six in the morning, don’t cross.
He’ll be back on shift tomorrow night as well. Same times.”
“Understood.” Pruso nodded. “Anything else we need to know, locally?”
“No, it’s pretty clean here.” Jones said, glancing back to the back of the C-130. “You’ll probably be watched until you leave town, so leave by the North Eastern side. Shake any tails and loop around.”
“Got it.”
Jones dropped his satchel back on the floor of the aircraft.
“Your IDs, passports, petty cash… basic sundries, you know the drill. They’re quality, but other than the cash, they’re fake.
Doubt it’ll matter in the sticks, but don’t lean too hard on them if you find yourself near any major Russian embassies or the like. ”
“Perfect, thanks.”
Jones just nodded, already heading for the back of the plane.
“Oh yeah,” He paused, half turning. “Keys for your rigs are in there too. They’re parked just outside the fence. Old Russian army surplus and a couple beat up Toyota Hi-Lux pickups. They’re in better shape than they seem. Good luck. Don’t get caught.”
Pruso didn’t answer, and the Company man didn’t wait for one. He was out the back and on his way without any further conversation. Captain Pruso picked up the satchel and rummaged through it for a moment, taking inventory as it were, before he looked up.
“Alright, you heard the man. Let’s move out.”
*****
Sebastian was twitchy that morning in school.
In a couple decades what he was about to do would be a lot easier, and harder, to pull off.
Easier because he’d be able to just look up flight times and know if the aircraft was running early, late, on time… was it on the ground? Turned around because a passenger did something dumb?
He just had to hope that it was on time and that there wouldn’t be anyone in the bathroom. If someone was, well, he’d just have to hope they didn’t see much… and that they weren’t believed enough for it to make the news if they did.
It would be harder in a couple decades just due to the security increase, of course, but honestly he’d prefer to deal with increased scrutiny and more information than the reverse.
Don’t get to pick, though. Just have to take my chances.
He checked his watch again, mentally reviewing his calculations.
It’s time.
He raised his hand.
“Yes, Sebastian?” The teacher looked at him curiously.
“Sorry ma’am, can I go to the washroom… feeling a little off,” He said, grimacing. “Might have been something I ate.”
“Of course, go on. If it gets worse, come and let someone know.”
“You’ve got it.” Seb forced what he hoped was a weak looking smile, and then made his way to the door.
He didn’t have a lot of time, but he would have to make do.
*****
This is… sadly not the least dignified thing I’ve ever done in my life, Seb thought as he got his gear out of his ‘inventory’ and set a rift point in the school bathroom stall. At least it’s a small school, there’s no one else in here for now.
He blinked at the flash of light, then slipped into the rift without hesitating, leaving the empty stall locked behind him.
God this would be so much easier if I could just use GPS coordinates.
*****
Air Canada Flight 492, Pierson Airport, Toronto Canada
Seb grimaced as he just kept from falling as he stepped out of the rift into the airplane restroom, face pressed up against the mirror as he tried not to trigger the sink faucet as he got himself in place without breaking anything.
The rift faded, leaving him alone in the restroom, taking a seat on the toilet as he patiently listened.
No engine sound, no turbulence. Looks like I’m on the ground. Perfect.
Trusting an airline’s arrival schedule was not how he’d prefer to do things, but flight schedules had decent lengths of time on the ground while crews checked the aircraft, refueled them, and such.
He cracked the bathroom door and peeked around.
All clear.
The aircraft was a small one, just one aisle, two rows of seats. The door was to the front, so he made his way forward to the cockpit, noting that the pilots had left the door open when they stepped off.
Bad form that, but we’re a long way from the enhanced security of the twenty-first century, so I suppose it’s not a surprise.
He wasn’t here to critique the airline’s security measures, however. The door was open to the jetbridge, so he just walked off and headed up into the airport.
There were people ahead of him, he could hear them, but there were advantages to being eleven he supposed.
Seb stepped out of the jetway and into the airport proper, and just moved to one side for a moment where he leaned against the wall and watched.
No one paid him any mind, even the clerks were focused more on their paperwork and ensuring that they had all the passenger lists available for the next flight.
It was odd, Seb noted, watching them working with stacks of paper instead of touchscreens or the AR systems that replaced those. The distraction helped, but the general relaxed state of affairs was even better.
He coughed slightly, though, and waved away the cigarette smoke from his eyes as he started moving again. Ugh. How long before the bans on public smoking kick in again?
“Where did you come from, little boy?”
Seb looked over to where one of the clerks was looking at him, a little confused as she looked around, probably hoping to spot his parents.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” He smiled at her, pointing to the gate sign, then down the “I misread the gate. My mom is down that way.”
He took off, not waiting for a response. Sure enough, she didn’t follow or call out as he headed down the corridor with purpose in his step.
Seb looked at the parked planes out just beyond the glass, but ignored them. For the moment he wasn’t going to bother with tagging any more aircraft. Everytime he took that risk was one more time he was likely to get caught.
Toronto would be good enough.
For now.
*****
Landi Kotal, Pakistan
“Pull up here,” Pruso ordered, causing Rico to pull the beat up Hi-Lux off to the side of the road.
The other two vehicles with them, a second Hi-Lux and a Ural-376D pulled up behind them as Pruso checked his watch.
“Eight Thirty,” He said after a moment. “We made better time than I expected. We’ll wait here until after dark.”
“Yes Sir.” Rico said.
Pruso got out and walked back to the others, telling them the same thing Rico supposed, then made his way back to the Hi-Lux and got back in.
They sat in silence for a time, just waiting as the seconds ticked by.
Then Rico was surprised by the Captain speaking up again.
“So, when do you tell me what this is really about?”
Lopez looked sharply over, then back straight ahead. The Captain hadn’t looked in his direction when he spoke, and didn’t even blink when he’d moved.
He figured that out fast, or maybe he was told more than I thought.
Either way, he wasn’t going to lie to a superior officer about information the man had good reason to know.
“Orders were to wait until we were over the border,” Lopez said stiffly.
“Hmm,” Pruso said. “Fair enough. What unit are you normally with?”
“Can’t say.”
Pruso snorted, “Delta then. I pulled your jacket, what wasn’t blacked out was impressive. You did good work with the thirty ninth.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“You can relax, Lopez, not going to try and pump you for intel. I can wait until we’re in-country,” Pruso said. “Just wish the bosses trusted us a little more.”
“You’re here, sir. They trust you fine.”
Lopez felt Pruso turn to look at him, his gaze almost like a heat on the side of his face.
“Well that’s not ominous at all,” Pruso finally said, settling into the seat. “Grab some shut eye, Sergeant. It’s going to be a long night.”
“Yes sir.”
*****
Pierson Airport
Security is hilariously lacking compared to what I remember, Seb thought as he slipped through an open door and into the maintenance areas, entire sections of the airport that only the staff would generally see.
No one had paid any attention to him doing so either, which was… well, he expected that it was probably explained by the fact no one was looking for a short stack eleven year old sneaking around.
He had to duck a few times, hide behind some shelves and once in a mop closet, but quickly enough Seb got to where he wanted to. He found an access ladder that just led up and he started climbing.
The roof of the terminal building was perfect, especially if he could get over near the tower.
Not yet, though. I can do that tonight.
Seb surveyed it quickly, memorizing as much as he could, then let himself back inside and slid down the ladder. He quickly found a supply closet, one with enough dust to tell him it was accessed fairly infrequently.
Setting up a rift point was the work of just another minute or so, and then he was done.
He opened a rift with a gesture, linked it to his school, and stepped through.
Back in the toilet stall of his school bathroom, Seb checked his watch.
Lunch time. Took a little longer than I hoped. Oh well. Next phase down. Now, I just have to wait.
*****