CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Marisa smiled at Joey as he realized that they were placed in a group environment in one of the barracks. There was no privacy, no double beds, no opportunity for them to be alone.
“Are you kidding me?” he mumbled.
“It’s okay,” she smiled. “They thought it would be best if we were all in one location. There are MP’s outside the hut guarding us and we’ve got our team inside.”
“I know,” he frowned, “I just was hoping to be alone with you again tonight.”
“Reel it in lover boy,” smirked Christopher. “You’ll have plenty of chances to make me a grandpa later. Come over and eat something. We have some intel on Vasily.”
“Yes, sir,” nodded Joey, feeling the flush on his cheeks.
“Joey, I’m not upset by your comment. It pleases me that you want to be alone with Marissa. I know you love her and I know that you’ll be married soon. But for now, we have to get our shit together and stop Vasily. And that includes stopping him from getting to Marissa and the others.”
When everyone took their place at the long table, Erin, Paige, Dana, and Marissa stood near a projector screen.
“We’ve been able to figure out what Vasily planned,” said Erin.
“Each of the students was given something that certainly worked during WWII but had room for improvements, for lack of a better word. Some of the assignments were from as early as the Civil War and WWI. The tactics didn’t just come from the Germans, but also the Chinese, the Japanese, the North Koreans, and others.
These are people that consider torture an art form. ”
“Well, that’s a good way to start dinner,” frowned Red, pushing the plate forward.
“Stick around and you’ll learn to eat through anything,” smirked Patrick.
“Some of these activities would only work in certain parts of the world,” said Dana.
“For instance, this requires the use of ice at extremely low temperatures. Siberia for example. This one requires high altitude, like the Pamir Mountains. But for most, they are no longer part of Russia or the old USSR. His hope was to reduce populations by a massive number and then easily take over their governments.”
“Or,” said Paige, “he was hoping to cripple the government in some way and hope that they came to him and Russia for help. He’s already started.”
“What do you mean?” asked Bo.
“Armenia has been incredibly vulnerable in the last decades. Vasily took advantage of that, offering assistance in the form of money and supplies. Now, he claims the Armenians owe him and of course they can’t pay,” said Paige. She nodded at Dana.
“Except we found a loophole and work around. Greece needs some of the resources that the Armenians possess, and vice versa. Our team back home, primarily Michael Bodwick and Doug, brokered an agreement whereby Greece paid off Amenia’s debt and Armenia provided Greece resources.”
“Well, that sounds like a good thing, right?” asked Bullett.
“Very good thing. It also pissed off Vasily and he knows that we are helping the situation. He’s angry and wants us all,” said Paige.
“Why can’t we just find this guy and kill him?” asked Red.
“That’s what we’re working toward but Vasily has been a master at hiding for decades. He’s avoided death more times than any cat I know,” said Gator. “What about the women we recovered, the other students? What are we doing for them?”
“They’ve all been placed in safe houses and are being treated but we made sure to keep them separated so it didn’t look suspicious.
The more interesting one was Creek,” said Dana.
“She wasn’t working on anything for the professor but damn sure seemed to know a lot about the topic.
My guess is that she is a close, personal friend of Vasily. ”
“Which means he’ll be looking for her,” said Joey.
“Yes,” nodded Erin. “But he won’t find her.”
“Why?” asked Bo.
“Let’s just say she’s on a private island somewhere that no one knows about.” The others chuckled, nodding at one another but Bo just stared at them. “Sorry, Bo. It’s a place only we know about. If you’re lucky, you’ll see it one day.”
“I damn sure hope so. This briefing is more thorough than any I’ve ever been involved in as a Ranger.”
“I might be offended by that,” smirked Joey.
“Not because of you,” said Bo. “I guess we know now that the colonel was always leading us in a different direction.”
“We do,” nodded Christopher. “One of our challenges now is who we can trust. We trust command, we trust those MPs out there. They’ve all been vetted by our team back home.
What we don’t know is how many local law enforcement officials are involved or if there are others at the university involved.
I mean, wouldn’t the dean, or at least the department head, have known about these strange assignments? ”
“Normally, yes,” said Marissa. “I think Professor Mills was given a lot of leeway because of his prominence in the field. He was bringing in a lot of money to the university. He was always conducting lectures, traveling in between semesters and the summer.”
“Traveling? Did he travel to Russia?” asked Joey.
“I-I’m not sure,” said Marissa. “I didn’t even think about that. Tanner? Hiro? Can you check?”
“It’s AJ, Marissa. I’ve got you covered. Checking his travel now?”
“Can someone please tell me who these invisible elves are that you’re talking to?” asked Bullett. “You guys are creeping me out.”
The others laughed, Gator giving a nod to Wes.
“We all have implanted trackers and communications devices in our bodies. At any point in time, our comms team back home knows exactly where we are and what we’re saying.
They’re very good about honoring our privacy.
If they see that we’re in our homes, they don’t listen.
But if they know we’re on an op, out of the country, late to anywhere, they immediately tap in. ”
“They hear us?” asked Bo.
“The device can hear not only the user, but anyone within about twenty-feet of where we are. We’re making improvements on that all the time. The trackers are, shall we say, beefed up,” smirked Ham.
“Then why weren’t you able to figure out what was happening with Marissa?” asked Bullett.
“I was where I was supposed to be, for the most part. I kept in touch with my family except these last couple of months. The only thing they didn’t catch was my cell phone being destroyed.
Giamanco knew that if I didn’t call my parents, they would send someone to look for me.
He didn’t know who my parents were, but he didn’t need that kind of trouble.
I think he might have had the phone somewhere, still on, but on silent.
Otherwise someone would have noticed that something was wrong.
That’s the only explanation I can think of for why no one noticed. ”
“I’m amazed every time you guys open your mouths. Confused as shit sometimes but, definitely amazed,” said Bo. “I’m honored to be in your company.” Ham laughed, shaking his head.
“Tell me that if the others arrive.” Red frowned, staring at Joey.
“Others?”