48. Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter forty-eight
Traffic going into Dulles International slowed to a crawl, as per usual. Sam shook her head and looked for an opening to change lanes, like that might help.
The summer sun was high overhead, blazing down on the car windshield in blinding flashes that made sunglasses necessary and traffic accidents a very real threat. Sam had the air conditioner cranked up to full. Icy waves blasted from the vents without doing much to cool the interior of the car.
Burke picked up. “What’s the latest?”
“I’m mobile,” Sam told him, letting him know she was in a car, on the move, talking to him on a mobile phone. CIA encrypts employee cell phones, but a phone signal passing from one tower to the next is inherently vulnerable.
“Understood.”
“Did some digging into Captain Zeqiri,” Sam continued. “He and his men were part of a special unit that worked with a Doctor Arben Kadare.”
“I remember the name. He was one of the people brought up on charges.”
“They called him the Surgeon,” Sam said.
“He was accused of conducting illegal and experimental surgeries during the war. They couldn’t prove the surgeries, his patients never lived to testify, but the prosecution did manage to convict him of using chemical warfare.
He’s spent the last 30 years in the Hague. He was released several months ago.”
“He and the Captain served together during the war,” Burke said. “He gets out, the ICTY investigator goes missing, along with Bill and Milena, then a village is wiped out with a strain of man-made virus. Sounds like someone got released from prison and decided to put the band back together again.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Sam said.
“I’ll contact our mutual friend and let him know A.S.A.P.” Burke said. “What’s Langley’s response?”
“Maddeningly slow. Everything has to go through channels.”
“I’ve been there and done that,” said Burke. “Does the President know yet?”
“He’s being briefed as we speak, but you and I both know this is not one of the situations that’s going to be solved with a few phone calls and threats of sanctions.
There’s a rogue military unit in Serbia with access to a deadly biological agent.
This situation needs boots on the ground. What’s the status on your end?”
“My man’s trying to make contact currently.”
Sam chewed her bottom lip. She didn’t like the idea of Jake trying to ‘make contact’ with terrorists wielding a deadly super flu. At the same time, he might be the only person in place to do anything about it.
Burke read the silence on the other end of the phone. “Sam, he’s good. Maybe one of the best I ever trained. He doesn’t take unnecessary risks.”
“He doesn’t know,” Sam said, and she had to swallow a hard knot in her throat.
“I’ll call him as soon as I’m off the phone with you and let him know what he’s up against.”
“It’s just…” Sam glanced around at the other cars crawling along the highway. She had to reach up and swipe a tear gathering on her lashes. “I can’t lose him again, Matt.”
“You won’t,” Burke assured her.
“Promise me,” Sam whispered, and knew immediately how silly and girlish that sounded.
“You know I can’t do that.”
Sam wanted to bury her face in her hands and cry, but she had to keep both eyes on the road. She’d already made a mistake that cost Trevor his life. She didn’t want to lose Jake too. Not now. Not after everything they’d been through.
“Okay, you’re right,” she said. “That was stupid. But…”
“I know,” Burke said. “I know. We’re going to do everything we can to bring him home again.”
“Thanks.” She’d reached the turn off to the airport. “I’ve got to hang up. Call me as soon as you have news.”
“You’ll be my first call.”
Sam put the phone down in the passenger seat, navigated the confusing series of exchanges to a roadblock set up by joint collection of local law enforcement and CDC, where she’d get to find out if the DHS badge stood up to scrutiny.