He looked to Claudio. “Is there some way I could return to our room without going through the casino? My companion is a little overcome.”
“Of course, Ben!” the General Manager said as he gestured for one of the security guards to come closer. “Escort Mr. Shepherd and his companion to the elevators through the access corridors.”
Ben shook the General Manager’s hand and guided Steph after the guard through some long hallways to exit next to the elevator banks.
He got Russo upstairs and into their room.
Once the door was closed, she spun and pummeled his chest as the tears came.
“You just had to lose to him! Why did you win? You were my last chance!” she wailed.
Ben caught her hands and pulled her tight as she broke down and cried. He was a little surprised as she’d always been so in control whenever they met. It had to be her personal relationship with the operative, Moon.
“Kaan was watching me like a hawk the entire time we were together. I’m no actor. I can’t fake losing convincingly. He would have noticed and been suspicious of me. Besides, I had no expectation of winning. I wasn’t playing to win! That was pure luck and random chance.”
Stephanie clung to him and let her grief out, and Ben rubbed her back. The woman was emotionally spent.
“Why don’t you have a rest, and we’ll contact your team and try to set up another meeting,” he said gently.
“I don’t have a team here.”
Ben paused as he must have heard her wrong. “We can call them in from where they are at the moment?”
Stephanie pulled back and looked up at Ben with a guilty expression. “I’m off mission. Gone rogue,” she said with a crooked smile and a half-hearted snort.
“What do you mean?”
“My team is on board that ship. They’ve been deemed lost by my superiors at Langley. Not to be recovered. Expendable.”
Ben frowned and shook his head. “You collected me with a team at home. You got me onto a jet and flew me all the way to Morocco with a team! The girl with the suit?”
“The extraction team didn’t know we weren’t sanctioned to do it. I forged the mission documents. I’m very good at my job, which I no longer have at this point. My local asset isn’t officially CIA.” She slumped and sat on the end of the bed.
Ben’s mind was racing. He didn’t know what to do with himself. She’d used him and was willing to put his life in severe jeopardy to save her team. Another thought hit him.
“The CIA doesn’t know I’m here. Even if we got on the ship, there’d be no support team to get us off!” he barked as his anger ramped up.
“If we’d radioed his location from the ship, everyone would show up,” she said weakly.
“FUCK!” Ben shouted, and she winced. He needed to make a call, but he didn’t want to be near her when he made it!
He grabbed one of the room keycards. “I need some air!”
Ben walked down the hall to the elevators. He’d speak to Claudio and arrange a call from his office. He was going home.
The elevator door opened, and he began to step inside when he bumped into someone stepping off.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Ben apologized and looked up into the surprised eyes of another large man.
Then his mind filled with stars as a stun baton was jammed against his throat.
General Davis sat in a small conference room in the Pentagon, waiting for his guest to finish his call in the hallway and join him.
He really wanted to go home and get a few hours of sleep, but the current absence of a valuable asset put his personal desires on the backburner.
Ben Shepherd had been abducted from one of the most secure neighborhoods in America. What made that possible was a series of very well-timed moves by a CIA operative who was currently in the wind.
It was only through a text message Ben got to a friend he worked with that they knew he was in Morocco with Agent Russo.
The door opened, and Director Garroway entered to take a seat across the table. Garroway wasn’t the man Davis wanted to speak with, but the Director of the CIA was currently with the POTUS. So, Davis got to talk with the next in command.
“I just spoke with my team, and they confirmed Agent Russo forged orders to have a team assist her with transferring your asset overseas. She has her own local resources on the ground in Morocco, so we lost contact with her then. Her previous team was investigating a very difficult target, an arms dealer by the name of Kaan Sadik, who remains at large in his stealthed yacht in international waters. We believe they were captured by the man’s security. The mission was terminated, and the team members have been listed as missing and presumed dead. Russo did not take the loss of her team well. It’s happened before, but this time she took it personally. She’s losing her edge, so it’s likely time for her to retire.”
“She kidnapped a US citizen on domestic soil, took him to fucking Africa, and into a perilous situation! She’s doing more than retiring!” Davis snapped.
“We can argue the details later. Was there something else I can help you with?” Garroway asked.
The General took a moment to breathe and not beat the man to death with his bare hands.
“There is also the little matter of the CIA being aware of a double agent in my communications team and not sharing that information with me. This agent on multiple occasions gave precise location information to Russian hit teams charged with assassinating Mr. Shepherd.”
The Director did a credible job of presenting a disbelieving expression. “It’s the first I’ve heard of this agent if there is one. I don’t know where you got this information-”
“Your rogue agent, after she took Ben to Morocco, warned him not to attempt to contact anyone my communication center is monitoring because of a double agent your agency was not only aware of but found useful for your own purposes,” Davis explained.
Garroway paused, then shrugged dismissively. “Hearsay is not proof-”
“Ben somehow got a message to us outside the compromised channels, and we set a trap for the double agent. He stepped neatly into the noose, and we buried him so deep he won’t see sunlight for the rest of his natural life.”
The Director wasted no time. “As you know, my agency has jurisdiction over all domestic espionage suspects.”
“What spy?” Davis asked with a straight face. “Didn’t you just deny his existence and your knowledge of him?”
Garroway stared at the other man as a smile slowly spread across the General’s face.
“We’re done here. Tell your boss he’s made a very large lapse of judgment when he placed his agency’s agenda above the safety and well-being of one of my friends. Now, piss off.”
The Director got to his feet stiffly and left the room.
Davis rubbed his eyes and pushed himself to his feet. Soon he could rest, but first, he needed an update on getting resources to Ben’s location.
He marched over to the elevators and took one down to the lower level, where he had a situation room set up to track their progress on their hunt and retrieval of Ben.
“At ease!” he said pre-emptively as he rushed into the room. “Give me an update!”
“We’ve received notice of several photos appearing on social media sites of Mr. Shepherd in the presence of Agent Russo at a resort casino near El Jadida, Morocco,” his Lieutenant said immediately.
“Have you reached the manager of that resort?”
“Yes, sir! We’ve asked him to offer Ben protection until we get resources to his location. We’re awaiting confirmation they have him.”
“Sir, someone has posted a video of Mr. Shepherd playing poker with an unidentified man and Avery Frost, an American business mogul. Agent Russo is also with Mr. Shepherd. The vid is from the resort’s security camera above and behind the dealer,” another soldier said to the General.
The General looked over the technician’s shoulder and stared at the face of the man across from the dealer. “This may be the arms dealer Russo was hunting.” He looked across the room to his research team. “Do we have information on Kaan Sadik?”
“Working on that now, General,” came the response.
Davis returned his attention to the screen. “If they posted the video, the game is over. Skip to the end!”
They watched Ben win the hand, and the other players leave. Davis watched the face of Sadik, and the hair rose on his neck. “Call the manager of that resort again!”
“Yes, sir,”
He leaned in a little closer to the technician. “Get me a copy of that video,” he said softly.
“Yes, General,” she responded equally quiet.
“Sir! I have Agent Russo on the line. She’s with the General Manager now.”
Davis pulled on a headset and nodded to accept the call. “General Davis.”
“General, this is Stephanie Russo. I just watched the resort’s security camera video of Kaan Sadik’s men carrying Ben from the hotel. He’s likely on his way to Casablanca, where he’ll be taken to the arms dealer’s ship.”
“What have you done?” Davis growled menacingly.
“He was my ticket to getting aboard that ship myself. My people are on that yacht,” she said.
“I just spoke to your boss. He said the agency has declared they’re all dead,” Davis said bluntly.
“My bosses are assholes! They write assets off too willingly, like their all expendable. These are my people!”
“AND BEN IS MINE!” Davis bellowed into the phone.
“I know. I’m so sorry. You have someone nearby you can send to intercept?” Russo said contritely.
“We’re working on that,” the General sighed as fatigue washed over him.
“Make sure they run silent. Sadik has contacts in every port along the European and African coastline who send him updates on ship movements via satellite comms.”
“Shit. When was the CIA going to share this information?” Davis growled.
“The CIA isn’t about sharing,” Stephanie reminded him. Then she sighed. “Ben is resourceful. He pulled off a miracle in Russia. He could do it again,” the agent suggested.
“Ben wasn’t alone. He had a team with him, including Trish Campbell!”
Stephanie made a sound of recognition as she’d heard of the woman’s toughness and tenacity. “Ben won’t be alone. There are people on board who will help.”
“He’s going on a Gun Runners ship. They’re all cut-throat criminals!” he exclaimed.
“You never got a briefing from the CIA on Kaan’s ship. The top levels are all reserved for an endless party for the obscenely rich and reclusive, fugitives from the law seeking asylum, as well as the occasional celebrity just seeking a place to avoid the press for a month or two. Below decks is where Kaan’s criminal enterprise is run. Kaan will keep Ben on the top decks. On display for his rich friends. That’s where Ben may find support. I have faith in him. If anyone can save my people, it’s Ben.”
“He doesn’t have to save everyone! Doesn’t he deserve to save himself for once?” David snapped.