Page 111 of Spy With Me
Parker, who had told them he was ready to infiltrateHuisman’s pain palace. He was supposed to meet the American operative deepinside the base. He would be coming in via air ducts.
Kenzie would be entering with a little more shock and awe.
“I think we can arrange that,” Huisman said. “After wediscuss your part in this.”
It was hard not to look around and get more of a lay of theland, but he forced his attention on Huisman. “I thought my part in this was toshow up and probably get murdered by you. Or stuck in a cage and used to makemy mother work for you.”
“Your mother is a stubborn woman,” Huisman said with atsking sound. “She claims my timeline was far too short to build a how-tomanual. And she seemed to notice the cameras and where they were placed. Therewere a few things she did that I couldn’t see. Naturally it was all to thedelivery system. A delicate operation, that if done improperly could explode inmy face. Smart woman. I can’t toss her body off the side of the mountain. Soyes, I do need you to ensure her cooperation with the next round of my plan.You see, she was right about the time crunch.”
“The World Economic Forum is slated to meet next week. Youwant it in chaos.” He knew that much.
“I want it burning, but I’ll settle for chaos. That’s wherethe next bomb goes off,” he admitted. “I told your mother I needed three, but Ithink I’ll keep one. The whole world will be talking about the double agent whoset this all in motion for Beijing. When the WEF is hit with the same thing aweek later, the West will go to war with the East.”
The man liked to talk. It would be his downfall one day.“Parker is taking the blame for you?”
Huisman chuckled. “Ah, I should have said rogueAmericanagent. I think you’ll find you now have five million dollars in a bank accountin the Caymans. I have a friend in the States who is planting all the evidenceeven as we speak.”
Well, that shouldn’t be a surprise. Huisman knew how to usehis assets, and he would see Zach’s separation from his team and his real lifea definite asset. After all, hadn’t that been his plan all along? “What am Isupposed to do? Strap a bomb to my chest and blow up the city?”
“Heavens, don’t be so dramatic. You’re going to take one ofmy helicopters and deploy the bomb from the air. I’ll provide the pilot, ofcourse. And a few guards to ensure you do your job. You see, this is how I knowit will work. Your mother understands it’s you who will be setting it off, andshe didn’t even scream and cry and try to fix it. So I’m sure she hasn’tsabotaged the bombs.” Huisman neatly summed up the impossible position Zach’smother had been put in. “Once it’s revealed you are working for the Chinese, Iwon’t even need you to be the one to plant the WEF bomb. Everyone in the worldwill be hunting you down, and they won’t look to me at all.”
“Somehow I think my boss will disagree.” A mistake. Heneeded to play into Huisman’s dreams. “He might hate me right now, but he’llback me up for his niece’s sake alone.”
A low chuckle came from Huisman. “Well, he can disagree allhe likes, but I happened to buy all of the parts for these bombs from a veryspecific Russian syndicate.”
Fuck. Now that was something they hadn’t counted on. “Denisovitch. Ian doesn’t have anything to do with DusanDenisovitch’s criminal activities.”
Huisman shrugged. “Good luck proving that. I think you’llfind the world will be happy to have someone to pin this on. They will doanything to keep their peace, even ignore the truth. They will certainly ignorethe train that’s barreling toward them.”
Two men entered the space. Zach recognized the bombs theyheld. His mother’s.
Shit. This was happening, and he prayed Parker was alreadyin the building. Prayed Parker was exactly who he said he was because if hewasn’t, they were all dead.
Or his team would be dead and he would be forced to doeverything Huisman commanded him to do because he couldn’t let him hurt Devi.Zach wished he was a better man but he wasn’t. He realized he would let theworld burn if it meant sparing her a second’s worth of pain. He knew his babywas somewhere in this complex begging him to not do this. She would tell himher life wasn’t worth the thousands that bomb would take.
He wouldn’t listen.
His mind was racing with the possibilities. “I want Deviwith me. What guarantees do I have that I won’t come right back here to herdead body?”
“What guarantees do I have that you won’t simply dump thebomb in the mountains and take your girl with you?”
“Well, I can’t fly a chopper for one, so I assume your pilotand your guards will take care of that. It’s not like I can get rid of thepilot. I admit I’ve gotten good with light aircraft, but you know damn well ittakes an experienced pilot at these heights and wind conditions. I’m surprisedyou can fly this high up.” His brother had assured him it wouldn’t be aproblem. After all, they were “borrowing” ahelobuilt for these conditions.
“I assure you we can do everything I say we can. Now do youwant to see her before you leave?” Huisman seemed ready to get down tobusiness. “Your mother can give you all the instructions on how to deploy this.You will be assigned a pilot and a guard. If my explosion doesn’t happen withinforty-five minutes after takeoff, I will have Devon Taggart killed and I willgive your mother to your father. He’s eager. I’ve kept him off her until now.Personally, I don’t see the appeal since she’s old and fairly useless exceptfor her bombmaking skills. She’s certainly not sexually attractive. Now theyoung Miss Taggart…”
Zach didn’t care about his hands. He could use his wholebody to kill the fucker.
Strong arms gripped him, holding him back.
Huisman’s head shook, and he looked at Zach like he wasnothing more than an animal. “This is why you fail, Captain Reed. Tell mesomething. Did you follow my instructions, or did you tell Mr. Taggart where Iam?”
Zach could breathe again.
Parker wasn’t lying.
If Huisman didn’t know the Taggarts were here in Nepal, thenParker was on the right team.
Or he was screwing with the boss.
