Black Flagged Redux

Chapter 23





11:38 PM

Foothills of Kurchatov

Republic of Kazakhstan





The site proved to be nearly impossible to find in the dark, and the road conditions turned out to be far worse than Dusty had anticipated. These unexpected factors added two more hours to the trip. Finally, the Land Cruiser slowed in front of a horizontal yellow and black striped pole that served as a makeshift barrier. No sign hung from the pole, but Daniel could see that crudely attached links of thick chain held the pole in place, locked to the side posts with padlocks that shined in the SUV's headlights. He wasn't sure why anyone would have bothered with the gate, since you could drive a dump truck around either side of it. Beyond the hastily constructed obstruction, they could see the scarce outline of several buildings roughly a hundred meters away, superimposed against the faint orange glow of Kurchatov's city lights. He decided to take a closer look at the gate.

"Hold up for a second. I just want to make sure this thing isn't booby-trapped," he said, and Farrington nodded.

Daniel opened his door and stepped out into the frigid air. He was relieved to be out of the SUV. They had driven nonstop for over nine hours, the last four on spine-breaking roads. It didn't help that they drove around lost for nearly two hours before finding the obscured entrance to this road. Whoever left this site last did a professional job concealing the turnoff.

He approached the gate with a small but powerful flashlight and inspected the lock and chain connection on each side, paying close attention to the vertical posts. It all looked pretty straightforward to him and nothing raised his suspicion. He lifted the black and yellow pole a few inches off the posts and didn't see any wires. Nothing attached to the gate, as far as he could tell, but he wasn't one of their explosives experts. He directed the light along the ground to the side of the posts and could immediately tell that the gravel and rock had been recently groomed. He backed up several meters and examined a similar stretch of ground on the same side of the road, noting the difference. A significantly large section of ground immediately adjacent to the post had been raked or brushed. He repeated the observation on the other side and jogged back to the Land Cruiser through a sudden gust of cold air.

"The ground looks groomed on both sides. I don't like it. The gate looks fine. Sergei, you've received some advanced training in improvised explosives. Why don't you grab a set of bolt cutters and take another look at the gate? If it looks safe, cut the locks, and bring the truck up. I'm going to walk up to the site and take a look at the road. Meet you up there," Daniel said.

He reached back into the truck for his backpack and night vision spotting scope as Sergei hopped out of the SUV with a large set of bolt cutters. Daniel walked with him to the right side of the gate and showed him the ground.

"Yep, that looks pretty f*cked. Land mines?" he said.

"I hope so. I'd hate to think someone is watching us with their thumb on a detonator. That's why I'm walking ahead of the truck," Daniel said and slapped Sergei on the shoulder.

"And it sounded so selfless and brave a few seconds ago," Sergei said.

"That's part of my unusual charm. It grows on you. Just ask Farrington. See you guys in a few."

Daniel slid over the top of the gate and started his slow, cautious trek up the windswept road, scanning ahead for trip wires and to the sides of the unimproved gravel road for evidence of an IED. He heard Sergei snap the chains, followed by the hollow metallic ring of a hollow pole thrown to the ground. A few minutes into his walk he had the Land Cruiser several feet behind him, illuminating the road far better than his small flashlight. Bathed in light, he felt exposed, but there was no rational reason to be worried. Aside from his team, the nearest human being probably sat huddled up under blankets twenty miles away in Kurchatov.

Ten minutes later, they assembled in front of the first building with all of their gear. They did a sweep of the immediate area with a portable hand Geiger counter, and although the reading was higher than normal, it didn't fall into any hazardous parameter that would preclude them from spending time at the site. Once this sweep was concluded, they shouldered backpacks and split up into two teams of three to examine the buildings. They each carried basic biological/chemical detection lab kits, designed to give an immediate color coded indication of the most common agents: anthrax, nerve, blister, ricin, Ebola, botulinum. Beyond that, they would have to bring samples back in small coolant containers, if they found any.

Three of the larger structures had new stainless steel chimneys, so these were prioritized for first inspection. Daniel had chosen the largest of the buildings, which was a one-story, flat-roofed structure roughly 50x30 feet. They walked the building's perimeter and found a second door at the rear of the building. Continuing along, Daniel located a small vented shed set against the far side of the building. The shed sat on a recently installed concrete slab, and upon opening the unlocked door, he immediately surmised its purpose. Besides the distinct smell of diesel fuel, electrical wiring protruded from the back wall of the shed and rested upon a large metal spring dampener that had been bolted into the concrete. A yellowed, translucent plastic hose protruded from the wall a few feet away from the wires. The shed had obviously been used to house a heavy duty generator, and judging by the small puddle of diesel fuel below the plastic hose, it had been recently used.

Daniel decided to enter through the back door, which was located halfway down the building. The door was locked, but using a small crowbar, they easily forced their way in. A musty, dank smell hit them as soon as they stepped inside the small vestibule, but there were hints of something more familiar.

"What does that smell like to you?" Daniel said.

"Old building, but definitely used recently. I want to say cologne or some kind of chemicals," Andrei said.

They both pulled out larger flashlights and illuminated the hallway. Nothing looked damaged or out of order upon first impression. They cautiously stepped into the main hallway and could easily assess the entire building's layout. One hallway ran from one end of the building to the other, ending at the exterior walls on each side. The front door stood opposite the back door, across the intersection of hallways. Glancing in either direction down the main hallway, they saw several open doors stood on each side.

"Let's split up," Daniel said.

He stepped inside the doorway of the first room and worked the light over the interior. The room was completely bare. Even the light bulb had been removed from the ceiling socket. He examined the walls where they met the floor, looking for anything left behind. He found nothing in the room, which had been apparently swept clean. In one corner he found broom lines in the thin layer of dust. He started to walk out of the room, when he suddenly flashed the light up at the ceiling. Something about the light socket seemed odd.

Examining the socket closely, he started to think that he had been mistaken. It was a standard one bulb fixture, crudely screwed into the ceiling. Nothing unusual, he thought, when he suddenly realized what had caused him to take a second look. The wiring for the socket ran along the ceiling, outside of the drywall. He followed one wire that ran to the light switch and the other that tied into the building's electrical system. Studying the room again, he found the same wiring setup repeated for hastily installed wall sockets throughout the room. The wires were bundled in groups and neatly stapled to the walls and ceiling, and there were enough outlets installed in the room to handle a credit card phone customer service center, or an equipment laden laboratory.

With a small digital camera, he snapped several pictures of the room before walking directly across the hall through another open doorway. He found the same wiring arrangement in this room, but nothing else. He was impressed by how clean the rooms appeared. The building was at least twenty years old, solidly constructed with little flourish. It had probably served as a mineral company's initial headquarters and laboratory years ago, someone having decided that mineral core samples taken nearby looked promising enough to warrant the construction of permanent buildings. Obviously, this hadn't worked out for the company, but someone else had recently found its seclusion and rugged construction suitable for temporary use.

He got down on his hands and knees to inspect the outlet nearest the door and felt his spine tingle. A small wire protruded ever so slightly from the bottom of the half-installed outlet. His mind had been in paranoid overdrive since finding the disturbed gravel near the gate, so the tiny wire had piqued his attention. He slowly pulled the outlet from the wall without a screwdriver, easily separating the heavy duty staples from the drywall. Once removed, he twisted the outlet to examine the back. Nothing unusual. The outlet was still attached to the wires, and Daniel had to pull the wire bundle free of a few staples to get it far enough away from the wall for an easy inspection. He removed a small screwdriver and opened the outlet box. He didn't like what was inside.

The small, protruding wire turned out to be the antennae for a highly sophisticated listening device. The presence of this device in a random room meant that the entire building was bugged. More likely, the entire complex had been rigged with these tiny UHF passive bugs. The UHF bugs operated on a line-of-sight principle and had limited transmission power. Despite the fact that these were top shelf surveillance bugs, the gentle hills surrounding the complex suggested the presence of a manned hide site, or a remote transmitter hidden somewhere among the buildings. Unfortunately, by handling the outlet, he may have already tipped off his listeners. They would have to compress their timeline.

He gently placed the opened outlet against the wall, hanging from the wires, and walked briskly to Andrei. Upon seeing him, Daniel put his finger to his lips and signaled for him to come closer. In a barely audible whisper, he told Andrei about his discovery and asked him to finish searching the building. He would need to notify the others. After leaving the structure through the back door, he bumped into Dusty, who was staring through night vision goggles at the surrounding hills.

"Looking for trails. The new building is located about fifty meters down that path. Funny they would put it there. I don't get the impression that building codes are big out here," Dusty said.

"Maybe it's a pump station," Petrovich said, trying to keep the conversation natural.

"For what?"

"A well? Geothermal?"

Dusty lowered the night vision goggles, and Daniel could feel the quizzical look on the man's face. Before Dusty could fire back a smart-ass comment, Petrovich quietly filled him in on what he had found and asked him to step inside to help Andrei, while he talked to the others. With two people nosing around in the building, his absence might go unnoticed.



**



Senior Warrant Officer Grigory Limonov stared through a powerful night vision spotting scope at the compound. Through the green image, he watched as flashlights probed two of the buildings. Dressed in artic level thermal gear, he lay next to Sergeant Mikhail Kilesso inside a small, low profile tent hidden among the larger rocks on the side of a hill eight hundred meters away from the buildings. The tent's opening faced the complex and had been nestled right against two of the larger rocks, allowing the occupants a clear field of vision of the entire site.

Slightly higher in elevation than the building area, they were virtually invisible to the men that had arrived thirty minutes earlier. Even in the daytime, the camouflaged tent had been undetectable, so perfectly placed and concealed, that close-up Russian satellite photos had failed to find them. Constructed of specialized thermal blanketing material, they were also invisible to any infrared or thermal imaging devices deployed from the ground or air, as long as they stayed in the tent.

The two men had been part of the security detachment for the scientific team that had analyzed the site and cleaned up the remaining mess. They had been left behind strictly to conduct surveillance and see if there were any other interested parties. The scientific team hadn't found much in the main buildings, other than a few walls that needed further cleaning, but the building outside of the complex had been a different story altogether. The original six man Spetznaz team had been given few details regarding the site's purpose, but the discovery in the outer building required everyone's involvement. They had spent the better part of a half day digging a hole deep enough to bury what seemed to be an unending quantity of skeletal remains. Not exactly the kind of work any of the Spetznaz soldiers had expected, especially Limonov's team.

They were members of the elite Vympel Group, a Spetznaz unit descended from the darkest shadows of the cold war era, specialized in foreign covert operations. The original Vympel commandos had been trained for deep penetration of enemy territories to conduct sabotage and assassinations in support of conventional Soviet military missions. NATO civilian and military leadership lived in constant fear of these commandos, who were given the task of infiltrating Europe prior to war and unearthing hidden weapons caches. These weapons would be used to kill generals, destroy NATO communications hubs, and cause chaos throughout Europe. Fluent in multiple languages and masters of deception, they were the most highly trained and lethal arm of the military.

Since then, little had changed about the quality of the men that comprised the Vympel Group, but their mission had undergone a radical shift. Though they still focused on foreign covert operations, they were now one of the Russian Federation's premier counter-terrorism units, focused on weapons of mass destruction. His unit had drawn this assignment due to their familiarity with the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site grounds. Never removing his eye from the scope, he spoke to Sergeant Kilesso.

"Do you think they found the bugs?"

Kilesso shook his head hesitantly, staring through a smaller scope. Both men wore earbuds attached to receiving equipment on the sergeant's side of the tent and had been listening intently to the group's limited conversations. Both of them regretted not placing a bug at the gate. The gate's location was obscured from their view by terrain, and they had no idea if the group had discovered the anti-personnel mines they had buried in the gravel along each side. Clearly, they had not driven the SUV around the gate. The anti-personnel mines were powerful enough to blow out a tire and possibly bend a wheel hub, but unlikely to destroy the vehicle or kill anyone inside. They had placed them as a deterrent, but the crew searching the buildings seemed far from being easily discouraged. They worked quietly and efficiently, methodically working their way through the complex.

"I can't tell. I think one, or possibly two of the outlets have been handled. Not out of the ordinary, in my opinion. I'd want to examine at least one outlet in each building. Especially given the odd wiring setup."

"I agree. We call this one in once they leave. If the motion detectors along the back trail show activity, we call it in immediately," Limonov said.

"Can we leave then?"

"Not likely, my friend. I suspect we'll be here a few more days, especially if this site has become popular," Limonov said.



**



Petrovich reached Farrington's building and softly opened the door. He stepped inside and was immediately met by Sergei, who held a finger to his lips and shook his head. Daniel was relieved that they had made the same discovery.

He walked up to Sergei and whispered, "Found the same thing in our building."

They both joined Farrington, who was in one of the rooms at the end of the hallway studying the furnace, which looked relatively new. Scanning the room with his flashlight, he didn't see an oil tank. Farrington stood up and took a few pictures before they all walked outside into the windy, frozen air. They spoke freely, but in hushed tones.

"We have to assume all of the structures are bugged," Farrington said.

"Yeah. I just wonder if someone is watching us right now," Petrovich said.

"We need to assume this is the case and get our job done here. We can upload photos and any data from somewhere down the road, just not here," Sergei added.

They turned their heads at the sight of Dusty and Andrei jogging toward them.

"Anything interesting?" Daniel said.

"Nothing really. I found some recently installed plumbing in two of the rooms, cracked and frozen. They must have a well somewhere close by. There's no way they're connected to a municipal water source, but there's a water pump connected to a pipe that penetrates the flooring," Andrei said.

"Same thing in this building, but there's also a shower. The furnace is new. On demand hot water type and it's hooked into a radiant flooring system, which is also new. I accessed the crawl space from one of the rooms to check it out," Farrington said.

"On the surface it doesn't look like much, but a considerable amount of money and time has been poured into these buildings. The one we examined looked like it might have been their lab center. Andrei?"

"I agree. Nothing there to indicate living quarters. The electrical system is rigged for heavy duty use, with a backup breaker box, which leads me to suspect they ran a lot of equipment in the building," Andrei said.

"There was only one box in our building. I get the impression this was their living quarters. There's an old kitchen that came with the place. Propane stove and space for a refrigerator, not that you'd need one around here now. I see indentations outside where they had probably installed temporary propane tanks," Farrington said.

"I guess the million dollar question is what lies behind curtain number four?" Daniel said, nodding toward the path leading away from the main site.

"Andrei and I will take the trail. You guys finish up any further assessment of the buildings. Let's plan to be back on the road in less than thirty minutes. I like Sergei's idea of uploading all of this shit well away from here," Petrovich said.

"We still need to take a look at the three bodies not far from here. We might find the good doctor with his brains splattered on the ground. I can't imagine Al Qaeda leadership would want him in circulation anymore," Farrington said.

"F*ck. More detours," Andrei said.

"He's right. If Reznikov is dead, then we have no leads and a big problem on our hands," Dusty said.

"We already have a big problem on our hands, if my suspicions are correct," Petrovich said.

"Should we grab the rifles? If someone is watching us, the rifles might keep them from paying us a visit," Sergei said.

"What do you think, Rich?"

"You should really get used to calling me Yuri. You're gonna blow our cover if you can't keep it straight," Farrington said.

"Sometimes the strangest things get under your skin, Yuri."

"I think walking around here with rifles will tip our hand too soon. If someone is watching us, I think it's from a safe distance. They know we're professionals and won't want to take the gamble. At some point they'll call this in, and who knows what we'll be dealing with? A fake roadblock, a small ambush in one of the nameless towns…I think we should keep our ace card hidden for now," Farrington said.

"We have another ace up our sleeves," Petrovich said.

"Yeah, over three hours away. They'll get some nice pictures of our dead bodies. Forget the rifles. Let's get this going and get the f*ck out of here. The Russian border isn't that far away, and I'm not in the mood to entertain company," Farrington said.

"Good point. Dusty, why don't you join our group? I suspect you might have a better idea of what Berg expects to find out here," Petrovich said.

"I really don't, but I have a few worst case scenarios in mind," he said.

"So do I, and I really hope I'm wrong."

Ten minutes later, after navigating a treacherous, lightly worn path through several large rock clusters, they descended into a small dip between two hills. The dark structure lay twenty meters ahead of them, and Daniel took a moment to study the building with his night vision scope. A large stone chimney stood at one end of the square building and extended several feet above the flat roof. He didn't see any windows or a door from their slightly elevated position on the trail. He couldn't see anything through the scope that would keep them from approaching the building, so he gave the signal. They proceeded cautiously and quietly, using flashlights to keep them from twisting an ankle or stumbling across a hidden tripwire.

The three men arrived at the front corner of the building and split up. Daniel placed his hand on the brick wall and walked toward the back corner of the building, feeling the brick scrape and catch his gloved hands. The wall spanned about fifteen feet. When he turned the corner and saw the back wall, he felt his heart rate spike. A large metal door sat flush on the brick wall, aligned with the chimney, three feet off the ground. Cut firewood sat stacked against the wall on the other side of the metal door, extending from the frozen ground to a point three quarters of the way to the top of the wall. Petrovich noticed that the roof was constructed of the same brick as the sides. He'd seen something like this before, but it had been a bit cruder.

He stumbled over a few loose pieces of firewood and grasped the oversized metal handle of the door to steady himself. He felt the thick metal door open slightly, and after regaining his footing, he pulled it open. The slightly rusted door creaked open on its hinges, and Daniel directed the beam of his flashlight inside. The metal door spanned two feet by two feet and opened into the immense metal belly of a stove. A thick layer of ash filled the chamber. He shut the door and scanned the nearby area for more ashes. He found two piles measuring three feet high by five feet across. They had burned a lot of wood in a short period of time, he thought. He heard movement near the corner of the building and raised his light, instinctively reaching for the pistol tucked into his heavy coat jacket. He was in full combat mode based on what he had seen so far and wanted to get as far away from this place as possible. His light caught Andrei in the face.

"You need to see this," Andrei said, no longer speaking quietly.

Daniel followed him around to the front of the building. Flashes of bright light filled the entrance, and he couldn't believe Dusty had walked inside that place. There was no f*cking way in hell he would set foot in there. More flashes illuminated Andrei, who stood next to the metal door, flashlight in one hand pointed into the building, pistol in the other. Andrei nodded for him to take a look, and Daniel hesitantly moved toward the opening. He could see that the door was thicker than the stove's door, with three oversized external slide lock mechanisms and one large handle. Easy to open with oven mitts. He'd seen it done before.

He poked his head inside and extended his light. Dusty's flashlight lay on the blackened floor, providing illumination while he placed samples of scant material in plastic bags. The room was completely scorched on all sides and constructed of thicker bricks than the outside wall. Heat resistant, refractory bricks, most likely. Though his sense of smell felt compromised by the painfully cold air, the stench of burnt flesh was apparent. He couldn't believe life had pushed him into the path of another human crematorium. A blinding flash caught him by surprise and left large images floating on his retinas when he reopened them.

"Goddamn it, Dusty."

"Sorry, I'm in a hurry…I need to get out of here," Dusty said, rushing toward the opening.

When the door was shut, Dusty grabbed Petrovich's shoulder.

"I have to call our man immediately. There's only one conclusion to draw here. They'd only need a crematorium if they were testing on human subjects," Dusty said, wide eyed and clearly shaken by what they had discovered.

"And they wanted to completely destroy any evidence of the bioweapon. Find out what they discovered in the other building and give him a call. Tell him we're leaving ASAP. We've seen everything we need to see here," Petrovich said.

"Right, I'll…" he stopped and stared at the door again, "I'll get this going. Jesus Christ this is un-f*cking real."

"I wish it were. Give me a few minutes down here. I'm going to do a little poking around. I'd like to get an idea of how many people were burned up in Reznikov's experiment," Petrovich said.

"You're planning on digging up skeletons? The ground is frozen, and we need to get the f*ck out of here," Dusty said.

"I didn't say anything about digging. If I can find where they buried the remains, I might be able to estimate…without digging. Just a few minutes. Tell the rest of the crew to get ready to roll when I get back. Go with him, Andrei," he said and turned toward his flashlight toward a flat area about twenty meters in front of the crematorium.