The Belgrade Conspiracy: A David Rivers Thriller (Shadow Strike Book 6) by Jason Kasper

Author:Jason Kasper [Kasper, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn River Publishing
Published: 2023-09-11T16:00:00+00:00

25

My brow furrowed at the response from the woman I knew only as Mayfly.

“Copy,” she began, “we’ll be sending it momentarily, just collecting some more information. But I may have spoken too soon—stand by.”

I lowered the hand mic and scanned the figures beside me: Cancer and Ian, our trio seated at a grimy dining table where we’d arrayed a pair of ruggedized laptops with recently established satellite connectivity. Cancer turned his palms upward, giving me a who the fuck knows what that means gesture, and then Ian offered a more logical assessment.

“Some new intel,” he surmised, “but I can’t imagine why she thought it would be good news. There’s no way Sidorov will risk the trip after everything that just went down in Belgrade.”

Then we waited, watching the radio speaker box; there was no one left to comment.

Jelena was assisting Worthy and Reilly as they set up security cameras that would ultimately allow us to pull 360-guard with one team member sitting in front of a computer. Cancer had initially supervised the effort, but that went out the window as soon as Mayfly advised us to get our mission planning equipment up and running. A good sign if ever there was one, at least until her latest transmission.

Our current safehouse on the outskirts of Kovačica stood amid agricultural fields that stretched in all directions. It bore an almost uncanny resemblance to the farmhouse outside Valjevo Airport where we’d planned to hit Sidorov in the first place, an unfortunate reminder, since we couldn’t have been any further from our goal.

Two from my team had escaped certain death by the narrowest margin, with Ian’s survival credited only to Reilly’s quick action, compatible blood donors in our ranks, and the coerced services of a Serbian veterinary surgeon, all on what was supposed to be our simplest mission to date. Operating in the Balkans where we could blend in with the populace for once, with a simple one-rocket shot to kill our primary target.

What had gone wrong in the interim?

In short, I concluded, everything.

Someone had gotten to Duchess, and while she’d probably made every effort to resist and keep her information ambiguous, clearly they persuaded her. I idly wondered if she had family members threatened during the transaction. At this point we’d likely never know, and it didn’t matter much to the immediate situation: Sidorov tipped off to our presence, Gudelj alive and well after wounding Ian, and our mission presumably scrapped.

Finally the woman transmitted, “Suicide Actual, Raptor Nine One.”

“Go ahead,” I replied.

“Data shot in progress. Here’s a brief rundown: we’ve just had a SIGINT hit out of Iran, and the message seems to be from one of Weisz’s middlemen directing Sidorov to make the trip as planned.”

“If he’s dumb enough to do that, we’ve got him dead to rights. What’s the catch?”

“The catch,” she said, “is that he won’t be stopping in Valjevo. Instead he’ll be flying into Ponikve Airport in western Serbia, near the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Ian’s fingertips alighted on

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